People often bitch about an anime not being close enough to the manga and here is an OVA remake of a short story arc in Bleach that´goes out of its way to be as close to the manga that it possibly can, and you still complain? I just dont understand manga and anime fans sometimes. Back to the review:
This is without a doubt one of the best Bleach stories pre-Soul Society. It dealt with Ichigos past and was very emotional, yet it also had some great´and brutal action scenes. It also works great as a stand-alone story, just because it is so close to the manga. If I was to introduce someone to the anime I would show them this, it is that good. (show less)

this was the pilot episode for bleach. but you need to have at least watched up until the end of the grand fisher vs ichigo story from the main anime to fully understand what's going on here.

anyways, this ova is VERY good. as a matter of fact, its excellent. it did a better job of capturing the emotions of the story than even the anime. the animation of course is good because this was created with the purpose to impress and make possibility of an anime series. the music is the same as the show (which is a HUGE bonus point). tite kubo (the creator of bleach) guest appears as the voice of kon. and basically, its a must watch for bleach fans. it can even be a little "test drive" for non-bleach fans to have a glimpse of the series in 30 minutes.

PS the little montage of all the soul society characters is awesome (show less)