Other than a moderate focus on swords this really has nothing in common with Bleach.

About Urobuchi, I dunno. Although it is written by the Madoka Guy, I'm not sure how much that'd actually mean for the purpose of describing a thing, or at least this thing. The characterization was good, which is something. It didn't really have the kind of thing that people really associate with his writing though, like big complicated twists or Very Tragic Backstories, I feel. We didn't even find out the swords were people or anything. Nor does it really do the "starts out light then gets grimdark" thing either. And the number of characters who kicked the bucket was pretty reasonable, so no Urobutcher memes in here either.

It is a story kind of about swords written by Urobuchi, but as far as that being a good laconic descriptor I'm not so sure.

I was waiting for that the entire show :lol

I'd go with more twisted eastern Lord of the Rings in a weird sense but I haven't seen Bleach.

Been a solid while since this thread got any attention, but! I just got finished watching the "Sword of Life and Death" special that apparently came out last year.

I'll admit it's been long enough that it took me some time (and some wikipedia) to recall all the characters and especially to get the names straight again, but once I got past that, this was, simply put, pretty excellent.

The first story focused on Wu Sheng was fantastic. You could really tell where it was going from the beginning, but seeing everything fall into place was great. The second story, though it started off feeling like it was just going to be a funny little thing (and it was pretty funny, to its credit) ended in a pretty cool way too.

We also got some serious teasing for that second season, which I'm definitely looking forward to. It's supposed to be coming out this year and this did an excellent job getting me hyped up about it.

Cool, I can't wait to watch it. I loved this series a lot.

Well boys, season 2 has started airing. If you're curious about puppets slashing each other in a mist of hemoglobin, your fix is here.

If you want to catch up, you might want to watch the first season then the "Sword of Life and Death" before season 2.

Yes.

Just rewatched the first season actually, glad I can watch some more now.

This is a good show to fall back on for me, mostly cause i'm not really feeling it with Zi-O.

Episode 2 is up on CR.
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As for episode 1, I thought it was good.

The plot follows Shang searching for a way to safely store the Sorcerous Sword Index which was revealed in S1.

The new cast have arrived in Dong Li after departing at the end of the OVA/OVP episodes.

Shang's friend seems nice, although the talking instrument is a little annoying.

The Princess of Cruelty feels like a more competent version of the female villain from S1.

The Magistrate character seems just like the typical manipulative antagonist, although his interactions with Gui Niao might make things more interesting.

Finished Season 2, I enjoyed watching it a lot.

I'm really happy that there will be a third season; I've grown quite attached to these characters and their world.

Me too. I wonder if Season 3 will air in 2020.

I know some people can't get round the uncanny valley effect, but this show is very good, I really recommend it.

S1 was more of a road movie, setting up the group then go the bad guy lair with a serie of challenges. S2 is mainly located in two regions and more focused on interactions beeween characters, you couldn't really tell where it was going until the last episodes.