My friend and I were reminiscing Bleach a few weeks ago. When I watched/read it I was just getting into anime. I mean I had watched DBZ and seen a few other things, but bleach just seemed so exotic at the time. Bleach always seemed to have the freshest character designs, but the characters themselves and story were always pretty lacking.
There's a lot of bad to point out about Bleach, but let me see if I remember this right. How many times have people lost their powers with no hope of getting them back, only to get them back anyway?
Ichigo loses the powers Rukia lends him because Byakuya stabs him in the right spots. That's ok though. He has his own shinigami powers (I guess getting stabbed in those spots missed these ones). Rukia gets her powers back too some how.
Ishida loses his powers because he was forced to take off his power glove. Then his dad comes and tells him, no big deal Ishida, you can just get your powers back off screen.
Ichigo loses his bankai for no reason... but that was just filler, so it didn't actually happen lol.
Ichigo learns the ultimate reverse-super-saiyan attack off screen in the hyperbolic time chamber so he can one shot Aizen, the villain for the past 2 arcs, in two seconds... at the cost of all his powers. But no big deal either it turns out. These previously irrelevant humans who use an ability called "fullbring" know a convoluted way to get Ichigo's power back. (Was there a villain in this arc? lol)
Also, bankai is a skill that takes years of meditation and practice to achieve, unless you are Ichigo or a side character. In that case you get one in a few episodes by wanting it really bad.
Kenpachi doesn't need a bankai, he simply swings his sword with two hands instead of one (Though I actually thought this was really sick).
I think Bleach does deserve its bad rep. This show takes itself too seriously, and the anime milked its success too hard. I switched to the manga after the soul society arc and found it impossible to watch the anime after that. When I was reading the manga it took at most 5 minutes each week to read, but episodes just dragged on forever + filler. It was entertaining sometimes, just not good.