yea, I started watching bleach around when it first came out, got to around eps 8 and stopped because i had no time to watch anime as much as i used to.

Then I hear everyone talking about it, so i picked it up again, and man I blew through eps 8 to 53 in like 3 days. It is definatly one of the better animes out right now. It's just as good as Naruto USED to be( before all the fillers and such). Definatly give it a try.

And as far as Naruto goes in caparison, I belive eps 50 of Naruto was around the end of the Chunnin exam... not sure, dont have the eps to look it up, but I think Naruto was just as engaging as this anime is around the same time.

Poorly made fillers really seem to ruin an anime if they progress too long, as is happening with naruto, but there is really no other choice. They could stop, but they can lose an audiance like this. The same might happen to Bleach, not sure where the anime is as compared to the manga, and not sure how fast it is progressing, but it seems like it might catch up sooner or later.

Back to the topic: No one can really tell you if you to watch this or not. You are not going to get a response that says that this anime is horrible. Also, this is nothing like Naruto. I really cant find any simularities, besides the obvious hero traits, but even naruto and ichi are pretty much different. So watch this with an open mind that it is one of the best animes out right now.