I love the first arc.
Story:
The story wasn’t phenomenal but it served its purpose and with a villain of the week style continuity you could easily enjoy a few chapters whenever you like.

Art:
It was awkward to read it at first because of the unusual proportions, but after I got over that It began to shine. Tite kubo uses hatching in a way I’ve never seen in manga before. I could feel the bright, but somehow faded, colors come off its grayscale pages.

Character:
The characters are diverse and well defined, with enough back-story to get my sympathy. The way they interact with each other is excellent.

How Tite Kubo screwed it up
Story
Why couldn’t Ichigo have just let Rukia go? Fight after uninteresting fight in a setting that gets old after the first 10 chapters. They only introduce the main villain (as a villain) after about 15 volumes. A lot of the time it feels as though it’s supposed to be funny, but isn’t; or supposed to be dramatic, but isn't. the fights aren’t very interesting.

Art:
I did not realize how much the style relied on the setting. I don’t want to see a bunch of people in the same exact black (or white) clothes in a setting that looks the same everywhere you go.

Character:
The personalities you fall in love with either change or disappear from the story for long periods of time. Oh but don’t worry you get to know about 50 more characters all at the same time. And that’s not all; they each have their own back-story to interrupt important plot points.