I mostly agree and, like you, watched the show until ~150eps when I was a teenager. I think you would have enjoyed this rewatch more if you pushed through to the Soul Society arc.
1) "A non-negligible amount of humans can see these spirits and interact with them, but this knowledge somehow has never leaked into the mainstream"
The majority of people who do interact with the spirits are probably killed so I presume this is the in-universe basis for youkai folklore. 1/50,000 is still rare enough for any reporters to be considered superstitious/crazy but I agree that it's dumb for this not to be more plot relevant.
"most of the friends of this one spirit-seeing teenager also come to interact with the spirit world. The baseline chance of this happening is extremely low. Of course, you would assume spirit seers are much"
I never finished Bleach but I recall that there's a lore explanation for this. The proximity and uptick of supernatural events are indirectly caused by Ichigo's awakening. This is also why they get powers, despite being human
"why would the principal care about their students being on television?"
Even in Britain, well-to-do schools discipline students for loitering in public with uniforms on. I doubt that it's atypical in Japan and I'd be surprised if they weren't more uptight about it
"No idea why he had to introduce himself by telling Ichigo "I hate you because you are a soul reaper"."
I don't remember the context of the scene so I'll take your word for it. There are lore reasons for Uryu hating Shinigami though (literal race war tier)
I mostly agree and, like you, watched the show until ~150eps when I was a teenager. I think you would have enjoyed this rewatch more if you pushed through to the Soul Society arc.
1) "A non-negligible amount of humans can see these spirits and interact with them, but this knowledge somehow has never leaked into the mainstream"
The majority of people who do interact with the spirits are probably killed so I presume this is the in-universe basis for youkai folklore. 1/50,000 is still rare enough for any reporters to be considered superstitious/crazy but I agree that it's dumb for this not to be more plot relevant.
"most of the friends of this one spirit-seeing teenager also come to interact with the spirit world. The baseline chance of this happening is extremely low. Of course, you would assume spirit seers are much"
I never finished Bleach but I recall that there's a lore explanation for this. The proximity and uptick of supernatural events are indirectly caused by Ichigo's awakening. This is also why they get powers, despite being human
"why would the principal care about their students being on television?"
Even in Britain, well-to-do schools discipline students for loitering in public with uniforms on. I doubt that it's atypical in Japan and I'd be surprised if they weren't more uptight about it
"No idea why he had to introduce himself by telling Ichigo "I hate you because you are a soul reaper"."
I don't remember the context of the scene so I'll take your word for it. There are lore reasons for Uryu hating Shinigami though (literal race war tier)
Fair points; I'll add them to the article.