New enemies invade in this latest volume!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tite Kubo
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say:
The peace is suddenly broken when warning sirens blare through the Soul Society. Residents there are disappearing without a trace, and nobody knows who’s behind it. Meanwhile, a dark shadow is also extending itself toward Ichigo and his friends in Karakura Town…
Content:
After a mysterious scene regarding the disappearance of hollows, we find a young Soul Reaper named Ryunosuke Yuki being awakened by Kurumadani, the Soul Reaper with the afro. It turns out that this slacker, along with the snappy female Soul Reaper Shino, are Kurumadani’s new replacements as Karakura town’s official Soul Reapers. It isn’t long before they find themselves getting mercilessly beaten down by hollows, but of course Ichigo and friends arrive in time to save the day. Yuki wakes up over a day later and gets acquainted with everyone, just in time for a new problem to arrive on Ichigo’s bed in the form of finely dressed Arrancar-looking fellow named Asguiaro Ebern. However, once Ichigo heads out to fight him, it quickly becomes apparent that this new foe is not an Arrancar, but a Quincy.
Meanwhile, back in Soul Society Ikkaku and company investigate some mysterious disappearances in Rukongai, and some masked men in military uniform appear directly before the Captain General and declare war. Back in Karakura Ebern tries to perform a fancy move only for it to fail, apparently trying to steal Ichigo’s Bankai, and is then forced to make a hasty escape. Meanwhile, the invaders in Soul Society reveal that they have killed Sasakibe and that they are called the Vandenreich before saying they will return in five days and retreating. With this news, Yuki and Shino are called back to Soul Society.
Afterwards, Nel and Pesche appear before Ichigo, begging for his help, and we get to see the leader of the Vandenreich killing off some henchmen that looked like they could’ve ended up as significant characters otherwise, which is pretty neat. Apparently, the Vandenreich have taken over Hueco Mundo, even taking Halibel and Dondochakka prisoner in the process. Ichigo and friends head off, and land just in time to see Quilge Opie, General Hunt Commander of the Jagd Army, rounding up Hollows and Arrancar with his troops. Their methods appear quite cruel, but fortunately Loly, Menoly, and the Tres Bestias appear to put a stop to this harsh treatment.
As the volume comes to a close, we see Ichigo forced to step into the battle with Quilge, and learn that the Captain General seems to have some kind of link to the leader of the Vandenreich.
In Summary:
This volume seems to make for a decent start to what will apparently the last arc of the series. The action here is decent, but there isn’t really a ton of it. The book takes some time at the beginning to introduce some characters that are sure to see little use overall, knowing how this series tends to go. On the other hand, the volume pulls a rather interesting move in terms of its traditional method of showing off henchmen around the middle. Add in a surprisingly bold turn or two and some decent style for the new villains, and you have a solid set-up provided here. Hopefully the next few volumes will really follow through and this arc won’t end up falling flat on its face like the last one did.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: February 5th, 2013
MSRP: $9.99