More of the past explored.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Tite Kubo
What They Say:
Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghost – he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow- a malevolent lost soul – Ichigo becomes a Soul Reaper, dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping tortured spirits themselves find peace.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Bleach began its latest mini divergence recently as Nanao made her way into the story to help Shunsui against Lille. Though the main part of this story worked well enough for me in a basic kind of way as we had some fun with Shunsui standing against Lille and then getting taken down a peg, the shift to Nanao hasn’t worked as well. Partially because I have little connection to her and partially because it’s just another drawn out aspect to things with more backstory brought into play. Backstory isn’t a bad thing, but at this point the series is just crushed by the weight of the amount of backstory there is and I have to wonder how much of it conflicts with each other.
The bulk of this installment is all about that backstory, though it’s bookended by having Nanao and Lille facing off and discovering what kind of challenge there is in taking him down. The opening piece at least has a nice looking sequence with the way they go at it, even if Lille just feels kind of weirdly inaccessible in a way at this point, while the backend piece shifts it so that we know that Shunsui will be necessary in working with her to achieve the win through the zanpakuto. Considering the nature of their relationship over the years it… okay, it doesn’t make sense but it’s exactly what Kubo wants to have happen in order to make it a more compelling moment. Instead, it just feels kind of flat and forced on top of the weird feeling we already had based on the reveals the last time around.
With the backstory we do get in between all of this it’s going back to when Nanao was little, the training that she went on and her overall path of progress that has brought her where she is now. It’s not a montage sequence per se, but it hits the key moments well enough even if there’s no real depth or emotion to it. It’s given small bits of meaning because we know who lives, who dies and the pain caused by it, but it’s all done in a kind of empty way. We get the clearer look at why Nanao has focused on Shunsui all these years and that helps to show why she’s like she is now, and why they’ll work together in a bonded kind of way, but it’s not something that connects well.
In Summary:
While I enjoyed the material between Shunsui and Lille as the fight initially got underway, the addition of Nanao here as savior and partner leaves me pretty underwhelmed. It’s a mixed bag depending on what you’re looking for from the series to be sure. The backstory side of the chapter left me feeling pretty bland about it all because I’m not invested in her and I don’t see myself becoming so, especially knowing how this series works and that we’re over 650 chapters into it, so it comes across a bit as spinning the wheels. Kubo at least brought out some decent backgrounds from time to time here to give the flashback moments a bit more weight to them.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump’s ComiXology Release
Release Date: November 23rd, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
