The power of support.
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):
With a good bit of time spent on background for Nanao in the last couple of chapters we got a pretty decent feeling for her, how she worked her way through the ranks and the difficulties she’s faced as a person in general. It worked to give us a bit more of what Shunsui was going through at these times as well when it came to his brother and sister-in-law as well as why he’s protective of Nanao. Combining that with her own way of looking at him through these events and her desire to achieve things and to enter this particular time and place to support him is something that should work well. But at this stage of the series it just rings a bit hollow overall since it’s like a shoehorned in sidebar story with an opponent that just kept waiting for things to happen to him.
This chapter is over in what felt like a blazingly fast amount of time when I read it. Mostly because there’s little dialogue and we get the usual big empty spaces from Kubo with his backgrounds that keeps you from really investing in each of the scenes since it’s just quick emotion and movement. Nanao comes across well enough here as she has the inner monologue about what she’s experiencing as part of her first fight, the way the pain strikes her so much being cut for the first time, and you could almost play the old Madonna Like a Virgin song to it. What I did like is that as she holds firm and does her best we get Shunsui coming to support her. Not take over, not do it for her, but rather to be there and remind her that he’s got her back. It gives her what she needs to move forward.
Sadly, when it comes to this fight with Lille, it’s something that just goes far too quickly and without anything that feels substantial. Considering the power of her “last resort” type of weapon it’s easy to believe that Lille is fully dispersed by what we see. But we also know the Bleach way in that nothing is over until it’s over. and even then it’s probably not. It’s all very anticlimactic here on top of having a decidedly less than interesting villain. Lille was actually a bit more interesting when he was in his human form mode. Once he went this this mode it just kind of lost me as it felt less accessible and less interesting in going up against Shunsui and then even more so when it came to Nanao.
In Summary:
This is probably one of the fastest chapters I’ve read in Bleach so far – and that’s saying a lot. It’s just full of wide spreads, little dialogue, and little in the way of meat to it that it doesn’t provide the sustenance you need to really make it stick. I do like what we get out of Shunsui and Nanao in terms of their relationship, but that’s nowhere near enough to make it a worthwhile chapter.
Grade: C
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump’s ComiXology Release
Release Date: November 30th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
