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 went for the heart last time around in a striking way with Grimmjow’s appearance as he punched right through Askin’s back and through his chest. Visually it’s a great moment because it has a certain kind of violence that you don’t always get in these titles. Sometimes it’s implied or we get something whited out a bit so as to not take it too far, but the result here is definitely impressive. It made for a great way to end the chapter last time around both in that and in Grimmjow’s appearance and it helps to get this chapter off the ground just right. Unfortunately, as we all know from a series like Bleach, getting punched through like that is just a flesh wound.
Askin is at least taken down fairly hard here and is showing some real effort to talk and keep surviving, noting that his abilities just intensify in this kind of situation because of course they do. It’s a fun moment in seeing how Grimmjow is kind of surprised by all of this, having thought his contract with Urahara was now over having dealt the killing blow, as well as seeing the way both of them are kind of exhausted at this point with what they have to deal with next. Urahara also gets to act cool about his being overprepared for everything since it helps him survive as long as he has. It’s a sweet moment and Kubo presents it well with the angles and details for it, as well as Akin’s disbelief, but it’s undercut toward the end of it because the back third of the chapter shifts elsewhere.
That elsewhere being the battle that Ichigo is dealing with that has Kenpachi, Hitsugaya and Byakukya involved as well, making for some amusing moments of levity that lighten the mood. Not that it needed lightening as I would have rather kept up with Urahara’s arc as I really don’t find that Kubo does a good job in balancing the subplots that play out. The shift here goes right for the action and it’s a pretty jarring transition, even if the actual action elements themselves are well presented, empty backgrounds and all. It’s fun to reconnect with these characters again after a bit apart but I really dislike split chapters like this as both sides end up feeling incomplete and poorly paced.
In Summary:
Bleach has some good moments here once again, though the overall storyline is one that’s still not connecting for me since I just dropped back into the book relatively recently and there hasn’t been much of a real catch-up or refresher as manga tends to not expect people to come into a book at this phase of it. Bleach is still a weirdly inaccessible yet accessible book depending on your experiences with the property and I’m just a bit uncertain how to take it at times. I’m hopeful for things to feel like they’re coming together here sooner rather than later, though.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump’s ComiXology Release
Release Date: March 21st, 2016
MSRP: $0.99