Well, that escalated quickly.
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 brought its focus on Kenpachi the last time around with his fight against Gerard to good effect. I’ve long liked Kenpachi just for his design alone but also his personality since it was the right kind of balance within this series. His going up against Gerard gave us the expected material with Gerard going on about how invincible he is and why and how his power works, all while Kenpachi just kept at it and took his own beating along the way. Thrown in Byakuya and Hitsugaya along the way trying to help out because of their vested interest in protecting the Soul Society below from Gerard falling down and crushing it and you had some good moments with it. Kubo knows how to illustrate material with characters like Kenpachi to give it some real power.
With Kenpachi’s bankai going into full effect here, it’s one of those wonderfully defining moments – even if you can read the chapter far too quickly here. Kubo uses the splash pages to good effect with some two-page spreads that really are required. With Kenpachi having gone through a full body transformation here, his skin red, horns seemingly on his head, and a wild and almost feral look about him, he’s coming across as oni from legend and just going at it in a brutal way. There’s a great sense of power about him that Gerard can’t see, mocking him for having a broken blade even with his bankai, but Kenpachi makes it clear that he’s just going for the jugular here. It’s amusing to see Gerard laugh at how he can just regenerate his own arm only to have Kenpachi take the whole issue up a step further with the shield, finally throwing Gerard off his game. Naturally, we get only so far in this fight because it’s the nature of the beast, but the chapter delivers some fantastic moments for Kenpachi.
In Summary:
This chapter is a very good one for those wanted to see Kenpachi cut loose as it really does deliver. But at the same time it’s that kind of damn short chapter because it’s light on dialogue as the focus is on big spreads and fast action impacts. It works very well but will leave you feeling just a little bit empty on the inside afterward with how fast you get through it. But that also means it’s a good reminder to re-read it and really dig into the artwork and small things you may miss, especially the big bite that Kenpachi seems to take out of Gerard…
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump’s ComiXology Release
Release Date: April 11th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
