Aizen steps up.
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 is hurtling fast towards its end and that means the chapters just have a plain weird feeling about them. While the last chapter felt like things were being drawn out in a way that wasn’t necessary at times, especially considering how little is left and how precious every panel is for accomplishing something, this chapter feels like it’s burning through things quickly without enough to really make it feel… coherent. Granted, I only got back into the manga a couple dozen chapters ago so I’m woefully out of date on a lot of aspects of this larger arc, though I’ve been able to get into the sub-arcs that have come along, such as with Haschwalt and Ishida while generally enjoying some of the fights that now seem even more pointless as the book is coming to a close.
As for the bulk of the chapter, well, I’m not exactly lost but it’s not exactly connecting well for me either. With Yhwach having basically gone on about foreseeing everything and working events by picking and breaking events in the future, as we saw with Ichigo’s weapon, the arrival of Aizen is just another piece that for now we have to believe he foresaw. Aizen’s all cocky as hell now that he’s out of the chair with his confidence level through the roof, but it’s something that falls flat for me simply because he’s been gone for an age and I never found him to be a compelling villain through the anime experience where I know him from. What we get here is the usual banter between the two highly powered individuals as an array of supporting players are spread around in smaller bursts with either just visuals or minor commentary. It’s setup, but not particularly engaging setup.
The only area of interest is that we get Renji essentially beating some sense into Ichigo over how Ichigo is trying to do this alone. It’s a good nod toward how Ichigo was responsible for helping a lot of people in the Soul Society come together in a new way, but it focuses more specifically on Renji and Rukia and how Ichigo’s arrival in the scheme of things helped to narrow the distance between the two. It’s a nice nod that touches on things from the past while also reinforcing why Renji is aligned as he is with Ichigo at this point and won’t simply “leave it to Ichigo” when it counts. I’ve long liked Renji and his personality, which is one that takes some time to get used to, so giving him an important personal moment here is definitely a plus.
In Summary:
Honestly, this is a case where stuff happens that if you’ve been reading for the past 681 chapters you’ll get more out of it than I will. There are neat moments and Kubo has some good layouts throughout as well as some wonderful panels, mostly between Ichigo and Renji, but mostly this is just feeling very rushed and forced in a way that will reinforce the whole series is being canceled line of thought more than anything else. Kubo’s not the greatest when it comes to pacing on his best days so there’s something to be said for that, but it goes beyond that i think.
Grade: C+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump’s ComiXology Release
Release Date: July 18th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
