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Bleach has been getting somewhat erratic of late. The series has probably reached its tensest point, with Ichigo trying to escape Hueco Mundo whilst Soul Society gears up for its confrontation with Aizen. However, the writers keep departing from the main plot, dropping in completely unrelated side stories with no warning which disrupt the flow and detract from the main story arc. This volume is a case in point. Aizen finally puts his
plan into motion, trapping Ichigo in Hueco Mundo and invading Karakura Town,
Soul Society move to intercept him and Zaraki's battle with Nnoitora reaches its
conclusion. Then all the action is unceremoniously dropped in favour of a
short side story involving the Kasumioji clan. Once again Rurichiyo has
escaped to the real world, this time following an argument with her attendant
Kenryu over a football-style game that's popular in Soul Society. With
neither backing down Ichigo and Rukia need to find a way to resolve the dispute
before it brings the recovering clan to its knees. After this unexpected
sidestep into Soul Society's sports world the action takes another lurch, this
time into the past to explain the origin of the Vizards. In the past the
Vizards were all Soul Reaper Captains or Assistant Captains, with Shinji Captain
of Squad 6 and Aizen his assistant. But they are not the only familiar
faces, the Captain of Squad 12 has been promoted to the mysterious Squad 0,
leaving a gap for which Kisuke Uruhara has been recommended - much to the
annoyance of the squad's assistant captain Hiyori. Uruhara may have a
tough task winning her over, but there's another issue that demands attention
too. People are mysteriously disappearing in the Rukon District, and the
team sent to investigate have disappeared too. What's causing the
disappearances? And is it somehow related to Uruhara's appointment? |
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There's a somewhat schizophrenic air to Bleach at the moment, it feels disjointed, like you're watching it out of order. In one episode Ichigo will be in Hueco Mundo, struggling to rescue Orihime and battling Arrancar, in the next they'll all be back in Karakura playing football with a runaway princess. The writers don't even bother trying to explain it any more, the best you'll get is a brief resigned voice over saying what amounts to 'yeah, we know you were getting into all that Hueco Mundo stuff, but here's what happened 100 years ago'. |
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Most long running series have 'filler' episodes (original stories inserted into the anime to pad it out) but usually these are unobtrusive, occurring in between story arcs or during natural pauses in the story. What sets Bleach apart is that the New Leader story arc and subsequent Rurichiyo episodes have been added right in the middle of a battle, with no attempt made to weave them into the main story. Ichigo is fighting Aizen's forces in Hueco Mundo, but he's also in Soul Society helping out in a clan dispute. Orihime is trapped in Las Noches as Aizen's prisoner, but she's also helping Rurichiyo in Karakura. It makes no sense. Even the flashback arc, which is relevant to the Aizen arc and is part of the main storyline, seems to have been dropped in randomly just as the battle between Aizen and Soul Society was about to begin. What makes this kind of annoying is that taken on
their own each of the storylines in this volume have been quite good.
The main story arc is action-packed and tense, with Ichigo and various
Captains locked in battle with powerful foes as all the pieces are put
in place for the main conflict between Soul Society and Aizen's forces.
There's a real sense of anticipation, Aizen's always been one step ahead
of Soul Society but for once they seem to have plans of their own, and
Aizen may end up facing a much stiffer test than he may have expected.
The flashback arc is also excellent, explaining not only how the Vizards
came to be but also what forced Uruhara into exile. The flashback
storyline delves deep into Soul Society's recent past, showing the
germination of Aizen's treachery, Uruhara's rise to Captain and the
changes he brings to Squad 12 and several familiar characters -
including Shuhei Hisagi, Soi Fon and Byakuya Kuchiki - when they were
much younger. The story is intriguing, and does a great deal to
flesh out the story including showing exactly how far back Aizen's
plotting goes. It also shows some intriguing aspects of Soul
Society that had previously been unknown, including the Minority
Report-style prison known as the Maggots Nest, where prisoners who
may one day cause harm to Soul Society are kept. |
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In fact the only place the volume really falls down story-wise is the daft interlude featuring Rurichiyo and her attendants. On it's own it's not a terrible storyline, in fact it's quite a fun aside to the largely serious action that drives the rest of the episodes in this volume, but it's also pretty derivative and just feels out of place. The strongest aspects of the New Leader arc were the insights it gave into Soul Society outside of the 13 Court Guard Squads, but the Rurichiyo episodes in this volume are little more than mildly entertaining fluff that |
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add nothing to the series as a whole. The problem is mainly their length and timing, the storyline is only two episodes long and serves as a buffer between the main story and the flashback arc, but has no bearing on either of them. Couldn't the writers have tried to flesh out the current arc a little? Ichigo and several other characters are trapped in Hueco Mundo, so surely there's plenty of mileage in exploring the Hollow world, and couldn't some time have been spent showing the preparations Soul Society was making in the face of Aizen's threat? There's a lot of padding the writers could have given the existing story, and with such a huge cast why has Ichigo got to be crowbarred into nearly every plot? The main story arc doesn't always feature him and he's not in the flashback at all, there's plenty that could be done with the Bleach world that could have remained canonical, but instead we get daft side stories. It's frustrating. Bleach Series 10 Part 2 demonstrates what could become a slippery slope of random side stories and messy continuity. The two storylines that bookend this volume are good, whilst the middle one is simply ok, but as a whole it feels disjointed. There's plenty of action, and there flashback really improves the entire main arc by giving some background detail to the characters and storyline, but the whole volume doesn't flow at all. The tension of the opening few episodes is dissipated completely by the pointless Rurichiyo storyline in the middle of the volume, and what makes things worse is that the next volume preview promises more of the same next time round in the form of a kind of superhero parody. On the whole it's starting to become clear why the series has ended in Japan while the manga is still running. It still has plenty going for it at the moment - there's great action and the storyline at the start and end of the volume is intriguing and involved - but it has a feel of a series that, while not yet in terminal decline, has started to limp a little. Extras Just clean opening and ending sequences, and the 'omake' comedy shorts that follow the end of most episodes. Same as usual. Ratings Feature:
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