Bleach Review: DIRTY

"Just have to wait for everyone else"

The chapter begins with Yhwach stabbing the Soul King through the chest with his sword (as seen in the previous chapter) meanwhile in Wandenreich City Renji and Rukia arrive at a building. They are greeted by Shinji, Omaeda and Sui - Feng who have survived their battles with the Sternritter and Shinji says they have all been summoned to this building. Inside is Urahara, Byakuya and Yushiro and Urahara runs down gives the report on the status of the rest of the Captains and Vice Captains. He then reveals his plan to have those who are gathered here infiltrate the Soul Palace while at the Soul Palace Ichibe says Yhwach cannot be defeated as Ichigo and his group move on.

Been a while since I have done a Bleach review and that is because I was too busy with other stuff to get round to them and then it went on a 4 week hiatus. I know I have skipped the reviews for the rest of Yhwach vs. Ichibe but in short I really did like the fight but Ichibe coming back to life really did annoy me because it again shows that Kubo is unwilling to kill off his characters (like Byakuya who should have been killed by As Nodt). It makes me worried that he will find some why to bring Toshiro back which will annoy me because he fights better as a zombie but this same no killing problem existed in Naruto as well which is my biggest complaint about that series even though it too is great.

Come on Kubo, give us more detail to how he escaped Bazz - B!

As for this chapter there really isn't too much to say about it because it basically is just a summary of the status of the Captains and Vice Captains. I did however like that Sui - Feng seems to have had a change in attitude now which is good because she is my least favourite Captain because sometimes I just couldn't stand her e.g. at first refusing to fight Barragan in Fake Karakura because Hachigen was associated with Urahara. I also liked her reaction when she talked to Yushiro because I never expected her to have a blushing facial expression like that. We also get to see Iba and Komamura again (with a cool shot of them taking on Soldat), that those who took on Giselle's zombies are still alive, Mayuri is still gathering data along with Nemu, zombie Rose and zombie Kensei and that the status of Toshiro and Rangiku are unknown. I hope this means that Toshiro and Rangiku are not coming back to life because they aren't my favourite Soul Reapers (just got kind of sick of them in the previous arcs) and I would rather Rose and Kensei come back to life because I really like the Visards (even though Kubo doesn't seem to care much for them). Also the reveal that Urahara is planning to take the Captains to the Soul Palace isn't that shocking but I wonder with Ichigo's group already there would there be enough enemies to go round?

As for what I didn't like I just hate it when Kubo uses the first few pages to repeat the ending of the previous chapter; we already know Yhwach stabbed the Soul King yet he did it again! Also I don't get why Ichibei says at the end that the humans can't win against Yhwach because didn't he previously say that Ichigo was their only hope?

Overall not much really happened in this chapter because it is probably just used as a summary of what has been going on after Bleach went on it's 4 week break.

SCORE: 6/10

Highlights: Sui - Feng was good in this chapter
                   Knowing what the other Captain and Vice Captains status are

Let - Downs: Kubo wasting pages at the beginning
                      Ichibe being inconsistent

PREDICTIONS

Now what I really hope happens in future chapters is that Yhwach uses his power to create more Sternritter out of the Soldat who are still in Wandenreich city because that means we will get some fights out of those who are left there and those in the Soul Palace. That means Soul Reapers like Komamura, Iba, Kenpachi, Ikkaku, Yumichika and Hisagi can have more fights along with Mayuri and his zombie reapers and arrancars. This would also be a good opportunity for Grimmjow and the Fullbringers to finally make an appearance.