Shonen Beam

[scanlation by Binktopia]

That Jump cover… wow. Don’t look excited to be back or anything, Ichigo.

Ichigo… Ichigo! Good morning, Ichigo! Come on, sleepy head! Get up! (Does anyone not think of this when an opening scene shows a character waking up?)

The color scheme of the cover spread and the liveliness of Ichigo’s house are evocative of the old Bleach, from way back at the beginning of the series. Let’s hope Kubo felt nostalgic about quality, too.

There’s been a timeskip, apparently. Hmm… a timeskip… haven’t some other series done that?

At least Ichigo's hair isn't retractable, and I don't see Sakura anywhere

Joking aside, this timeskip has the potential to be the most story-relevant and meaningful of the Big 3. Unlike the other two, Bleach has the chance to completely change its tone and direction. The story is as close to a blank slate as any series could be after 400 chapters. Will Kubo actually opt to go down a different path? Probably not, but the option is there, should he want to be adventurous and make these next few years worth something. Frankly, even if he sent the story in a new direction and produced a story as lifeless as what we’ve suffered through for the last few years, Kubo would deserve immense respect just for breaking convention and not relying on established success.

Of course, I don’t see any of that happening, but I want to remember this moment as the fork in the road before Kubo steered us right back into the ditch.

Ichigo told Chad and Inoue (among others) what happened while he was sleeping? That’s so many levels of bizarre. What were you doing sleeping around a whole bunch of people? Why can you sleeptalk so accurately? (EDIT: The Binktopia translation has since been corrected, to Chad and Inoue themselves telling the others while Ichigo was sleeping.)

I hope the mention of Karin’s improvement and increased responsibility is more than just a casual aside. The main cast needs to be shaken up, and not only Karin would be a bright addition, but such a move would fulfill some plot potential from early in the series.

Ishida running in the hallways, presumably to take care of a Hollow, presents another interesting storyline possibility: Ichigo, now powerless, faces an identity crisis as he tries to leave his previous fame and importance behind him. As his former colleagues and allies continue to fight, Ichigo fights against the depression naturally associated with his irrelevance. Once again, do I see this happening? Certainly not, but I can dream.

Background of the week

Ichigo shooting down any semblance of loneliness or dependence on his now-former life is disappointing. I’m not asking for Bleach to suddenly turn into an emotional, introspective work, but a little character emotion outside of “callous shonen hero” would do a world of good.

At least Kubo hasn’t failed to remember that Ichigo is still a very fit young man. Chasing down a thief is a bit of a cliché, but compared to the gigantic attacks from the last few years of Bleach, I’ll gladly take any semblance of subtle, subdued action.

There I was, about to compliment Kubo on his art, for angling the “camera” below the bag so that the zipper also somewhat looks like a scary set of jaws… when the full-page shot of this mystery character reveals that Rob Lucci is now making cameo roles.

CP9 of th-- ahem, Twist of the week

Final Flash: A completely acceptable chapter, but nothing actually happened, so that isn’t saying much. The “new,” post-timeskip Bleach will be judged more fairly when the real action resumes.

[scanlation by Binktopia]

It’s too early to see Aizen again. No one misses him, nor does anyone miss the plot that accompanied him.

Aizen’s sentence being raised from 18.800 years to a tidy and convenient 20,000 years is amusing. It’s also reminiscent of Hayate no Gotoku!, when it’s decided that Hayate’s debt of 156,804,000 yen is too difficult to say, so it’s rounded… up.

Hayate could escape this, though

Yamamoto is alive. Huh. Ukitake’s comment that Yamamoto is currently irreplaceable speaks strongly to why he’s been kept alive; it was the easy way out for Kubo to keep Yamamoto alive, rather than deal with the serious scenario of a power vacuum in Soul Society. Unfortunately, in this case, the easy way out is also the less interesting option.

Replace that text bubble with "FORESHADOWING"

One chapter of Kurotsuchi and he’s already gone off to do more research. I suppose that fits his character, though.

Seeing Hitsugaya train reminds me that I probably would rather see more Aizen than more of this whiny little nobody. It’s not the fact that he’s the de facto Bleach female fanservice character; it’s that all his popularity-driven focus has produced absolutely no results. He’s still the same useless character who can’t protect one (incredibly irritating) little girl.

Matsumoto has every reason to feel sad. Her love was killed off for absolutely no good reason.

Ichigo is taking his loss of Shinigami powers in surprisingly good stride, which itself is a little upsetting.

Background of the week

The scene between Ichigo and Rukia, who is already fading away from Ichigo’s awareness, is rather well done. How Ichigo recovers from this will be crucial; if he continues to take it in stride like nothing has happened, it will feel like all the time spent on the Soul Society characters (Rukia in particular) was wasted, but similarly, Kubo can’t have Ichigo go too far in the other direction and be overly dramatic. This kind of storyline requires the kind of delicate balancing of a character’s emotions that I don’t have the confidence in Kubo to be able to pull off properly.

Twist of the week

Final Flash: Why can’t Bleach just end right here? This would be fine.

[scanlation by Binktopia]

Kurotsuchi Mayuri? Characters laughing? Apparently Aizen died last chapter. That could have been made a little more clear.

The Visored are here, too, as well as Unohana. This is like a casting call for anyone more tolerable than the characters we’ve had to endure for the last year.

Background of the week

Leave it to Kubo to make even his most interesting characters boring. Why don’t we get to see everything that happened with Zaraki and Byakuya? Certainly, that would have been far and away more exciting than watching Aizen turn into a butterfly and yell at people.

Probably the Spirit King

Judging by the non-Deicide title, I guess Aizen really is dead. What a completely anticlimactic end to the arc. That’s rather pathetic, really.

Ichigo being excited at the prospect of explaining everything to his friends is fine. Good, even. It’s long been obvious that he was up to something; he might as well ditch the secret identity facade. On the other hand, Ichigo showing sadness when thinking of Aizen is absolutely infuriating. This trend of obviously evil characters later being redeemed must stop. Let evil characters stay evil! Kubo lessens the impact of Aizen’s defeat by writing him as someone misunderstood, and any status that Ichigo gained by having a hand in Aizen’s demise is now lost. Besides, what message is Kubo sending readers by doing this? “You wasted the last few years following this guy as your villain, because he wasn’t that bad after all.”

Ichigo’s pondering of what Aizen could have wanted is even more preposterous. Has everyone, author included, forgotten that the Hougyoku is a plot-rewriting, series-breaking artifact? If all Aizen wanted was to be “just a Shinigami,” he could have done that. Absolutely idiotic.

More comparatively acceptable people. I’m having a hard time recognizing this as the same 3-character series I’ve been reading all year.

It's okay, I barely remember them, too

Ichigo had a seizure and died! Hooray! Now we can focus on… oh, wait, he’s just having some kind of stupid breakdown. Probably something Hollow-related. Cancel the celebrations.

Twist of the week

Final Flash: Frustrating as it was, I’ll take subtly terrible instead of overtly terrible any day.