Reviews

I feel as though I read 400+ pages but the story went nowhere.

Positives:
It's quick to read and I got to see some of my favourite characters, happy to see Aizen again even if it was a short flashback story.

You learn a little bit more about the world...

Negatives:
sooo many things to list!! But I will list the main issues in my opinion.

1. How can many events happen but at the same time nothing happen at all??!
This happened a lot throughout the book. I believe the story could have been cut down greatly, there were moments that I thought were useless/pointless.
I read 400+ pages and the characters went nowhere, expect towards the end where there was actual progression. But this is a let down, as you know there is only a few pages left until the end of the book - so the payoff doesn't exist, you don't feel satisfied. It just leaves you on another cliff hanger the same as Vol 1.

2. And that leads me to the cliff hangers.....
Soo many cliff hangers.
Want to see Hisagi's bankai!?... Yeah not today, we will build up the suspense - Hisagi is in a tight spot his only option is bankai - Yeah nope, we gonna use some other character that pops in out of nowhere, even though we say Hisagi is a reallllllly strong soul reaper.

You want to know why the soul king is such a sin??...We are going to keep mentioning he is a sin but not tell you why - not even at the end of the volume, you got to wait until book 3 ;)

Aizen tells Tosen why he wants to sit at the top, why he wants to replace the soul king... But we won't tell you what that is ;)

The book is like watching a long episode of bold and the beautiful.

3. The mention of characters who weren't even the supporting cast.
If you watched the anime or read the manga, there are some characters mentioned in the novel that had appeared in the main series at most once or twice tops. I don't see the point of adding them into this novel and I think it could have been cut down greatly if they removed those scenes with these characters who aren't even supporting cast members.

Did I enjoy it? a little; I was mainly in it for the Arrancars and Aizen. I just hope the third volume answers more questions, fills in the blanks and has a better payoff.

lycheecha's review

Go to review page

3.0

How could so much happen at the same time, yet lead to nowhere? This volume is just packed with things starting and ending with cliffhangers. I'm not exactly sure how all of this can be resolved by the final volume. I'm aware that this is essentially how manga is serialized before being published again into tankobon, but something about that pattern in novel format isn't translating too great for me. It took me quite a bit longer than expected to finish this because of that. That being said, a lot of exciting things have been set up so I did finish this genuinely looking forward to the next volume; I feel like this may only be a reaction shared among big fans of Bleach. As an aside, I was excited to see Hirako's Bankai finally revealed and explained, and am very much looking forward to Hisagi's in volume 3!