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 Bleach is back, after a bit of a hiatus, and after the recent outing to Seireitei we're also back in the land of the living - although if Aizen gets his way, it may not be the land of the living for much longer...
In Hueco Mundo, the realm where Hollows reside before coming to wreak their havoc on the land of the living, the hollow Grand Fisher transforms into an imperfect arrancar, before entering the real world. Guess where Ichigo’s next challenge will be coming from. There's also a new transfer student at his school, Shinji Hirako - but Shinji's no ordinary boy: during a routine hollow purification, Ichigo is confronted by Shinji, who shows that he can willingly change to a Hollow, in much the same way that Ichigo has done unwillingly before. He’s a member of the Visoreds, a group that gains their power from calling on the Hollows within them, and he wants Ichigo to join them. Meanwhile, there's a new Quincy on the scene...
Another volume of Bleach, and another arc to introduce. This volume is the opening set in the Arrancar arc, which sees former Soul Reaper captain Aizen return to the picture with the first of what I suspect will be many schemes: creating Arrancars out of Hollows, he hopes to greatly increase their fighting power (and intelligence, although that may not be saying much) and wreak some havoc. As yet, it’s a little unclear on why he wants to do this (other than "because he can", of course), but Bleach wouldn't be Bleach without some good opportunities for violent confrontation, so here we are.
Before getting into the main event, though, there’s time given over to a little housekeeping: the matters of Ishida's loss of power, a look at Ichigo's family history (complete with a few surprises about the true nature of his father, naturally), and the return to action of Rukia. All of these could potentially be quite interesting subjects in their own rights, but unfortunately the series decides to deal with all three with what TVTropes would call an Ass Pull – plot twists that come out of nowhere, without any hints or clues, and with no explainable reason other that "well, it was convenient". Rukia’s loss of her Soul Reaper powers had been portrayed until now as permanent – except that now, it isn't. Similarly, after having already avoided the certain death that should have come with his permanent loss of powers, Ishida (still alive) finds that "permanent" doesn't mean what it says on the tin, either, courtesy of the return of his father. Which also flies in the face of the whole "I'm the last of the Quincy!" thing he’s been running with for the past hundred-odd episodes. Ichigo's dad likewise has revelations of his own that place him front-and-centre of the mess that his kid's been in since meeting Rukia, without any explanation of why he only chose to get involved now.
Unexplained plot twists like this aren't uncommon in anime, I suppose, but I don't just dislike them, I positively loathe them – it's lazy storytelling, pure and simple. Give me some foreshadowing, a hint or two that can be pointed at so that I can say "Aaaah, I should've seen that coming", and I'm happy – but Bleach just dumps three fairly significant plot points on us with nary a word, and.. yeah. Just colour me unimpressed.
It doesn't get much better from there, either. Traitorous captain Aizen makes his return, but it's in a controlling role, sitting in his HQ in Hueco Mundo and sending his Arrancar to do his dirty work for him. This leads to the fairly predictable beginning of a stream of Arrancar that the Forces of Good will have to defeat – which in a lot of ways is, I suppose, what Bleach is all about: set-piece battles between overpowered heroes and villains. That's certainly what we get, but a little rebel in me can't help but wish that someday, a Big Bad Villain would just say "bugger this", and step out at stage one to deal with his opposition properly, instead of wheeling out the cannon fodder first. Yes, I know this is too much to expect.
It's not all bad, I have to admit. The scenes with Hitsugaya and his Soul Society underlings trying to get their heads around high-school life are great fun, and Rukia's return is handled in quite moving fashion, playing nicely on the relationship between her and Ichigo and their recent separation. Bleach can do comic and touching when it wants to, and does it quite well – it's a real shame we don’t get a little more of it.
Away from the small glimmers of good stuff, though, this volume is all about introducing the Arrancar, and it's done in such a ham-fisted way that I really couldn't work up much enthusiasm for it. And hey, there’s another 47 episodes of the Arrancar to go. Not Bleach at its best, unfortunately, and not something I’d make a point of rushing to see.
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