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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “Immediately after checking into the Kurosaki Clinic with a mysterious scar on his back, the muscle-bound Chad goes AWOL. Accompanying Chad is a talking parakeet imbued with the soul of a young boy named Yuichi. It doesn’t take newbie Soul Reaper Ichigo Kurosaki long to surmise that not every soul is bound for the Soul Society, especially if it’s tainted with innocent blood.” Er, what just happened? Volume one kicked off with a bang, but volume two seems all too pleased to cut its momentum. Whereas the first volume blended multiple fight sequences with periods of deep character development, the second volume features two fat fight scenes with a break in the middle. The first half of the volume is one extended and tiresome battle that gives Rukia some deserved spotlight, but as her powers are still slowly recovering, she’s really only marking time until Ichigo shows up, at which point the fight concludes simply. The second half reads like something out of a bad cartoon, with Ichigo splitting his Soul Reaper persona off from his regular body while the behavior program maintaining his body runs amuck. It tries to switch the mood into a serious exploration of life and intelligence but only comes halfway. If it weren’t for Kubo’s strength in storytelling and his sharp illustrations, I might have written this series off with this volume. The consistently interesting characterization and dialogue keeps a firm grip on the reader, though the story better pick up the slack in the next volume. Comment on this review of Bleach v2 on the Manga Life Forums. |
7 May 2008
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