From the back cover:
The noose is tightening around Ichigo. His inner Hollow can’t wait to consume him, the sinister transfer student has him tapped for a mysterious job, and now powerful new enemies have landed in his hometown to destroy him.
Review:
So far, this new arc is not off to an auspicious start. Some new villains are introduced, but only the latter pair—they’re Arrancar, meaning Hollows with Soul Reaper skills—are at all menacing. The first pair, including the “sinister transfer student,” fall victim to a lame attempt at comedy that effectively zaps any bit of coolness they’d possessed.
Speaking of lame comedy, once the Soul Society gets wind of the Arrancars visiting the human world, they send a team of familiar faces down to help Ichigo and friends combat the new threat. I probably would’ve thought this was a cheesy development no matter what, but the fact that all of their scenes devolve into buffoonery—chiefly triggered by Rangiku’s boobs—sure doesn’t help matters.
There are a few good things about the volume, though. I really like Ichigo’s fear of and struggle against the Hollow within him. Also, the two-page spread where Ichigo sees that Rukia has returned as part of the Soul Society team is really neat.
The last few pages show some promise, since the top level of Hollow already outclasses a Soul Reaper Captain before it goes through the process to become an Arrancar. This arc still could become cool, but so far, it elicits a resounding meh.
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