Bleach: manga through chapter 168 (around volume 20)
Just a few notes.
I'm up to the point where Ichigo defeats Byakuya, Rukia gets rescued, and a massive info-dump begins.
This is going to sound like a litany of complaints, which is unfair because obviously I didn't read this far because I wasn't enjoying it, and there is a great deal to like, BUT
Arrrrgh! Rukia has done nothing for something like ten volumes but sit around passively waiting to die, and now she just got rescued and passively carried away. Arrrrgh!
Chad, Orihime, and Ishida have not only been virtually absent for volumes on end, but even though they got to do a little fighting at the beginning and early-middle of the arc, nothing they did was decisive or did anything to further the general goal of the mission. That is not what I want to have happen when a team of heroes I am emotionally invested in goes on a mission. Ishida supposedly lost his Quincy powers-- did he really? Where's his angst? What does Chad think about all this? Is Orihime relieved or regretful that she doesn't have to do any more fighting? What happened to my Scooby gang?!
Ichigo has been absent for, if not volumes, chapters on end while characters whom I am not invested in and, in some cases, am not even sure who they are, fight for reasons I am unclear about. At one point Hinamori and Hitsugaya were fighting each other, and I could not for the life of me recall who either of them were. Note to Tite Kubo, not that he cares: If your name is not Ichigo, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, Orihime, Yoruichi, or oh all right, Soi Fong or Renji, I don't care.
That being said, I did very much like the Yoruichi/Soi Fong plotlet, and that Zangetsu's bankai form looks exactly like... an ordinary katana.
Despite all this bitching, more YSI chapters would be greatly appreciated. Now that I've come this far, I at least want to know how it all turns out.
I'm up to the point where Ichigo defeats Byakuya, Rukia gets rescued, and a massive info-dump begins.
This is going to sound like a litany of complaints, which is unfair because obviously I didn't read this far because I wasn't enjoying it, and there is a great deal to like, BUT
Arrrrgh! Rukia has done nothing for something like ten volumes but sit around passively waiting to die, and now she just got rescued and passively carried away. Arrrrgh!
Chad, Orihime, and Ishida have not only been virtually absent for volumes on end, but even though they got to do a little fighting at the beginning and early-middle of the arc, nothing they did was decisive or did anything to further the general goal of the mission. That is not what I want to have happen when a team of heroes I am emotionally invested in goes on a mission. Ishida supposedly lost his Quincy powers-- did he really? Where's his angst? What does Chad think about all this? Is Orihime relieved or regretful that she doesn't have to do any more fighting? What happened to my Scooby gang?!
Ichigo has been absent for, if not volumes, chapters on end while characters whom I am not invested in and, in some cases, am not even sure who they are, fight for reasons I am unclear about. At one point Hinamori and Hitsugaya were fighting each other, and I could not for the life of me recall who either of them were. Note to Tite Kubo, not that he cares: If your name is not Ichigo, Rukia, Ishida, Chad, Orihime, Yoruichi, or oh all right, Soi Fong or Renji, I don't care.
That being said, I did very much like the Yoruichi/Soi Fong plotlet, and that Zangetsu's bankai form looks exactly like... an ordinary katana.
Despite all this bitching, more YSI chapters would be greatly appreciated. Now that I've come this far, I at least want to know how it all turns out.