I finally got to read the Bleach – Special One-shot and I can say that Tite Kubo still got it. It expanded on the lore of the Bleach series while introducing brand new characters.
Reading this chapter, it didn’t feel like a one-shot at all but instead felt like an introduction to a brand new arc that dives into the concept of hell in the bleach world. Learning that Captains for the Soul Society and straight-up sent to hell was messed up. Imagine doing your duty as a Captain, saving lives and protecting the world of the living, only to have your ass sent to hell because your Reishi is too powerful to go back to the earth. Wild!
The fact that they were fighting Jūshirō Ukitake without realizing it is kinda sad. And now that they are aware of this, I wonder if they’re going to be changing this tradition. Maybe even dive to hell itself to find and save all the Captains that have been sent there for thousands of years since the Soul Society first came to be.
They introduced some new characters, but of course Kazui Kurosaki and Ichika Abaraiwhere the two characters I was most interested in. And if the last page of the chapter is any indication, the boy Kazui is about to be a whole menacing beast. The way that skull looked at him and the way Kazui looked back with a bloody smile on his face gave me chills. You could say that Kazui was looking at the butterfly but I mean with the way the panel was laid out, you could say it was a metaphor of some kind.
I like how the personality of these two kids, although brief, didn’t feel like a copy of their parents. They felt original in my opinion but that could change if this really is an arc.
Overall, there is not much I wanna say, the 73-page chapter like I said felt more like an introduction to a brand new arc than a one-shot so I am hyped to see whether that turns out true! I was very pleased to read a new bleach chapter after so many years. The beginning of the pages was great, seeing all the old characters again and seeing what they’ve been up to was a nice touch for fans who wanted to see their favorite characters again. And the last page opened up a door for a new arc.
