Spoilers after the cut. You know, the usual.
For long-time readers and people who picked up the manga at the beginning of the supposed final arc, this chapter has to be a welcome surprise.
There is an actual direction to the manga, for once. And Kubo appears to be pursuing it gleefully.
I'm sure it'll bog down at some point, because that's just how these things go. But now we know that there'll be two threads pursued over the next few chapters: the remaining Stern Ritter vs. the ragtag group of shinigami that count themselves "friends" of Ichigo, and the more important Ichigo vs. Bach/Haschwald/Ishida tilt.
I'm going to be honest again: I don't really care to see the last (?) Stern Ritter vs. shinigami fight. We've seen all of those guys (and girl) many, many times over the course of the manga. They've had plenty of "screen time", so to speak, and the readers would be better off spared from seeing them yet again.
But if that's part of the direction the manga is going, I can't complain too much. Any direction is better than none, and while Bleach has been rudderless for what seems like months at a time during the "final" arc, I can confidently say that it's going somewhere at last.
And Ichigo's wearing the King's Key. What a twist!
Okay, maybe that part is a little too convenient. It also fails to explain how the rest of the shinigami who were up there got back into Seireitei, since none of them appear to be wearing the same clothing. Maybe Ichigo opened the door and they followed? I don't know if we'll get a concrete answer to that.
Also, Bach wants to invade the Soul King's realm? I wasn't expecting that!
Although maybe I should have.
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