A new chapter of Bleach is out, so let's talk about it.
Spoilers and a small amount of satisfaction after the cut.
Ichigo's team and the Gotei 13 have arrived in the Soul King's realm (or maybe Bach's realm now) and have realized the ugly truth: the Soul King is dead, Bach has usurped his power, and now the whole place is being reshaped into some kind of Quincy wonderland.
The results so far are not terrible. Certainly not as disappointing as last week, when I lamented the pointlessness of it all.
It's not that what happened in 628 was so much more interesting; in fact, most of the intrigue comes from, once again, what has been set up here. Now we have to wait for Kubo to pay it off, a notion at which I scoff heartily. We've been so disappointed by Kubo, even with the amazing things that we've seen in the so-called "final" arc.
So while I don't expect 628 to pay off for a while, it's hard to say that things haven't been set up in a positive direction.
I think we can safely assume that Bach will just sit on his throne in the "true world", as he called it, and watch his flunkies fight Ichigo and the Gotei 13, much like Shang Tsung looked on some of the fights in Mortal Kombat.
At least until Aizen comes along, that is.
