Bleach, Vol. 22

Tite Kubo, Bleach: Conquistadores (ViZ, 2001) You knew Kubo wasn't going to be able to keep the characters from the Soul Society out of the real world, didn't you? After the cascade of revelations in the last volume, Ichigo and company get a clearer picture of what's going on with the Arrancars, and what they're going to need to do to fight them. Setup volume, but a good one for all that. ****

Volume 21 concluded with a revelation about Isshin Kurosaki and Ichigo's refusal the join the Vizards. This volume, Shinji continues to try and recruit Ichigo and another Vizard, Hiyori is introduced. A short time later, two very powerful Arrancars arrive in Karakura town. They kill dozens of bystanders and brutally beat-up Chad and Orihime. Ichigo arrives and initial does well, until his inner hollow interferes. The Arrancar leave determining Ichigo is not even worth killing. The volume concludes with the Soul Society sends reinforcements to handle the arrancar invasion. The Arrancar arc is proceding along smoothly with big new developments for both Ichigo and the enemies he's facing, both externally and internally. Yammy and Ulquiorra's entrance was a great tribute to the Saiyans' coming to Earth from Dragon Ball Z. The battle that followed nicely showcased the new enemy's power. Overall, a very good installment of the series. On a minor note, when these chapters ran in Viz's Shonen Jump magazine they censored a few panels (a scene between the two Vizards and they toned down Matsumoto's cleavage). There went back and uncensored them for the graphic novel release, except they forgot to do so for one panel in the last chapter of the book. It's not a big deal, but hopefully, in later printings they will fix this mistake.