Book Review: Bleach (3-in-1) Volume 3 by Tite Kubo

Bleach (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 3: Includes vols. 7, 8 & 9 by Tite Kubo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book introduces the Soul Society arc, where Ichigo and the gang goes to the Seireitei to save Rukia from getting executed for giving her powers to Ichigo. We’re introduced to Renji Abarai and Byakuya Kuchiki, two soul reapers assigned to bring Rukia back to the Soul Society, but before they could, they are stopped by Uyru, the Quincy that hates soul reapers.

Rukia left a message for Ichigo to not follow her, and thanks to Kon…he goes after her. Only to lose the fight between Renji and Byakuya, who stabbed him and took away his soul reaper powers. Ichigo was taken care of by ‘hat and clogs’ Urahara, who basically trained to be a soul reaper again, while Mr. Yourichi trained Chad and Orihime, and Uyru trained by himself, to be stronger.

Now the training was quite brutal. First, Ichigo had to get his soul reaper powers back, and boy that was the most painful things I’ve ever read, ever. He also learned the name of his zanpakuto, which is called Zangetsu, and once he learned the name and released his powers, that’s when he and Urahara trained until it was time for them to go to the Soul Society. Everyone-Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Uyru spends a summer in town before they go to Mr. Urahara’s shop to go to the Soul Society, and being led by Mr. Yourichi, they go into this gate Urahara constructed to let them go into the first part of the Soul Society, a long tunnel filled with dark things that are getting cleaned up by a huge train…

…that Orihime rejected, thus putting the gang in front of the gates of the Seireitei. Guarding the gates is a guardian named Jibando, and he and Ichigo fought, resulting in Ichigo’s victory. But it was short lived, when Gin Ichimaru appeared and pretty much killed Jibando, and Ichigo tried to stop it, but it didn’t work as he was knocked back, and the gate slammed down on them.

So they went to a village filled with lost souls, and Ichigo and a man named Ganju nearly got into it, but was stopped when he and his huge boar had to go home. Even though they thanked the elder and Chad met his pet parakeet again (who was a boy, which was cute and sweet at the same time), and they went to see Kukaku…which turns out to be Ganju’s sister, and who’s also an explosives expert.

Her plan? To launch them in the air to put them in the Soul Society.

Sounds like fun…but will our heroes enjoy it?!

It feels like I’m watching the show again, but much better. It was fun to see Renji, Byakuya and the others. I can’t wait to read the next volumes because it’s reigniting my love for Bleach again.

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