@Daz:
The common statement that "Well, Bleach may be slow and melodramatic, but the art is great!!" Continues to baffle me in its absurdity.
Seriously, did anyone feel anything at the "SS gets destroyed!!" spread? Anything at all? What looks like half of one of Bachs empty, bland, newly formed structures is floating in the foreground, while the rest looks completely unaffected. Cue two pages of "BLACK SPEED LINES OF DESPAIR WITH MUGSHUTS OF WORRIED PEOPLE!!" and occasional flying rubble. Because even though SS has already been badly damaged by Quincy invasion number 1, and replaced by Quincytown in Invasion 2, the shinigami are really attached to the integrity of those quincy buildings!!!
Same with Ichigo and cos re-arrival at the palace- two full, entire pages dedicated to showing the same boring lifeless architechture as in SS. Its supposed to be this huge revelation that ERMAGERD BACH HAS WARPED THE PALACE but it falls flat when Kubo just re-uses the Frozen European Town Map package. When they arrived I didn't think "oh my god, what is this?!?!" I though "What the fuck, did they go back to Soul Society?"
EDIT: To be fair, the intent most likely was exactly to make readers think they'd gone back; its still a problem that Kubo tries playing it as some dramatic twist when
- We've already seen the Town Quincification before; Just because its a different setting getting replaced, doesn't make it novel
- The setting wasn't replaced with anything interesting or evocative
- Was anyone particularly attached to the Tube Palace floating in whitespace? The tube is even still there, just frostier, its just the whitespace around it that changed.
Not exactly worth 4 pages of chapter-ending dramatic hubbub is all I'm saying
I thought it was more just the way Kubo drew characters people liked. Kubo never really did much good with background art even in the beginning for the most part, and with less backgrounds, people were always complimenting the character design aspect. Though the fans seemed to love the reused character assets, where this forum seems more fond of the ridiculous characters like Mask.
Have to agree with the transformation aspect. Bach want's to change things into his vision,, and it's the same. What would've been interesting is the idea that since Bach controls all the realms, he is slowly erasing everyone he doesn't want. So the foot soldier shinigami slowly disappear, and the stronger characters would disappear after a certain amount of time as well. It would add some tension to the arc. Instead, it's just we actually have a background for once after so long.
@Ordinary:
Riruka joins Ichigo's harem?! I didn't even know he had one!
If Ywhach remoulded SS, then he's got some pretty shit design sense. The palace is a ugly wreck.
Ichigo has had a harem for a while now. First it was Orohime, then Ririuka showed up. There might be hints of Rukia being part of it, though I would hope she is smarter than that. There's also Nel as well. You also have Grimmjow being all Tsundere for Ichigo. Ulquiorra might've been in a love triangle with Orohime and Ichigo, so there was that.
@Razh:
I sure hope he remodeled himself first. That appearance could use some serious pimping. He looks like Alucard for poor.
Shaman King's finale in the plants is starting to look like a masterpiece.
We will know the true change soon enough, which is hidden behind the broken tower. Bach made a new tower that looks like the table quote thing Kubo has in his office. It will have various sayings and symbols on it that only a tortured, artistic soul could come up with, because Kubo.
Nothing exists; even if something exists, nothing can be known about it. Even if something can be known about it,
