Why did I start reading it?
'Cause Bleach
What is it?
Hisagi is doing his job as a reporter for the Seireitei Bulletin and interviewing people which puts him next to Urahara Kisuke at the worst possible time. Meanwhile Captain Kurosuchi is causing shit with his unit of defeated modified corpses
What are the characters like?
I love bleach. I love it's characterisation though over the top strange dialogue that would never be spoken by a normal person, it's hella entertaining.
Anyone particularly cool?
This book made me care about characters that I didn't want to. One being the corpse unit's Luppi, former Sexta Espada. In the anime/manga, they had a battle and then had their top half blasted into oblivion, how they are back now is down the Kurosuchi magic science but they had a big inner monologue that actually got me to care about them a bit and damn it, it didn't want to care about them!
Second was Lillotto Lampard. A Quincy just trying to survive after the war and preferably save their captured allies. She is the single surviving brain cell of the quincy has and is completely surrounded by idoits. I love her now and hope she gets to be happy.
What's the bad news?
Prose is a bit better but there are some times where it's like 'this happened in the anime remember! We are referencing this bit, remember!' Yes, book. Yes I do. I don't know whether this would be more necessary for someone who isn't as into Bleach as I am but it was just kinda annoying. At one point it just felt like they were explaining the joke and therefore kind ruined the impact.
And the good news?
You like fights? Well I got some good news for you, this book covers 3 and a bit fights. One of which spans most of the book and that conflict just kept getting crazier it's great!
There's also some wonderfully teased lore about the Soul Society and the three worlds overall. I'm really excited to see how that gets revealed in the next book. This one ends with all the pieces in place for what should be a fantastic climax. The next book is already out but sadly I have a few others to get through first.
Would you recommend?
Yes. For bleach fans this series is a must. There's some great world building lore in here and fun character interactions.