Bleach 528 Review – “Everything But the Rain”

Bleach 528 Review – “Everything But the Rain”

Written by: ClayDragon

The newest Bleach chapter sees Ichigo return home after being banished from the Soul Society by Ouetsu, and seems to take a break from the fighting to go into a bit more detail regarding Ichigo’s past.

Ending up outside his house (in his physical body as opposed to his Shinigami form), Ichigo calls out to Urahara, before realising that Urahara is still in Hueco Mundo with Orihime and Chad. As Ichigo’s front door opens, he dashes away, avoiding a confrontation with his father.

"Maybe I should have brought an umbrella..."

Looking for somewhere to rest for a while, he ends up at his boss’s house and it’s revealed that Ichigo didn’t want to face his father after breaking his Zanpakuto and failing to get it fixed. However, Isshin arrives to get Ichigo anyway, and the two end up having a talk.

It turns out that Isshin was aware of Ichigo losing his Zanpakuto and going to get it fixed, and figured out that Ichigo’s presence in the world of the living meant that he’d been kicked out of the Soul Society. Isshin then decides that it’s time to tell Ichigo about his mother, and the chapter ends with a flashback that reveals that Ichigo’s mother was, in fact, a Quincy.

Which would have been a great cliffhanger if it hadn’t already been majorly hinted at 14 chapters ago. Oh well.

Yeah, we kind of guessed this one. Thanks for the confirmation, though.

It’s nice to see that we’re going back to learn more about Ichigo’s family, even if it looks like all of the other plot threads are being put on hold. Isshin is one of the more mysterious characters in Bleach – despite being the main character’s father, we know very little (if anything) about his time as a Soul Reaper, and there are a lot of unanswered questions about him. Hopefully the upcoming chapters will shed some light on his past, as well as telling us more about Ichigo’s mother.

Another thing that was good to see was the reappearance of Ikumi, Ichigo’s boss, who was last seen in the Fullbring arc. To be honest, the Fullbring arc seemed more like filler material than an actual canon story arc, as the characters that were introduced during that time seemed to have no bearing on the overall plot. However, now that Tite Kubo has brought back four characters from that arc, it would appear that he has greater plans for them.

"Perhaps I should have gone to Uryu's house instead..."

Overall, I’m looking forward to learning more about Ichigo’s parents – as long as the flashback doesn’t raise more questions than it answers.

Manga rating: 4/5

ClayDragon:









ClayDragon is currently studying Physics at university, and is constantly bewildered by it. The main method of contacting him is his Gmail account at kyleroulston1993@gmail.com. The alternative is his Skype account at kyleroulston1993. When not playing games or reading, he can be found with his head in hands whilst trying in vain to understand quantum physics.