*3.5 Stars* (Wish Goodreads would let us give half stars sometimes)My Review of Bleach Volume 1 Where I discuss the series in general, etc.
Review of Volume 9
Characters You Need to Know:
Kukaku Shiba: Friend to Yuruichi,people seem afraid of her and what she does. However, this is who the cat comes to when they need to enter the Seireitei.
Ganju Shiba: A punk they meet in the Rukon district, he turned out to be Kukaku's younger brother. Hot-headed, he always seems to be at odds with Ichigo. A necessary volume, however it bores me until Ichigo meets his first real Soul Reaper in combat since Renji and Kuchki in the mortal world. That battle is awesome and is the sole reason this volume got enough to get its fourth star.
This volume suffers from a bad case of necessary exposition. From that we do get at least one answer (though not a complete one) to a question that has plagued the series since the early volumes but that only goes so far. We also get more hints and plot points; however we are still getting more questions then ansowers at this point and it is generally here it starts to bother me.
Conclusion: A necessary volume that suffers though exposition but rewards you with an excellent battle at the end.
