The penultimate chapter in the global anime and manga franchise is here in Bleach Volume 73. Featuring the final battle with the Quincies and Soul Reapers, Ichigo and his friends must pull out all the stops to defeat the powerful Yhwach before the Soul Society crumbles.

Bleach is a 2001 shonen manga series created by Tite Kubo, it is published by Shueisha and licensed by Viz Media. It is currently available in English in print and digital formats.

Editor’s Note: A review copy of Bleach Volume 73 was provided by Viz Media in support of this review.

The beginning of the end for the final battle commences in Soul Society.

Since it’s start back in 2001 Bleach has quickly become a global phenomenon in it’s home country of Japan as well as overseas in both print and anime. The series rise was so meteoric that popular US anime host network Toonami picked it up for a run in the country over a year after it’s premiere in Japan. Since it’s start Bleach has faced some unfortunate pitfalls, mainly in the quality of the final arcs of the anime. Despite these shortcomings mangaka Tite Kubo has managed to provide his audience with a finale that’s just as epic as the series’ early beginnings.

The Soul Society must battle an army of Quincies; powerful human beings with high spiritual pressure and abilities.

THE GOOD: The final arc of Bleach gives us a new detailed look at the background of two warring factions; the Soul Reapers and Quincies. These two factions have a known storied history and it only seemed fitting to make the Quincies the big bads of the finale. Full of action and some our favorite characters from the vast Bleach character roster, volume 73 brings the bang and provides some quality moments for long dormant characters including Arrancar Grimmjow. Kubo when writing the finale obviously wanted to give a little of something to everybody and his doesn’t disappoint. The teases, shocks, and surprises all hit their mark upon the finale chapter of the volume heading into the last volume of 74.

The final boss of Bleach; Yhwach.

THE BAD: Nothing in particular.

The Thousand Year Blood War arc is coming to it’s close in Bleach volume 73.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The second to last volume of Tite Kubo’s beloved Bleach series delivers with plenty of action and memorable scenes for it’s near countless list of characters. From Kisuke to Grimmjow to dozens more. As the seventeen year old series reaches it’s climax readers will no doubt be at the very least satisfied with how Kubo’s final arc begins. Otaku Dome gives Bleach Volume 73 a 90 out of 100.