User blog comment:Godisme/Love It/@comment-117598-20121227222751

Could've done without 80 percent of this chapter and i still would've gotten what is was about. Mostly fan service. I don't know, I'm just not interested in seeing Ichigo and Renji right now. I know they're training to get stronger, but they are always training to get stronger. So watching them do it, yet again, is losing its appeal to me. Show me what the Gotei are doing, or the status of the other shinigami that they thought didn't seem injured enough to bring to the Hot Springs ( Kira? )

Also, and maybe this is because I'm too simple minded and couldn't grasp the concept, but I didn't get why Ichigo and Renji's Zans shattered so easily because they weren't loved. I mean, out of all the Zans in the series so far, Ichigo's and Renji's materialized the most and spoke to them the most, showing a very deep bond between them.

I'm fine with character development for the Royal Guard but not when its essentially doing the same thing over and over again, just with a different mentor. I haven't seen anything new really. Also, and again this is my opinion, but the Vandenreich still remain a not credible threat to me because I've forgotten about them already. I still view them as merely a tool used to bring out the Royal Guard and an attempt to wrap up unanswered questions by Kubo, who I don't really think thought any of this through in the long run. Might as well leave some things a mystery. Not everything needs an explanation. Some of it can live in the realm of a user's own interpretation.