I can't believe "beefcake" was actually canonically used to describe a bleach character... and it was for this guy, out of everybody.

Straight up, I enjoyed the book. It continues after the events of tybw and provides a new plot, characters, and conflict while still being connected to the world we know.

We have Hisagi's internal conflict of whether he should give in to the revenge brewing inside for Tosen, and as an external conflict we have Tokinada who is brewing up trouble for the Seireitei.

However, I had a problem with how much beating around the bush there was. All this book did was give an introduction to what will be covered in the next books, which isn't how a typical trilogy works.

The moment a scene starts to make sense and looks like it's going somewhere, we jump to another scene with different characters and a different conversation. The main plot was barely evolving so I can see why cfyow is split into three. Like we had three pages of Hanataro looking at an angry Hisagi and then talking a little about his self esteem and stuff.

But anyways it was a fun read, I want to read the next book and see if Hisagi will be able to cover talk objectively about Tokinada in the newspaper as he was trying to, and see him coming to terms with his revenge. If he will learn something new about how Tosen dealt with his own revenge.

I see this going two ways. In the end Hisagi must make peace with his self ie his zanpakuto and achieve bankai, so will he approach that through:

Embracing his feelings of revenenge as he embraces his zanpakuto's thirst to kill and deal accordingly with the one who pushed Tosen towards hatred.

We are introduced to Hikone - a new character - and they were stated to be fifteen years old if measured in the world of the living way. Everyone who meets them however refers to them as a child, even in narration.

Ichigo was the same age at the beginning of the series, but he was still acknowledged as a young adult.

Hisagi is the kind of guy who is so dedicated to his hobbies and passions that his (generous) paycheck is all splurged on them.

Just how passionate he is about them? Passionate enough to use motorcycles as a unit of measurement for money.

According to the Can't Fear Your Own World novel which Kubo supervised, the Seireitei Bulletin was a one page publication printed off a wooden block like the Edo period publication, until Tosen became captain.

He adopted printing methods from the world of the living which makes me think that he was a soul who lived in the modern world and came to soul society after dying. He retained his memories and experiences, using them to modernize printing and publications in the soul society. (Well, seireitei mainly. According to the novel, the rukongai receives copies of the Bulletin on special occasion only.)

Or maybe he simply is a WOTL guru, saw it once while deployed there and thought how much easier paper printing produces journals and announcements.