This is quite possibly the volume of Bleach I've been waiting for all year, because it contains the first half of one of my most favorite story arcs in Bleach so far: the Turn Back The Pendulum flashback arc that looks back at the history of Soul Society and of certain characters like Urahara, Aizen, Gin, Shinji, and the rest of the Vizards. Normally, whole volumes dedicated to nothing but back story drag on and are immensely boring, but not this one. Until this point, readers haven't gotten a good grasp on the Soul Society politics and events that led to such pivotal things as the birth of the Vizards or Urahara's expulsion from Seireitei, so volume thirty-six is a much needed (and very entertaining) primer on the history of a certain group of characters whose actions may have very well put the entire Bleach series into motion. After the kind of dry thirty-fifth volume, this book is a blessing in disguise.

You can read the rest of my review of this volume over at Nagareboshi Reviews! ( )