Bleach, Vol. 10: Tattoo on the Sky

Bleach #10

by Tite Kubo

Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghosts--he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow--a malevolent lost soul--Ichigo becomes a Soul Reaper, dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping the tortured spirits themselves find peace. Find out why Tite Kubo's Bleach has become an international manga smash-hit!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Shonen, Fiction, Action

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2003

About the author

Noriaki Kubo, known professionally as Tite Kubo ( 久保帯人), is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. His manga series Bleach (2001–2016) had over 130 million copies in circulation as of 2022.

Reviews

[Sana⁷ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You're really pushing yourself. Is it that important for you to save this Soul Reaper?"
"Not really."
"Huh? Did you promise you'd save her or something?"
"No."
"Then it's about money! You're getting paid to save her!"
"Your money's no good in my world, moron."
"Then why are you trying to hard?! I don't get it..."
"I owe her. She saved my life. I haven't repaid her for it. She gave her powers to me, a complete stranger, so I could save my family. And what's why she's in trouble. Right now she's waiting to be executed. I'm not some loser who'd let her die without a fight. Not me!" [Ichigo and Ganju conversation]

This was a very enjoyable volume, despite having no surprises (everything was exactly like in the anime). I really love the Ichigo and Ganju dynamic. They are incredibly funny together, but can be also serious at times and you can feel how honorable and protective these two are when it comes to the people they care for. There was also the reveal about the fate of the oldest Shiba sibling - the reason why Ganju decides to join Rukia's rescue team (he wants to know why his brother died with a smile on his face). The oldest Shiba sibling story that will have its continuation and consequences later on and I'm looking forward to it (despite knowing what will happen).

This is also the volume where we see all the Soul Reaper Captains together for the very first time. Aizen starts his schemes and my beloved Ikkaku and Yumichika are having their entrance! Their Captain, Zaraki Kenpachi, is already on the run to find the strongest Ryoka, so we will see the Ichigo/Zaraki fight very soon, I hope ☺️

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 down, only 64 more to go. 😅

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

They’ve finally made it inside and now the real action has finally begun.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Sue and company infiltrate the soul society with some crazy crystal ball thing and must face all the captains and lieutenants and things of the soul society whose names I could not possibly remember because there are way too many of them.

As in previous volumes, I enjoy the battle scenes but the ten million leadership members of the soul society annoyed me.

[Elias Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ichigo is just the best omg. So funny.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a great volume, Ichigo and co train to make some spiritual bombs so as to pierce the Reikai of the Shinigami's place and there is a great moment between him and Ganjyu and he teaches him how to do it and even tells his reason for doing and that was quite emotional and you feel for Ganjyu. When they arrive they are split in four factions, Ichigo and Ganjyu on one side, Ishida and Orihime on the other, Chad other and Yoruichi on her own and then we have Ichigo fighting with this guy named Ikkaku and their fight is so epic, he uses some nun chuk spears and initially seems to outclass Ichigo but when the latter unleashes his true might and power, its something to see...the real power of Shinigami! It was a great volume and the "going to shingiami land to rescue rukia" arc gets off to a great start and the art is just brilliant!

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was actually pretty damn fun.

The gang finally got shot into the sky and forced into Soul Society. But of course Ichigo is met with aggression as one of the soul reapers decides he doesn't belong. Will Ichigo be able to stop him? Will the others not separated from their leaders be able to come together? Oh and behind the scenes the captains of the soul society seem to be having their own civil war.

All of this works for most part. Predictable? yes. But fun and exciting because of the well drawn fight scenes, decent comedy moments, and well paced action. Soul Society is where it gets good, and if I remember correctly after this becomes great. A 3.5 out of 5.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my second read of the series (I got sidetracked with my last re-read here).
This is where yet again the story steps up the game. Giant boob cleavage woman helps the group penetrate the membrane around the Seirertei by firing the team from a giant phallic cannon. The good guys survive entry and now separated from each other the one on one fights this Manga is famous for starts. There is some drama among the Soul Reapers, cracks already forming in the ancient stagnant society.

This is where the Manga really shines, the story is still developing and the art is clear and crisp. Good stuff.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 4 out of 5]

As they blast their way into the Soul Society with the help of Kukakum, getting closer and closer to rescuing Rukia from her demise, the crew find themselves split and chased down by Soul Reapers wishing to take down the intruders.

This story arc begins and concludes Ichigo's first confrontation, allowing us to reestablish where he now stands post-training. Fast-paced and exciting, the story continues to tease the upcoming battles with some of the most epic captains yet.

Yours truly,

Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/

[Angela Auten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it very much. Review to come.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's heating up!

While Rukia still awaits her execution in her cell, Ichigo and the gang manage to break through the shield that surrounds the Soul Society. Due to the impact however, they end up being thrown in separate directions.

Now they are being hunted by different powerful members of the Soul Society.

The battles are intense and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next. Onwards!

[William Bainbridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might drop this down to a 3 I'll see. The fight ichigo had was good and I can't even lie to you I do love ganju and his friendship with Ichigo is so good but the other parts were not great and did drag a bit at times.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m finally getting to see all of the Captains 😤🥰🥹 I love them so much (specifically Kenpachi, Mayuri, & Jūshirō)

[lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

She saved my life. I need to return the favour. She saved my life and the lives of my family by giving me her power. Doing that got her arrested. Now, she’s going to be executed. I’m not a punk who can sit back and do nothing while somebody is going to die for his sake.

I love Ichigo so much. He’s such a good and interesting main character — not to mention that his fighting is peak.

I also love the platonic relationship between Ichigo and Rukia. They truly value each other so much and I am eager to see more of it.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assuming that I'm mathing properly, Bleach runs 74 volumes. It sounds like a lot until you realize you've finished the 10th volume and you're over 1/8th of the way through the series. A series VIZ started releasing in 2004, and is set to release the last volume of next week. (I did not intentionally line up my read-through of the series with VIZ's release schedule, but I'm definitely pleased that the last volume will be available when I need it.) It kind of feels sacrilegious to be burning through something that took Tite Kubo fifteen years to produce at a pace that will likely get me through the entire series in about 7 months, if I average ten volumes a month as I did for the first ten, but my pace might actually slow down. I've been reading a volume, then watching the anime series. So far the anime has been between two to three episodes per volume, but I suspect that they're going to really increase the amount of episodes they get out of each volume. In fact, that might start happening pretty quickly as we finally start getting into some key battles. Volume 10 ends with us starting our first real battles against Soul Reapers.

Pro: First appearances of some of my favorite Captains: Hitsugaya! Kurotsuchi! Kyouraku!
Pro: Things start feeling like they matter. Which isn't to say nothing previously mattered, but this feels like Bleach proper, not Bleach set-up.
Pro: Kukaku Shiba's headwrap.

Con: Still hate Ganju.
Con: The first half is kind of tedious with planning and training more than anything.

[DonutKnow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gin gives me chills- there is definitely something up with him 😬

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bleach, Vol. 10 continues where the previous tankōbon left off and contains the next nine chapters (80–88) of the on-going manga series with a bonus story: "Karakura Superheroes".

In order to use Kūkaku Shiba's cannon to enter the Seireitei, Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends must first learn how to focus their spiritual energies into a Spirit Orb, a task Ichigo finds especially difficult. Their group joined by Ganju Shiba who helps him learn to create a Sprit Orb, Ichigo learns that Ganju's hatred towards Soul Reapers is because his brother was killed by one.

Meanwhile, within the walls of the Seiretei, the Thirteen Court Guard Squad captains have an emergency meeting over the intruders before they are alerted. As the captains take their leave, Squad Ten captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya witnesses Gin Ichimaru being reprimanded by Squad Five Captain Sōsuke Aizen over Gin's excuse for allowing the invaders to escape.

After Ichigo's group completes their training, seeing that Ichigo is not a bad guy, Ganju decides to join them to see with his own eyes if Soul Reapers are evil or not. However, after being fired at the Seireitei, Ichigo’s inability to control his spiritual energy results in the shell exploding and the group split up. Ichigo and Ganju encounter and fight Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa of Squad Eleven, which Ichigo successfully uses his zanpakutō to defeat Ikkaku.

This tankobon is written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. It introduces the main characters – the thirteen captains of the Seireitei very briefly as they serve temporarily as the main antagonist for Ichigo Kurosaki and his group who is still trying to get into the Seireitei to rescue Rukia Kuchiki. Separated at their entry, we see Ichigo Kurosaki initial reception.

All in all, Bleach, Vol. 10 is a wonderful continuation to a series that seems intriguing and I cannot wait to read more.

[Blake the Book Eater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great fight in this volume! I really love Ganju as a character and Ikkaku is such a fun Soul Reaper and I really hope he comes back in the future! Ichigo keeps proving that he’s an absolute goated main character

[Esma T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olaylar çok heyecanlı ve sürükleyici olunca aynı günde 4-5 sayı okudum, sayfaların nasıl aktığını anlayabilmiş değilim. İyi vakit geçirmek için birebir, moral veriyor insana. ^-^

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I forgot how funny Kubo is

[Elijah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let the invasion commence!!!

[Agnese Rosengren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ichigo VS Ikkaku davvero tanta roba ❤️‍🔥

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t even realize I read it

[elif sinem · Rating 2 out of 5]

we have alabasta arc at home, but unlike oda who wouldn't know what fashion is without immediately turning homophobic, kubo breathes in aura to ishida - the sanji / cool guy equivalent of bleach.

[Miguel Alonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolute peak

[✿ Mika ✿ · Rating 3 out of 5]

love the story so far

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall Rating: A+
Synopsis: Ichigo Kurosaki sees ghosts, and fights...a lot. All of this is pretty normal for Ichigo, but then he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a Shinigami (Death God) and member of the mysterious Soul Society. When a Hollow, an evil spirit, attacks Ichigo and his family, Rukia attempts to defeat the Hollow, but is wounded. To help him save his family, she lends Ichigo some of her powers, but something goes wrong, and Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy. Ichigo becomes a temporary Shinigami, and works with Rukia to handle the hunting of hollows until Rukia can recover. At least, that was the plan...

Before I picked up the manga, I saw the first four episodes of the anime at Stellarcon '06. It was a fansub (this was before it was airing on Adult Swim), so the translation wasn't great, but I fell in love with the characters and mythology of the series. I immediately started picking up the manga and planning a costume for Ichigo. A few months later, I cosplayed Ichigo at Heroescon, had read all of the manga that had been translated, and watched as much of the anime as I could get my hands on.

So, what's the big deal, right? I think it comes down to the characters. There are dozens of of them, and the writer Tite Kubo takes the time to give them all detailed backgrounds and relationships. I'm 19 volumes in, and while there's plenty of action, it's the character development I'm hooked to.

In the first 19 volumes, there are three main groups of characters, humans, the Shingami, and the Quincies. When humans die, their souls become Wholes or Hollows. Wholes are normal spirits, but the spirits that become Hollows are corrupted souls that must feed on the souls of the living (kind of like spiritual vampires). The Shinigami release Wholes and help them cross over to the Soul Society (the spirit world), and cleanse the Hollows so that they can cross over as well. They do so using big ass swords called zanpakutō.

The Quincies use bows made of spiritual energy in the form of bows to hunt Hollows, similarly to the Shinigami. However, unlike the Shingami, who purify the souls of the Hollows preserving the balance of souls between the two world, the Quincies destroy them. This endangers the balance of the world, and as a result the two groups went to war. The Shinigami won, and there is now only one Quincy left, Uryū Ishida. Despite his hatred of Shinigami, Uryū eventually becomes friends Ichigo, and even travels to the Soul Society with him.

This only scratches at the surface of the series. I have only seen ~50 episodes of the anime, but what I have seen follows the manga very closely. I highly recommend checking out the series, it's fun, interesting, and has some great cosplay opportunities.

For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.

[dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

another volume that wasn't as exciting as the others but there's a lot happening here. we come to learn more about some of ichigo's "defects" aka. doesn't know how to control his powers, and wow, soul reapers really have a terrible rep. first it was uruyu, then they're about to execute rukia, and now we're learning that maybe they got on other people's bad sides. i would say, how are they still in power, but like, that's the world for you. anyway, we got a nice battle at the end. shorter than what i remember but i did really like it because it was baldy and he's a riot. we also see some trouble within the soul society government? what would you call them? and it seems like it's all coming to light because of rukia's execution. so much mystery~

[Sebastian Gonzalez]

As we left off in vol. 9 at the very end we meet are favorite protagonists talking to Kukaku Shiba, Ganju's older sister who only has one arm and and is a pyromaniac with fireworks. She is really short temperd too. She tries to get everyone to train to make a sprite ball but everyone but Ichigo, can do it. After all that they go in to a can that is 150 feet tall, they got lunched off and they hit the barrior and the broke through it.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

annoying

Typical to an early 2000s series, we have our annoying, dramatic, and loud characters. This one had all of the, shoved into a few chapters which distracted from how dire their situation is.