Review: BLEACH: CAN'T FEAR YOUR OWN WORLD Volume 1 Is a Great Start to a Sequel
Last month, VIZ Media released the English version of Bleach: Can’t Fear Your Own World Volume 1. This is a light novel series from author Ryohgo Narita with illustrations from Bleach creator Tite Kubo. It serves as a sequel series and interesting enough, the main character is actually my favorite character, Shuhei Hisagi, the assistant captain of Squad 9. Here’s a brief synopsis:
The Quincies’s Thousand Year Blood War is over, but the embers of turmoil still smolder in the Soul Society. Tokinada Tsunayashiro, elevated to head of his clan after a slew of assassinations take out every other claimant to the title, has a grand plan to create a new Soul King. His dark ambitions soon sow the seeds of a new total war across the realms, but all is not lost. There is one unlikely Soul Reaper who holds the key to defusing the conflict—Shuhei Hisagi, assistant captain of the Ninth Company and reporter for the Seireitei Bulletin!
I’ll do my best not to spoil the book, but it’s really interesting and more than anything, I’m just glad we’re not so focused on Ichigo. There are so many cool characters in the world of Bleach, and this series helps highlight some of them. It’s also great to see the story end up involving pretty much every group and world that we’ve been introduced to. Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the world of the living each have things going on and every faction is getting involved including the Arrancar and Fullbringers.
The first volume is very solid at setting everything up. Sadly, this means that nothing is really closed yet, and all the threads are unraveled and let loose. I cannot wait for the second volume of Can’t Fear Your Own World in November.
Honestly, my number one complaint is that I wish this were a manga instead of a light novel series. I wish I could see some of the reactions some characters had, and it’d be nice to just see these characters once more/what the new ones look like. There’s a nifty chart at the beginning to help remind you of some of the character’s faces, but it’s not nearly as extensive as I would hope. If you’re a fan of Bleach, I would highly recommend picking up Can’t Fear Your Own World. It’s a great read (and a quick one too at only 272 pages).
