I loved seeing the full backstory explaining Kaien and Rukia’s tragic history. I love how Kaien and Ichigo parallel each other and how Rukia sees a lot of Kaien in Ichigo. I loved seeing Toshiro determined to stop the execution, and I like how all the characters are beginning to converge onto one place for Rukia’s execution. I must say that compared to the anime adaptation, I’m enjoying the pacing a lot better in the manga. There were some interesting introductions in this volume as well, and I like how we’re already seeing how different all the Captains are and how they all have differing ideals and opinions.