This volume marks the turning point in this arc and reveals the central antagonist for a large part of the entire series. I was surprised on this first reading how suspicious Aizen seemed from the very start, however I did like how Gin was made to be a red herring along with Aizen’s fake death. I liked the reveals of Gin and Tōsen conspiring with Aizen since the very beginning. I liked how the betrayal and reveal was done here, even if I felt like Aizen’s reveal and betrayal could have been made better had we had more time with him before his fake death. I had a criticism of the anime for making Aizen seem like he orchestrated all the events of the series up until this point, but I feel like this was depicted better and explained better here in the manga than it was in the anime. I like how there were massive amounts of twists and information revealed in this volume without seeming overbearing. The explanations didn’t feel like info dumping and I like how it all converged together in this story. I have criticisms for Aizen as a character and as an antagonist, but this volume did his story well, I just wish his character had been introduced better before his fake death. Despite this, I like how it all unraveled and how the story shifted focus.