Volume is extra low for this reaction because copyright was pretty heavy! but it doesnt seem to be too much of an issue with later episodes so thank yall for dealing with it!
Yep, lots of sword fights await, I will tell no more, not even against who, just that there are lotta swords. BTW When people say pacing issues, they mean that this first arc is too fast paced in cooperation to the manga, a single anime episode here may have up to 6 manga chapters, they skip lotta stuff, after this, if you discount the fillers, the pacing is good, but it was being too fast paced in this first arc.
[Tidbits][Long Comment Incoming] - Ep 8 and the content it's meant to cover from chapter 19, introduces key elements for Ichigo's characterization. The first is his relationship with his mother and what she meant to and for him (which loses a lot of impact in the anime cause they skip some important lines). As we learned here Ichigo's name means "He who protects" and names in Bleach are very important, but for now just know that Ichigo because of the name he was given felt that it was his Duty to protect and his mother was the 1st one who he felt responsible for protecting. His mother literally meant the world to him, "The center of their universe", an he failed to do the 1 thing he felt was in fact his purpose, to Ichigo he robbed the world of his Mother. Naturally this would be traumatizing, but what's important is how Ichigo responds to it. In short he repents by making up for his Mothers death, by attempting to protect people in her stead, this is unfortunate because whenever he fails to protect someone he feels as if he's failing his mother all over again reminding him of his worst trauma. (only mentioning his because many fans of Bleach miss how important this concept is to Ichigo's character arc) - The Shinigami with the hat looking for Rukia doesn't exist in the manga. - Yeah Bleach begain airing in 2004, plus it was a long runner so the anime will have it's ups and downs.
