Well that really depends on how important this past arc ends up being XD. At this point it's looking like it's main importance was Ichigo's character development and regaining his powers, which you won't need to know the details of to understand going forward. However I have some theories about certain little things that might end up being important... but overall I really don't think it'd be that hard to understand what's going on, actually. But if you were interested, I'd say just reading the final part of the arc should be enough to get a decent grasp. And it contains Zaraki! Which unless my memory is completely failing me was your favorite character?