David Lodge, the voice actor behind fan-favorite Kenpachi Zaraki in the English dub of the original Bleach anime, has given VIZ Media an ultimatum.
Responding to a tweet about whether Lodge heard from VIZ about reprising his iconic role in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, the actor posted his thoughts, writing, “Ok VIZ! One shot to get me before I move on to other work! I just want to give my millions of fans…what they want…me back as Kenpachi. Thx! Dave.” Kenpachi is the leader of the battle-hungry 11th Division in Gotei 13 and one of protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki’s first major opponents during the “Soul Society Arc”. In VIZ Media’s latest Bleach popularity poll, the character placed fourth behind Kisuke Urahara, Ichigo and Rukia Kuchiki.
Thousand-Year Blood War Adapts the Manga’s Final Arc
Based on the best-selling manga series of the same name by Tite Kubo, Studio Pierrot’s original Bleach anime premiered in October 2004 and ran for 366 episodes, concluding in March 2012. However, the show left many chapters from Kubo’s story unadapted until now. Thousand-Year Blood War adapts the story arc of the same name from the manga, which depicts a bloody and brutal feud between the Soul Society and the Wandenreich, a secret Quincy empire.
Multiple members of the creative team behind the first Bleach anime have returned to bring the sequel series to life, including composer Shiro Sagisu (Shin Godzilla) and character designer Masahi Kudo (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes); although, Tomohisa Taguchi (Persona 4: The Golden Animation) has replaced anime industry veteran Noriyuki Abe as director. Moreover, several of the original Japanese voice actors have reprised their roles. Masakazu Morita (Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero) once again voices Ichigo alongside Fumiko Orikasa (Digimon Tamers) as Rukia, Noriaki Sugiyama (Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works) as Uryu Ishida and Yuki Matsuoka (Elfen Lied) as Orihime Inoue.
At the time of writing, no details about Thousand-Year Blood War’s English dub are available. Johnny Yong Bosch (Blue Exorcist) starred in the original Bleach anime alongside Michelle Ruff (Megalobox) as Rukia, Derek Stephen Prince (Naruto) as Uryu, Stephanie Sheh (Eureka Seven) as Orihime and of course, Lodge as Kenpachi.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War debuted its first episode on Oct. 10. The show is available to stream exclusively on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ internationally. Fans of the series have threatened to pirate both Bleach and Thousand-Year Blood War after the popular streaming platform Crunchyroll lost the streaming rights.
Source: Twitter
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