The second part of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will feature an anime-only battle sequence.
This information came to light during an interview conducted with Bleach creator Tite Kubo, a portion of which was featured on the @BLEACHanimation Twitter account. During this interview, Kubo explained that this new battle is one he didn’t get a chance to include in the manga and that the animation staff wanted him to recreate it for the series.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War recently had its Part 1 double-length finale debut on Dec. 26. The anime’s second part, or cour, is slated to premiere in July 2023. As Kubo is not an animator by trade, he broke down the process used to translate his vision of the manga’s battle for the upcoming cour. He explained that, instead of drawing it like a traditional manga, he instead drew it across “5 or 6” regular pieces of paper, moving the pages around as he went, presumably to try to envision the fight in motion. Kubo did not specify which characters will fight during this particular battle.
The New Bleach Anime
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is the continuation of Pierrot’s Bleach anime, which ran for 366 episodes from Oct. 5, 2004, to March 27, 2012. Set in a supernatural world where death gods called Shinigami manage the afterlife, the series revolves around a 15-year-old boy named Ichigo Kurosaki who is granted Shinigami powers by a Soul Reaper named Rukia Kuchiki. As a team, the two of them set out to solve mysteries involving soul-devouring spirits called Hollows that frequently attack humans.
Thousand-Year Blood War adapts the manga’s final arc, centering on the conflict between the Shinigami’s Soul Society and an opposing faction called “The Quincy” a group of human warriors that can infuse their spirit weapons with “reishi” power to gain incredible strength. After the Shinigami drive The Quincy into hiding, they start planning to take revenge against the Soul Society. This effort is initiated by a sub-faction within The Quincy called “The Wandenreich,” led by the ruthless King Yhwach. Ichigo Kurosaki goes forth to stop Yhwach and restore peace to the Shinigami World, while also dealing with the unintended consequences of his own actions, as the world begins suffering negative effects from an imbalance of Hollows in the human and Shinigami realms.
Both Pierrot’s original Bleach series and Thousand-Year Blood War are available to stream on Hulu. The manga is available in English from VIZ Media.
Source: Twitter
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