Bleach fans who experienced the ending of the series through the manga may still have something new to see when the Thousand-Year Blood War anime premieres.
According to Bleach Daily Scans, Tite Kubo, the original creator of the series, recently confirmed in a Q&A with his fan club that the Thousand-Year Blood War anime will feature new content and elements of the story that were previously left out of his manga. Specifically, Kubo reportedly stated that the anime will finally reveal who attacked Rukia during the first Quincy invasion. Kubo did not name any other changes or additions to the story that he may be making for the upcoming anime adaptation, but it appears as though the new season may be more than just a direct adaptation of the original finale to the series.
BLEACH creator Tite Kubo revealed some exciting new info in a Q&A!
— Daily BLEACH Scans (@bleachscans) February 7, 2022
1st: He confirmed the Thousand Year Blood War anime will expand on events, like revealing who attacked Rukia in the 1st Quincy invasion.
2nd: He teased a possible anime adaptation of WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU. pic.twitter.com/k9knRwVqy3
The Bleach anime first aired in 2004 and ran for 366 episodes. Despite being one of the biggest anime series of its era, the show came to an unexpected end in 2012, four years before the manga wrapped up the story of Ichigo Kurosaki and his dealings with the Soul Society. Fans spent the subsequent years lobbying for an animated adaptation for the remaining chapters of Kubo's supernatural shonen epic, and their wishes were finally granted in 2020 with the announcement of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, a new continuation of the anime series that would pick up where the original show left off. A first trailer for Thousand-Year Blood War was finally shown in 2021 at the most recent Jump Festa convention, where it was also announced that the series would premiere in Oct. 2022.
The anime isn't the only aspect of Bleach that's returning, as in 2021 Kubo published the first new chapter of the manga since 2016. Entitled "No Breaths from Hell," the new release was originally promoted as a one-off, stand alone release meant to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, but fans were pleasantly surprised to discover that the chapter was actually a prologue for a new adventure starring Ichigo and the rest of the Soul Reapers. Since the chapter's release, neither Kubo or publisher Shueisha have even mentioned the possibility of further continuations to the series, but many fans have already come to the conclusion that a sequel series is inevitable.
Tite Kubo's Bleach was first published in 2001 and is still one of the most popular shonen manga series in the world, with a circulation of over 120 million copies. The original manga came to an end in 2016, but Kubo returned to its world in 2018 with a spinoff series, Burn the Witch, which is set in England and explores the western branch of Soul Society. Both the original Bleach and its spinoff are available in English from VIZ Media. The 2004 anime series is available for streaming on a variety of platforms, including Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and Funimation.
Source: Twitter
