The hit anime series Bleach stood among the "big three" of its time, alongside Eiichiro Oda's One Piece and Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto, but Bleach fell behind when its anime was canceled in 2012 and its 74-volume manga series ended after years of declining popularity. Now, the Bleach anime is returning, and this is a ripe opportunity for the franchise.
The upcoming Thousand-Year Blood War arc can offer more than cutting-edge animation and excellent voice acting for the modern anime fandom. The new anime season can address some of the original manga's flaws, including pacing and repetition, as well as transition more smoothly into the next story arc, the Howl From the Jaws of Hell story arc.
Fixing The Bleach Manga's Rushed Ending
One major issue that new Bleach anime can fix is the original manga's notoriously rushed and unsatisfying conclusion. The TYBW story arc is a lengthy one, but after the defeat of the archvillain, king Yhwach, the story ends in just two chapters, and that led to some truly bizarre pacing. The Bleach manga had slogged its way through countless battles against the Quincy, only for the main characters to get little more than cameos to provide token closure to their respective character arcs, if that. The falling action of Bleach tried to cover dozens of characters in just two chapters, and after 200+ chapters of battle, that was simply unacceptable to fans. It's true that the Bleach manga had gotten canceled, so it's not necessarily the author Tite Kubo's fault, but it's still an issue.
Fortunately, the TYBW anime arc can fix this in a few different ways. The anime can shorten, combine, or even cut some of the battles in this lengthy story arc for the sake of brevity, leaving time to focus mostly on the major plot points, such as Kenpachi's duel with Yachiru Unohana and Ukitake's sacrifice to save the Soul King. There are 26 Sternritter Quincies, and the anime probably won't have time to spend an episode or two on fighting every single one.
Major villains such as Jugram Haschwalth and As Nodt can get some screentime, but the new Bleach anime shouldn't spare time on the likes of PePe Waccabrada or Giselle Gewelle beyond very brief versions of their fights. All these villains made the TYBW story arc a tedious slog, and the anime can and should fix that. This would leave more room for the falling action and provide more thorough and satisfying conclusions to the major character arcs, especially for Ichigo, Orihime, Byakuya, and Rukia.
Bleach's Anime Can Set Up The Hell Story Arc Earlier
The upcoming Bleach anime has the benefit of already knowing how the Thousand-Year Blood War story arc will end, and it also has the benefit of knowing what the one-shot Hell chapter involves. Not only can the upcoming anime pare down the lengthy TYBW arc to focus on the main story events, but it can also foreshadow the Hell story arc and put more emphasis on the characters who will appear in it.
The anime might even provide cameos for the all-new characters, such as Yuyu Yayahara and Rindo Atau, and hint at the Soul Reapers' increasing interest in human fashion, technology, and even slang. Finally, when major characters such as Yachiru Unohana and Yamamoto die, they can be shown entering Hell, which can further set up the Hell story arc. Their presence in Hell is what contributed to the gates to Hell opening from the inside after all, and the falling action part of the anime can build up to this even more.
Overall, the TYBW must be conscious of the story arc to follow, and not spend too much time on every single Sternritter battle. If the anime focuses on the big developments of this arc, and seamlessly blends into the next one with plenty of foreshadowing and falling action, the Bleach anime can finally tell a story to truly rival Naruto and One Piece.
