If I walked up to you, and just said the word “Bleach”, and nothing more, what would your first reaction be? Any average person would probably immediately think of the washing chemical they use to wash their white clothes.
However, to a large number of anime fans, the word would immediately bring about memories of one of their all time favorites. Yes, Bleach in our way of thinking is an anime series, and a handful of movies, and believe it or not, they recently announced a brand new series.
Table of Contents
Yes, you read that right, Bleach – 1000 Year Blood War anime adaptation has been announced, and we already know a few very important key infos about it.
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Table of Content
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Arc (Release Date 2022)
RELEASE DATE
Bleach was a highly popular manga and subsequent anime adaptation that aired from 2004 all the way to 2012. Since March 17th, 2012, the series has not had any canon content. There was a movie, Burn the Witch last year, but that was based on a sidestory, and had little to do with the actual series itself.
However, not so long ago they announced that the long wait for the sequel everyone was most looking forward to is over: Bleach – 1000 Year Blood war will foreseeably begin airing October of 2022. Pray to god it isn’t delayed further due to the Covid situation still ongoing. Too many anime have suffered from that lately.
As for the exact release date, well, we’ll have to wait a few more months for that, but that is only natural. Rarely do they announce that so early on. It all depends on the airing schedule for the fall season.
PREDICTED CAST
There is no confirmed cast for the series announced just yet. However, speculations are open already, and the previous actors are highly likely to return to reprise their old roles.
Here are just a few of the most likely cast that might appear on the series:
Masakazu Morita is likely to return as Ichigo Kurosaki.
Matsuoka Yuki could return to reprise her role as Orihime Inoue!
Orikasa Fumiko is a must have for Rukia Kuchiki
Itou Kentarou will likely take on Renji once again.
Asami Tano played Spangle Ninii from Burn the Witch, so she might also return.
Noel Niihashi, the other main character of Burn the Witch was voiced by Yuina Yamada.
THE STORY
The story begins with Ichigo being approached by someone who looks like a Quincy, but wearing a small hollow mask. They engage in a fight, but before that, Ichigo asks his attacker why an Arrancar wanted a fight in the first place.
His assailant brings forth a necklace, from which he summons his weapon, claiming he is not an Arrancar, and thus the fight begins. The Quincy tricks Ichigo into using his Bankai, which he of course falls to, and with the amulet and an incantation, causes something to happen to the Bankai.
Luckily for Ichigo though, he is able to break free from the spell and defeats the Quincy in a single strike. Before he could finish his attacker off, they escape using their own shadow to cover him.
The Soul Society is attacked and Vice-Captain Yamamoto falls during the attack. His killers disappear the same way in their own shadows as Ichigo’s attacker.
We’re then introduced to the King of All Quincies, Yhwach, who resides in a palace seemingly made of ice. He is basically the creator of the Quincy society, and we later learn his backstory.
When Yhwach was born, he had none of the five senses, yet he survived somehow. Soon it was discovered that the child had healing abilities that activated upon touching him. This worked by sharing a sliver of his soul with whoever touched him. This would come at the cost of drastically decreasing that person’s lifespan.
When the person in question died, the soul would return to him with a piece of the lost soul as well. Every time he recovered the sliver of his soul, one of his senses would be restored. As he grew older, he became capable of manipulating Reishi particles and creating numerous things using such power.
He also discovered that people had spiritual powers, and when he shared his soul with them, those powers would awaken, and they would also be able to manipulate Reishi particles.
Thus, Yhwach created the Quincy, and waged war on the Hollows. This was hinted at in the previous arc, along with him giving them a weakness against Hollow Reiatsu. This was to help Quincy grow to hate Hollows so they’d be willing to kill them.
Thanks to this weakness however, Yhwach was able to recover the sliver of his soul every time Quincy would die, and keep on living basically forever.
Yhwach later brutally murders the Quincy that gave the Soul Cociety an ultimatum of five days before their assault begins. He was dissatisfied with this, just as much as the assailant’s who failed against Ichigo. Both are murdered for seemingly completely pointless reasons.
We’re also introduced to Jugram Haschwalth, Yhwach’s second in command, who questions his boss’s methods. Yhwach’s response to this is that they can always make more if necessary. By this he means that they can then invade larger areas of the Hueco Mundo, and capture more hollows to turn them.
This all has to do something with Aizen’s remaining Espadas, especially Espada no. 3, Harribel, with whose power they can turn Hollows into a type of Arrancar that is partially also a Quincy. Yhwach is basically waging this war just to keep gaining more fresh soul fragments.
It also turns out that the medallion the Quincy tried to use against Ichigo failed, which means he’s immune to its power.
Ichigo is later approached by Nel, and learns that Hueco Mundo is under attack. Ichigo, along with Nel, Orihime, Chad and Urahara head out to investigate the case, and find out the attackers were Quincy, but much more powerful ones than ever before.
Ichigo faces Quilge Opie, the leader of the hunting party. Opie shows off their new ability to transform, which is similar to that of the Shinigami and the Hollows. They also created a so-called Vollstandig, a form in which their powers are far greater without exhausting themselves.
While Ichigo is in Hueco Mundo however, Yhwach’s forces invade Soul Society and slaughter everyone they find there. The elite quincy known as Sternritters basically annihilate anyone under Vice-Captain rank. The Captains try to fight back to no avail, so they resort to their Bankai.
Until this point, it was thought that the Quincy had the power to seal Bankai away, but in truth, they can steal said Bankai from the Shinigami. The captains are forced to not use their Bankai, but those they managed to steal the powers off are beaten with their own weapons.
Ichigo manages to defeat Opie after he fails to steal his Bankai, and having been unable to attack him, due to how powerful that Bankai is. Urahara uses the opportunity to kill Opie, then sends Ichigo to Soul Society since his Bankai can not be stolen. However, Opie traps Ichigo in his ability, “The Jail”.
Yhwach and Zaraki face off, after the latter defeats three Sternritters. Yamamoto also enters the fight, but is too late to save Zaraki who was beaten by Yhwach. Yamamoto unleashes his Bankai, Zanka no Tachi, and defeats Yhwach.
However it turns out, it was just a Sternritter that had a copycat ability, so Yamamoto just fought a lookalike, nothing more. Yamamoto comes up with a theory on why his and Ichigo’s Bankai could not be stolen.
According to him, his Bankai that was improved over a millenia, was something the Quincy didn’t have any information on. As for Ichigo, he thinks that the Bankai was still very fresh and incomplete, so he needed time to improve it, and since it was incomplete, it couldn’t be stolen just yet.
Yhwach’s appearance proves that any Bankai can be stolen, but the one using that power needs to be powerful enough. Yamamoto’s bankai is stolen by Yhwach, who creates a sword made out of Reishi particles and cleaves Yamamoto in two. He then proceeds to completely destroy even the remains.
Ichigo arrives in Soul Society and engages in a fight against Yhwach. He uses the same ability that allowed Quincy to fight Shinigami effectively. Ichigo is able to land attacks, but to no avail. Before the fight could really end, Yhwach needs to leave, and Haschwalth stops Ichigo from backstabbing him by breaking his Bankai sword.
Yhwach claims that Ichigo is of his blood and leaves by calling him his “son born in darkness.”
We soon learn that a Bankai that was broken can never be fixed again and a brand new Zanpakuto needs to be made. There is only one person, Komamura, whose connection to his Bankai is so strong that if he heals from his wounds, the Zanpakuto is also restored completely.
We are also introduced to Zero Division, the Royal Guard, whose powers are far greater than the Gotei 13. Kyoraku is there to restore Soul Society, and takes Ichigo and his friends, Rukia, Renji and Byakuya back to Royal Palace.
After healing and restoring his energy, Ichigo must pass a test from none other than, the creator of all Shinigami Zanpakutos. Here Ichigo and Renji are faced with the fact that they knew little to nothing about Zanpakutos. They need to fight shadow beings, Asauchis, in order to regain their swords. Their swords are then broken to pieces, because they don’t deserve them.
Renji passes the test, but Ichigo was thrusted back to the mortal realm. Ichigo later learns part of the reason why he failed , which is the fact that he had doubts, which destined him to fail. Renji learns that without an Asauchi, no Shinigami was ever able to awaken their full power.
It turns out, Ichigo never had an Asauchi, so all he used until now was a fake Zanpakuto. Ichigo finds out about the truth of his origins and who his mother really was. His mother was a pure blood Quincy and was promised to marry the head of the Uryuu family.
His father Isshin was captain of the 10th Division at the time and something was killing Shinigamis in the real world. He later finds out what it was: A Hollow created by Aizen, made from Shinigami Souls, and called White.
Isshin fights the Hollow, but before he could use his Bankai, Aizen wounds him, disabling him from doing so. Masaki intervenes, and tricks the White into attacking them, but kills it with an arrow from point blank range.
This is how Isshin and Masaki meet and even if they must part ways, they would never forget each other. Masaki later starts to hollowfy. Ryuken, the head of the Uryuu family tries to get her help, and meets Isshin, and a dispute begins between them, which is stopped by Urahara.
According to Urahara, Quincy can not survive becoming Hollows. Masaki can only be saved by linking Isshin and her souls and using Isshin’s power to seal the Hollow inside Masaki away. Masaki is saved, but Isshin in exchange loses a lot of his power.
Masaki’s and Ryuken’s marriage is canceled, much to Masaki’s joy, as she wasn’t in love with him anyway. In exchange though, Isshin and Masaki fall in love. When their son, Ichigo was conceived, he inherited both his father’s, his mother’s and the hollow’s powers alike.
Many revelations follow, including Masaki having died at the hands of the Grand Fisher, and Yhwach having been in a long slumber of 900 years and taking 90 years to wake up completely, to perform the so called Auswählen, a ritual which siphoned the powers of the impure Quincy back to him, to restore his powers.
Due to this, the mother of the Uryuu family died, since she too was a half blood Quincy. Masaki died only because her powers were taken away at the worst of times.
Upon learning this all, Ichigo returns to the same place where he was attacked by the asauchis, but this time, the Asauchi kneel before him. He then chooses one of them, thus gaining his true Zanpakutou.
However we find out that what everyone thought was Ichigo’s Zangetsu was actually his Quincy powers, and his Hollow side was his real Zangetsu. When the powers of White were passed on to Ichigo, its powers became one with his Shinigami powers, while his Quincy side remained separate from them. This is how Ichigo discovers his true powers.
As it turns out, Ichigo was only using a fraction of his true powers, as he was only using his Quincy Powers that had his Zangetsu, the full power suppressed. When the Quincy Powers, taking the form of “The Old Man” , release his true power. Ichigo chooses to balance his powers out by using both the Zangetsu and the Quincy powers and creates dual Zanpakutos.
Soul Society is soon invaded again, with Yhwach taking the powers of the Soul King for himself, and practically crowning himself as new king.
Ichigo once again fights Yhwach, but his power, “The Almighty” is too much for him, especially since he still doesn’t fully control his full power and all sides of it. Not even his new Bankai is the real one yet. He’s still not able to use his hidden power that was mentioned twice during the story already. Still, Yhwach is defeated at the end, and the story ends there.
RELATED TWEETS AND POSTS
In case you haven’t heard, the Bleach anime is coming back! Read the “Thousand-Year Blood Arc” before it’s animated! It starts from Chapter 480! Members can read all of Bleach and much more in the Shonen Jump Digital Vault! https://t.co/OxnZRF0yYv pic.twitter.com/KHjhOWUWE2
— Shonen Jump (@shonenjump) March 21, 2020
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— 【公式】TVアニメ『BLEACH』 (@BLEACHanimation) December 18, 2021
TVアニメ
『BLEACH 千年血戦篇』
2022.10 ON AIR
◣＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿◢
ティザーPVを公開しました。
2022年10月より
テレビ東京系にて放送開始！
✦公式サイトhttps://t.co/QEczE2nzdA
✦ティザーPV(YouTube)https://t.co/Y1WeFzcaAr #BLEACH_anime pic.twitter.com/x5NXWvNZuf
#ジャンプフェスタ 2022 スーパーステージEX内で公開された、TVアニメ『BLEACH 千年血戦篇』ティザーPV &ビジュアルの解禁を記念して、久保帯人先生よりコメントが到着しました！〈スタッフ〉#BLEACH #BLEACH_anime pic.twitter.com/xR0cEACuSd
— 久保帯人＆スタッフ (@tite_official) December 18, 2021
Comment Down Below!
So, I believe it’s safe to say there’s a lot to look forward to. We still have a lot of time before the series begins airing, so I believe now is a time like ever to make up for your backlog related to Bleach. October 2022, the show begins. See you there!
