It’s been almost exactly eight years since we last had a new episode of the Bleach anime. We knew that we were scheduled to get some news regarding the Bleach franchise this week, but I don’t think anyone expected this! During a special live stream on YouTube, they made two major announcements in celebration of the 20th anniversary.
First off, the Bleach television anime will return in 2021! The new adaptation will cover the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, which was the final arc of the manga back in 2016. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any further details regarding the series, but they will release more information over the coming months in Weekly Shonen Jump, at which point we will report it all to you.
The second project to be announced is more Bleach adjacent but still more Bleach!
Starting this summer, the one-shot from author Tite Kubo titled Burn The Witch will be getting expanded and serialized into a series. This will be followed up by a theatrical adaptation of the series that takes place in the Bleach universe. We have some details to share about that one.
What we know regarding this anime adaptation is that Studio Colorido (who is currently busy with another anime project) is being tasked with producing the animation with Tatsuro Kawano sitting in the director’s chair. The lead characters, Noel Niihashi and Spangle Ninii, will be voiced by Yurina Yamada and Asami Tano, respectively.
While I’ve never been big into shonen battle series, this is still exciting news for those who are. Bleach was the shonen series of note when I was first seriously getting into anime, so to see it getting a big return for its anniversary makes me nostalgic. It also makes me wonder what other series from history (shonen or otherwise) could or should make a big comeback.
Source: ITMedia
