It’s been ten years since the Bleach anime ended without animating The Thousand-Year Blood War arc, the final arc of the manga.
I never read the manga, so my assumption was that after the Aizen arc there was a little denouement type of “Ichigo and his friends finished high school and everyone lived happily ever after” ending to the series. I didn’t realize that there was literally a whole other storyline before the manga ended, something substantial enough that it was a complete story arc.
And now... it’s here.
Trailer: THE THOUSAND-YEAR BLOOD WAR
This arc looks fantastic. I don’t want to read too many spoilers, so I’m just going on what I’ve seen from the Viz trailers, but... seriously. It begins airing on October 10 and I can’t wait.
Back in the day, Bleach was my No. 2 favorite shonen anime after Naruto. I was addicted to both shows and when Crunchyroll finally licensed them for the U.S. audience, I was simply thrilled.
Before then, watching your favorite anime was catch-as-catch-can since most shows were unlicensed. It took searching all over You Tube and weird websites that have since disappeared. I never did the tor sites, but I did utilize the weird sites when I couldn’t find episodes on You Tube.
For example, there was a site where I watched Naruto episodes that had the URL of “watchnarutoepisodesonline[dot]com.” I sincerely hope it doesn’t exist anymore... seriously, you can go to Crunchyroll now and watch Naruto legally, even for free with ads. But that was how desperate I was sometimes to watch the next episode.
Naruto edges out Bleach in my view because it presents a complete fantasy universe: the ninja world with its different lands and villages and clans. You can get lost in that world because it’s presented as an all-enveloping universe.
Whereas with Bleach, Ichigo has one foot in the mundane real world as a high school student and his other foot in Soul Society. Bleach is also set in modern times. Ichigo’s going back and forth between the two worlds is fun, but it takes away from a feeling of complete immersion in a different universe.
But I loved both Bleach and Naruto - and still do. This final Bleach arc is a meaty one: they’ve announced that it will be four cours with breaks in between each cour. Since a cour is usually 12 episodes, this means that Bleach will be airing for at least one solid year.
So it’s far from being a little wrap-up arc like I’d thought. It’s going to be a real blast from the past. Watching the Viz trailers for this final arc has brought back those heady early days of my anime fandom and I am completely stoked for this.
Another fun aspect of this final Bleach arc is that the Quincys are major players!
Uryu Ishida has always been one of my favorite Bleach characters. He started off as a rival to Ichigo, but eventually just became one of Ichigo’s crew.
I’ve always thought that Uryu was underutilized. Maybe he’s featured more prominently in the manga than the anime - I don’t know. But as a Quincy who - along with his father - was the last of his kind, he always seemed set up to seriously challenge Ichigo and the Shinigamis.
It’s hard because I don’t want to spoil it for myself, so I can’t read up on what this final arc is about, but the trailers hint at the Quincys finally rising up in some way. Meaning Uryu versus Ichigo might become a reality at last...
... and in addition, Uryu’s
And if the great news about Bleach wasn’t enough, guess what’s coming back on October 1st:
It’s Season 6 of My Hero Academia! After marathoning the first five seasons on Crunchyroll earlier this year, I found myself in the same bereft state as everyone who’d watched the series as it aired. Season 5 ended in November 2021, so it’s been a while. But this coming Saturday the wait is over!
It’s like my anime dance card is full again. Autumn really is the best season for anime. ;-)
