‘Bleach’ Animator Shares New Ichigo, Kenpachi Sketches

Tite Kubo’s Bleach still draws an incredible amount of attention ever since it ended, and with its release of new art fans are now more attached to the characters than they ever were.

Masashi Kudo, character designer for the anime series, hasn’t forgotten about the series either and recently shared cool new sketches of Kenpachi, Ichigo, and Rukia.

Kudo shared a progress video of a special sketch he made of Captain of the 11th Division Kenpachi Zaraki with his look from the Thousand Year Blood-War arc of the series (which fans are still hoping gets an anime adaptation someday). Along with this, he shared a far more completely colored sketch of Ichigo and Rukia in their classic attire.

Although it’s a new sketch of their classic look, fans are still struck back by how closely Kudo can invoke series creator Tite Kubo’s original character designs. It’s one of the reasons fans enjoy his shared sketches so much.

These new sketches come hot off the heels of other sketches Kudo has shared recently, as he seems to be making his way through the fan-favorite character catalog. He shared a new sketch of Orihime Inoue for her birthday (with the same kind of progress video he shares for the Kenpachi sketch), a saucy new sketch of Rangiku Matsumoto highlighting her assets, a fierce new sketch of Grimmjow, and even sketches bridging the gap between Kubo’s older series and brand new one-shot Burn the Witch. Each new sketch sets the Internet on fire, and now fans are waiting to see what new piece he’ll come out with next.

Bleach was first created by Tite Kubo for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, running from 2001 to 2016. The series follows the young delinquent Ichigo Kurosaki, who has the ability to see spirits. He soon obtains the power of a Soul Reaper – one meant to usher lost souls to the afterlife – and now has the duty to defend the living world from monstrous dark spirits known as Hollows.

It has been adapted into English thanks to VIZ Media, and has sold over 900 million copies in Japan. The series was later adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot from 2004 to 2012, and has four feature-length animations, rock musicals, video games, and a ton of other merchandise. You can currently find the series now streaming on Hulu.