Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’s end is preparing to arrive, with the fourth part of the anime adaptation, The Calamity, hitting the small screen with a theatrical run also planned for this summer. With this arc being the final time that Tite Kubo would work on a major storyline for Ichigo Kurosaki, rumors are beginning to circulate that we might not be saying goodbye to the Soul Society forever. While these claims might not turn out to be true, the anime adaptation has injected new life into the once-canceled shonen series that was once considered one of the “Big Three.” Luckily, Kubo already has a story to work with.
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Various leakers are beginning to gather online to confirm that manga artist Tite Kubo is preparing to return to his supernatural shonen series, expanding on the last special chapter he released. For those who don’t know, Bleach: No Breaths From Hell was an entirely new chapter from the shonen franchise, taking place years after the Blood War’s end. Hitting Weekly Shonen Jump in 2021, there has been little word regarding a potential manga comeback. According to many of the online rumors, this new Bleach “Hell Arc” will arrive following the conclusion of Sakamoto Days, which is in the throes of its final arc. While nothing has been confirmed as of yet, Bleach capitalizing on its recent anime comeback would make sense.
Bleach’s Hellish Return
The 2021 one-shot special, Bleach: No Breaths From Hell, ended on quite the cliffhanger, leading many manga readers to believe that it was only a matter of time until we saw the Soul Society return to Shonen Jump. The manga chapter not only gives us a fully-grown Ichigo, but also sees him settling down with Orihime and having a son named Kazui. While life is going pretty well for the “Substitute Soul Reaper,” the same can’t be said for all his allies.
One of the biggest revelations of this chapter was that when a Captain of the Soul Society dies, they are simply too powerful to be reincarnated. Instead, they are sent to the underworld to act as “wardens” to use their immense strength to keep the hellish residents from escaping. Of course, the Captains we see make a comeback haven’t been too thrilled with their “reward” and find themselves becoming the next big threat to the Soul Society as a result. With the shonen heroes discovering this unfortunate revelation at the end of the one-shot, the threat is now very real and sets the stage for a power much larger than Yhwach and the Sternritter of the Thousand-Year Blood War.
As for the anime adaptation, The Calamity is set to debut in theaters later this month, beginning on June 25th. With the series seemingly set to return in full on July 25th, releasing episodes weekly before it too comes to a close, it would be the perfect time to capitalize on the shonen’s popularity.
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