Bleach's Anime Is Overdue for a Remake
Bleach's anime deserves to get a re-do with a full remake
It's been 20 long years since Bleach's anime first premiered, and it's high time that the series got a full remake. Bleach is now airing new episodes this Fall as the anime has kicked off the third wave of episodes taking on the Thousand-Year Blood War arc from Tite Kubo's original manga. What was once thought to be a dream project that fans had been hoping to see happen for over a decade is now not only a reality, but halfway through its planned run of episodes. So why not continue that dream and aim a bit higher?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is showing what the franchise could be at its peak. The original anime series was released so long ago, that it was unfortunately cut off before it could come to its proper ending. It's why we're in this situation now getting new episodes this Fall, and it's also a way that fans have been able to see what a full adaptation of Bleach could truly look like with modern talent and production tools. It's been such a delight to see that it might also be great to see it all from the very beginning in this brand new style.
Why Remake the Bleach Anime?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has the kind of presentation that fans of the original Bleach anime thought we were seeing in action 20 years ago. It's at the kind of caliber that we could only have dreamed of back then, and it's helping to further elevate Tite Kubo's original art to a whole new level. It's like Bleach was ahead of its time in this regard as the anime could never quite capture the spirit of that original manga in a perfect way, and now it's finally being able to do so. Further helping that argument along was the recent promo Shueisha has released.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Bleach anime, Shueisha had launched a special Bleach promo that literally remakes some of the anime's greatest scenes in the new style seen in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. While it's only a few minutes in length, it's a powerful argument of the new level that the Bleach anime could hit if it were going to get a remake. Just the promise of seeing all of these major arcs again in a new way would be welcome.
Couple this with the fact that Bleach is a completed series, and a remake is also a much more interesting prospect. One of the biggest flaws of the anime's original run in the 2000s was all of the original content and extra material that the Bleach team had to craft to give Kubo's manga more time to develop. This led to several arcs that had to detour from the main story, and while some of them led to great results, that's not the case for most of them. A remake would allow a new Bleach anime to stick with the good stuff, and deliver it on a seasonal schedule like we've seen with Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.
The only potential drawback of a full Bleach remake anime would be the time spent on other projects. If there's a team dedicated to redoing the Bleach anime in a new way, then that team can't use that time on a potential next hit. It's the question of whether or not something like Bleach is not only "worthy" of a remake, but "worthy" of the time that could have been spent working on what could be the next thing. It's an icon of the past not stepping down for the new generation, but at the same time, it's also becoming highly relevant once more. So capitalize on that.
How to Remake Bleach
The best way to alleviate some of these potential concerns is with a seasonal release schedule. Working through an arc every year while taking breaks in between will then allow the new Bleach team to still offer the best possible anime experience, but also potentially move on to other projects. We're at a time where everything old is new again anyway with franchises like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball celebrating their own milestone anniversaries and still feeling like the juggernauts of the industry that they did back then as well.
This new Bleach anime would also allow for new fans to jump onto the franchise as it will be the best way to check it all out and catch up. And with a seasonal schedule, eventually this new anime would also be ready to take on the newest arc of the series. It wasn't long ago that Kubo officially returned to the series with a new one-shot taking place after the manga's ending, and with it opened up to a whole new arc teasing that Ichigo and the others would be facing off against the warriors fallen into Hell next. Imagine a new Bleach anime wrapping up its run, only for this new arc to kick in right after.
With a new live-action project also seemingly in the works, now is the time to try Bleach again. Remakes are more commonplace now than they ever have been, and even One Piece is starting to get its own too. So why not Bleach?
