Bleach’s Thousand-Year Blood War has become one of the biggest anime adaptations released in recent memory, and for good reason. The Soul Society’s latest fight against the Sternritter has seen the afterlife torn apart as some serious casualties have taken place on both the light and dark side of the conflict. Luckily, Studio Pierrot has teamed up with Bleach creator Tite Kubo in bringing the Blood War to the small screen and the mangaka isn’t satisfied with simply translating the manga beat for beat. As seen in the first two parts of Bleach’s big comeback, new scenes were added and Kubo is teasing that some big scenes will be added in the upcoming third part of the anime revival.
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Tite Kubo might have originally brought the series to an end when the Thousand-Year Blood War reached its conclusion in the shonen’s manga in 2018 but that didn’t stop the mangaka from making a comeback to the Soul Society. A few years following the final fight against Yhwach, Kubo would bring back Ichigo Kurosaki thanks to a one-shot special dubbed Bleach: No Breathes From Hell. The solo chapter focused on Ichigo and his allies years into the future, seeing many of the Shinigami now having children of their own. Unfortunately for the Soul Reapers, a familiar threat appeared from the underworld that spelled some big problems in the future. Releasing in 2021, Kubo has been tight-lipped regarding whether the shonen series will continue following this one-shot.
New Material is Coming To Bleach’s Thousand-Year Blood War
In the first two parts of Bleach’s anime return, Kubo worked in tandem with Studio Pierrot to both flesh out scenes from the original manga and add new material when necessary to help improve on the original source material. This was perhaps most apparent in the case of Yhwach’s top lieutenants taking on the Soul Society’s Royal Guard. In the Shonen Jump manga, this battle took place almost entirely off-panel but in the Pierrot anime, anime fans bore witness to a knock-down, drag-out fight that was a television exclusive.
In a new interview with Tite Kubo, prior to the release of Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, the mangaka hinted at new material to come for the anime adaptation, “I think the relationships between the characters will be something worth following in this arc. There is a lot of depth to them, especially as they face the challenges of the Thousand-Year Blood War. This is something I really wanted to explore. I wanted to give the characters more complexity.”
The Blood War Rages On
To give you a refresher on how Part 2 of the Blood War wrapped on the small screen, Yhwach did his followers dirty by taking the power he had given them for his own. The Wandenreich as a whole might be at a disadvantage but their leader has ascended to a new level of power that might make him able to bring down even the Soul King. Should Yhwach be successful in his goal, it appears that no member of the Soul Society, Ichigo included, will have the strength to defeat him.
Another major element that has been introduced in the anime adaptation has been the origins of Kenpachi and what that means for his future. The Soul Society’s wildman took some decisive victories in the Blood War so far and considering the fact that he has been restraining himself throughout the majority of his career, Kenpachi unleashed might change the tides of the battle itself.
