It had been ten years since the original Bleach anime series ended when the new episodes of the Thousand Year Blood War Arc debuted. Luckily, several voice actors, both in Japan and North America, were more than willing to step back into the shoes of the Soul Society members, with Johnny Yong Bosch returning as the English Ichigo and Masakazu Morita doing the same as the Japanese iteration. Now, both Morita and Bleach creator Tite Kubo have shared their thoughts on the series’ return as well as Morita stepping back into the role of Ichigo Kurosaki.
The Japanese voice actor responsible for bringing Ichigo Kurosaki of the Bleach anime had this to say when he commented on coming back to the anime role, noting that he has been delivering new lines to the Soul Reaper via the mobile game, Bleach: Brave Souls, “Doing a voice for a game ensures your passion doesn’t decline. And with regards to Brave Souls, it also maintained my connection to our fans. I stayed connected to fans not only in Japan, but also in Asia, Europe, and America. I think KLab has put a lot of effort into this, and I am thankful to them. That being said, lines recorded for games are usually self-contained dialogue. But for anime recordings, they are actual conversations between characters. In that sense, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to engage in a “conversation” with the other Bleach cast members.”
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Bleach: What Does Tite Kubo Think of Ichigo’s Return?
Creator Tite Kubo had this to say in regards to Masakazu Morita returning to the role and how the voice actor’s portrayal has changed thanks to the years that the anime has been away, “My family commented that Ichigo’s voice had changed after watching episodes one and two of Thousand-Year Blood War at the advance screening event back in September 2022. I thought that was interesting because to me, the change in Morita-san’s voice perfectly captured Ichigo’s growth as a character, so it sounded fine to me. In fact, I didn’t even notice that Morita-san changed his voice. So when I questioned if it really was that different, they said, “It’s completely different. How could you not notice it?” [lol] But if you ask me, Ichigo in Thousand-Year Blood War is supposed to sound this way.”
New episodes of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will return this July. While the second cours has yet to receive a release date, expect some major events to take place in the realm of the Soul Society. Following the preliminary fight against the Wandenreich, Ichigo and company are going to need all the help they can get.
