Bleach Pulls the Curtain Back on Its Soul Reapers' Origins
Bleach is set to make a giant return later this year, hot on the heels of Tite Kubo returning to the world of Soul Society via a new special one-shot that was printed in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump. With Studio Pierrot, the original animation studio responsible for the original Bleach series, returning to adapt the story of the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc later this year, Kubo has continued answering fan questions and recently revealed new details about the creation of the Soul Society and their original goals.
Bleach's return to anime is arriving later this year, giving us our first anime adaptation of the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc which was considered to be the original finale for the series' manga. Pitting Ichigo and the Soul Society against the forces of the Quincy family, the manga would eventually return with a new one-shot that was released last year and presented a brand new problem for the Shinigami, aka the fact that they were sending their deceased captains to hell. With certain captains looking for revenge, the story took us years into the future and introduced some members of the next generation of this Shonen franchise, such as the offspring of Ichigo and Orihime.
In a recent question and answer session, creator Tite Kubo shared some details regarding the origin of the Soul Society, with the question diving into the fact that the Shinigami were first created to destroy Hollows and wash away their sins in the process, with Kubo himself stating in response that "the role of the Shinigami was not clearly defined until the creation of the Gotei 13,"
For those who might be unaware, the Gotei 13 is the main military branch of the Soul Society and it seems that the organization was somewhat aimless until this institution was created and put into place. While Kubo has still kept many details regarding the origin of the Soul Society under wraps, should the mangaka return to create more chapters of the manga, perhaps a certain Hell Arc will dive further into how this band of supernatural swordsmen was formed initially.
What questions do you want answered regarding the formation of the Soul Society? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Bleach.