Bleach Crew Teases the New Anime's Big Villains

Bleach is getting ready to come back with a huge new anime later this year, and the team behind the Thousand-Year Blood War anime is setting the stage for the anime's major new villains coming our way! The final arc of Tite Kubo's original manga series came after the original anime adaptation came to an end, and with it introduced a whole new group of villains that began to tear their way through the Soul Society and the Captains. They're the final villain group Ichigo and the others face in the series, and the team bringing the new arc to anime is teasing just how intense each of these new baddies really are.

Speaking to Viz Media about the upcoming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime, producer Yoshihiro Tominaga and director Tomohisa Taguchi opened up about what fans can expect to see from the new anime and teased that these new Stern Ritter villains are quite "intense" and something fans will want to see in action. As Producer Tominaga teased at first, "That's definitely something to look forward to. When the Soul Reaper Captains go up against the Sternritters. You get to witness the battle between the strongest."

When it comes to how the Sternritters will be brought to life in the anime, director Taguchi said the following, "Thousand-Year Blood War will introduce many new characters," Taniguchi began. "In the manga, the story is told through black and white still images. But the anime also comes with sound, color, and voices. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how the anime will bring these new characters to life. Even when I'm cutting the storyboards I'm thinking, 'How can I make these characters from the manga look even more awesome in the anime?' It's a process I'm having lots of fun with."

With the final arc presenting some of the biggest battles in the series overall (something Kubo had mentioned was an after effect of continuing the manga without worrying about whether or not it would work in the anime), it's made for quite the promising return to the series for fans who have been keeping the love for the anime alive for all these years. But what are you hoping to see from the Sternritters in Bleach's new anime series? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!