Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Is Ready to Revisit Some Unlikely Heroes

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is finally returning for new episodes as part of the massive wave of new anime hitting later this Fall, and the final episodes will be bringing in some fan-favorite characters for big moments before it’s all over. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War officially kicked off its TV anime adaptation of the final arc of Tite Kubo’s original Bleach manga a couple of years ago, and with it fans have seen the start of these long awaited final battles between the Soul Reapers and the Sternritter. But the best part of this new anime thus far, however, has been all of the new material. 

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has already shared its first two waves of episodes in the past few years, and fans have noticed how original creator Tite Kubo has helped with the new adaptation. Not only has the anime brought this final arc to life in a fun new way, but it has also incorporated new materials to better flesh out some of the events in the series. That’s going to be the case with the final two parts planned for the new anime as well as revealed in a recent interview with creator Kubo himself. 

What’s New in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3? 

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict will be premiering this October, and will finally kick off the final slate of battles between Ichigo Kurosaki and Yhwach as the fights get more intense than what we’ve seen of the anime so far. But while there’s still plenty of huge moments left to see from the manga come to life, the benefit of retrospect granted by adapting its material all these years later means that the team behind the anime get to figure out what worked best and what could work better. 

Kubo himself opened up about this in a special interview for Klub Outside ahead of Part 3’s premiere next month (as noted by @IchigoTaicho9 on X) , and noted how there will be side characters and more that will get more attention that they received in the original version of the story. Explaining that it’s a reward for the fans who have been sticking around with Bleach (and asking for an official anime adaptation for the final arc for over a decade before getting it) for such a long time, “Bleach has a huge cast of characters, and I wanted to make sure that many of them get their moments in this final arc.It’s my way of saying thank you to the fans who have been with us for so long.”

Which New Characters Are Coming in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War? 

While Kubo plays coy about what these side characters could potentially be doing in the new anime with their extended roles, it’s clear that it’s something fans will be able to look forward to seeing across both the final parts of the anime. With what has been seen thus far of the fights and the expansion of certain fights, Kubo wants to give specialty characters big moments to shine where he didn’t really have the chance to before. And once again, it’s the benefit of adapting all of this with years worth of ideas and (potentially regrets) for how it all went down. 

That’s certainly exciting and another reason to check out the new episodes coming this Fall. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 – The Conflict will be making its worldwide premiere on October 5th, and will be available for streaming with Hulu. Make sure to catch up with all of the episodes thus far ahead of the new season.