Bleach’s Creator Says They Don’t See Ichigo as a Hero

Bleach’s Thousand Year Blood War Arc brought back Ichigo and the Soul Society following a long anime hiatus. While creator Tite Kubo had recently returned to his shonen masterpiece via a new chapter that explored Ichigo and his friends as parents, the future of the series is anyone’s guess in the manga world. Now, in a new interview, Kubo and the voice of Ichigo Kurosaki in Japan, Masakazu Morita, hashed out their love of the series and explored what it means to be a hero in anime or otherwise.

In a new interview with Viz Media, creator Tite Kubo and the voice of Ichigo, Masakazu Morita, discussed what they were like as children, eventually leading to the mangaka’s thoughts on Ichigo’s hero status, “One of the kindergarten teachers back then asked some older kids to play with me during break time. I started hanging out with them and learned to do a backward flip on a bar. As a result, I grew to like monkey bars and gradually gained even more friends. At the time, the TV series Kamen Rider was popular, so we’d pretend to be Kamen Riders in the schoolyard until the school bus came. I pretended to be Kamen Rider V3, and right when I stood on the monkey bars to strike my “transformation” pose, the setting sun shone on me like a spotlight. That’s what inspired me to want to become a superhero.”  

Is Ichigo A Hero?

Ichigo Kurosaki hasn’t been shy when it comes to helping his friends out of a jam, which just so happens to include saving the world of the Soul Society on more than a few occasions. Despite Tite Kubo spending years with Ichigo as Bleach’s star, the creator is still remiss to call him a hero with absolute certainty, “GeGeGe no Kitaro and Saint Seiya are my favorites. But they’re not quite heroes… What is a hero? I’ve never thought of Ichigo as a hero, either.”

The second cours of the Blood War is set to arrive this July, as Studio Pierrot has confirmed the summer release. While a specific release date has yet to be revealed at this point, the Soul Society will have some major battles ahead of them this summer. Following the devastating battles against the Wandenreich that nearly saw Ichigo and his friends die in battle, Bleach is setting the stage for the biggest sword battles of the shonen series to date. 

Via Viz Media