Viz Media Licenses ‘Bleach’ Creator’s ‘Burn The Witch’

Tite Kubo is releasing a new one-shot manga story titled Burn The Witch, and Shueisha has already revealed that it will be published in the July 14 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. Luckily fans in the West won’t have to wait much longer.

VIZ Media announced during Anime Expo 2018 that they have licensed Burn The Witch for a release on July 16.

The first key visual for Kubo’s new one-shot didn’t reveal much beyond the color scheme for its two main heroines, but it did feature the keywords of “witches,” “dragons,” and “Reverse London.” Although Kubo’s new one-shot will sit at a nice 62 pages, there’s no guarantee that Kubo will make this his next series. Although many artists begin new series after a successful one-shot release, there are just as many that don’t follow through with the original one-shot and come up with something entirely new. So it’s best to enjoy Burn The Witch while it lasts.

As for Kubo’s previous series, the upcoming Bleach live-action film has released its first full trailer, along with two other new ones released at the same time. The movie will adapt the first arc of the series, the “Substitute Shinigami” arc. Early reactions to the film have been positive overall, with there talk of even being a new trilogy of films adapting more of Bleach‘s material. If this is successful, then a sequel film with the Soul Society is definitely on the horizon.

The confirmed cast includes Sota Fukushi as Ichigo Kurosaki and Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki, MIYAVI as Byakuya Kuchiki, Ryou Yoshizawa, as Uryuu Ishida, Taichi Saotome as Renji Abarai, Erina Mano as Orihime Inoue, Tomo Koyanagi as Chad Yasutora, Yosuke Egochi as Isshin Kurosaki, Masami Nagasawa as Masaki Kurosaki, and Seiichi Tanabe as Keisuke Urahara.

For those unfamiliar with Tite Kubo‘s Bleach, the series follows the young delinquent Ichigo Kurosaki, who had the ability to see spirits. He soon obtains the power of a Soul Reaper – one meant to usher lost souls to the afterlife – and now has the duty to defend the living world from monstrous dark spirits known as Hollows.

The manga was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from 2001 to 2016, and was collected into 74 volumes. It has been adapted into English thanks to VIZ Media, and has sold over 900 million copies in Japan. The series was adapted into an anime by Studio Pierrot from 2004 to 2012, and has four feature-length animations, rock musicals, video games, and a ton of other merchandise. The English language broadcast premiered on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block in 2006, and you currently find the Japanese and English language versions now streaming on Hulu.