Bleach: Rebirth of Souls Channels Persona with New Opener

The Soul Society meets S.E.E.S in one of the coolest ways possible. Today, during IGN Fan Fest, the upcoming anime fighting game Bleach: Rebirth of Souls debuted a new opening showing off its multitude of characters and graphics. The game, which is set to come out on March 21st, has been highly anticipated by fans of the series, as it aims to recreate many of its story arcs with intense combat and 3D scenes. However, while it does feel reminiscent of the anime’s iconic openings, the aesthetic and music instantly brought to mind another famed franchise and its opening movies: Persona.

While the connection isn’t directly correlated via the video below, the visual style of the editing and the funky music were enough to get some fans on YouTube and Reddit to think about Persona. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls‘ opener, personally, reminds me of Persona 4‘s intro and its colorful flair and showy transitions since both utilize lyrics from their respective songs. However, the same can be said with Persona 3‘s opening, even more so with Persona 3 Reload, with the smoothness of the editing and bombastic vocal track.

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Funnily enough, there is a lot of crossover between Bleach and Persona, especially relating to the English dub actors. The most obvious one, of course, is for the protagonist, Ichigo Kurosaki, as VA Johnny Yong Bosch served as the silent yet sure lead of Yu Narukami in Persona 4 and subsequent spinoffs. Furthermore, Rukia actress Michelle Ruff played both Yukari in the original Persona 3 and Prof. Kawakami in Persona 5, with Ishida’s VA Derek Stephen Prince filling in as the villain Takaya in the original Persona 3, as well, though none reprised their roles for Persona 3 Reload.

Persona does take a lot from anime in the games, even having 2D animated cutscenes in many of their titles, with Persona 5 being done by Production I.G. of Haikyuu!!! fame. Anime games have been hit or miss, as for every Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, there’s a Jump Force. Still, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls looks mighty promising, especially as Bleach hasn’t had a true video game, outside of the mobile title Bleach: Brave Souls, since Bleach: Soul Resurrección in 2011 for the PlayStation 3. While the anime game market has a ton of fighters, more or less from Dragon Ball, Bleach fits like a glove thanks to it’s flashy combat and wide roster of characters.

The release of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls comes at a good time, as the sequel anime, Bleach: The Thousand-Year Blood War, wrapped up its third cours in late December. The final one, titled The Calamity, currently doesn’t have a release window, though it will likely not be until the end of the year before we hear more. As one of the Big Three alongside One Piece and Naruto, Bleach does have a lot to prove and, if it can get one up on any of them, fighting games may just be the way to go.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls slashes its way onto PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on March 21st. In terms of Persona, the elusive Persona 6 has no set release date or time. To keep up to date on Bleach, Persona, and just about everything anime and gaming, keep it here on ComicBook.