In 2019, anime fans were surprised by the announcement of a new BLEACH project set to arrive sometime in 2020. News was hard to come by, but eventually, the return of Tite Kubo's iconic franchise was solidified, with a two-stage 20-Year Anniversary Project.
Step 1 was the adaptation of the one-shot chapter of Tite Kubo's new series, BURN THE WITCH, which was released in 2018. One specific message left by Kubo at the end of the one-shot, as well as the announcement of BURN THE WITCH as part of the BLEACH 20th Anniversary Project confirmed something exciting: the events of BURN THE WITCH and BLEACH occur in the same universe. This is how they connect, as well as how they diverge.
Plot Revision
BURN THE WITCH is set in London, England, where unbeknownst to the average citizen, a supernatural underbelly exists in the shadows of the British capital. Dubbed "Reverse London", this mirror dimension to what insiders refer to as "Front London" is rife with all kinds of magic and supernatural entities, the deadliest of which are dragons. Dragons are responsible for 72% of all historical Front London deaths; however, their existence is still considered to be a fairy tale as they cannot be seen by the naked eye. In Reverse London; however, dragons are clear as day, and they are a part of various facets of life.
Dragons are intensely empathic, and they absorb the emotions of the surrounding humans, which sometimes causes them to become malevolent dragons known as Dark Dragons. These creatures are the jurisdiction of Wing Bind, a special agency that deploys operatives who employ magic to exterminate the Dark Dragons, maintain order in Reverse London regarding the benevolent "Light Dragons", and protect the citizens of both Londons. Noël Niihashi and local celebrity Ninny Spangcole are both Wing Bind Witches tasked with the protection of a young man named Balgo Ywain Parks, who seems to have a strange connection to dragons due to his being a "Dragonclad"; one whose prolonged contact with dragons has changed their literal composition as a human being.
BLEACH follows 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki, who has always been able to see ghosts. One night, a strange woman named Rukia Kuchiki, clothed in a black kimono and armed with a sword, appears in his bedroom, claiming to be a Shinigami - an entity that guides the souls of the dead to the afterlife. They also have the responsibility of purging evil spirits known as Hollows, which are fallen human souls which prey upon the souls of the living and the dead.
When Rukia is horribly wounded while engaging a Hollow that attacks Ichigo's family, she entrusts the beast's destruction to Ichigo, transferring her Shinigami powers to the boy. From that moment on, Ichigo's life changes forever as he becomes a Substitute Shinigami in Rukia's place, not yet knowing the true extent of the world he'd just stepped into.
BLEACH and BURN THE WITCH share a similarity in premise, as the Hollows from the parent story are very similar to the dragons in BURN THE WITCH. Both stories centre the human in the occurrence of the supernatural, which is how Dark Dragons, and Hollows, are born from some degree of human influence. Balgo's Dragonclad composition is similar to Ichigo's high spiritual pressure in that both draw the supernatural towards them as characters, and Balgo being dressed in a Piper's coat during the course of BURN THE WITCH (not to mention that being revealed as a trap) are reminiscent of Ichigo's official entry into Shinigami ranks via the Substitute Shinigami badge; which is revealed by Kugo Ginjо̄ in the Fullbringer Arc. Funny enough, the brief antagonist of BURN THE WITCH, Bruno Bangknyfe, shares a visual similarity to the aforementioned, as well as a similar role in the story.
The Soul Society Connection
While having very few similarities in their respective universes at first, the thing that links both series is the millennia-old institution known as "Soul Society". Throughout the events of BURN THE WITCH, the events in Reverse London appear to be completely unique to the series; however, despite the series being focused on dragons – particularly those named after fairy tales – it is actually an extension into the BLEACH universe beyond the scope of the events surrounding Ichigo's Karakura Town.
At the end of the original one-shot, the partially destroyed gate to Wing Bind headquarters once destroyed in the exploits of Noël and Ninny is finally repaired more than a week since its destruction. What was destroyed was the Wing Bind coat of arms, which features the words "Soul Society West Branch" set above and below it. Wing Bind's structure as a historical organisation follows a similar pattern to BLEACH's Soul Society, in which the Shinigami are spread across 13 (with a secret 14th) squads, some of which specialize in a particular form of support, espionage, or combat roles. In BURN THE WITCH, the main characters form part of the Pipers; the lowest-ranked of eight Wing Bind squads.
Kidо̄? We Call It Magic
Due to the aforementioned connection to Soul Society, BURN THE WITCH very quickly introduces a magic system of spells and incantations, which is very similar to how Kidо̄ works in BLEACH. In the BLEACH universe, the Shinigami are employers of a "Zankensо̄ki" approach to combat – that is, that Shinigami combat comprises four basic elements:
- Zanjutsu – their technique as wielders of their Zanpakutо̄
- Hakuda – hand-to-hand combat
- Hohо̄ – high-speed techniques, the basis of which is Shunpo
- Kidо̄ – offensive and defensive techniques based on the manipulation of one's spiritual energy. These branch out into three types: Hadо̄ (lit. "Way of Destruction") – offensive techniques; Bakudо̄ (lit. "Way of Binding") and Kaidо̄ (a healing Kidо̄)
Just like the Hadо̄ and Bakudо̄ of BLEACH, the magic spells in BURN THE WITCH are activated via incantation, and are numbered, most probably in ascending order from the least potent and most beginner-friendly to the most powerful, most devastating spells. While BLEACH's magic system has been fleshed out a little more, BURN THE WITCH seems to rely on the reader's understanding of how the system works due to the similarity between BLEACH and BURN THE WITCH.
Kubo's Message
With Kubo having expressed a desire to introduce more character races in the BLEACH universe, the creation of BURN THE WITCH and Wing Bind's involvement in Soul Society-related activities in the west has in turn opened up the possibilities even further. The most important factor in the link between BURN THE WITCH and BLEACH lies in the Easter Egg Kubo left at the end of the one-shot. After the re-destruction of the newly-repaired gate to Wing Bind headquarters due to Balgo and his pet dragon-Pomeranian, Osushi, Kubo ends the one-shot chapter with a title card for BURN THE WITCH. The lettering in this title card has certain letters, as well as sections of individual letters, to create the simple message out of the resulting letters: "BLEACH".
The image was widely distributed after the one-shot's release, stoking the fires of excitement regarding the return of the flagship series, which at that point, had ended 2 years prior in August 2016. By 2019, the desire to bring back BLEACH was confirmed by the announcement of the BLEACH 20th Anniversary Project, which was the adaptation of the BURN THE WITCH one-shot into a film produced by Studio Colorido, a subsequent four-chapter limited serialization of the manga which picks up from where the one-shot left off, and finally, the return of BLEACH in BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, which airs on October 10.