Fans of BLEACH will have the fires of their excitement stoked yet again with the release of a brand-new key visual for the upcoming final arc.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War has been slated for an October release date. The series is one of the upcoming Fall season's biggest draws and the continuous output of key visuals, trailers, interviews, and the like. The key visual was released on the official Twitter page, along with new information regarding the cast and staff members.
The news is exciting as the already-stacked cast is supplemented with several more all-stars. Koichi Yamadera, who played Spike Spiegel in the 1998 Studio Manglobe classic, Cowboy Bebop, playing the role of Quilge Opie. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Soma Yukihira, Food Wars!) will voice Äs Nödt, Daiki Yamashita (Sakamichi Onoda, Yowamushi Pedal) will play Ryunosuke Yuki, and Asami Seto (Raphtalia, Rise of the Shield Hero) will voice Shino Madarame. Other cast members include:
- Hideyuki Tanaka as BG9
- Nobuaki Kanemitsu as Driscoll Berci
- Tomoaki Maeno as NaNaNa Najahkoop
- Takaya Hashi as Robert Accutrone
- Yasuhiro Mamiya as Mask De Masculine
Included in the announcement were the identities of a few key staff members as well. In the director's seat will be Studio Pierrot's Tomohisa Taguchi, with the additional role of writing the series' composition, while character designs are handled by prolific BLEACH character designer, Masashi Kudo. Music will, yet again, be the jurisdiction of legendary composer Shiro Sagisu, who is known for his work on the soundtracks of BLEACH (2004) and the highly influential Neon Genesis Evangelion.
For those who are unaware, BLEACH is a supernatural shounen series that follows the life of 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager who has always been able to see ghosts. When a woman named Rukia, dressed in a black kimono and armed with a sword suddenly appears in his room, Ichigo is made aware of the existence of Shinigami, supernatural entities that act as psychopomps – they guide the souls of the departed to the next world and purify evil spirits known as "Hollows" so that they too can pass over peacefully. The series forms part of the legendary Shonen Jump trinity known as "The Big Three".
The Thousand-Year Blood War is the thrilling conclusion to the BLEACH storyline, depicting the dramatic war between the Shinigami and the Quincies, who were thought to be long extinct. Originally announced in 2020 as part of the two-part BLEACH 20th Anniversary Project, an October 2022 release was confirmed in 2021, nine years after the end of the original anime back in March 2012.
Source: Twitter