'Bleach' Anime Returns After Eight Years, Adapts Final Arc

The Bleach 20th Anniversary Project & Tite Kubo New Project Presentation livestream announced on Saturday that the anime series is making a return. The new anime will adapt the final manga arc, Sennen Kessen-hen (Thousand-Year Blood War arc), which spans from the 55th to the 74th volume. The announcement commemorating the manga's 20th anniversary comes approximately eight years after the last anime episode aired in 2012.

Synopsis
A paranormal action-adventure about sword-wielding guardians of the afterlife.

Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghosts—he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow—a malevolent lost soul—Ichigo becomes a Shinigami, dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping the tortured spirits themselves find peace.

The peace is suddenly broken when warning sirens blare through the Soul Society. Residents there are disappearing without a trace, and nobody knows who's behind it. Meanwhile, a dark shadow is also extending itself toward Ichigo and his friends in Karakura Town.

When a mysterious group of warriors calling themselves the Wandenreich attacks, Ichigo Kurosaki heads to Hueco Mundo to help his friend Nel Tu. And when the Wandenreich takes the fight to Soul Society, an all-out war between Shinigami and Quincy breaks out! (Source: VIZ Media, edited)

Prior to serialization, Tite Kubo published a pilot chapter in December 2000. The supernatural adventure manga debuted in Weekly Shounen Jump in August 2001. After a 15-year serialization, Kubo ended the series in August 2016. Shueisha published the 74th and final volume in November that year. Bleach has a cumulative 120 million copies of its compiled volumes in print worldwide.

The television anime series produced by Studio Pierrot began airing in Fall 2004 and ended with 366 episodes in Winter 2012, covering the first 54 volumes. The manga also inspired two Jump Festa specials in June 2005 and March 2006, and four anime films in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 December.

VIZ Media acquired the series' master license in March 2006 and serialized the manga in English in its print edition of Shounen Jump magazine between November 2007 and March 2012. The manga concurrently moved to the Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha digital anthology in January 2012. The company published the 74th and final volume in October 2018 and released the 26th home video installment of the anime in September 2015.

A live-action film adaptation produced by Warner Bros. Japan opened in Japan in July 2018. Directed by Shinsuke Satou (Gantz, I Am a Hero), the film grossed over 541 million yen (approximately US$4.9 million).

Bleach won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen division in 2005.

Announcement


Official site: https://bleach-20th-anniversary.com/
Official Twitter: @BLEACHanimation

Source: Comic Natalie

Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen on MAL

Correction: An earlier version of this news stated that the anime will return in 2021. A premiere date for the anime has not been announced yet. MyAnimeList regrets this error.