Posted in: Anime, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: anime, bleach, burn the witch, manga, neil gaiman, netflix, neverwhere, Tite Kubo, viz media
"Bleach" Returns to Anime With Climactic Final Story Arc Adapt
Bleach, Tite Kubo's long-running action manga series, is returning to anime. The new series adapts the manga's climax, "Thousand Year Blood Arc". As reported by both Anime News Network and Viz Media, the announcement came at the Bleach 20th Anniversary & Tite Kubo New Project Presentation livestream on Saturday.
The original anime series ran from 2004 to 2012 and ended at 366 episodes. It also spawned four animated movies and two OVAs. The series also inspired video games, prose novels, stage plays and a live action movie on Netflix. Viz Media continue to hold the North American publishing rights to the franchise.
The final arc ran from volumes 55 to 74 of the manga. That's around 3,420 pages of comics to adapt. The manga series ended in August 2016. Every plot thread comes to a head in that final arc. It comprised lots and lots and lots of big fight sequences. Many of them lasting dozens, sometimes over a hundred pages. Manga can do that. It's how the final arc of a long-running series can still run for a few years and keep fans reading.
You can read Bleach online at the Viz website.
Spinoff Manga "Burn the Witch" Also Gets Anime Series
In March, Kubo launched a spinoff manga Burn the Witch as a 55-page one-shot. It takes place in the same universe as Bleach. Set in London, it features a pair of teenage witches at the Western Branch of the Soul Society who fight dragons in a hidden Reverse London. It's a bit like if Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere had been turned into an action manga.
An anime has also been announced. Before its premiere, Shonen Jump will release new chapters of the manga this summer.
You can read Burn the Witch here.
The premiere dates for both anime series will come at a later date.