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Bleachfans have been buzzing about the possibility of a remake in recent weeks, but while a remake has some value, it feels like the wrong direction for the franchise to be moving in. Instead,Bleachhas a better option it could take: to move forward and dive into new content.
Fans ofBleachhad their desire for a remake sparked bya 20th anniversary videowhich reanimated some of the series' most classic scenes in a style more like that ofThousand-Year Blood War, and the video does look incredible. It’s easy to see why long-time fans of the series might want this, as animation technology has advanced a lot since the originalBleachanime began production way back in 2004. However, this is a notion that’s clouded by nostalgia, rather than one that would best serve the franchise moving forward.
A Bleach Remake Would Completely Miss The Point Of The Original Series
Bleach Has Always Been a Forward-thinking Franchise
Bleachis not a series which revels in nostalgia itself.The story ofBleachis a story of always moving forward, in spite of whatever obstacles may lie before you. The franchise has something of a youthful energy to it, despite many of its characters being hundreds or thousands of years old, and that manifests as constantly moving forward into the future. It hasn’t been afraid of things like time skips before, and characters like Ichigo keep their eyes on the goal, struggling not to let the past affect their will towards the future.
For that reason, going backwards to retell the beginnings ofBleachfeels like a step in the wrong direction. WhatBleachstarted as and what it is now are two very different things, and going back to that original formula now would be a questionable choice. It’s also relevant becauseBleachis very, very long–686 manga chapters. Even accounting for those adapted inThousand-Year Blood War,it’s 480 chapters long, and if it mirrored the rapid pace ofThousand-Year Blood War, it would still take nearly 100 episodes to adapt everything once again. That would require the better part of a decade to animate, as well.
Studio Pierrot’s Next Bleach Project Should Be A Movie Sequel To Thousand-Year Blood War
Bleach’s Anniversary One-Shot Sets Up a New Arc Ripe for Adaptation
Instead of going back to the beginning,Bleachshould move forward, and adapt the content that currently exists beyondThousand-Year Blood War. In 2021,Tite Kubo released a 20th anniversary one-shot, set 12 years after the end of theThousand-Year Blood Wararc.It features many of fans' old favorite characters, as well as some new faces, such as Ichigo’s son, Kazui Kurosaki, and Rukia’s daughter, Ichika Abarai. The one-shot seemed to be setting up a new story arc centered onBleach’s Hell, which has only been explored in a non-canonical movie.
Bleach’s creator Tite Kubohas indicated that he has continued working on this “Hell arc” in private, and will only share it when he feels ready to do so.This presentsBleachwith an interesting opportunity to do whatDragon Ballso successfully pulled off withSuper: animate a sequel while the manga is still being written. WithDragon Ball Super’s movies, series creator Akira Toriyama played a big role in their development and writing, similar to how Kubo himself has had a hand in the creation of theThousand-Year Blood Waranime.
Kubo could take what he’s worked on so far for the Hell arc and use it as the basis for a script for aBleachmovie, launching a new series of canonicalBleachmovies just likeDragon Balldid. And that, of course, doesn’t preclude the possibility of releasing it as a manga as well;Dragon Ball Super’s manga and anime were debuting at the same time, and occasionally had differences between the two media, but overall told the same story. WithSuper Hero, the manga even adapted the movie almost 1 to 1, giving fans their choice of how they want to consume that story.
Bleach’s Epilogue Already Hinted At The Potential For A Much Larger Continuation
Kubo certainly doesn’t want to go back to the pressures of weekly (or even monthly) manga production, andgiven the health issues he suffered duringBleach’s closing chapters, it’s easy to understand why.But it’s also clear that Kubo isn’t quite done withBleach, and would like to do more with this world and these characters. The open-ended nature of the anniversary one-shot proves that. BringingBleach’s continuation to a movie or new anime series very much seems like the way to have his cake and eat it, too–the story gets out there, but Kubo isn’t a prisoner to his schedule again.
A canonicalBleachmovie, continuing on from whereThousand-Year Blood Warleaves off, would definitely be a major event, far more so than a remake of the original anime would be. Everyone would be going into this film on equal footing, with no one knowing just what to expect.Demon Slayerhas also proven that canonical movies can not only work, but work extremely well, bringing in mountains of money which can be used to fund the next film, or other anime projects. A movie also offers the opportunity to make the animation quality even higher thanThousand-Year Blood War’s.
It simply feels a tremendous waste to have the beginnings of aBleachrevival sitting there waiting when it could be adapted in such a way that it uplifts the entire franchise and helps to keep the new generation of fans thatThousand-Year Blood Warhas cultivated. A remake of the original series isn’t likely to maintain the kind of fans that have enjoyedThousand-Year Blood War, with its intense action and high-stakes storyline.Bleachcertainly has the chance to move forward as much as it does backward, so why not seize the opportunity to push forward into the future?
Bleach
Bleach is a multimedia franchise created by Tite Kubo. The franchise started as a Japanese manga series. Ichigo Kurosaki is the main protagonist who is granted the powers of a being called the Soul Reaper. The success of the manga led to two anime TV shows, four feature-length animations, and several video games.
