New art of Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki has been unveiled.
The new illustration comes from Masashi Kudo, who served as the character designer for the original Bleach anime, which ran from 2004 – 2012. Kudo portrayed the Shinigami swordsman in the uniform that he wears during the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, which will finally premiere its long-awaited anime adaptation next October. The art work is currently on display at VIZ Media's exhibition hall booth at the 2022 Anime Expo, and was shared online by Twitter user @bleach_fan20.
More information about the Thousand-Year Blood War anime is expected to be revealed at the convention, which will host a panel dedicated to the new season of the anime on July 2 at 6:30 PM PST. The continuation of the series was first announced in 2020, with the first trailer being shown at the most recent Jump Festa convention in Japan. Thousand-Year Blood War will pick up where the original anime left off in 2012 and will present the first animated adaptation of the final arcs of Tite Kubo's manga, which were originally published after the first anime series went off the air. Earlier this year, Kubo stated that the anime will have expanded story elements that were missing from his manga, such as a reveal of who attacked Rukia during the Quincy invasion.
Tite Kubo's Bleach was first published in 2001 and is still one of the most popular shonen manga series in the world, with a circulation of over 120 million copies. The original manga came to an end in 2016, but Kubo returned to its world in 2018 with a spinoff series, Burn the Witch, which is set in England and explores the western branch of Soul Society. In 2021, Kubo published a new chapter of the main Bleach series, entitled "No Breaths from Hell." While the new release was originally promoted as a one-off, stand alone release meant to celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, fans were pleasantly surprised to discover that the chapter was actually a prologue for a new adventure starring Ichigo and the rest of the Soul Reapers. Since its release, however, both Kubo and Shonen Jump publisher Shueisha have been tight-lipped about the release of further chapters or a possible sequel series.
Both the original Bleach and its spinoff series are available in English from VIZ Media. The 2004 anime series is available for streaming on a variety of platforms, including Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll.