The premiere of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is fast approaching, and a new key visual promises the highly anticipated continuation will be overflowing with action.

The image, which was posted on Twitter by VIZ Media, features the caption "Bring down the blade with the strength to shatter fate" and showcases protagonists Ichigo Kurosaki, Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki with their respective zanpakutos drawn. Orihime Inoue and Yasutora Sado (aka Chad) also appear ready to battle, while Uryū Ishida stares off in the distance. The new visual also further confirms the October 2022 release date.

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The Next Step of the Bleach Epic

It has already been confirmed that many of the voice actors from the original Bleach anime are reprising their iconic roles for Thousand-Year Blood War, including Masakazu Morita (Tiger & Bunny) as Ichigo, Kentaro Ito (Blue Exorcist) as Renji and Fumiko Orikasa (Ascendance of a Bookworm) as Rukia. Several new cast members were recently announced; notably, Daiki Yamashita (Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro) is playing Ryunosuke Yuki and Asami Seto (The Rising of the Shield Hero) is voicing Shino Madarame. Other experienced actors who are signed on for Thousand-Year Blood War are Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba), Koichi Yamadera (Lupin the 3rd Part 6) and Hideyuki Tanaka (One Piece).

Mangaka Tite Kubo began publishing his Bleach series in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in August 2001 and the final chapter was published in the magazine in August 2016. The story follows Ichigo, a teenage delinquent who gains the powers of a Soul Reaper and fights to prevent evil monsters known as Hollows from devouring innocent souls. Alongside Eiichiro Oda's One Piece and Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto, Bleach is one of the best-selling manga series of all time with over 130 million copies in circulation.

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Studio Pierrot adapted Kubo's story into an anime series that originally aired from October 2004 to March 2014, producing 366 episodes but leaving the Thousand-Year Blood War story arc of the manga initially unadapted. Pierrot is producing the new anime series and several members of Bleach's old creative team are returning for the new project as well. Masashi Kudo and Shiro Sagisu are once again designing the characters and composing the music respectively. Tomohisa Taguchi (Persona 4: The Golden Animation) is joining the team as the anime's director.

While Bleach fans will have to wait a few more months to see the events of Thousand-Year Blood War play out in animation, Pierrot's original anime series is available to stream on Crunchyroll and Hulu.

Source: Twitter, via Crunchyroll