On March 21, 9:45AM JPT (which is actually March 20 8:45 PM EST) Japanese comedian Yoshiyuki Hirai hosted a special livestream event featuring Masakazu Morita (Voice of Ichigo Kurosaki), Fumiko Orikasa (Voice of Rukia Kuchiki), Ryotaro Okiayu (Voice of Byakuya Kuchiki) and Hiroyuki Nakano (Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief) to announce two special projects to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Tite Kubo's Bleach.
These two projects were previously leaked thanks to Monday's issue of Weekly Shonen Jump making its way online almost a week early. Still, it's nice to have official confirmation and few more details concerning the manga serialization of Burn the Witch and the anime adaptation of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc of Bleach. It was confirmed that Burn the Witch will begin serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump this Summer and that an anime film will follow in the fall/autumn. Tite Kubo did not appear in the livestream but provided a note thanking fans for continuing to support Bleach after all these years. He also revealed that he's already written the entire manuscript for Burn the Witch and so he's now relaxing, playing Animal Crossing. Burn the Witch started out as a fun, side project that Kubo sketched while working on Bleach. He only shared the doodles with friends and family but when editors at WSJ caught wind of the concept, they encouraged him to do a full-fledged series.
Studio Colorido, best known for Penguin Highway, will be animating the Burn the Witch film.
As far as the continuation of Bleach goes, the voice actors stated that they've been asking for years but only found out about the new arc a few days before the livestream was announced. Weekly Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Hiroyuki Nakano, who was one of Kubo's Bleach editors before rising to his current position, stated that he knew about the project for quite some time but had to play dumb whenever he was asked. The new anime series will premiere some time in 2021. In addition, a special exhibit in 2021, focusing on the art of Bleach will also be held in Tokyo. Currently, there are no plans for an international tour for the exhibit but Nakano noted that they will pursue such a tour if there's enough interest. There were no confirmation on whether Studio Pierrot and the original staff would be returning for the new anime arc but Nakano stated that everyone involved wants to do the final Bleach arc justice.
It was also confirmed that Kubo designed the logo for the 20th Anniversary celebration of Bleach, which you can see below. The English translated version of the livestream peaked at nearly 20,000 viewers so interest in Bleach is as strong as ever.
Keep it locked to AnimeMojo as we continue to chart the progress of Burn the Witch and Bleach.