After years of rumors, Bleach is set for a comeback as Weekly Shonen Jump confirmed the news back in a special live stream event last Mach. However, before the Bleach TV anime resumes, Tite Kubo will debut a new work, a sequel to Bleach titled Burn the Witch. For those that don't recall, Burn the Witch started as a special one-shot that Tite Kubo created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump back in 2018. Man fans originally assumed the title was a completely new and original work but the last page revealed that it was actually a sequel to Bleach that was simply set in a different area of the Soul Society.
Burn the Witch will appear Weekly Shonen Jump's 38th issue of 2020, which hits Japanese newsstands on August 24. However, it seems the series will disappointingly be very short as it will only run for 4 chapters. Thankfully, the first chapter will be longer than a normal one, coming in at 57 pages. While there's no word on whether the next 3 chapters will also have extra length, Kubo fans are hopeful. An anime film based on the 4 chapter run will be released this fall.
The Bleach TV anime's continuation is set to be released in 2021.
How do you think Burn the Witch will be received by Japanese and North American manga fans? Will the series prove to be just as popular as Bleach or do you think too much time has passed since Tite Kubo wrapped up Ichigo Kurosaki's story? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
BURN THE WITCH is a one-shot manga by Tite Kubo released in the July 16th, 2018 edition of Shonen Jump, detailing a day in the lives of two witches working for the Western Branch of Soul Society, located in Reverse London. It is the first work he has released since the last chapter of Bleach was released in Shonen Jump on August 22nd, 2016, and takes place in the same world as his previous work, set 12 years after the Quincy Blood War and 2 years after the events of chapter 686.
Instead of Hollows, the soul reapers rangers of Western Soul Society battle dragons, which are (like hollows) invisible to the average human. Dragons are actually something of a natural resource but they become very dangerous beasts when they come into contact with negative human emotions. These dark dragons also have the ability to take over human corpses to become even greater threats.