BLEACH is making a triumphant return with a new commemorative special. Weekly Shōnen Jump #36/37 will feature a brand new BLEACH story. This will arrive just in time to celebrate the landmark manga's twentieth anniversary.
First debuting in 2001, BLEACH is one of the top best-selling manga titles of all time. The series concluded in 2016. Like much other mega-popular manga series, it was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump. The series was created by mangaka Tite Kubo and tells the story of Ichigo Kurosaki, who becomes a Soul Reaper - leading souls to the afterlife and vanquishing evil spirits. BLEACH has been collected into 74 volumes, containing a total of 686 chapters. Now, a 687th chapter may be on its way.
After a hiatus of five years, BLEACH is coming back. The Twitter account, Shonen Jump News has reported that a 73-page chapter will be included in Weekly Shōnen Jump #36/37. This year is the manga's twentieth anniversary. Other plans have already been unveiled to celebrate it - including an anime adaptation of the series' final arc, which was previously not produced. This issue of the manga magazine is slated for release on August 10, 2021. No story details have been revealed thus far, leading to lots of speculation on what this special will be about.
Recently, BLEACH novels that were originally published in Japan were translated into English and released earlier this year (BLEACH: Can't Fear Your Own World). Beyond the news regarding the "Thousand-Year Blood War" arc being adapted into anime, not much else had been announced for fans to be excited about. This new chapter reveal now has readers wondering what this special will cover. The last time Ichigo was seen, he had a son with Orihime, named Kazui. Kazui was training to be a Soul Reaper - as was Rukia's daughter, Ichika. With new manga series like Boruto being based on the children of beloved heroes, it seems possible that this could be a look at the training or progress of the main characters' offspring and a threat they may face. However, it could also avoid this route and instead provide a look at how the Soul Society has been faring since fans last spent time with it, or check-in with Ichigo and Rukia's futures as parents and Soul Reapers.
Tite Kubo has recently been working on Burn the Witch, a new manga that began publishing in 2018 within Weekly Shōnen Jump. This manga takes place within the same world as BLEACH. Otherwise, the mangaka hasn't had many other active projects. News for BLEACH has been relatively slow as of late, so this return would definitely be worth getting excited about - even if it is just for a one-time special. The series has achieved high sales within its market with both Eastern and Western audiences, so it has already proven itself as being a popular story that continues to gain new fans as time passes by. The twentieth anniversary is the perfect time to begin a comeback or give the series' loyal fans a quick look at some of their favorite characters after an ending that many found to be highly disappointing. Weekly Shōnen Jump #36/37 will release with a new BLEACH story on August 10, 2021.