YES.

After a long painful decade following the original 2004 anime’s abrupt cancellation in 2012 and the manga’s rushed conclusion, dealing with slander and mockery, Bleach finally returns to the limelight. Bleach fans have had it rough, not even able to tell others they were fans of the series in fear of being viciously mocked by fans of other anime.

And above all else, the one I feel for the most during all this was Kubo himself. Weekly Shounen Jump is a brutal industry that eats up mangaka like Kubo and Togashi, (just to name a couple of victims) and poops out manga. Sitting at their desks, hunched over, for hours upon hours a day, barely eating and sleeping. It was a crippling, unsustainable lifestyle.

In Kubo’s case, drawing Bleach in such excruciatingly exquisite detail with very little rest in between chapters took a horrible toll on his body, ending up with such agonizing pain. Like Togashi before him with YuYu Hakusho, he was forced to hasten Bleach’s end with a tore crucial ligament in his arm. I really can’t blame him for how tragically sloppy Bleach ended, given his condition.
I’m actually in awe that his amazing art never suffered any severe decline in quality in his condition. It was still amazing all the way until the end. It speaks volumes to his talent and endurance.

After healing from his injury, Kubo took up work as a character designer on a RPG, and, after realising how lonely he was without his characters, made a spin-off manga of Bleach called Burn the Witch which expanded the Soul Society. This led him to creating the brilliant one-shot of Bleach’s Hell verse, further expanding on Bleach’s lore after the timeskip at the end of the manga.
Finally, in November 2021, Bleach’s triumphant return was announced, thus the production of legendary manga’s final arc yet to be adapted began. And here we are in December 2022, following the conclusion of part 1 of the Thousand Year Blood War arc. It still feels surreal.

Animation – Even though I’m not a fan of Demon Slayer or any Ufotable series in general, I have to give them huge credit for setting a new standard for animation. Even Toei’s had to up their game after cutting corners on One Piece’s artstyle for many years until Demon Slayer exploded onto the scene. Studio Pierrot is no different. They brought their double A-game to Bleach’s Thousand Year Blood War arc. The shading was wonderfully dim, really fitting the sombre and serious tone they were aiming for. Characters have also been detailed exquisitely, really bringing Kubo’s artstyle to life.

Sound – The score was excellent, taking iconic pieces of Bleach’s sound and revamping them like Nothing can be Explained and Precipice of the Defeat. I absolutely loved all of the rebirth osts and the little twists the studio added to them.

Action – Bleach’s bread and butter as a shounen battle manga and Studio Pierrot pulled through. Fast, hard-hitting, explosive and impactful; Studio Pierrot went all in animating some of the most spectacular fights in the series. Yamamoto’s swan song was given particular love. After waiting 10 years to see his Bankai in full motion, our expectations were absolutely met. It had fantastic build up, too, turning the black of night (when the Quincy invasion started) into scorching daylight, cracking Shunsui’s lips and rendering Toshiro’s stolen Bankai moot due to the moisture in the air being vaporized by Yamamoto’s immense power.
It was truly a sight to beheld.

Studio Pierrot’s little touches – I loved all the little touches they added, like title cards appearing around the characters’ faces when they were first introduced. The anime exclusives are a great complement to the manga. Sasakibe was even given a backstory after he died, perfectly revealed right before the sternritter that killed him was about to unleash it on Yamamoto. It was portrayed beautifully and helped to shred context on their friendship. Sasakibe was Yamamoto’s long-time friend for over a millennium. It just makes his funeral, in hindsight, all the more saddening.
Some fans were unhappy with the studio’s removal of Byakuya’s speech being cut in the anime, but I think that was done for the better. Yamamoto was already feeling despair, so letting silence reign here lends the mood of the scene that much more impact. The whole less is more thing. This is Kubo’s philosophy, which is why he gave the go-ahead for the cut happen.

Other cuts include the removal of the comedic gags. This saddens me a bit, but I can understand. It’s much more difficult fitting in levity in an anime than it is in an manga. Had they tried, the tone might have become chaotic like Demon Slayer’s. Cutting out the comedic gags allows the serious moments to shine with much more weight and gravity.

Animation - 10/10
Artstyle - 10/10
Score - 10/10
Voice-acting 10/10

Final score: 10/10

Bleach is back and I'm very, very happy