In 2001, Tite Kubo marked a
milestone in shonen history with the release of his magnum opus, a supernatural
action series simply titled “ Bleach . ” Within
a few years, “Bleach” joined Masashi Kishimoto’s “Naruto” and
Eiichiro Oda’s “One Piece” as part of shonen’s legendary “Big
Three,” but over time, these three manga titans met different fates. While
“Naruto” had a satisfying ending and “One Piece” is still ongoing, “Bleach”
ended abruptly, leaving many fans dissatisfied.
In 2016, the final arc of the “Bleach”
manga came to a seemingly hasty end, depriving fans of several developments and
events they had hoped to see. Over time, many
disappointed fans have accepted the reality behind “Bleach”’s early ending,
reflecting a current trend in the manga industry. Fortunately for the franchise
and its many fans, the anime adaptation has kept “Bleach” relevant and popular
today, no matter what happened in the 2010s.
By today’s standards, ending a manga
series after 74 volumes isn’t considered a “premature” ending. Even
the epic Shingeki no Kyojin was less than half that length, and the
ultra-popular Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba told a complete story in just 23
volumes. However, Bleach was written in an era where long-running
series were the norm, and Tite Kubo intended to continue his series longer than
he actually could. To him, the most important thing was to tell the
full story he had planned, no matter how many volumes it took.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. “Bleach” ended early
due to several factors working together. Chief among them was Tite
Kubo’s health, which suffered increasingly as “Bleach” serialization continued. Although
Kubo knew from the beginning that drawing weekly manga would be a demanding
job, the reality of being a published manga artist caught up with him. By
all accounts, Kubo began experiencing more frequent and intense colds and other
ailments, to the point of needing a week to recover in bed or even ending up in
the hospital. Those increasingly serious health issues eventually
convinced Kubo to end his series while he still could.
The other big reason was commercial in
nature: “Bleach”’s popularity was gradually declining. While
it remains widely praised as a worthy part of the “Big Three,” relatively
speaking, it was losing ground. The Weekly Shonen Jump team eventually
decided that “Bleach” needed to end and cut its losses. That decision,
combined with Kubo’s health issues, led to the unexpected and early end of
“Bleach,” which meant not only concluding the series ahead of schedule, but
also cutting short the story’s final and most epic arc, the “Thousand-Year
Blood War.”
When the “Bleach” manga came to a
premature end, depriving the “Thousand-Year Blood War” arc of its true
potential, fans must have felt upset and confused. In
retrospect, many shonen fans are sympathetic to Tite Kubo’s experience, and
time has been kind to him. Since then, everyone involved in the
creation, publication, and consumption of Japanese manga has become more aware
of how stressful it is to be a manga artist, and the paradigm has shifted. Now,
manga artists are treated more leniently, with the realization that without the
artist’s health and happiness, there can be no manga, and everyone loses.
Since the “Thousand-Year Blood War” was rushed
in the manga, the anime adaptation seeks to remedy as many exclusions as
possible. Numerous fights have been extended, such as
Yhwach vs. Yamamoto and Unohana vs. Kenpachi, and some entirely new battles
have been included. Four of the five members of the Zero Squad are
defeated off-screen in the manga, but the anime shows all of their individual
fights.
Fans also get to see Shinji’s Bankai, the highly
dangerous Sakashima Yokoshima Happoufusagari, which can seemingly turn allies
into enemies and vice versa. However, one of the biggest changes in the
“Thousand-Year Blood War” arc is the addition of the original Gotei 13. The
only information available in the manga was that two of its members were
Yamamoto Genryusai and Unohana Retsu, but the anime shows all of them, complete
with names and detailed character designs created by Tite Kubo himself.
Fans are hoping this trend continues in
the upcoming seasons, as there are still many unanswered questions. Most
importantly, the final battle between Yhwach and Ichigo needs to last longer
than just one episode.
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