A second key visual for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Arc, featuring Ichigo and his main allies with Yhwach behind them, has been released

More cast members were announced as well, including Daiki Yamashita as Ryuunosuke Yuki, Asami Seto as Shino Madarame, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Äs Nödt, Koichi Yamadera as Quilge Opie, Hideyuki Tanaka as BG9, Takaya Hashi as Robert Accutrone, Nobuaki Kanemitsu as Driscoll Berci, Yasuhiro Mamiya as Mask De Masculine, and Tomoaki Maeno as NaNaNa Najahkoop.

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Arc will premiere in October. The anime is based on the final arc of the Shuueisha-published manga by Tite Kubo, which ran from 2001 to 2016 with 74 tankoubon volumes.

Viz Media describes the manga’s 55th volume, which is the start of the “Thousand-Year Blood War Arc,” as:

The peace is suddenly broken when warning sirens blare through the Soul Society. Residents there are disappearing without a trace, and nobody knows who’s behind it. Meanwhile, a dark shadow is also extending itself toward Ichigo and his friends in Karakura Town…

The anime’s staff includes Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive) as director, Masashi Kudou (Sakura Wars the Animation) as character designer, Yoshio Tanioka (Akudama Drive) as art director, Saori Gouda (Akudama Drive) as color designer, Kazuhiro Yamada (Akudama Drive) as photography director, and Shirou Sagisu (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time) as music composer. Taguchi is also serving as series composer with script writer and game scenario writer Masaki Hiramatsu. Studio Pierrot is the animation production company.

Michio Hasegawa (Shadows House), Sei Komatsubara (Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon), and Kumiko Takayanagi (Akudama Drive animation director) are the chief animation directors, while Satoshi Sakai (Attack on Titan Final Season effect animation director), Yoshihiro Kanno (Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld action animation director), and Yeong-Hoon Jeong (Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld sub-designer)  are the action effects animation directors.

Meanwhile, the cast includes Masakazu Morita as Ichigo Kurosaki, Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia Kukichi, Noriaki Sugiyama as Uryu Ishida, and Takayuki Sugou as Yhwach. Voicing the Soul King’s Royal Guard are Naomi Kusumi as Ichibe Hyosube, Youji Ueda as Oetsu Nimaiya, Tomoyuki Shimura as Tenjiiro Kirinji, Rina Satou as Shutara Senjumaru, and Ayumi Tsunematsu as Kirio Hikifune.

The voice actors for Yhwach’s Sternritter include Yuuichirou Umehara as Jugram Haschwalt, Shunsuke Takeuchi as Askin Nakk Le Vaar, Ayana Taketatsu as Bambietta Basterbine, Yuuki Ono as Bazz-B, Yumi Uchiyama as Candice Catnipp, Natsuki Hanae as Gremmy Thoumeaux, and Satoshi Hino as Lille Barro.

The Bleach manga was previously adapted into an anime series that ran from 2004 to 2012. It also inspired several anime movies. Outside of anime adaptations, the manga has inspired games, a live-action movie, and more. In 2020, an anime movie adaptation of Kubo’s BURN THE WITCH manga, which takes place in the same universe as Bleach, was released.

The first volume of the manga is described as:

Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, but this ability doesn’t change his life nearly as much as his close encounter with Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper and member of the mysterious Soul Society. While fighting a Hollow, an evil spirit that preys on humans who display psychic energy, Rukia attempts to lend Ichigo some of her powers so that he can save his family; but much to her surprise, Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper himself, Ichigo quickly learns that the world he inhabits is one full of dangerous spirits and, along with Rukia–who is slowly regaining her powers–it’s Ichigo’s job to protect the innocent from Hollows and help the spirits themselves find peace.

Source: @BLEACHanimation (1), (2)