The Anime of Bleach finally finds its well-deserved ending after more than 20 years. The story of the manga source material is soon fully adapted, but it is precisely the grand finale that concerns Bleach’s creator, Tite Kubo.
What are those concerns? On his own page, which is hidden behind a paywall (via X), Tite Kubo expresses worries about the last episodes of the anime. But not because he believes the episodes will be poorly executed.
Rather, his thoughts are with the animators. He has already seen some concept art and knows that some episodes will be incredibly difficult to animate:
Recently, I have been looking at many storyboards for Bleach’s Cour 4, and there are some episodes where you can already see in the storyboard stage that the animation will be incredibly difficult (although, to be fair, every episode looks like that). I can’t help but be concerned about the animators.
Without giving too much away: In the grand finale, there are numerous battles that come with particularly elaborate special effects. These include space and time distortions as well as fluid fight animations. The mangaka reportedly rushed the ending, yet there is still a lot to animate. So the animators have quite a lot ahead of them that they must bring to life.
Famous mangaka had the same problem as Bleach
Which mangaka had to apologize? A similar case occurred a few years ago. Hajime Isayama is the creator of Attack on Titan and even apologized to the animation team for a particularly complex scene (via shingeki.tv).
This will be tough for MAPPA. MAPPA is probably thinking, ‘Please stop.’ I’m sorry, MAPPA, I’m very sorry.
Isayama himself had problems drawing the scene in the manga. Animating it significantly increases the challenge, which is likely why he felt guilty. He supported the animation team at his own request and even drew a small part of the rough draft himself.
When is the grand finale coming? Since the production phase is still at the storyboard stage, it may take several months before the last part named “The Calamity” of the anime is released. An exact date is not yet known. We expect that the anime will be available no earlier than mid-2026.
MeinMMO editor Niko Hernes is convinced that Bleach is the best anime of the “Big 3”. The series, along with Naruto and One Piece, is one of the most popular mangas from the 2000s, but he believes it is better than the other two. The arguments he provides can be found in the following article: 4 reasons why Bleach is better than Naruto and One Piece
