New York Comic-Con 2022

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Premiere

ANN's coverage of NYCC sponsored by Ize Press, the new Korean content imprint from Yen Press! From screen to print, K-Comics materialized!

Well it might not have been 1,000 years since the last time the Bleach anime aired, but it certainly does feel like it. Almost 10 years is nothing to scoff at. I've never been much of a Bleach fan personally, but you could just feel the slow anticipation building from almost every single person that entered the theater. The fact that they didn't show the episode right away almost had me worried that all of that anticipation would've warped into a loud burst of impatience. This premiere wasn't just about continuing an anime that so many people have grown up with, it was about celebrating what that show means to so many people. Despite the fact that the manga and anime ended a while ago, Bleach still has a strong hold over the hearts of many and it is 100% infectious.

The panel was hosted by special guests King Vader and Stella Chuu who shared a bit of their experiences with Bleach and cosplay. It was clear that the series has meant a lot to them since it started airing on Adult Swim and in order to share that appreciation, they were judges for an impromptu Bleach themed cosplay competition. Apparently some Bleach cosplayers were selected ahead of time and asked to come on stage. There were about 25 of them and three were selected to receive a prize that they collected backstage. During this first half of the panel, we received two special video messages from Masakazu Morita, the Japanese voice for Ichigo who did a good job of hyping up the crowd despite the fact that it was clearly coming from a pre-recorded message. Finally, Morita counted us down to the first episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.

999 years is how long it took for the Quincy king to regain his strength, Hollows are disappearing all throughout Japan and the Soul Society is doing everything it can to not rely too much on a “substitute soul reaper.” I feel like I can't really give too much away considering the fact that the episode was primarily there to establish a break in status quo like the proper beginning of a new arc should. What I was surprised about is the fact that this episode possessed no recap whatsoever. There are also a lot of terms and references thrown in there that didn't have any explanation or subtitle because at that point in the story, you should already know a lot of the key elements of this world. I guess if you've been waiting for the anime to come back for this long, it might seem kind of pointless to do that…or maybe I'm just used to the fact that shows like My Hero Academia will have a recap of the beginning of every new season. However, despite that omission, it's clear this episode knew that it needed to possess some type of fanfare fitting for such a return.

When a pair of bickering characters are assigned a new post and are brutally beaten down, a ragtag group of teenagers emerge with their own unique abilities (and killer insert song) to pick up the slack. Orihime, Yasutora, Uryu and our lovable Ichigo all enter the scene with their own moments to show off their abilities accompanied with their very own stylized freeze-frame displaying their names. Every time one of the main crew got reintroduced, the crowd erupted into ginormous cheers. Honestly, it's probably the one premiere that I went to this weekend that had the most audience engagement, from the character introductions to the awesome and well animated finishing moves, to the ending where they gave us a nice glimpse into what's to come while simultaneously giving us the nostalgic throwback I felt was missing from the introduction.

The art style is noticeably different but not radically so to the point where it feels like we've jumped several generations. The character models are given a little extra shading and dimension while the particle effects seem much more striking based on some comments from fans when the premiere ended.

Despite the fact that I had very little idea of what was going on, even though I was able to recognize the fact that having a villain who can potentially erase Banki is probably a big deal and the episode ending with a glimpse of what I assumed to be the main villain was a strong note to end on. The dichotomy between having this booming yet slow voice talk about how he wants to fight for a world of peace after just cutting off the arm of one of his subordinates for simply arguing in front of him was definitely effective. On a technical level I think all the necessary pieces are here for fans around the world to jump back in as if the anime had never left.