Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Previews Stern Ritter Quincy Group in New PV Trailer

A new short 30-second PV trailer has been released for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, previewing the Stern Ritter group of Quincy warriors. The anime will premiere on October 10, 2022. 

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is based on the final story arc of Tite Kubo’s original manga series, which ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from August 7, 2001 to August 22, 2016. 74 tankoubon volumes have been released in total. The new anime series will see Ichigo and Soul Society face-off against a powerful Quincy faction known as the Wandenreich.

The production staff includes Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive) as director and series screenwriter, Masashi Kudou (Bleach) 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. Studio Pierrot is in charge of the animation production.

Other staff members consist of Michio Hasegawa (Shadows House), Sei Komatsubara (Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon), and Kumiko Takayanagi (Akudama Drive animation director) as 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.

Some of the returning main voice cast includes Masakazu Morita as Ichigo Kurosaki, Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia Kukichi, Yuki Matsuoka as Orihime Inoue, Noriaki Sugiyama as Uryu Ishida, Hiroki Yasumoto as Yasutora Sado, Kentarou Itou as Renji Abarai, and Takayuki Sugou as Yhwach. 

The first Bleach anime series ran from 2004 to 2012 and the franchise has also inspired several anime films, games, a live-action movie, and much more. An anime film adaptation of Kubo’s BURN THE WITCH manga, which is set in the same universe as Bleach, also premiered in Japan in 2020. 

Viz Media describes the first volume of the manga 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: Bleach Official Japanese Twitter