Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 Release Window: Everything We Know About the Anime's Return (2024)

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War was one of the biggest anime of 2023. The second part was titled The Separation, and after an emotional and epic finale, Studio Pierrot has already announced its sequel.

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War is an adaptation of the popular manga Bleach by Tite Kubo. Airing from October 2004 to March 2012, the original anime ended without adapting the final arc of the manga. Fans of the franchise were understandably ecstatic when a new anime arrived to finish the project in 2022.

The whole series is split up into four parts and with the first two now done, the second half is slowly approaching and will surely be a headliner in the anime-packed year of 2024.

Bleach Will Make Its Return In 2024 With Part 3 Of Thousand-Year Blood War

The official X account of Viz Media released a gorgeous and dramatic teaser for what is to come in the third part of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Conflict. The minute-long teaser shows the main villain, Yhwach, and Squad Zero's captain Ichibe facing off, in the most anticipated fight since Yhwach versus Yamamoto. The teaser also shows Ichigo and his crew rushing into the castle of the Soul King, which collapses soon after. The teaser does the highly anticipated sequel justice and excellently portrays the violence and action that is about to ensue.

On May 30, 2024, the convention Anime Expo announced on X (formerly Twitter) that there would be a special Thousand-Year Blood War panel, where new information and a “sneak peek” of the third part would debut. The panel also promised appearances by English voice actors for the Thousand-Year Blood War anime, including Xander Mobus and Robbie Daymond, who will be discussing and reflecting up the first two parts.

This will be the first look at part 3 of Thousand-Year Blood War since the initial teaser after part 2 ended, so it promises to be an exciting look at just what is coming up. With part 2 having diverged from the manga somewhat, many fans are expecting that part 3 may be where the big changes start to appear, and they’ll have to begin with cleaning up after the introduction of Squad Zero’s strongest Bankai, which eliminated many of Yhwach’s most loyal soldiers, including Uryu.

Based on the manga, part 3 should feature some characters from previous story arcs making an appearance, such as Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, who was teased in part 2. Ichigo himself, along with Orihime and Chad, is currently en route to the Soul King’s palace, where he’s hoping to turn the tide and stop Yhwach in his tracks before he can reach the Soul King. Ichigo is sporting some newfound power since his last time facing off against Yhwach, so perhaps he’ll actually stand a chance against the Quincy’s seemingly invincible emperor at this critical juncture.

What Will Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3's Story Be?

Part 2 of Thousand-Year Blood War ended with the apparent defeat of Yhwach's most elite soldiers by Senjumaru Shutara, the lone surviving member of Squad Zero after the others (except Ichibe) killed themselves to allow her to use Bankai in a scene not from the original manga. Included among Yhwach's elite was Uryu, who had sided with the Quincy against the Soul Society. Ichibe, meanwhile, was fighting Yhwach, using his own "Bankai" equivalent to weaken the nigh-unstoppable villain.

Part 3 is likely to pick up in almost the same spot, as the fight with Yhwach was still very much undecided when part 2 ended. Ichigo and friends were already established to be on the way to the Soul King's Palace, and given they were shown there in the trailer, it's fair to say that they'll arrive, although whether it'll be in time to help defeat Yhwach remains up in the air.

Looking at the manga, it seems that all is not yet lost for Yhwach's elite soldiers, but it's hard to say given how the anime has deviated from the manga's course of events. Uryu certainly has a bigger role to play in the story that remains unfulfilled, so their escape from Senjumaru's pocket dimensions seems all but inevitable. That doesn't bode well for Senjumaru, and it may come down to exactly when Ichigo and his friends arrive at the Soul King's Palace.

Will Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Continue After Part 3?

Most fans are expecting that Thousand-Year Blood War will continue into a fourth part. Part 2 ended around chapter 610, and there are 686 chapters in the manga. Even at a blistering pace of 5 chapters per episode, that's more than the 13 episodes per cour that fans got in parts 1 and 2. It's also been made known that Tite Kubo has been working with Studio Pierrot to expand on the material that was cut from the Bleach manga, meaning that a slower pace is more likely due to the amount of added material.

Given how relatively abrupt the Bleach manga's ending is, this ending is where the most changes are likely to be seen, making it difficult to predict exactly what part 4 of Thousand-Year Blood War will look like. Fans are certainly hoping for some substantial changes which will make the ending of the series one worthy of a member of manga's Big Three. Though no release date has been revealed for part 3 yet, it seems likely that part 4 would be released either at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, given the current rate of release.

Part 3 of Thousand-Year Blood War is certainly highly anticipated after the incredible highs of the first two parts, and fans can't wait to get their hands on it. The lack of a solid release date certainly raises some questions at this stage, but most fans are fine with waiting so long as the end product is of high quality. After all, fans have already waited almost a decade to see this final arc animated; what's a few more months, if it means that Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is released at the highest quality possible?

Source: bleach-anime.com

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War

Animation

Action

Adventure

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is a sequel series to the popular anime from creator Tite Kubo. This anime follows Ichigo and his friends as they investigate why people are disappearing while trouble arises in the Soul Society. The first season was released in 2022 and has been critically acclaimed since its beginning.

Cast

Masakazu Morita , Johnny Yong Bosch , Takayuki Sugô , Richard Epcar , Ryûsei Nakao , Aleks Le , Karen Strassman , Neil Kaplan

Release Date

October 10, 2022

Seasons

1

Network

TV Tokyo

Franchise(s)

Bleach

Writers

Tite Kubo

Directors

Tomohisa Taguchi , Mitsutoshi Satô , Hikaru Murata , Hodaka Kuramoto

Showrunner

Tite Kubo