The staff for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, the television anime based on the “Thousand Year Blood War” arc of Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga, revealed more cast members and the anime’s second key visual on Sunday.
The newly announced cast members are:
Daiki Yamashita as Ryūnosuke Yuki
Asami Seto as Shino Madarame
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Äs Nödt
Kōichi Yamadera as Quilge Opie
Hideyuki Tanaka as BG9
Takaya Hashi as Robert Accutrone
Nobuaki Kanemitsu as Driscoll Berci
Yasuhiro Mamiya as Mask De Masculine
Tomoaki Maeno as NaNaNa Najahkoop
The anime will premiere on TV Tokyo in October. The anime will cover the rest of the original manga up through its ending.
An advanced screening of the first two episodes will be held in Tokyo on September 11.
Tomohisa Taguchi (Twin Star Exorcists, Kino’s Journey – The Beautiful World, Akudama Drive) is replacing Noriyuki Abe to direct the anime at Studio Pierrot. Taguchi is also overseeing the series scripts alongside Masaki Hiramatsu. Masashi Kudo is returning as the character designer, and Shiro Sagisu is returning to composing the music.
Additional staff includes:
Chief Animation Directors: Michio Hasegawa Sei Komatsubara, Kumiko Takayanagi
Action Effects Animation Directors: Satoshi Sakai, Yoshihiro Kanno, Yong Hoon Chong
Art Director: Yoshio Tanioka
Art Design: Toshiki Amada
Color Design: Saori Goda
Editing: Akinori Mishima
Director of Photography: Kazuhiro Yamada
CG Directors: Toshihiro Sasaki, Kazushi Goto
Sound Director: Yukio Nagasaki
Sound Production: Zack Promotion
The cast includes:
Masakazu Morita as Ichigo Kurosaki
Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia Kuchiki
Noriaki Sugiyama as Uryū Ishida
Yuki Matsuoka as Orihime Inoue
Hiroki Yasumoto as Yasutora Sado
Kentaro Ito as Renji Abarai
Shinichiro Miki as Kisuke Urahara
Satsuki Yukino as Yoruichi Shihōin
Binbin Takaoka (replacing Masaaki Tsukada) as Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto
Houko Kuwashima as Suì-Fēng
Shouto Kashii as Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi
Aya Hisakawa as Retsu Unohana
Masaya Onosaka as Shinji Hirako
Ryotaro Okiayu as Byakuya Kuchiki
Tetsu Inada as Sajin Komamura
Akio Ohtsuka as Shunsui Kyōraku
Tomokazu Sugita as Kensei Muguruma
Romi Park as Tōshirō Hitsugaya
Fumihiko Tachiki as Kenpachi Zaraki
Ryusei Nakao as Mayuri Kurotsuchi
Hideo Ishikawa as Jūshirō Ukitake
Naomi Kusumi as Ichibē Hyōsube
Yōji Ueda as Ōetsu Mimaiya
Tomoyuki Shimura as Tenjirō Kirinji
Rina Satou as Senjumaru Shutara
Ayumi Tsunematsu as Kirio Hikifune
Takayuki Sugo as Yhwach
Yuichiro Umehara as Jugram Haschwalth
Shunsuke Takeuchi as Askin Nakk Le Vaar
Ayana Taketatsu as Bambietta Basterbine
Yūki Ono as Bazz-B
Yumi Uchiyama as Candice Catnipp
Natsuki Hanae as Gremmy Thoumeaux
Satoshi Hino as Lille Barro
The show’s returning cast also includes cast members who have not appeared in the anime, but are reprising their roles from the Bleach: Brave Souls game.
The Thousand Year Blood War arc is the final arc of the manga, and covers volumes 55-74.
Kubo launched Bleach in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001, and ended it in August 2016. Viz Media published the manga in North America digitally in English as Shueisha published new chapters in Japan. Viz Media also published the manga in print.
The manga inspired a television anime adaptation that ran for 366 episodes from 2004 to 2012. Viz Media obtained the television and home video rights to the anime in 2006. The series premiered with an English dub in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim that same year, and eventually aired all the episodes by 2014. The anime franchise also includes four films and two OVAs.
The franchise has also inspired video games, novels, stage plays, and a live-action film that opened in July 2018.
Kubo most recently provided character designs for the Shin Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars in English) video game.
