Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Review: Bleach is back and looking amazing

After a roughly 10-year hiatus, Ichigo Kurosaki picks up his giant sword again and returns for his final battle Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War. Expectations for his return to Hulu are high; The original is a staple among anime fans everywhere and is often grouped with One piece and Naruto as part of the “big three”. And after watching an episode, everyone finally looks as cool as they should Thousand Year Blood War.

Made by Pierrot, the same studio that animated the original run of the series from 2004 to 2012, the new show doesn’t miss a beat when it picks up again. The first episode roughly covers and pretty much fits the first five chapters of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. And from the first frames of the new show, it’s clear it’s new bleaching

won’t find much, and longtime fans may also find they’re catching up. It seems that Pierrot is just as confident about picking up and ending the series as if there were no hiatus – and it immediately pulls you back into the world. We see a deep dark lab in the Seireitei in chaos with pretty much no explanation as to what is happening. Characters casually mention series-specific terms like Gigai, Bankai, and Soul Reaper. Moments like the fact that military-clad fighter Asguiaro Ebern is a Quincy will have more panache for those who know the characters and their importance in the larger world.

Uryu Ishida in Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War. He is half in shadow and half in light. He looks seriously at the light from the window.

Most importantly, before we see the original gang back together in their full glory, let’s see their powers. This looks like a blade of light, blue energy raining down, or small paper airplane-like darts shooting across the screen. Each corresponds to a member of the main gang: Ichigo Kurosaki, Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado (Chad), and Uryu Ishida. When we see the four again, they save two Soul Reapers just in time. Seeing the four of them for the first time in so long is heartbreaking; For a moment I feel like I’m losing control of all coherent thoughts and astral projects, back into a 15 year old version of myself who was yelling about these characters on Tumblr. That’s partly because I’m excited to see them again, but also because everyone just looks so damn Well.

Seriously, let’s just talk about how freaking cool Ichigo looks in this Thousand Year Blood War. As older anime, we couldn’t see Ichigo and the rest of the cast age in more contemporary animation like we did with him One piece. Old semi-stagnant fight scenes have been replaced with high-flying operatic antics that focus much more on movement and feel like much more fight scenes choreographed to entertain rather than filler to tie up time in an episode. Nods to classic anime intros—each of the four main characters are given a flashy name card upon their introduction—fuse old anime tropes with a more modern style.

It’s a twist befitting its star. Ichigo Kurosaki has always been one of the coolest shonen protagonists. Unlike characters like My hero academy‘s nerdy Deku or Oa piece‘s goofy Luffy, Ichigo always felt a little cooler and more confident than the others. And now it looks like he finally got an animation that feels classy enough for him and his latest adventure.

New episodes of Bleach: Thousand Years of Blood War Simulcast on Hulu every Monday at 8:30 a.m