BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War arc anime released a recap trailer for the first ten episodes after the broadcast of the tenth episode titled “The Battle.” The trailer also reveals that the anime’s 12th and 13th episodes will be broadcast together as one hour special to conclude the first cour on December 26. Animation studio Pierrot is animating the adaptation, which is set to have a total of four cours.
Tite Kubo’s BLEACH manga was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from August 2001 to August 2016 with a total of 74 volumes. Pierrot studio also worked on the original TV anime adaptation that aired between October 2004 and March 2012 and had a total of 366 episodes. The new anime is covering the manga’s chapters from the 480th to 686th (volumes 55 to 74). Masakazu Morita and Yuki Matsuoka are reprising their roles as Ichigo and Orihime from the original anime.
VIZ Media licensed the manga series for English releases and released the final, 74th compiled volume on October 2, 2018. The official website describes the plot of volume 55, which compiles the first chapter of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc as:
The peace is suddenly broken when warning sirens blare through the Soul Society. Residents there are disappearing without a trace and nobody knows who’s behind it, meanwhile, a dark shadow is also extending itself toward Ichigo and his friends in Karakura Town…
Source: Official YouTube
© TITE KUBO / SHUEISHA, TV TOKYO, dentsu, Pierrot