BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War (TYBW) Part 4 The Calamity released its first episode this week, marking the start of the series’ final cour and bringing a great episode with stellar performances from many fan favorite characters. Across BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, we’ve seen tremendous growth, new abilities, and fresh perspectives from a lot of characters, with many scenes added to the anime that didn’t appear in the original BLEACH manga. None have grown more perhaps that protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki however. From thinking he’d lost his Zanpakuto to learning the truth of his powers and heritage, Ichigo’s personal arc has been very detailed, enhanced by new anime scenes like his training under Squad 0’s Ichibe. There’s likely more to be seen about him, his powers, his connection to the Soul King, and the end of BLEACH, but for now we’ve got plenty to look forward to even just taking into account the original storyline.
As we approach the end of the BLEACH anime (until the Hell Arc, which is definitely getting animated of course), we at Anime Corner had the opportunity at Anime Expo to speak with Masakazu Morita, the Japanese voice of Ichigo, and Johnny Yong Bosch, the English voice of Ichigo. Both voice actors are legendary in their own right and have tons of experience both in their careers writ large and in the decades long stretch of time they’ve spent as Ichigo. They reflected on their introductions to the series and Ichigo’s unique growth.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. This interview was conducted with the assistance of an interpreter for Morita-san’s responses.
Q: What was your first encounter with BLEACH?
Johnny Yong Bosch: My first encounter — I have a band, and I showed up to rehearsal early. It was at my drummer’s place, and he was watching anime. And I was like, “What are you watching?” and it was BLEACH. And he’s telling me all about it and about the story, and I was like, “Oh, that’s pretty cool.” And then, he was like, “If you get a chance to audition for this,” and then I was like, “You know, I actually just got an audition for that.” So it was a strange moment where I had already gotten an audition, which I hadn’t done yet, but then I got to sort of cheat and see a little bit of what was going on.
Masakazu Morita: My first encounter would be the manga version. I read it in Shonen Jump as it was going. And, even from the get-go, it sticks with you. I don’t think there’d been a series that really starred Soul Reapers or made a story around them. I think that was part of what made it so epic. Just as an aside, I was actually late to my audition. Not my fault — my manager and my company gave me the wrong date. So I might have not made it.
Q: While Ichigo has gone through a lot of growth over the entirety of BLEACH, he’s especially gone through a process of growth and self discovery during the Thousand-Year Blood War. Has the way you put together Ichigo’s voice changed as his confidence and understanding changes?
Johnny Yong Bosch: I mean, that’s a really good question. Yeah, definitely there’s slight adjustments, even just from — it’s been, what? 20 years? So from the original to now, absolutely, there are textures and things that are layered in there. So, yes.
Masakazu Morita: I’m the same way as Johnny. Ichigo’s grown so much, and Shonen Jump series are often about growth. So I don’t think there’s a lot of hesitation to adding that toward Ichigo’s voice and making those changes. I think if you compared Ichigo’s voice in the beginning to now you’ll find that it’s quite different, and so I hope the fans enjoy seeing that part of it, too.
Q: Looking back, do you find that playing the same character for so long is easier or more
difficult than playing a character for just one or two seasons?
Johnny Yong Bosch: I do feel like, after playing him for so long, even with the space in between, when I went in, it just felt very comfortable. I felt like, yeah, there are going to be some differences and adjustments in the voice, but it just felt like home. Right at home in the space and extremely comfortable with the character — and that might be just my excitement to be there. Sometimes when you work on stuff, there’s a little bit of nervousness. But it was more this excitement for what we’re about to do.
Masakazu Morita: So, for series that are only 1, 2 seasons long, you have to show that growth really quickly. So that adds a layer of complexity to voice acting. But with BLEACH, you see his growth happen over a much longer period. And so you can take time with that growth and showing the depth. But at the same time that you get the length of time for the growth, you have to make really minute, detailed adjustments along the way, and so that in it of itself is very difficult as well.
Q: One unique thing about the Thousand-Year Blood War Arc are the original anime scenes not featured in the manga, which were produced under the supervision of the creator Tite Kubo. What was your strategy for approaching scenes that were new to the anime? What kinds of guidance did you receive, and from whom?
Johnny Yong Bosch: For me, the experience is a little different because it’s already animated. So just in general, everything feels new for me. I don’t get the script ahead of time. I don’t get to see it and then go work on it. As soon as I’m scheduled, I just show up, I go, and this is the first time I get to see it. And I really only get to see Ichigo’s parts. Which made the experience going to see these latest three episodes very unique because I got to see other characters parts and seeing them realize things in their characters in front of an audience, so that experience was unique as well.
Masakazu Morita: There are a lot of original scenes in the Thousand-Year Blood War and so it is difficult. We’ll ask the staff, we’ll ask Kubo-sensei himself. We’ll really ask about all the little details and go back and forth about it. There’s an entire universe inside Kubo-sensei’s head. And sometimes we’re just not sure what exactly he’s thinking. So, we have to ask and do that back and forth in order to make sure we’re going along with that image and that universe. It’s almost like this kind of thought-battle back and forth between the original creator’s imagination and thoughts and my own imagination — seeing how they piece together. It feels like an ongoing battle.
Q: As the voice of Ichigo, is there anything you still wish you could have done as Ichigo?
Whether it be using certain kinds of abilities, interacting with some characters, or doing
some action.
Johnny Yong Bosch: So much of it all throughout. There’s so many moments where I was, like, “Ah, I just want” — Hollow Ichigo, for example. I want more of that. Even Vasto Lorde. I know it’s all screaming, but I would like more of that, too. So absolutely, there are so many things like that where I’m like, “I just want more of that.” And thankfully, we occasionally get a game to be able to do that again and really relive those experiences.
Masakazu Morita: I also like doing the Hollow voice. You just get to scream (both laugh) to no end. In BLEACH we don’t really do it, but I’d like to scream out Kido.
Q: What aspects of Ichigo’s personality are the most challenging to portray?
Johnny Yong Bosch: I mean, any one of them could be challenging. It just depends on the level — where does it need to be? Does it need to be subtle? Because sometimes your character will say something but mean something totally different, and you still have to portray whatever the underlying internal dialogue is. So at times anything could be challenging that way.
Masakazu Morita: Same, same. We play the same part, and so I think we really battle with the same kind of intricacies. I have a feeling what you [Johnny Yong Bosch] think are the difficult parts are also what I think are. I think that the hardest part about Ichigo is trying to express what isn’t being said out loud.
Q: Without spoiling the details, what should fans be most looking forward to about the final
arc of BLEACH?
Johnny Yong Bosch: Most looking forward to? I think ,because of that long wait, just the satisfaction of it, you know? And just to have almost like the fulfillment of the rest of BLEACH. So that they can watch it and then feel satisfied. I mean, it’s okay for them to want more, but to have just kind of like, “Yes,” feeling. To feel like, as a group, as all of us, we’ve come to this place where we share an exciting moment of completion.
Masakazu Morita: It’s not that we’re looking for a standing ovation from fans, but we — as a staff — we’ve really come at this wanting to create something good. I might be jinxing it, and maybe it’s not good to say yet, but I have no doubt in my mind that it’s something that everyone is going to be happy with. We really put all of our hearts and all of our efforts into it as a group. And so I think we’re very proud and we believe in what we’ve created. But, if I keep talking like that, I think Aizen will come in and say “Don’t use strong words because you’re going to appear weak.”
We’d like to thank Masakazu Morita and Johnny Yong Bosch for taking the time to speak with us during Anime Expo. As mentioned previously, BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War (TYBW) Part 4 The Calamity released its first episode this week. You can watch the anime on on Hulu and Disney+ and check out the manga on VIZ.
© Tite Kubo/Shueisha, TV TOKYO, dentsu, Pierrot
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