Fans know Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is getting a Season 3, but the question surrounding its release still stands.
The follow-up to the beloved anime that ran for eight years between 2004 and 2014 has brought viewers back into the demon-hunting world of Bleach, adapting the manga's final arc from which the sequel series takes its name.
Thousand-Year Blood War kicked off in 2022 and has unfolded over two seasons with a third confirmed to be on the way.
Bleach Thousand Year Blood War Season 3 Release News
Fans are likely hoping that Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War Season 3's release is imminent.
Part three of the anime sequel series ("The Conflict") already received a promotional trailer, which was made public in December 2023.
The brief 80-second tease ended with a release year of 2024, narrowing the window of when exactly fans can expect the series to return.
However, that release date could be coming later than some may have expected.
Since the work on Season 2 was completed, several pieces of reporting have emerged about turbulence at Thousand-Year Blood War animation studio Studio Pierrot (via Comic Book Resources).
The studio has reportedly had production troubles on several of its titles including the Bleach sequel series, with severe mismanagement of staff and underpaying staff being widespread across the anime industry.
As a result, Studio Pierrot vowed to reassess its production pipeline between Seasons 2 and 3, perhaps resulting in the next batch of episodes taking longer than some may have hoped.
In a February 2024 conversation (via Comicbook), Studio Pierrot Managing Editor Keirou Itsumi addressed some changes coming to the studio, saying "labor management must also be done properly" even if that means less output:
"In the past, in the anime industry, creators may have had the impression that the working environment was so-called low profit and high sales. They were expected to work in a way that ignored the Labor Standards Act. However, in modern times, labor management must also be done properly."
He added their attitude is more focused on "[giving] back to the creators and employees rather than incurring unnecessary costs" and creating more simply because they can:
"I'm sure it would be possible to create spectacular episodes where the price... of the picture goes up but I think it would be better to give back to the creators and employees rather than incurring unnecessary costs. That's the way of thinking."
When Exactly Will Bleach Season 3 Be Released?
This shift at the Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War studio means that the team's one-season-per-year cycle (which Thousand-Year Blood War was not on) is being avoided, which could delay other projects.
Because of this, the potential to move the Bleach series back is there as the studio focuses on giving a longer lead time for other titles.
However, given that a trailer for 2024 is in the wild, Thousand-Year Blood War will be released sometime this year.
While some may have expected Season 3 to come out this summer, being a similar distance between Seasons 1 and 2 as it would between 2 and 3, that does not look like it will be the case.
Instead, what is more likely is the series getting pushed to fall or even winter of this year, hitting TV sets later than initially assumed.
Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War is streaming now on Hulu.
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