All About Bleach Season 17: Release Date, Cast, Plot, Official Trailer Confirmed

Bleach is a Japanese supernatural anime television series adapted from mangaka Tite Kubo manga of the same moniker. Inspired by the famous and various works of the other popular mangaka, Kubo decided to become a mangaka during his elementary schooling. Bleach originated as an original concept of Kubo when he decided to portray shinigami (Death gods) in a kimono. On August 7, 2001, Bleach was first published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump. Later, on October 5, 2004, the first episode of the manga’s anime adaptation aired on TV Tokyo. With over 650 chapters and 74 tankobon volumes, the manga came to an end on August 22, 2016.

Also Read: All About Death Parade Season 2

Ichigo Kurosaki, a 15-year-old high schooler who can see ghosts and spirits is approached by a soul reaper Rukia Kuchiki. Trying to save a girl’s spirit from a Hollow, Rukia ends up giving her shinigami powers to Ichigo turning him into a substitute soul reaper. Rendered incapable of continuing her task, she pesters Ichigo into fulfilling her responsibilities as a soul reaper. Initially refusing to get involved, Ichigo accepts to work as a substitute soul reaper. Ichigo continues his adventure, learning that his friends too have powers connected to the astral world. The series not only adapts from the manga but has its original, self-contained story arcs. The several story arcs continue after the manga’s first antagonist, Sosuke Aizen’s defeat. With the constant threat to the Soul Society, Ichigo and his friends defeat the enemies in these original arcs.

Bleach Season 17 Latest News

Bleach is one of those anime series that has opened the world of anime to many fans. This legacy anime has been a childhood memory for many 2000s kids. As much as the series is upheld in good regards, instilling nostalgia in the minds of true Bleach fans, things do not work out as expected. As a form of media entertainment where people invest their time and emotions, disappointing and underperformed work hits rock bottom when the show is poorly produced. This was the fate of Bleach which aired from October 5, 2004, to March 27, 2012. By the end of the last arc, poor reviews and low ratings put the production of this wonderful anime series on hiatus. Nearly after 10 years, the long-expected final arc that was yet to be animated had finally been confirmed by Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 17, 2021 as a part of the Bleach 20th anniversary project.

Bleach Season 17 Plot/Storyline

Previously, the anime ended with Ichigo’s victory in the epic battle against Kugo Ginjo in the Lost Substitute Shinigami Arc. The love-hated original ending had a huge negative impact on the production but the plot for Season 17 was in its early writing stage. While season 16 ended in March 2012, the manga started the arc in February 2012. From little to no content to rectify the “bad” ending, the production committee had to drop the series. Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War/ Season 17 is adapting the Quincy War Arc. This season is probably going to have one of the best fighting scenes in anime history when it will showcase the all-out war between the Soul Society and the Quincy.

Will Bleach Anime continue in 2022?

After long-awaited fans received the news of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War returning as a reboot ending for the anime series, the hype for it has only kept on increasing. With the nearing fall of 2022 and the added glimpse of over-the-top animation quality for the new season, fans have never looked more forward to seeing their drenched-in-nostalgic anime series return in fresh skins and styles with godly and fluid animations making the fighting scenes more worthy of the wait.

Bleach Season 17 Release Date

After internet break-through announcement and updates it has been officially confirmed that the final season of Bleach, the Thousand Year Blood War will be premiered in Fall 2022. The anime series is expected to return on screen in October 2022. No further updates or official premiere date has been confirmed as of early June 2022.

Bleach Season 17 Trailer

The 20th anniversary of Bleach came with an unexpected but welcomed surprise that kept fans in complete awe. The trailer was released on December 18, 2021, on Youtube and other different anime streaming platforms and catalog sites. The trailer features new as well as old characters with a remix version of the epic background music, Number One by Shiro Sagisu. The trailer showcases our protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends who are up against the founder of Quincy, Yhwach The Almighty.

Will there be Bleach Season 17 English Dub?

As of June 2022, a trailer was recently released showcasing the official trailer dubbed by the original cast of the Bleach animated series. The series is expected to have the general format of airing in Japan first and then dubbed version will follow along in English-spoken countries. Unlike most anime series, the dubs for previous episodes of Bleach are considered half-decent. Surely, it would not be as good as Dragon Ball or Naruto but as a personal preference, it is worth the shot.

Bleach Season 17 Rumours

There has been a little skepticism in the fandom regarding the continuation of the new season- How will the new season from where it left off in 2012? Well, most definitely the anime series will follow the manga timeline and continue from where it left off previously, i.e., the Fullbring Arc. There are also doubts regarding the entire final arc getting adopted because of 200+ chapters that are needed to animate. Since this is the final season, the production committee is bound to agree on split-cour scheduling. There has been no official confirmation regarding the entire manga getting adopted. Kubo commented that he is glad the anime is finally getting the final arc ending and is constantly involved in its production. With mixed reviews regarding the ending and an old habit of straying away from the manga, there is a minute possibility for the anime to have a different and perhaps, a better ending.

Bleach Season 17 Rumours

How many episodes will Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War Arc have?

The Bleach Lost Angel arc ended in episode 366 with the death of Ginjo Kujo corresponding to chapter 478 of the manga. With almost 200 chapters to cover and considering the expectations of the fans of not skipping the chapters and rushing the new season, Thousand-Year Blood War is expected to have at least 70-80 episodes to deliver the best storytelling. There has been no official number of episodes disclosed for the upcoming season and fans are hoping to bid farewell to a one-of-a-kind anime series with a fitting ending.

Bleach Season 17 Plot Details

Ichigo is confronted by someone who looks like a Quincy but has a small hollow mask on his face. Ichigo mistakes him for an Arrancar and questions his intentions to which the mysterious person replies he is no Arrancar and takes out a Quincy necklace transforming it into a weapon. The unknown person tells Ichigo to activate his Bankai and he does so hoping to end the fight soon.

Unbeknownst, the opponent takes out an amulet and tries to seal Ichigo’s Bankai but he manages to break it and one-shot the opponent. The Quincy manages to escape after his own shadow encapsulates and makes him disappear. The Soul Society is attacked by a group of masked men.

The leader informs Yamamoto that within 5 days the Soul Society will be annihilated by the Wandereich. The group disappear into their shadows before the Yamamoto could stop them. In an ice-like palace, sitting on a throne is Yhwach The Almighty, creator, and king of all Quincys. Both Quincy, in a hollow mask, and the group that attacked the Soul Society arrive to report to Yhwach.

In a feisty quarrel between the masked Quincy who barely survived and the leader of the Quincy group, Yhwach disliking violence, blows off the leader’s hand. Villainous as he is, Yhwach questions the leader, Luders Freigen, whether he is a prophet or not since he declared that the Soul Society would be destroyed within 5 days to which Luders replies no. Failing to justify himself, Luders is blasted to bits by Yhwach. Yhwach turns to Ivan, the masked Quincy. Yhwach states his thoughts of neither being able to thank or blame Ivan as he failed but managed to slow down Ichigo.

Ivan follows after Luders as a foundation to build peace according to Yhwach. Ichigo meets Nel after a long time who tells him that Huenco Mundo was attacked. Ichigo with his friends plans and go to Hueco Mundo. There they learn that Hueco Mundo was attacked by Quincies but they were way more powerful than Uryuu. Ichigo fights Quilge Opie, Captain of the hunting squad in Hueco Mundo.

Opie shows them that Quincies can also transform into a much more powerful form, the Vollstandig similar to Bankai. Back to Yhwach, he was born as a baby who could not hear, talk, see, taste, or feel anything. Yet he was held as a treasure because he was the cure to all problems. Whoever touched him would find themselves healed no matter what disease they had.

Even gain courage, and happiness and regrow their amputee body parts. But none knew the cost at which they cured their problems. Whenever they touched him, a fragment of his soul would transfer into the patient. Getting cured drastically reduced the patient’s life span and when the patient would die Yhwach’s soul fragment would return to him with a part of the patient’s soul.

Gradually, through this, Yhwach managed to gain all the basic senses that he had missed as an infant. As he grew older, Yhwach managed to gather Reishi particles and manipulate them with the help of Reiryoku. He also could awaken the spiritual powers of those who could not possess or be dormant by sharing a part of his soul. Those he shared with were also able to manipulate Reishi. It is also revealed that Yhwach intentionally created the weakness of Quincies towards Hollow Reiatsu to create and maintain enmity.

This would ensure the destruction of the Hollows contradictory to the shinigami who cleanse the Hollow and; the death of these Quincies while fighting the Hollow would bring back their soul fragments with his ones keeping him functioning. Yhwach’s methods are questioned by Wandereich’s second-in-command Jugram Haschwalth after witnessing the death of their subordinates.

Haschwalth notices that Ivan used the medallion to seal Ichigo’s Bankai and deduces that Ichigo’s Bankai cannot be sealed by usual means. Yhwach seems to be not bothered by the death of his subordinate since he can create more Arrancars turned Quincies. He can achieve this by using Tier Harribel in turning the Hollow into a different type of Arrancars that were partially Quincy. While Ichigo is busy in Hueco Mundo, Yhwah takes the opportunity and decides to invade Soul Society.

The Sternritters together with Yhwach declare war on Soul Society. Most Shinigami cannot hold their own against the combined Quincy force. The captains try their Shikai abilities to no avail. Finally, they decide to use their Bankai but their perception that the medallions seal away their Bankai was wrong. Instead, the medallions are meant to steal the shinigami’s Bankai abilities. Learning this, the other Shinigami captains are forced not to use their Bankai against the invasion.

Back at Hueco Mundo, Ichigo manages to defeat Opie because every time he tried to seal Ichigo’s Bankai he failed. Urahara seeks the opportunity and kills Opie. Zaraki, captain of the 11th division, managed to kill three Sternritters but is confronted by Yhwach. Yamamoto finally decides to enter the battle and rushes to confront Yhwach, who by then brutally defeated Zaraki.

Bleach Season 17 Plot Details

Yamamoto activates his Bankai and obliterates Yhwah and learns that he was not the actual Yhwah but a Sternritter who could copy the appearance and memories of his target. Yamamoto explains that his Bankai cannot be stolen because he trained and mastered it for thousands of years whereas Ichigo, compared to him, got it recently and has not reached a certain point where he could be stolen.

Yamamoto is proved wrong when the real Yhwah comes and steals his Bankai because any Bankai can be stolen as long as the wielder of the medallion is strong enough to possess it. Yahweh uses Reishi to create a sword and cuts Yamamoto in half and blasts his body until nothing is left of the captain. Simultaneously, after defeating Opie, Ichigo rushes to Soul Society even after being warned of the loitering danger.

But Ichigo cannot reach on time to be effective because Opie was still alive and used his special ability to trap Ichigo inside the Garganta. Immediately after Yamamoto’s death, Ichigo arrives and meets Yhwach. They both start fighting and Yhwach unleashes a killing blow to Ichigo’s neck.

He orders Haschwalth to collect Ichigo’s body but to his surprise, Ichigo was able to perform a defensive technique, Blut native only to Quincies. Ichigo manages to land a good blow on Yhwach but it barely scratches him. Before Yhwach could get serious, his shadow appears and Haschwalth informs him that he must return to Wandereich. Ichigo chases to attack Yhwach who prepares to leave. Haschwalth intervenes and breaks Ichigo’s Bankai sword in half. Before leaving, Yhwach hints at Ichigo’s origin of power.

The aftermath of the battle was a huge blow not only to Gotei 13 but also to the entire Soul Society. Mayuri explains that once a Zanpakuto is broken, it can never be repaired. The entire Zanpakuto has to be remade which would differ from the previous one. There was only one exception in the entire Soul Society and that was Komamura.

He had such a strong bond with his Zanpakuto, when his Zanpakuto was damaged so was he, and would similarly recover when he did. The zero division of the Soul Society, the five strongest shinigami whose combined force vastly surpassed the combined force of all other divisions arrive to fix the damage and take Ichigo and his friends to the Royal Palace. Renji and Ichigo are tested to be worthy of a reforged Zanpakuto.

Renji and Ichigo fight strange humanoid black creatures and are later revealed to be Asauchi, Zanpakuto’s in human form. Renji passes the test but Ichigo and therefore is sent back to the mortal world of humans. There he learns from his father that his mother was pure Quincy and was about to marry Uryuu’s father. Ichigo’s father personally tried to investigate a case where the shinigami were mysteriously killed by an unknown attacker in the human world.

He later discovers that the killing was done by one of Aizen’s creations, the Hollow “White”. A fight breaks between Isshin and the Hollow. Masaki, Ichigo’s mother, senses the fight and goes to check it out. Isshin tries to use his Bankai but Aizen, who was hiding in a special cloak that allowed him to suppress his presence, wounded Isshin in a way that he was unable to use his Bankai without reaching a fatal state.

Bleach Season 17 100 year blood arc

Masaki intervenes and manages to defeat White but the Hollow essence enters her. Isshin and Masaki greeted and exchanged names. Sometime later Masaki started feeling unwell and discovered she was hollowfying. Ryuken, Uryuu’s father, tried to find a cure for Masaki’s hollowfication and on the other hand, Isshin was looking for her. Both the parties meet and start arguing. Kurahara intervenes and proposes a solution.

If Isshin could enter a gigai and link his soul with Masaki’s, then he could effectively seal away the hollowfication but at the cost of his Shinigami powers. To Ryuken’s surprise, Isshin promptly agreed. A series of events pass after that and Ryuken could no longer marry Masaki for her pure Quincy blood was tainted. Isshin and Masaki fell in love and married. Isshin also tells the reason behind his mother’s death at the hands of the Grand Fisher.

Yhwach awakened after a slumber of 900 years and after 90 years of gaining most of his memories, Yhwach performed the Auswählen to completely restore his powers. Those Quincies who were deemed by Yhwach were forcefully stripped of their powers and coincidentally it was the same day that Masaki had to fight Grand Fisher to protect Ichigo. Without her powers, Masaki lost her life.

Ichigo is teleported back to the palace where he is again locked in the chamber full of angry Asauchis. To Nimaya’s surprise, all the Asauchis kneel before Ichigo and he chooses one of them as his Zanpakuto. While forging Ichigo’s Zanapakuto, Nimaya reveals that all along whom Ichigo thought to be his zangetsu was his Quincy power. It tried to suppress Ichigo’s shinigami powers as much as possible to stop him from being a shinigami but Ichigo surpassed all limits to prove his worth.

The Hollow power that Ichigo thought to be the Quincy was the fused power of White and his shinigami father that Ichigo inherited from both his parents. Ichigo confronts his supposed Zangetsu who reveals all the truth but now chooses to no longer suppress Ichigo’s real Zangetsu.

Ichigo chooses to balance out his Quincy and Zangetsu and obtains a short and a long sword which represents the powers respectively. After a while, the Soul Society faces a full-force invasion from Yhwach and Wunderlich. By the end of this second invasion, Yhwach has managed to absorb the powers of the Soul King and become the new Soul King. With it he truly becomes the Almighty gaining the ability to see and alter the future. The story comes to an end with Yhwach’s inconvenient death because of his overstepped arrogance of being the ultimate.

Bleach Season 17 cast

  • Akio Ohtsuka as Shunsui Kyōraku
  • Takayuki Sugo as Yhwach
  • Rina Satou as Senjumaru Shutara
  • Yumi Uchiyama as Candice Catnipp
  • Ayumi Tsunematsu as Kirio Hikifune
  • Yuichiro Umehara as Jugram Haschwalth
  • Tomokazu Sugita as Kensei Muguruma
  • Noriaki Sugiyama as Uryū Ishida
  • Naomi Kusumi as Ichibē Hyōsube
  • Tetsu Inada as Sajin Komamura
  • Ryusei Nakao as Mayuri Kurotsuchi
  • Shinichiro Miki as Kisuke Urahara
  • Satoshi Hino as Lille Barro
  • Aya Hisakawa as Retsu Unohana
  • Yuki Matsuoka as Orihime Inoue
  • Masaya Onosaka as Shinji Hirako
  • Yūki Ono as Bazz-B
  • Kentaro Ito as Renji Abarai
  • Tomoyuki Shimura as Tenjirō Kirinji
  • Ryotaro Okiayu as Byakuya Kuchiki
  • Shunsuke Takeuchi as Askin Nakk Le Vaar
  • Houko Kuwashima as Suì-Fēng
  • Ayana Taketatsu as Bambietta Basterbine
  • Hideo Ishikawa as Jūshirō Ukitake
  • Satsuki Yukino as Yoruichi Shihōin
  • Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia Kuchiki
  • Natsuki Hanae as Gremmy Thoumeaux
  • Hiroki Yasumoto as Yasutora Sado
  • Romi Park as Tōshirō Hitsugaya
  • Fumihiko Tachiki as Kenpachi Zaraki
  • Binbin Takaoka as Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto
  • Shouto Kashii as Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi
  • Masakazu Morita as Ichigo Kurosaki
  • Yōji Ueda as Ōetsu Mimaiya

Conclusion

All the while, fans have had mixed reviews with the ending of Bleach. Bleach has had its golden time where the fanbase praised the concept, plot, and stylization of the characters. Sadly, the ending is not up to the mark since it was rushed and half-heartedly written. Reasons being health-related issues of Tite Kubo and strict deadline that needed to follow.

Kubo in interviews has been frequently asked about his opinion on the ending and he has frankly stated that he never intended on having the manga run for such a long time. He had the concept and wanted to keep it simple. He repeatedly wanted a suitable ending but pushed. The manga ended where Kubo intended it to and is respected for his contribution. Bleach remains one of the manga out there and is definitely worth the read even after a rushed ending.

Kierra Rowsey
Kierra Rowsey

Kierra Rowsey is a freelance TV, Film and anime critic for over 12 years, living in Arkansas with her husband and three kids. She graduated from NYU College of Arts & Science in 2008.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *