Shueisha Trademarks Title ‘BLEACH Rebirth Of Souls’, Filing Suggests Plans For New Non-Mobile Video Game Based On Tite Kubo’s Popular Shonen Series
Spencer Baculi
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In a late Christmas present to the many worldwide fans of Tite Kubo’s seminal shonen story, a recent trademark filing from series publisher Shueisha has ostensibly revealed that a brand-new and proper – i.e. non-mobile, non-gacha – BLEACH video game is currently in the works.
This hint towards the potential next outing for Ichigo and crew was first brought to public attention on December 27th courtesy of Twitter user @Kurakasis.
Performing a search of the European Union Intellectual Property Office database, @Kurakasis discovered that earlier that same day, Shueisha had filed an individual trademark request for the name BLEACH Rebirth of Souls.
And though the filing itself gave little information regarding the project’s actual contents, its Nice Classifications – named after the city of Nice, France where it was first negotiated, said ratings serve as “an international classification of goods and services applied for the registration of marks” – provide a small bit of illumination to that regard.
Given the Nice Classifications of ‘9’ and ’41’ – which respectively cover “audiovisual and information technology equipment” and “services having the basic aim of the entertainment, amusement or recreation of people” – it appears the the project were labeled as such due to its involving of “computer software for entertainment” and the “providing [of] video games, computer games, sound, music, images, animation or movies through telecommunication or computer networks”.
However, while some may be quick to write off this reveal as yet another cheap mobile game – and understandably so, given Shueisha’s recent turn to giving nearly everyone of their popular properties their own exploitatively-monetized phone app – it should be noted that said Nice Classifications actually provide evidence to the contrary.
As seen in the respective trademark filings for such actual Shueisha mobile games as BLEACH: Brave Souls and Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle, though these titles likewise received the same Nice Classifications as Rebirth of Souls, the individual provisions under which they were respectively granted are those involving “video game programs for mobile phones” and “the provision of online computer games and video games using communication provided through mobile phones and computer networks.”
Conversely, Rebirth of Souls did not fall under such provisions, instead being given the same appraisal as such other full-fledged Shueisha titles One Piece Odyssey and the upcoming Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO.
In lending further credence to the theory that players will soon be able to jump back into the world of BLEACH via their PCs or consoles, Kubo himself has previously teased that a new video game project based on his work may be in the works.
Speaking to fans via his own Japanese-exclusive Klub Outside personal fanclub in the lead up to the premiere of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War (translated via Fanverse.org moderator MShadows), Kubo was asked “Will there be a new Bleach game launched once the anime starts? There hasn’t been one since [2011’s] Soul Ignition [released internationally under the title Soul Resurrección]. I’m talking about a proper console game, not a mobile one.”
In turn, the mangaka cheekily asserted, “I think I might’ve heard something like that from the manager.”
As of writing, neither Shueisha, Kubo, nor any other related party have yet to give any official response to the discovery of this trademark filing.
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