‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4’ To Feature Scenes And Characters Not Seen In Original Manga, More Involvement From Tite Kubo Than “All Of Parts 1-3 Combined”
While the next season has yet to receive an official trailer, the ‘Bankai-ype’ is reaching a fever pitch thanks to the recent revelation that the upcoming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 – The Calamity feature a bevy of new, never-before-seen content, as personally overseen by series creator Tite Kubo.
This update regarding the climax of Ichigo’s fight with Yhwach was provided to fans by Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War character designer Masahi Kudo, who spoke to these upcoming narrative additions during a series-specific panel hosted by by Viz Media at the recent 2025 Anime Expo.
Asked by the English-language manga publisher as to “what scenes or parts are you particularly looking forward to [working on]” in Part 4, Kudo offered a curve ball and admitted that he was most interested in tackling a number of scenes that, for whatever eason, Kubo could not originally depict during Bleach‘s original manga run.
“Up until now, and this was the case up until this, but with anime-only scenes, for example, [Kubo]-sensei may’ve had a scene in mind, but didn’t include it in the manga,” the character designer stated. “This time we’ll have more of those kinds of scenes. Those new aspects, I think they’re something to get excited about.”
“I think even those who’ve read Bleach back in Jump even they will have some new discoveries to look forward to,” he added. “Like new characters. Yes, you’ll definitely get to see some of them.”
While Kudo did not provide any specifics as to just which events or characters could be making an appearance, his note regarding said narrative additions also being left out of the original manga has led some fans to speculate that Part 4 may end up adapting material from the fully-canon Bleach light novels, like Can’t Fear Your Own World or WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU (the latter of which actually directly relates to the series’ ending).
And in further stoking the flames of fan excitement, as the panel drew to a close, Viz Media treated fans to a separate and exclusive video interview with Bleach creator Tite Kubo, wherein the mangaka confirmed that he drastically increased his involvement with the anime’s production during Part 4 due to the amount of anime original content it’s set to present.
Therein, per a recap of the interview provided by panel attendee @TheWeebsGuild via their personal Twitter account, when faced with the same question regarding his most anticipated aspect of Part 4, Kubo asserted, “The last part largely expands the story and I look forward to seeing it in completion.”
“And as such, I feel I need to supervise it closely,” he continued. “The amount I supervised in all of Part 1-3 combined is equal to what I’ve done for Part 4 so far.”
Unfortunately, it looks like eager Bleach fans will have to wait just a little longer for the series’ epic conclusion, as alongside these insights from Kudo and Kubo, the latter also broke the news that Part 4 had been delayed until 2026.
Apologizing via a statement published to the official Bleach website, Kubo explained, “I’m sure many fans were thinking, ‘Isn’t it going to be aired this year?’ I’m sorry, but it will be next year.”
“Please wait a little longer until next year,” his apology continued, as machine translated via DeepL. “I am confident that we can make it a good one.”
At the time of this writing, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Part 4: The Calamity is now set to conclude the Soul Reapers’ war against the Quincy sometime in 2026.
While waiting for the final season, fans can catch up on Bleach, including the entirety of Thousand-Year Blood War Parts 1-3, on Hulu in the US or Disney+ for international viewers.
