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Bleach has officially returned to the screen with The Thousand Year Blood War arc, airing the first episode on October 11, 2022. The anime community has been celebrating the comeback all over the internet since its announcement last year. That being said, a question that continues to plague the fandom is whether this return promises the continuation of the Hell arc that Kubo has introduced with the one-shot No Breaths From Hell.
Tite Kubo has yet to confirm the sequel, so the immediate answer to the query is - no, the Hell arc of Bleach will not be coming out anytime soon. However, it will be foolish to brush it off completely as the story itself and the way the mangaka had decided to end the one-shot. Let us look at the scope of the arc’s further continuation and when the fandom can expect its release.
Will the much-awaited Hell arc of Bleach be animated in 2022?
What is the Hell arc?
Before we discuss its possible release, let us look through a brief account of what the Hell arc is all about.
The concept of Hell in the Bleach universe was introduced early in the manga. When souls commit atrocities in their human form, they are sent to Hell instead of the Soul Society. Consequently, it is also where the Hollows and the Arranacar are banished to. Since then, it has been a significant part of the narrative at many points in the manga.
What piqued the interest of the fandom was when Tite Kubo came out with the one-shot No Breaths From Hell in August 2021, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the manga and teasing a new arc. The manga ended with a cliffhanger, inviting speculations that the story shall continue.
No Breaths From Hell takes place after the final time skip from the original series that had ended years ago, reintroducing us to Kazui and Ichika, the children of Ichigo and Kuchiki, respectively. It deals with the Konso Reisai festival from the Bleach lore, which is celebrated by the Soul Society 12 years after Captain Ukitake's death. As evident from the name, Hell is expanded as a canonical concept in the manga with a long-forgotten villain on the rise again.
Will the Hell arc be continued in 2022?
With the final arc, i.e., The Thousand Years Blood War arc, of the original Shueisha run of Bleach finally seeing the light of the day, fans are hopeful that Kubo might finally come up with new materials on the one-shot manga. The Hell arc is unlikely to see its release in 2022, as Kubo is currently occupied with the Thousand Year Blood War and has explicitly stated that he doesn’t enjoy creating under pressure.
Over the years, he has received an overwhelming amount of requests to continue the arc and also give out new material on his Burn The Witches. While he has been tight-lipped about the whole fiasco, AniTubers and anime vloggers have wasted no time in reading between the lines, speculating that he might grace the fandom with the full-fledged arc somewhere in the future.
Twitter and Reddit posts have gone wild in the recent past with anticipation about the newly introduced arc. However, from what we can gather at the moment, with no official announcement, the wait for the Bleach Hell arc is yet to be over.
