Warning: Contains spoilers for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3, Episode #13.For almost a decade, one of the biggest debates in theBleachfandom has been the canonicity of its sequel story,Can’t Fear Your Own World. The sequel trilogy of novels was written not by series creator Tite Kubo, but by Ryogo Narita ofBaccano!andDurarara!!fame, and because of that, many people feel like it shouldn’t count as an officialBleachsequel story.
There has always been over the canonicity ofCan’t Fear Your Own World, butBleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warhas been taking steps to rectify that. The part 3 finale, as with many other episodes, included new material to better reference the wider lore of the franchise, and surprisingly,Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warpart 3’s finale included an original scene that all but confirmsCan’t Fear Your Own Worldas canon. That’s great for any fans of the novels, and it promises a lot of great things forBleach, as a whole.
How Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War References Its Sequel Story
InCan’t Fear Your Own World, it was revealed that Aizen attacked Rangiku when she was a child because she had inherited a fragment of the Soul King, with said fragment being used to construct his Hogyoku. That’s relevant because theThousand-Year Blood Waranime created a new scene of Rangiku giving a strange look toward Gerard Valkyrie, the heart of the Soul King, sothe new scene with Rangiku inBleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warpart 3’s finale seems to hint thatCan’t Fear Your Own Worldis canon by referencing Rangiku and Gerard’s shared connection to the Soul King.
This isn’t the first timeBleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warhas referenced the novels, of course. Not only was Shinji’s Bankai identical to how it was depicted inCan’t Fear Your Own World, butIchigo’s training in the Irazusandorepeatedly referenced the new lore surrounding the Soul King, most notably in how Ichibei was molding Ichigo to be a replacement Soul King.The scene of Rangiku looking at Gerard is the latest instance ofBleach: Thousand-Year Blood WarreferencingCan’t Fear Your Own World, and with how much more explicit it is, it’s even harder to deny the novels are canon.
Is Bleach’s Sequel Story Going To Get An Anime?
Has Bleach Already Revealed Its Next Anime?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood Warpart 4is confirmed to be the final season of the anime, but withBleachbeing the biggest it has been in years, it would make sense to expect more from the franchise. The manga will continue at some point with the Echoing Jaws of Hell arc, and as for the anime,it would make perfect sense for all the teases toCan’t Fear Your Own Worldto be setting up an anime adaptation followingBleach: Thousand-Year Blood War.
Between the incredible lore reveals and the great character work provided for Hisagi and Ginjo,Can’t Fear Your Own Worldis an excellent addition to theBleachfranchise that perfectly rounds out the original story, and an anime would do wonders to help it reach a wider audience. It’s unknown if Rangiku’s scenes and others are truly setting up something like that, but the fact thatBleach: Thousand-Year Blood WarreferencesCan’t Fear Your Own Worldat all is still great to see.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War
Cast
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is a sequel series to the popular anime from creator Tite Kubo. This anime follows Ichigo and his friends as they investigate why people are disappearing while trouble arises in the Soul Society. The first season was released in 2022 and has been critically acclaimed since its beginning.
