Revisiting the First Time Bleach Ended
by Kennedy,At the height of its popularity, the first Bleach anime was a mega-popular, generation-shaping classic. Which is why its premature ending in 2012 marked the beginning of the end of an era.
It's hard to overstate how dominant Bleach was at the height of its popularity in the mid/late 2000s. Adapted from Tite Kubo's call it, “one of the most powerful and successful new series coming out of Japan.”
But by February 2012, things were a bit different. Bleach was still inarguably MyAnimeList (a title it still holds as of this editorial's publication.)
But a mega-popular series going through a lull is still a mega-popular series at the end of the day. Even during its lowest points, Bleach's name still carried more weight than most anime ever did at their peaks. Besides, Bleach was a part of the big 3. And things simply seemed to operate differently when it came to the big 3. For example, most of the entire second half of the first Naruto anime was filler, and yet Shippuden still got made. So while it was hardly a secret that Bleach was in a slump, the idea that it could end any time soon was never really a possibility that fans entertained… until February 2012.
Never had there been (or has there been since) a singular month that was as chock-full with bad news specifically for Bleach fans as February 2012. And what better way to kick such a month off than, of course, the landmark announcement that Bleach's manga was about to enter its final arc, making it the first of the big 3—each of whose anime adaptation had now been airing for a minimum of seven years, accumulated well over 300 episodes, and had multiple movies—to put their endings within sight. Needless to say, this news was huge, and sent shockwaves across the manga/anime industry and fan communities alike. But fans took comfort in the fact that even if the manga was entering the final arc, that still meant that Kubo had to write and draw the final arc—a process which would almost certainly give them at least a few more years before Bleach was over, and naturally that means a lot of time left in the anime's lifespan. So for the time being, there was no reason to suspect that Bleach—either the anime or the manga—would be ending in the immediate future, right?
Not allowing Bleach fans even a moment to catch their collective breath, it was discussion and speculation on what this meant for the future of the Bleach anime. While their voices were hardly a monolith, most fans and other onlookers eager to discuss Bleach's now-precarious future seemed to agree that the likeliest scenarios were it moving timeslots, or going on a brief hiatus. After all, especially with the manga's ending now on the horizon, there's no way the Bleach anime could end now, on the eve of its final arc, right?
Despite what its fans were hoping, Bleach losing its timeslot was the final nail in its proverbial coffin. But the general public wouldn't know that until about three weeks (and InuYasha: The Final Act? Or was it going to do something else entirely? None of the big 3 had yet needed to craft an ending, so it truly felt like anything could've happened to Bleach.
But with only five weeks left, fans didn't have much time to speculate about how Bleach would end before it finally came to a close on March 27, 2012—just over a month after the announcement that the anime was ending soon, which itself was slightly less than a month since the announcement that the manga was entering its final arc. Nonetheless, Bleach fans old and new came out of the woodwork to appreciate the influence Kubo's series had on their lives in the aftermath of the final episode's release. While I won't delve into spoiler territory by discussing specifics, reviews for the episode itself tended to be solid—neither particularly good nor bad, but adequately tied up some loose ends. And yet, “bittersweet” is probably the most common word you'll find in old forum threads and blog posts reflecting on the episode, as the fact that it was ending at all—let alone so soon—still felt significant. Even though the manga was still ongoing, for many Bleach fans the end of its anime nonetheless felt like the closing of some cultural chapter, or the end of an era.
Just a few months after Bleach's anime had ended, in June 2012, Naruto creator in an interview. It had been several years, at that point, since he had tried to pinpoint where One Piece's progress was, and while his guess ended up being (extremely) wrong in the long run, the fact that he even tried to make it illustrates that it was clearly something on his mind (or at least, the minds of fans.) Put more simply, by the end of 2012 it was no longer something their fans could ignore: each of the big 3 would end someday. And while that seems obvious to say, it was still a notion that felt weird to face after so many years of their continued prevalence.
Even 10 years later, dialogues and discussions trying to make sense of Bleach's decline have continued to linger. And a key part of understanding Bleach's overall fall from grace is understanding the heart of how and why its anime ended as abruptly as it did. To this day there's no official statement confirming the details of how or why it happened. While fans generally agree that it was the likely consequence of declining/plateauing sales and popularity (which, in case it wasn't clear, is almost certainly the case) this answer still doesn't tell us much: how long was the decision to end the show considered before it finally happened? Was there a specific quota that wasn't being met? Who first proposed the idea to prematurely end the anime, and how did other people working on the show react to this news? Was there any internal pushback? While fans have the data available to notice trends like Bleach's sales, more definitive information like this has proven to be much more elusive.
The silver lining to everything I've said here, however, is that while the first Bleach anime ended, it's not really over in the strictest sense of the word—not anymore, at least. The final, yet un-animated arc—Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War —premieres October 10.
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