Just when you think BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War can’t get any more hype, then something like this happens. How else do you explain official fan art for the anime right from the production staff?

Is It Really Fan Art If the Official Production Staff are Drawing It?

"BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War" official fanart of Uryu Ishida by Masashi Kudoh.
Well, at least we all know now who the chief character designer’s favorite BLEACH character is.

On the official Twitter account of BLEACH, they recently posted in 2 separate posts official BLEACH fan art to promote BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War. Why are they official, you might ask? Well, it’s because the fan art comes from members of the production staff.

Take that fan art of Uryu Ishida above, for example. It looks very high quality. Almost like a drawing by BLEACH mangaka Tite Kubo himself, really. That drawing is by none other than Masashi Kudoh. Who is he, you might ask? Well, if you look at the credits for BLEACH, you might notice his name there. Kudoh is in fact the chief character designer for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, and has actually been the character designer and chief animator for much of BLEACH‘s anime history, including all of the anime films from Memories of Nobody to Hell Verse. It’s quite the legacy, and so that fan art of Uyru is all the more significant. If only because it gives us an idea of who his favorite BLEACH character might be.

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War ~ One More Fan Art

"BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War" official fanart of Orihime Inoue by Yuki Matsuoka.
I detect more than a hint of shojo manga influence here.

This second bit of official BLEACH fan art is a bit less professionally drawn compared to Masashi Kudoh’s handiwork, as you can see above. However, the artwork is still pretty decent, and you can clearly tell it’s Orihime Inoue fan art. Why her? Well, it’s because this bit of fan art is by none other than her Japanese voice actress: Yuki Matsuoka. She’s definitely using a strong shojo manga influence here with her fan art, what with the large eyes and all. It’s actually nice to see that she cares so much about this role as to draw fan art for it. It definitely gives me hope for this latest and final season of BLEACH.

Speaking of that, here’s a reminder that BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War will make its global debut on October 10, 2022. You can watch it only on Hulu, because they bought the rights to stream it. You used to be able to watch it on Crunchyroll, but sadly, that’s now no longer an option since they removed this anime from their streaming service.

Source: Twitter, Twitter

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