Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is readying for the launch of its final wave of episodes next year, and the character designer behind it all revealed how Orihime Inoue helped him to get his job in the first place. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is now adapting the final arc of Tite Kubo’s original Bleach manga nearly 20 years after the first anime series came to an end, and many of the creative minds behind the original anime have returned for the new series as well. This includes longtime character designer Masashi Kudo, who opened up about the new series during Anime Expo 2025.
As part of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War‘s special panel during Anime Expo 2025 earlier this month (of which ComicBook was in attendance), Masashi Kudo shared a special video with fans full of new information about the animator never revealed before. This included a special story of how became a character designer for the Bleach anime in the first place, and it turns out that his drawing of Orihime impressed Kubo so much that it landed him the job as part of a big contest.
Bleach Designer Talks Orihime’s Help With the Anime
“So I got my start at Artland Animation Studio,” Kudo began in a special video shared by Viz Media. “Then, when I went off on my own and became a freelancer, my first job was at Studio Pierrot on the title Tokyo Mew Mew, which was also Director Abe’s work. So there I worked on key animation. And ever since, I’ve been part of Team Abe, so to speak. The came the title Detective School Q. And after that, that’s when I came to work on Bleach. I’d heard they were looking for a character designer. I was told, there’s this competition, you should do it. It was Producer Hagino who reached out.”
And upon entering this contest, Kudo explained how his take on Orihime is what ultimately impressed the original creator enough to get his job working on the anime, “So I decided to enter the competition and I submitted a number of drawings like Ichigo, Uryu and Orihime…Then, and I would come to hear this later, it turned out Kubo Sensei took a liking to my drawing of Orihime. And basically, just like that, as character designer I joined Bleach. Turns out with Orihime, her sort of sensualness…that’s what seemed to have won him over.” Hilariously also revealing that he had no experience with the manga beforehand too, Kudo really understood Orihime’s appeal either way.
When Does Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 Come Out?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 – The Calamity is now in the works for a release next year, but has yet to confirm a more concrete release date as of its updates shared during Anime Expo 2025 earlier this month. With only about 30 chapters of Tite Kubo’s Bleach manga left to adapt for the anime, there’s also going to be plenty of new materials to enjoy in the coming episodes as Kudo also teased during the panel that there would be some big surprises in store for fans.
“Up until now…And this was the case up until this part, but with the anime-only scenes…For example, [Kubo] Sensei may’ve had a scene in mind, but didn’t include it in the manga,” Kudo revealed. “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. Like new characters. Yes, you’ll definitely get to see some of them.”
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