Tite Kubo Announces the End of BLEACH Manga on August 22

Bleach creator Tite Kubo has announced that the final volume of Bleach manga will be released on August 22 with Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump!

Kubo will be publishing the final chapter of the current Bleach manga which will be under the Weekly Shonen book. The big news about this is that Kubo will have some “major announcements” that will come along with the final chapter.

The manga had hit its final story arc in February 2012 with the 73rd volume being the really final volume for the Bleach manga series.

The cover for Bleach vol. 73

Bleach was launched by Kubo and his team in 2001 and had debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump while the last volume, Bleach vol. 73 was released on July 4.

The manga has transitioned into other territories during it’s heyday including a stunning 366 episode run which went on from 2004 all the way to 2012. It had then invaded the west in 2006 with an English-dubbed version that appeared in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and was distributed overseas by Viz.

Here’s my favorite Bleach opening:

Aside from the anime which also generated four anime films, the franchise also released several novels and a few video games on various consoles. More importantly they also had a series of stage musicals as early as 2005. The latest musical ran until August 4.

Here’s the 2005 stage musical, in its full glory… enjoy: