{"id":51188,"date":"2026-07-09T03:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/51188\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T03:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T03:01:20","slug":"ichigos-voice-actors-are-ready-to-feel-like-1-one-last-time-in-bleach-thousand-year-blood-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/51188\/","title":{"rendered":"Ichigo’s Voice Actors Are Ready to Feel Like ‘#1’ One Last Time in ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been four years since Bleach fans rejoiced when the anime made its grand return at Anime Expo 2022 with Viz Media and Pierrot Film\u2019s sequel series, Thousand-Year Blood War<\/a>. Now, fans are preparing for the beginning of the end with the imminent arrival of The Calamity<\/a>, its fourth and final season. The Calamity gives the shonen epic the proper farewell fans thought would never come after the original anime ended in 2012, before it reached its climactic final arc.<\/p>\n

Created by Tite Kubo<\/a>, Bleach follows Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager who moonlights as a substitute Soul Reaper, a type of samurai who defends humanity from evil spirits called \u201cHollows.\u201d He\u2019s sort of a big deal, not only in his own series but in Shonen Jump history, with\u00a0Bleach being part of Shonen Jump\u2019s \u201cBig Three<\/a>\u201d alongside Naruto<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0One Piece<\/a>, heavy hitters that ran in the magazine concurrently whose impact continues to be felt in the industry today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thousand Year Blood War, though polarizing amongst manga readers, sees Ichigo\u2019s tale finally come to an end in an aptly titled all-out war between Soul Reapers and Quincy\u2014the archer yin to Soul Reapers\u2019 sword-wielding yang, with which Ichigo has deep, complicated ties. As far as its anime adaptation is concerned, the show continues to find new ways to exceed expectations with the inclusion of original scenes<\/a>, cementing its status as one of the greatest shonen anime of all time.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the final season\u2019s premiere, io9 spoke with Ichigo Kurosaki\u2019s English and Japanese voice actors, Johnny Yong Bosch<\/a> and Masakazu Morita<\/a>, about getting back in the booth for Bleach one last time, as well as a humbling conversation that\u2019s bound to put a moratorium on the eternal subs vs. dubs anime debate in the most wholesome way possible.<\/p>\n

\"Bleach:Left: Johnny Yong Bosch, right: Masakazu Morita \u00a9 Isaiah Colbert\/io9 <\/p>\n

Isaiah Colbert, io9: Of all the heroes in shonen anime, especially in the \u201cBig Three,\u201d Ichigo Kurosaki always felt like someone effortlessly cool. For both of you, how has Ichigo differed from other anime roles you\u2019ve played, and what has made him feel special compared with other characters you\u2019ve brought to life?<\/p>\n

Johnny Yong Bosch: Ichigo is still very early in my career as far as voicing in anime. Almost immediately, he became a very iconic character in the story and how he wants to protect his friends and his loved ones. And really, most of it is the story, the spiritual aspect of it. For me, it cemented a place pretty early on.<\/p>\n

Masakazu Morita: I think he was a really smart character. He\u2019s always thinking ahead of what someone\u2019s gonna do next, and next, even after that. So sometimes when other people hear what he has to say, they don\u2019t know what to do, but it\u2019s because of his insight. So I really try to bring out that smartness around him and chase after thinking like him, and it\u2019s really challenging to follow his thought process.<\/p>\n

io9: I\u2019d be remiss not to note that one thing that sets Ichigo far and away from the other members of the \u201cbig three\u201d shonen anime is that his theme song, \u201cNumber One,\u201d is arguably the greatest piece of anime music of all time. Whenever you hear that theme song kick in, does it give you goosebumps and make you feel like you can walk through a wall? What goes through your mind when his song hits?<\/p>\n

Bosch: Yeah, absolutely. It\u2019s funny because when I first heard it, it wasn\u2019t something I would expect. But the more I heard it, I was like, \u201cOh yeah, this is what it is.\u201d It just took that on for me. So anytime I hear it, it feels like we\u2019re about to get into some action.<\/p>\n

Morita: (Laughs) What kind of song did you think it was gonna\u2026?<\/p>\n

Bosch: (Laughs) I don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t expect lyrics, maybe. I was thinking more like a film score or something, which it does have.<\/p>\n

Morita: Ah! I\u2019ve had a long history with this song, just like you, Johnny. Ichigo\u2019s theme song, for Bleach fans, you have to have it. In Japan, when we\u2019re recording, usually, there\u2019s no music. But just for Thousand-Year Blood War, the staff has actually put the song in for us when it\u2019s in the series, so it really gets us riled up. The song really brings out a lot of the emotion within me, too.<\/p>\n

io9: The Bleach anime is finally finishing its story after so many years, when fans had a looming sense that it wouldn\u2019t follow the Fullbringer arc. What\u2019s more, Pierrot Films is putting its whole foot into its animation to meet the moment with each part as we march toward its series finale. What has that culmination felt like for you, especially after returning to the series after such a long break as Ichigo Kurosaki?<\/p>\n

Bosch: (Laughs) That\u2019s a great question. It\u2019s almost like seeing an old friend that you thought had died. It\u2019s like, \u201cWhoa, you\u2019re still alive? Let\u2019s catch up!\u201d Yes, we get to do it. But then to see the animation, it\u2019s just amazing. For me, sometimes, when I record, it\u2019s just three beeps, but sometimes I\u2019m just watching like, \u201cOh wait, wait, wait. Sorry!\u201d I get caught up in the animation. I always say I need to work, but I just want to watch it.<\/p>\n

Morita: What we now say is \u201cthe old series,\u201d that was for seven years. So there was a bit of a gap in the anime, but even throughout that time, I was working on the mobile game, so I never really forgot about [Ichigo]. All the other voice actors were doing the same working on the app. So it was really nice that we never got to leave those characters. At the same time, when Thousand-Year Blood War started back up, we saw Ichigo moving in animation form, it gave me goosebumps.<\/p>\n

io9: How long has it been since you both last met? What was it like finally meeting each other after voicing the same character for so many years?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bosch: The very first time we met? I don\u2019t remember the exact year, but I met him in Hawaii. For me, because it\u2019s such an important role in my list of voiceovers\u2014it\u2019s one of the most popular ones\u2014it was a little scary meeting the man who\u2019s carved out this character. It was an honor, but scary.<\/p>\n

Morita: (Laughs) When I first met you, I actually thought you were a very powerful person who was just so extroverted, coming out and doing all these things. I didn\u2019t think you were scared!<\/p>\n

Bosch: I was acting.<\/p>\n

io9: While the subs versus dubs argument will likely outlive all of us, your embodiments of Ichigo as his seiyuu and as his English voice actor are less a point of comparison for anime fans to debate and more one where they have trouble deciding which they love more. What do you appreciate about each other\u2019s portrayal of Ichigo?<\/p>\n

Bosch: I love it. I feel like a lot of people don\u2019t understand that he\u2019s setting the stage for me. He makes these choices based on the script that he\u2019s got, and he gets to develop the character. For me, when I walk into the booth, it is the first time I\u2019m seeing it. So once I see it, there\u2019s an excitement for the choices he\u2019s made. It\u2019s almost like rooting for whatever he\u2019s doing because he\u2019s just laid out the playground for me to play in. It\u2019s absolute excitement each time.<\/p>\n

Morita: Before we met, I did hear once what you thought of Ichigo and your portrayal of him as a character. I\u2019m not sure you remember. Apparently, you heard me and heard a very passionate character. But you said then that you were trying to give him a little more street hardness in the English portrayal, and that really stuck with me. I was really blown away by the fact that you were not just trying to imitate in another language, but to give him another layer of identity. I really appreciate and was blown away by that.<\/p>\n

When I dub a Hollywood movie, I take what I learned from you and try to give it a little bit of my own color to the character. In Japan, there\u2019s not really a culture of doing that, so I really took to heart what you said and learned from that.<\/p>\n

Bosch: Wow, thats very cool to hear.<\/p>\n

\"Bleach:\u00a9 Pierrot Films <\/p>\n

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War premieres July 25, on\u00a0 Hulu and Disney+.<\/p>\n

io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We\u2019ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around.\u00a0You can check out all of io9\u2019s Anime Expo coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been four years since Bleach fans rejoiced when the anime made its grand return at Anime Expo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21054],"tags":[1856,41705,15001,41706,5307,21064],"class_list":["post-51188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bosch","tag-anime","tag-anime-expo","tag-bleach","tag-bleach-thousand-year-blood-war","tag-bosch","tag-robert-bosch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}