Is Bleach: No Breaths From Hell Headed for an Anime Adaptation? Everything We Know About Tite Kubo’s One-Shot Sequel

Bleach may have wrapped its main manga years ago, but Tite Kubo quietly set up a next chapter. For the series 20th anniversary in 2021, he dropped a special one-shot, and it is not a side story. It is a straight-up sequel to Thousand-Year Blood War that picks up the ball after the big finale. Whether it will ever be animated? Still a question mark.

What the one-shot actually is

The chapter is called 'Bleach: No Breaths From Hell' (also known as 'Echoing Jaws of Hell'), and it is set 12 years after the Quincy Blood War. The Gotei 13 gather for a memorial ceremony honoring Captain Jushiro Ukitake, and then things get weird fast: the dead are not resting where everyone thinks. The story leans darker than classic Bleach, teases new characters, and strongly hints Ukitake is still out there, just not in the living world or Soul Society. He is in Hell.

Why fans want this animated

On the anime side, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War returned in October 2022 and has been split into four parts. Three parts are already out, and the fourth, called 'The Calamity', is still on the way. This one-shot lives beyond all of that, answering the inevitable 'what happens after TYBW' question and setting the table for a fresh conflict.

It also time-jumps: Ichigo is now an adult and married to Orihime Inoue. Their son, Kazui Kurosaki, is introduced as a human born with Shinigami powers, and the chapter positions him as a potential next-gen lead. New Soul Reapers show up. New threats show up. And the series finally draws a hard line around a place Bleach has mostly skirted: Hell itself.

How Hell works here (the simple version)

Normal Shinigami die, their reishi breaks down, and their bodies are reabsorbed by the Soul Society. But captain-class are a different story: their reiatsu is so dense it cannot be reabsorbed. The cost of that power is brutal — when they die, their souls get pulled into Hell. The chapter makes that cosmic rule a plot point, and it is a nasty one. New enemies are implied, and the tone is more ominous than anything in the main run.

Is an adaptation happening?

Short answer: there is no official announcement. Kubo has only released this single one-shot with no formal continuation yet, which makes a direct anime sequel tricky unless he expands it. That said, the setup is almost begging for a follow-up once 'The Calamity' finishes.

Quick season snapshot

• Season 3: delivers the Soul Society payoff the early arcs promised
• Season 17 (TYBW): top-tier, stylish animation
• Season 2: beefs up character work and momentum
• Season 8: gorgeous fights, pacing hiccups
• Season 14: Aizen walks in and steals the spotlight
• Season 7: pacing is bumpy, plot still lands
• Season 6: the Arrancar era and their twisted motives
• Season 16: the last stretch before TYBW
• Season 11: side characters get fun backstories
• Season 1: a strong, punchy intro
• Season 12: the big Karakura Town battle
• Season 5: low stakes, not the most gripping
• Season 10: lots of clashes, not much forward motion
• Season 15: slow and mostly forgettable
• Season 13: repetitive plotting
• Season 4: filler and barely tied to the main thread
• Season 9: also off the main path

Scores and where to watch

If you are number-curious: the original run (seasons 1–16) sits around 8.2 on IMDb and roughly 7.98 on MyAnimeList. TYBW clocks higher, at about 9.0 on IMDb and 8.99 on MAL. Streaming is easy — both the classic series and TYBW are on Hulu.

The bottom line

'No Breaths From Hell' is a one-shot, but it feels like a pilot for Bleach: The Next Era — older Ichigo, new blood in Kazui, and a nasty metaphysical hook. No greenlight yet, just a chapter that dropped in 2021 for the 20th anniversary and left the door to Hell wide open. Should Studio Pierrot take the leap and animate it? I am all for it. Tell me where you land.