Skip to content 
In a recent interview with Daisuke Sakuma on his radio talk show, Bleach creator Tite Kubo shared insights into his creative process, revealing that he kept his editor at arm’s length, never allowing him to interfere in the manga.
“I’m the type of writer who doesn’t really have meetings with my editor,” Kubo stated.
Unlike many manga creators who frequently consult with their editors, Kubo preferred to work on his own terms.
“When I was serializing, my editor would come to pick up the manuscript once it was done. I’d tell them, ‘Next week, it’ll go like this,’ and then they’d leave,” he explained.
Sakuma expressed surprise at this approach, noting that it’s common for editors to be heavily involved in shaping a manga’s story.
Editorial interferences are common occurrences in the manga industry, with well documented cases including how Masashi Kishimoto was forced to include the Chunin arc in Naruto, how Akutami was forced to delay the entry of Yuta Okkotsu in Jujutsu Kaisen and how Detective Conan author Gosho Aoyama nearly ended the series due to editorial interference.
However, Kubo revealed that he didn’t give his editor much choice in the matter.
“It’s more like… I didn’t give them any other choice,” he said.
According to Kubo, the primary role of the editor was to keep him motivated and driven.
“As long as the editor keeps me motivated, that’s enough.“
During the conversation, Kubo also shared a humorous anecdote from the early days of Bleach, recalling an annual party hosted by Shonen Jump, where his editor was jokingly referred to as simply a manuscript pickup guy by the editor-in-chief.
“When I’d go with my editor from back then, the editor-in-chief would say, ‘You only think of this guy as the manuscript pickup guy, don’t you?’“
Written and illustrated by Tite Kubo, Bleach was serialized in Shueisha’s shonen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 2001 to August 2016, with its chapters collected in 74 tankobon volumes.
An anime adaptation, adapted by studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe, broadcast for 366 episodes from October 2004 to March 2012.
Anime adaptation of manga’s final arc, titled Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, started airing in October 2022. The series will run for four cours with off-season breaks in between.
The first cour, titled The Blood Warfare, consists of 13 episodes and ended in December 2022. The second cour, titled The Separation, also consists of 13 episodes and was broadcast from July to September 2023. The third cour, titled The Conflict, is scheduled to premiere in October 2024.
Tite Kubo had revealed that he will be involved even more in the upcoming cour 3 Bleach TYBW anime.
The series has also spawned four animated films: Bleach: Memories of Nobody, which premiered on Dec 16, 2006; Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, which premiered on Dec 22, 2007; Bleach: Fade to Black, which premiered on Dec 13, 2008; and Bleach: Hell Verse, premiered on Dec 4, 2010.
A live-action film adaptation premiered in Japan on July 20, 2018.
Source: X
