About Bleach
‘BLEACH’ (ブリーチ Burīchi) began as a manga by Japanese mangaka Tite Kubo (Noriaki Kubo). Bleach began its serialization in the popular Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shounen Jump in August 2001. The manga quickly grew in popularity as a shounen title and was eventually adapted into an anime TV series. The Bleach anime first aired on October 2004 and was directed by Noriyuki Abe with animation by Studio Pierrot. Both the Bleach manga and anime have been licensed by Viz Media for English release in North America. Bleach has also, so far, spawned two movies, many video games, and strangely enough, a Bleach rock musical.
About Tite Kubo:
Tite Kubo, born Noriaki Kubo, is the author and artist behind the Bleach manga. Kubo had been drawing manga since his high school days. Although Bleach has become a very successful series, his road to success has not always been a smooth one. Kubo’s first one-shot manga, “Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine,” was published in Weekly Shounen Jump Special in 1996. A few years later, Kubo submitted his first manga series, Zombie Powder, but was rejected. After some reworking with an editor, Kubo had his first break in 1999 with the serialization of Zombie Powder in Weekly Shounen Jump. However, due to low readership, Zombie Powder was canned in 2000 after just four
volumes.
Even with cancellation of his first series, Kubo did not give up and quickly begin working on his next project: Bleach. But once again, the editors at Shounen Jump rejected his idea, claiming the story was too similar to the popular manga YuYu Hakusho. Kubo was again dealt a severe blow, but then received a letter from the famous Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball. Toriyama happened to have read the Bleach pilot manga and liked it very much. He encouraged Kubo not to give up in his letter. With Toriyama’s encouragement, Kubo continued to push for the publication of Bleach until it was finally serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump in 2001.
Bob Ichimaru | 
August 23, 2008 4:05 pm
