What is Bleach's 'Hell Arc' and why it could return soon

In 2021 a one-shot titled "No Breathes from Hell" appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump, five years after the manga ended, to mark the series' 20th anniversary. The chapter picked up the story 12 years after the war with the Quincy and teased what many fans call the "Hell Arc." Attention then shifted to the Thousand-Year Blood War anime, but with that anime's final season due to start airing on July 25, the Hell Arc has returned to the conversation.

The one-shot shows Ichigo Kurosaki living peacefully in Karakura Town, married to Orihime and raising a son, Kazui, who has inherited Shinigami powers and comforts lost souls. In the Soul Society the Gotei 13 prepare a Konso Reisai ritual held 12 years after a captain's death, and Ichigo is invited to the ceremony for Captain Jushiro Ukitake in the Human World.

The ritual is interrupted by mysterious Hollows and by Szayelaporro Granz, an Arrancar believed dead, who reveals he was cast into Hell—one of the worlds alongside the Human World, Hueco Mundo, and the Soul Society.

bleach, hell arc, no breathes, shonen jump, ichigo kurosaki, orihime, kazui, soul society, gotei 13, thousand-year