We’re closer than ever to witnessing the shonen Big Three together, just like in the good ol’ days.
A few days ago, the official Narutowebsite announced that the upcoming 4-episode special planned to commemorate the series’ 20th anniversary has been pushed back to improve its quality. No new release date has been given so far, making fans wonder if they’ll ever get to see the Big Three of shonen – Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece – air at the same time again.
The brand-new Naruto episodes were supposed to come out on September 3rd, meaning the studio made the decision to postpone the anniversary project less than a week before its release. While we’re glad to hear that Studio Pierrot decided to step up their game, we can’t help but wish they’d have done it sooner, as the window of opportunity for our hopes of getting the Big Three reunion is slowly closing.
One Piece is currently in its twentieth season, which is also by far the longest season in the saga, with no concrete end date in sight. Fans predict that the Wano Country Arc may conclude anytime between September and January. The new Bleach season, however, is coming to an end soon. The highly anticipated finale of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 will be released on September 30th, which gives us four more weeks to hope and dream of all three getting to reunite on the same week.
Of course, no one wants a half-baked anniversary special. To this day, the three series generate a lot of discourse and fan wars online, with viewers fighting over which shonen has better animation quality, character design, voice acting, soundtracks, etc. Who knows, perhaps Studio Pierrot looked at the stellar reviews and praise they’ve been getting for their excellent work on Bleach’s final arc and decided that Naruto deserved similar treatment.
We certainly don’t disagree, even if this means we won’t be getting the new project in the next couple of weeks. However, this also means that the studio has painted itself into a corner as fan expectations are now higher than ever.
We can only hope that the studio delivers a final product that is worth the wait. And, for those of us who grew up in the golden era of battle shonen anime, Naruto airing alongside One Piece and Bleach would be the icing on the nostalgia cake.
We’re closer than ever to witnessing the shonen Big Three together, just like in the good ol’ days.
A few days ago, the official Narutowebsite announced that the upcoming 4-episode special planned to commemorate the series’ 20th anniversary has been pushed back to improve its quality. No new release date has been given so far, making fans wonder if they’ll ever get to see the Big Three of shonen – Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece – air at the same time again.
The brand-new Naruto episodes were supposed to come out on September 3rd, meaning the studio made the decision to postpone the anniversary project less than a week before its release. While we’re glad to hear that Studio Pierrot decided to step up their game, we can’t help but wish they’d have done it sooner, as the window of opportunity for our hopes of getting the Big Three reunion is slowly closing.
One Piece is currently in its twentieth season, which is also by far the longest season in the saga, with no concrete end date in sight. Fans predict that the Wano Country Arc may conclude anytime between September and January. The new Bleach season, however, is coming to an end soon. The highly anticipated finale of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 will be released on September 30th, which gives us four more weeks to hope and dream of all three getting to reunite on the same week.
Of course, no one wants a half-baked anniversary special. To this day, the three series generate a lot of discourse and fan wars online, with viewers fighting over which shonen has better animation quality, character design, voice acting, soundtracks, etc. Who knows, perhaps Studio Pierrot looked at the stellar reviews and praise they’ve been getting for their excellent work on Bleach’s final arc and decided that Naruto deserved similar treatment.
We certainly don’t disagree, even if this means we won’t be getting the new project in the next couple of weeks. However, this also means that the studio has painted itself into a corner as fan expectations are now higher than ever.
We can only hope that the studio delivers a final product that is worth the wait. And, for those of us who grew up in the golden era of battle shonen anime, Naruto airing alongside One Piece and Bleach would be the icing on the nostalgia cake.
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