News

Tite Kubo's Bleach Manga Gets LINE Smartphone Game

This year's 35th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is revealing on Monday that the next game inspired by Tite Kubo's Bleach manga will be for the LINE social media and messaging app. The game, titled Bleach: Paradise Lost, is slated to launch for iOS and Android devices this year.

The "Bankai 3D tag role-playing game" will be free-to-play with in-app purchases. In the game, players will become Shinigami (Soul Reapers) to protect the real world from Hollows. The game will use GPS location data to allow players to defend their own neighborhoods from Hollows.

The Soul Society's 13 Court Guard Squads and group from the World of the Living will also appear in the game. The story mode will recreate famous scenes set in the town of Karakura and the Soul Society. Battles will be turn-based, and players will be able to use their own unique decks and character skills in battle.

KLab Global launched the English-language version of its Bleach: Brave Souls iOS and Android game worldwide in January 2016. The game launched in Japan in July 2015, and it has more than 22 million downloads worldwide.

Kubo launched the original Bleach manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001, and ended it last August. Viz Media published the manga in North America digitally in English as Shueisha published new chapters in Japan. Viz Media is also publishing the manga in print.

A live-action film of Kubo's manga will open in Japan in summer 2018. The manga has also inspired a television anime series, four anime films, novels, several video games, and a series of stage musicals.