Brace yourselves, Bleach fans! Expect no Bleach in the next issue of Weekly Shounen Jump magazine that goes on sale on Monday.
Kubo Tite has confirmed the delay yesterday via
his Twitter in response to
@ankoromoti15. "S-so next week Bleach is postponed?" the user asked. Kubo responded, "That's right. Sorry."
Since early January, Kubo has been tweeting about his deteriorating health. He even spent eight days in hospital thus disabled to continue the half done work. Kubo didn't give the details about his illness though.
Bleach is entering the final story arc which began in 2012. The once extremely popular manga debuted in Weekly Shounen Jump in 14 years ago. Its popularity keeps declining that it leads Kubo to finalize his work.
Personally, I'd rather have Kubo end Bleach after Kurosaki Ichigo saved Kuchiki Rukia. Or at least with an extended arc about Ichigo and the rest of Gotei 13 squads facing Aizen Sousuke and his allies. When I mean extended arc, I didn't mean it to be hundreds long chapters.
I've stopped reading Bleach when Ulquiorra kidnapped Inoue Orihime. I felt that the story was going to start to drift apart. That's why I decided to quit. But the past few months I've started watching Bleach again and I'm on episode 167.