New Bleach Episodes Pushed Back
It looks like dub viewers will have to wait longer than initially thought to get new episodes of Bleach. Yeah, I know you were all looking forward to seeing the English version of the Captain Amagai Shuusuke filler arc, but what can ya do?
Adult Swim had originally said that new episodes of Bleach would resume in April, after being in repeats since November. & once they started showing two straight hours of Bleach every Saturday, they really seemed on track to get through a complete second showing of the most recent season by mid-April. & as it so happens, episode 167, the last new episode Adult Swim aired, will be re-airing on April 17 (along with eps 164-166). This would allow episode 168 to easily fit right in the following Saturday, but as AS's most recent schedule shows, that is not the case. Instead, they're starting over again from episode 129 (which is really an odd starting point).
So it seems Adult Swim is going back on what they said, & at this rate we probably wont be seeing new Bleach for another year (assuming they don't skip any repeat episodes & show them all for a third time)! Also, starting April 24 Bleach will drop from four episodes a week to three. FLCL will also be leaving the schedule, & Cowboy Bebop & Ghost in the Shell will each be getting a second episode. New episodes of FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood continue onwards, though. Let's just hope we don't have to wait until mid-2011 to see new Bleach though, even if it is just an annoying filler arc that doesn't technically exist even in the anime's storyline.
UPDATE: Gia over at AnimeVice got in touch with a representative at Adult Swim, who said that the postponement was due to a "production delay." New episodes are currently scheduled to return in August, so at leat we wont have to wait until 2011.
Source: http://www.adultswim.com/schedule/onair.html