Kiyoshi Komatsubara, the chief animation director responsible for overseeing the visual quality and consistency of the acclaimed anime series Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, candidly shared in a recent social media post that he has been struggling with recurring health issues.
As he reflected on the past year while gearing up for the premiere of Part III in 2023, Komatsubara revealed that toward the end of 2022, he fell seriously ill for the second consecutive year.
Though deeply dedicated to and absorbed in his work on Bleach, these back-to-back bouts of poor health in the intense year-end production crunch have been a wake-up call.
At this point in his life and career, Komatsubara has come to realize he needs to be more proactive about self-care and prioritizing his personal well-being, rather than pushing himself to an unsustainable point of exhaustion and sickness.
As he continues on as chief animation director for the new episodes of this highly popular anime revival, he plans to be more careful in looking after his health next year.
Komatsubara closed his candid social media post by thanking fans and looking ahead to reconnecting with them in 2024, with a renewed commitment to staying healthy while delivering the visual quality audiences have come to expect from his leadership on the series.
Kiyoshi Komatsubara’s Struggle for Visual Perfection
As chief animation director for the highly complex sequel series Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War, Kiyoshi Komatsubara shoulders immense responsibility for leading the visual creative team.
He oversees maintaining visual continuity across episodes produced by many animators and animation directors – an exponentially harder task given industry shifts toward remote freelancing.
Unlike in the past when animators learned and consistently worked in a single anime studio’s style, today’s workforce bounces from project to project.
As a result, the drawings that come in often deviate from or fall short of the directorial vision. Animation directors correct these inconsistencies frame by frame before passing them up the chain.
At the top, the chief animation director makes final refinements to further align artwork with the series’ distinct style.
For a property as stylistically polished and kinetic as Bleach, the CAD scrutinizes an astronomical number of drawings under relentless production deadlines.
No wonder Komatsubara has been completely immersed in and utterly absorbed by this animation heavy-lifting year after year.
As he continues guiding the visuals of one of this era’s most acclaimed anime franchises, he is newly prioritizing his health and well-being after consecutive bouts of illness amid production’s intense year-end crunch. The human toll of his taxing but artistically rewarding role has become impossible to ignore.
The Dark Side of Anime’s Global Boom
Komatsubara’s candid comments come amid growing concern about unsustainable working conditions in the anime industry, despite its unprecedented global popularity.
A recent controversial announcement of new “cheap and fast” anime productions relying on 10 times fewer drawings elicited outrage from veteran animators like Mizue Ogawa. She blasted the notion of cutting corners as “crude” and “half-hearted.”
Meanwhile, outspoken Jujutsu Kaisen 0 chief animation director Terumi Nishii has repeatedly warned that extreme worker exploitation could lead the anime bubble to collapse. She advocates standardizing animator skills testing to alleviate the avalanche of corrections dumped on leads like herself and Komatsubara.
Her fears find ample evidence in the example of one Tokyo animator who went home for just 30 minutes per week during production crunches.
Though Japanese animation now dominates world media like never before, the human toll of meeting insatiable demand continues to intensify.
Between corrections cascading from overworked freelance newcomers, production schedules compressing series development timelines, and leader workloads ballooning to review exponentially more drawings, it’s no wonder even veterans as dedicated as Komatsubara are burning out.
As global fandoms celebrate the return of historic franchises like Bleach, Komatsubara’s candid reveal of his struggles sparks renewed questions on how much longer breakneck anime production paces can endure before the bubble bursts.
Komatsubara’s Dedication to Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Part III Amidst the Climactic Showdown
Even as he prioritizes his health, Komatsubara remains fully dedicated as chief animation director for the hotly anticipated Part III of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.
He will apparently split CAD duties once again with veterans Michio Hasegawa and Kumiko Takayanagi.
This next phase adapts the manga’s climactic arcs as the apocalyptic war between Soul Society and Yhwach’s Quincy army comes to a head.
With Captain-class warriors falling left and right, a shattered Tensa Zangetsu in hand, Ichigo finds new resolve after his father Isshin reveals hidden history. He undergoes intense training to gain the power to protect all he holds dear.
Meanwhile, Ishida’s own Quincy investigations uncover truths shifting internal Wandenreich politics and the war’s trajectory.
Over nine cataclysmic days, Soul Society slips toward total oblivion until the fated moment for final goodbyes arrives.
As Part III heads toward its 2024 Crunchyroll premiere loaded with emotional payoffs years in the making, the Herculean workload required of Komatsubara and his CAD partners to fully animate this bleak conflict’s grand conclusion is formidable as ever.
Yet even amidst the immense pressure, his public remarks make clear personal health will remain paramount.
