• Movie
• Fanlisting
• Site
• Home

Overview
The third anime Bleach movie, Fade to Black, Kimi no Na o Yobu (Fade to Black, 君の名を呼ぶ) (Fade to Black, Calling Out Your Name), came out in theatres in Japan on December 13, 2008. It debuted at #3 in the box office. On September 30, 2009, the movie was released on DVD in Japan. There is no word yet on a North American DVD release date.

Fade to Black is a 'return to origins' story focusing on the bond between Ichigo and Rukia. Two new characters, a pair of siblings, appear in Soul Society and "erase" Rukia's existence. As a result, everyone but Ichigo and Kon forgets Rukia. Ichigo and Kon travel to Soul Society in order to discover what has happened to Rukia. Rukia, too, has had her memories erased and does not recall being a shinigami; she soon learns about her past relationship with the two siblings and why she is so important to them. In the meantime, Ichigo's search for Rukia is hampered when he discovers that not only does no one remember Rukia, no one remembers him either. Ichigo is most hurt, however, by the revelation that Rukia also does not recognize him.

Unlike the two previous Bleach movies, Kubo Tite, the creator of Bleach, was heavily involved in the development of Fade to Black. He helped plan the story, plot, and setting, created the new characters and decided on their names, came up with both the English and Japanese titles for the movie, was present for the entirety of the voice recordings (and gave advice and corrections when necessary), and co-wrote Ichigo's ending speech. In an interview in the official Movie Guide, Kubo said that of the three movies, Fade to Black was the closest to the original work (i.e., the manga), and he believed fans of the manga would enjoy the movie.

Interviews and Translations
The members of the IchiRuki FanClub at Bleach Asylum translated Fade to Black interviews with Kubo, Morita Masakazu (Ichigo's seiyuu), Orikasa Fumiko (Rukia's seiyuu), and others. The translations can be found at this link.

DVDs, CDs, Novelization
There are two versions of the Japanese DVD - a limited edition and a standard version. The limited edition includes a special DVD jacket; posters; boards with story information, storyboards, character designs, and some extras; a message and new drawing of Rukia by Kubo; and two bonus DVDs (TV commercials and promos on one DVD, movie commentary by the director and seiyuu on the other). The limited edition DVD also has a short alternate movie ending with Ichigo and Rukia.

A soundtrack of the movie was released ("Bleach the Movie: Fade to Black Original Soundtrack"), as was a CD single for the movie theme song, "Koyoi, Tsuki wa Miezu Tomo" by Porno Graffiti. There is also a novelization of the movie written by Matsubara Makoto (the author of the other Bleach novels) that includes some extra scenes.

Multimedia
For over 3,000 screen captures from the movie, please visit the Fade to Black Screencap Gallery.

Coming Eventually
This section will eventually be expanded upon with scans and more detailed information, and I may spazz incoherently about how Fade to Black is the best Bleach movie ever to date, but my main contribution to fandom has been the screen captures above. :x