Anairis Quiñones to No Longer Voice Yoruichi in Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Anime's English Dub

Voice actor Anairis Quiñones revealed on Twitter on Saturday that she will no longer be voicing Yoruichi (pictured below) in the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime, and her recordings for the character in the anime thus far will be replaced because "the studio and client decided to go in a different direction." She will continue to voice the character Hiyori. Wendee Lee, the voice of Yoruichi in the original Bleach anime, revealed that she is returning to the role for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 3 - The Conflict.

Image via Anairis Quiñones' Twitter account

© Tite Kubo/Shueisha, TV TOKYO, dentsu, Pierrot, Viz Media

Lee (known for Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop among others) implied in several posts in Quiñones' Tweet the following day that it was a scheduling error that led to Quiñones' casting as Yoruichi. These replies were made in response to other voice actors, who had replied to Quiñones with words of sympathy. Lee also implied on Twitter in a now-deleted post that it was Viz Media's request to have her come back for the role in the anime's third part.

No? And what position does that put me in? This is The Biz. We all get recast at some point. In this case It was mistakenly done by the person scheduling.(@WendeeLeeVO)October 22

Lee posted an apology on Monday on Twitter, this time to Quiñones' original Tweet from October 7 announcing her casting as Yoruichi.

Quiñones posted on Monday that she has not responded to Lee privately as she is "not ready to talk." She asked that people respect that, and she requested that Lee apologize to Quiñones' fellow voice actors who had been supporting her. She added that she would be taking a social media break.

ANN has reached out to Viz Media and dubbing studio Studiopolis.

The character Yoruichi first appeared in episode 15 of the original Bleach anime. However, Wendee Lee did not begin voicing the character until the 41st episode for plot-related purposes. She continued to voice the character until the anime ended in 2012. Yoruichi briefly appeared in the second part of the new Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime, starting with the 22nd episode.

The English dub for the anime's second part began streaming on Hulu on August 5.

Although there are multiple returning cast members for the new English dub, some voices have been replaced. For instance, Alain Mesa has replaced Jamieson Price as one of the main characters Chad. Price added in a post from his Twitter account that he no longer auditions for roles of characters that are people of color, and that it was a "difficult decision to say no" to his casting for the role, but welcomed Mesa's casting. Mesa commented on his own Twitter account that "[Price] was a rockstar and brought so much life to the role." In the story of the anime and manga, Chad is a character of Mexican and Japanese descent. Mesa hails from Cuba.

In addition, Quiñones has replaced Laura Bailey as Hiyori in the new anime's dub.

© 久保帯人／集英社・テレビ東京・ｄｅｎｔｓｕ・ぴえろ

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War premiered in October 2022 in Japan on TV Tokyo and its affiliates, and is streaming on 20+ services in Japan, including Hulu and Disney+. Viz Media began streaming the anime on Hulu in the U.S. later that month. The English dub of the anime premiered on Hulu in November 2022. The anime is streaming on Disney+ internationally, and Ani-One Asia is streaming the series in many Asian countries.

The anime covers the rest of the original manga up through its ending. The Thousand Year Blood War arc is the final arc of the manga, and covers volumes 55-74.

The anime's second cours (quarter of the year) premiered in the United States on Hulu, Latin America on Star+, and in select other countries internationally on Disney+ on July 8.

The third part will debut in 2024.