Quite a shocker considering it wasn#t that long ago Kubo talked about continuing Bleach for another decase atleast...and now it's the final arc already....though who knows how long this arc will be...two years maybe?
Yeah, it's hard to tell with Kubo how long his story arcs will go on for. A lot of fans refer to to the "Arrancar Arc" as encompassing every event from Shinji's introduction and the Grand Fisher's return to Aizen's defeat, which lasted around 4 1/2 years. But I guess it's debatable if that really was just one arc, or several arcs that blended together.
I hope the arc does go on for at least two years. I feel like there's still quite a few loose ends he's gotta tie up. Hopefully Bleach doesn't end before Naruto does. I feel like the latter has been on a climax arc for a year already.
It's a bit disappointing to hear that the end is in sight though. I wonder if this news has been known by Jump and Kubo for a while now, or if Kubo just decided to start wrapping it up recently. I guess it makes sense that he's taking three weeks off now, he's gotta make sure the next arc serves as a proper conclusion.