When it was running, the Bleach manga was one of the most popular mangas that Shonen Jump had. Besides just the anime, the manga, and the movies, character information books were also released that got into the characters and their information (Birthdays, Heights, Top Secret Facts, Ranks, etc.) as well as the events in the story.
There were a total of three character books released: SOULS (which covered the characters in the series series from the start up to the Rescue Rukia arc), MASKED (covering the Hueco Mundo Invasion and Arrancar arcs, focusing on the new factions of the Visored and the Arrancars), and UNMASKED (covering the Fake Karakura Town Arc, getting into details on Arrancar left mostly untouched in the MASKED book, as well as getting into more detail on many of the well-established characters' powers). There was also some side books released: All Colour But The Black (artbook), the Official Bootleg (an art book as well as some humorous side-canons and info on the Soul Society characters), 13 BLADEs, and VIBEs (the guide to the anime).
Bleach has finished its anime run a while back, and the manga has recently ended. The story still continues in the form of the Can't Fear Your Own World stories.The first character book, SOULS, has been released in America, as has the Official Bootleg side-book, All Colour But The Black, and the second character book, MASKED. When the anime and manga were doing extremely well, why were books like UNMASKED, 13 BLADEs, and VIBEs not released in the US?
I know the internet makes it easy to access all of this stuff. Sure, one could look up a wiki to find information on the characters, but I've never been one to really enjoy that. There's something about holding a book in your hands and turning pages and seeing the pictures and words move that scrolling on a computer screen just doesn't capture. Maybe it's because I've been a bookworm since I was little, but I would be willing to pay $25, even $30, a book if those three books were translated into English and brought stateside.
When you browse a wiki, you're just supporting the webowners. Buying the books like this, you can rely that some of the profit will be going to the people who worked hard on getting the books written and published, like Kubo and the VIZ Media staff. Let's help Kubo and VIZ out, and let's also ask for the physical books we missed out on! The series may be past its peak in the US, but there are still fans who would love to see those books translated and sold here. Let's ask VIZ Media and Kubo to bring the books here for fans to enjoy!