I am currently working on a Bleach Anime game. I have seen many posts in which copyright and IP is referenced, but nothing specific was said.
The game will:
Not use any images from the Bleach anime
It’s not going to be called Bleach but it will be pretty obvious that it is based on that.
It’s not going to use any characters from Bleach, but mechanics and classes/names like “hollows,” “quincy,” and “visards” will be used as well as skills such as Cero.
This is definitely a good decision. Don’t use literal image from the anime itself.
That’s okay, there’s games like Blox where you can obviously tell their inspiration but they’re still up because they don’t use specific textures, music, etc. A blocky, procedurally generated game is not copyrighted.
To answer your question, try to avoid proper nouns and instead encapsulate the general idea. Don’t use the word Bleach, Cero, etc. and find synonyms.