Bleach

Bleach is a Japanese television anime adapted from Tite Kubo’s manga, which ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 2001 to 2016. Produced by Studio Pierrot and directed initially by Noriyuki Abe, the original anime premiered on TV Tokyo on October 5, 2004. It follows fifteen-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager able to see ghosts. After Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki is injured while protecting his family from a Hollow, Ichigo receives her powers and assumes her duties. The first television run concluded on March 27, 2012, after 366 episodes, leaving portions of Kubo’s final manga storyline unadapted for nearly a decade afterward. The early narrative sends Ichigo into Soul Society, where Rukia faces execution for illegally transferring her abilities. His rescue party includes Yasutora “Chad” Sado, Uryū Ishida, and Orihime Inoue, while Kisuke Urahara helps prepare him. The arc introduces the Gotei 13, the military divisions of Soul Society, and captains such as Byakuya Kuchiki, Kenpachi Zaraki, and Tōshirō Hitsugaya. Its central betrayal reveals Captain Sōsuke Aizen’s plan to obtain the Hōgyoku, a powerful artifact connected to Hollowfication. Aizen later allies with the Arrancar, Hollows who have removed their masks and gained Soul Reaper-like powers for battle in Hueco Mundo against Ichigo. Bleach’s first run also contains several television-original arcs, including the Bount storyline, the Shūsuke Amagai arc, and the Zanpakutō Rebellion. These episodes were made to prevent the adaptation from overtaking the manga, and they sit alongside manga-based conflicts involving the Arrancar and Aizen. Ichigo’s signature weapon is Zangetsu, a zanpakutō whose release forms are central to the series’ combat system. He also develops Hollow-related abilities, including a mask that augments his power. The original broadcast’s Japanese cast features Masakazu Morita as Ichigo and Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia; Johnny Yong Bosch and Michelle Ruff voiced them in the English dub respectively. In 2021, a sequel television project, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, was announced to adapt the manga’s final arc. It began airing in October 2022 and depicts the war between Soul Society and the Quincy, a group of spiritually empowered humans historically opposed to Soul Reapers. The arc’s enemy leader is Yhwach, whose invasion brings major revelations about Ichigo’s lineage and Zangetsu. Tomohisa Taguchi directs the revival, while Studio Pierrot again handles animation. The project is divided into four cours; its first, subtitled The Blood Warfare, aired in 2022, and its second, The Separation, aired in 2023. It resumed omitted material.