Bleach (TV series)

The Bleach anime series adapts Kubo's manga but also introduces several original, self-contained story arcs. In Karakura Town, a 15-year-old high school student Ichigo Kurosaki becomes a substitute Soul Reaper (死神, Shinigami, literally, "Death God") when Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper, cannot fulfill her duties after engaging in battle with a particularly powerful Hollow. Although initially reluctant to accept the heavy responsibility, he begins eliminating Hollows in Rukia's place and during this time discovers that several of his friends and classmates are spiritually aware and have powers of their own: Uryū Ishida is a Quincy who can use spirit particles, Orihime Inoue possesses a group of protective spirits known as the Shun Shun Rikka and Yasutora Sado ("Chad") has strength equal to the Hollows encased in his tough right (and occasionally left) arm.

When Rukia is sentenced to death for her transgressions in the human world and taken back to the spirit world of Soul Society, Ichigo seeks out the assistance of Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihōin, who unbeknownst to him are two exiled Soul Reapers, to allow himself and his friends to save Rukia. After Ichigo and his friends battle many Soul Reapers, it is revealed that high-ranking Soul Reaper Sōsuke Aizen framed Rukia for the crime and has been illegally experimenting on Soul Reapers and Hollows. Aizen plans on taking over Soul Society via the use of the Hōgyoku, a legendary substance that can turn Hollows into half Soul Reapers and vice versa, increasing their powers greatly. He escapes into Hueco Mundo, the realm of the Hollows, and later abducts Orihime as she is instrumental in creating the Oken, a power that will allow him to kill the Soul King, the ruler of Soul Society.

After being trained by the Vizards, other exiled Soul Reapers who were unwilling subjects of Aizen's experiments and developed Hollow powers, Ichigo and his friends travel into Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, and the world. Facing Aizen's army of Arrancars, who are Hollows given Soul Reaper abilities, led by an elite group known as the Èspadas which are composed of ten Arrancars with exemplary strength. These Arrancars are referred to as Espadas and are mini-bosses, in Aizen's army they serve as commanders and each have their own factions of weaker Arrancars. Along with Aizen, Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tōsen, the Èspada as a group possess comparable strength to Soul Society's Gotei 13 Soul Reaper captains. After finally reaching Orihime, Aizen reveals her kidnapping was a distraction to allow him to take Karakura Town, as its spiritual energy is what is needed for the Oken. After receiving final training from his father Isshin, another exiled Soul Reaper, Ichigo and the Soul Reapers face off against Aizen, the Soul Reapers who aligned with his cause and his most powerful Èspadas, resulting in Aizen's surrender and the loss of Ichigo's Soul Reaper powers as he uses a secret technique to seal Aizen away for good.

Nearly two years later, Chad reveals to Ichigo that he has found people like him, known as Fullbringers, in a group known as Xcution. The Fullbringers can give up their powers to restore a Soul Reaper's powers and they plan on doing so for Ichigo, who begins to use Fullbring as well. However, it is all a ruse by their leader Kugo Ginjo, a Fullbringer and former Substitute Soul Reaper, to steal Ichigo's powers to empower the rest of them. Ichigo ultimately has his Soul Reaper powers restored when he finally earns proper trust from the Soul Society. The captains and lieutenants then share their powers with Ichigo who defeats Ginjo and the other members of Xcution and returns to his duty of protecting Karakura Town proudly as a Substitute Soul Reaper.

Several original story arcs are presented. The Bount arc in season 4 focuses on spiritually aware humans who are immortal so long as they absorb souls. Their leader Jin Kariya seeks to destroy Soul Society for the constant hunting of the Bount, and he and Ichigo battle for the fate of Soul Society. Another storyline is the introduction of captain Shūsuke Amagai, the replacement for Gin Ichimaru after he joined Aizen in his betrayal. Amagai seeks revenge against Commander Yamamoto for the death of his father and uses the Kasumiōji family's Bakkōtō weapons in his plans. Ichigo battles Amagai, who acknowledges the shame of his actions and commits suicide. The third original arc features the evil Zanpakutō Muramasa, which has the ability to turn itself and other Zanpakutō into spiritual beings to take revenge on Soul Society for imprisoning its master Kōga Kuchiki. After he is successful, he is double-crossed and transforms into a monstrous creature that Ichigo defeats, but not before Muramasa reveals the intention was to have Soul Reapers and Zanpakutō communicate on equal terms. The fourth and final original arc features an event in which Kagerōza Inaba creates modified soul copies of many members of the Gotei 13, placing them in Reigai bodies. Inaba sought to capture Nozomi Kujō in order to fuse with her and once again become their original being Ōko Yushima. Upon fusion, Yushima sought to destroy the Soul Society.

Ichigo's voice actor Masakazu Morita tried to recreate the mood that he felt when he read the manga and imagined hearing the dialogue. In an interview with Elicia O'Reilly of the Japan Foundation, Morita said that to get into character, he would say a line that epitomizes that character.[3]

Noriyuki Abe was chosen as director of the series while Masashi Sogo acted as head writer for Episodes #1-212. Tsuyoshi Kida was the head writer for Episodes #230-265. Kento Shimoyama held the title of head writer for Episodes #317-366. Masashi Kudō provided the character designs, occasionally providing key animation or acting as an animation supervisor himself.

The music of Bleach was composed by Shirō Sagisu. Sagisu's musical score for the television series was released in four-CD sets. Four additional CDs were released for the music composed for the four Bleach animated films.

During the production and broadcast of the first 167 episodes, the screen size was in 4:3; episodes 168 through 366 were produced and broadcast in 16:9 widescreen.

In a 2009 interview, Kubo and Masashi Kudō discussed the upcoming Zanpakutō: The Alternate Tale, with Kubo wishing that he could draw the events into the manga. Kubo also revealed that his art style varies in the production of the work and only became cemented after the airing of the anime. He acknowledges his art style has changed as a result of his work and gave an example that he no longer draws hair growing from behind the ears of characters.[5]

The soundtrack of Bleach was composed by Shirō Sagisu, released in 4 volumes and an anniversary box set. A series of character song albums, the "Bleach Beat Collection" albums, and best-of albums composed of the theme songs have also been released, all by Sony Music Entertainment Japan.[6]

Five volumes of Bleach Soundtracks have been released. Bleach Original Soundtrack 1 was released on May 18, 2005, and features 25 songs credited to Shirō Sagisu.[7] Bleach Original Soundtrack 2 was released on August 8, 2006 and features 46 songs covering up to episode 64 of the Bount Arc.[8] Bleach Original Soundtrack 3 was released on November 5, 2008, and includes 54 songs from the anime.[9] Bleach Original Soundtrack 4 was the last OST and it was released on December 16, 2009 and included 30 songs.[10] The fifth anniversary box set released July 29, 2009, includes a CD that includes 21 previously unreleased songs.[11]

The Bleach Beat Collections is a set of CDs published by Sony Music featuring recordings by the original Japanese voice actors that provide a look at the personalities of the characters they play, as well as the voice actors themselves. The first CD was released on June 22, 2005, twenty-one volumes followed across four named sets called Sessions.[12]

A number of additional collections have been released. Two volumes were released as "The Best", with each volume containing 24 songs each on two discs; the first volume released March 21, 2007 and the second on March 18, 2009.[13][14] The "Bleach Breathless Collection" contains six releases featuring five tracks of the individual Soul Reaper. The six volumes feature Ichigo, Rukia, Renji, Toshiro, Shuhei, and Byakuya, respectively. Three Radio DJCD Bleach 'B' Station season CD sets, each containing six volumes, have been released in Japan.[15]

Bleach is divided into sixteen seasons, five of which are original, self-contained story arcs of side stories not found in the original manga series.

Bleach premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo's Tuesday 6pm timeslot on October 5, 2004.[16] The series is directed by Noriyuki Abe, and produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Studio Pierrot.[17] The series ran for 366 episodes, finishing on March 27, 2012.[18] 88 DVD compilations were released by Aniplex in Japan from February 2, 2005 to January 23, 2013.[lower-alpha 2]

Viz Media obtained the foreign television, home video and merchandising rights to the Bleach anime from TV Tokyo Corporation, and Shueisha on March 15, 2006.[35] Viz Media had later licensed its individual Bleach merchandising rights to several different companies.[36] In North America, the series first premiered on Canada's YTV channel in the Bionix programming block on September 8, 2006.[37] Cartoon Network's Adult Swim began airing Bleach in the United States on September 9, 2006.[38][39] Adult Swim stopped broadcasting new episodes of the English adaptation on October 13, 2007 after airing the first 52 episodes of the series. It was replaced with another Viz Media series, Death Note, to provide Studiopolis more time to dub additional episodes of Bleach.[40] The series began airing again on March 2, 2008,[41] but went back on hiatus on November 21, 2009, after the airing of its 167th episode. The series returned to the block with new episodes on August 28, 2010, replacing Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.[42] The anime joined the relaunched Toonami anime block, when it returned to Adult Swim on May 26, 2012.[43] The show ended on November 1, 2014,[44] and continued airing on Adult Swim until January 31, 2015.[45]

Viz Media had released the first 135 episodes on 32 DVD compilations of the English adaptation of the anime from November 28, 2006 to September 21, 2010,[46][47] and released the entire series on 26 box sets from October 6, 2008 to September 29, 2015.[48][49] In July 2016, Viz Media announced the uncut Blu-ray box-set release of the series.[50] The first set (episodes 1–27) was released on July 19, 2016.[51] The second set (episodes 28–55) was released on January 31, 2017.[52] The third set (episodes 56–83) was released October 24, 2017.[53] The fourth set (episodes 84–111) was released on May 15, 2018.[54] The fifth set (episodes 112–139) was released on December 3, 2019.[55] The sixth set (episodes 140–167) was released on March 10, 2020.[56] The seventh set (episodes 168–195) was released on June 30, 2020.[57] The eight set (episodes 193–223) was released on September 29, 2020.[58] The ninth set (episodes 224–251) was released on December 8, 2020.[59]

In the United Kingdom, Bleach premiered on AnimeCentral on September 13, 2007, with new episodes airing weekly.[60] The English dubbed version of Bleach premiered on Animax Asia on December 18, 2009, with the first 52 episodes and season 2 premiered on March 18, 2011, this time with the original Japanese audio with English subtitles.

In March 2020, Weekly Shōnen Jump and "Bleach 20th Anniversary Project & Tite Kubo New Project Presentation" livestream announced that the manga's last story arc, "Thousand-Year Blood War", will be given a new anime project.[61]

All four feature films based on the Bleach series were directed by Noriyuki Abe, director of the Bleach anime series. Each movie features an original plotline along with original characters designed by Tite Kubo, which is contrary to the normal practice for anime-based films, as the original author usually has little creative involvement.[67] Bleach: Memories of Nobody, was released in Japan on December 16, 2006 and had a limited release in American theaters in June 2008.[68][69] The second film, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, was released to Japanese theaters on December 22, 2007.[70] The third film, Bleach: Fade to Black, was released in Japan on December 13, 2008. The fourth movie, Bleach: Hell Verse, was released in Japan on December 4, 2010.[71]

In March 2010, Warner Bros. (USA/Canada/International) confirmed that it is in talks to create a live action movie adaptation of the series. Peter Segal and Michael Ewing have been lined up to produce the movie.[72] In 2012, Dan Mazeau was added as a screenwriter for the project, and Masi Oka joined as producer.[73]

A live action film adaptation of the same name produced by Warner Bros[74] directed by Shinsuke Sato and starring Sota Fukushi was released in Japan on July 20, 2018.[75]

Animax released 13 drama CDs featuring the original voice actors from the series; these drama CDs have only been included as part of the DVD releases.[76]

The popularity of the Bleach anime[77] resulted in the series of rock musicals, jointly produced by Studio Pierrot and Nelke Planning. There have been five musicals produced which covered portions of the Substitute and Soul Society arcs, as well as three additional performances known as "Live Bankai Shows" which did not follow the Bleach plotline. The initial performance run of the Bleach musical was from August 17–28, 2005 at the Space Zero Tokyo center in Shinjuku.[78][79][80] The musicals are directed by Takuya Hiramitsu, with a script adaptation by Naoshi Okumura and music composed by playwright Shoichi Tama. The songs are completely original and not taken from the anime soundtrack. Key actors in the series include Tatsuya Isaka, who plays Ichigo Kurosaki, Miki Satō, who plays Rukia Kuchiki, and Eiji Moriyama, who plays Renji Abarai.[81]

The anime has been featured various times in the top ten from the Japanese TV Ranking.[82][83][84] DVDs have also had good sales having commonly appeared in the Japanese DVD Ranking.[85][86] The anime was nominated in the 2007 America Anime Awards in the fields of "best manga", "best actor", "best DVD package design", and "best theme", but failed to win any awards.[87][88] In a 2006 Internet poll by TV Asahi, Bleach was ranked as Japan's seventh-favorite anime program.[89] The previous year, it was ranked as the twenty-seventh favorite program.[90] During February 2009, Bleach ranked as the 9th most viewed animated show from Hulu.[91]

Anime News Network's Carlo Santos praised the anime adaptation, describing it as "...one incredibly entertaining anime that will grab you and refuse to let go."[92] Animefringe's Maria Lin liked the varied and distinct characters, and how well they handle the responsibilities increasing powers give them. She also complimented the series for its attention to details, well paced script, and balance of seriousness and comedy. In summary, she notes "Bleach the anime deserves its popularity. It has something for everyone: the supernatural, comedy, action and a little bit of romance, all tied together with excellent animation and a very enthusiastic sounding bunch of voice actors."[93] Adam Arseneau of DVD Verdict, felt Bleach was a "show that only gets better with age" and was "surprisingly well-rounded and appealing" with well-developed characters and pacing.[94] Active Anime's Holly Ellingwood praising the anime for perfectly capturing "the excitement, the caustic humour and supernatural intrigue" of the original manga.[95] She felt that the series "does a wonderful job of building on its continuity to provide increasingly tense and layered episodes involving not only Ichigo and Rukia, but the secondary characters as well".[96] She also praised the series for its striking visual effects, intriguing plot and its "brilliant blend of action, off the wall comedy."[97][98] In reviewing the series for DVD Talk, Don Houston felt the characters surpassed the usual shōnen anime stereotypes and liked "the mixture of darker material with the comedic".[99] Another Fellow reviewer John Sinnott felt series starts out as a boring "monster-of-the-week program" that becomes more epic as the stories build and the characters are fleshed out.[100] Otaku USA's Joseph Luster wrote that "the storylines are consistently dramatic without hammering it home too heavily, the characters manage comic relief that's not as eye rolling as one would expect, and the action (in classic fighting series form) has only gotten more ridiculous over the years; in a good way, of course".[101] Mania.com's Bryce Coulter praised the series for its plot twists and "the quirky and amusing characters".[102][103] In comparing the series with Naruto, Mania.com's Chris Beveridge felt Bleach was less childish and "simply comes together surprisingly well in its style and execution of what is fairly standard material".[104] Von Feigenblatt notes that "in terms of demographics, Bleach appeals to a narrower international audience than Naruto due to the higher complexity of its plot as well as due to the religious aspects of the story."[105]

• Official Pierrot Bleach website (in Japanese)
• Official TV Tokyo Bleach website (in Japanese)
• Official Viz Media Bleach website
• Bleach (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia