Summary

• Bleach, once part of the "big three," faced a drop in popularity but has made a comeback with the Thousand-Year Blood War anime in 2022.
• Hulu is the go-to platform for watching all 366 episodes of the original Bleach anime and the current TYBW anime with sub and dub options.
• The Bleach anime franchise includes four movies and a live-action adaptation on Netflix, offering fans more ways to explore the shonen universe.

Bleach is widely recognized as a member of shonen's "big three" from the 2000s, but unlike its two rivals Naruto and One Piece, Bleach suffered a drop in popularity and prominence, and even got its anime canceled in 2012. Author Tite Kubo's original Bleach manga continued until its final chapter in 2016, but by then, Bleach had garnered an iffy reputation while Naruto and One Piece enjoyed greater popularity.

Fortunately, the Bleach fandom is still alive and well, and its most loyal fans were rewarded when the Thousand-Year Blood War anime launched in the Fall 2022 anime season. Bleach's anime is back in a big way, and many newer-gen anime fans must be wondering what all the fuss is about. Anyone who has heard of the rusty relic Bleach but hasn't seen it is in for a pleasant surprise if they tune in and see what Tite Kubo's shonen masterpiece is really all about.

Updated on April 22nd, 2024 by Louis Kemner: This feature about where to watch Bleach's anime and what it's all about has been udpated with more information and now adheres to CBR's current publication standards. With cour 3 due to air later this year, now is a great time for shonen anime fans to either get back into Bleach or dive into this anime's world for the first time and see what made it such a shonen legend.

Where to Watch Bleach's Anime

Unlike its peers One Piece and Naruto, Bleach is no longer on Crunchyroll, which many fans may consider the Internet's premiere platform for watching most anime. This hurts Bleach's visibility in the modern era and may slow down the growth of its fanbase, but fortunately, other fairly prominent platforms are picking up the slack. For anime fans in the U.S., in particular, the streaming giant Hulu has all 366 episodes of the original Bleach anime and the current Thousand-Year Blood War anime available. The original Bleach has all episodes in both English sub and dub versions, making Hulu the most comprehensive platform for watching this shonen classic.

International Bleach fans can find this anime streaming on Disney+. Both versions of Bleach's anime are also available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, with that platform supporting the original anime's English dub version and the Thousand-Year Blood War's first cour in Japanese. Amazon Prime Video has all 366 episodes of the classic Bleach anime available for viewing.

Where Can You Watch Bleach's Movies, & Are They Any Good?

Like most long-running shonen anime, the Bleach franchise has several anime movies to its name -- in this case, four of them. The first is Bleach: Memories of Nobody, which released in December 2006 and is best watched around Episode 117 of the original Bleach anime series. Three more movies followed, those being Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, Bleach: Fade to Black, and Bleach: Hell Verse. All four of them are great viewing for the most dedicated Bleach fans who want to explore this fantasy shonen universe in more detail, though these movies are largely expendable for any new fan who just wants to skim this anime to enjoy the highlights. These are older-gen anime movies, meaning they are purely what-if spinoffs with no relation to the main story, as opposed to story-heavy tie-in movies like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and Jujutsu Kaisen 0.

Anyone interested in watching the four Bleach anime movies can find them available to either rent or buy in HD on Amazon Prime Video, only available in English dub. However, while Hulu supports the classic Bleach anime series, it does not have the four anime movies. However, there is one more option for Bleach movies, the live-action movie released in 2018. It is currently supported on Netflix, and it sometimes comes and goes.

As of April 2024, the live-action movie is ready for streaming, and interested fans are encouraged to give it a try while they still can. Like many live-action anime adaptations, Bleach's movie is just a small slice of the material and may feel awkward at times, but it's still a servicable on-ramp for new fans if they want to watch something even quicker than the current TYBW anime. It's not a mega-hit like One Piece's own live-action series on Netflix, but for Bleach, at least, any boosted visibility is a plus. For the time being, there is no news of any new Bleach movies in the works, animated or not, so fans must make do with the current five.

How Many Seasons Does Bleach Have?

The original Bleach anime is lengthy, though the answers to "how many seasons?" and "which seasons are best?" are tricky. There are 16 total seasons, most of which have 24+ episodes, including the first three, though Seasons 5, 8, 11, and 12 have under 20 episodes each, while Season 14 is enormous, with 51 total episodes. Meanwhile, the Bleach anime's Thousand-Year Blood War arc can be considered the 17th season, though Season 17 is not a single, cohesive run like most anime seasons are.

Instead, Season 17 is split into four cours, each being a 12-13 episode "season" that airs in different anime seasons throughout the years. The TYBW arc's first cour aired in Fall 2022, with the second cour currently airing in the Summer 2023 anime season. With these cours being the length of regular anime seasons and being non-consecutive, anime fans might say that they're each a regular season, meaning the TYBW arc is four seasons, bringing the grand total to 20 if fans want to divide the anime that way. Otherwise, 17 is the official total.

Anime fans should also note that the original Bleach anime has a lot of filler episodes and arcs, similar to its Naruto counterpart. Some filler episodes are found in plot-heavy seasons, while a few seasons are entirely filler. This means that new fans who want a story-only experience can skip Seasons 4 and 5, which are all about the Bount filler arc, and Season 9 is all-filler as well, with a different story arc. Season 13 and 15 are also entirely filler, with the sole exception of Season 15's last episode, which is mixed filler and canon. With those five filler seasons omitted, the Bleach has 11 seasons that are mostly or entirely canon. Fortunately, the TYBW anime has no filler whatsoever, and none if it should be skipped.

The Plot & Legacy of Bleach's Anime

Bleach's story stars the iconic hero Ichigo Kurosaki, a tsundere high school punk with a good heart and supernatural gifts. Ichigo could always see ghosts, but his real adventure didn't begin until he met the black-robed Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper who fights evil spirits for a living. Ichigo borrowed Rukia's power in Episode 1 to become a sword-slinging Soul Reaper himself, launching his new career as a monster hunter and living a double life while Rukia stuck around as a reverse-isekai guest, far from her Soul Society home. Eventually, Ichigo and Rukia will get swept up in incredible isekai adventures to the Soul Society, the resting place for all dead spirits, and Hueco Mundo, another supernatural realm where monstrous spirits called Hollows dwell.

New anime fans may be curious to learn not just what Bleach is all about, but how its story and style influenced later series. Even if Bleach is seen as the big three's weakest entry, it still left a mark on the shonen industry, and multiple creators have cited it as a major influence. Author Koyoharu Gotouge of Demon Slayer fame named Bleach, along with Naruto and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, as inspiration for Tanjiro Kamado's adventures. Anime fans may note that both series involve professional monster hunters who slay supernatural creatures with swords, complete with an elite corps of high-ranking officers, the thirteen Captains in Bleach and the nine Hashira in Demon Slayer.

Similarly, author Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen is practically Bleach 2.0, a fantasy shonen series starring a tough but lovable high school boy who gains magical powers one night, so he can fight evil spirits in his home city. Jujutsu Kaisen condensed everything that made Bleach great and presented it in a leaner, meaner package that made it a current fan-favorite and a prominent member of the new "dark trio" of shonen. Still, Jujutsu Kaisen only has so much material, while the sprawling Bleach manga/anime franchise tells a rich, exciting story that's always welcoming new fans. Anyone who loved Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen and wants to see where they came from can check out Bleach, and they will be richly rewarded.