The episodes of Bleach anime series are based on the manga of the same name written by Tite Kubo. They are directed by Noriyuki Abe and produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu, and Studio Pierrot. The plot of the episodes follows the adventures of a teenager named Ichigo Kurosaki who can see spirits and becomes a Soul Reaper after assuming the duties of Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki.
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The episodes have aired since October 6, 2004, on TV Tokyo in Japan. 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. Subsequently, Viz Media contracted Studiopolis to create the English adaptation of the anime, and has licensed its individual Bleach merchandising rights to several different companies. The English adaptation of the Bleach anime premiered on Canada's YTV channel in the Bionix programming block on September 8, 2006. Cartoon Network began airing Bleach the following evening as part of Adult Swim. Adult Swim stopped broadcasting new episodes of the English adaptation on October 20, 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 the series. The series returned from hiatus on March 2, 2008, and had returned to hiatus for almost a year after airing episode 167 on November 21, 2009. The hiatus ended on August 28, 2010, with the airing of episode 168 and the show has been regularly airing with new episodes since.
Episode 366, "Changing History, Unchanging Heart", which aired March 27, 2012 was the last episode of Bleach to air on TV Tokyo. Forty-five pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: Fifteen opening themes and thirty closing themes. Several CDs that contain the theme music and other tracks have been released by Studio Pierrot. As of January 23, 2013, all 366 episodes have been released by Aniplex in Japan in 88 DVD compilations. 32 DVD compilations of the English adaptation of the anime have been released by Viz Media, and seven season boxsets have been released that contain the first seven seasons of the anime.
Episode list
Note: some English air dates are listed as the day before they were actually aired, as is the convention of the Adult Swim online syndication schedule.
Japanese
The 88 Region 2 DVD compilations of the Bleach anime are grouped by season and were released in Japan by Aniplex between February 2, 2005 and January 23, 2013.
English
The Region 1 DVD compilations of the Bleach anime are released by Viz Media. 32 DVD compilations have been released by Viz Media in the United States. A DVD collection box of the first season was released on June 10, 2008, a DVD collection box of the second season was released on August 19, 2008. and a DVD collection box of the third season was released on July 7, 2009. The series has been released in the UK by Manga Entertainment in half-season sets, then re-released into season sets.