If you've been waiting on the ending of Ichigo Kurosaki's story, circle this Saturday on the calendar. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War - The Calamity, the fourth and final cour of the anime, premieres July 25th at 7:30 a.m. Pacific (10:30 Eastern), streaming on Hulu here in the States and on Disney+ in most international markets. From there it's a new episode every week until Tite Kubo's story is done. For real this time!
It's a day-and-date drop, too. Japan gets each episode Saturday night on TV Tokyo, the simulcast lands stateside Saturday morning, and parts of Asia stream it through Ani-One instead. VIZ already gave the finale a theatrical send-off, running the first three episodes in 943 US theaters at the end of June, subbed and dubbed. And the premiere ends a LONG break: the last new episode of this series aired December 28th, 2024.
Where The Story Left Off
The quick version, for anyone who needs it: the Wandenreich, an empire of Quincies led by Yhwach, declared war on the Soul Society, and the first three cours have burned through invasions, fallen captains, and stolen Bankai ever since. It's the darkest stretch of Kubo's story by a wide margin.
Part 3, The Conflict, ended its 14-episode run right in the thick of the war. The spoiler-light version: Ichigo and what's left of the Soul Reaper forces carried the fight to Yhwach's doorstep, and the battles against his elite Schutzstaffel guard were just heating up. Uryu's true position in all of this finally started coming into focus, too.
The original anime ended in March 2012 without ever reaching this arc. Kubo wrapped the manga in 2016, and for six years the final war existed only on the page. When Thousand-Year Blood War premiered in October 2022, it landed a full decade after the original show went dark.
What does The Calamity cover? Everything that's left. This final cour adapts the rest of the manga through its ending, wrapping up the Thousand-Year Blood War arc that spans volumes 55 to 74 on the page.
Kubo has kept a hand in the adaptation from the start, and the previous cours added fights and character beats the manga never showed, some of it straight from Kubo himself, so even manga readers should expect surprises.
VIZ hasn't announced an episode count for the finale; for reference, the first three parts ran 13, 13, and 14 episodes.
VIZ also dropped the final trailer at Anime Expo earlier this month, with footage from beyond the three episodes that screened in theaters, plus previews of both new theme songs. Check it out below!
Tomohisa Taguchi returns as chief series director, Hikaru Murata directs, and the animation is with Pierrot Films, the newer label out of Studio Pierrot, which made the original 2004 series. Shiro Sagisu, who's scored Bleach since the beginning, is back for the music. jo0ji performs the new opening theme, "I-BULL," and 9Lana handles the ending theme, "Rasen" ("Spiral").
How To Catch Up Before Saturday
Never seen an episode, or just hazy after the year-and-a-half break? The rundown:
• The current series: all 40 episodes of Thousand-Year Blood War Parts 1-3 are streaming on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ internationally - start here if you're short on time
- The original series: the 2004-2012 run is 366 episodes, on Hulu in the States (plus Netflix and Crunchyroll in some regions) if you want the full journey
- The dub: the English dub of Thousand-Year Blood War made its TV debut on Adult Swim's Toonami block in May 2025, and dubbed episodes of Parts 1-3 are streaming on Hulu too
- The manga: the Thousand-Year Blood War arc runs from volume 55 through the finale in volume 74, all out now from VIZ, if you'd rather read the ending first
Kubo launched the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump back in August 2001, so the anime's grand finale lands right in the series' 25th anniversary year. 25 years from first chapter to final episode!
And when the credits roll on that last episode, Bleach becomes the second of Jump's Big Three to finish its story on screen, after Naruto wrapped in 2017. That leaves One Piece as the last giant still running.
Are you caught up and ready for the finale? Sub or dub?
Sound off in the comments below!
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