Viz Media has announced that the highly anticipated Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime series will be streamed internationally on Disney+ and exclusively on Hulu for United States audiences. The anime series will premiere on October 10, 2022 at 8:30 AM PST on Hulu, although no specific time has been given for the Disney+ premiere.
Thousand-Year Blood War is based on the final story arc of Tite Kubo’s original manga series, which ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from August 7, 2001 to August 22, 2016. 74 tankoubon volumes have been released in total. The story will follow Ichigo and the Soul Society battle it out against a powerful Quincy faction known as the Wandenreich.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War will be available on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ internationally. pic.twitter.com/bINykAUOZp
— VIZ (@VIZMedia) October 3, 2022
The production team consists of Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive) as director and series screenwriter, Masashi Kudou (Bleach) as character designer, Yoshio Tanioka (Akudama Drive) as art director, Saori Gouda (Akudama Drive) as color designer, Kazuhiro Yamada (Akudama Drive) as photography director, and Shirou Sagisu (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time) as music composer. Studio Pierrot is in charge of the animation production.
Other staff members consist of Michio Hasegawa (Shadows House), Sei Komatsubara (Fate/Grand Order Final Singularity – Grand Temple of Time: Solomon), and Kumiko Takayanagi (Akudama Drive animation director) as chief animation directors, while Satoshi Sakai (Attack on Titan Final Season effect animation director), Yoshihiro Kanno (Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld action animation director), and Yeong-Hoon Jeong (Sword Art Online: Alicization – War of Underworld sub-designer) are the action effects animation directors.
The returning main voice cast features Masakazu Morita as Ichigo Kurosaki, Fumiko Orikasa as Rukia Kukichi, Yuki Matsuoka as Orihime Inoue, Noriaki Sugiyama as Uryu Ishida, Hiroki Yasumoto as Yasutora Sado, Kentarou Itou as Renji Abarai, and Takayuki Sugou as Yhwach.
The first Bleach anime series ran from 2004 to 2012 and the series has also inspired several anime films, games, and a live-action film. An OVA adaptation of Kubo’s BURN THE WITCH manga, which takes place in the same universe as Bleach, also premiered theatrically in Japan in 2020.
Viz Media describes the first volume of the manga as:
Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, but this ability doesn’t change his life nearly as much as his close encounter with Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper and member of the mysterious Soul Society. While fighting a Hollow, an evil spirit that preys on humans who display psychic energy, Rukia attempts to lend Ichigo some of her powers so that he can save his family; but much to her surprise, Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper himself, Ichigo quickly learns that the world he inhabits is one full of dangerous spirits and, along with Rukia–who is slowly regaining her powers – it’s Ichigo’s job to protect the innocent from Hollows and help the spirits themselves find peace.
Source: Viz Media
