How To Watch Bleach In Order (Including Thousand-Year Blood War)

Alongside Naruto and One Piece, Bleach formed part of what fans dubbed the ‘Big Three’ of shonen manga and anime in the late ‘90s to the early to mid ‘00s. Looking back, Bleach also helped establish the trend for darker, supernatural stories that have come to dominate this demographic in subsequent years, such as Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man. It has all the classic ingredients: an effortlessly cool but relatable ‘underdog’ teen protagonist, vast worldbuilding, a complex magic system, villains you love to hate, a robust roster of great side characters, and plenty of mid-air combat with big swords and summoning abilities.   

• Season 1 of Bleach (Episodes 1–20) follows the ‘Agent of the Shinigami’ arc, which establishes Ichigo Kurosaki as the teenage protagonist adapting to his new life as a Soul Reaper.

• Season 2 (Episodes 21–41) follows the ‘Soul Society: The Sneak Entry’ arc, which sees Ichigo and his friends go on a mission to rescue Rukia (the Soul Reaper who gave him his powers) from the clutches of the Soul Society. Finally,

• Season 3 (Episodes 42–63) follows the ‘Soul Society: The Rescue’ arc, in which Ichigo regains his powers after losing them in a fight and once again attempts to free Rukia. 

• Season 4 (Episodes 64–91) follows the ‘Bount’ arc, which introduces a race of humans called the ‘Bounts’ who devour souls to become immortal. When they invade the human world, Ichigo and the Soul Society go to battle with them.

• Season 5 (Episodes 92–109) continues the ‘Bount’ arc with the ‘Assault on Soul Society’ storyline. 

• Season 6 (Episodes 110–131) follows the ‘Arrancar: The Arrival’ arc from the manga. The Arrancar are unmasked Hollows who are under the command of the series’ main villain, the identity of whom we won’t spoil here as it’s a major twist. Their arrival brings inevitable challenges for Ichigo and his friends.

• Season 7 (Episodes 132–151) follows the ‘Arrancar: The Hueco Mundo Sneak Entry’ arc, in which Ichigo and Co. infiltrate the Big Bad’s base.

• Season 8 (Episodes 152–167) finishes the Arrancar storyline, in which Ichigo finally goes up against said villain and his army.

• This entire season is filler (Episodes 168–189), so you can skip it if you’re short on time. It follows the ‘New Captain Shusuke Amagai’ arc, which focuses on a new Soul Reaper captain and delves into the background of one of the Soul Society noble families, the Kasumiōji clan.

• Season 11 (Episodes 206–212) follows the Past arc, set 110 years before the main Bleach timeline to unearth some interesting backstory for current-day events. This flashback season goes into the origins of the Vizards, a group of Soul Reapers who gained Hollow powers after they were experimented on by the series’ main villain and their followers.

• Season 12 (Episodes 213–229) covers the ‘Decisive Battle of Karakura’ arc. The arc follows the Soul Reapers as they defend the town of Karakura from an onslaught by an army of Arrancars.

• Season 13 (Episodes 230–265) covers two arcs: the ‘Zanpakuto Rebellion’ arc (Zanpakuto being every Soul Reaper’s unique spirit-possessing weapon) and the ‘Sword Beasts’ arc. The two arcs tell the filler story of the Soul Reaper swords becoming sentient, taking human forms, and, as the name implies, rebelling.

• Season 14 (Episodes 266–316) follows the ‘Arrancar: Downfall’ arc, which focuses on the final battle between the Soul Reapers and the Arrancar army.

• Season 15 (Episodes 317–342) follows the ‘Gotei 13 Invading Army’ arc, in which Soul Society is infiltrated by artificial copies of Soul Reapers, and is a mix of canon and non-canon stories.

• Season 16 (Episodes 343–366) follows the ‘Lost Agent’ arc, which sees Ichigo once again retrain to get his Soul Reaper powers back after losing them during his battle with the series’ Big Bad.

After the anime went dormant for many years, Bleach returned in 2022 with a sequel series, the Thousand-Year Blood War, which covers the final big storyline from the manga. 

Four seasons in total cover the ‘Blood Warfare’ arc (Episodes 367–379), the ‘Separation’ arc (Episodes 380–392), the ‘Conflict’ arc (Episodes 393–406), and the ‘Calamity’ arc (Episodes 407–423), respectively. The first three storylines focus on Yhwach, the Quincy King, and his army’s invasion of the Soul Society. Naturally, if you want to see how the main story all wraps up, this is an unmissable continuation.

The first (and so far only) live-action retelling of Bleach came out in 2018. A Japanese production, series creator Tite Kubo, who had previously been dismissive of the idea, got directly involved to ensure as much compliance with his creation as possible - though his main concern, somewhat hilariously, seemed to be the brightness of Ichigo's signature orange hair. The English dub also enlisted Ichigo's long-time English voice actor, Johnny Yong-Bosch.

The film does a decent job compacting Ichigo's Soul Reaper origin story, including meeting Rukia, dealing with his mother's death at the hands of a Hollow called Grand Fisher, and the Soul Society's existence and rule of law into a tight timeframe. If you prefer live-action to animation and want a quick fix of Kubo's world, it's not a bad introduction. However, the best way to really get into Bleach remains the anime series, and this film is easily skippable.

Following on from The Thousand-Year Blood War, The Calamity reveals the consequences of the battle between the Quincies and the Soul Reapers begin to make themselves known as reality itself falls apart. 

In 2021, a new manga one-shot was released, set 12 years after the Quincy war, titled ‘No Breathes From Hell.’ Fans are hopeful this could open up a new avenue for the anime to continue post-’Thousand-Year Blood War’ arc, in a potential sequel era dubbed the ‘Hell’ arc.