The Anime

The episodes of the Bleach anime series are directed by Noriyuki Abe and produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu, and Studio Pierrot. The episodes have aired on TV Tokyo in Japan since October 5, 2004.

 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 since 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 its Adult Swim block.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 Bleach.

The series began airing again on March 2, 2008, but went back on hiatus on November 21, 2009, after the airing of its 167th episode. The series returned from hiatus on August 28, 2010, on Adult Swim. In the United Kingdom, Bleach premiered on AnimeCentral on September 13, 2007, with new episodes airing weekly.

As of August 2009, 49 DVD compilations have been released by Aniplex in Japan.Viz Media has released 31 DVD compilations of the English adaptation of the anime, along with three DVD collection boxes that contain the first, second, and third seasons of the anime, respectively. On July 29, 2009, Aniplex released a “TV Animation Bleach 5th Anniversary Box” that includes 15 DVDs and three bonus discs.