Anime

The anime version of Bleach is produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Noriyuki Abe. It began broadcasting in Japan on October 5, 2004, on TV Tokyo. Episodes 1-167 were made and broadcast in 4:3, with episodes 168+ made and broadcast in 16:9 wide screen.

The anime version of the story generally follows the manga quite closely, but diverges in some important aspects: in particular, seasons 4 and 5 (The Bount arc), season 8 (The New Captain Shūsuke Amagai arc) and season 12 (Zanpakutō Unknown Tales arc and Beast Swords arc) are anime-only arcs, not written by Tite Kubo. As the manga is written before the anime, yet each episode of the anime covers the equivalent of two and a half to three chapters of the manga, such episodes are made necessary by the anime's approximately weekly production schedule.

In addition to the regular series, the anime also comprises three movies and two OVAs.

List of episodes

 * Episodes