The Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War release date is on October 10, 2022. There will be 48 to 52 Bleach 2022 episodes released as 4 cours or parts. The final Bleach Season 17 will be a split cour anime, which means there will be broadcasting breaks between some of the cours.
It is already confirmed by the official Bleach anime website that Disney+ Japan, Hulu Japan, Amazon Prime Video Japan, and other streaming services in Japan will be streaming the new episodes as they release every week on Tuesdays at 12:00.
On October 3, 2022, VIZ Media officially announced that Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will be available to English-speaking fans in the United States on Hulu USA whereas the episodes will be streaming internationally on Disney+. This means that there will be a Bleach TYBW release date and time announced separately for each region including Disney+ UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
The situation is so confusing that many fans have claimed they’ll be turning to pirate sites. Crazily enough, Bleach Season 17 Episode 1 was leaked on torrent sites a day before the international premiere.
The Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War Hulu USA release date is at 8:30 AM PST/12:30 PM EST on October 10, 2022. It’s been confirmed that there will be a simulcast, or weekly release, of episodes on Hulu in the US region.
On September 30, 2022, it was also reported that the STAR sub-section of Disney+ Canada was listing “Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War: Season 1”. However, Bleach wasn’t confirmed for Disney + USA since the US version of the streaming app doesn’t have Disney+ Star yet.
The Bleach Disney+ UK release schedule hasn’t been announced. However, the first episode was released at 4:30 PM GB time but nothing is confirmed about a weekly schedule. It’s likely that new episodes will be streaming weekly in GB on Mondays.
The Bleach Disney+ Australia release schedule hasn’t been officially announced. Regardless, Australian anime news leakers like Yonkou Productions have declared that the episode has been released in Oz at 2:30 AM GMT+11 (11:30 AM EST) on October 11, 2022. That should mean the land of Oz will be watching new Bleach 2022 episodes weekly on Tuesdays.
Anime Geek hasn’t been able to confirm anything concerning streaming Bleach on Disney+ France, Germany, Spain, etc. The lack of information has jumpstarted rumors on Twitter that are claiming that much of Europe will not be simulcast.
On October 9, 2022, it was confirmed that Disney+ Brazil is streaming the episodes.
Unfortunately, the majority of Disney+ Latin America has been left in the dark. On October 10, 2022, the official Disney+ Help Twitter stated, “We still do not have any update about this title’s availability for Disney+ Latin America. But don’t forget to follow us on social media to catch up about future [announcements].” VIZ Media hasn’t provided any updates regarding Mexico, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries.
The Bleach Disney+ streaming deal has many international anime fans freaking out about how the House of Mouse might affect the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime. After all, Disney+ is supposed to be a haven for family-friendly content, right?
This information regarding the Bleach Disney Plus deal originally came from a reliable source that has leaked anime news in the past. VIZ Media owns the rights to the Bleach franchise in all territories except for Asia and Arab countries, but they do not have any streaming capabilities. Thus, there was a bidding war between streaming platforms to determine who would be the exclusive streaming rights holder.
Netflix, Crunchyroll, etc. lost the bidding war for the international streaming rights licenses for Bleach Season 17. On September 30, 2022, Crunchyroll removed all of the old Bleach episodes all the way up until Bleach Season 16 from its website.
As previously noted, for those who live in the United States, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War: Season 1 will be made available for streaming on Hulu USA on October 10, 2022.
Additionally, Disney Plus Canada is confirmed to be streaming all of the old episodes up until Bleach Season 16 starting on October 26, 2022. This means newcomers to the series can still catch up (just not on Crunchyroll).
Oddly enough, Walt Disney Company didn’t make the official announcement during D23 Expo 2022, which happened in Anaheim California on Friday, September 9, 2022, and Saturday, September 10, 2022.
Nor was the Disney Plus Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War streaming deal announced during Disney+ Day 2022 on September 8, 2022. Basically, Disney Plus Day 2022 is a day to celebrate the Disney+ streaming service with Disney+ announcements, special discounts, unique character meet-and-greets, and other special events.
During Aniplex Online Fest 2022 on September 24, 2022, the Bleach presentation showed off a new PV trailer based on Episode 1. They even teased audiences by talking about Americans watching Bleach, but there was no Disney+ confirmation or any specific streaming plans mentioned!
Will anime fans watch Bleach uncensored on Disney+ and Hulu streaming?
The first question that many anime fans have is whether they’ll be able to watch Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War uncensored on Disney+. After all, a fan in the official Bleach fan club Klub Outside directly asked manga creator Tite Kubo about the censorship issues and he indicated that the Japanese TV broadcast should feature Bleach uncensored since it’s a midnight broadcast time slot.
“At that time, there was a rule in the Jump that ‘Only the end of serialization work should be made into late night anime’ but now it is said that it will broadcast at midnight and follow the original,” Kubo explained. “Also, the figures of Harribel of Alpha Omega are based on the original.”
Well, that’s all well and good for the Japanese watching local TV stations, but what about the rest of the world that’ll be forced to watch the new Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War episodes via Disney+?
First of all, Disney+ has only acquired the streaming rights to the TV, which does not give them any creative control. Any blood and gore created by Japanese animation Studio Pierrot will be adjusted first based on the sensibilities of the Japanese audience.
Secondly, Disney+ is already streaming R-rated titles. While the vast majority of the Disney+ library is focused on kids they are also streaming Deadpool and Logan without censorship.
Third, if we look to Disney+ exclusive Summer Time Render anime as an example, Disney+ is already streaming an anime TV with very blatant gore and very graphic animated elements that follow the original source material in the Summer Time Render manga. They haven’t used light beams, black bars, or any Redo of Healer-level censorship where entire scenes were adjusted.
As such, Disney+ should be streaming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War uncensored.
Will the Hulu, Disney+ Bleach streaming schedule be weekly or binge-watching?
The Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War release date in Japan has been confirmed to be on October 10, 2022, the Fall 2022 anime season. Will Disney+ be releasing new Bleach episodes weekly or make international fans wait for months in order to satisfy binge-watching fans?
On September 11, 2022, VIZ Media specifically stated that the new episodes will be released on a simulcast schedule, which means weekly. But that doesn’t necessarily mean every territory will receive new episodes on the same schedule since VIZ Media did not specify which streaming platforms and countries will be a simulcast schedule.
Keep in mind that VIZ Media and Disney+ will be releasing details specific to each territory or region. The VIZ Media website specifically states that “internationally availability may vary by country”. Thus, it’s possible that some regions may not receive a Disney+ simulcast.
Again, we can look to Summer Time Render as an example. Disney+ made the TV show available first in Japan with a global release planned for later down the road. Disney+ Japan has been streaming episodes weekly but other Asaia-Pacific countries received their dubbed version at later dates.
For example, the anime was up to Summer Time Render Episode 19 in Japan by August 19, 2022, but in some countries, it was still back in Episode 11. The Disney dubs haven’t been released in batches. Instead, dubbed episodes have been released in multiple languages each with their own release schedule.
English-speaking countries still haven’t received a single episode of Summer Time Render as of the end of September 2022 and it’s suspected that the two-cour Summer Time Render anime will be released for binge-watching in those territories.
While that does sound like a messy schedule, keep in mind that it’s just an example since Summer Time Render is relatively unknown thanks to limited-to-nonexistent advertising whereas Bleach is established in the minds of anime fans throughout the world. If Disney+ also wants to use Bleach to establish itself as an anime streaming platform then they can’t afford to mess it up in the eyes of the fans.
Additionally, Disney+ does recognize the value of the weekly release schedule. While casual audiences prefer binge-watching, the superfans love to talk about each episode as they week, which in turn builds the hype surrounding the TV shows and helps a franchise thrive. This is why the Star Wars TV shows and Marvel shows like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are released weekly.
Even Netflix has been trying different strategies for their anime exclusives. For example, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean is releasing the parts for binge-watching, but the episodes are released earlier than the weekly Japanese TV broadcast. In addition, Netflix TV shows such as Komi Can’t Communicate were released weekly.
As such, it’s tentatively predicted that Disney+ would give priority to streaming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War weekly in Canada and certain territories. The same is likely true for the Bleach Hulu USA release schedule. But it’s probable that the Bleach English dub may be behind by several weeks, as well.