VIZ Media announced earlier this week that the upcoming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity TV anime series will stream exclusively on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ in select international markets. The anime will begin streaming on the services starting on July 25, 2026 at 7:30 AM PST, which is also the same date it premieres in Japan.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity had a pre-screening in Japan on June 21., 2026. Several limited theatrical premiere screenings were also hosted in the United States from June 25, 2026 to June 29, 2026.
Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive, The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes director and scriptwriter), who was previously the director for Thousand-Year Blood War’s first two installments, is serving as the chief director for The Calamity, with Hikaru Murata (previously co-chief episode director on the first installment and The Separation, director of The Conflict) as director.
Other staff for The Calamity include Masaki Hiramatsu (The Garden of Sinners scriptwriter) as series composer, Masashi Kudo (Bleach) as character designer, Saori Goda (Akudama Drive) as color designer, Yoshio Tanioka (Akudama Drive) as background art director, Kazuhiro Yamada (Akudama Drive) and Satomi Okuhara (previously assistant) as composting directors, and Shiro Sagisu (Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, Bleach) as music composer. PIERROT FILMS is handling the animation production, which was previously credited to PIERROT until The Conflict.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War adapts the last story arc of Tite Kubo‘s Bleach manga series. The anime’s first cour debuted in 2022 and was followed by 2023’s The Separation and 2024’s The Conflict, with The Calamity serving as the final part of the series. The original Bleach TV anime series aired from 2004 to 2012.
Kubo’s manga was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from August 7, 2001 to August 22, 2016 and was collected into 74 tankobon volumes. A special one-shot was released in 2021.
VIZ Media releases the Bleach manga series in English and describes the main synopsis of the first volume 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: press release