After a two-year wait, Bleach is back for the last time. The Calamity — the fourth and final part of Thousand-Year Blood War — premiered on Saturday 25 July 2026, kicking off the run of episodes that will close Ichigo Kurosaki's story for good.
The details
Ten episodes, confirmed by Hulu, with Final Weapon reporting a potential one-hour grand finale to cap it off. New episodes land every Saturday at 3:30pm UK time, streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally. Episode 1, "GOD OF THUNDER", picks up with Ichigo's crew reunited against Yhwach while Yoruichi squares off with Askin Nakk Le Vaar. Studio Pierrot animates, with Tomohisa Taguchi as chief director and Hikaru Murata directing — and the first three episodes even got an early cinema release, including UK screenings on 26 June.
The road to The Calamity
- Part 1 — premiered October 2022, ending a decade-long wait: the original 2004–2012 anime never adapted the manga's final arc.
- Part 2: The Separation — aired in 2023.
- Part 3: The Conflict — aired in 2024, ending with the truth behind Uryu joining the Wandenreich.
- Part 4: The Calamity — from 25 July 2026, adapting the manga's closing chapters (664–686).
Kubo's personal touch
Creator Tite Kubo has confirmed The Calamity carries more anime-original material than any previous part, expanding the manga's final battles. He's been just as hands-on with the music — jo0ji performs the opening theme "I-BULL", with 9Lana on the ending "Rasen" — and Kubo personally listened to and selected every Thousand-Year Blood War theme from the demo stage onwards.
"I wanted to have as many newer artists as possible perform the themes." — Tite Kubo, via Anime Corner, July 2026.
His hope, he explained, is that viewers discover those artists through the anime and become fans afterwards.
For the record: Kubo's manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2001 to 2016, spans 74 volumes, and has topped 130 million copies in circulation worldwide. Ten episodes from now, the whole thing is finally animated. No pressure.