Bleach - An anime with great potential that became the king of fillers

Bleach built its name on a dark story that held readers and viewers for years. The TV series that ran from 2004 to 2012 is also known for a blunt fact: a very large share of those episodes never shows up in the manga.

If you want the surprises for yourself, stop here. The rest covers the publication dates, the turns that matter, and the episode numbers you can skip when you only want the manga line.

Tite Kubo published the first chapter on August 7, 2001, in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. Chapter 686, the last numbered chapter, came out on August 22, 2016. The collected edition fills 74 volumes and also holds twelve chapters numbered from -108 to -97. By 2022, more than 130 million copies were in circulation worldwide.

Contents 5

The first anime series and the films

Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo, and Dentsu produced the anime. Noriyuki Abe directed it. The first episode aired on October 5, 2004. Episode 366, the last of that run, aired on March 27, 2012. The manga continued until 2016, and this series never reached the final long arc.

Those years also brought two OVAs, four anime films, stage musicals, and many games. Memories of Nobody opened in Japan on December 16, 2006, The DiamondDust Rebellion on December 22, 2007, Fade to Black on December 13, 2008, and Hell Verse (Jigoku-hen) on December 4, 2010. The four films tell their own stories, and Kubo designed the extra characters. On July 20, 2018, a Warner Bros. live-action film directed by Shinsuke Satō opened in Japan and stays with the first arc, the substitute Shinigami story. Shirō Sagisu wrote the music for the TV series.

What came after episode 366

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War starts that last manga arc in October 2022, from volume 55, and follows it through to the ending. The fourth part, The Calamity, premiered on July 25, 2026, at 11:00 p.m. on TV Tokyo. Episode 49 of this sequel airs on October 19, 2026, at 24:00 on TV Tokyo, the night leading into October 20. Episode 50 follows on October 26, 2026, at 24:00, the night leading into October 27. The production committee moved both episodes in September 2026 so the staff could raise the quality before the climax. The parts of that broadcast are in the article on the new season.

The plot, with spoilers

Ichigo Kurosaki is 15, goes to school in Karakura, and can see ghosts. One night he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a Shinigami from the Soul Society. In Bleach, Shinigami guide the dead and fight Hollows, lost souls that eat people and spirits. The older meaning, a death god who draws people toward death, is in the article on Shinigami.

Rukia is wounded while protecting Ichigo from a Hollow and passes her powers to him. He beats the Hollow. She is left in a temporary human body, without her Shinigami powers, and stays in the living world to teach him the work.

Ichigo takes over her rounds and finds classmates who can see spirits too. Uryū Ishida is a Quincy, a human who uses spiritual energy and hunts Hollows in his own way. Orihime Inoue carries the Shun Shun Rikka, six spirits living in the hairpins her brother gave her. Yasutora Sado, called Chad, sits in Ichigo's class and has a power of his own.

In the first long arc, the Shinigami take Rukia back and sentence her to death for giving her powers to a human. Ichigo goes to the Soul Society with Uryū, Orihime, and Chad to bring her home. Sōsuke Aizen is behind the sentence. He fakes his own death because the Hōgyoku is hidden inside Rukia and he wants it. Before the battle over Karakura, Aizen sends the Arrancar. Ulquiorra takes Orihime to Hueco Mundo, and Ichigo goes after her.

Later, Karakura is meant to supply the material for a key to the Soul King's palace. Ichigo finishes the fight by sacrificing his Shinigami powers. Aizen is imprisoned.

Months later, Ichigo meets Xcution. The group is made of Fullbringers, humans with supernatural abilities, and Kūgo Ginjō leads it. Ginjō had been a substitute Shinigami before Ichigo. He helps Ichigo build a Fullbring and then takes it. The Shinigami give Ichigo his old powers back. Ichigo defeats Ginjō and takes up the substitute role again.

After that comes the war against Yhwach and the Quincies of the Wandenreich. Who is Ichigo with at the end? Orihime. The two marry. Ten years after that war they have a son, Kazui, who inherits his father's ability to sense spirits. Rukia and Renji Abarai have a daughter, Ichika.

A few things worth knowing

After Zombiepowder was canceled, Weekly Shōnen Jump rejected the first proposal for Bleach. Akira Toriyama read the concept and wrote to Kubo, telling him to stay with it. The magazine accepted the series in 2001. Kubo had planned it to run for five years at most.

The frame above puts Ichigo beside Son Goku, with Luffy and Naruto behind them. That meeting does not happen in the manga. The cover of volume 1 shows Ichigo. Shinji Hirako enters in chapter 183, in volume 21, as a transfer student, and becomes central only much later.

Kubo split the factions by language. Hollows and Arrancar use Spanish, as in Las Noches and Resurrección. The Quincies carry German names, including Wandenreich, Sternritter, and Vollständig. Fullbringers use English, often drawn from rock music. The Bounts show up in episodes 64 through 108 and do not appear in the manga.

Which episodes are filler

Filler episodes are the ones the studio added. A separate group mixes manga scenes with anime-only material. The pure list follows Anime Filler List as updated on November 18, 2025. The count there is 163 of 366 episodes, about 45 percent. If you only want the manga line, skip these numbers: 33, 50, 64-108, 128-137, 147-149, 168-189, 204-205, 213-214, 228-266, 287, 298-299, 303-305, 311-341, and 355.

Older lists run the Bount block through 109, start the Zanpakutō block at 227, and end the Gotei block at 342. Episode 109 and episode 342 mix manga scenes with anime-only material. Episode 227, Wonderful Error, stays on the manga line. The pure Bount block ends at 108, the Zanpakutō block starts at 228, and the block about the invading Gotei 13 ends at 341. Episode 266, inside that Zanpakutō block, only resumes the fight with Ulquiorra and still counts as filler. The ending of that fight is episode 272, on the manga line.

• 33 and 50: single side episodes, Miracle! The Mysterious New Hero and The Reviving Lion.
• 64-108: the Bounts. At 109 the series goes on, with manga scenes mixed in.
• 128-137: the stolen Hōgyoku, anime only.
• 147-149: the Forest of Menos.
• 168-189: the new captain, Shūsuke Amagai.
• 204-205 and 213-214: short inserts, including the Karakuraizer comedy.
• 228-266: the Zanpakutō rebellion, and episode 266 resumes the Ulquiorra fight.
• 287, 298-299, and 303-305: single side episodes, including the Magic Lamp story and a Hell Verse prologue.
• 311-341: short inserts and the march on the Gotei 13. At 342 the manga line continues, mixed with anime-only scenes.
• 355: one episode outside the manga.

If you like the Zanpakutō given their own faces, or the closed story around Shūsuke Amagai, you can still watch both. You do not need those arcs for the manga line, or for the sequel that started in 2022.