The first 187 chapters of the ''Bleach''

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series, written and illustrated by

Tite Kubo , known professionally as , is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He is best known for his manga series '' Bleach'' (2001–2016), which had over 130 million copies in circulation as of 2022. Biography Kubo was born on June 26, 197 ...

, comprise two story arcs: the and the . The plot follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager who accidentally steals the powers of the Soul Reaper Rukia Kuchiki and subsequently assumes her duties while she convalesces. Since that event, Ichigo has to fight Hollows, evil spirits that attack people. After various works, Rukia is sentenced to death by her Soul Reapers' superiors for her actions, leading Ichigo to invade the afterlife realm called Soul Society to rescue her. ''Bleach'' was published in individual chapters by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

in ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' magazine and was later collected in ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' (book) format. The first arc, going through volumes 1–8, was serialized between the August 20, 2001, and February 3, 2003, issues. The second arc, covering volumes 9–21, was released from February 10, 2003, to August 1, 2005. The first seven chapters were released in a ''tankōbon'' volume on January 5, 2002, while chapters 179–187 were collected into the 21st volume published on March 3, 2006. These 21 volumes were later compiled into six omnibus collections under the name ''Resurrected Souls'' to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the series. The first collection was released on August 22, 2011, and the last was published on January 23, 2012. An

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation, produced by

Studio Pierrot is a Japanese animation studio established in May 1979 by former employees of both Tatsunoko Production and Mushi Production. Its headquarters are located in Mitaka, Tokyo. Pierrot is renowned for several worldwide popular anime series, such as ...

and

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

, premiered on TV Tokyo on October 5, 2004. These arcs were adapted into the first 63 episodes; the first twenty-episode season 1 acts as a prelude to the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

and

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

seasons in which Ichigo enters the Soul Society. Episode 63 aired on October 1, 2006. North American licensor

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

serialized the individual chapters in ''Shonen Jump'' starting from November 2007 in the United States. Viz Media released the first volume on July 6, 2004, while volume 21 was released on October 2, 2007. The company released a hardcover "collector's edition" of the first volume with a dust jacket on August 5, 2008, followed by a box set on September 2, 2008, containing the first 21 volumes, a poster, and a booklet about the series. A re-release of the series under the label of "3-in-1 Edition" started on June 7, 2011; the book containing volumes 19–21 was released on January 7, 2014.

Volumes

Notes

References

External links

Official ''Bleach'' website

Official Shonen Jump ''Bleach'' website
{{DISPLAYTITLE:List of ''Bleach'' chapters (1–187) Bleach chapters (1-187)