The ninth season of the ''

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

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 ...

series is named . The series is based on

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 ...

's ''

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. The episodes are directed by

Noriyuki Abe Noriyuki (written: 紀之, 紀行, 敬之, 記之, 徳行, 憲幸, 範之 or 範幸) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese anime director *, Japanese musician *, Japanese motorcycle racer *, Japanese ...

, and produced by

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 ...

Dentsu Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest adverti ...

and

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 ...

. The season is an original, self-contained filler story arc that focuses on the introduction of a new Soul Reaper captain, Shūsuke Amagai, and the mystery surrounding the Kasumiōji clan, one of the families that constitute the nobility of Soul Society. It is the first season of the anime series to be produced in 16:9 widescreen. The season aired from April to October 2008. The English adaptation of the ''Bleach'' anime is licensed by

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 ...

, and this arc began airing on August 29, 2010 on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

, and finished on January 30, 2011. Five DVD compilations, each containing four episodes of the season, have been released by

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both ''Fullm ...

; the first DVD compilation was released on November 26, 2008 and the fifth on March 25, 2009. A DVD box set was published by Viz Media on December 13, 2011. The episodes use three pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

: one opening theme and two closing themes. The opening theme is "

Chu-Bura ''Chu-Bura'' is the second Extended play, EP by Japanese Rock music, rock band Kelun. It was released on July 2, 2008 by Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Sony Music Entertainment. The single "Chu-Bura" served as the eighth opening theme song for t ...

" by

Kelun Kelun is a Japanese rock band signed by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Kelun was originally a band named UTARI, formed in 2006. Their first album, "UTARI", was released in April. It took the Indie (music), indie Record chart, charts by storm an ...

. The first closing theme is "Orange" by Lil'B, used for episodes 168 to 179, and the second closing theme is "Gallop" by pe'zmoku, used for the remainder of the episodes. __TOC__

Episode list

References

;General * * * * * ;Specific {{featured list 2008 Japanese television seasons Season 09