The is the first 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. 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 ...

. In the English release 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 ...

, the title is changed to The Substitute. Viz media product info for ''Bleach'' DVD collection 01 on the Viz website. The season adapts the first eight volumes (chapters 1–70) of

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, spanning twenty episodes. The episodes' plot covers the adventures of

Ichigo Kurosaki is a fictional character in the ''Bleach'' manga series and its adaptations created by Tite Kubo. He is the main protagonist of the series, who receives Soul Reaper powers after meeting Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper assigned to patrol around the ...

after becoming a Soul Reaper and assuming the duties of Soul Reaper

Rukia Kuchiki is a fictional character in the anime and manga series '' Bleach'' created by Tite Kubo. In the series, she is a Soul Reaper, (死神, Shinigami, literally 'Death God'), in charge of slaying evil spirits called Hollows. At the beginning, after a ...

. The arc initially ran from October 5, 2004 to February 22, 2005 in Japan on

. The first English airing of the series was from September 9, 2006 until January 26, 2007. It was shown on YTV's

Bionix Bionix may refer to: * Bionix (TV programming block), a program block on the Canadian channel YTV * Air Creation BioniX, a French ultralight trike wing design * '' AOI: Bionix'', a 2001 album by De La Soul, and its title song * Bionix AFV, a famil ...

programming block in Canada and

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 ...

in the United States, with Bionix airing the show one day sooner. The arc started airing in the UK starting in September 2007 on

AnimeCentral Anime Central was a British television channel owned by CSC Media Group. The channel launched on 13 September 2007. It was first announced on 5 August 2007, though its license first appeared on the Ofcom website in January (initially named "Toon ...

. 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 ending themes. The opening theme is

Orange Range are a 5-member Japanese rock music, rock band, based in Okinawa, Japan. Formed in 2001, the band began with Spice Music and later signed with Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Sony Music Japan's gr8! records division in 2003. The band left gr8! ...

's single "

Asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

". The ending theme for the first thirteen episodes is "Life is Like a Boat" by Rie Fu, while the remaining seven used "Thank You!!" by

Home Made Kazoku was a Japanese hip-hop trio from Nagoya, formed in 1996, and whose hiatus started in 2016. They are signed to Ki/oon Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music. Biography Home Made Kazoku is a trio, consisting of members Micro, Kuro, and DJ U-Ichi. ...

. The arc was released on five DVD compilations, each containing four episodes of the show. They were released in Japan from February 2 to June 1, 2005. Viz Media's release of the DVDs was made from November 5 to July 31, 2007. The first of these compilations, with art featuring the series main character Ichigo Kurosaki, was nominated at the

American Anime Awards The American Anime Awards were a series of awards designed to recognize excellence in the release of anime and manga in North America. The first annual American Anime Awards balloting was supervised by Milton Griepp of industry website ICv2. The ...

in 2007 for best DVD package design. A DVD collection box, containing all twenty episodes of the arc, was released by Viz Media on October 30, 2007.

Manga Entertainment Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyro ...

released two DVDs containing the first season in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2007 and March 3, 2008. A compilation of these two volumes was released on May 5, 2008. __TOC__

Episode list

References

;General * * * * ;Specific {{Featured list 2004 Japanese television seasons 2005 Japanese television seasons Season 01