Episodes

The first episode of the Bleach anime introduces Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager who has always seen ghosts, and the Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki whose arrival upends his life when a Hollow attacks his family and forces him to inherit her powers.

The morning after Fishbone D, Ichigo finds his family's wounds and memories erased, and Rukia turns up at school stranded in a Gigai. Pressed to take over her Shinigami duties, he resists, even as the tragic tie between Orihime, her late brother Sora, and a new Hollow begins to surface.

The third episode delivers Bleach's first truly tragic Hollow, revealing that the monster stalking Orihime Inoue is her own dead brother. Ichigo and Rukia race to save her, and the fight forces Orihime to free the brother she cannot stop mourning.

A parakeet said to bring death to every owner comes into Sado's hands, but the bird carries the trapped soul of a grieving boy, Yūichi Shibata. As a Hollow named Shrieker closes in to devour that soul, Ichigo and Rukia race to protect it.

Rukia Kuchiki and a spirit-blind Yasutora Sado combine brains and brawn against the sadistic Hollow Shrieker, before Ichigo arrives to end the creature and free the tormented soul it has been hunting.

Episode 6 of Bleach introduces Kon, the runaway Modified Soul who hijacks Ichigo's body after Rukia hands over a defective Soul Candy dispenser, forcing Ichigo to chase down a copy of himself.

After a condemned Mod-Soul risks himself to save the very schoolboys who mocked him, Ichigo lodges his complaints by lodging the soul in a lion plushie, giving rise to Kon, on the eve of a date that stirs painful memories.

The eighth episode turns somber as Ichigo visits his mother's grave on the anniversary of her death. Between a probing Rukia, an inquisitive Shinigami tracker, and painful memories, the day builds toward the return of the Hollow that took Masaki's life.

Episode 9 confronts Ichigo with the Hollow that killed his mother. Facing Grand Fisher at the cemetery, he must fight past a lure wearing Masaki's face, and afterward Isshin gives his grieving son the truth about the day she died.

Bleach's tenth episode introduces the flamboyant TV medium Don Kanonji. Dragged to a live broadcast at a haunted hospital, Ichigo watches in horror as the showman's stunt turns a trapped soul into a rampaging Hollow, forcing the two of them into an unlikely alliance against a monster of Kanonji's own making.

Episode 11 of Bleach. Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki cross paths with classmate Uryū Ishida, the top student who reveals himself as a Quincy, a Hollow-slaying rival who despises Shinigami and challenges Ichigo to prove they are obsolete.

In the twelfth episode, Uryū baits Karakura Town with Hollows to settle a contest with Ichigo. As monsters swarm the streets, Yasutora Sado awakens a mighty power in his right arm to save Ichigo's sister Karin.

Episode 13 of Bleach awakens Orihime's Shun Shun Rikka when she is forced to defend Tatsuki from the Hollow Numb Chandelier, while Uryū presses on with his contest against Ichigo and Urahara takes an interest in the newly awakened.

Forced together against a swarm of Hollows and a towering Menos Grande, Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryū Ishida set aside their rivalry, as Rukia recounts the Quincy's extinction and Uryū confronts the truth behind his grandfather's death.

Humiliated once too often, Kon storms out of the Kurosaki household to find somewhere he belongs, just as Rukia quietly prepares to leave and Soul Society dispatches Byakuya and Renji to drag her home.

Episode 16 of the Bleach anime brings Soul Society to Karakura Town as Lieutenant Renji Abarai and Captain Byakuya Kuchiki arrive to arrest Rukia, cutting down Uryū and Ichigo in a first, sobering clash between the Substitute Shinigami and true Soul Reapers.

A turning point in the Agent of the Shinigami arc where a defiant Ichigo is crushed by two Soul Reapers, stripped of his powers, and left for dead as Rukia is dragged back to Soul Society, setting the stage for his path to rescue her.

The 18th episode of Bleach sets Ichigo on the road to Soul Society, beginning his brutal training under Kisuke Urahara to reclaim his lost Soul Reaper powers while Yoruichi quietly gathers his friends for their own preparation.

A pivotal early episode in which Ichigo undertakes Urahara's brutal second lesson, racing the clock at the bottom of a pit to reclaim his Shinigami powers before his own soul completes its transformation into a Hollow.

Episode 20 caps Ichigo's training and launches the rescue mission. He finally draws out the true form of his blade against Urahara, while his friends complete their own preparations and step through a modified gate toward the Soul Society.

Ichigo and his companions burst out of the Dangai into the Rukongai and reach the towering White Way Gate, where the giant guardian Jidanbō blocks their path until Ichigo's newfound strength earns them passage, and a smiling Gin Ichimaru appears.

Episode 22 of Bleach. Captain Gin Ichimaru repels Ichigo at the Seireitei gate, forcing the group to seek another way in, while Sado reunites with an old friend and Ichigo clashes with the fiery Shinigami-hater Ganju Shiba.

The twenty-third Bleach episode brings Ichigo Kurosaki and his companions to the home of Kūkaku Shiba as they seek a way into the Seireitei. Meanwhile Rukia Kuchiki is moved to the Senzaikyū tower and told her execution is less than fourteen days away.

As Ichigo's group trains to be fired into the Seireitei from Kūkaku Shiba's cannon, the captains of the Gotei 13 gather for a tense meeting where Gin Ichimaru is grilled over letting the intruders slip away, only for a fresh alarm to interrupt them.

In the 25th episode, Ganju bares the grief behind his hatred of Shinigami and throws in with Ichigo, then Kūkaku fires the whole group into the Seireitei by cannon, breaking the barrier and scattering them across the city.

Episode 26 of Bleach scatters the Ryoka across the Seireitei after their cannonball entry, throwing Ichigo into a swordfight with Ikkaku Madarame while Ganju flees the vain Yumichika Ayasegawa through the back alleys.

The 27th episode of Bleach brings Ichigo's duel with Ikkaku Madarame to its end and, through his defeated opponent, hands him both directions to Rukia's prison and a warning about the captain who hunts the strong.

The 28th episode closes out Ganju's desperate flight from Yumichika inside the Seireitei and opens Uryū's duel with a Seventh Division swordsman who threatens Orihime, showcasing the Quincy's newly refined bow.

The twenty-ninth Bleach episode sees Uryū Ishida finish his duel with Jirōbō Ikkanzaka, while Ichigo Kurosaki and Ganju Shiba stumble into Hanatarō Yamada, a Fourth Division healer who knows Rukia. Kenpachi Zaraki, hungry for a fight, hunts for Ichigo.

The thirtieth episode guides Ichigo through the Seireitei's hidden canals toward Rukia's prison, filling in her quiet bond with a Fourth Division healer before Renji steps forward at the base of Senzaikyū to renew their rivalry.

The 31st episode ends Ichigo's rematch with Renji Abarai, cutting between the brutal duel and the training that forged Ichigo's resolve. Cornered and bleeding, Ichigo finally learns to wield his blade with will instead of fear, and turns the fight in a single decisive strike.

The thirty-second Bleach episode halts Renji Abarai's losing clash with Ichigo Kurosaki and turns inward, unfolding the lieutenant's origins. A gravely hurt Renji relives boyhood in the Rukongai slum of Inuzuri, his early bond with Rukia Kuchiki, and the fears that let her slip away.

With Ichigo away in Soul Society, Yuzu adopts a stray cat named Raku whose spirit power draws swarms of Hollows, pulling her, Karin, and Don Kanonji's newly formed Karakura Superheroes into a chaotic rescue.

Episode 34 shifts the Soul Society arc into open war. Renji's crushing defeat by Ichigo rattles the Gotei 13, Yamamoto lifts wartime restrictions, and Hinamori's quiet night at Aizen's side ends in a dawn discovery that shatters her world.

Episode 35 opens with the discovery of Captain Aizen's body pinned to a wall, sparking grief and suspicion among the lieutenants. Below the Seireitei, Ichigo's group readies another push toward the tower holding Rukia.

The 36th episode opens the fearsome duel between Ichigo and Captain Kenpachi Zaraki. Crushed under the captain's monstrous spiritual pressure, Ichigo must send his companions ahead and stand alone against a warrior who lives only to fight.

Episode 37 sends Yasutora Sado deeper into the Eighth Division, where a single punch ends one seated officer before the division's captain, Shunsui Kyoraku, blocks his way. Flashbacks trace the vow Sado made to his grandfather never to raise his fists for his own sake.

The thirty-eighth Bleach episode pushes Ichigo's duel with Kenpachi Zaraki to its breaking point, while news of Aizen's supposed murder ripples through the Gotei 13 and Shunsui halts a killing blow aimed at the fallen Sado.

Episode 39 of Bleach. After confronting his inner world and finally learning the name and heart of his sword, Ichigo Kurosaki rises against Captain Kenpachi Zaraki, turning their brutal duel into a clash of two evenly matched wills.

With Ichigo and Kenpachi's brutal duel finished, Yachiru carries her captain away while reflecting on how he named her and became her whole world. Ganju and Hanatarō break into Senzaikyū to reach Rukia, but Ganju freezes on recognizing the woman who killed his brother, just as Byakuya arrives.

The forty-first episode delivers the long-awaited reunion between Ichigo and Rukia on the bridge to Senzaikyū, after Ichigo wakes in Yoruichi's hidden refuge and learns the startling truth of his rescuer's real form.

Episode 42 of Bleach sees Yoruichi snatch a wounded Ichigo away from Byakuya, outpacing the captain with her flash steps, then reveal the existence of Bankai and offer to teach it to Ichigo in only three days.

Episode 43 of the Bleach anime pits Uryū Ishida and Orihime Inoue against the coldly cruel Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, whose willingness to sacrifice his own subordinates and past atrocities against the Quincy ignite a battle of pride and vengeance.

The forty-fourth Bleach episode carries Uryu Ishida's duel with Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi to its brutal finish. Crippled and cornered, the young Quincy destroys his Sanrei Glove to unleash a forbidden final form, spending his own powers for one overwhelming surge against an enemy who refuses to die cleanly.

Episode 45 launches Ichigo's brutal three-day Bankai training under Yoruichi, who materializes Zangetsu itself, while captured comrades regroup in the Fourth Division's cells and await his rescue.

Alone in her cell, Momo Hinamori looks back on her days as a student at the Shin'ō Academy, recalling her friendships with Renji and Izuru and the deadly field exercise where Aizen first won her devotion.

A forged letter drives a grieving Hinamori to turn her blade on Hitsugaya, blaming him for Aizen's death, while Ichigo shatters sword after sword against Zangetsu in his bankai training and learns the truth about Urahara's past.

The 48th Bleach episode stages Tōshirō Hitsugaya's duel with Gin Ichimaru, escalating into an ice-dragon assault, while news that Rukia's execution has been moved to tomorrow drives Ichigo to swear he will master Bankai in a single day.

A flashback lays bare Rukia's cherished days in the Thirteenth Division under Kaien Shiba and the tragedy that forced her to run her own blade through the mentor she loved.

A lighthearted detour follows Kon after Yuzu adopts him as a frilly toy named Bostov. Don Kanonji recruits him and revives the Karakura Superheroes, dragging in Jinta and Ururu for absurd training. When a lovestruck centipede Hollow snatches Kon away, the ragtag team scrambles to rescue him.