Devoted fans have been anxiously awaiting Bleach's return for over a decade, but now that the countdown is drawing to an end, the apprehension is only intensifying. With only a few days left on the clock, the tension is building and many fans are still uncertain where to stream the Thousand Year Blood War (and if it will even be available!) This Big Three member had a healthy run, from October 2004 to March 2012, before Tite Kobo halted the anime production but thankfully continued with the Manga. Bleach's promotional team certainly knows how to build suspense, as they waited until virtually the last moment to give the fandom some insights about the latest season's availability.
Whether or not the Substitute Shinigami's story would be released outside of Japan also remained unconfirmed until the eleventh hour, as the Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War streaming announcements were made less than two weeks before the main event. It's tough to get excited about something if fans are unsure if they will even have access to the content, and since it can take up to two years for English viewers to get the opportunity to join in, their concern is warranted.
Crunchyroll Cuts Ties
Crunchyroll was considered by many to be the best choice for fans to continue enjoying Ichigo's adventures, but suspicions began arising when the highly anticipated Thousand Year Blood War was inconspicuously absent from their Fall 2022 release date reports.
On September 30, mere days away from the Thousand-Year Blood War's expected release, Crunchyroll removed all access to Bleach episodes from their site, without any warning. Die-hard fans in the middle of rewatching their favorite moments and refreshing their memories, or new Bleach admirers who wanted to catch up on what they had missed, were suddenly abandoned without a single strand of strawberry-blonde hair in sight.
Streaming Options
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Hulu seems to have been the only streaming site to maintain a firm grip on Bleach and currently boasts the availability of all 366 episodes, with no hint of breaking this valued relationship apart anytime soon. The epic anime was due to desert Hulu by the end of September, however, that notification has since disappeared from their website. It seems that Hulu might also receive a sudden spike in subscribers, as they are one of the few international streaming services to have the honor of presenting the Thousand Year Blood War Arc to viewers.
Amazon Prime and Disney Plus will also be joining in on the fun after outbidding the competition, with Disney Plus leading the pack with their substantially deep(er) pockets. In a surprising turn of events, Disney now owns the rights to the entirety of Bleach's archives, which could very well mean that many expectant viewers will subsequently get left out in the cold this Fall 2022 Season. With new episodes expected every Tuesday, the plan is to dish out some simulcast entertainment to keep everyone on the same page (and eliminate those messy leaks from the equation); however, whether or not that will be the case is debatable.
Neglecting the International Fandom
While it may be easy enough to just get a new account to gain access to this epic anime, Hulu is only available in the US and their distribution of Bleach, therefore, discriminates against international viewership. Similarly, Amazon Prime also changes its accessibility depending on the country, and it is currently unclear how they plan on handling their Bleach content. Disney Plus has a reputation for its peculiar relationship with anime and rarely prioritizes its international releases, leaving it exclusively available for American-based subscribers. Strangely enough, even some US broadcasts are also abandoned, such as with Summer Time Rendering, which only aggravates the Bleach fandom's anxiety even further.
Disney Plus is known as the place where anime goes to die in what fans have appropriately nicknamed "Disney Jail" (and they aren't exactly notorious for sharing either.) Prominent anime-focused content creator, Jaymes Hanson, has reservations that Disney will offer simulcast viewing (which has allegedly been verified), what truly devastating news for die-hard fans! The theory is that Disney Plus will collect a good portion of Bleach episodes before simultaneously dumping them all on viewers, completely eliminating the possibility of in-depth fandom discussions and analyses on a global level. What a way to kill the mood.
This series of unfortunate events has been eloquently summed up by @MIK25017165, who simply states:
".... We lost"
And regrettably, they couldn't be more accurate.
A Legendary Let Down
Being such an immensely popular anime undoubtedly raised the stakes in Bleach's bidding war, and so things have boiled down to financial gain having a greater impact than keeping the immense fandom happy. So it appears that if one does not reside in Japan or the US, staying up-to-date with Bleach may prove to be problematic. In this day and age, inclusivity is King and it is evident that the global interest in anime has increased significantly (particularly since COVID), so excluding entire nations from the party is not the smartest choice. Crunchyroll is one of the few services that shows no prejudice to its viewers and offers up its content to anyone who is interested, but sadly, this prominent forerunner in anime streaming has been excluded from Bleach's monumentus event.
New episodes of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War are due to release on 10 or 11 October 2022 (depending on the time zone.)
Sources: Twitter/@BellaWink, Twitter/@JamesHanson, and YouTube/JaymesHanson