The announcement was made just yesterday via the VIZ Media official Twitter account. There, it was revealed that the series will be streamed on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ internationally.
Ahead of the official announcement, there have been many rumors about the upcoming Bleach anime being a Disney+ exclusive. While this isn’t the case, it seems that the Bleach license is now under Disney given that both Hulu and Disney+ are owned by The Walt Disney Company. Bleach is an anime series by studio Pierrot that’s based on the manga of the same name by Tite Kubo. The manga was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from August 2001 to August 2016.
An initial TV anime was released by studio Pierrot which ran from October 2004 to March 2012. However, this anime did not cover the full manga as it ended before the final arc. Thousand-Year Blood War promises to give fans a proper conclusion as it is a TV anime adaptation of the manga’s final arc of the same name. This part of the story covers Volumes 55 to 74 of the manga. Studio Pierrot returns to animate the series, along with the original voice cast of the Bleach anime run. They are joined by new members of the voice cast, some of whom played roles in the Bleach: Brave Souls game.
Based on the reactions online on Twitter and Reddit, it seems that many fans in the US are happy with the announcement, especially as there were rumors before that it will be a Disney+ exclusive. This is important for US anime fans as Hulu already has a strong lineup of anime shows, which means there is already a sizeable number of fans with Hulu subscriptions. There is also some sentiment online that Thousand-Year Blood War coming to Hulu is good news for anime fans as it means Crunchyroll won’t have a monopoly on big anime titles.
While most of the reactions are positive, some reacted negatively to the news. Some fans dislike Hulu for having ads, while others say that they prefer other streaming services. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will begin airing soon, with a premiere happening at New York Comic Con.
