The wait for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 has been a long and arduous one for fans.
The follow-up to the beloved Bleach anime has been running since 2022 and is set to end with its next batch of episodes.
The series follows the Bleach manga's final "Thousand-Year Blood War" story arc, telling the story of Ichigo Kurosaki and the Soul Society as they become embroiled in a deadly war with the dastardly Wandenreich—a Quincy empire thought to have been eliminated thousands of years ago.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 Release Projections
Months after fans last heard from the series, a potential release for Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4 has come into question.
As of writing, no official release information for the series's final batch of episodes has been made public, but fans may be able to predict when the series will once again see the light of day.
Since the show's debut in 2022, new episodes have arrived once a year—Part 1 in October 2022, Part 2 in July 2023, and then Part 3 in October 2024. That likely means the series will return sometime later this year as it wraps up its acclaimed revival.
A 2025 release would make sense for the series, after all, as creator Viz Media is already teasing the final batch of episodes in various pieces of marketing. A Part 4 trailer debuted online in December 2024, potentially setting up fans for new episodes to premiere sometime this year.
Bleach manga artist Tite Kubo teased where the new episodes stood in production in December, telling Klub Outside (via BleachJet on X), "Today I attended a meeting for Part 4! We seriously discussed each episode, one by one:"
"Today I attended a meeting for Part 4! We seriously discussed each episode, one by one! For this meeting, I had prepared new storyboards, and the production team was very enthusiastic!!"
This means that, at the time, the series had seemingly not started the animation process—a part of development that can take quite some time.
If Kubo's comments are to be believed, then Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4's release should be expected in late 2025 if it is coming in 2025 at all.
However, there is also a chance that Part 4 could be pushed to 2026, ending the series's streak of annual releases. While it only took nine months for the Bleach team to put out Part 2, following the October 2022 release of Part 1, it would then take 15 months for the studio to get Part 3 out to fans.
If Part 4 were to lean more toward the production time of Part 3 rather than Part 2, then a release in early 2026 would not be all that surprising.
What Will Happen In Thousand-Year Blood War Part 4?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has been leading to this. Heading into Part 4, fans can expect an explosive set of episodes, bringing an end to the Bleach story once and for all.
The original Bleach anime was sadly canceled one arc short of completing the entire original manga story. So, fans should be ready for the anime team to go out with a bang as they finally get to tackle this epic conclusion.
Thus far in Thousand-Year Blood War, audiences have watched as hero Ichigo circles a final conflict with the hidden Quincy empire and its ultra-powerful members of reishi-manipulating warriors.
Well, Part 4 will finally give fans what they have craved, with the all-out war the series's last arc takes its name from.
Subtitled "The Calamity," Part 4 will almost be entirely centered on the epic final battle between Ichigo and the Quincy, namely Sternritter members like Gerard Valkyrie and Askin Nakk Le Vaar.
This will lead the demon-hunting hero to a head-on-head showdown with the Soul King Yhwach, as he attempts to collapse the series's three worlds (The Human World, The Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo) and create a universe without death.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is now streaming on Hulu.
