Bleach is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from August 2001 to August 2016, with its chapters collected into 74 tankōbon volumes. The story follows Ichigo Kurosaki, a teenager with the ability to see ghosts, who accidentally obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper—a celestial death personification—from Rukia Kuchiki. Forced to take on her duties, Ichigo must protect the living world from malevolent lost souls known as Hollows and guide the spirits of the dead to the afterlife.
The series quickly became one of the best-selling manga of all time, with over 130 million copies in circulation worldwide. Kubo's distinctive art style, character designs, and blend of supernatural action with humor and drama earned the series a massive international following. The manga's world-building expands significantly beyond its initial premise, introducing the Soul Society, a complex afterlife bureaucracy, and later the realms of Hueco Mundo and the Quincy army.
Bleach received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen manga in 2005 and has been praised for its dynamic battle sequences and large ensemble cast. The series' influence extends well beyond its original run, with a 2018 live-action film adaptation and a 2021 one-shot sequel chapter that continued the story. The manga's final arc, the Thousand-Year Blood War, was notably not adapted in the original anime run, leaving fans waiting over a decade for its eventual animated conclusion.