Toonami’s schedule is about to undergo a huge change later this month with some major series making their return to the Adult Swim programming block, and Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has given the first look at its Toonami debut with a new teaser trailer. Toonami has had a bumpy ride with Cartoon Network, but fans will likely now recognize more from its revival era when it returned as part of Adult Swim in 2012. The action anime block came back in a whole new way as part of an April Fool’s Day prank with Adult Swim, and is still running to this day.
Toonami returned to air back in 2012 with a new wave of anime that were perfect for the block such as Bleach, which became one of the first notable new anime series airing as part of that revival. But when it was removed from the block back in 2015 following its end, it had not returned in the decade since. That’s going to change later this month as Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will be airing with Toonami starting this May, and you can check out the teaser trailer for its debut below as spotted by @swimpedia on X.
Bleach Returns to Toonami After a Decade
Bleach last aired as part of Toonami back in 2015, so it’s going to be a full decade since the series was a part of the anime programming block. Now that the Adult Swim era of Toonami has gone on for much longer than the original Cartoon Network iteration from the 2000s, it’s been able to accomplish these sorts of wild feats. Not only did Bleach finally return for new episodes years after the original TV anime was brought to a truncated end, but it’s gone for long enough that it has enough episodes to air with Toonami without much interruption either.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will begin airing with Toonami on Saturday, May 17th at 12:30AM ET, and it’s only one of a huge week of new releases that will also be bringing new episodes of Blue Exorcist, which is also going to be airing new episodes after a decade of fans waiting to see them in action. The schedule for Toonami beginning on Saturday, May 17th breaks down as such (in EST):
- 3:00AM – Sailor Moon
- 12:00AM – Lazarus
- 12:30AM – Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War
- 1:00AM – Blue Exorcist -Kyoto Saga-
- 1:30AM – One Piece
- 2:00AM – One Piece
- 2:30AM – Naruto
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What Is Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War?
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is the anime fans of the original Bleach series had been waiting over a decade to actually see. The original run of the series (including what premiered with Toonami) was cut short before it could adapt the final arc from Tite Kubo’s original manga. But over a decade later, Bleach has now returned with a full new anime series adapting the final arc from Kubo’s manga and finally bringing it all to a decisive conclusion.
Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War has been separated into four different parts with the first three parts currently available. The fourth and final part of this new anime is now in the works, but has yet to set a release date or window as of the time of this publication. Now that Bleach is returning to Toonami with a new series, fans will be able to finally get ready for the grand finale after starting the anime’s journey all those years ago.
Are you excited to see Bleach returning to Toonami? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!
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