After a long hiatus, the popular anime Bleach has returned with a brand new season. The series previously ended in 2012 without adapting the final arc of the manga, the Thousand Year Blood War arc. So in honor of its return, here is a summary of the world of Bleach to both catch old fans up and attempt to bring in new fans for its return. 

Bleach is a manga series created by author Tite Kubo, which was adapted by studio Pierrot back in 2004. It aired alongside other popular anime like One Piece and Naruto, which were colloquially known as “The Big Three” among the anime community, due to them being the most popular anime of the 2000-2010 era. 

Bleach is a series about Ichigo Kurosaki, a high-school delinquent who can see ghosts. This ability never bothered him until he accidentally finds out about a mystical group of swordsman named Soul Reapers, which are beings from a realm called the Soul Society that hunt ghosts known as Hollows. Ichigo sees a Soul Reaper, a small girl named Rukia Kuchiki, struggling to defeat a powerful Hollow.

She lends him part of her abilities and be becomes a substitute Soul Reaper, a human with the ability to separate his ghost from his body to use their powers. After he defeats the Hollow, Ichigo is thrust into the various dramas and battles held and fought by the Soul Society, and on the way he discovers many secrets about himself as well. 

In addition to his new Soul Reaper friend Rukia, Ichigo has other friends that help him fight against the Hollows. Uryu Ishida is a mysterious new student in Ichigo’s class who also fights ghosts, but unlike Ichigo Uryu is not a Soul Reaper; instead he is from a clan of people known as Quincies, humans that have mastered magical abilities and weapons to fight off Hollows.

During the first days of Ichigo’s struggles as a Soul Reaper, Orihime Inoue, a childhood friend of Ichigo’s, and Chad Sato, a strong silent type, decide to do something to get stronger so they can help their friend. They are taken under the wing of Kisuke Urahara, an exiled Soul Reaper, who trains them to use magic to fight ghosts as well as helping Ichigo with his development as a Soul Reaper. 

The first major quest the group goes on is to infiltrate the Soul Society, as Rukia is set to be executed for sharing her Soul Reaper abilities, which is a major offence in the Soul Society. With the help of Urahara, they enter a secret path into the Soul Society in order to rescue Rukia. This leads Ichigo and friends into many conflicts with the powerful Soul Reapers, made up of Thirteen squads each with an incredibly powerful captain.

The first captain Ichigo meets is Byakuya Kuchiki, elder brother of Rukia, who despite his family relations, is honor bound and swears that he will abide by the law and let Rukia be executed. Ichigo also meets Kenpachi, an extremely powerful battle hungry captain that could care less about the drama going on, because he just wants to fight Ichigo to see how strong he is. 

Many more adventures await in Bleach for Ichigo and his friends in the new arc portraying the Thousand Year Blood War, a war between the Soul Reapers and a mysterious invading army. The war puts Ichigo in a position where he has to save those he once fought with.

You can find the whole previous series of Bleach along with the newest anime on Hulu, with the arc split into four thirteen-episode seasons going forward.