‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ Episode 45 Release Date & Time: When ‘The Calamity’ Continues

‘Bleach‘ has spent the better part of two decades building one of anime’s most devoted fanbases, and that loyalty has only intensified since the series returned with ‘Thousand-Year Blood War’ in 2022 after a lengthy hiatus. What some fan trackers refer to as the show’s seventeenth season is officially known as Part 4, subtitled “The Calamity,” and it marks the final stretch of Tite Kubo’s story.

The current cour picks up with Ichigo Kurosaki and his allies locked in an escalating battle against Yhwach, following everything that unfolded at the Soul King Palace in Part 3. With the war reaching its climax and Ichigo discovering just how many different supernatural powers make up his identity, including ties to Soul Reapers, Quincy, and Hollow bloodlines all at once, fans have been closely tracking the weekly schedule to avoid missing a single episode.

For anyone counting using the series’ continuous overall numbering, the next installment lands as Episode 45. That episode also corresponds to Episode 5 of “The Calamity,” and it’s scheduled to release on Saturday, August 22, at 7:30 a.m. PT, which translates to 10:30 a.m. ET and 2:30 p.m. GMT for fans in the UK.

That release continues a pattern set since Part 4 premiered on July 25. Episode 44, also known as Part 4’s fourth episode, arrived on August 15 immediately following Episode 43’s “Blood for My Bone,” which ended right after Ichigo unveiled a new Hollow-infused transformation during his fight with Yhwach.

‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ continues to stream on Hulu for viewers in the United States, with Disney+ handling the release across most international markets. Episodes are made available with both English subtitles and an English dub, giving fans multiple ways to catch up as the final arc unfolds.

The current cour is confirmed to run for 10 episodes total, concluding the story with Episode 50. That marks a shorter run than the three previous cours of ‘Thousand-Year Blood War,’ each of which featured 13 episodes, making this final stretch noticeably more compact as it races toward the story’s ending.

With Ichigo now wielding his Horn of Salvation form heading into the confrontation with Yhwach, the battles unfolding around him have only intensified with each passing week. Elsewhere in the current arc, Kenpachi continues facing off against Gerard Valkyrie’s massive transformed state, while other Soul Reaper captains remain locked in their own high-stakes fights scattered across the battlefield.

Given how much ground the series still needs to cover before reaching Episode 50, the pace of “The Calamity” isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon. Studio Pierrot has kept the production moving on a strict weekly schedule since the cour began, a notable shift from the sometimes lengthy gaps between previous parts of ‘Thousand-Year Blood War,’ which occasionally left fans waiting a full year or longer between new cours.

That consistency has helped keep momentum high as the anime approaches the true conclusion of Kubo’s original manga. For longtime fans who followed ‘Bleach’ through its early filler-heavy seasons and the years-long hiatus before ‘Thousand-Year Blood War’ began, watching the story finally reach its endpoint on a reliable weekly schedule marks a significant payoff after so many years of waiting.

With only a handful of episodes remaining before the finale, ‘Bleach’ appears poised to deliver its climactic confrontation without further delay.

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