‘Bleach: Tybw’ Episode 5 Just Made History as IMDb’s Highest-Rated TV Episode Ever

Anime fandom has always had a soft spot for episodes that feel like turning points, the kind of installments that leave viewers reeling long after the credits roll. Few franchises have delivered that feeling more consistently over the past few years than ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War,’ Studio Pierrot’s acclaimed continuation of Tite Kubo’s beloved series.

The anime has spent its final arc steadily building toward the story’s climactic confrontations, with each new cour drawing praise for its animation quality and emotional weight. As the fourth and final part, subtitled “The Calamity,” approaches its conclusion, the series has continued setting a remarkably high bar for itself with nearly every new episode.

That bar reached an unprecedented peak this week. Episode 5 of the current cour has reportedly become the highest-rated television episode in IMDb’s history, earning a perfect 10 out of 10 rating following its release on Saturday, August 22.

The achievement instantly sent fans into a frenzy across social media, with many calling the score a fitting reward for an episode widely described as one of the most emotionally devastating installments the series has ever produced. Reactions ranged from celebratory to disbelieving, with fans expressing pride that a genuine anime fan community had come together to recognize the episode’s impact.

According to early reviews, Episode 5 leaned heavily into tragedy from its opening moments, with the tone growing increasingly somber as the story progressed. The episode weaves together multiple storylines, including a tense confrontation between Uryu and Jugram, before shifting into a much larger and more devastating clash inside the Wahrwelt.

Fans and critics alike have pointed to the episode’s final act as the moment that truly cemented its emotional impact, with one particular disappearance leaving viewers in tears by the credits. While the source material for this moment has existed in Tite Kubo’s manga for years, seeing it fully realized through animation for the first time reportedly hit longtime fans especially hard.

Director Tomohisa Taguchi received considerable praise for how the episode was handled visually, with critics crediting both his direction and Studio Pierrot’s animation work for elevating what was already a devastating narrative beat from the source material into something even more affecting on screen.

This isn’t the first time ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ has posted eye-popping numbers on IMDb. The series as a whole currently holds an impressive 9.0 out of 10 overall rating, an unusually high mark for any long-running television anime, let alone one adapting a story fans had worried might rush its conclusion.

Previous standout episodes have already built a reputation for the show’s consistency, including Season 1 Episode 6 and Season 3 Episode 9, both of which previously held scores around 9.7 out of 10 before Episode 5’s release reset expectations entirely. That track record has made nearly every new episode release something of an event within the anime community, with fans regularly tracking and comparing individual episode scores as the series heads toward its finale.

With only a handful of episodes remaining before ‘Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War’ reaches its ultimate conclusion, the pressure on Studio Pierrot to stick the landing has never been higher. If Episode 5’s reception is any indication, though, the studio appears more than capable of delivering an ending that matches, or even exceeds, the emotional weight fans have come to expect from this final stretch of episodes.

The series is currently available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ for those looking to catch up before the story reaches its climactic finish.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!