Bleach’s farewell season only got ten episodes to close out a war the manga spent years building toward. By episode five, one of those ten had already climbed to a perfect 10/10 on IMDb from more than 20,000 ratings — a score outlets covering the milestone called the highest a single TV episode had ever recorded on the site, ahead of benchmarks like One Piece’s Gear 5 debut and Naruto’s Valley of the End.
That’s the headline. Here’s everything that actually happened to get there, episode by episode, through what’s aired of The Calamity so far.
Episodes 1–2: The Fights Resume Right Where Part 3 Left Off
“God of Thunder,” which premiered July 25, wastes no time reintroducing the cast before dropping Ichigo into a confrontation with a Sternritter in its final stretch. It’s a reunion episode more than anything — Karakura Town’s squad back together, familiar faces reintroduced with the kind of clean, faithful character work fans had been asking for since the anime’s revival started.
“Son of Darkness” (August 1) is where the season actually opens up. Urahara finally reveals his Bankai, Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame, using it to repair his poisoned eyes mid-fight and take control against Askin. Grimmjow shows up out of nowhere and cuts Askin down before Nel arrives to pull the wounded fighters out of the collapsing Wahrwelt. Meanwhile, Ichigo and Orihime finally reach Yhwach’s throne room, where he greets Ichigo by a new title — “Son of Darkness” — and shrugs off their combined attack without much effort.
Episodes 3–4: Two Bankai Reveals in a Row
“Blood for My Bone” (August 8) forces Ichigo to awaken his inner Hollow while cornered by Yhwach, unlocking his Horn of Salvation form. At the same time, Toshiro, Byakuya, and Kenpachi take on Gerard Valkyrie, a Sternritter whose Miracle ability turns their own attacks back on them. Neither fight resolves by the credits — a choice one review called either smart escalation or frustrating delay, depending on how the follow-up plays out.
The follow-up plays out fast. “The Perfect Crimson” (August 15) gives Kenpachi his first-ever Bankai, a crimson, horned berserker form unlocked after a vision from his Zanpakuto spirit, Nozarashi. Gerard just regenerates through it using Miracle, so Hitsugaya steps in with his own true Bankai — a form that ages him into an adult with sharply upgraded ice powers — and the three captains finally start coordinating instead of fighting alone. In the same episode, Ichigo fuses his Hollow, Quincy, and Shinigami powers into one attack and fires a combined Getsuga Tenshō and Gran Rey Cero straight at Yhwach. It was enough to make this the season’s highest-rated episode at the time. It held that title for exactly one week.
Episode 5: The Episode That Broke IMDb
“Defend You” (August 22) is the one everyone’s still talking about. Ichigo finally gets the transformation the manga spent a decade teasing without fully showing — his true Bankai, blood-red chains wrapped around a crimson moon — while Orihime spends the fight healing him on a loop, pushed further than the show has ever tested her power. The reveal hit hard enough that it earned its own breakdown, below.
Then the episode does something the season hadn’t done yet. It ends without the usual outro — no credits song, just silence and two flowers on screen. That directorial choice, on top of the fight itself, is a big part of why the episode’s rating shot past every prior benchmark on IMDb. We broke down exactly why this one episode became a record-holder in more detail.
Episode 6: The Almighty Finishes What It Started
“The End” (August 29) is the bleakest hour of the season, and it plays like a direct answer to episode 5’s high. Uryu and Jugram’s fight ends with both revealing their Schrifts before Yhwach reclaims Jugram’s power and lets him die — not as a warrior, but as property being taken back. A flashback to Jugram’s childhood friendship with Bazz-B gives the moment its weight before Yhwach turns fully on Ichigo’s group: he shatters Ichigo’s Zanpakuto, destroys the Bankai that had just been revealed one episode earlier, tears through Renji without much resistance, and nullifies Orihime’s rejection ability completely. The episode was scored 8/10 by reviewers, with more than a few fans specifically frustrated that Ichigo’s new form lasted all of one episode before getting wiped out.
Episode 7: A Plan, a Reunion, and Still No Yhwach Down
“The End 2” (September 5) shifts the momentum to Uryu, who reunites with Nel, Harribel, Dondochakka, and Pesche beneath the Seireitei and devises a plan to destroy a massive energy construct holding Yhwach’s power. They pull it off — bridges detonated, a coordinated assault landed — and Yhwach still walks away from it, revealing he’s absorbed every Schrift from every Sternritter directly into the Almighty. Reviews were a little cooler here, with the pacing and action described as “a little less” than the previous six episodes, more setup than payoff.
What’s Left: Episodes 8–10 and the September 26 Finale
Titles and synopses for episodes 8 and 9 haven’t been officially confirmed yet, and the finale airs September 26 on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally. What’s clear from episode 7 alone is that Yhwach going into the last stretch of the season more powerful, not less, was the point — everything from Jugram’s death to Uryu’s failed plan has been building toward a final confrontation where the heroes have fewer tools left than they started with. Whether ten episodes turns out to be enough to pay that off is the one thing nobody, fans included, can answer yet.
