Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Drops First Blu-ray Sales

By Megan Peters

Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is on deck to come around this summer with a new batch of episodes. With a new cour on the way, it is not surprising that interest in rising in the hit shonen now that May is here. In Japan, this is doubly true as Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War just dropped its first Blu-ray release, and its sales are finally in.

According to new reports, the first volume of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War went live in Japan this past week, and it sold 2,586 copies. The deluxe set was made with collectors in mind with a price tag of $190 USD. And with just 13 episodes in the volume, these figures are fairly impressive.

Now you might be wondering what this sales total means in context. After all, anime fans have heard of shows like Bocchi the Rock selling tens of thousands of Blu-ray/DVD bundles, so Bleach obviously pales next to that number. As noted in recent estimates, fan models predicted the first volume of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War would only sell 900 units in its first week. So obviously, Ichigo drummed up more interest than that.

As a general rule of thumb, long-running shonen series like Bleach and even One Piece don't tend to garner the kind of sales limited series like Lycoris Recoil do. After all, there are tons more episodes to cover, and it can get pricey busying into home video. If this latest Oricon number is spot on, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is doing just fine. And of course, Oricon doesn't track every type of sale, just domestic sales. So when it comes to export sales, there is no telling how Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War is doing.

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Soon, the anime fandom will have even more episodes of Bleach to binge. The series is slated to return to TV this summer, after all. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War will kickstart its second cour in July, so if you need to catch up on the anime, it is streaming on Hulu exclusively stateside. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War can be streamed globally on Disney+ as Disney nabbed the anime's global streaming rights.

Are you excited for Bleach to return to the air this summer? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.

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