Episode 45 of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, “DEFEND YOU,” feels like the kind of episode that can change how an entire season is remembered. TYBW was already operating at an exceptionally high level, but this episode unexpectedly pushes it further with some of the series’ strongest animation, direction, pacing, and character work yet. Rather than simply delivering another major battle, it gives several characters meaningful moments and dramatically expands material that was much more compressed in Tite Kubo’s original manga.

Ichigo receives one of the episode’s biggest additions, including a new form officially named Blood Chain Ichigo, which Kubo personally designed and named for the anime. But the episode works because it is not solely an Ichigo showcase. Rukia, Uryu, and especially Orihime are given more presence and agency than many manga readers expected at this stage of the story. Orihime in particular emerges as one of the episode’s standouts, with new material that emphasizes both her personality and her importance to the final conflict without reducing her role to simply supporting Ichigo.

That combination has made “DEFEND YOU” a genuine surprise even for people who already know how BLEACH ends. Early fan reaction has been exceptionally strong, with viewers repeatedly praising the anime-original additions and calling the episode one of the best of Thousand-Year Blood War so far. The episode stood at a perfect 10/10 score on IMDB before settling at a final score of 9.9/10. The final cour has increasingly shown that it is willing to revisit and expand parts of the manga’s rushed conclusion rather than reproduce it scene for scene, and Episode 45 may be the clearest example yet. If BLEACH was already among 2026’s strongest anime, “DEFEND YOU” pushes it firmly into anime-of-the-year territory.

Scholastic has expanded its partnership with Tezuka Productions to develop five new children’s graphic novel series based on classic manga by Osamu Tezuka. The projects will reimagine The Three-Eyed One, Princess Knight, Triton of the Sea, Zero Man, and Atom Cat/Astro Cat under Scholastic’s Graphix imprint.


Samuel Sattin, who writes Graphix’s ongoing Unico: Awakening series, will return to help develop the new adaptations alongside Japanese artists who have not yet been announced. The approach follows the model established with Unico, which Scholastic describes as a reimagining intended to introduce Tezuka’s work to a new generation rather than a straight republication of the original manga.


The announcement gives several of Tezuka’s older works a new route to younger and potentially broader international audiences through a major children’s publisher. Astro Cat is expected to be the first of the five projects released, but Scholastic has not yet announced publication dates, formats, prices, or the full creative teams.

Chainsmoker Cat has been removed from Bahamut’s Animation Crazy service in Hong Kong after the platform received a notice from the Hong Kong Department of Health. According to the notice, the anime’s repeated display of tobacco products and brand names may violate provisions of the region’s Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance covering online tobacco advertising. Animation Crazy suspended the series in Hong Kong while keeping it available in Taiwan.


The case is notable because Chainsmoker Cat does not present smoking as especially glamorous: its dark comedy centers on Yaniko, a catgirl whose nicotine dependence contributes to financial problems, poor health, and dysfunctional behavior. Even so, Hong Kong regulators appear to have focused on the visibility of real tobacco products and branding rather than the overall message of the series. That distinction turns the removal into a broader question about how local advertising laws can affect fictional works that depict regulated products without necessarily endorsing them.


Ani-One Asia has also removed the series from its YouTube channel, citing local government regulations in relevant markets, although it did not identify Hong Kong specifically in that announcement. Chainsmoker Cat remains available on Netflix, including in Hong Kong at the time of verification. Neither Animation Crazy nor Ani-One Asia has announced whether the series will return after edits or other changes.

Crunchyroll has dramatically reduced the physical-media selection in its newly relaunched online store, removing manga, light novels, manhwa, and danmei while cutting its anime Blu-ray and DVD catalog to fewer than 400 listings. The August 18 relaunch also places the store behind Crunchyroll’s Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan subscription tiers. Crunchyroll had described the redesign as a more curated shopping experience focused on collectibles, exclusive merchandise, and limited releases, but it has not said whether the missing books and home-video titles will eventually return.


The change is particularly significant because Crunchyroll acquired specialist anime retailer Right Stuf in August 2022 and folded its storefront into the Crunchyroll Store in October 2023. At the time of that integration, Crunchyroll advertised more than 30,000 products—including 17,000 manga titles—along with Right Stuf’s broad home-video catalog and collector-focused packaging. For physical-media buyers, the new store effectively removes much of what made Right Stuf useful: a single retailer where readers could find large manga selections, older or temporarily unavailable volumes, anime releases from multiple distributors, and restocks that could be difficult to locate through general retailers.


The current Blu-ray selection also appears heavily concentrated around releases from Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Aniplex, all within Sony’s anime business, although Crunchyroll has not confirmed that this is a permanent distribution policy. That uncertainty is important: the store may expand again, but for now collectors have lost one of the largest specialized sources for physical manga and anime in North America. The move also arrives amid broader concern among collectors about entertainment shifting toward subscription and digital distribution, where continued access depends on platforms retaining licenses rather than consumers owning a permanent physical copy.

Shiro Kuroi’s sci-fi survival manga Leviathan is getting a live-action film adaptation in Japan on February 11, 2027. Shunsuke Michieda of Naniwa Danshi will star as Kazuma Ichinose, with Natsuki Deguchi playing Futaba Nikaido. Michieda has previously led films including Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight, while Deguchi’s credits include the live-action Blue Spring Ride series.


The film is being co-directed by Michihito Fujii and Ryohei Shingu, with Shingu making his feature-film directing debut. A newly released trailer introduces the story’s central crisis: 38 students are stranded aboard a wrecked spacecraft with only 41 hours of oxygen remaining and discover that the remaining life-support system can save just one person.


Leviathan was first published in France by Ki-oon in January 2022 before beginning serialization on Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ service that August. According to the film’s official website, the manga has since been translated into 10 languages and published in more than 34 countries. Toho will release the live-action film theatrically in Japan.


Watch the trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK_Tq3QyYVM