Viz Media has announced an agreement with TV Tokyo and Shueisha that gives Viz full download rights for the popular Bleach anime series.  The first twenty episodes of the series will be available (in both dubbed and subtitled versions) starting on August 21st at both direct2drive.com and totalvid.com. Customers will be able to download-to-rent or download-to-own the episodes of Bleach.  Viz had previously provided fans with the opportunity to download the Death Note anime (see 'Death Note Anime on Direct2Drive'), the first time any American company had offered to sell downloads of a series that was still airing in Japan.

So far 136 episode of the ongoing Bleach anime have aired in Japan so far, and Tite Kubo's ongoing Bleach manga has reached 29 volumes in Japan.  Bleach Vol. #20, the most recent volume of the series to be released in the U.S. has spent the last two weeks in the #1 spot on the BookScan list of graphic novels sold in North American bookstores, which should provide some evidence of how popular the property is here in the U.S.