#IchiRuki in fillers

[dangerousbride]

Scolded 😠🥴💞 || (Extra)

[yuuverseyuuverse]

I never once met a Histukarin shipper that was against Ichiruki and sited age as a reason or tried to make our ship canon or even just hated on a ship in a hypocritical way. But that seems like all everybody else could find when talking about people who ship this ship. Oh yes, i did see someone call someone who ships hitsukarin then hates on Ichiruki because they were far apart in age was a hypocrite. Then turn around and say, Karin is literally 14 and Hitsugaya is 50 plus so why do you ship them, it's pedophilia...

Its super obvius that you ship Ichiruki for 1 and for 2, you can't hate masaIshi and hitsukarin for that same reason when you ship Ichiruki.

[dedahblog]

I find this filler scene so ridiculously bland

Aka : thanks for nothing Studio Pierot

Shitpost under the cut

Ichigo:Rukia

Ichigo: I need to go cause…

you know... we're only allowed to be a team just for the first 15 episodes …

and I'm kinda of the main character so ... you're not as important as me, I guess

...you know it's not up to me to decide... so, no hard feelings right ?

Rukia : Don't worry Ichigo

I won't be exactly sidelined this time.

It turned out that Espada were ranked from 9 to 0 and not from 10 to 1 and Yammy is actually Espada 0 the most powerful one.

I'll have the opportunity to fight again. However... I have a feeling that Kub0 won't explain shit and will basically skip this fight because it was al-'

Ichigo : all an excuse to keep you here along with Byakuya and Zaraki

Rukia : Yep

Ichigo : what a load of crap

Rukia : tell me about it

Ichigo : Will we ever get out of this shithole.."

Rukia : Never since we're only fragments of Kub0's imagination

Ichigo : Well... shit

Rukia : I couldn't agree more

Ichigo : I guess, there's nothing other left to do

[lazyparadisedonut]

My reaction when somebody tells me that people only shipped IchiRuki because of anime fillers.

[ghostvampiregalgazerock]

Ichihime are made for each other 💖

I have no clue why people hate Orihime? It’s okay they have opinions but no need to go all brutal on her. Even when she gets Ichigo at the end? It’s okay people ship Ichigo x Rukia and I like the fan art of them but doesn’t mean I ship them. I saw amazing fan art of Ichihime and was slowly starting to ship them. Then all of a sudden I understand that they are made for each other while watching the Hueco Munedo Arc. People say Orihime is weak and is a crybaby but they don’t get how strong she gets later in the Fullbringer Arc and Thousand Year Blood War Arc. The reason why she cries is because she shows how concern she is of Ichigo getting hurt and even her friends. How she is strong that she kept those emotions in without anyone worrying about her being like that. She went to Hueco Munedo to protect the people she loves. Also since she was beaten up by Loly and Menoly, she didn’t fight back because she isn’t a violent person. Then she healed them after they got hurt badly. This shows that Orihime choose not to be a violent person to them because she isn’t that kind of person. She will fight to protect the people that she cares about. People didn’t respect her in the anime since they watched the fillers and there were more Ichiruki moments in the filler episodes. But Ichihime is shipped more in Hueco Munedo arc if you read the manga. Ichiruki, I get that it would be shipped more in the beginning of the series and the Soul Society Arc even when you read the manga. But Ichihime for the win and Rukia looks good with Renji since he’s a 10/10. Also I can see why Ichigo married Orihime. I heard about them being together before watching the series for real since Bleach has been around for awhile and idk if I was gonna watch it and or have time to see it. Idk how it was gonna end and who Ichigo was gonna end up with since the story was still continuing which was in 2015 while I was getting into anime. Then I later heard he ends up with Orihime and I was like I knew that was gonna happen since the fans weren’t happy of who their favorites ended up with. But I’m not mad about it tbh I’m happy that Tite Kubo gave the series an ending since he worked on it so long. Honestly it’s okay to have an opinion on these kind of things but I just don’t like people being toxic and dramatic about it. I am a multi shipper for Ichigo like Ichihime and I’m doing an Ichigo x OC one-shot series. Also yes I have two yaoi ships for Ichigo which is Grimmjow x Ichigo and Ichigo x Renji because why not.

P.S. Ngl, for both ships Ichihime and Ichiruki, I still envy Rukia and Orihime being with Ichigo since he’s my favorite and for RenRuki, I envy Rukia being with Renji since he’s one of my favorites.

[marunalu]

Isn't all of the rabid BKDK shippers similar to that one pairing in Bleach where the loud shippers want one pairing and the Editors suggest that the Bleach's author should do it, but he explicitly stated that he wanted this pairing instead because its his story? At best, the official canon ship for Izuku would be Izuchaco or implied of it or no ships at all.

At least Hori agrees with us that the BKDK relationship is abusive and that the two would be treating each other as acquaintances who just happen to grow up together. And the thing is for that BKDK contest, he acknowledges the skills of the artists but the relationship is not romantic at all. So it's really just people being extremely obsessed with the idea that any and all relationships should be romantic instead of platonic. I wonder if he was expecting a badass action scenes between the two working together instead of causal romantic times?

Do you happen to have a citation for the contest so that we can point towards the fact that BKDK is just for fun, not canon?

I remember I saw horis reply somewhere on twitter between 2 or 3 years ago. But I dont have twitter, well X know, anymore. Honestly, I dont quite remember if it was a bkdk fanart contest or just an exhibition. And I think it was only japanese artists. But basically, while he praised all the fanarts and the talents of the artists, he made clear that the way bakugous and izukus relationship is portaied as in these fanworks is not what their relationship is really or ever was like. There were tons of romantic bkdk and fanart of them as children playing happily with each other. He basically confirmed as unbiased as possible that this kind of interpretation of their relationship is completly fanon. Maybe someone who reads this can give us a link though, I tried to find it with google, but google only showed me reddit and quora posts about "why bkdk is canon" and such stupid stuff. 🙄

And yes you are right, the bkdk shippers are VERY similar to the rapid ichiruki shippers back then. Mind you I WAS THERE when the shipping war between ichirukis and ichihimes was at its highest and believe me it was UGLY and for me who never shipped ichigo with either rukia or orihime it kinda destroyed the manga/anime for me back then and its one of the main reasons why I dont like shipping in generell anymore. But despite never shipping it myself I KNEW ichigo would end up with orihime, because kubo made it obvious. The anime cut a lot of canon ichihime moments and included tons of filler ichiruki moments, so its no wonder why so many people believed at first ichiruki was a thing. And to be fair to kubo, he made clear statements back then about ichigos and rukias relationship being pure platonic YEARS BEFORE the manga ended, but the shippers ignored that and played victim afterwards. Hori on the other hand would never make this kind of bold statement, because he is aware of the backlash that would happen. I like hori and I can understand why he wouldnt want to upset people because he was attacked and got death threads in the past already from stupid shippers, but I have to say tite kubo is clearly the braver one of these two. He simply gives a fuck what people think and just does his thing no matter if people like it or not.

The best part was how not that long ago he completly destroyed an hardcore ichiruki shipper on social media who attacked him and insultet ichihime and kubo was just like: "you know what? FUCK YOU! From now on I will make even more ichihime content just to piss you off even more asshole!" Kubo is amazing and a legend!

[ichinoue]

Speaking as someone who did once like IR before the fandom's nastiness poisoned me to the ship, you're completely right that in retrospect, their dynamic pretty much went static after Soul Society. This is exactly why their reunions were hyped to hell and back and why the anime-onlys (who make up the bulk of the fanbase) cited filler scenes like the ice skating thing as proof it was gonna happen.

Thing is, that was never the story Kubo Tite intended to tell and all of that was added by a studio that has a long history of doing this to their productions. I can't speak to anyone else but I'd rather my ships become canon because of something that gave the creator joy to do so than not but hey... mileage varies for a lotta folks ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Yeah, like I said, the ichiruki development was pretty much wrapped up in the first two arcs of the series, leaving it with nowhere else to go.

But the thing is, after the SS arc, if Kubo really wanted and intended to, he could have been like, "okay, I've established that Ichigo and Rukia have a close bond. Now I'll shift it into romance." But he didn't. Instead, he kicked off the arrancar arc with Ichigo dragging Shinji out of the classroom for aggressively flirting with Orihime (for which Shinji then teases Ichigo about treating Orihime like she's his girlfriend), with Karin commenting about him bringing home an "Orihime level girl" which made Ichigo panic and yell at them to buzz off, with Ichigo kneeling at Orihime's bedside and apologizing for failing to protect her, then bowing before her and making a singular vow to protect her and only her, all of which was topped off with Orihime's love confession!! and Ichigo walking around like a lifeless zombie after she's abducted. Which was followed up by the mountainload of IchiHime in the HM and Lust arcs. Like, it was so, so clear where the romantic storylines stood at that point.

And honestly, I think that because the first two arcs of Bleach mostly focused on Ichigo and Rukia's bond, people expected the entire rest of the series to focus on Ichigo and Rukia's bond as well, and for it to be given even greater focus (and specifically, romantic focus) as time went on. But that just wasn't the case. They had little interaction in the last 65% of the manga. And when they did interact, their bond was reinforced as the same old thing it always was. A great bond, of course. Just not a romantic one.

[ichirukilover]

I closed the door to Bl/each after the tragedy of 6/86 and briefly opened a window to LA, because well that pair is my weakness and it made me laugh how treacherously I/R it was.

So when weeks ago I saw a beautiful I/R fanart on Tik Tok (The anime came back, so the algorithm decided it was a good idea to torture me), and the response to a comment that said "They should have ended up together "was "READ THE MANGA", I was baffled. I mean, what did that mean? had I read a fake manga all those years and the "real manga" appeared Da Vinci Code-style after 2016? Was it all a Jump conspiracy? Have we been duped all this time?

That piqued my curiosity, so I wandered around several sites, reading publications from the "correct/canon/real manga" point of view; and well, you'll see even worse things the bible says.

Here are my favorites:

"The I/H was evident from the beginning, just read chapter 0": yes, because a one-shot that is a sketch of the general idea of a manga, that goes through many revisions and rewrites is absolutely determinant in the development of the main manga, and seriously, what exactly is the evidence?

"HM arc is the ultimate proof of I/H, he went to rescue her and even came back from the dead for her": well, so did her other friends and even R/enji and R/ukia, maybe they were all in love with her too. And about the resurrection...just...never mind.

"I/H are perfect for each other" Here I could do a whole essay from a psychological point of view that proves that it is an absolute fallacy and was more than clear in the FB arc, in real life they wouldn't work and would be a toxic couple. And God knows at least that boy needs therapy.

"O***ime looks like Ma/saki" * Bombastic side eye. Criminal, offensive side eye *

"O***ime deserves I/chigo”: Oh, so he was some kind of trophy for being a good girl, so it wasn't enough to objectify her, they also do the same with the boy.

"Ru/kia was a shinigami and I/chigo was a human, and she's much older than him, their relationship was impossible." *Everything but the rain entered the chat*.

"I/H fought together against Y/wach": And we all know how well they (he) did, right?

"W/D/k/A/L/Y": *sigh* that's what it looks like when you try to fix a mess and fail miserably.

"W/D/k/A/L/Y's scribble": ...

"Anime invented IR": The studio simply pushed something that was already implicit in the original material and they knew it would sell more, it's basic marketing. Most of us knew what was filler and what wasn't (rolls eyes).

And there definitely wasn't a parallel manga that magically made sense of that ending. What a disappointment.

And I/R are the delusional and lacking in compressive reading? It's so much easier to say you just don't like people ship I/R, instead of sending them to read the manga or giving lazy arguments. Pathetic.

This was long, but I just needed to vent or something, because I honestly found the whole situation absolutely hilarious.

My English is broken, so I hope I have been understood.

PS: So in my delusional mind I/R is right now enjoying his honeymoon on the beach *wink**wink*.

Blessings.

As someone that didn't leave after the ending and has seen all these "amazing points" take form and basically became the classic "IH and pro ending dudebro agenda" list, let me tell you, I was and still am baffled too. No matter how many times I read them, I still get shocked at how some really believe that bunch of BS, or better they keep repeating it untill they'll believe it.

You adressed them in a simple but direct and straight to the point way, I don't even need to add anything to what you said, agree to all of it, wait lol well maybe I could add the the pilot chapter lit has In0ue de0d at the end of it but what do we know, that doesn't seem to matter to them lol it doesn't have to make sense smh

In our delusional mind that ichiruki honeymoon on the beach is so vivid and real... I wonder why lmao

[memethebum]

No bc sometimes I think about this Bleach filler and can just imagine all the Studio Pierrot directors frantically searching for how they can add to the ichiruki agenda and then being like “wait wait guys have we looked at other shonen love interests” fjdjsks

[narhinafan]

NaruSaku and IchiRuki accusations that both NaruHina and IchiHime shouldn't have worked due to their "limited" interactions are just plain stupid. First things first, both Naruto and Bleach are shonen, so action comes first then a sprinkle of romance here and there. Kubo is more explicit on it since he said that romance is supplementary in Bleach. It is also the reason why both authors gave hints on the feelings of the MCs to their eventual partners.

Naruto and Ichigo tend to be gentler and relaxed when they are with Hinata and Orihime, in contrast to their other friends. Both men were a mess when both women went missing. Ichigo was a depressed mess that he was like a zombie while Naruto was so heartbroken that he didn't care about the mission and the world. Both their monstrous forms destroyed opponents and unknowningly hurt allies but when it comes to the women close to their heart, they actively avoid it. Naruto's 6 tailed form in the manga was even shown to be looking at Hinata's direction, checking up on her, making sure that she didn't get hurt from his rampage. Ichigo's Vasto Lorde form never attacked Orihime despite stabbing Uryu before that after his one-sided destruction of Ulquiorra (Kubo most likely fought for this scene to be kept). Both men also took notice and comforted both women when they were feeling down or scared. Naruto telling Hinata she's strong when she is feeling down due to the fact that he had to save her in the war fought for his and Bee's sake while Ichigo still took time to reassure Orihime that he's still him when he activated the Horn of Salvation, taking account of her past trauma seeing his Vasto Lorde form.

It was SP who decided to create fillers for NaruSaku and IchiRuki, which for Bleach's case, was aided by its own animation director, who unfortunately, is doing the same thing with Boruto. It was SP who deceived people into thinking this, not the authors. One more thing, mangakas are time pressured plus the manga medium is limited to how many scenes they can put in it until the editors say that's it. That's why there are many offscreen scenes due to it. Despite that limitation, both Kishi and Kubo have still managed to show hints, mostly subtle, to both their endgame couples. Also, they didn't care about popularity polls, Kubo himself even admitted that he feels bad about the characters getting low votes.

I hated commenting on this as much as possible since I sound like a broken disc but the deniers make me do it. At the end of the day, Naruto and Bleach are Kishi and Kubo's works and as consumers, we can agree or disagree with it. They are not forcing us to like everything they do.

They are wrong though yes neither ship has as many interactions, but all of them clearly show Naruto or Ichigo treating Hinata and Orihime differently to how they treat their other friends. In the Bleach manga its quite obvious with the ship being end game, same with Naruto, but the romantic implications are more subtle, but that makes them more meaningful.

Its mostly the anime as a whole that make it seem they had limited interactions, cause SP created so much filler for NaruSaku and IchiRuki. The anime run quite long with a good amount being fillers to hold off catching up to the anime this makes the majority of anime content filler add with them editing or changing many canon scenes related to ships makes it worse and deceives the viewers.

[sugirandom]

Turns out it’s the second op that I love and remember well. But like…! Look how different in tone and genre it looks compared to the first one! Admittedly the anime had filler and dragged out the beginning? I actually liked reading Bleach. And ngl I probably rewatch this arc more than the actual beginning because it is more put together but… I also love the IchiRuki lol

Unfortunately I don’t get invested in the Orihime rescue mission the same way as this Rukia rescue mission. And I can see how ppl don’t like the repetitive nature of the plots. But I do feel like there are at least some differences. Like the emotional weight is different. Both of them “chose” to leave with the antagonists. But I feel like it was very different circumstances. It’s established Orihime has feelings for Ichigo. But I don’t feel it’s reciprocated. Ichigo wants to get her because she is a friend. For Rukia he feels like he owes her. And I feel like their bond it’s different from Orihime. He feels so strongly for her despite not knowing her for as long? But Rukia is also credited as being the one who “stopped the rain in his soul”. So like…!

But also Rukia was on a clock ro execution, Orihime was just a pawn and not in danger of being killed. They both left to protect Ichigo, and his friends. But Rukia left in front of his eyes and Orihime left secretly. I can understand Ichigo’s trauma and having lost ppl would make him sensitive to Orihime just leaving and not seeing it. But it was also way more clear for Rukia it was a lot more targeted to Icjigo. The others weren’t close to her like he was. They were helping for Ichigo. For Orihime they all had a vested interest in getting her back.

I’m already rambling but as I said I have a lot of feels for Bleach but especially IchiRuki.

Sugirandom: Yes, so the second opening does look more in-line with the genre of the show even though if I recall correctly Season 2 also had a ton of filler. It's interesting to read your explanation of the differences between Orihime's rescue mission and Rukia's. I don't remember if I ever saw both of them but I think if I did I also would be a lot more invested in Rukia's rescue. Even though Orihime does eventually get some kind of powers I think? I feel like she's more of a damsal in distress type of character and therefore didn't feel that invested. I do feel like Ichigo only views Orihime as a friend and that Rukia had a substantial impact on his life in many ways.

Skipping the second op for the rescuing Rukia part of the arc, and the two filler op’s? (You can get whiplash from op’s being high action and fast passed and dramatic/angsty, or more happy and slice of life feeling. I think this following one was for when they went to rescue Orihime (I’m not a big fan of the visuals or music)

I wasn’t a big fan of the above opening 6. But opening 7 is also one of my faves (I also just love Asian Kung-Fu Generation) Still rescuing her. But I also wanna admit I couldn’t finish watching or reading all of this arc despite it’s importance to the lore. It felt too dragged out and it only made me dislike Orihime more rhan before. Whereas for the Rukia mission I grew to like her more. I mostly waited until this arc was over and watched the final battle because I heard what happened. I didn’t come back to Bleach until the Fullbringer Arc which I don’t recall when that happened in the timelime

Sugirandom: Ahh, Opening 6 definitely gives off more IchigoXOrihime vibes and I'm not really a huge fan of the animal companions lip-syncing lol. Opening 7 is much better but I'm also bias in liking Asian Kung-fu Generation. Thanks for sharing these and sorry it too so long to post my responses.

[handsome-kakigori]

Filler/headcanon

After fade to Black (movie) Dark Rukia remains inside Rukia as a second personality, who can take control wherever she likes. Although she can assume control anytime she wants she cares and allows Rukia to be the mains personality, only taking control when needed or when she has to give some quick and snarky comments.

-Ichigo is talking shit about Rukia bunny drawing ?! Dark Rukia takes the wheel and ask him to redrawn it himself, to show her his amazing drawing skills.

-Blushing ?! Perfect time for someone to say how she tought the strawberry was never going to ripe. 😊

-Some villain has the upper hand and is talking shit to Ichigo ! No worries Dark Mommy is going to make tha villain eat his words.

-Calling her short ?! Well all she has to do is looke up with her purple cat eyes and say "There'sa reason giraffes aren't the king of the jungle" . 😉

Lmao, Rukia shouldn’t need help slandering the twink strawberry boi back

But yeah, other than kicking him, she’s way too nice. Dark Rukia needs to put him on his place 😤

Let the villain talk shit to ichi, he talks shit to them too anyway tsk tsk, let him face the consequences of his actions. //But dark mommy defending ichi is such a nice prompt tho 😳, imma brainrot this for weeks lmaoooo. PLS STOP WITH THe HEADCANONS, I HAVE TO DRAW MY COMMS BUT ALL THIS BRAINROTS ARE MAKIN’ ME DRAW EVERYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN MY COMMS AUGHHH, I CANT CONTROL MYSELF I LOVE ALL THESE IDEAS—

Also, the last one lmaooo “giraffes aren’t king of the jungle” very true! That reminds me of my old IR shitpost for ir month back then XD https://handsome-kakigori.tumblr.com/post/186738493355/ichiruki-month-day-1-competition-height

[mystech-master]

Okay I finished watching TMNT 2003 last month, so the series I wanted to get into this month

Bleach

Based on the amount of chapters I need to read 22 chapters a day and I am ALREADY behind. Mostly due to work and me being tired after and having other shit to do.

I tried to watch the anime years ago but once I got to the filler arcs I just fell off. When I tried to skip the filler arcs I saw the other Mod souls and I was like "Shit I need to watch them for context". Also, I was a stupid high schooler so I couldn't memorize all of the Japanesey names of the Soul Reapers.

I am sticking with the manga because I want to avoid the weird changes in the anime. I know there is some salt from fans about how the anime treats Orihime, and how there are a lot of Rukia scenes or something that resulted in the Ichihime vs Ichiruki shipping wars which I heard go WAY out of hand.

I DO want to look at the anime for fights though, because I feel like I can feel the power/skill of the characters more in animation than a still black-and-white image. Which fights would you recommend?

[azulawriting]

I’m ambivalent on the ship wars, and here’s why

I probably shouldn’t be even writing this because the ship wars are back at it again with the new anime season, and my opinion will probably not make either side happy.

Full disclosure, up until very recently, I was an anime-only person when it came to Bleach. I watched the filler, but not the movies because of all the flack I got for watching non-canon content. Bleach has always been a “niche” series in my area, so you can imagine that it’s not that I didn’t want to read the manga back when I watched the show on TV and over some websites of dubious legality. Once the anime was over, I naturally found ways to read the manga from that point on. 

I assumed that the anime was basically a 1-to-1 adaptation of the manga, save for the fillers. And, like many fans back when TYBW was ongoing, had my gripes on how rushed the ending came. Mind you, by the time Bleach as a manga ended, I was already a full-on weeb and I had read/watched many other shows. The magic that had captured 11-year-old me into this universe was growing thin by some of the rushed and lack-of what I thought to be key points for the arc to develop. As much as it’s interesting to have Ichigo be part Quincy, having little to no explanation as to why Uryu decided to be part of the Sternritters was…disappointing. There were good things, but by the point the final chapters were rolling by, my enjoyment of Bleach as a whole became dependent on what the ending ships became. Is it petty? Sure, but I wouldn’t go as low as to burn tomes of Bleach for not having my way.

As an anime-only, I will say this: The anime makes an extremely clear point that Orihime’s affection is completely one-sided. At no point did I get the impression that Ichigo would reciprocate her feelings, and my perception of that didn’t change much in the manga. Although I thought it was good for Orihime’s character to have Ichigo acknowledge that she can fight by his side. But as I said, at the time, I was full on board with IchiRuki and that single moment wasn’t going to suddenly change my perspective.

So, did something change?

Yes, but no(?) 

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate IchiRuki for being a ship that appeals to my idealistic view of romance: a close relationship where two people build each other up and don’t give up on each other no matter what. I’m starting to finally read the manga and so far, I’ve barely reached the Fake Karakura Town arc. I won’t say I suddenly see the error in IchiRuki, and bend down to the canon for making total sense and being obvious from day 1. But I can safely say that I can see why some people are so adamant to say that IchiHime was the right end-game ship. My problem so far with it is that although I can’t definitively say Ichigo doesn’t care about Orihime as more than a friend, I can’t be sure it’s a hundred per cent non-platonic. I don’t have the panels fresh on my mind, but I do get that when Orihime’s captured, we see Ichigo get more reckless and distant with his actual friends and hurt them because he “doesn’t trust them”. I can easily take this as Ichigo caring particularly for Orihime….but I have nothing similar to compare it to. When Rukia was captured, he had a similar reaction, but we didn’t see the breakdown in his friendship with say Tatsuki, because to everyone but Chad, Uryu and Orihime, Rukia stopped existing. I’d argue I was surprised more at how Ishida was way more concerned than usual and wanted to go out on his lonesome to rescue Orihime himself. That’s something I would read as inherently more open to a romantic interpretation given what we know of Ishida’s character thus far. The anime adapted the scene between Uryu and Urahara (I think), but after an entire season of filler, this little moment felt less significant to me than it did when I read it.

But I digress.

So far the only moment where I can safely say that Ichigo did prioritize Orihime is when Ulquiorra admits to having manipulated her into coming to Hueco Mundo. You’re free to interpret it as definitive proof or some indication of Ichigo’s feelings, but I’m not completely sold on it. Again, his sole reason for being there is to save her and prove Soul Society’s assessment of her actions to be incorrect. You can call it nitpicking, but, you gotta understand that, to me, Ichigo is somebody who would probably fight to the death for any of his friends. It takes a lot for me to try to get hints of romantic behaviour from him versus just platonic camaraderie.

Another thing that, while reading the Hueco Mundo in particular, doesn't sell me into IchiHime is how Orihime thinks of Ichigo’s hollow powers as “not her Ichigo”. She is right in saying that White Ichigo is not really him, but it is still something that’s part of him. I can’t say for sure that it’s clear that Rukia would accept it and be cool with it, I don’t think that’d be right considering her story with Kaien. However, the key difference is that if nothing else, Rukia was the one to shake Ichigo’s dread over his power off him. Orihime freezes and is rightly terrified of it, going so far as to no longer believe or want Ichigo to win against Grimmjow the moment he puts the mask on. It takes Nel to snap her out of it. I wonder how this attitude will affect Orihime for his final fight with Ulquiorra. Because if that chapter(s) is anything like its anime equivalent, I think it paints quite a grim picture of the dynamics of the two. At the very least, it’d make Orihime really start reconsidering her feelings for him if what just defeated her captor is “not her Ichigo”. If “not her Ichigo” is the only side of him that would rise to protect her, is her affection for him ever going to bloom and positively change him?

And before you think I’m stating that I’m still anti-IchiHime, this same train of thought lead me to recontextualize that moment in TYBW where Ichigo asks Orihime to fight by his side. Considering the manga thus far, I would be open to interpreting that moment in the final chapters as a romantic moment between the two. But I still have a lot of reading to do. As I’m writing this, I’m in the middle of chapter 328. I don’t know if I’ll make other posts updating my thoughts on the manga as I keep reading. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been on Tumblr and this post is probably gonna die, buried under hundreds of more active accounts.

Nevertheless, there you have it. I’m honestly a bit ambivalent about the ship wars. I can see excellent reasons for both ships to exist. I don’t ship IchiHime, but I get you guys who do. You aren’t crazy. I still don’t think that what I got thus far would sell me into thinking the end-game ships make 100% sense, but now I can’t say that IchiHime is completely baseless. It has something. Kubo may be pardoned for that. Shonen romances aren’t usually great and deep anyhow.

What I don’t excuse Kubo for is making Kazui that much of a psycho in the hell chapter. I don’t care if he was tricked or not, his parents should know better. I mean…come on, it’s Ichigo’s son. His spiritual pressure must be monstrous and he couldn’t have learnt to be a shinigami that young on his own. It’s completely OOC for both Orihime and Ichigo to not give two damns about where their kid goes and just slap him on the wrist for sneaking out at night and doing whatever. Namely sending souls to hell.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Hello there! I'm glad to see proud Bleach fans like you! Seems like you appreciate and cherish the existence of every characters. But is there any Bleach character that you dislike, or just simply couldn't tolerate their action or contribution on the story? Tell us tell us!

There are a lot of characters to love! Though I think it helps to be two people, because while our faves do overlap they're not identical, so there's double the coverage. XDD

I think it's probably giving us too much credit to say that we cherish every character, but I think what's reflected in this blog (and this is mostly the deft work of my co-blogger, because she does a lot more of our reblogs/queue) is the pleasure of appreciation. If someone shares phenomenal fan art of a character who is not one of our personal blorbos, the art is still phenomenal, so that's cool to see, and the artist's love of that character is also very cool to see, so what's not to love?

Same goes for appreciation in-series, honestly. Like, my co-blogger does not like Yamamoto. (Sidebar: The Third Captain Amagai Arc was some kind of Yamamoto Image Recuperation Arc but we all know he's a war criminal and they all know he's a war criminal [and so are most of them] but and IN THIS ESSAY I WILL--) But a bunch of characters in Bleach clearly do love him, so sure, let's appreciate that. Same with Soi Fon and Oomaeda--Soi Fon does acually care about Oomaeda, and Oomaeda cares about her, so sure, let's appreciate that Oomaeda is part of this network of care.

The opposite isn't true, though, where if a character is hated in-series we also hate them. Usually that also means we love them, LOL. Aizen? Fabulous. Amazing. Top tier. Mayuri? LOVE that guy. You? You torment our favs? Gold star material! You're doing amazing, sweetie.

I PROMISE WE'RE NOT DODGING THE QUESTION HERE. Maybe these are low-hanging fruit, but here are two characters who came up first in our discussion of this ask + one caveat:

Baby Nel -- It happened that we were at Hueco Mundo in our rewatch at the same time as Ichigo was wandering around Hueco Mundo in TYBW, so there was double Baby Nel happening in our lives, and we were just like, "I can't. I can't do this in two timelines at once. IT'S TOO MUCH." The vocal affectation... I can't. XD

That filler guy who accompanied Ichigo and Rukia to the Grand Fisher showdown in the anime -- Why was he there? What did he add? He was there for no reason, and the only thing he added was another guy to animate, in order to ultimately make everything worse. He is the embodied version of a censorship block, because I guess otherwise the scene would be... too sad? Too scary? People talk a lot about how much more IchiRuki the anime is than the manga but boy, this guy was third-wheeling so hard it's a miracle we all survived!

The caveat being, while our disinterest in these two things (or the amount of these two things happening in a given timeframe) is genuine, sometimes we're just as ungenerous about our faves.

I'll confess I did say during our Winter War rewatch that I wished my blorbo Hitsugaya "would simply die" because he and Hiyori were being extremely annoying for multiple extended scenes and Lisa was just LETTING THEM. So take that as you will. 😂

[ichinoue]

Idk if you’ve been asked this question before but whilst reading the manga weekly before it ended was there a time where you felt like the chances were low of Ichihime becoming endgame ? Maybe you felt like it wasn’t going to happen and IR was or Ichigo was going to end up alone ?

Nah, I mean I watched the anime first and was just a casual fan for a long time--I didn't know about the fandom and shipwars, I hadn't ever read the manga, I just watched bleach as a teenager and didn't put much thought into it. But, while watching, when Ichigo made the vow to protect Orihime, I thought it was pretty likely for canon, and then when the Grimmjow battle and lust arc happened I was even more convinced. But I didn't get into the online fandom and start reading the manga weekly until 2012 and by then, the final arc of the manga had already started.

I think I joined shortly after the chapter with the peach ass scene came out because I saw ichiruki trending on twitter one day so I looked into it to see what all the fuss was about. And I was so confused by how many people thought IR was endgame when I thought IH was so obvious?? But then I thought, "well, maybe the anime has added in a bunch of IH filler and downplayed IR." So I started reading the manga to see for myself what was actually canon vs. filler, and I was surprised to find that a lot of IH moments had been downplayed/omitted from the anime while a lot of IR moments were either played up, or they were complete filler! So once I finished reading the manga all the way through, I felt like the fandom had things totally backwards on which ship was actually romantic and more likely for canon so I started this blog so I could talk about it lol.

So anyway, long story short, by the time I joined the fandom and started reading the manga weekly it was already the final arc, and I was pretty convinced IH was going to be canon. If not, then I figured Ichigo would end up alone/in an ending open. I never really thought IR stood much of a chance once the SS arc ended and the arrancar arc began. And then in 2014 when 589 happened (with Ichigo blushing about Orihime's clothes while their friends played Cupid for them) I knew it was only a matter of time for canon. Even an open-ending didn't seem likely at that point because IH just became more and more obvious in the final arc, and then when it was announced that the final chapter would be set 10 years in the future, I was like "okay, so they'll be married and their next gen kid will be revealed." And, that was that!