I love cool releases and blowing stuff up as much as the next thirteen year old boy (even though I'm a 31 plus yr old babe) and I liked the HM arc, unlike a lot of my friends--liked the philosophical mad scientist duel and the crazy eyepatch duel and all tthe fights really, even if some of them went on a bit too long for my taste, but this Bleach of this flashback gaiden is the Bleach I love. Read the new chapter here.


Comments welcome if you understood any of my crazy talk on that chapter.

Uliquiorra Schiffer the Shipper Ship


Uliquiorra Schiffer: Basiliscus Lizuard & Minotaur

Aizen Sousuke: Aizen Myo'O aka Craving-Filled King
(Dug up this a while back, never got to post it)

Something Bleach-related has been eating my brain, and this seems like an appropriate place to bring it up.

Question: Why does Ichigo have a Quincy bedspread? (In the anime. I can't remember what it looks like in the manga.) Did I miss something? (Probably.)

Observation: So I was re-reading -104. Initially I thought that Urahara was in on the exploding-people experimentation thing, but then I noticed that we get to see their feet in one scene. And none of them are wearing geta. And in the next scene, here comes Urahara, clomping up in his geta. So, anyway, now I think it's Aizen exploding the souls. Or at least it's not Urahara. Oh, and I'm betting the smaller figure of the three standing there by the explosion is Gin.

Comment: I watched the latest filler anime. All the way through.* Does anyone else think that an armed party of Ichihime shippers has taken the D-team (or E, or F, or maybe even G-team) animation crew hostage and is, you know, influencing them?**

*If anyone asks, yes, I am taking powerful prescription drugs right now.

**Please don't flame me. I'm not anti-Ichihime, or pro-IchiRuki, or really any kind of shipper at all. I'm just a black-hearted mountain troll who gets nauseous when Bleach characters start sighing and giving each other dewy-eyed glances. Or when Ichigo -- god help us all -- smiles. In a good-natured, happy way, not in his usual "I'm gonna kick yer ass and get blood all over the place, oh yeah!" way. In any case, no disrespect is meant to Ichihime shippers. The animation crew, on the other hand....

I'd orginally posted the answers to the first meme on my private LJ but since bleachness  started off as my ficcing journal and the place where I could carry on insanely without alarming my non-otaku f-list, I thought why not reproduce the meme here. Some writers and bleachers might appreciate it. Same goes for the second meme, which is pr0ns-related.

ETA: So basically Mori was right with this post that I linked a couple weeks ago.
eta2: it's been brought to my attention that nickel56 made the original observation and Mori expounded on it, but in any case, it was two weeks ago that fans observed that Hisagi's tattoo was an homage to Kensei

From Kazahahadrian, a Bleach fan in Paris, who observed this ad in the subway:


I finally got the the week before last's filler episode to play on Media Windows and I couldn't watch the whole thing. The episode is so disjointed and I can't suspend my disbelief.  I re-watched the Grimmjow and Ichigo fight instead, went back and enjoyed Doldoni animated.


Will the real Ichigo Kurosaki please return?

Kubo-sensei, bless our manga-ka with the heart of a poet, is a nutberry. He's said that he's obsessed with seasons taking place in his story and the seasons in Real Time. He's urged his readers to read his "Memories in the Rain" chapters when it's raining. And this summer, in a Shounen Jump near you, just in time for Tanabata,  Ulquiorra Schiffer will be battling Kurosaki Ichigo. The air will be thick with mythology. Let the metaphors roar!

Now, I can over-interpret with the best of them, but I've cautioned against using symbology as a way to predict plot in my essay last year about Tanabata. Characterizations and the interactions between characters, I've argued, are a better way to predict happenings, but I may make an exception in the case of Ulquiorra. Our fourth Espada is (essentially) affectless, lacks a backstory (so far) and his interactions with other characters has been limited. "He is a stone," Kubo told Ulquiorra's seiyuu when asked how to play him. "A stone." Ulquiorra is supposed to have little to no emotions and he radiates pure mystery. Unlike Grimmjow who landed in the Bleach plot with personality running out of his ears, snarking out  a gut reaction to every remark and throwing a fist into the gut of every other character, Ulquiorra has been implacable.  In many ways, he's a walking talking SYMBOL just begging to be played with.

"El Que Llorra" means He Who Cries in Spanish. Nice irony, eh? His name Ulquiorra sounds like the opposite of who he presents himself to be. The tears on his face may have something to do with the boatman myths of several mythologies. In the Tanabata story, tears are rain and the rain is what separates lovers, and in Bleach tears are what, oddly enough,  unites people if we are to believe Orihime's volume poem by Kubo ("If I were Rain that unites Heaven and Earth that otherwise never touch, could I likewise unite the hearts of two people?").  Dizzy with the symbology yet?  And of course we know that the rain in Ichigo's inner world was a bad thing that needed to be stopped by Rukia.... Rain, pain, emo, schmemo--they are obvious connotations.

To continue with Ulquiorra's mythologies, however, Schiffer means boatman in German, one of the many languages Kubo likes to play with, and it's a boatman who in some versions of the Tanabata myth reunites the lovers. In the Greek version of Ulquiorra's story (I hope  r0ck3tsci3ntist will add a comment to this post that tells more about the Charon myth since I learned about its ties to Ulqui from her), Charon is the visually impaired ferryman who brings souls across the FIFTH (yeah, you heard that right--fifth tower, five lifetimes, whatever, five is just too much fun) river for the price of two coins.  This unemotional character was said to cry once in his morbid career and that was when Orpheus sang for him and thus Charon let Orpheus cross the river for free.

Those are some mighty symbolic eyeball you have there, Mr. Schiffer.  I'm sure it's a coincidence because I don't like to think of my Kubo-sensei as a Kabalah scholar,but here and there Bleach fans who play with Jewish mysticism have aligned the ten espada to the ten attributes of the Divine according to this ancient Spanish mystical tradition, and  Ulquiorra, the fourth Espada correlates nicely with the Hebrew principle of Chesed (mercy), the fourth emanation and the power of vision.

Ho ho ho, I could run a few yards down the crazy field with that one, but I'm going to turn to another Schiffer possibility.

The surname also recalls the Jesuit monk Hubert Schiffer who miraculously survived the bombing of Hiroshima (Kubo Tite's hometown, by the way).

"If You Rise From the Ashes" was the title of the chapter in which Ulquiorra last saw Ichigo. Shooting around the crazy bleachness theories with friends Jasse and Kaya the other day, we came upon the idea that Ulquiorra, unlike his fellow Espada, is capable of regeneration. His next encounter with Ichigo will have to engage that ability.



One last thing. We Ulqui fangirls are a little half-crazy with the possibility of seeing Ulqui's release soon but we're also afraid that our lovely Emocar is going to die. Sometimes I'm of the notion that no one who has put out a Bleach Beat CD will perish in the Bleach storyline; other times I'm convinced that Ishida (face it--I'm Ishida-centric) will have to wipe out one soul from existence with that Quincy power to destroy and that soul is going to be the one who isn't quick enough on the regeneration draw.  Of course, then, all the UlquiHime fangirls will hate Ishida and I will go have to hide under a rock for a few weeks.

Grimmjow's not dead--he's just been lying around for months. Ulqui? Standard tragic story-telling and even some sects of UlquiHime romantics call for Ulquiorra's death to happen this summer. The oldest call is that he'll die protecting Orihime somehow. I don't know how it's going to go down--all I know is that the myths can't predict it and knowing Kubo, it's gonna be FUN.

I drew a fanart for nehalenia    this week. It took me all week to do it, but it was a rough week. Sorry hon, I'll consider that I still owe you one--with Renji next time and no flying insects.

Neha said there wasn't enough Pr0N of Ishida out there and if you drew it, she'd write it, so I suppose her offer still stands, ye fanartists.

You have to be registered at y!gallery to view this.

WARNING: DEFINITELY Not safe for work. Full frontal nudity. Masturbation.
Fireflies for Neha by debbiechan

ETA: if you can't see the pic at y!gallery, it's in my scrapbook, just as fully frontal here.
ETA2: Neha wrote a RenIshi yesterday and as always it comes with my highest recommendations. I was recently NOT surprised to find out Neha is RL poet because her smut bites down clean and hard and hurts so pretty.

Also, on a completely different subject, Mori at BA may have hit on the origins of Hisagi's 69 tattoo. The post is here. Spoilery for -104. Of all the talk of last week's chapter, that's the one thing that's stuck with me. I choose to believe it just because I've got a numbers fetish--I'm not into numerology but I just love numbers. Another reason I'm loving this negative numbered gaiden.

Title: Better Left Unsaid
Genre: General, Romance
Characters: Yoruichi x Urahara
Spoilers: None
Warnings: There's a bit of smut ahead.
Summary: Oneshot. Just a brief moment between Yoruichi and Urahara. It can be set before any of the battles.
Disclaimer: Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite. I have nothing to do with his creativeness and this is just a first attempt to writing anything based on the series. This story hasn't been proofread, though all in all, it's pretty clean

Better Left Unsaid

No manga chapters for the next two weeks. Golden Week is so hard. In Japan, people celebrate. The rest of the world.... doesn't.

I'm jonesing already for more chibi!shinigami or backstory glimpses of favorite characters. Kubo's already given me two faves, Shinji and Gin, so maybe he'll grant another wish and show  baby Rukia and have Urahara explain why he put the hougyoku in her!

Rukia sure is a mystery.  syneiam  posted an entry in her private LJ today that contained some interesting observations about Kubo's character chapter covers and how Rukia was singled out from a pattern of those covers.  She gave me permission to re-post some of it here. Clicky on thumbnails to enlarge.


Black and white, yin and yang--the word "bleach" has never seemed a better title for the manga somedays. The current chapters seem to be stirring up all sorts of disturbing moral gray, but something tells me that Urahara is still the good guy and Aizen is still the baddie and Kubo is still the sadistic teasing manga-ka he's always been.

*headdesk*  Why is Rukia's name in her chapter cover in black and white font? Is it just because of Sode no Shirayuki and Kubo thought it would look cool to have the white lettering? Ever since Kubo drew the title of "To Close Your World" chapter in the shape of a key, I've been paying extra attention to his lettering.  He wants us to play along, so I play along.

Nine Years Old Ago and Today; Nothing Changed, Except Getting Sexier?


Completely Synchronized: Past, Present & Future 320 -- 104: What Really Happened

In the end Chapter -104 there is a familiar face... One of them happened to Abarai Renji in the 9th Division. One guy looks like male version of Inoue Orihime and a silhouette of Kaname Tousen with his back turned not yet introduced. Hachigen Ushouda looks like Eddie Izzard on the final page 8DDD!!!

I love xshelaghx 's art--she's worked in pencil until recently--very detailed drawings--and now she's taken to CG color like a modsoul to a plushie body and she's doing the most marvelous stuff. I'm dizzy for the texturing technique she's learned from r0ck3tsci3ntist  (known as LookingBack7 on DA and elsewhere).



If you're a yaoi fan, you'll want to check out her gallery at y!gallery and see her scrumptious Renjis. You have to be registered there to view the arts.

-104 SPOILER summaries and pix out and I keep hearing X-files music and having DBZ Cell Saga flashbacks.

bleachness seemed to be the best place to ask this, because I know there's a few comm members who may actually have this information to hand, or might have the knowledge to be able to work it out if it hasn't already been compiled.

Has anyone done the Seimei handan for Bleach character names?

Google didn't bring up any hits.

Title: Choose
Author: gully_moe
Rating: PG (Some language, and maybe a bit angsty?)
Words: 608
Pairings/Characters: IchiRuki and IchiOri. Mild GinRuki and UlquiHime. Oh and Aizen. =)
Summary: In which Ichigo is faced with a painful decision.

Another drabble, or little ficlet that I'd like to share in here. It's an idea that just sprang to my head the other night. It's my interpretation of Ichigo's relationship with the main female characters, and where Kubo could be going with them.

All and all shipping wars break Ichigo's brain.

Enjoy

Previous Spectacular Crystal Ball Contests in this community didn't go over so well because people predicted events that would happen within the given time span, and then a year or so would roll by and Kubo's plot hadn't inched anywhere.

andrew_jp  was the sole winner in predicting that we'd get Grimmy's release last summer around Tanabata time. The prize was that I wrote him a drabble.

This time I'm not going to bother with prizes (le muse hates me of late T__T and the pocketbook for Bleach trinkets is empty) but hey, bragging rights is always nice, eh?  No time limit on this contest either. Let's just say one prediction per person in a comment below and you have until Kubo finishes the manga for the prediction to come true.

You can make your prediction worthwhile---as in what  deathlike predicted this morning in the Szayel Apollo FC with deadly confidence, that Szayel is really Orihime's brother Sora--or it can be something as facile as "there will be another penis joke involving Pesh." Crack theories most welcome.

I'll go first. My pet crack theory is that Szayel Apollo (not dead, not dead, NOT DEAD YET!) is a Quincy, that he was once a Menos Grande composed of the souls of Quincy murdered in the great Extermination of Quincy by SS and since naturally these Quincy were all bitter and pissed they became Hollow, fed on one another and became some uber Quincy Menos.  I expect Kubo to explain how Arrancar can have brothers and so I expect a flashback explaining Szayel's brother one day and the story of Menos to Arrancar to Espada state, including the not-yet told story of what sort of "boost" he gave to Nnoitra that allowed Nnoitra to defeat Neliel  (that "boost" was just discovered by Mayuri in Szayel's lab, methinks).

Anyway, that's my crackpot theory. What's yours?

A post in which I further spam my own community. Indulge me, please. First, I occasionally have pointed people to Jenni's journal before. metaphore_art  is a great reader so I dig her observations but it's as an artist this time that she's made a veddy interesting post about Bleach that concerns Kubo's drawing style. The physical similarities between Byakuya and Rukia have gotten too ridiculous not to speculate about. Oh Kubo-sensei, first you give us this Kaien and Ichigo resemblance with no clue about it for six years and now this?

A friend of mine observed this morning that Bleach fans are throwing flaming batons in honor of Kubo-sensei lately but she can't seem to see what the fuss is about and feels disappointed and disturbed by the story. I heard similar things expressed from most of my friends throughout the HM arc until the gaiden started--at which point the batons caught fire. Anyone here want to step forward and say "I don't like these flashback chapters?" Do so in this post and I promise I won't hurl pizza toppings. I'm just curious. I've come across exactly THREE fans so far who dislike these current chapters.

Meanwhile, the parade for Kubo goes on all over LJ. Some of us are tossing sakura gently though instead of pitching fiery things. Brad continues to speculate in the time-honored way of non-linear prophecy about the current Bleach chapter and anyone may add to the bleachness  current discussion of -105 here ( recently furato  brought up the question of is that Mayako serving tea to Ukitake and Kaien? Hmm? Could be!)



Now, a fanart rec. Never see enough of this pairing, and Hiyori's actually in a dress in this one. It's so apropos. Gorgeous art.



And another comic.

One has to wonder why Kubo thinks of all the kooky theories people come up with about his work. Actually, he did comment on the phenomenon once in a tankoubon preface; upon overhearing some kids talk about the execution bird in the SS arc being Old Man Yama's ban-kai, Kubo chided himself "try harder, Kubo." And he drew Yamamoto saying "for my sake" on the page.



For those of you who wanted to know wtf adam_epp was referencing when he was making up all those silly poems in this post, halcyonjazz  has a comprehensive list with translations of the poems Kubo has written to preface each of the volumes of Bleach. For the most recent translations of the most recent Bleach volume poems, keep checking this volume poems thread at BA.

The manga is released as a series in Weekly Shounen Jump but later, the chapters are published in compilation books known as tankoubon. Kubo writes a poem for each volume or tankoubon, and I always look forward to them because the man is a crazy fine poet.

Have a happy week. And if anyone wants to write Bleach poetry (silly or serious--it's all the same to me!) go for it!  I've seen plenty appropriations of Kubo's text in fanfic but not enough appropriations of his wonderful poetry!  I want a section in fanfiction.net now: ZARAKI KENPACHI SESTINAS!

Tea Party at Chad's House, or Neighourhood Party at Shunsui's?


I bring you the most epic write of laughter in this recent entry. I will get around to the names and post it under the same this entry, most likely tonight or tomorrow.


Who do we follow?: Completely Synchronized: The Murder Mysteries: 319 -- 105: The Over Kills

hpim has brainwashed me. I have written Noinel.XDI enjoyed writing it though. I hope you like it.

Blistering Affections

Noinel

By 07janina07

Rated: R for mature themes and sensuality.

When will she learned not to do again?