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.

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.

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.

Scans are out. Check the Bleach Asylum Chapter Thread for the goodies and throw roses at Spacey's feet for bringing us these weekly spoilers and check out the new playground look of the forum.

Bleach is rated #1 this week in WSJ and I can see why.  There's something to squee about on every page.


Dunno why I'm typing so much of the bad grammar. The cleaning fluids from Passover preps have entered my bloodstream. See ya later, after the seder!'

Warning: shipping, sarcasm, bad poetry and stolen poetry.


I don't follow the Bleach anime regularly anymore, but I tune in for good fights (Ichigo versus Grimm the Hedgehog last week) and for the little shipping controversies that keep me off the streets and away from "abridged editions" of anime on YouTube. This morning I awoke to such a ruckus that I thought for a moment that Isshin's Gotei 13 position had been revealed, but no, it was only that episode 167 had changed a little bit of the manga to slant the story into a more (shoujo-shoujo-shoujo) Ichigo x Orihime bent.


And yes, others got into the act and we were in one another's shoutboxes all this morning because there were no spoilers and we are goofy children, heaven help us.

Has everyone read the latest chapter -106 Turning Back the Pendulum 3?

Good.

These flashback chapters just get better and better.


ETA again: ananosa has added some text and pictures to the Ishida essay here.

Annie's summary and the FrankyHouse scanlation are out. I'm loving this chapter even more than the previous one, not so much for the revelations (and there are more!) but for the interpersonal intricacies Kubo excels at, the visual clues to the story, and art that's never been better.

Check out the goodies here

( Yee-hah! )

I told someone that it's just like Kubo to surprise people with the EXPECTED. xD

Thank you to Spacey, who is always forthright and true, for the spoilers.



Keep up with the latest on the chapter thread at Bleach Asylum. They've switched back already from their HardGay April 1 format but the skin is still available as an option for those of you (like me) who loved it.

Meanwhile, a Bleach coloring book has been released. And Ichigo is wearing Rukia's pants!

Already the chapter thread for Bleach -108 is the most viewed thread in Bleach Asylum's history and at this writing there's only a script, not any scans yet. But the geekery and speculation abounds. Timeline contradictions, the history of Jazz, the structure of Centre 46 and omg what do you think Sousuke-kun could be wearing.

Much love and thanks to Spacey of Bleach Asylum
( Looks WORTHWHILE! )

Hey, hey, hey. These eight flashback chapters could just be awesomesauce!

Manga-ka do this all the time. My Kubo needed a break. But instead of taking me to the Riviera, he's going to write character backstories. Yes, the rumor has been around for a while that Kubo was taking a two month break, and I was one of those who believed the rumor if only for the reason that Kubo NEEDED a damn break. But now I'm uncertain as to whether or not this break is going to start NOW (leaving us with 315 as a terrible cliffhanger) or whether it starts a little later. For more about this madness see the thread on Bleach Asylum, in particular yesterday's post which threw me into fangirl anxiety and despair.

eta: from nidaime:

今週で虚圏篇は一旦終了。次週からは「ある人達」の過去の物語が始まります。

That means: The HM saga has Finished and the flashbacks beging next week

I need certainty; if nothing else, I need certainty about my uncertainties.  (and now I have them *weeps*)


 ETA #2 (YES, I continue to be hysterical).  I just realized that the regular storyline will return in June! ZING! I called it! I called it! I said Ichigo would fight Ulquiorra for Tanabata!  Last year Ichigo fought Grimmjow for the exact weeks of Tanabata July through August.

Kubo does this thing. He wants it to be rainy when you read his "Memories in the Rain" chapters. He throws around little happenings on character birthdays. He had Orihime slap Ulquiorra on Valentine's day.

Oh, hit us over the head, will you Kubo? Five lifetimes, the fifth tower that Hime is trapped in. ARGH! There needs to be some resolution here. I expect shippers will be pulling out their hair, but I myself will be settled deep into my Lazy Boy with popcorn. It's been a long time coming, Kubo-sensei. You better have my girl Hime step up to the plate this Tanabata!

 nehalenia  is one of those writers like incandescens or laurie_bunter--I'm just going to rec ALL this writer's Bleach fic anyway so just remember the author's name. She's done it again. This time she's written a piece that for being first person Hollow!Ichigo narration is surprisingly eloquent-- yet the guy is  IC. Hollow!Ichigo maintains a dynamic with an Ichigo who figures in the story even if nicey Ichigo's not there. The violence is handled expertly--it's never over the top. The characterizations make me give this piece of smut my "more than smut" award (didn't know I gave those out, eh? Usually sublimeparadigm racks them all up in my head for her emotional but hardcore yaoi stuffs). And yes, it's disturbing subject matter, and yes it's disturbingly erotic, and yes, the story is about that ambivalence. It's smart stuff.

Runaway Horse (NC17) by  nehalenia Warning: non-con, yaoi, Hollow Ichigo/Ishida

Now more about chapter 315. The scans are out, and I've read at least two interesting discussions on friends' LJs about Ichigo's character--is it consistent? What about his speech to Kenpachi at the end of the chapter? IC? Unnecessary?

Just a friendly answer since so many people keep asking is it okay to post this or that in here--IF IT'S BLEACH-RELATED, IT'S OKAY! Geebers, people, am I that scary? Now, I will remind you that this journal and community started off as my writing journal for my own Bleach fanfic and fanart and that it, bleachness  , along with my website is a primary hosting place for my fanworks, but I also meant for this LJ community to be a COMMUNITY of all things bleachness, that includes discussions, links to others' fanworks, general oohing and ahhing and squeeing and ranting about the manga and anime and voice actors and whatnot.


Ever since MY OBSCENE AND CARNIVOROUS SZAYEL was censored cruelly in this week's anime, I've been taking it out on people's grammar (honestly, dudes, you don't know how much I hold myself back all the time but when you have a BIAS, you are not a bias forum wastebucket, you are a biased forum wastebucket).

Oh yeah yeah yeah, there was a summary of 314 from lovely Annie today. 

I won the IchiRuki essay contest over at BA which makes me feel bad because 1) I was never a hardcore IchiRuki shipper to begin with (just a manga reader who thought the relationship was as obvious as a blue sky) and 2) Annie's going to waste postage sending me the prize when she already just sent me a bunch of presents from Japan out of the goodness of her heart. IN ANY EVENT, never fear, I will scan the IchiRuki doujin I'm getting for the prize and share with everyone andmelodymix will translate it! YEY!

Speaking of RenIshi bondage. <.< ( My fanboi readers can either skip this rec or just THROW UP NOW and hurry up and comment on 314 below) I bring you yet another fic rec from nehalenia a yaoi writer who can give you the hard sex along with canon characterization and omg plot. And while she wrote this for White Day, it was New Year's, Xmas, Hannukah, and Fourth of July all wrapped up in one for me because it was RENISHI. I can retire! (not that I will!) But holy hell, someone's writing RenIshi like this, woo!

Lucky Shinigami (Yaoi, NC17, Renji and Ishida)

A fic rec! Some IchiIshi from a damn gooooood writer I've been squeeing over since her entry into the fandom! It's a bit squicky but it's a rescue fic so if you've seen Yael's infamous Ishida torture pic over at y!gallery, you'll appreciate nehalenia