No Ishida. AGAIN. God, somebody shoot me. I haven't been tempted to be shot since the Bount arc, but if Ishida doesn't show up soon...

Warning! My typing may cause you seizures, health disorders, etc!

Here are the cuts to my insanity! ^_^

Ahashdaslkasdlkdslka!!!
( see ugly expressing comic )( The intent to kill. Because ISHIDA ISN'T THERE! AnklAKJLSAKJL!!! )
( EW )
( Sketch dump, yall! )
Please tell me how horrible my drawing skills are! DO IT! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!

Hm. This will probably get deleted for something. BECAUSE I AM A BAD PERSON. ;D
 

Some bleachy noodles:

1.
Fade to Black: Calling Out Your Name promotion spot

My IchiRuki pals are getting me excited about this movie. The promoters are getting me excited about this movie. I didn't think it was easy to top the musicals for over-the-top romantic shippy innuendo but the two voice clips from purported actual dialogue from the film are Ichigo saying "Rukia is the one who changed my world" and Rukia saying "Your name--say it again." Damn. Well if that doesn't yank at my romantic little self as much as I resist. I really pray there's no physical intimacy in the movie (as there was in the Inuyasha movie) before Kubo gives it to us, though. The pair almost hand-holding like in the musical (that was so cute and tense!) would be fine but NO mooshiness in my IchiRuki, please! :yell.

2.
The new tankoubon cover has been announced--it belongs to Mayuri!  I'm looking forward to the poem more than I am another pic of the pharoah headdress. Mayuri is primo Kubo-poem material.  And in his bout with Szayel, he distinguished himself as a "true scientist" while Kubo down-played the sadistic bent Mayuri had displayed in SS.  Szayel was the "let's have fun torturing people" one, and Mayuri came off a little nobler. He's still utter Evil, though. And one of my favorite characters--to hate, that is. (And I'm still hoping that one day a Quincy arrow shot by Ishida Ryuuken will go right through the dude's brain!)

As I type this, Hurricane Gustav is hammering the Louisiana coast and should reach where I live within a couple hours. Three years ago before the deadly Katrina hit, I managed to finish drawing an Ishida on my graphics tablet before we lost power. This storm looks to be far less furious but if you don't hear from me for some days, don't worry--we're on high ground here, and I'm a storm pro. We've probably just lost power is all. But pray that my little tangerine tree survives the high winds.

I took pics yesterday of trees I feared might be uprooted and gone in the storm--one pic was of my Unhappy Hueco Mundo Hime and Voodoo Ishida resting in the shade of my citrus tree.

( Pray for my little tangerine tree )

Thank you, Kubo-sensei.

chapter here

http://munimuni.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/05/index.html

See the subject!



AGGGHHH!!! -dies-
THIS IS ISHIDA ABUSE I TELL YOU!

And feel free to delete this if it's not allowed, Gomenasai in advance.

And, I hope I am posting this in the right place! (If not, Please delete it, Thank You!)

I have been working on an idea for an Ishida and Orihime fan fic for awhile now, and just yesterday I came across this pic. It is similar to my idea, but if there is already in existence a fan work that goes ALONG with this pic, I was wondering if anyone knew of it?

Cuz I would love to read a story that goes with this picture! Here's hoping there is one!! Anyone have a title and artist for said pic? Links? More like it? :) Thanks for any and all help!! *clapping*  

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.

Wow, Bleach fandom, I'm proud of you. At 11 a.m. this March 24, 2008, this opportunity for hate meme has been up and no one has posted yet. My glee may not last but I think it's cool no one is bothering. Or maybe the fandom brats are sleeping late after too much Easter basket candy.

Now to the Bleachness matter at hand. My friend Jasse and I spend many an afternoon talking too much about our favorite Bleach character Ishida. Out of those conversations grew some ideas that I encouraged Jasse to write up into a mini-essay. Here it is. It's an unorthodox idea but I'm fairly sold on it--particularly because I think Kubo has defined Ishida's most defining moment as the time when he stood behind that tree and didn't rush forward to save his grandfather. vesperh  has said that control rules Ishida's life. Jasse ( ananosa  )suggests that it's FEAR of loss of control.




Note--the fic Jasse was referring to was "Inoue-san, You're Coming with Me."

Thought this was an interesting essay--one doesn't usually associate cowardice with Ishida. And it's interesting that at one point during his training with Ryuuken (can't find the page, am lazy today), Ishida accuses his father, "are you calling me a coward?"

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)

Ishida and Nemu. *laughs evilly*  Oh, and it's a nude of Nemu so it's NOT work safe.

DON'T LOOK

You have to be a member of DA and over 17 to see it at that link I just realized so here:



Now for a fic from a comm I can't pimp enough, bleach_flashfic . There's never a shortage of good fic there.
There's a current sign-up going on for March and you can participate here. Join the fun!

Here's an Ishida and Orihime fic from that community. Beautiful, beautiful writing. Stick with the story until the end:

Nocturne by Empatheia (aka flashslut) , rated T

People indulge me. I'm such an Ishida nut that I actually have an artist drawing a doujin just for me and a sculpting student making IshiHime figurines just for me and why? To see me jump!  bananakaya, I adore you.  This is just something she drew to drive me nuts this morning but I am enjoying it too much:

How to drive yourself crazy with the things you love most: Ishida

Tah dah!


RenIshi fanart (work-safe, holding hands)

Guess what? I love Ishida! But I alone didn't put him in fifth place in the pop poll (yes, I was ONE of those crazy people who sent in a whole box of postcards to Japan--I know at least of one other nut who's confessed to ballot-stuffing (asam/manfan/whatever it goes by these days) and my son sent in a box for Hitsugaya, but who else sent a box? CONFESS! Kon addressed us personally--he called us "creepy people" here --and yes, in Kon's world, creepy means something! He was in the Bounto arc!)

I'm not taking any credit for the Hitsugaya/Momo/Kira votes, though. Hats off to their Japanese fans and their special brand of crazy.

I'm still shuddering from the icy glare Hitsugaya gives us loser fans in that poll spread. Ice, ice, baby.

( MY Ishida poll results, meta-crazy, and what's up for Valentine's? )

Keep those graphics and icons from the pop poll spread coming, folks. I'm hoping against hope that Kubo-sensei draws Ulquiorra in that little green scarf in a larger, more proper spread.  And please, people, write some good Valentine's and White Day fic.

Violence, spoilers for Szayel fight.

Wah! I love this

( Awesome epic Szayel-Mayuri-Nemu fanart )
Deviant art link: Mayuri versus Szayel by shirofushicho


And now the 306 spoiler pic

( Why is everyone blushing? )

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Here's my entry for the contest over at ishi_ichi  . This thing wore me out and I have to thank kiyala  
so much for the last minute encouragement.

This is shounen ai, sort of a little adventure story, mostly Ishida. No sex, rated R for language and violence.

First a fic-rec for you RenIshi fans: Surpass Me in which there's a delightful unexepected comeuppance and what followed in the comments section was a bit of interesting speculation about Uryuu's character. I have some thoughts but I'd like to hear yours first.

Poll #1103692 How Do You Like Your Fanfic Uryuu?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

When it comes to fanfic Uryuu, I'm ....

I enjoy the following characterization(s) of Ishida:

The characterization(s) of Ishida that most annoy me is:

I'm so curious to hear what you think. I've been criticized for writing a too-emotionless Ishida before and I'm in the middle of a mooshy!Ishida WIP where I'm trying to ride his feelings more closely. For me, I do have a fixed "canon" Ishida in my head and its a matter of how to present him versus how he presents himself.

Last, Bleach fans don't miss this: CRAZY BLEACH FLASHDANCE!

I hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday season so far. I sure am. Every morning I wake up to all sorts of adorable fandom gems.

I will miss him so when he either slithers off or dies.
Remember The Rocky Horror Quincy Show? Check this out for a big smile:

Comic by Inonibird

check out this new sexy Ishida fanart by hidden_gems:
Strawberry Muffin

and don't miss this lovely little piece by schweinsty
Waking (IshiHime, IchiRuki, Kira, ShuuRan, Ukitake)