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.

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

Title: Footsteps
Author: windxalchemist 
Characters/Pairing: Rukia, Renji, implied IchiRuki
Word Count: 220
Spoilers: None. Possible spoilers for the end of SS Arc

 

Title: Rainbows
Author: windxalchemist  
Characters/Pairing: Ichigo, Rukia, IchiRuki
Word Count: 488
Rating: G
Notes: I owe huge thanks to laurie_bunter  and strandedthought  for letting me email them these strange stories that could never stand up to their writing. >^<
Thank you SO much! :D
I owe you two a huge tin of cookies and my first born for all of the stories you've ever beta-ed, and you can have a King Solomon moment while trying to choose who gets the baby.

Kudos to Laurie who managed to think of a Han Solo&Princess Leia somehow relating to Ichigo and Rukia. XDD
& I haven't written anything since ... forever. So bear with me if this seems a little rusty.

You know what's funny? Last year we were giggling over the coincidence of the anime airing the "That's the man in my heart" speech from Rukia to Ichigo on Valentine's Day, and this year we have the "There is no heart without you" scene from Kaien. Oh you goopy animators!

I did some art. <.<
Here's where some of my yaoi readers just have to hold themselves back from flinging fruit, but I love this pairing. It's the strongest, most egalitarian, most fully developed in Bleach (and in most manga!) Happy Valentine's Day, Ichigo and Rukia.

This is the linework and I'm showing it to you because I often mess up art when I fastidiously overwork and color and I really like my Ichigo here

Let's Go Home, Rukia: linework by debbiechan, coloring by Syn (thank you Syn for being a great art critic and dear friend)

IchiRuki Valentine 2008 by debbiechan

for Mel

thank you r0ck3tsci3ntist for the very helpful beta



ETA: oh, I forgot! There's still time to vote in the Bleach Asylum Festive Season Contest
Feb 10 is the last day. I think you have to be a member of the Asylum to vote but registration is easy. There are some nice stuffs. My personal favorite is #33 by Sparticus because of the Zombie Powder hat.  There's fic too--a really lovely piece by laurie_bunter  is in that group.

I was re-watching Bleach during the SS arc...well more specifically I was watching the scene where Aizen explains his plans, and I got to thinking: why did Urahara choose Rukia out of all people to hide the Hougyoku?

( Out of all the people, why her? )

Anyway, I'm just being a Bleach fanatic right now instead of studying. Please share your thoughts; all these theories are running around my brain and there isn't anywhere else where I can set them free except here.

By the way debbiechan, please feel free to delete this post if it's not allowed.

Howdy Bleach fans and if you don't know the results of the latest Jump popularity poll, what rock have you been hiding under today?

As much as those of us who hid in the bandroom in high school hate to admit it, popularity counts. Don Kanjoni bombed in the polls and a main comedic character disappeared as a result. Hitsugaya was a close second to Ichigo two years ago and he got a movie. Yes, popularity matters--that's why Jump does these polls. One has to wonder if Kubo, the artist who cares about the course of his manga and who once said he thinks of his characters as real people, gets all nervous about the results.

Yes, those of us who buy postage stamps also buy the Bleach merchandise and we matter in the great scheme of things. I saw my own voting as performance art, actually. I'm not the sort of girl who spends money on tanning booths and manicures but I blew a bundle on some postcards to Japan. I only voted for my favorites (Ishida, Rukia, Orihime, and Hirako Shinji) while my son spent a good deal of his birthday money to send hand-drawn postcards bearing the name (*shudders* ) Hitsugaya all the way to the Jump office in Tokyo. I had to counteract my nine year old's votes was my rationalization.




So, while I don't want to take the pop polls very seriously, the polls---like the reputation spamming game at forums--make my blood pressure go up a little. The polls afflict me with both glee and contempt. Here in America we like rankings. We give them more value than we should. Japan has that "let's work as a team" social attitude but here we're all about individuality and competition so....

*armpump* YEY RUKIA AND ISHIDA.

And meanwhile my inner hiding-in-the-bandroom nerd, that skinny little girl with the glasses on the end of her nose, scoffs at popularity contests. Hooey hooey. Nyah nyah. I don't care if Shinji's not there because the Visored will RETURN, oh this I believe!

a late happy birthday present for  laurie_bunter

Chad, Ichigo, Rukia (no Ishida--GASP!)

 Title: Can I Love You?
 

Tah Dah! Ichigo looks goofy here but hey, I like it. Another entry in the Bleach Asylum Festive Season 2007 contest just because I stalled on my story and I wanted to mess with some free brushes for Paint Shop Pro!

Merry Christmas to the IchiRuki FanClub! This one's for you!
wicked_liz  asked for a Rukia one and I threw in a goofy Ichigo no charge!

( Cuddle Weather (IchiRuki, worksafe) )

Deviant Art link: Cuddle Weather

I hope everyone is continuing to have a merry Tanabata. I hope you've made your wish on a piece of paper and tied it to a tree. Every year I make a lot of wishes on paper called fanfic. My previous post  contained a new IshiHime as well as few other of my Tanabata stories. 

All stories are PG; all should carry the warning that parts of them are very romantic, gooey, and mooshy. I am not going to be held responsible if anyone goes into insulin coma. Read at your own risk.

This next one is the first time I've written Rukia from her own POV.


I've got another fic! IchiRuki this time. PG.

Continued from a previous post.
Warnings for sentimentality, a description of a crematorium, and a little goopy IchiRuki. ^^

Warnings: some icky things related to funerals and crematoriums, attempts at deathbed humor, a mopey Tatsuki, and a little bit of bad language. Also this story is over 12 thousand words, but it gets better as it goes along--trust me. The story is continued in a second post.


To Be Continued in next post

People who are minorities and culturally misunderstood will know what I mean when I say that if you join the game, you've got to be twice as good as everyone else to be taken seriously. This is why fans don't evaluate the boys in Bleach as negatively as they do the girls.

There. Rants do feel good. If only I had a Tsubaki in my hair that I could launch, though, I wouldn't need to type so much.

What did I say? The shippers would be churning over recent developments in the manga. Ever since 237 when Orihime was given such a stirring soliloquy, the IchiOri hopes have been at high mast. I know some IshiHimes who went out and drank over the death of their ship (not I! I  had still had faith) and some IchiRukis who muttered and shifted in their seats and reminded us of the previous 200 chapters of IchiRuki outweighing this one chapter.

Dear Bleach fan, the harbor is crowded. I like fanfic and fantastical imaginings.I like Ikkaku/Nemu as much as the next healthy sex-minded girl, and sometimes RenBaya moves me. AizenUlqui is my 2nd favorite ship. With so many wonderful characters, there's something for everyone. But the guns have always ridden on the big warships--IchiRuki and IchiOri.  And the general belief is that one of these relationships will be consummated in canon (hardly anyone expects an open ending anymore--I don't think Kubo will suggest--he will clarify the above. He may suggest with IshIHime, but he's going to wrap this one up. He's too methodical and too much a shoujo man not to).

What's happened with 270 that everyone is flailing about? There's splishing and splashing men going overboard. It can look pretty silly to an outsider, very confusing to someone who doesn't give a hoot about ships, but I think most people will tell you that it's the beginning of the end fot the IchiOri ship.

I've never attempted detachment when it comes to ships, but not all viewpoints are valid. I can drop clunkers of bad evidence when it comes to so-and-so getting together. But when it comes to IchiRuki, one doesn't have to shake the manga upside down for even a drop of evidence. It's everywhere.



Oh damn. I didn't let it all out. I have to go to the bathroom now. There's only so much a fangurl can ramble. I await the day that there's a  spoken confession from Ichigo to Rukia and vice versa because that's the only thing IchiOris will accept but I don't need the confession. The beginning of the end for IchiOri was 270.

Chapter 268 was my favorite chapter in Bleach so far. It got me imagining what Rukia's life before she came to the Living World. This story tries to be as canon filler as it can be, given that Kubo-san has not revealed much about Rukia's true past and has only thrown out some details about her life in the thirteenth division.

Oh hope that wasn't TOO sad.

Anyway, next subject-- many of my dear friends are whipping up the Orihime hate lately. Not that I can't understand. Rukia's last thoughts are about Orihime and so far the princess in the tower has only thanked "Kurosaki-kun." Remember--Orihime is love and kindness. She's 16 and sweet. She's (stupidly) in love with Ichigo and she hasn't had her moments of self-realization like Rukia has in 268. She hasn't woken up to the fact that Ishida is there for her.

So please, if you can't be as generous as Rukia was as she fell, bleeding, for Orihime, then try to remember that Orihime's not at all a villain--she's just a girl. And a very flawed girl who doesn't yet know her own strength. She will soon, though. You'll see. She will win your respect one day.