warning: shipping



Carry on. I'm still cleaning for Passover and maybe when the kitchen's turned over, I can read chapter -105. SPOILERS LOOK THRILLING.

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.

Is shipping-talk censoring on forums a feminist issue?


Okay, shift of gears. Have a drabble. This one is by kaeru_chan who used to play a delightful spot-on Orihime in the RPG deathonly early in fandom, and I've missed her Orihime. She wrote this little bit not long ago and gave me permission to post it. It's IshiHime, PG13. It made me smile--I know I have lots of IshiHime fans in this comm so I hope it makes you smile too.

In this post you will find:
1. A link to download the latest Bleach Beat collection featuring the incomparable Toriumi Kousuke as Szayel Aporro Grantz grooving your petri dishes, rocking your test tube racks and blinding you with science.
2. An explanation to clear things up once and for all: THE NEWS OF SZAYEL'S DEATH IS GREATLY EXAGGERATED
3. An answer to why, if I shipped IchiOri, chapter 313 would make me throw in the towel

Kubo, my love, you surprised me. *squishes*

The spoilers are out. And I wasn't entertained the way I wanted to be entertained and I'M GLAD!


Meanwhile, on the fandom front, knowing for a fact that I am suffering PMS with about half of my f-list on LJ and that ship-waters in my fandom have been churning for a couple weeks now, I can, like an old sailor, look to the skies, and call a hurricane just by the color of the sky.  Ya know, every now and then I get into a wholesome ship war--you know, the snowball fight kind, with a friend, and think that shipping discussion ain't so bad. Then again....

there are those places where illogic breeds like maggots. I'm jaded now. I can take it all. I'm of my friend laurie_bunter's opinion, that if you're going to bash, do it with style, wit, humor and good grammar, otherwise.....


My little IshiHime ship is no more that a canoe, really. I'm taking my paddle and heading for shore. I going to dress Ishida in a skimpy outfit there and make him serve me fruity drinks. Orihime can go around rejecting PMS monsters. Anyone up for that?

Ugh, I need to write some PR0NS.

If you're willing to translate, post here, and I'll write a short Bleach fic of your request. *puppy eyes*

I'm not even going to bother to friends-lock this one. Scans get taken and spread around so fast it's not even funny. You don't even have to credit me for the scanning; I only ask that if you get the chance please support this circle of fine artists. They do lovely Ishida and Orihime work and you can see it here. There are other ByPass IshiHime doujinshi; my sweet annie_08  bought these for me while in Japan.

I'm really curious as to what's going on in this one! Lots of Ichigo and Rukia! And TSUBAKI! *_* And--tah-dah!--Ryuuken! The style is adorable, and as with the previous IshiHime doujin I showed you, everything's  family friendly. There's an odd scene of Orihime on Ishida's bed in one panel dressed like a neko but I think that's Kon's imagination. I'm not sure.

Non-hentai. Work-safe. Ishida and Orihime. Some Ichigo and Rukia. Guest appearances by Kon, Tsubaki, Ryuuken.


BYPASS ISHIHIME DOUJIN 2 (Sendspace)

BYPASS ISHIHIME DOUJIN 2 (Megaupload)



And I want to thank everyone who's been so genteel in shipping threads here lately. I really do thank you for indulging my shippy talk. Because the waters were exciting again, I ventured onto animesuki this weekend, and I dunno, maybe it was a busy week and I was tired, but it looked like my man sinta  had been having some fun and I thought I could too---only, ugh, when someone writes that he's disturbed by your joke about being willing to bet your firstborn on IchiRuki, you know it's going to be a dreary battle. I guess I could go back and engage the dude who said to send the kid with a years supply of diapers (he seemed uber-certain of IchiOri because his own love tale was similar--I find that... really fascinating) but I'm... tired? NO! Tired of Bleach shippy talk? I need to go take my temp.

ARTS! ARTS! Oh, I just love this one. My imagination is all over the place. And Renji--the spurts of blood and spurts of red hair. Isshin's face! Work safe.

Don't Mention Hueco Mundo by LookingBack7 aka r0ck3tsci3ntist 

And I don't know how many fellow Narutards I have here but I laughed SO HARD at this comic. IchiRuki, worksafe:

Bleach Cosplays Naruto by mezzo_marinaio 


Now, for what's been occupying my girly brain. Yes, I have seen the current spoilers for the Ken-chan fight and yes, Ken-chan is THE MAN, but I am full of estrogen and episode Kaien-dono aired for Valentine's day and this week episode 261, with its re-enactment of chapter 270's ICHIGO EYEBALL MOMENTS OF O RUKIA O ORIHIME, aired, and the ship seas are a-churning.

Warning: shippiness ahead. For the sake of fair sportsmanship I keep at it, I don't know why ( and to convert vesperh who is on the verge of being converted to IchiRuki, LOL)

( preaching to the choir, Rebecca, and others who can take some FUN antagonism )

Spoilers were slow to come out this week. Szayel looks hella sexy animated. I still love Bleach. I need to get cracking on my fic. That is all.

Enthusiastic response to the Valentine pairings poll! Warmed the cockles (does anyone know what a cockle is? I don't) of my Valentine's heart to know how pansexual some of your Bleachers out there are. There really weren't enough ticky-boxes from the very beginning for me to include even my own favorites, and no Adam, you're not responsible for my Kenpachi/Unohana love--I wrote the pair three years ago. Also, girls, girls, I should not be chastised for having left Ma and Pa Shinigami (Ukitake and Unohana) off the lists! I've written them too--a story I don't like but other people seem to like it (warning, it's sad: Unohana's Secret).

I know Papa-lovers (Isshin/Ryuuken) hang in this community, but I deliberately didn't put that ticky box up in favor of the Ishida/Nemu one because I thought they'd be a whole slew of people who fancy that pairing here. (Ishida crazies tend to congregate around me). But only two people as of this evening checked Ishida/Nemu. I used to write that pair a lot--recent chapters starring her poison womb and smothering boobies killed that ship for me, but I thought those very things may have tickled the imaginations of pervs out there who like dominant robot girls holding down pretty boys and smothering them with boobs ...  Apparently not. I'm surprised. Those pervs must be elsewhere.

Anyway,hope everyone survived Valentine's Day!  I got very mushy watching the most shoujo chapter in all Bleach animated, but all thoughts of Bleach romance that were fanned by the airing of episode 160 (KAIEN-DONO! <3) were immediately put out with the appearance of chapter 310. BATTLE OF THE BEASTS!

There was no Valentine's Day Spread. Then it was clarified to me that LAST WEEK was Shounen Jump's Valentine's issue. Oh well. Kaien-dono in the anime was more than enough for me. There is no heart without him. *sob*

Whilst all teary-eyed over episode 160, I wrote a sentimental contest entry for the IchiRuki FC over at BA that people liked (well, at least the fanclubbers). The entry was all about my gooey lub for the IchiRuki fandom, but I'm a Bleach whore and  could've written the piece about the Shini and the Arrancar-lovers or  Jackie and her IchiIshi leagues too.  I've been feeling an extreme fondness for the IchiOri fandom too lately--my first pals in the Bleach fandom were IchiOris, some of my best spats were with IchiOri crazy people, and here I've got kay_willow and norrowa who keep me from seeing the names Ichigo and Orihime together and going GAG, NO, FLEE THE SHIPWARRIORS. And you too, quaedam, like wut? You voted IchiOri as likely to become canon in the pairing poll thingie even though I know you ship IchiRuki HARD (along with ByaRen XD). You just graduated from MIT so you're not dumb. Ah, Kubo--as convinced as I am that your talent created the phenomenon that is the IchiRuki fandom, it's also responsible for the smaller feverent IchiOri madness too. You fed it glazed candies for Tanabata, you did!

Also, strangely enough, I've got some affection for those in that IchiOri fandom who hate me. They're pretty mild about it---cute, almost. If the worst they can do is call me "elitist" and complain about my "ego the size of Texas" then there's not really much for me to get miffed about. The few yaoi fangirls who (for reasons unknown--maybe because I shipped het too, maybe because I wrote their favorite uke seme) went after me last year attacked my parenting, my drawing skills and my purple prose. Yaoi fangirls can be hardcore. They can make a girlie like me cry.  IchiOri fans, to make a terrible generalization, tend to be Orihime-ish, full of idealism and naive expectations.  Kinda nice to a fault. The battle-worn wives and relationship weary older people I know tend to be in IchiRuki fandoms or in yaoi fandoms---just a personal observation.

You may throw eggs now.

Easter's coming soon, anyway. And with it, the resurrection of Szayel!

Happy Valentine's Day! I haven't watched episode 160 yet because Kaien's "there is no heart without you" speech always makes me bawl. Yes, I am a girl. Sue me.

Today the second IchiRuki festival in Tokyo was announced.

Now take a totally useless Valentine Pairings Poll.

Poll #1138473 Totally Useless Valentine Pairings Poll
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Of the following popular pairings, I fancy

Of the following (somewhat) less popular pairings, I fancy

I think a couple very likely to become canon in the manga is

I fancy

I've reached the plateau of crazy where I am actually going to present a copy and paste of a chat about fandom.
Warning: shippy-related stuffs but smart & entertaining enough bleachness that I'd thought I'd copy the text of this "chat" here. The opinions expressed therein do not necessarily represent those of debbiechan.

The following is more like an interview than a "chat", honestly, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of the liveliest people in the Bleach fandom who rock my world with their insight and humor.  Most of my chats with them are simple fangirling translation emergencies. (ME: "Guildy, is the kanji in that omake calling us Bleach fans CRAZY?" "Guildy: It says creepy actually") but my friend Jaimie had the foresight to actually record one of her bleach convos with this pair and preserve some bits for posterity.

Forgive me for cutting and pasting this LooooOONg thing--it's excerpted from a post in the IchiRuki FC at BA but for some reason LJ doesn't like my linking to individual posts there. Guildy and Ros usually manage to distill a lot of my meandering fangirling into concise, funny observations that make me go "Oh yeah! That's what I thought!" 

previews:

--Rukia and Orihime have some pretty big faults, but in totally opposite directions

--Only when Ichigo is forced to put down the 'sword' by the emergence of Chad's own power and by Chad's own insistence, does he become within the range of Ichigo's 'embrace'

--I don't 'ship', I just fucking read

As with all stuffs here, discourse encouraged, provoking trolly comments with be deleted. IT IS POSSIBLE TO DISAGREE, Y'KNOW, WITHOUT FANDOM DRAMA. E.G: Guildy thinks Ishida needs to "grow a pair" before she'll consider the IshiHime ship and I haven't slandered her name on fandom_secrets yet.


Bonus. Some things that weren't on the BA post but in the original chat, highly edited because Guildy cusses too much but included here because she speaks my heart about symbolism and western audiences and the "death of the author."


Go to town or ignore. I love Guildenstern.

Translation of spoiler from our friend Epsilonium in China and how this chapter kills a half dozen ships:

( spoiler spoiler spoiler for 305! )

We have an affiliate!
bleachness is pleased to announce that it is now affiliated with glasses_bishies!
I'm still not sure what being affiliated means, exactly, but since Ishida-kun is this month's megane-kun, I was happy to be asked.

I'm so impatient and excited right now because someone I know is going to translate an old 2005 interview with Kubo in which our manga-ka was accused of having a gay relationship with his editor. XD  DISH! DISH! And more than a few people have congratulated me for the "interesting and intelligent" shipping discussion of the last entry. I always said it could be done. Maybe we can do it again sometime. I was reluctant to post that SOULs databaook translation tidbit here but I wanted to talk about it outside of the forums. I'm scared to post things in this comm sometimes now because it has more readers; just last year I was making entries like "EVIL OVERLORDS ARE HAWT" and now I feel challenged to not be so dumb.

But evil overlords ARE hawt.