It's never boring to see people literally wasting their valuable(perhaps not) time shitting on FT and Mashima straight up throws a "fuck u i'mma do what i feel right bc it's my manga?" at them lol

Thoughts? Fullbring is the ability of love and it only opened for Rukia when it could have been used for his future wife

https://twitter.com/IchiRukispace/status/1696175283471094148?t=0sn-UOrhFYVyFzRgvXHhyQ&s=19

I mean, I feel like they're leaping over the object affinity in regards to fullbrings (i.e. the love of the object), as well as taking Chad's speech about pride and replacing it with love.

Quoting from the bleach wiki on fullbrings:

Object Affinity: By developing an affinity for a particular object, a Fullbringer can alter its form, granting powers that vary greatly among individuals. This affinity can be defined by one’s love for the object in question, or simply by an overall fondness for it. As such, this power is usually awakened through a strong emotion associated with the object, such as pride. Using this affinity, Fullbringers pull out the object’s soul and boost it with their own, transforming it in the process. 

Riruka says that you're drawing out the maximum power of something a person loves, a physical object. Ginjo loved his pendant, Riruka loved so many things she collected them in a dollhouse.

So Ichigo tries to think of a physical object that he loves or is attached to, or that's with him all the time, and obviously it ends up being his shinigami badge. Because that's what he loves, what that badge represents--protecting.

Chad then tells Ichigo to use pride. Not love, but pride. Unlike with the object affinity, the word love is never used here. And even if it were, I feel that people tend to conflate Kubo's use of "love" and "the heart" with romantic love, when it's about the bonds between people (as seen in Kaien's speech, and six hearts beat as one, etc.) Chad tells him to think of moments that he took pride in his soul reaper powers (and not, as you see, to think of the person he's supposedly in love with lmao). To which Ichigo responds there's too many moments/he felt pride all along, remembering multiple instances of his nakama, and Rukia is the last thought, rightfully so, as she is the one who gave Ichigo those powers in the first place, and her disappearing before his eyes was a representation of those powers being lost.

So, I think they're conflating what Riruka said about love of the object (the badge) with romantic love being the emotion Ichigo used to draw out the power of that object. But instead of love, Ichigo drew on pride. Or you could even say that he drew on pride as well as love, his love of protecting, of being a shinigami because that meant he could protect. But romantic love? That's not what's being presented here.

Nor would it make sense for that to be presented, given that Kubo said that romance is only supplementary in Bleach. The platonic, nakama bonds and "the power of friendship!!" like what Ichigo has with Rukia, is obviously going to be the one at the forefront in a moment like this, not the romantic bond with a love interest/future wife (although it's worth noting Orihime was shown twice in his memories of pride). She's there, but she's not at the forefront, and that's okay, because she is where the romance was at, and Bleach is a shounen. Kubo wasn't going to put Ichigo and his future wife front and center all the time when romance wasn't the focus. That's basic shounen formula, and people need to understand this lol

But, as per usual, IR fans always try to rewrite Ichigo's most notable trait--his desire to protect--as a desire to be with Rukia. Even towards the end of this arc, when he thinks he's lost his powers once again and is crying in the rain about how helpless he feels that he can't protect anyone...they still think he's crying about Rukia lol.

I've seen that this scene, that it has now been adapted by the anime but in a very different way, is being analyzed to prove if Renji is one of the most important persons to Rukia or not.

In the first place, that people have doubts about Renji's importance to Rukia is laughable. Renji and Rukia, who lived together during many years, and part of that time were just the 2 of them, surviving in that poor place, obviously forged a very strong bond. Renji was the most important person to Rukia during years. And later, after a very long and unwanted separation, they regained their previous relationship where they have again the strongest bond. Renji is the person with who Rukia spends her time in the Soul Society when she is not working or is with her family Byakuya, he was and still is her best friend (by the time this scene appeared in the manga).

What I don't undertand is why some people instead of thinking why Renji is not there, reach the conclusion of "Renji is not that important to Rukia", which doesn't make sense. I very much agree with what a Japanese renruki fan said on Twitter: "I don't think you're the right person to read BLEACH if you think that Renji's absence in that scene = poor Renji". kubo drew it like that because it has a meaning.

In fact, the Japanese fans I've seen on Twitter have been trying to interpret that scene to understand why Renji is not there, because the reason is never going to be because he is not really important to Rukia, so those fans try to find the real answer.

I had told my interpretation of those scenes of the manga here:

The truth is I was confused and I'm stil confused about the meaning of which were Rukia's fears in that scene, and why Renji is not there.

And the anime adaptation has made it even more confused, because they have simply copied what happened with Byakuya in his fight, in his case with Rukia's image, and in Rukia's case with Ichigo, Orihime and Byakuya. Why did they change it? No idea, and I'd find strange that it was Kubo's idea because the scenes in the manga have, in my opinion, a much deeper meaning, they were Rukia's meaningful memories of those relationships, and Rukia might feel fear of losing those relationships, not of their deaths, just like she lost her relationship with Renji. But in the anime it looks like Rukia is afraid they die so that would mean they really try to put those persons as the most important or closest to Rukia, which doesn't make sense if Renji is not there.

But with what I don't agree at all it's with the explanation that Rukia is not afraid for Renji because she knows he is very strong now. I doubt that Rukia think Renji is stronger than Byakuya or Ichigo, who went to the Royal Realm too, and, above all, it's just natural to be always afraid for the safety of the loved ones when they are doing something dangerous, like fighting someone very strong, or simply to be afraid to someday lose the loved ones.

I was very interested in how they were going to adapt the scene in the anime, and I didn't like it, it was much better with Rukia's flashbacks of important moments of those relationships. At least they didn't add Renji in the anime scene, what means kubo didn't forgot Renji when he drew that chapter in the manga, and it means that Kubo left Renji out on purpose, for a still unknown reason. I'm happy for that, and, despite I'd someday want to know why, in fact Renji is really being highlighted with respect to Rukia's other relationships precisely by not being in that scene.

The Wasted Potential of Bleach Female Characters II, Chizuru Honsho

I don’t like Chizuru, because perverts of any sex, gender, race and sexual orientation make me uncomfortable. But that must not necessarily be so.No, not me not liking perverts, that must and will always be, but Kubo-sensei could have made her not a pervert, or at the very least make her grow out of it.

I have a special place in my heart for the first arc of Bleach, and that’s when she was most present. In that arc was also implied, that every one in Ichigo’s school gang will get powers, and we’ll have an awesome urban fantasy series.

Just like her more iconic friend Tatsuki, she only gets enough the power to see the supernatural, enough to be put on the radar of predatory entities, but not enough to save themselves. I would have loved to see them both fighting,alas...

I would have loved to see her go to Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, become a competent fighter, and a more rounded character.

We know that she was really important to Ichigo, as she is one of the persons that Aizen keeps awake and hunts, with the specific goal of making Ichigo go berserk, and transform into the perfect enemy.

Chizuru is used for comedic relief, only it’s not funny, sorry. I feel insulted as a women by the way this girl is treated by the author.

 And things don’t stop with the manga, oh no, in the anime, during a filler episode, where they could have flashed her character a little, they chose instead to double down on it, and now her one character trait is dialed up to eleven, and she is the ultimate weapon against conventionally beautiful female arrancars.

Do I even need to explain why this is insulting? Does Chizuru has any hope and dreams that don’t involve Orihime naked? It would have been nice to know. What are her spiritual beliefs, what gave  her the courage to be out, what does she plan to study, what is her dream job, does she really love Orihime or is just a crush?

Then, unceremoniously she just disappears from the story.

And the final insult, at the end of the manga when all the friends reunite, guess who is missing, literally, from the picture.

Is there any wonder then. that most yuri fanfic authors, prefer to write about more fleshed out, and less prone to assault female characters like Tatsuki Arisawa, Rukia Kuchiki when they want to pair Orihime with someone?

I am not one of the people, that think  an oeuvre, needs to have ‘’one of each’‘ in it, to be good. But if you include just one character representing a minority, maybe you shouldn’t make them perverted butt monkeys.

I think that many people would be less upset, if  Bleach had a second explicitly gay woman, that was a fleshed out heroine. I wonder what men would think if all the male characters were like Keigo Asano or Marechyio Omaeda.

Yes there is subtext in many relationships, Tatsuki/Orihime, Yoruichi/Soi Fon and even Rukia/Orihime. But that is subtext, and can be interpreted in other ways, meanwhile the only lesbian, gets vanished from the story. I wonder how the lesbian girls that grew up with Bleach feel about it. Don’t want to speak out of turn, but I think it’s pretty safe to assume, that they don’t associate a lot of positive feelings with it.

A short chapter with Kon and all of the Don Kanonji stuff. I won’t spend time on the Kon chapter, though I did like Rukia and Ichigo trying to clean him, and Orihime knocking him out of the park with a baseball bat. More Orihime creating weird sports, please!

Anyway, the next arc starts and ends with a comment about horoscopes. We see Ichigo’s dislike for things like that despite the fact they seem to be true…

Though, the only reason I’m bringing it up is because my favorite manga of all time has a part where one of the characters mentions his horoscope, saying “it’s supposed to be a bad day for Scorpios”. For Bleach, it’s supposed to be a bad day for Cancers.

We have some great moments with the rest of the cast doing Don Kanonji’s iconic laugh. I love Ichigo’s face when even Chad is doing it. I also like that it’s revealed later that Mizuiro is only doing it to annoy Ichigo.

There are also plenty of TatsuHime moments in this arc! I really wish Tatsuki didn’t mostly disappear after they go to soul society… at least she’s in HM some.

Also, Kubo gives us some interesting panels to consider:

The first is a good intersection between Ichigo and Orihime. It’s not romantic, but it’s our first glance into Orihime’s character beyond her bubbly friendly demeanor. We see her act… sad? Frustrated? With the complete disappearance of the background and Orihime repeating herself “yeah, you’re right… it’s normal… it’s normal…” even though she’s smiling she’s clearly conveying something else. My personal feeling is Orihime is surprised, and a bit upset, by Ichigo’s answer. I think she’d been hoping he came to the Don Kanonji thing to see her, and was surprised his real reason was so considerate. Her reason for being upset is two-fold. One, she’s sad Ichigo didn’t come to see her (I’m sure inside she knew it was foolish to hope for but couldn’t stop herself), and two, she really doesn’t think highly of herself or others. In her mind, Ichigo is truly an outlier. She may even think that she’d never do anything like that (even though she’s actually a very kind person). I don’t think she’s being mean with this line of thought, mind you. Instead, I feel like it’s hinting that Orihime isn’t just a kind, bubbly person - she’s multifaceted and complex, and can have feelings that contradict her “default” personality.

Regardless, it’s an honest interaction between the two. And probably the most personal outside of her introduction arc.

For the second panel, the thought of “kindness” comes back. Ichigo noticing how kind Rukia is, despite him thinking a basic level of kindness is normal. I’m not sure why Kubo’s juxtaposed this. Maybe it was an accident. But it’s interesting with Ichigo he says it’s normal to be kind, but then with Rukia he’s surprised by her level of kindness. It feels like Kubo’s continued efforts to showcase the main duo’s bond. Also, it leads nicely into some humor.

And more Tatsuhime!

I also like Orihime is the first one of the Karakura Gamg impacted by the spiritual pressure. Sure, we see Ichigo and Rukia, even Karin, but who’s sensitive enough to notice next? Who’s does Kubo identify? Orihime! We also have some low key Ichihime. I don’t think Orihime seeing Ichigo run off is peak ship material, but Kisuke seems to be alluding to the next arc (Uryu!), when he’ll confront Orihime and Chad about their powers and whether they want to help Ichigo. It’s noteworthy Kubo put Ichihime on the panel where Kisuke is alluding to the next big development in the story.

(Is Don Kanonji even going to show up in this review?) The rest of the story doesn’t do too much world building. The most important is the reference to the soul chain, which will come back later. Otherwise, we get some heroic ichigo, we get some of that humor I enjoy (ichigo- we can fight as long as Don Kanonji doesn’t show up! Kanonji- shows up), and an oddly emotional payoff for Kanonji’s arc. Especially since he’s mostly a throwaway character.

This was all clearly a buildup for Uryu and the subsequent chapters though.

So last thoughts:

“It’s my twin brother. Separated at birth” perfect humor.

This being told from Orihime’s POV? Oris it Ichigo’s… someone is thinking this. Sometimes Kubo does this and even when it’s clear who’s thinking it (Uryu’s monologue in SS and HM come to mind), we don’t get a sense of when it’s being said. Why is someone saying this in past tense? When are they saying it? (Is think after Rukia leaves, but why put that here?) I’m a bit torn between saying Kubo has a reason for this and I’m just too dense to figure it out, and that Kubo was just using a popular storytelling technique and it doesn’t have a specific reason, it’s only meant to foreshadow (some vague threat). Whatever. It’s not that deep.

And who do I spy on the horizon? The beautiful, the perfect, the wonderful Uryu Ishida!

(Also, I do this on mobile so I only get ten pictures. So I didn’t include Karin noticing Ichigo and Rukia running off… it honestly feels like Kubo was building something there. Karin was supposed to be more important or involved? He tries to pick this back up in HM but drops it again? No idea…)

Bleach series, in retrospect

It's been years since that manga series has ended. And only been recently since the final arc's first part been animated.

When I think about why I had a love-hate relationship with that series, I used to think the prolonged, dragged out fights was the issue.

But now, I realised that wasn't truly the reason why I found it dissatisfying. It's not about endgame shipping, its got nothing to do with short-awkward endings either.

It's more to do with story promises and pay-offs. Ichigo Kurosaki is a good protagonist. Believe it or not, Orihime is a favourite character of mine as much as I like Rukia. But, the problem I have was how their character arcs did not have the proper catharsis for every fight.

Ichigo, time and time again rises at the top, but will be humbled by stronger enemies. Hyping him up as everyone's trump card to each endgame of every arc. But that's the thing. In all arcs I've seen, I feel like his thunder will end up getting stolen by a side character instead of Ichigo himself. Every 'boss' battle moment, you'd think he won, and then the villain pulls the 180 and say 'Hah' and only to be pulled under the rug by the supposed side character.

This would have been fine, but, there was no catharsis to each win. The story keeps hyping him up, allow him to fall with grace and come back stronger each time he learns from it. But again, I get the stakes is necessary to make this fight engaging, but it feels dissatisfying when another character just steals his moment.

Then I go to Orihime's character arc. And yes, I will defend this lovely girl to the death, but I hated the fact that again, the story hypes her up to be stronger. And yet, in that promised cathartic moment for her to shine and overcome her shortcomings, the story plummets her and reduces her into someone to be saved. Now, if done right, theoretically it is possible to write these moments of weakness. But in this case, the timing is really off. Orihime's abilities was not used to its finest, and the promised moment of catharsis of showing us how she'd become strong enough to stand on her own... well. we all saw how that turned out.

So yeah. Unlike my really bad, toxic outburst of 2016 and my lack of maturity back there, I've reached a point of finally putting some bad opinions to rest. Do I like Bleach now? If I'm being honest, I don't hate it anymore, but I still do have some bones to pick with it. But that's not to say I'm still angry about it, cause I'm not, I've grown out of that. In hindsight, having to learn how to empathise with the context of its serialisation back in the day, I've come to accept why it was flawed and why it was written in that way.

It's all come down to it. I've loved it once, then came to hate it. But now come to respect it. Was it a disservice for me to hate on Tite Kubo for that ending? Yeah, that was disrespectful of me and honestly want to bash myself for thinking in that mindset. I'm super embarrassed and ashamed to even write that reaction I got from how it ended. (I'm so glad I don't engage on social media as often back then, I'd be dooming myself) I honestly hate how it takes me literal years to even learn from my immaturity.

With that said, I owe Tite Kubo an apology. But again, that's not to say I still like how it all went down in the story. I've come to appreciate it more, but like I said, I still have issues surrounding it.

That is all. sorry for the uber long post.

Once again, I am thinking about the dubious claim that people make from time to time that Renji would have gotten better character development in the TYBW arc if Byakuya had died. The thing is, though, that Renji did get excellent character development in this arc, particularly with respect to his relationship to Byakuya, it was just very subtle and I want to talk about it.

So, the first thing I want to point out is that the captain-lieutenant relationships is one of the major themes of the TYBW. A lot of this is sort of weird and awkward, but this is perfect, actually, because captain-lieutenant relationships are, for the most part, weird and clunky and awkward. Take for example, the part that I always make fun of, where the captains are told not to go to bankai, and Hitsugaya, Komamura, Byakuya and Soi Fon immediately go to bankai-- but they all do this on the assumption that they are luring their opponent into a trap to see how this works, and that their lieutenant will somehow ??defeat them anyway?? (well, except Soi Fon who seems to think she can one-shot her Quincy). There’s Sasakibe’s funeral, where we find out that Yamamoto cared far more for him than we ever imagined. Kyouraku returns Nanao’s zanpakutou to her and stands behind her as she defeats an opponent he can't. Iba carries Komamura’s body off of the battlefield as he loses the last of his humanity. Isane struggles to keep her head above her grief because that’s the burden Unohana left her with. Rose avenging Kira. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto fighting and (sort of) dying together. The Zaraki-Yachiru thing. The Mayuri-Nemu thing. Momo and Shinji actually got to have a relatively normal one, which they each deserved, but at least they got to have normal one together. Anyway, that could be an entire essay, but as usual, I only want to talk about Renji and Byakuya.

Renji’s introduction as a character happens in stages. Initially, he sort of appears to be Byakuya’s sidekick-- he's here to do the dirty work during Rukia’s arrest, while Byakuya stands by and calls the shots, but even early on, it’s clear that Renji’s a little hung up on Byakuya. He’s trying to impress him, and gets more embarrassed and self-conscious as things go progressively pear-shaped. When Byakuya finally enters the action, Renji’s thought bubbles reveal that he’s watched Byakuya for a long time, that he knows all his moves. When we get the Renji backstory reveal a few issues later, we learn that Renji’s goal is to defeat Byakuya, which he seems to feel is necessary to seeing Rukia again, even though there has never been any sort of causal link revealed between these two things. Don’t get me wrong, if Young Academy Renji had tried to continue to be friends with Rukia, I think Byakuya would have kicked him out on his ass, but it’s clear that a lot of Renji’s hang-ups are internal-- he doesn’t want to face Rukia again until he can stand against Byakuya. I think the origin of this is that he simply wants what’s best for Rukia, and he can’t stomach the idea of asking her to leave her rich, noble family for him, unless, of course, he’s somehow better than Byakuya in some dimension, and the only thing Renji’s ever considered himself good at is fighting.

Even more interesting is that he’s chosen to go about this by... studying the man’s every move and becoming his lieutenant. But for as much energy as Renji has put into learning Byakuya’s favorite combat moves, he doesn’t actually know anything about him as a person. He’s shocked when Rukia predicts that Byakuya won’t lift a finger to help her, and then horrified when this actually comes to pass. A few chapters later, as he’s running Hinamori through, Aizen comments that “Adoration is the state furthest from understanding.” I would probably classify Renji’s feelings towards Byakuya more as admiration or idolization, rather than adoration, but I think this statement is also very true of Renji and Byakuya’s relationship. Unlike poor Momo, Renji gets a little more time and opportunity to do something with this information. With a little Ichigo-forced soul searching, he realizes that he’s not going to come out the hero of this story no matter what, but if he doesn’t do something, Rukia’s not going to come out of this story at all, and even if he’s not really ready, he’s spent 40 years trying to figure out how to beat Kuchiki Byakuya, let’s hope all that was good for something.

The Byakuya-Renji fight has no direct impact on the events of the Soul Society Arc. It makes Byakuya show up to Rukia’s execution 5 minutes late and without his scarf. Renji gets healed, so it really doesn’t matter all that much to him, either. You could argue that they both wasted a bunch of energy (that they could have used to fight Aizen later) but it’s primarily a character-driven moment of them both drawing lines in the sand about where they stand, vis a vis Rukia. Byakuya wins this fight, and he wins it handily, but he’s wrong, as he comes to realize a few issues later, when Ichigo kicks his ass and tells him he’s a bad brother, a lesson that Byakuya will take to heart for the rest of the manga. Byakuya claims that the difference between Renji and himself is class, but the real difference between is the heart, and in the long run, Renji is the real victor of this fight.

The hospital scene is an interesting footnote to this. Byakuya defeated Renji, but Byakuya was the asshole and everyone knows it. There’s an expectation that perhaps Renji will quit or perhaps Renji will give him an earful and perhaps even Rukia will choose to leave the family, either to go to the Living World or to be with Renji (and Byakuya would deserve this), but instead, both Renji and Rukia give Byakuya another chance, which is not, I think, a place Renji ever expected to be.

Rukia and Byakuya building up a sibling relationship after this is fairly straightforward (although I’m sure it had its weird moments), but Byakuya and Renji now have this profoundly awkward relationship where Byakuya is obviously in charge, but he sort of depends on Renji as a personal compass because he’s shit at dealing with people and he doesn’t want to screw stuff up with Rukia again. Take for example, the part of the Hueco Mundo arc where Orihime is kidnapped and Rukia and Renji desert their posts to come help rescue her. Kubo takes to the panel-space to tell us that Byakuya has tacitly approved this. As a clan head and a captain, a person who is entrenched in the hierarchy of Soul Society, Byakuya couldn’t possibly go to Hueco Mundo-- but he can turn a blind eye while his sister and lieutenant scurry out through the Kuchiki family senkaimon. Renji, for his part, tried to go to Hueco Mundo through official channels and got shot down. We don’t know what Renji would have done if Byakuya had explicitly forbidden him from going, but it doesn’t matter-- Byakuya enabled Renji to follow his heart here, because Byakuya can’t. Rukia would have gone to Hueco Mundo regardless. She cares about Byakuya, but she doesn’t depend on him for validation the way Renji does.

I said this was going to be about the TYBW, so let’s get to that. Early in the arc, we’re shown several scenes where it’s clear that Byakuya respects and values Renji as a lieutenant, but he’s also pretty damn patronizing to him. Renji is the first one to engage As Nodt, and when Byakuya shows up, he acts surprised that Renji hasn’t taken him out yet, but then proceeds to take over the fight (real, “stand back, fives, an eleven has arrived” energy). After Byakuya then loses his bankai like a doofus, Renji wants to take point so that Byakuya can figure out As Nodt’s attack and Byakuya won’t let him... and then proceeds to get thrashed.

This has to be one of the most emotionally charged fights in Bleach. Byakuya is losing, and Renji jumps in, absolutely incensed that As Nodt would use Senbonzakura against Byakuya. Renji isn’t doing great, but he’s not doing terrible when Byakuya gets up and tries to help Renji, even though he’s a big bloody mess. As Nodt reacts by shredding Byakuya into chunks, and Renji just loses it, and if Mask de Masculine hadn’t shown up and kicked him halfway across the Seireitei, I daresay Renji would have killed himself trying to take down As Nodt.

This is where I usually make the point that if Byakuya had died to here, it would have broken Renji into little pieces, but that’s not today’s essay. Instead, everyone goes to the Royal Realm, and by virtue of the fact that Byakuya is injured worse than everyone else, Renji has to go forward without him or his approval.

In typical Renji fashion, the thing that motivates Renji here is not glory or heroism, but the desire to accompany Ichigo, the need to be with his friends in their times of trial. In fact his companionship here is absolutely essential-- at Hikifune’s, Ichigo expresses deep doubts that he’s doing the right thing, and Renji reminds himself that if he wants to protect others, he has to take care of himself first.

At Nimaiya’s however, Renji and Ichigo are split up because they must follow their own paths. The other extremely interesting thing that happens here is that Renji’s sword is reforged. Byakuya shattered one of Hihio Zabimaru’s joints the very first time Renji used them in combat. Renji brushed it off at the time, saying that he could get by without it. Even though Byakuya has long been his motivating force and his mentor, he’s also been held back by his connection to him. And at this point, it’s gone.

I really wish we got to see where Renji and Rukia meet up again, but we don’t. Unlike with Ichigo, though, Rukia doesn’t seem to need anything from Renji. They travel together, fight together as equals, wear matching outfits, like you do. Oh. Wait. After all this time, in the 493 chapters between Needless Emotions and Blue Stripes, Renji can finally see himself as an equal to Rukia. They get. bankai. Together.

I want to emphasize that it’s not really anything about Rukia herself that allowed Renji to make bankai, it’s the fact that he’s finally managed to move past the feeling that he’s not enough. Defeating Byakuya would not actually have solved this problem, and having Byakuya dying in front of him wouldn’t have either. Renji gets criticized for losing a lot of his fights, but that’s such a key to his character. He’s not always the strongest, he doesn’t always win, but he keeps fighting for what he cares about. He struggles with his need for approval, for external validation, but Renji is at his best when he doesn’t have time to think about that, when he’s just fighting by his friends’ sides against impossible odds, doing what he knows in his heart is right.

I think people tend to make a little more than is strictly necessary of the line where he tells Mask that he’s “a villain”, I think he’s most just making fun of Mask’s own self-aggrandizement. On another level, though, this is just Renji being at ease with himself. Byakuya typically enters a fight bloviating about the honor of Soul Society and “how dare you raise your sword against me, the 28th Head of the Kuchiki” and even Ikkaku had the whole deal about telling people your name before you kill them, but Renji is more like “you beat up my friends, so I’m gonna break your face,” like there’s no ego in it, just you’re there, and he’s there, and then you’re lying on the ground and he’s taking a nap somewhere. This is so different than the insecure, posturing young man he was at the start of this series and I love this growth for him.

Even after he eventually meets up with Byakuya again, something has changed about their dynamic. The group gets split up and rejoined two or three times, and Renji and Rukia always stay together while Byakuya ends up fighting alongside others, Hisagi and later Hitsugaya and Zaraki. This is cemented in their last scene together, where Rukia and Renji try to stay with Byakuya and he sends them off to fight with Ichigo by saying “your help is not needed here.” In some ways, it’s an echo of Byakuya sending them off to Hueco Mundo, but in other ways, it’s acknowledging that they are their own people, not just an extension of him.

Hitsugaya follows it up with this:

There’s more here than meets the eye, though-- Byakuya and Renji have maintained a pretty strict superior-subordinate relationship, because that’s the easiest way for them to make sense of the world, but the fact is, they do care about each other and are important to one another.

I know there would be a certain narrative satisfaction in seeing Renji make captain at the end-- he’s one of the hardest working people in Bleach, and it frankly seems weird to see Iba get the haori when he doesn’t. But Renji has never wanted to be a captain. Renji becoming captain would, in some ways, be a failure. He spends years pre-canon chasing rank and prestige because that’s what he thinks will make him worthy, and it didn’t. Instead, he found worth in being himself, in loving his friends and being there for them, in learning things from Byakuya and teaching him things in return. Renji doesn’t need to be Byakuya’s lieutenant anymore, he just does it because he likes it. It makes him happy. What better character development is there than that?

It’s the live blogging for the beginning of the Arrancar arc that I forgot to post after I read it. Just a warning that I talk way too much in this one.

Ichigo looks genuinely SO scared that Tatsuki can see his deputy badge. Not just shocked, but scared. He doesn’t want her to be a target, but as we know, she becomes one after not dying immediately after Yammy does his mass soul suck.

He just got back from the Soul Society and it’s like he’s just remembering ‘oh fuck, I’m home again and all the people I care about are still at risk. Saving Rukia didn’t suddenly change that’.

That one, big battle against Byakuya didn’t suddenly end everything. The world is still changed for him and for the people around him and the happily ever after didn’t come just because he won.

Not sure, because I haven’t gotten to when Ichigo actually takes Shinji up on his offer, but I’m sure what Isshin says is the Central 46 cover up version of things, because as we know, it’s not true.

And Isshin saying this is very funny, because you are ALSO a lawless ex-soul reaper, sir. If you stepped foot in the Seireitei, they would beat the shit out of you. The remaining Shibas would flower cannon their way in and join the party, too (mostly because that’s how they express concern, but yknow).

Real friendship is being so horribly gross to each other that you are embarrassed for yourself and each other. Shinji doesn’t even wanna do this, it’s just something he has to do, to preserve his shaken honor and to make Hiyori regret the day she thought touching his pancake ass was a good idea.

Okay, so I don’t have anything grand to say, just that I really enjoy how ALL of the Arrancars are introduced in the sexiest way possible on panel. Even Yammy looks great when he’s introduced. RIP to the ppl who only know these characters from the anime, because the optics of this arc was lost in translation, for sure.

Like, the designs of the Arrancar are literally so fucking good. Even the designs that ppl say are “ugly” fuck so hard. Kubo truly is un fucking beaten at making seggsy characters.

God this panel FUCKS. Not only the swaths of black that signify Hichigo trying his best to take control of Ichigo the moment he sees a strong opponent, but the way that Ichigo automatically looks to Orihime and Chad because he is genuinely scared that once he loses control, they will be as likely a target as the Arrancar.

It also makes his consequent instinct to push them both away later on, both in his reluctance to speak to Orihime and his insistence that Chad run away instead of fight beside him, more nuanced later on.

He’s not just guilty. He’s scared. He knows that Shinji is right, as much as doesn’t want to get involved with him. The idea that he would not just fail to protect his friends, but be the one putting them in danger pulls him back to how he felt in the beginning, when he was made to realize that his friends and family where at risk due to his spiritual pressure luring in hollows/giving them sight and powers.

And once again, Rukia forces him to understand its not something he can change. And it’s not something he can shoulder alone. Not just when she forces him to speak to Orihime with some fucking honesty in his voice, but also when she looks disappointed at Chad running the opposite direction of Ichigo when Grimmjow shows up, because there is only one reason he would do that (because Ichigo was scared and told him to leave).

Sometimes you just have to slap the self destructive tendencies out of your local human delinquent turned friend because he’s so used to aggression that its the way he’s most comfortable speaking about his baggage in any capacity.

Damn, ma, how’d you package all these onigiri? And don’t you fucking lie to me 🔪🔪🔪

The concept that there are soul reapers that don’t understand mass production is actually so fucking funny.

They go to the human world and treat malls like modern day castles. They are humble gods lording over their mall food court feast.

This is how I know the majority of shinigami know how to sew and cook, because there is no way they can just pop into some local convenience store or fast fashion shop.

Except for the 12th division/R&D. They eat like malnourished college kids trying to develop scurvy for the fun of it and wear embarrassing merch after they spill mountain dew on themselves.

I know some people don’t like that Orihime has so much time dedicated to her feelings of jealousy, but I think its one of the best handled parts of this arc, because her jealousy stems first and foremost from her insecurity that she no longer belongs--that for all her smarts and unique powers, it is not enough and will never be--she is not enough and never will be.

Orihime just got back from the Soul Society, where she feels she has done nothing of help, and she comments on this multiple times. She was not hurt, because she did not battle, and could not hear Isane call out the news of Aizen’s betrayal. She was not strong enough to help Uryu against Mayuri or Ichigo against Byakuya. 

She doesn’t view her contributions in Soul Society as valid, because she is not proficient in battle and above that, she does not want to kill people, even enemies. How could she possibly belong to the same world as Ichigo, Chad, and Uryu when the sight of complete strangers being blown to bits makes her crumple and her every attempt to fight is met with an immediate defeat.

This growing sense of insecurity is fully aggravated to something unbearable when the arrancars show up and Tatsuki, Chad, and Ichigo are all harmed and nothing she does is good enough to stop it. Not just that, but everyone seems to drift farther away from her afterwards. She knows its because they feel bad too, but it sucks. It feels like she’s lost her friends even when they’re right there, avoiding making eye contact with her.

And, I’m sure Orihime does feel jealous of the connection Rukia has with Ichigo, of her ability to make Ichigo stand up and look his fears in the eye, but that seems like the easier thing to admit than that she feels completely unimportant and useless as a person compared to someone like Rukia, who originates from the supernatural world that Orihime is struggling to navigate.

Not just that, but Rangiku is EXACTLY right. It is very human to reject those kinds of feelings or take those feelings and weaponize them in an attempt to put power over someone and therefore those feelings.

But, Orihime doesn’t do that. She is thankful to Rukia. She loves Rukia. She loves that Ichigo can depend on Rukia--that she and her friends can depend on Rukia.

She has emotional competence and strength that a lot of teenagers straight up do not have and she cries to Rangiku, convinced that she is irredeemable and weak for admitting that she wants to be more. That she wants to be grown up and graceful and strong and she doesn’t like herself compared to Rukia.

I also really like the full scope of what Rangiku says, because AGAIN, she’s right. The idea that you only need one person and that Ichigo doesn’t draw his strength from all his friends and family, isn’t true. The idea that Orihime is losing a competition and Ichigo has already chosen the winner isn’t true.

Calm down, Orihime. Keep doing your best for the people you love. Keep doing your best by Ichigo and he’ll keep doing his best for the people he loves. He’ll keep doing his best by you, too. Nothing’s been lost and nothing’s been won. You’ve seen the finish line already--death--and all you can do now keep trying to fight it.

I just really like how well they lead up to this moment, because Orihime does broadcast her feelings of insecurity, even when she dresses it up as her being silly and care-free through out the previous arc and beginning of this one. And how they execute it, as well.

▲ ICHIRUKI (also that edit!!!! my heart!!!!!)

Unpopular Opinion #1: I really dislike the notion that’s been built up in the fandom that Ichigo and Rukia understand each other perfectly just through eye contact and that they don’t need to talk (and certainly not about their feelings!) because they’re soulmates and uwu just so perfect for each other. Because that’s bullshit, and it’s just not borne out by how they act in the text.

They’re incredibly damaged people who heal each other and develop a very deep and intuitive understanding of each other, but they clearly didn’t always have that understanding and even once they do, they remain somewhat codependent on each other. The clearest evidence of that understanding taking time to develop is the prelude to the Grand Fisher fight, when Rukia is chastising herself after Ichigo says he killed his mother. Then she comes back and gives her speech:

Ichigo famously parrots this back at Isshin later. Like, my dudes, it is unambiguously right there in black and white: they still need to communicate complex shit verbally. They’re good at reading one another’s emotional states and knowing when things are wrong with each other… but they aren’t psychic. They still need to talk. And that is why whenever Ichigo is in a funk, Rukia gives a speech to snap him out of it: she talks to him.

And I feel like this perception is fueled by the fact Kubo went out of his fucking way to separate them as much as possible within the pages of his manga and to ignore most of the time they did have together to talk because it got in the way of shounen-y things or whatever other bullshit explanation he might’ve had.

A whole month of Rukia’s two months in Ichigo’s closet, including his 16th birthday? Not shown.

Ichigo staying in Soul Society for a week, presumably around Rukia rather than his friends? Not shown.

Ichigo and Rukia’s day together after her return from Soul Society before the fight with Grimmjow? Not shown.

Ichigo and Rukia in the aftermath of Ichigo regaining his Shinigami powers in the Xcution arc? Not shown.

Ichigo and Rukia training in the Soul King’s Palace together? Not shown.

Ichigo and Rukia in the immediate aftermath of the war? Not shown.

They had an awful lot of time to just talk. And they presumably did talk, given for example that Ichigo knew Rukia would be at Kuukaku’s house if she wasn’t in Soul Society—he had to have some idea about Kaien, and that means she must’ve told him about him. But we didn’t see it.

Because Kubo is a wuss and refused to let anyone interact for any reason, but especially not people who’d talk for hours and hours due to having a natural and easy interpersonal connection. (The live-action movie is canonical as to how Ichigo and Rukia’s downtime would’ve gone down, fight me.)

Unpopular Opinion #2: In a related fashion, a lot of people in fandom say they’re not the kind of people to outright say “I love you” to one another. And while that is admittedly a very Japanese position to take (as saying “aishiteru” is considered really dramatic) I would counter by saying that Ichigo and Rukia very much are the  D R A M A T I Q U E  sorts who would do exactly that.

Like, come on, they met with Ichigo kicking Rukia in the ass, Rukia drawing a mustache on Ichigo’s face, and Rukia stabbing Ichigo through the heart to transfer her soul powers to him after he cracked some sexual innuendo like “Let’s do it.” Then there’s Ichigo’s various arrivals in the Soul Society arc, and Rukia’s arrivals at the start of the Arrancar, Hueco Mundo, and Xcution arcs to pay him back, which are all dramatic as fuck. It’s always spectacle with them around each other, and they can’t seem to help it.

Oh, but it’d be too dramatic for them to say “I love you”? As if. They’re precisely the kind of people to spring “I love you,” on each other in a society where that doesn’t happen often, just like they almost instantly skip to being on a first-name basis and start up that rumor mill. They would just need some time to come around to it.

I originally wrote here that: “(The Leia/Han thing from The Empire Strikes Back of “I love you,” and “I know,” would fit perfectly at the end of chapter 423, in either configuration, and you cannot convince me otherwise.)” I instead went and made it and gave it its own post, but you can have it again:

Tell me this does not work. Tell me it does not feel canonical. Tell me it doesn’t feel like them. And I’ll call you a bloody liar for your troubles!

Unpopular Opinion #3: They’re both switches. Neither is a defined top or bottom, sub or dom. (And to be honest, I pretty much hate the whole concept/trope in fandom for all ships that each party must be one defined thing.)

This is more of a Rukia-specific note but she tries to be so put-together and in-control all of the time that the idea that her thing is being in charge strikes me as weird; she’d seem just as if not more likely to have a kink of losing or giving up control (and being coaxed/made to forget her responsibilities/past as part of the act) simply because it was novel.

Meanwhile, on a more Ichigo specific note... Shirosaki/Hichigo/Zangetsu is basically Ichigo’s id and has a real thing for being The King and riding “a horse,” and you’re gonna tell me Ichigo’s an innocent bottom? Nah. I think Ichigo’s a little shy and seems fairly close to demisexual if anything, but he is also still clearly interested in women (as Yoruichi, Rangiku, and Tenjirou of all people could attest) and I think given what we see of Zangetsu, he would be pretty eager to learn.

(I would probably call them both demisexual overall. But they’re switches.)

Unpopular Opinion #4: This is IchiRuki-tangential, but I cringe when people write Byakuya as disapproving of Ichigo in particular or IchiRuki in general for the sake of petty drama. Post-Soul Society, Byakuya is absolutely Ichigo’s biggest booster other than Rukia (ahead of Isshin, Karin, Yuzu, Orihime, Chad, Uryuu, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Kisuke, Yoruichi, Juushirou, Shunsui, et alia). 

Dude did his best to kill Tsukishima, who he thought was a mentor-figure at the time, because he wanted to hurt Ichigo. He would be fucking thrilled, in his severely understated and conservative Byakuya way. The omake material with Byakuya getting Ichigo a lifetime meal pass in Soul Society is another example of this. 

Other than Rukia there is no one more likely to start singing “Number One,” and you can’t tell me he wouldn’t support them given that. I feel this should also broadly be reflected in most AU settings because it’s pretty fundamental to Byakuya’s development as a character.

Unpopular Opinion #5: This one is for the Bleach community at large, and I’ll say it real simply: there isn’t a single plot point or sequence of events in the rest of the pile of shit that is Bleach that works one bit without Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship as the lynchpin holding it all up. There is no manga without them and their interactions.

It is, as I have said before, functionally more of a supernatural romance than an urban fantasy because of this. IR is like, the goddamn Higgs field of Bleach: it gives everything else mass.

The Fall of Bleach: 4 Years Later - SuperEyepatchWolf

I disagree with so much of this video. Eyepatch isn’t “apologizing” for much of anything, really, as he doesn’t do anything but double down on his first Fall of Bleach video (which he recently unlisted, wow):

I love Bleach, it's in my Top 5 anime. I appreciate different viewpoints and analyses, but TBH, I don't give a crap about Ichigo's drive as a protagonist, repeating storybeats, or Deus Ex Machina/Chekhov's Guns. My ONLY problems are Bleach's filler arcs, which dragged the momentum when it first aired (I couldn't just skip past them how I do now); and the boring AF Fullbringer Arc.

Bleach is COOL. It's stylish, bombastic, funny, and gets you hyped for fights. That’s why I love Bleach.

I never watched it expecting logical resolutions in what is actually a wildly unfair and unequal power divide between characters--I think the whole point Kubo's making is highlighted by the fact that our protagonists can only ever win in the hopelessness of existence itself by keeping everything close to the chest: never reveal your hand; work at everything in total secret; and surprise your foes AND friends with something completely unexpected (Uryu's hidden Quincy skills, Chad's hidden Fullbringer status (IIRC Orihime's a Fullbringer too), and Ichigo's entire hidden mixed bloodline). Playing by the rules won't get anyone anywhere; you can see that in Soul Society itself -- the afterlife is AWFUL. Even if you're a good person or even a KID, when you die you're going to some crappy slum in feudal effing Japan. The only thing that matters is (spiritual) POWER and PRESSURE. Yhwach himself said that Ichigo represents rapid/unrestrained Growth & Potential. Ichigo's true power is how he insanely increases his spiritual energy, to the point that he can overrule the rules/norms of those wildly unfair and hopeless encounters, and win through brute force. Additionally, those recurring power-ups all represent the different aspects of Ichigo's lineage/blood that he's unknowingly unlocking bit by bit -- his Shinigami side from his dad with the Bankai, his Quincy side from his mom with Old Man Zangetsu/the Fullbringer, his Hollow side from White, etc etc. You might see it as a Deus Ex Machina, but I don't -- Urahara & Yoruichi say early on that Ichigo's ability to learn semi-Bankai in 2 days rather than 10 years is the only way to beat the Gotei 13--again: breaking the rules of "the system" meant to keep everyone else down. IMO Ichigo's powers are not a Deus Ex Machina, they're Chekhov's Gun, since Kubo teases out these things very early on: how TF were Ichigo (AND his sisters, don't forget!) able to see ghosts? They're part Shinigami/Quincy. Why does Ichigo have a Hollow? The red herring is Urahara's training technique--Yhwach & Aizen put sent White after his mom while she was pregnant with Ichigo. My ONLY real issue is the Fullbringer arc -- I can't speak fully to it, since the entire arc just bored me; I didn't like the "feel" of it and I disliked all of the characters and their stupid powers. I consider it a glorified filler arc, as we wasted time waiting for Urahara to finish the sword Rukia used to restore Ichigo's powers--which I wish had been used at the end of the Aizen fight instead. Eyepatch calls Ichigo purposeless & reactionary--as are SO MANY anime/manga protagonists, BTW--but IMO the one good thing about the Fullbringer arc is that it finally shows how hollow (lol) Ichigo feels when he's NOT a shinigami. He LOVES being part of that world, and we see that he FINALLY has dream/purpose: he wants to be a soul reaper. But again, Kubo's saying something about power & status & social inequality/mobility: as amazing as Ichigo is, Bleach ends and Ichigo's NEVER made a captain or lieutenant or seated, cuz at the end of the day he's still a ryoka (and worse: he's part Quincy). Technically, Ichigo should be the next Kenpachi, as he beat Zaraki (and we see that Ken-chan does sorta take Ichigo under his wing a bit). But Ichigo's still an outsider, an aberrant even in the human world: he mentions more than once that he got picked on for his orange hair, but that if he wanted to fit in he'd've dyed it black. But in the end, Ichigo and his family live normal mundane lives. Life isn't fair. *You can beat unsurmountable odds, and still not get to reap any of the benefits.* Kubo became a successful mangaka, but Shounen Jump ran him ragged and he was sick the whole time and couldn't even enjoy his success. Hollow victories indeed. That's what I think Kubo meant. And I love Bleach for it.

THOUSAND YEAR BLOOD WAR ANIME REBOOT 2021 HYPE! ^0^

Ch. 17

Ichigo is petty af, lmao! So, the mod-soul is now in a stuffed animal, because Rukia and Ichigo didn't want to dispose of him, because he had feelings, which is nice. But their methodology was hilarious. They were gonna find a dead animal to put him in, but instrad put him in a stuffed animal they found in the street. Rukia looked a bit too excited, but she likes cute things, so it's okay. Kon is his name; it was originally gonna be Kai, but Ichigo thought it sounded kinda cool and it pissed him off, so he named it Kon instead. 😂 And I have a feeling Kon's gonna be treated like the local pest, because he's CLEARLY a pervert.[[MORE]]

Again, Rukia is like a midget hobo, living inside Ichigo's closet. Stealing his little sister's clothes because she has the body of a 10-year-old. Bruh, I can only imagine her getting made fun of in the future for this.

Tastuki wants to be the champion of women's martial arts in the future, and wants to be a robot. 😂 How can you not like this girl?! And it turns out she gets detention, I imagine regularly because her daydreams get outta control. And once again, it's like she's an empath with it comes to Ichigo. Boy, your future wife can read you like a gd book. Tatsuki says it took her 3 years to pick up on his behavior, but Orihime's intuition is amazing!

June 17th seems to be an important day for Ichigo, and not in a good way.

I love how eccentric Isshin is. He and Ichigo wrestled a lot in the beginning chapters. I hope that never changes. Aww, Yuzu and Karin share a bed, even though they have their own. I'm guessing they're twins... The entire Kurosaki Family shuts down on June 17th, because it's the day Masaki died. That's both sad and sweet.

Ichigo was a crybaby as a kid. He and Tastuki are childhood friends! Man, I love that Kubo has Ichigo be FRIENDS with so many girls and that none of them have feelings for him. It's refreshing for an MC to NOT have a harem!

So, Ichigo clearly seems to blame himself for the death of his mother. He's utterly convinced himself that it can't be a hollow, even though up to this point, hollows have been killing people. Like I said, he's got some self-deprecating issues here, but I didn't think they were that deep. He could see ghosts all his life, so when his mom died, he wandered the place where she died, hoping he'd see her. 😭

I've noticed that you're not very fond of Renji or the Kuchiki characters in general. Can I ask why? (No offense, just curious)

No offense here, anon. I'm more than happy to answer.

I'll start with Rukia since she's the easiest to explain. Rukia was one of my favorite characters up until the Hueco Mundo Arc. You see at first she was a dynamic girl, a little helpless but that was understandable since she had no powers, she was funny, kind and I really felt for her during the first arcs. Then Kubo just replaced her with another character. Rukia got more closed off, agressive, punch happy and tried to make Ichigo apologize about something that wasn't his fault. I didn't hate her, as she still had some of her best traits but this shift made her go from one of my faves to a neutral character. Worst off it's when she marries Renji after he left her for years and almost slashed her to bits, and the novel, oh that damn post canon novel gave me rabies. She's embarrassed by being called Abarai? I could buy this from Orihime, or Momo, hell I'd even buy it from Riruka, but Rukia? No, that's not her. Instead of forgiving Byakuya and Renji in a heartbeat, Rukia's character would've been better off if she told them both to sit on a prickly cactus and stay the hell away from her, then left with Ichigo and Co. to the human world at the end of the Rescue arc. Instead she forgives those two, who have been nothing but shitty to her and takes to hero worshipping Byakuya. No, that's the worst thing she could've done and to top it off she marries one of them and has his kid. That dude hit you once and you not only marry him but have his kid?! Gurl, that literally begging for trouble right there. I just felt disgusted with the way Kubo handled Rukia. I don't hate her but I don't love her as much as everyone else in the fandom does.

Renji And Byakuya though? Those two I absolutely despise.

During the first arc these two come to the human world to arrest Rukia, who need I remind you was completely powerless, and what's the first thing Renji does? Swing a goddamn sword at her. He literally just tried to slash her with his sword. Does Byakuya interfiere? Tells him to maybe tone it down a bit? Nope, he does fucking nothing. Renji keeps trying to hit her, with a grin on his face, and later on even chokes her. It's not until Uryu, who's a freaking Quincy, steps in that the whole aggression stops.

I know people defend this with 'oh Kubo meant for them to seem as villians at the time' but I think you can't come back from trying to slash your bestie/future wife or from letting my sister be slashed to bits.

But ok, if it was just that, I'd be willing to let it slide so as long as the two apologize and Rukia gave em a 'reason you suck speech' or something similar. Well next time we see Renji he's taunting Rukia in prison. He backs out and says it's a joke later but it was still scumy of him to do that. During that same scene Rukia says she knows she'll get killed and pinnapple dumbass tells her Byakuya would intervine, but she shoots him down by saying that he'd likely just kill her himself and has never once cared for her from the moment he adopted her. Like, what? This asshat hasn't even looked her in the eye in 40 years? I know in shinigami time that's like 4 years maybe but it's still a long time to be emotionality neglected.

After his fight with Ichigo we get Renji And Rukia's backstory and instead of growing sympathetic towards him, I hated him more. So he and Rukia grow up together with some friends in the poorest place in Soul Society, and after their friends death they join the academy to get better housing and food. That's good so far, only the two are separate because Renji has more potential and Rukia is average at best. He gets new friends and keeps moving forward. Rukia was alone and stuck. Sad but ok maybe they'll make up after graduation. Nope, because the Kuchiki clan wants to adopt Rukia, remove her from the academy and now she'll live as a Noble. It's clear in that scene that Rukia does not want this, that she'll take any excuse to not accept, does Renji tell her to stay with him, or to choose what she wants? Of course not, the idiot congratulates her, makes a light-hearted joke about it and then sulks when Rukia sadly thanks him and leaves. Then he suddenly decides to stay away from Rukia for... bullshit reasons. Like I get Kubo tried to paint it as a I have to stay away so the Kuchiki won't get mad at her, but Rukia didn't ask for that, she was lonely, even more so without Renji, and he didn't even attempt to communicate with her or just check in? She obviously didn't want that and he didn't either, but no, I'm apparently supposed to be heartbroken that they were speareted. Then when he sees her again, his childhood bestie, the woman he loves, his future wife and mother of his child, what happens? He tried to slash her with a sword when she was depowered. See how his backstory made the previous scene worst. Honestly I was glad he chose to help Ichigo not let Rukia get killed but damn, it shouldn't have taken this long!

After that we get the whole Renji vs Byakuya thing. Renji goes down like a chump, assists in the final battle for a bit and that's it. No apologies for the past, or for what he did when he arrested her, or the things he said to her in prison, zero apologies from Renji Abarai. This doesn't work, especially if Kubo wanted to marry these two off by the end of the series. Renji needed to apologize directly, we needed to see it play out, not just be told he did it offscreen. This left me hating Renji for the reminder of the show. He was now more friendly and even a bit of a comic relief but his first impression muddled that for me. On the Fullbringer Arc he refused to fight Jackie because a man who hits a woman is trash but... didn't you just do that to the chick you're in love with like two years prior? Did he forget? Was that an admission of guilt or something? I dunno. It felt like a last ditch attempt from Kubo to make him more likeable but to me it fell flat. By the end I was fully disinterested in Renji, wheather he lived, died, married Rukia, Byakuya, whoever the hell, I just didn't care for him at all. It did bug me that he took Uryu's spot in the final chapter cover. Uryu deserved better than Mr hypocrite taking his limelight. Renji would've been better as one off villian, Kubo should've given his backstory to another character and have them with Rukia instead. I'll never get over the fact that this dude spent his first appearance being the most unlikeable jerk, physically assaulting the woman he loves, talking shit like a cocky dumbass, almost killing two of the main characters, and taking the girl he loved to her death; only to be married to said girl in the end, with a daughter and on best terms with the people he fucked over. I ain't a fan of him.

Byakuya it's another character who I wanted to smack against the concrete, repeatedly. First appearance? Lets his lieutenant throw his sister around like a ragdoll, almost kills an innocent human, and basically acts like everyone's beneath him? Good, I already hate him. Next time we see him, he shows no emotion towards Rukia's sentence, he's still hell-bent on stopping the human squad from rescuing her, almost lets Renji die after he loses to Ichigo (honestly I was down for Renji bitting it but c'mon this dude is your employee and you don't care if he dies? Big yikes) Keeps messing up every attempt from the others to rescue Rukia. Almost kills Renji in a fight, then goes to fight Ichigo and here's where he became irredeemable for me. During his fight with Ichigo, he says he'll beat Ichigo and then kill Rukia himself. That's when I wanted Ichigo to chop him into sashimi. You can't say something like that and expect anyone to forgive you. He loses against Ichigo and at the very least honors his word to not kill Rukia. Okay then he defends Rukia from the real baddies. Nice, I still hate him. When he's being healed he tells Rukia that he adopted her because his wife was Rukia's actual sister, and he promised he'd keep Rukia safe if he ever found her.

All throughout the flashback I only felt sympathy for Hisana. Being put in the poorest place in Rukon, having to leave your baby sister to survive, marrying a guy who you love only for his family to hate you because you're not Noble, then getting terminally ill and not being able to help your lost sibling, all of that is horrible and broke my heart. More so when you realize that Byakuya didn't keep his promise to protect Rukia because it would break the law. He can stick his laws where the sun don't shine Rukia almost got killed unfairly because of him, Ichigo and his friends would've died unfairly because of him, he doesn't deserve any forgiveness. At least the dude had the spine to apologize on screen but that still just the bare minimum. I wanted to see him make up for all the shit he caused, maybe try and help change the law so a mistake like this dosen't happen again, just something productive. Well no, he's still the same cold and unlikable jerk we first met, only now he seems to treat Rukia better. This should've been a start, not the default. When he almost died in the final arc I thought it was a fitting end, he's humbled down, he apologizes to Rukia and Renji for losing, he leaves everything in Ichigo's hands, which mirrors how he was opposing him on the first arc but it's now fully on his side, it was the best way to salvage this unlikeable prick. But no, he dosen't die. He lives and its back to the grind again. Worst of all it's how he appears during Rukia's big fight and she uses her Bankai, he's there to mansplain and sour the fight and ugh I hated that chapter. Then he says he's proud of Rukia and it's meant to be a heartwarming moment, to me however it was vomit inducing. You're proud now? Two years ago you almost killed her! You ignored her and neglected her for decades and this is supposed to be cute?! No, his pride is worth less than dirt when he treated her this badly before. Heck if he had won back at the beginning Rukia wouldn't even be there. You almost killed her two years before, and now you're proud? Miss me with that nonsense.

The ending was especially jarring for me not just because Renji got with Rukia but also because they, along with Byakuya did nothing to fix the system that almost led to Rukia's unfair death. None of them did anything and if there's one thing I would love to see if Bleach ever got a sequel,would be Ichika yelling at the three of them for their ineptitude. They let the Sokyoku get rebuilt, they didn't do a smidge to change the system even though they're two captains and a lieutenant, and still live in prefect rich peep paradise when Rukon is still as shitty as it was when Renji and Rukia lived there.

Sorry for the long answer, I just wanted to let everything out as in most discussions people are baffled by the fact that I don't like these three characters all that much. Hope this answers your question anon!

At some point there has to be an element of willful obtuseness coming from IRs when talking about the Lust arc.

They say that "Ichigo would have revived for anyone" well he revived for Orihime. Kubo deliberately chose Orihime to be the trigger to Ichigo's resurrection. It is a character moment tied to Orihime, which comes back up later for Orihime and only Orihime (and Ichigo of course). No one else but Orihime and Ichigo has this be an important character moment for them, because it's important for specifically and only Orihime and Ichigo.

But no joke, unironically, I've seen people say that "Ishida is among the people Ichigo wants to protect and Ishida is probably in bigger need of peotection than Orihime at this moment." Ishida. The guy Ichigo hacks the arm off of in this specific instance. That thing he doesn't do to Orihime.

They're so desperate to paint IH as complete underdeveloped trash that they say shit that's just frankly kinda stupid, like being brutally honest for second.

Exactly. Kubo chose Orihime specifically to be the trigger for Ichigo's revival. So if Ichigo "would have revived for anyone!" that means Kubo could have chosen any of the others instead of her, right? And yet he still chose Orihime anyway.

He could have given the trigger role to Ishida or Chad instead, or hey, what about Rukia? After all, just before the lust arc begins, Kubo literally showed her fighting against an arrancar, and they look up and react to the fact that Ulquiorra "tore through the dome" (x) (x) (x) (x). Renji and Chad then arrive shortly after this, as Orihime and Ishida watch from the pillar, meaning all five of the nakama are now gathered in the same general area, while Ichigo is up in the dome with Ulquiorra.

Do you know how easy it would have been for Kubo to rearrange things and put one of the others in Orihime's place? To leave Orihime behind with Renji and Chad, and have Rukia charge up to the dome with Ishida instead? To have Ichigo rise up for Rukia, instead?

If you swapped out Orihime and replaced her with Rukia in the lust arc (which, again, Kubo absolutely could have done if he actually wanted to), IR shippers would have ate that shit up. And rightfully so. If Ichigo had done the same things he had done for Orihime but with Rukia instead, I would definitely have had to reevaluate my opinions on some things. Because I think the lust arc gave us the greatest insight into Ichigo's deepest, most latent, subconscious feelings.

The lust arc and Ichigo's transformation was one of the biggest, most pivotal moments in all of Bleach...and Rukia wasn't even there for it. Kubo chose to keep things strictly between Ichigo, Orihime, and Ishida vs. Ulquiorra. And more importantly, to distinguish Orihime's importance to Ichigo even further, Kubo chose for it be Orihime's voice that Ichigo could still hear, even in death.

It's stated in one of the unmasked books: "The perfectly hollowfied Ichigo ruminated over Orihime’s screams, and was bound by only that objective.”

He even attacked his own friend, yet immediately, on the same page, turned to Orihime chanting “I will protect her.” Even in death, the desire to protect her still persisted. Even after hollowfying, it was the one shred of his humanity that remained intact: his desire to protect Orihime.

So to dismiss it all away and say that "Ichigo would have revived for anyone" is to completely ignore Kubo's deliberate choice of giving that role to Orihime specifically, and the strong implications behind that choice.

Again, it's not like he had no other choice but to use Orihime in that role. All of the nakama five (Rukia, Chad, Orihime, Ishida, and Renji) were gathered in relatively the same place at the time. Kubo could have chosen any one of them for the trigger role in the lust arc.

Which leaves us with the question of: Why Orihime? Why her? Out of all of the five, why her? Specifically? Especially when we consider how much people love to talk about how Ichigo cared the least for Orihime out of all of the nakama. If that were the case, then why her?

I mean, rising up from the dead for someone is a pretty big deal lmao. It was a HUGE moment. So why give it to the person Ichigo supposedly cares about the least? Seriously. Why?

But actually, when we look at the entire narrative of the arrancar/HM/lust arcs...it absolutely makes the most sense that, out of all of the nakama, Orihime is the one Ichigo rose up from the dead for.

Why?

Because Orihime is the only character of the five (or of anyone, for that matter) that Ichigo made a singular, explicit vow to protect.

And, to top things off, the same kanji, circled in both blue and red above, is the very same kanji that is in Ichigo’s namesake: (一護) mamoru, meaning “to protect." That kanji was used in his original vow to protect Orihime, and then he repeats it again when he's rising up from the dead with the objective to protect her. Using the same kanji both times--the one that's in his very name. (You can read more on the significance of that here).

So, when he was rising up from the dead and chanting about protecting her, it was a callback to the vow of protection he made back in chapter 196. He was essentially echoing that vow, repeating it like a mantra, like he was bound to it.

No other character would have had that same distinction, of Ichigo rising up from the dead to keep the promise that he made them.

Because Orihime is the only one he made that promise to.

Ramblings now that I finally finished the manga

The pace at which people read the last arc definitely influenced their opinion on it. I was late to the party so I could binge Bleach all at once, but I’ve followed weekly series before and I know there’s a lot more tension, speculation and anticipation building up if you have to wait for each chapter. That being said, consuming the manga like this, I really didn’t take much issue with the ending. The final battle could have been drawn out for 2-3 more chapters and a lot of questions remained unanswered, but that’s about it. It was nothing to be upset over. I concluded that the controversy around it was halfway because of shipping and halfway a self-fueling state of upset because people like being angry in general.

Ishida’s last intervention saving the day was a bit deus ex machina, but admittedly, if he hadn’t done that he would have been left with a lot of baggage and ‘unpaid debt’ towards the Ichigo-gang. The exaggerated importance he gave to his being a quincy (tying back to the first arcs) needed to be addressed, especially in a situation where they were the enemies.

Talking to a great extent about the Vandenreich would be like kicking a hornet’s nest, throwing it against the wall and stomping on it. People who like them are rabid about it. People who dislike them are rabid about it. I, myself, am just too tired to instigate conflict right now.

I wish there was more elaboration on Yhwach/Juha Bach’s backstory (as well as how on Earth his name is pronounced and how those two spellings exist simultaneously...). I found his powers and existence really interesting and I would have liked to see how he gradually regained his body and intellect. (It sort of reminded me of Dororo if I’m honest.)

This is probably self-indulgent of me but I love what they did with Aizen. It made perfect sense and underlined how he was ultimately on an ego trip and not against Soul Society in particular. I found it kind of funny how he was the one who delivered the closing motivational speech but it had something satisfying about it how, in the end, SS and Aizen could at least agree on the playing field of their conflicts, as in that fear of death needs to exist for there to be courage. It also wasn’t really presented as a redemption arc (which would have ruined it); Aizen straight up told them he’s doing it for his own sake and then got sealed again. The scene where he got stabbed instead of Ichigo? Fantastic.

More on the fear of death thing; it was interesting how this topic vaguely referenced things other characters have said. I thought of Shuuhei specifically, and how in his opinion anyone who wields a zanpakuto should feel some amount of fear, otherwise they’re unfit for it. I don’t know what to make of the ambiguity around him having/not having a bankai in the ending, perhaps he really did achieve it because they continued to live in a world where fear existed. It’s also telling how Äs Nödt was a Sternritter despite Yhwach’s plans with the world. I don’t think any of them really knew what his goals entailed, nor did Yhwach care about them to any extent beyond them being soldiers.

Why do people keep saying Orihime didn’t contribute anything? She clearly did in the final fight. I lean more towards the view that a lot more could have been done with her as a character, but it’s not like she did nothing at all. She fixed Zangetsu along with Tsukishima and that was pretty important considering it’s what Ichigo delivered the final blow with. It’s the only weapon he can use, he doesn’t know kido or have a monstrous enough physical strength to do anything to Yhwach (even Kenpachi didn’t...) — getting Zangetsu fixed was indispensable. I’ll say this again; I’m a bit tired of these complaints talking about Orihime not having combat skills. I’d understand if she was the type of character who actively got in the way out of incompetence, but she genuinely didn’t the vast majority of time. With a stretch you could say that about the Hueco Mundo arc, but her other option besides getting kidnapped was *people more battle-suited than her getting killed*. As for why they went to rescue her, it’s because she was the Ichigo-gang’s friend and they cared about her. If you’re gonna have a heroic protector character, he’s going to want to save his friends. It’s a prerequisite. You can’t have one but not the other. I swear I’ll stop it with this rant but I’m reaching my limit.

The final arc went through too many bankais too quickly. And I’m 100% convinced it’s a fanservice thing because, for some reason, everyone is maniacally obsessed with seeing every character’s bankai as if them not having it makes them somehow lacking. I don’t want to put the blame on either Kubo or the fans and it didn’t bother me *that* much but it wasn’t really needed — besides the fact that there wasn’t enough time to display all of these bankais’ full abilities and now we’re left with a vague idea of how they work. I’m conflicted about Kenpachi because I liked the reasoning behind his fight with Unohana, but at the same time it was nice to have a captain who got on just fine without using even a shikai. I would have preferred Yachiru to be just a random kid he adopted, too. (Though that’s effectively what she was to him considering he didn’t know who she was when they met, so whatever.)

Strangely, Renji and Rukia having a kid was way weirder than Ichigo and Orihime having a kid. Renruki are entertaining and useful at many things but I’m not sure parenting would be one. They feel... too youthful? Something like that? Rukia is a captain now (which I really appreciated) so maybe she had some change in attitude, I don’t know. I’m not calling her childish, just not very mother-like.

I’ll get the ship discourse out of the way. I still have no opinion on this. Yeah, Ichigo didn’t have any romantic development with Orihime, but neither did he with Rukia... It might be just me but he didn’t seem interested in anyone on a romantic level throughout the entire series, all he did was try to protect everyone equally. I guess it’s not unrealistic that even people whose main focus in life isn’t romance would eventually end up with someone, what I’m saying is that who the person would be seemed completely unpredictable.

A surprising amount of characters got a good deal out of the endgame and it’s sort of a relief, but it also surprises me sometimes. It’s an odd thing that hit me; thinking back to the pendulum arc I would have been sure that either Aizen or Shinji would die at one point, but they’re both still alive. None of the vizards died. Urahara didn’t die. Shunsui didn’t die. Ginjo and Tsukishima are doing just fine. Grimmjow and Nel are alive. The squad 11 higher ups are alive. Okay, a lot of people *did* die, but with the mess in the last arc I would have expected for the cast to be decimated. I need to highlight that *Aizen is alive*. That’s probably the weirdest part to me.

In the end, I have no idea what everyone is so upset about. I expected something way more nonsensical, outrageous and catastrophic to happen judging from the fan reactions but it was a pretty normal ending. I didn’t finish the manga thinking “Ah yes, this is genius, the most impactful and well-delivered ending I’ve ever read!” But it was... alright? I’m jaded because I’ve seen way, way worse than this. This fandom is spoiled.

 a handy dandy little list of canon things kisuke has done that are bullshit made by a friend &&. some things that i’m gonna canon diverge from or how i address it on this blog.  tldr ; kisuke gets punished by others , listens to the kids , &&. is adjusting to telling others what’s going on more than he does normally in cannon ( however nothing enough to endanger any mysterious plans ) . also kisuke being gross &&. nsfw towards yoruichi / rukia / orihime is redacted because hell no . 

1. before the soul society arc , kisuke borderline kills ichigo, throws him into a hole for three days, and almost turns him into a hollow / a monster ( both are synonymous ) &&. the next time we see them interact, ichigo doesn’t seem to rebuke kisuke as much as deserved for his actions ( stern words but nothing of consequence ) . 

            there’s no exact real way to make up for this , unlike the others , because there are definitely things that had to happen for ichigo to regain his powers and status in order to embark on his rescue mission - however , i will be injecting kisuke talking more to ichigo beforehand about what needs to happen in a hey you could turn into a hollow and it’s gonna be really awful kind of way ; likely at the behest of tessai because it’d be pretty unlike kisuke to explain things ahead of time ... something i’ll likely address later &&. the repercussions of that habit . but tldr; kisuke warns ichigo of the process to a degree as well as apologize later on / get reprimanded by ichigo for his actions . 

 2. within the arrancar arc kisuke destroys orihime's self esteem, however the next time he sees her they're friends again. not only does he continue to embarrass her throughout the manga, nothing happens about it, and the next time we see them it's like nothing happened 

again there’s not really an exact way to make up for this other than inserting a direct apology / removing some of kisuke’s ( kubo’s ) sexism &&. other grossness. similarly to this - his godawful outfit for orihime ? doesn’t exist. 

similarly , chad watches kisuke crush the shit out of orihime's self esteem &&. on this blog chad &&. renji both beat the shit out of kisuke for this - physically and verbally , &&. the altercation continues even further after kisuke replies to this with a weak excuse akin to : i said what had to be said . 

 3. kisuke doesn't do anything wrong to uryu exactly , but he also clearly doesn't care much. 

on this blog , kisuke will have helped uryu multiple times , given him more insight into quincy - related things , &&. help him wherever he could / whenever he could . 

 4.  kisuke’s treatment of renji: tricking him , pretending to be kind &&. giving but forcing him to work , treating their relationship superficially , treating him solely as a customer , etc . etc . 

to redact this , kisuke took renji in ( in exchange for work still but to a lesser degree ) &&. altered the way that he helped to train him to be more beneficial for renji &&. chad’s growth respectively . kisuke cares as much for renji as he does the rest of the “kids” ( which is to be noted , he cares deeply for all of them , even though he’s messed up a lot with each of them in the past - to be continued later ) 

 5. rukia was tricked, manipulated, and nearly killed by kisuke during the soul society arc . &&. spoiler alert : canon kisuke doesn't apologize to her for anything , &&. next time they talk they're fine. 

a lot to unpack here :  1 . kisuke still tricked , manipulated , &&. almost killed rukia . he still placed the hogyoku within her , &&. nothing major has changed in that regard . 2 . however , post - soul society arc , kisuke does make an effort to apologize to rukia . earnest &&. humbling ( perhaps i’ll write it one day ) , but he likely meets with her &&. rukia at first is genuinely upset &&. angry with him but kisuke takes off his hat ( representing lowering a facade ) &&. gives her a deep apology to which rukia accepts but doesn’t forgive him for his actions , but now that aizen has the hogyoku there is no benefit to hang up on this &&. they move on - to mend their relationship as time passes on. kisuke tries his best to adjust into letting rukia &&. the others in on what’s going on &&. running things involving potentially death for each of them beforehand instead of just apologizing later . 

6 . similarly during the beginning of the manga, he offers to "check out" her gigai, &&. it is implied that her gigai has something on its private area that marks it as his creation, &&. he uses kido on her to bind her while she watches ichigo helplessly so she can’t intervene. kubo made kisuke a "good" guy and forgot to clean up all the shit he did so it was swept under the rug.

creepy sexualizing kisuke ? no thanks . also that implication ? goodbye . while i will accept kisuke being jokingly nsfw at times - the extent that kubo portrays him in at times is disgusting , especially when you remember that some of these characters are minors / minor presenting ( still minors in my opinion don’t come at me saying rukia isn’t a minor because she is in my book ) . everything with the beginning of the manga is somewhat iffy , kisuke being gross is generally a rejected thing on here - but in instances where he does morally fucked up shit such as the hogyoku or kisuke killing ichigo ; he will have been rightfully reprimanded / talked to / punished for these actions . in this instance , he likely was smacked by rukia and got yelled at to which he apologized for &&. humbly says he has no excuse for . 

7 . kisuke putting ichigo , orihime , chad , rukia , renji , etc . in danger . constantly . &&. never being reprimanded / no consequences for this . 

kisuke still places them in dangerous situations both for their own personal growth as well as arranging them as if they were chess pieces in the greater scheme of things ; however , he would never just leave them hanging ; safely exposing them &&. letting them figure out things on their own , but always being there just in case . &&. similarly to earlier points - he is working on trying to tell people more about what’s going on , telling them what they’re to expect to some degree , just so they aren’t blindsided &&. as traumatized from being thrown into such situations where their life is appearing to be at great risk . 

How Kubo developed Romance in bleach (IR mostly)

http://www.well-storied.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-crafting-your-storys-love-interest (Here is the link I used to reference for any writers out there.)

Types In Bleach

Enemies to Lovers

Friends to Lovers

Love Triangles

Second Chances at Love

Rags-to-Riches Romances

Star-Crossed Lovers

Opposites Attract

Fated Romances

Pretend Relationships

Love at First Sight

Royal Romances

Arranged or Political Marriages

Isshin’s and Maskai’s love and destiny gets repeated in Ichigo and Rukia (sigh* Kubo o.o)

Here Kubo introduces love tri and displays jealousy in Orihime (I know some I/H is gonna say some ish about how IR isn’t romantic blah blah well look Orihime displayed a jealousy towards Rukia and her effect on Ichigo and this is after Rukia had said (lied ill explain) that she didn’ t like Ichigo so why feel jealous of a close friend? Why would Kubo put this in if it was unnecessary? She wasn’t jealous of Tatsuki, because Rukia is special to Ichigo in a way she is not.

Rukia shows the series signature fake smile as she puts up her actor front and denies feelings for Ichigo but we get a look into her inner thoughts and she mentions “love, companionship and friendship” And how her like or hate for Ichigo is troublesome. She wouldn’t mention love of she wasn’t thinking of it or feeling it. She also separated love and friendship, if all she felt was a simple friendship for Ichigo she wouldn’t need to say love. Then we take into consideration her expression Bleach’s signature fake smile; a smile in the series that shows that you are pretending, lying, holding back emotion and/or putting up a front. Multiple characters have used this smile (below). Why would Rukia use a fake smile while answering about her feelings for Ichigo? She has never been one to beat around the bush this here displays that Kubo wanted Rukia to have feelings for Ichigo different from friendship, something that was growing. He even titled the chapter Needless Emotions.

#1: CHOOSE THE TYPE OF CHEMISTRY YOU’D LIKE TO BUILD.

Chemistry is that potent magnetism that draws two people — or, in our case, characters — together.

• A bond over shared interests or experiences • A broadening of one another's horizons • A grounding balance between dichotomous personalities • A shared admiration for one another’s spirits

Love interests that do not have lives outside of their story's protagonists aren’t characters at all, I’d argue. They are objects, cardboard cutouts, prizes to be won.

Your love interest should exist as a fully-formed individual, with a life outside of the protagonist's story. ( >.> hmmm lol)

Ichigo is stubborn, short-tempered, strong-willed, impulsive, genuinely compassionate and empathetic towards others . outspoken, hot-headed demeanor 

Rukia is grim, somber, stoic, straightforward, tactical, compassionate, selfless and had a difficulty making friends.

Before Rukia came along Ichigo did not smile because he blamed himself for his mother death. He was dealt with guilt and what some could say depression (rain in his heart) for years until after saving Rukia where we see his true smile for the first time, and this rain reappears many times to display Ichigo’s inner distress. Rukia is used as the cure to that distress multiple times, like here for example (below). One minute Ichigo is crying and covered in rain then after his powers are given back the rain stops completely and from then on out no one is getting rained on, not ginjou, Urahara, especially Ichigo, and so on, its as if that specific rain storm was related to Ichigo’s emotional turmoil and as soon as Rukia arrived and fixed everything it stopped. Also notice how of everyone Rukia is the only one that isn’ t getting wet by the rain (Kubo all the f-ing symbolism for nothing)

Rukia comes into the first arc as a character that looks defeated and emotionless because she blames her self for Kaien’s death, she is alone and the only family she has doesn’t speak to her. Ichigo teachers her to trust other, to make friends, to smile as well, and gives her a stronger will to live. Everything that Kaien once did for her Ichigo now does for her. She puts her trust in others and now feels joy. If we see Rukia changes in expression from the first chapter to the end of the SS arc you see just how much of a positive impact Ichigo has on her.(look below)

They balance each other out and as Orihime said they have pure chemistry, Rukia brings out a great Ichigo, an Okay Ichigo, and makes Ichigo feel better 

chapter 181> chapter 1 (Ichigo and Rukia change in expression

#2: DEFINE YOUR PROTAGONIST’S ROMANTIC INTERESTS.

To choose the best type of chemistry to pursue in your story, you may find it helpful to first understand what your protagonist needs in a relationship. Not what they want or what they think they need, but what will truly bring a little love into their life. 

In the throughout the series we see an emotionally conflicted Ichigo constantly battling with his inner demons (literally). In the beginning we see him emotionally conflicted with his mother death, then with his hollow, then with his vasto lorde form (which I/H love to claim as an I/h moment even though that form caused im anguish/ despair lmao *look below*), then when he lost his powers, and so on. Rukia constantly ,not in all these moments but most, play a pivotal part in Ichigo’s emotional stability. Kubo makes her Ichigo’s rock (ray of light, stopper of rain/angish) he makes her someone Ichigo needs to get back to normal for four Arcs (Sub-shingami, SS, HM, and Fullbringer). He makes her the reason why Ichigo can smile again. He makes her what Ichgo needs. Not once has he made Hime that. Throughout the course of the series he made her a friend, a girl in love with Ichigo, a healer and comical relief ; but not once has she made her someone that resolves the main problems Ichigo has emotionally and mentally. Ichigo was literally depressed for a year and a half up and she couldn’t do anything for him and throughout the F.B Arc Ichigo doesn’t smile once... we get one of his fake smiles that makes Yuzu sad but that's about it

GIVE YOUR LOVE INTEREST AUTONOMY.

This trope, which disproportionately affects female love interests, is a form of objectification that's sure to leave a bad taste in many readers' mouths. To counteract this, treat your love interest as the protagonist of their own story, giving them autonomy in the form of their own goals, desires, and needs. 

Hime has displayed this trope after the SS arc Kubo makes her a Kurosaki-Kun machine. Her feelings for Ichigo become the largest part of her character or her role as a healer or as a damsel. When they aren’t fighting hime is imagining him in Shojo like scene which is comical in a Shounen ( he went from Ichigo to Usui lol). We understand that she is working but often times when she is in a panel its because she is going to see Ichigo she doesn’t have her own story in the series. Not even some panels showing her working. Just her alone at home thinking about Ichigo, talking about Ichigo (to or not to Tatsuki), Her walking to Ichigo’s Job, Her going to Ichigo’s house, you get the point...

MAKE YOUR LOVE INTEREST IRREPLACEABLE.

Further your love interest's development as a character by giving them a role in your story that is unrelated to their romance with the protagonist. 

Rukia place in Ichigo’s life is unique. When Rukia disappears the first time Ichigo speaks on painfully feeling her absence (ch58). Then when he mentions Uryu he says that he’s absent but at least he would remember Rukia (instead of saying “oh yeah Uryu got hurt pretty bad so it makes sense that he’s absent...”) Then gain he mentions this odd feeling about how the world keep going even with out Rukia all in this chapter. This become reiterated in one of Kubo’s signature poems in Vol. 49(below) Ichigo now directly wonders again how can he keep up with the speed of the world without her in it ( It still makes me laugh when I/H deny this...) Then take into consideration that Rukia is the rain stopper (sadness stopper) in Ichigo’s life (another role only she has) Then the chapter where Ichigo gains his fullbringer powers, right before Rukia get a full page dedicated to her as Ichigo thinks of moment that could trigger his power and it is Rukia. Then when he loses his fullbring Rukia brings back his powers again. Rukia being the one who changed his world in general. Kubo again making all these specific decision, put Rukia’ s importance to Ichigo on the forefront. 

ENSURE INFLUENCE IS A TWO-WAY STREET.

Relationships are a push-and-pull, a give-and-take. Protagonists are often challenged or transformed by their relationship with the love interest, but don’t forget to allow the relationship to shape your love interest in return.

Throughout the series Rukia is a positive influence to Ichigo. Not once has she ever caused negative development for him. The Ichigo has given Rukia people in her life that she can call her friends. He brings back joy in her life or as Renji says “ a shine in her face” (below) Because of Ichigo, Rukia gains the courage to finally confront Kaien’s family and she too begins to smile again. Because of Ichigo Rukia gets a second chance she can’t protect Kaien but she can protect Ichigo, he brings back her humanity and they give each other balance.

Kubo built all of this up only to go left in the end...