I'll never get the hang of this (sob)

[flemmings]

There's Bleach wank at f_w. There's also incandescens doing Bleach/ Alice in Wonderland crossovers over in her own lj's comments section. And I'm here still googling "bleach (name of person I swear I've never heard of before)" because there are 500 characters with both a family name and a personal name and people use either indiscriminately, and write het stories about Mr. Stripe-across-the-nose who appears for- what- maybe three panels in the manga? Man but Bleach fandom believes in equal time for everybody. I'd be impressed if I wasn't so dispirited.

(Parenthetically, is there something about het shipping that makes people crazy? First Harry Potter, now Bleach- is there anything in yaoi to match those pairing wars? GW and X, maybe, but both of those were a long time ago and everyone has since grown up, more or less.)

And really, why is everyone getting so worked up over Rukia and Ichigo and Orihime when the hottest character in the series is Ichigo's sword?

Comments

[incandescens]

I would gladly write Zangetsu with anyone if I could think of a good reason to write him with anyone but Ichigo, who keeps on showing up as resolutely asexual in my head.

The last time I was this obsessed with something was Zelazny's Amber, and, well, we all know how that one goes. :)

[incandescens]

Or if only KT would give us details on a few more of the zanpakutou.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Failing which, one can imagine one's own versions. Much possibility there. And as was said over at f_w, apropos of a not-seriously proposed Isshin x Urahara, you can pair Urahara with *everyone*.

I figure half the people talking Bleach are talking anime, which may explain why some of it seems off to me. I don't know who Urahara's VA is but I bet it's one of the hotties. Even so, they're right: Urahara registers as sexual (it's the eye from under the floppy hat, I suppose) and omnisexual at that, and Ichigo registers as a neuter even though I can't say why.

[incandescens]

Urahara has more than a little in common with Nii, except that he comes off as less overtly dangerous. (Though when you consider everything that he has apparently been responsible for, well. I do not like thee, Doctor Fell. I do want to know what the whole business behind his banishment and the suspected connections with Isshin are, but I also suspect KT isn't going to give that information out until we hit a Major Plot Revelation.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Mmhh, yes. Damn. I wish you hadn't pointed the parallels out. He was research and development, wasn't he, before Kurotsuchi? (Can't always make the Japanese terms and the English translation meet in my head.) Slime by association at least.

OK, (resigned) where do you guys go for the recent eps?

[incandescens]

The soul_society community here on lj tends to get raws and translations through fairly rapidly. (It's strongly moderated, which keeps it within bounds.) http://www.bleachforums.com and http://www.mangahelpers/com get raws/scripts in faster, but have a lot of idiots around, which can get wearing, even if you don't bother reading them. High noise/signal ratio.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

(And a bit emo.

I must have missed the emo bits, but then I went from vol.5 to vol.8 and he was just *there*. Haven't seen him being emo since but there's 6 and 7 left to read this weekend. (It's still the weekend over here, and the last holiday until Christmas.)

[summer-queen.livejournal.com]

I do wonder at the cosmic unfairness that gives Ichigo he hot ass man as a zanpakutou and poor Renji the smartass bareass baboon.....

[incandescens]

Indeed. Just think of the fun one could have had if Zangetsu had been Renji's zanpakutou.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Renji and Gankutsu-oh's brother? I don't see it. Our sensibilities run on different lines and possibly in utterly different dimensions. I like Renji's baboon: I think him rather more kakkou ii than Renji himself, who fails somehow to engage my interest.

KT does the fangirls no service in his main male characters, who are the usual yelling shounen brawlers aimed at boys. Yuusuke and Kuwabara, to cite the archetypes. I'll give Renji this: baboon x Renji strikes me as somewhat hotter than Zangetsu x Ichigo but only because as G says, Ichigo presents as utterly asexual to me too. It's not worth the trouble of making him a weeping uke even: there's no sexual zing there at all.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I'm going to have to borrow this from the children just so see what you are talking about,aren't I?

Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy the weekend!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Manga or anime? I have English manga 1-4 I can send, and a duplicate 2 if it's any use.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

Manga. Let me check with the children and see what they have. I think they are up to date on the English editions. The little one informs me, by the way, that it starts as a sword, which ever character it is, and evolves into a kitchen knife. Something she finds hilarious.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

The older one has Bleach in English vols. 1-13. I'll start reading.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Don't give up in disgust at vol 4. It only gets better after that.

[mvrdrk.livejournal.com]

LOL! How did you know I was about to give up at vol. 4!

The thing that saved Naruto was the inclusion of a couple of interesting but minor adult characters relatively early on. In Bleach up thru vol. 4 at least, it appears there are no interesting adult characters.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I believe the adult-type charas start showing up around 6. But keep your eye on Mr. Floppy Hat, to date the most ambiguous character in the manga. Also it *is* a fight manga. Just skip the fight scenes and you have the beginnings of something War and Peace-ish.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

And really, why is everyone getting so worked up over Rukia and Ichigo and Orihime when the hottest character in the series is Ichigo's sword?
!!! And now I have a Bleach/Devil May Cry crossover in my head. XD Who's the sexier sword? =D Alastor does have the advantage having raped Dante once already...