Nakama~

Hey guys, remember THE essay by karenai  that caused so much controversy and was reported to mods when linked in forum signatures and the whole bruhaha eventually was reported by these same helpful elves to fandom_wank? It just went international. It was translated into Chinese, with permission of the author, here: hi.baidu.com/0603blackwings

I'm as proud as a Jewish mama gets. While I've had some fic translated into other languages I've never had a fandom essay translated, and I'm tickled that this community doing its little bit to elucidate and entertain fandom this way. Even though I didn't agree with every point in the essay (most notably that Orihime doesn't love Ichigo--in my view she does, per my definition of love), the essay does such a great job at reading Kubo-sensei's themes and imagery and presenting an organized thesis that I don't regret for one second the hate mail and grief the essay brought my inbox. It was a pleasure to host it for Ky.

The essay itself was partially responsible for a clarification in Bleach Asylum Forum Rules so that shipping essays like it (ones that argued in an reasonable way and weren't hateful paragraphs of bashing) were again allowed to be linked in signatures. The verbatim BA change was this one:

* No harsh character/pairing bashing in posts/sig’s/av’s. You may discuss characters flaws but please try and do it in a sensible way.

Example:

Ichigo sucks, I’m sick to hell of his lame ass plot kai abilities. (NO)

I’m getting tired of Ichigo’s constant ability to win fights even though he hasn’t trained or anything since before the Hueco Mundo arc. (OK)

Seriously, just use common sense.

While prompting a lot of mad defenses of a fictional character (Orihime) in response to the essay's perceived bashing of her, the essay itself was, I suppose, partially responsible for the very real bashing of some fandom people (it's okay--me, Kylara, Spacecat and others took it like men and fandom veterans). The essay got me to finally adding extra mods for this community. The essay moved a clever fan to request that another shipping essay (a pro-IchiOri one this time) be hosted here, and while comments to this essay reflected this community's own shipping orientation and there was a little bit of the expected shakiness when people strongly disagree, politeness and snazzy discourse and clarity triumphed over nyah nyah. I still hope, with the big pearly-eyed hope of a manga girl who believes in fairies in her barrettes, that one day "shipper" won't be a bad word in fandom.

Thanks to sketchbaka  for the translation and to Annie for permission to link (I'm always thanking you, love--if it's not for green tea noodles, it's for something else--I need to send you a big New Year's prezzie!).  The seiyuu are the highlights of this report. Kubo has written lyrics for a song of the next Bleach musical and there was a sketch performed by Morita and Oririn called "IchiRuki, short comic play!" Haha--they actually said IchiRuki! Scroll down the page for various Jump Festa infos. The seiyuu translations are post #858. LINK (fair warning: you'll be entering the IchiRuki FC at BA)

Coming up together with this b-day, I wanna celebrate it with a good news (or so i think XD)
THE ZANPAKUTOU ARC IS ENDINGGGGGGG!!!! *clap clap*
According to Bleachexile.com we have about 5 (or more) filler episodes left before coming back to the Arrancar arc.
These episodes are:
251 - "Dark History! The Worst Shinigami is Born"
252 - "Byakuya, the Truth Behind his Betrayal"
253 - "Muramasa's True Identity Revealed"
254 - "Byakuya and Renji, the 6th Division Returns"
255 -  "Final Chapter·Zanpakutō Unknown Tales".
So, Yay! for those people who can't wait to go back to the main story arc in Hueco Mundo XD Wheeeeee~!!

Title: Snowy Days, Quiet Nights
Rating (so far): T
Summary: Members of the Bleach gang celebrate the season. Various pairings. So far, IchiRuki.

Read it here at fanfiction.net =D No guarentees, but I'm open to suggestions or requests.

Today I am sharing a swee Renji x Ichigo doujinshi called The Lives of Lovers (= Dog & Cat was caught) by candy -drop. (I think this is the name of the circle that did this doujinshi but if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me so I can rectify my mistake!) This particular doujinshi is at the request of my friend sscullys - thanks to jer for her reminders - without them this wouldn't have happened!  I plan to try to upload another doujinshi in the next few days.  If there are any doujinshi that I have you'd like to see please let me know - I've posted a few that I have on my site - just check out the doujnshi tag - and I'll be happy to try.  I also plan on posting an update to the doujinshi I have as well - to give you more choice. Anyway here it is - I've uploaded it to Mediafire but if you have problems with that host let me know and I'll try to upload it to another one. Download from MediaFire!

Thank you to Annie and Syn and Pikeish for the scoop. ステージレポート BLEACH ・今のシリーズはもうすぐクライマックス ・元々きっちり構想を練るタイプでないので破面編の結末も具体的には決めていない ・でもこの先あと二篇くらい考えてるらしい ・次のシリーズは短め、その先の構想はある ・ウルキオラの結末は世界的に反響が大きかった ・ウルキオラの生死は断言せず ・破面で人気があるのは平子とひより ・平子はとても描きやすい（絵として） ・昨日もホテルで映画の打合せをした ・1年休んだのでいいものを作りたい pikeish  translation: Stage Report: Bleach + The current arc is soon on climax + He's originally not the type to work out a plan, so he still hasn't decided on a concrete end to the arrancar arc. + But from this onwards, he's told them there's to be 2 more arcs. + The next arc is a short one, and there's an initiative for the next one. + There was a large response for Ulquiorra's death around the world. + He didn't declare whether Ulquiorra was alive or not. + The popular ones among the vizards are Hirako and Hiyori + Hirako is really easy to draw (art wise) + There was a meeting yesterday at the hotel reagarding the movie. + I want to create a good one after resting for 1 year And there's more. Cez is checking out the 2CH thread where onwards from post 280 a lot of people are excited about Ulquiorra. I heard Kubo received a letter in Russian that he couldn't read but only saw the katana for Ulquiorra that kept popping up everywhere. LOL.

OMG! I called this one. From Cez: It says
 Kubo is concerned about the scene where ulquiorra disappeared into ashes
 so that's why he put that kind of comment in Jump that week
 the one where he asks for feedback

More info from a blogger here in a post at BA

eta: and finally we have the Rukia spine! Thank you to ANNIE! ( Rukia spine )

eta: another image found by Mezz from Jump Festa. Can you spy with your little eye the sexy trio? ( you have to look )

Hi guys! I'm bored out of my mind. Could anyone recommend me some truely epic IchiRuki fanfics? Bonus points for long AUs, and domestic life, children and stuff. I'm not one for angst, though I have no problem making exceptions if the story is really worth it.

Please and thank you, everybody =D

Title: Death, Strawberry, and Happily Ever After
Summary: They knew a life without each other wouldn't be worth living. 
Chapter 20: Ishida Uryuu
>> Click me! <<

Four panel Christmas Bleach omake! Every comic in WSJ had one! Thanks to Annie for finding it and Pikeish for translating it. It's posted in the IchiRuki FC at BA HERE. Iba... LOL. Now we're waiting for a picture of the spine with Rukia on it! Won't someone take a pic of it, please? It's said you can see Chad's muscles in it so he's the third guy in the 2010 Year of Bleach line-up.

I took a break from drawing Nnoitra every five seconds, because the most recent episode made me a bit sad, after weeks of being frustrated with it. I conveyed it through Byakkun :)


Kuchiki Byakuya on my dA

more here COLOR OF DESPAIR

Thank you Syn and Zan for the update and poster images about movie 4 that came out with this week's Bleach chapter. Looks like the movie is going to feature Ichigo big bad Hollow form and is coming out next December. We'll be told more about the movie in the next issue of WSJ (two weeks from now--there's a break for Xmas) Side one of the poster with bloody Hollowfied Ichigo (click to enlarge) is hella cool with nifty textures and blood spatterings. Very creepy. The other side of the poster (click to enlarge) features a standard Kubo spread of amazing composition and fun perspective--does anyone want to comment on Aizen's swirly versus Ichigo's flowy and how the beam divides the deep hole from the upper city? Wait--what's Tousen doing there? If this is the movie, does Tousen live? Only two years to wait for a sub in English. *sigh*

ETA:
Translation (by pikeish ) of text on the poster  The movie poster side features Ichigo's Hollow in "sumie-style" the poster says and it was drawn by Kudo, not Kubo (the other side, the one with Ichigo and the three villians is classic Kubo). Sumie style was used in ancient Japanese art to represent hell and demons like this picture of Emna.
( announcement text ) There was also a 4-panel Christmas omake of Ichigo in SS that came along with this chapter but hasn't surfaced yet and we don't have pictures of the spine yet either. I'll have those for you when they appear. All we know is that the spine is Rukia and it looks like Chad is going to be the third character of the year on the spine of 2010 WSJ Year of Bleach.

Mostly a flashback concerning Kouga and how he rebelled against Soul Society

( HA HA! I love being right! )

Edit: Fixed broken cut

Title: I love
Chapter 6: I love that Rukia accepts all of Ichigo.
>> Click me! <<