#orihime 'i reject' levels of rejection

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

in the universe of my selfship with orihime ー

ichigo lives in soul society, chad became a pre-k teacher and uryuu went into the fashion industry

i also work as a teacher like chad, getting my teaching license in japan so i can be a permanent fixture at a school rather than just an ALT. maybe teaching middle school or high school, i'm not too sure (but i am for sure an english teacher)

and orihime works at a local bakery that she started as a part-timer in high school but she's since become the owner. i see us adopting a kid or two in the future too

[gallusrostromegalus]

I've always said that kubota did orihime soooooooo dirty >:( she literally has god powers and they get diminished so harshly... I've always viewed her power as her having the ability to Reject phenomena. In canon she rejects the fact that people are injured. What would happen if she rejected the fact that someone was alive? That someone was in her way? Reject the injustices that led to her and her friends' world being turned upside down. Anyway I love that your hime has the spine she deserves and I'm so excited to be completely normal about aeiwam

Some Important facts about Orihime from canon:

Orihime is the #3 student in her entire (fairly large) high school. Girl Ain't Stupid- if anything, the fact that she's wildly unorthodox in her projects and STILL pulls those kinds of grades and test scores suggests that her teachers are grading her like that because her weird-ass approaches to assignments demonstrate a thorough understanding of the material, so she may actually be smarter than Uryuu, the #1 student who gives me very strong "I'm very good at taking tests and telling teachers what they want to hear, so I can pull good grades even if I have no clue what the subject is" Vibes.

Orihime cooks weird damn food, and enjoys it. She also has strange ideas about what's cute, exceptionally brightly colored clothes relative to everyone else, and does things like get lost following dragonflies for hours on end. Screams sensory processing Weirdness to me. Maybe I'm projecting a bit here, but Sensory processing disorders come with sensory euphoria too- I get to enjoy a huge variety of strange foods and the sound of rain gives me physical joy.

Orihime's best friends* are: -The School's Self-affected "weird boy who might be a delinquent or possibly just insane" guy -A Butch Jock With Anger Issues -The Crafts Club president who has So Much Gender Happening, and also sort-of grew up in a cult -The Giant, scary-looking guy who keeps smuggling small animals into school. -A Genuine sociopath whose family probably has Yakuza Connections -An extremely powerful supernatural being who is like five times her age -Keigo. This is not the friend group of a "Normal"

Taken together, these points form a constellation of THIS GIRL GOT AUTISM. LIKE SO MUCH. LEVEL 999 AUTISM MAGE. She's full of strange joy and magnificently weird and experiencing reality four steps to the left of everyone else AND SHE IS SO, SO SMART.

So in the fic, when she sees Ichigo freaking out because Rukia has been Kidnapped back to Soul Society on Bullshit criminal charges, Orihime does what every autistic person I know does, and immediately begins drafting a Solution.

Namely She begins drafting an extraction plan. She gets slightly in over her head with details about what data they need, how much and what kind of resistance they'd be facing etc. etc. until she realizes she needs some concrete answers and, without regard to social conventions like "time" and "Personal space", more or less kicks in the door to Urahara's shop at 2AM, marches directly into his bedroom and starts interrogating him about the civil services in soul society, yes it's weird you sleep naked with your cat sir but I'm not here to pass judgment I'm here to get answers you can put pants on later.

After the resounding success of their operation in Soul Society, the hardest part when Ulquiorra comes to kidnap her and gives her the completely insane circumstances of "you will be invisible and go through walls for 12 hours, prepare yourself." is not vibrating with the absolute mania of the chance to go to Los Noches and FUCK. SHIT. UP.

[undead-cypress]

More p3r livebloggin/shitpost thoughts. Sorry for the crunchy pictures, literally I'm just too fried to import pics from my PS4.

Because I'm the way that I am, I noticed the paintings hung in the Hierophant/Lovers boss shadow building are real paintings. One on the left is a crop of Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix, and on the right is Le Cyclops by Odilon Redon. IDK why they picked these paintings because. Why would a painting of the French Revolution be in this kind of hotel but I have some theories?

The hotel they're in is pointed out to have a French title and modeled after French design, for some reason. Les Champs de Fleurs is pointed out in the game meaning a field of flowers. Now -

Liberty Leading the People is a painting about the July revolution that overthrew the French monarchy. The boss event is in July but there's more -

Le Cyclops is about the play(s) about Polyphemus (the cyclops from the Odyssey that Odysseus blinds and tricks) and his love of the sea nymph Galatea, and the drama that ensues. There's many versions of the play but in classic fashion most of them don't end well, with Galatea rejecting him in favor of someone else, and Polyphemus killing them both. This painting in particular is basically Polyphemus creeping on Galatea as she sleeps on a hill of flowers.

I THINK these paintings are meant to represent the reverse hierophant and lovers. Overthrowing of the corrupt hierarchy, and rejection of choice. Also French.

There's one more painting but I have NO IDEA what painting it is

So many paintings have winged babies in them I can't go through them all 😭

Oh yeah linguistics bonus - the boss event takes place on 7/7, aka Tanabata. Some might know it as Japanese Valentine's day. Story goes Orihime and Hikoboshi, lovers separated by duty and the milky way, can meet during this festival as a flock of magpies make them a bridge over the milky way. Milky way, in Japanese is Amanogawa 天の川, literally "river of heaven". An older version is also sometimes used, ginka 銀河, derived from Chinese meaning "silver river". And here is where we get the name of Shirakawa Blvd. 白川...... White River Blvd.

I THINK that's why they named the hotel Champs de Fleurs. The classic Greek mythology of heaven is Elysium, basically a field of flowers in the sky. Kinda as the companion to the river in the sky. Not to mention it's a reference to the famous French street Champs Élysées, literally "Elysian Fields"

Imagine me standing in front of a conspiracy wall covered with red string. That's me all the time with p3

Ok back to shitposting

This is the most emotion I've seen the Mc make all game so far 😂 7 meals back to back will do that to ya. Name I picked was Dank Hour, so I guess it kinda fits. Munchies will do that

Those are her hooves!!

OH MY GOD. HOLY SHIT HANG ON

These puppets are massive

Gameplay thoughts -

- I miss the fatigue mechanic ok. Now there's NOTHING stopping me from spending five hours in Tartarus getting massively over leveled. Also miss it thematically and an excuse to go drink Edogawa's potions for courage boosts

- RIP shuffle time. The new one is good with the variety of cards but man make them fly around again that was fun

- Tartarus looks good. I was skeptical of how they're gonna make a randomly generated dungeon look good on current consoles but. It looks really good and plays well. And I love the added bonus bosses.

- I do miss being able to actually stealth around with different weapons and hunting rare shadows with a bow though. The unstable formations in p3p around half and new moons were also something I wish they incorporated, but maybe it'll come up later? Because the new Tartarus environment would be perfect for some stealth mechanics.

- I don't know if this is because I'm p3 Georg and an outlier that should not be counted but I'm playing on merciless and it's SO EASY???? I'm almost to August and I've ONLY died three times. I'm playing with a 3 people party as a debuff because it's too easy otherwise.

- ailments kinda work different than they used to and I still haven't figured out... What they really do yet. Distress used to guarantee criticals, now I'm not sure what it does???

- the theurgies are broken as hell wtf. This is too much power. I was really hoping they'd bring P2/dds style fusion spells back

General thoughts:

- they still haven't invented weather yet lmao rain was invented in 2011 I see

- Pleasantly surprised by the added cutscenes and hangout events in the dorm. They're actually pretty thoughtful and reflects on the character growth throughout the game instead of just ill humored filler (cough p4 cough). They really nailed it this time.

- Aigis trying to talk to plants and bugs and the meaning of lifeeeee 😭

- the club is simultaneous hilarious and terrifying in the way that they didn't animate the dancers. I get why, but it's so funny. It's just a room of statues with blank faces. At least there's more than five people there

- there's two poster of the Foo Fighters in the station outskirts. Why them specifically? Also if the movies at the theatre have hidden meanings I WILL find them.

- Mitsuru just stands like she's posing for the camera all the time and her idle AND angry animation being a hair flip is so funny. Hello. Flips hair. Come to the command room after dinner we have new mission. Flips hair. I'm going to execute Mr Ekoda for his despicable inaction. Flips hair

- Idk where else to put this but that scene on the roof with the watermelon hits different when you know a watermelon that size in Japan is, depending on the season and economy, at least $50. Junpei really splurged there to cheer up Ken 🥺. That entire scene was great. Why DON'T we watch Akihiko punch the melon open, what an inspired suggestion

- speaking of fruit, if you look at the care package Akihiko got from his parents there are mangoes in there. Mangoes that size and color are like $30 each.

- the dorm. Could be modeled better. Idk if it's the lighting or the textures but... It looks unfinished.

- they kept the little overworld icon that travels between locations to not go over the bridge even though it'd be a shorter route. Nice. There is an instance where it does use the bridge, when you first go to the police station and Junpei is following you around. Also very nice touch. Whichever dev is responsible for this detail I see and appreciate your work 🫡

- was not expecting even the NPCs to be fully voice acted. They're all so charming!

- at the beginning of the game it tells you to put your things away in the closet. Highlighted. But we can't open or interact with the closet in any way??? Why was closet highlighted??? Did the game do that just to call us gay??

- and also where's my silly outfit???? Everyone has gotten butler and maid outfits except the mc. Where's my goofy outfit I want one too.... Where's the clown outfit from the dancing game.... Where's the maid outfit.... Once my pc arrives I'll absolutely be installing the emo mod. Let my besties reveal their true 2009 forms

[troius]

This is a huge moment for the two of them, and yet at first, I wasn't sure it was framed appropriately.

Orihime thinks of it as "I can finally fight to protect Ichigo", when I'm not sure the problem was ever her ability to do that. She's been able to reject attacks of a truly remarkable strength for quite awhile now, attacks that Ichigo would have trouble surviving.

What Orihime is tiptoeing around, even in her own inner narrative, isn't her own strength. It's Ichigo's willingness to trust in it. You'll recall that after that moment when she saved him from Ulquiorra, Ichigo basically benches her for the rest of the fight. No, Orihime, don't interfere. Stay with Ishida. I'm willing to put myself in unreasonable amounts of danger so that I don't have to contemplate another person getting hurt, because I, Ichigo Kurosaki, am the only person with agency in this world.

Well, we all saw how that one turned out.

And to Ichigo's credit, he's changed. That burden of the world that he placed on himself as a child, to be responsible for everyone, so that he would never himself lose trust in anyone...it's gone. It's the step beyond even "I have self-worth", all the way to seeing that in other people, and recognizing that they too have hopes and dreams, people they want to protect.

Anyways I can see why Orihime frames it the way that she does, rather than as "my crush was kind of screwed up in the head until fairly recently". But make no mistake...she definitely appreciates the progress he's made, even if only a subconscious level.

[asukaskerian]

monthly word count - august

TOTAL: 7 143 some progress!

POSTED: nothin'

IN PROGRESS -bleach - suburban ot4, two attempts at the start of chapter 20, both failed (349 words) -svsss - cosplay binggeyuan fic (6 691 words) (where did it come from???) -cherry wine (32 words) (something is wrong in what's already written and i can't figure out what) -mdzs - attempt at fic that immediately died on me idk (71 words)

yeah so the winner of this month is the cosplay fic, wow. :X

Also posted: -Swimming With the Fishes - bleach Daemon AU outside yakuza POV, harribel -You Know Better Babe - bleach ABO sequel ficlet to Howling Outside Your Door, ichigo nesting feels.

-- teasers :

-- suburban ot4 -- "H-hi... I was in the area, and I thought, maybe--"

Nelliel stands on her doorstep, staring dumbly. She thought it was Grimmjow having forgotten his keys. He's been dragging Ichigo out after school recently. 

But it's not, it's Orihime. Flustered and her smile twisted down, her big shining eyes sad.

She didn't expect it. It isn't like they haven't been talking at all since she found out the Kurosakis had up and left their old house without a single word...  It's just been very surface-level, is all.

For a long moment she thinks of stepping back into her apartment without inviting her, letting Orihime be sorry at the door, make Orihime marinate in uncertainty and rejection and guilt, but that's passive-aggressive. If Nelliel misread their degree of closeness, that's on her.

... That's on her.

-- svsss cosplay fic -- Say what you will about Airplane Shooting Toward The Sky, he was meticulous about making the outfits look cool. Absolutely unrealistic, but this was high fantasy, not pure martial arts. Weird ribbons and young human ladies showing positively indecent bare calves were par for the course.

Therefore, Shen Yuan spent a couple of weeks speed-rereading to update his excel files with every single reference to the style of everybody's clothes when and why (alas, torn-during-a-fit-of-passion alterations included), downloaded the commissioned official art, downloaded the fanart Airplane had thumbed up (even if some of it seemed thumbed up for cleavage or ridiculousness instead of correctness)--

And then he *learned new things*. Like drawing detailed character reference sheets, making a pattern, sourcing cloth (so many wasted bolts of inferior taffeta in his cupboards); he had learned to use his mother's sewing machine (bonding time! Unexpected and pleasant!) and then he had learned how to make fake armor and how to make belt charms and how to style a wig, and then, at the end, he had gone to his sister, hat in hand, to ask to be taught how to apply makeup.

Never mind that (he'd checked) cosplay was judged on the costume, not the body of the person inhabiting it. He was not going to do Great Master Liu the dishonor of a pimply face. 

"You ready?" Shen Jiaying asked, uselessly, before he went out on stage.

"No but it's too late for that, holy fucking shit why did you let me do this."

She laughed in his face, and thwapped his chest with the back of her hand. "You look fine. You're not gonna win though."

"Yeah, no." Considering that even just amongst the PIDW crowd there was an Abyss Binghe complete with red-light-lined Xin Mo and ultra-fine gauze floating all around as demon qi thanks to a very clever little fan sewn into the back of his belt, he was not expecting to. The Yue Qingyuan was good too, and the triplet nuns, and-- ahh, he really was in the infancy stage of this hobby, wasn't he. 

The other Liu Qingge was here, though. Fuck that guy and his half-assed sleeves.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

NAOMI MISORA (DEATH NOTE)

1.) I know everyone is gonna submit Misa but honestly she had it worse.

She gets introduced as this competent lady who’s gonna help find Kira but then she just, decides to show some teenager her real ID as a show of trust and whoops that’s Kira.

Also part of her introduction was her fiance going “You don’t need to worry about this tracking down the killer nonsense, you’re gonna be my wife, you should just be worried about raising kids in the future :)” or some shit. And it’s barely addressed, because she just fucking dies.

2.) She was the only woman in the series to show any level of competence. She figured out more about how the death note works from some small context clues than L did in considerably less time. She was apparently so competent that the author decided to kill her off despite initially planning to make her a main character, fearing she would distract from the L and Light rivalry.

3.) the victim of “writer doesn’t understand women and also hates them” disease. Like, seriously, the author of Death Note could only imagine a female FBI agent as the fiancée of another, more senior FBI agent. The main character Light kills her fiancé Raye Penber (in honestly a really tightly written and cool episode) and so she tries to figure out who killed her husband. Unlike Raye who only figured out that Light was Kira as he was dying because Light basically told him, Naomi figures it out a lot sooner so oops guess she’s gotta die because she’s too good at her job.

ORIHIME INOUE (BLEACH) (CW: Child Abuse, Ableism)

1.) Her powers were incredibly versatile but only ever used for healing or defense. She had offensive capabilities too, but as she isn’t an aggressive person, they were barely ever used. Her healing power isn’t so much healing as it is “rejecting” the existence of something. This power could have been so insanely strong, to the point that even one of the show’s major antagonists remarked on how frightening it was, but as I said, it was only ever used for healing, and her personality held her back from using it as an attack. She was kidnapped by said antagonist for an entire arc. I’m not even going to get into the amount of times she was used for fanservice. Fandom opinion on her varies WILDLY.

2.) I realized I hadn’t added enough the first time, but I also don’t know how much I added the first so:

She’s introduced as a character to be saved. Most are, though, even the boys and men in this arc It’s also mentioned in the manga that she had horribly abusive parents, to the point the second her brother turned 18 her grabbed her and ran. This fact is removed in the anime. The evil ghost attacking her turns out to be the degraded ghost of her brother.

She in general, in light hearted moments, spends a lot of time being sexualized. Of the minor characters (as in under 18), she is the one that is sexualized the most. Usually against her will, with people making creepy remarks (despite not wearing very revealing clothes… Which Is true to life. It’s because she has big breasts).

She then gets cool abilities, but she’s the only one of the group not to get a big fight in the Soul Society arc.

She is then the SECOND female character in need of a big rescue arc (while I agree with how it was written for both female characters, intertwined with the other ones’ ingrained following of a horrible system and neglect by her adopted family and for Orihime a desire to prevent any friends from dying, the fact is the third major arc like this has a male character “defect”. So rescued are only for the girlies). During that arc she goes through a lot of psychological horror and pain that I will defend her choices in to the end. She is built up, in that arc, however, as someone whose healing abilities aren’t really healing and instead rejection of reality/rewriting reality. She is also built up as the person who may be able to destroy the Nebulously Powerful artificat that was at the center of this arc and the twist motive of the antagonists in the previous arc. And… Nothing happens. She doesn’t get to do it.

She gets some cool things in the next smaller arc, but also gets psychically fucked with (while all of them do, she doesn’t get to have the power ups or later fights. And her previous arc was her just… Being psychologically tortured).

The end arc is complex because, yes, it was rushed because the creator was injured. But her “cool” moment -while a triumph and circling back to character development - is that she gets to be in a duo-fight briefly with the main character. Not the last fight against this boss. And she never gets to do anything cool with objects or breaking things, both which would fall under her being a pacifist still.

I disagree with a lot of discourse about her being infantalized, because she seems very ADHD-I coded, as someone who has that. That doesn’t mean the author meant her more than just a “weird” girl, especially with how the state of ADHD treatment is in Japan . So we can throw in some ableism. Which gets me to the anime adaptation.

The anime was made by Studio Pierrot, which has a reputation with adapting female characters from manga to anime. Esp cially in shonen anime.They DID infantalize her (ex, changing a daydream comment from about the main guy to pee and poop??), including removing many of her daydreams and context, changing her intro scene, removing more introspective moments (she is very emotionally intelligent in the manga), and removing moments with the main protagonist. The latter is an issue because they added moments with another female character, which implies their attachment to either is solely in favor of romantic scenes with the male lead

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: Ichigo looking to the side. Someone off screen says "I… Ichigo!" Panel 2: Someone standing in front of Orihime between her and some shadows indicating people. There is a sound effect "SHOOM". Panel 3: Orihime smiles. There is a sound effect "SHOOM". Panel 4: A close up shot of Orihime's breasts. There is a sound effect "ZOOM". Panel 5: A character (Ichigo?) with stars for eyes blushes, clasps his hands, and shouts "Heaven!! I'm in heaven!!" followed by a heart. Panel 6: A distant shot of Orihime and the person standing in front of her. There's a mark of action off to their left and the sound effect "FWUP". Panel 7: Two other characters say "He… flew?!" Panel 8: A close up of a shoe as someone lands on something with the sound effect "TUMP"]

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: A shot looking down at Orihime from an angle. She's dressed in a baseball uniform and shouts "Yeah! C'mon, Tatsuki, give it to me!" followed by a heart. Panel 2: A shot of stairs with an arrow pointing to someone labeled "Kon". Kon is Bleach's mascot character. Someone off screen says "Th… …That's!" and Orihime says "Hey!" Panel 3: On the left is a close up of Orihime's breasts with an arrow pointing to them. In the bottom center right is Kon with his paw over his mouth. He thinks "Orihime!!!" There is a sound effect "BOOM" behind Kon. Panel 4: White text on a black background. The text reads "target 1: Orihime Inoue". Panel 5: A distant shot of Kon going down the stairs. He thinks "Yes! I'll play the innocent stuffed animal that just happens to be lying on the ground in front of her. Panel 6: A close up of Kon with his paw in front of his mouth. He thinks "She's got the heart of the Virgin Mary, so… …She's bound to pick me up and hug me and nestle me in the valley of paradise!!"]

(Cleanser that isn't relevant to propaganda that follows up on the previous:

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: The mascot character Kon is blushing and is in front of a large soccer ball. He thinks "And then I'll be umm-ummm-umm…" Panel 2: Kon gets hit by the soccer ball with the sound effect "WAP" Panel 3: On the right is a character after they kicked the ball. They're shouting "Dragon Bazooka!!!" There's a note by the speech bubble that that's the name of the shot. On the left is Kon getting hit by the soccer ball with an arrow pointing to him. There's a sound effect "THWAK". Panel 4: In the foreground is the soccer ball driving Kon forward. In the background is Orihime standing at home base of a baseball field; she's standing with a baseball bat ready to swing. Action lines indicate that Kon and the ball are moving toward her. Panel 5: A close up of a distressed Kon. Panel 6: A close up of a smiling Orihime. Across panels 4 to 6 is a speech bubble of Kon's saying "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"]

yes she hits him with the bat in the following page)

[Description ID: A character hugs Orihime from behind and grabs breasts while shouting "Morning, Orihime!!!" and while Orihime gasps. Orihime kicks said character in the face.]

[Description ID: A panel of Orihime; someone off-screen says "Her powers violate divine law."]

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: Orihime stands in front of a dark doorway with hands reaching out of them. Panel 2: Close up of an eye. Panel 3: A woman with black pigtails grabs Orihime from behind and covers Orihime's mouth with her hand. There is a sound effect "WHAP".]

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: Woman with black pigtails tells Orihime "You're finished."" Panel 2: Close up of woman's face. She says "I'm going to take back everything you took from me!!" Panel 3: The woman tears off Orihime's sleeve with the sound effect "SRIP".]

(Had some supposed Orihime fans - saying that as a huge Orihime fan myself - claim this wasn't misogynistic as hell because "girls do that in real life")

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: A man with a bucket tells a distressed and blushing Orihime "Oh. Be careful with that dress. It's designed so that when you close the middle, they pop out from either side." Orihime shouts "WAAAAAA!!!" Panel 2: A character shoves their hand upwards through Orihime's cleavage so that it's sticking out from between them. The character says "Okay, it's okay. Don't cry, don't cry." There is a sound effect "SHPA." Orihime has tears in her eyes and is blushing in a distressed way. Panel 3: Orihime shouts "WAAA!!!" off screen. Ichigo has a distressed or shocked face with a blush and says "Y…".]

(How an antagonist in the Hueco Mundo arc restrains her)

And one of those scenes weirdly changed and infantilized from manga to anime (these are both the official releases, not fan translations). They're not the only one but they're the easiest to show:

Manga:

[Description ID: Manga page. Panel 1: POV shot of Ichigo looking down at presumably Orihime. Panel 2: Orihime blushes with closed eyes and says "Oh no, Ichigo!! Close-quarters combat!!" There are two sound effects: "WHOMP" and "ZING" Panel 3: A shot of from behind Orihime stands on her knees and shouting "Ow!!" A man in the foreground asks her "Orihime! Are you all right, Orihime?!!"]

Anime:

[Description ID: Anime screenshot. Orihime is lying on the ground asleep while a man looks down on her. She says "No… Not Poo-san, it's Pee-tan…!"]

3.) In the arc that literally centers around her, she is described as having a power that infringes on the territory of God because she can Reject events from happening (this usually manifests in her "rejecting" people's wounds giving her pretty much The Perfect healing ability). There is a lot of emphasis placed on this and on her personal arc about how she feels pretty weak and useless compared to her friends, so she figures out that there is something that Only She Can Do! Which is, Reject the Macguffin from ever existing. And guess what she never gets the opportunity to do? And instead watches her LI (the main character) fight multiple people on her behalf and literally die in front of her and resurrect himself through sheer force of HIS will, not hers? (Like, OK, granted that sheer force of will was born out of his strong desire to save her, but it still isn't anything SHE did.)

In later arcs, she does get more of an upgrade power-wise but it's nowhere near the scale that was implied earlier on. (this might be more because it's a difficult thing to write around if it's really that OP, but I still side-eye it a bit) And in the final arc, she's given a pretty sexualized outfit that's both given explicit attention and also played for laughs, but in a way that feels very much at HER expense.

[littleeyesofpallas]

can you do Bleach Name game for ichigo's friends in Karakura Town?

Ya know it's weird that i haven't done it already... I kinda thought I had, honestly. Yeah, let me resurrect this long dead series of posts...

Inoue Orihime[井上 織姫] read most literally as something like "Well+Top"(as in the top of a well(for water)) and "Weaving+Princess" but of course the name Orihime is just taken directly from the mythological figure behind the tanabata festival. It's possible the name Inoue in that context could be used to reference the Well Mansion, one of 28 categories of constellations in Chinese astronomy. Although in Tanabata Orihime refers to the star Vega, which as far as I can tell is not part of the Well Mansion.

In any case, the myth of Orihime and Hikoboshi was the basis of Kubo's original Bleach one-shot, which itself got reworked into the plot with her brother Sora, the hollow Acidwire. Ichigo lost prettymuch all of his associated hikoboshi themes in the transition from the one-shot to the serial title, so her name is kind of vestigial. The one lingering detail that was never built on was how her rejection powers were said to verge on the territory of god, and in the tanabata myth Orihime is the daughter of Tantei[天帝]:"Heaven Emperor" one of several epithets for the Jade Emperor, a figure hailed as a human ascended to immortal, the First God, and a supreme ruler over other gods. But despite that very slight thematic alignment, she was never given any divine origins.

Her bother, Inoue Sora[井上昊] reads, "Well+Top" and "Sky/Heaven," where Sora[昊] is a synonym with Ten/Ama[天]: "Sky/heaven" and both a synonym and homonym with sora[空]: "sky/heaven/void." (And it's a bit of a tangent, but that last one is the same word Kubo uses in the name Kuukaku[空鶴], Karakura town[空座町], and when Aizen says, Ten no za no kuuhaku[天の座の空白]: "The Throne of Heaven is Empty.") He was a rewritten from what was originally Orihime's late grandfather in the one-shot, which aligned more obviously with the father Heaven King role of myth.

Sado Yasutora[茶渡 泰虎] I think I've mentioned before, reads "Tea+Ferry" and "Peaceful+Tiger" which just seems to literally describe him as an immigrant(traded over on a boat, like tea) and as a gentlegiant type. It's also very possible Kubo just wanted to nickname him "Chad" and found a name he could squeeze into that, rather than worry about the meaning of the name first.

Arisawa Tatsuki[有沢 竜貴] I don't really know how to parse part of her surname here, "Posession/Existence+Swamp" seems to be the literal breakdown? It's also just an actual surname people have, as is Inoue --Sado by comparison however, is not. In any case, her personal name is "Dragon+Noble/<indicator of high rank or status>." This is why she and Orihime get a paired Princess and Dragon motif.

Asano Keigo[浅野 啓吾] reads "Superficial+Rustic/Unsophisiticated" and "Disclose+Me" basically just calling him surface level, simple, and open. He's exactly what it says on the label. Can be read like an open book. Then there's his sister...

Asano Mizuho[浅野 みづ穂] and her name is the phonetic MIDZU+"the ear of a plant/head of a spear/tip of a brush." There are kanji that could go with that but for one, I'm not just gonna take blind stabs, and besides if Kubo had wanted to ascribe obvious meaning to it, he'd have done so. No idea what to make of that one. Considering she's extremely minor and secondary to an already minor character at that, I'm willing to bet he just picked it to be aesthetically pleasing.

Kojima Mizuiro[小島 水色]: "Little+Island" "Water+Color," that is of course as in "Color (of) Water" and not to "water color paints," those have a different name entirely in Japanese. I don't know that his name really says much about him, but considering a lot of weird little details of his fairly minimal appearances across the series, I have my own crackpot theories about Mizuiro, but this isn't the time or place...

Honshou Chizuru[本匠 千鶴]: "Book+Artisan" and "1,000+Crane(s)" the association of paper craft and cranes points pretty obviously to origami, and 1,000 origami cranes (senbazura[千羽鶴]) which evokes a meaning of longevity and recovery from illness. Also the Bookishness vibe seems to be evoked in her general glasses girl design.

Kunieda Ryou[国枝 鈴]: "Country+Branch" and "(Small)Bell." "County" like a "nation/kingdom," not like "rural" as in Asano's name. The small bell evokes a clear but subtle ring, which is kind of reflected in her quiet and intelligent demeanor.

Ogawa Michiru[小川みちる] "MICHIRU" is phonetic so no attributed meaning, but her surname just means "brook/stream" (lit."Small+River") a very on the nose nod to her diminutive size. I never noticed until now but she always has different sheet music notation hairpins.

Natsui Mahana[夏井 真花]: "Summer+Well" (again, like with Inou, the structure you fish water out of, not the adverb) and "Pure/Genuine+Flower." She's an extremely minor character so I don't see there really being much overt meaning to this. Summer seems to evoke her tan*, and Flower beauty, and she's a busty tan girl. (*you know I said that on reflex, but now that i think about it, I don't know that Kubo himself ever actually drew her in color... that may have been an anime thing.)

Ochi Misato[越智美諭]: "Surpass+Wisdom" and "Beauty+Admonish" which I guess I've never looked at before now. It's not that she isn't a cute character design(and I've got a thing for kind of homely teacher characters anyway...) but I didn't realize Kubo was trying for, like, a "hot teacher" thing with her?

And those are basically all the important ones, and frankly a couple not so important ones... I'm not getting into any of Kubo's little inbetween doodles, or god forbid that ridiculous number of random Karakura High students he dumped into Burn the Witch.

(sorry i got lazy and didn't finish digging up pics for everyone, but I at least made sure to have reference for the obscure characters that some people might not remember)

[bothzangetsus]

Half-agree half-disagree? Mostly agree.

I've always hated the way Matsumoto reassures her by saying Ichigo is an ignorant, helpless kid who needs Inoue and that she goes out of her way to say Inoue doesn't have any need to be jealous.

See, yeah, this is blatantly wrong when looking at it factually, but Rangiku doesn't know Ichigo. She doesn't care about him beyond 'oh, yeah, that kid that helped stop an unjust execution' -- she's operating on the assumption that he's a normal teen with normal priorities and normal load-bearing abilities. She assumes that he, like most people, want to share their burdens with their loved ones, and she assumes that Orihime is a loved one. Pretty much all of those assumptions are wrong, but they're normal ones to make! (And might in part be made due to her own past.) On the other hand, she knows Orihime on some level, so she can at least accurately pinpoint what emotion it is that she's feeling.

I'll disagree that Inoue's perceptions are never resolved. They are! ...when it comes to Rukia specifically. And it's because Rukia herself approaches her first, not knowing anything about the jealousy. Because Rukia chooses to open up to her. Which is not a good look for Orihime, lol, but that part does get resolved!

And I think she's been stuck in her ways from the beginning -- she didn't want him to go rescue Rukia. She masked it right after, but it was clear she would rather Rukia die than someone she, Orihime, personally, cares about get hurt. At least by the end she doesn't even entertain the idea that it's better for others to die than for her loved ones to risk themselves.

she seems to double down on the "I'm doing everything for Ichigo/to protect Ichigo" and hardens the "pure princess" act even more.

Her power is to reject reality for a reason! :P It reflects her character! Fullbring is the ability of love for Riruka, the ability of pride for Chad, and the ability of denial for Orihime. (I wish fandom played in that sandbox more. It's intriguing! It's infinitely more interesting than acting like the pure princess thing is played straight, because it is not. She herself asks herself 'why?' when all she can do is beg a corpse for help rather than stand on her own two feet!)

I just feel, at the end of the day, this scene was mainly about Matsumoto being naked and manhandling Inoue first to titillate male readers and as a distant second gave some character growth potential for Inoue that was almost immediately dropped.

LMAO. Yeah. It was very much a breasting boobily moment, but it did serve to help her snap out of it.

You know, I genuinely like this moment despite the framing of it. Rangiku is being very emotionally mature and giving Orihime good advice, and this is an excellent moment for Orihime herself -- a rare occasion where she's forced to confront her own emotions and what they mean, and move forward while accepting she's felt them. Denial is her biggest flaw/hurdle, and Rangiku saw it clearly.

[aizensamasuggestions]

How did you get your arm back after Juha Bach cut it off - your own kaido, the power of the Hogyoku, Orihime Inoue's "rejection", something else? Did you perhaps put everyone under hypnosis that your arm was back when in fact it's still not there? I assume 4th Division wouldn't have been allowed to heal you even if Captain Kotetsu had wanted them to.

Given that Kyoka Suigestu was fully released, it's possible that I just let everyone assume I was injured.

I am in possession of a Hollow-level healing factor thanks to the hogyoku, so I'm not sure it would matter one way or another.

Speaking of the hogyoku, just as the Head Captain would never allow the 4th Division near me, neither would I allow Inoue Orihime near me.

[hezuart]

That anaversary aizen looks absolutely fabulous, he looks like a figure skater xd.

I heard along time ago the last arc of the anime was being animated finally bc they pulled a 90s sailor moon were the last season was not either animated or dubbed untill decades later.

I recall near the end of the current 366 episodes there was an episode were the creapy demon ppl woke up in hell and we're all bitter, and there was the other guy who was like, iM cOmEiNg FoR u IChIgO, but then is never mentioned again after and I'm like,why? Why is lt there just plopted randomly into a different arc that seams unrelated.

And locking aizen up underground seems ok, but It deff won't hold, and he will. Escape, and he will kill, you either need that one spell from star, dubbed, the darkest spell of moon the undaunted, a powerfull dark spell that killed immortal beings, that came from best character, eclipsa, the queen of darkness.

We need that.

Or stick him I'm crystal like eclipsa was in star. Is there no one who could trap him in ice or crystal for all eternity.

How about throw him into the centre of a volcano trapped and caged , forverr being killed by heat?

I assume there's space travel, send I'm into a black whole, were a black whole don't fuckin care if your immortal or fat, you will die

:3

Yes, I love anniversary Aizen. His original octopus-butterfly hollow design was ugly so I'm glad he's back to being the fashion icon he is.

Locking Aizen up underground once is one thing, doing it twice after saying he got more powerful by just sitting there, and he escaped to battle the Quincy Soul King God... is another. I think he should have escaped at the end of the Quincy arc. That is the only feasibility.

I heard the anime is coming back for the Quincy arc as well, but because of COVID its probably going to be delayed. (I'm not gonna watch it until the Rain section of the arc then I'm dipping out. I'm only here for Zangetsu)

and funny that you mention that hell scene in the manga :)

-> spoilers for the new BLEACH 73 page anniversary chapter / thoughts/critique on it

So hey you had a premonition! Syazel .... returned? And his hole is outside of his body??? for some reason???

(I didn't understand the explanation or why / how that happens and what that means for the hollow)

And my friend and I were laughing because out of ALL the things. Kubo could do in this anniversary. He gave Syazel his dick back after going to hell. That is iconic. (that's where his hole was located, and now that its not on his body ... well...) This is the funniest thing Kubo has EVER pulled. Kudos to you, sir.

The entire internet is freaking out over Ukitake being in hell. Honestly Kubo has done far worse, and we've established that Soul Society is a corrupt system that hasn't changed, so I'm not surprised he would pull something like this.

At the same time, Kubo 1. cheated his audience. 2. continues to prove me right that he cannot bring himself to kill his characters

1. Hollows who have commit murder in their human life are sent to hell. Syazel and Aaorniero are two of these hollows, and yet, when they are killed, there is NO gates of hell scene. We see them there later in the hell chapter (which was more of a promotion for the fourth movie and I didn't believe it would hold any merit)

But the same goes for Ukitake. We never see the gates of hell take him. What, was hell late? Did hell's gates get lost like an uber before picking him up? It's bull. Withholding such vital information from your audience, not showing the gates of hell when they should pick up this soul IMMEDIATELY is ... I mean its a lie. Kubo lied to his audience.

2. Now we are told powerful shinigami are sent to hell when they die. First of all that sounds like a security threat. Wouldn't shinigami want revenge for that? Or attempt to escape? Why would they still hold loyalty after being sent to a prison of eternal suffering?

Also "Yhwach and Aizen" were the only ones keeping Hell's gates closed is way too convenient and doesn't really make any sense. I feel like Aizen should have deliberately gone to hell to retrieve powerful shinigami / hollows for his army instead of keeping it /closed/.

This is definitely a Kubo-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing-and-is -making- stuff-up-as-he-goes, but it might have a pinch of merit because of previous plot lines.... but either way, there's some big plot holes here, but again, its Kubo, so I expected nothing less.

Again, he can't kill off his characters. He introduced zombification, he introduced immortality through the hougyoku, he has Orihime and Hachigen's reversal / rejection abilities. He brought back Luppi, friggen.... a character who's entire upper half of his body was incinerated. Like.... come on. No. He's dead, you can't bring him back like that. That's a cop out and just weird. You're taking away consequences and grief.

(Also Yamamoto and Unohana deserve to be in hell far over Ukitake, they've done some fcked up stuff in their pasts unlike him)

Also Kubo's favorite character is Mayuri, which.... you're allowed to have a favorite problematic character. But Keeping said character alive and bared from the consequences of abusing his daughter, murdering innocents, and experimenting on your own squad members? Nah. Nope. Kill him, Kubo. Kill this dude.

(his weird attachment to Mayuri is probably why he keeps bringing Syazel back, since Syazel is Mayuri 2.0, but Syazel is the bad guy who does face consequences for his actions while Mayuri is not)

~

Also, I'm certain Kazui and Orihime are going to be THRILLED that their precious husband/dad is going to hell when he dies :)

(I just... Rukia teased Ichigo about leaving Orihime at home. She teased him about having a house wife who he leaves all the chores to. Orihime had two panels. She checks on her son who promised he would be at home and sleep. Kazui fcking breaks his promise like it never mattered to him and JUMPS out the window after pretending to sleep in front of his mother. ... An 8 year old... alone... in the middle of the night.)

Orihime is abandoned. She is not invited to SS, she is not informed of what is going on, her son leaves her.... I...

Orihime is a side character. She doesn't matter anymore. She hasn't mattered for a long, long time.

A part of me is glad she had little screen time, since she tends to waste it, but another part of me is embroiled with rage.

I've even see people try to defend this. "Orihime and Ichigo can't be together ALL the time, that's an unhealthy relationship!" and I'm like guys... that's not the point. The point is Orihime is not part of Ichigo's other life. Any shinigami stuff from now on is none of her business. She's going to stay at home while Kazui and Ichigo go off and save the world. Ichigo is going to be fighting by Rukia and Renji while Orihime watches from the sidelines, or worse, doesn't even know what is going on with her husband and son. Orihime is going to be uninformed and abandoned, because she has not proven she is capable of fighting by their sides(go on, @ me. I will fight this. She's a failure.), and also because she prefers a human life over a dead one. Which is ironic, because she married a dead man. Ichigo is a shinigami, and he will be one forever. god forbid she ever meets his Zanpaktou. She would tremble in fear at the monsters her husband harbors in his soul, especially when she realizes they don't care about her and would rather see her dead. (Zangetsu would absolutely kill Orihime. Not sure about Kazui, but Orihime has not accepted Zangetsu, she does not like either of them, and the feeling is assuredly mutual.) frick now I want to make a comic about this

Also still frustrated over Zangetsu's shikai / bankai regression. Kubo once again lied to his audience. Ichigo has no bankai. How ridiculous is that? The main character of BLEACH doesn't have a bankai. Insulting.

(RIP to Chad. He doesn't exist anymore. He's just gone. No mention, no cameo. Gone.)

Kazui is a demon child. That character from the novels? Hikone? They're the same character. Literally same personality, same power level. Its worse because Kazui is a liar. He constantly goes behind his parents' backs. He can summon creepy fish and creepy eyeballs and open portals like is ANYONE aware of this? How has SS not kidnapped Ichigo's son and experimented on him / locked away his powers yet? All substitute shinigami require a reiatsu controlling / spy badge to keep them in line. Where is Kazui's? Or is he just a weird fullbringer?

I was worried Kubo was gonna try and pull a knock off Boruto but luckily he kept the focus on Ichigo and the others. But that being said, Ichika and Kazui are now just... sort of there? Kazui was kinda just.... having his own adventure that doesn't matter to the plot at hand, and Ichika had some nice characterization at first but she just hid behind her dad the whole time.

I have a feeling Kazui is gonna step in at the last minute or do some major behind the scenes thing that indirectly interferes with the main plot so no one will realize how powerful and dangerous he actually is. Its sad because Ichika is the superior character in personality and likability, but she clearly is not going to have a bigger part in this.

Ichigo having a normal life after everything still feels extremely boring and uncomfortable to me. Everyone's like 'I'm still bLEACH!" but.... BLEACH just... doesn't feel like BLEACH anymore. It hasn't for a while now.

~~~

There's two new shinigami characters. Didn't care for the girl, but the Sign Language kid who talks to animals is adorable ... however... he just reminds me of Chad, and I just... it hurts knowing Chad has essentially been deleted. Chad and Orihime are officially benched. They have chosen the human world, and Orihime has given Ichigo his spawn so she has no more use/purpose to him anymore... ////sigh

~~~

Also. This is claimed to be a new "arc". So is the BLEACH manga coming back? What is happening. I thought Kubo was tired and didn't want to do BLEACH anymore. I thought Shounen Jump cut him off. People made so many excuses for Kubo and why the past two arcs have been so badly written the past 6 years and now almost everything they've attempted to defend him with has been revoked.

BLEACH is going to continue to screw up its plot lines and characters, so Its probably best for it to stay dead but I've seen a lot of Kubo stans drooling over this content, they're desperate for BLEACH's return, but its already given out all its possible revelations. There's really nothing else to top here. It's just going to make things up as it goes along ,and I'm not really here for half-assed writing like that, especially since the damage of rushing the previous manga has already been done. Kubo and Shounen Jump are riding off a money nostalgia. None of this was planned.

Honestly though.... overall feeling of this chapter, not as bad as it could have been.

Syazel stole the spotlight, and he's my friend's favorite character, so that's all that really matters.

[liquorisce]

you have me (but i don't have you)

for @ichihime 's IHweek2021. prompt: lovers

this is written in the same verse as my royal-AU IH excerpt plastic crowns. a big thank you to all scrapbread, @fearlesspaquita and all the others who urged me to continue :)

rating: M (only implied smut)

summary: He wasn't supposed to fall in love with her. He's known forever that the Princess could never be his.

But the very idea of her marrying somebody, somebody else, had him shaking with rage.

Tonight's whole dinner had him wanting to kill someone. Chop them up into pieces, maybe, for good measure.

The very idea of her marrying somebody, somebody else, had him shaking with rage.

Having to listen to the court officials lecherous talk of her producing her betrothed an heir, made him see red.

He grabs the little flask on the table that he hasn’t touched in weeks, months even, and takes a generous swig.

Ichigo doesn’t like to drink. It slows him down, dulls his senses, and as the Princess' personal bodyguard, that isn’t something he can usually allow. But today Orihime had stormed back into her room, and she had Rukia and Rangiku standing guard by her chambers. He couldn't go near her even if he wanted to.

And how he wanted to…

The talk of her impending marriage had started to eat away at him, a constant pounding at his temples when he pictured her smiling for some King she'd never even seen before, holding his child.

It made him sick.

He wasn't supposed to fall in love with her. He's known forever that the Princess could never be his. He isn’t fond of self-delusion; it had been obvious that when she came of age, her brother would marry her offto a King of some wealthy province in a land far away.

But how could he not? And on a subconscious level it angers him… it was him she had grown up with, him she graces with that smile made of heaven, he who protects her at all costs.

It’s when he empties the last drops from his flask that he’s pretty sure he’s hallucinating.

"… Ichigo?"

She’d stormed away from him after the earlier confrontation with her brother, consumed with frustration and hurt with his blind allegiance to his King, a mute spectator to Sora’s tyrannical orders. Hours after sobbing into Rangiku’s bosom, defeated and heartbroken, she isn’t sure what she’s doing here… rubbing salt into her wounds maybe?

Because despite the seeming inevitability of her fate, she had to know. Every moment she had spent by his side, every lingering touch, all those half-hearted dreams she hadn’t the courage to share with anyone else… surely it wasn’t just one-sided?

But the spectacle in front of her is a far cry from what she was expecting. The tall, handsome General that she’d fallen in love with now sat hunched in a corner, eyes bloodshot, breathing harsh, his orange hair matted and messy… looking utterly and terribly wasted.

He’s never seen her like this either, well past decent hours, clad in a loose robe that hung a generous height above her knees, shimmering off her luminous thighs.

"… You shouldn't be here, Princess," he says hoarsely, the alcohol burning his throat, his heart burning with fierce desire he’s spent most of his life battling. "… It's late."

She hesitates, eyeing him nervously. "… I asked Rukia to keep watch outside." Her voice is a stranger, an odd breathiness betraying her intentions. She makes her way closer to him, hands clutching at the apex of her robe. Her fears swirl in her mind, fear of an impending wedding that she had no way to escape, fear of her brother who had descended into a madness she could no longer save him from… and most of all a deep, aching fear that she was risking everything to bare her soul to the man she loved, and all that would await her was his rejection.

She thinks of the speech she’s prepared, her confession, but the closer she gets to him – and the longer he looks at her like that, tortured – the words no longer make sense, Rangiku’s promiscuous suggestions seeming far simpler, and far more appealing.

He watches as she moves towards him, teeth worrying her lips, and he has a stray thought about how it would feel to have his teeth on her lips like that, and it is harder to suppress in this state than normal, when the alcohol has him defenceless to his deepest desires, when she's in front of him, looking at him so fiercely, like she's trying to tell him something so secret, that if she puts the words out there, someone will steal them from her.

His eyes fall to the floor. And he keeps them there. He fears that if he looks into those deep, searching grey eyes, she'll know.

She'll know everything that he's always wanted to tell her, but couldn't. And he is ashamed

Hesitantly, slowly, her hands slip free of the satin gold robes that cover her shoulders.

"… Ichigo," she says, softly, "look at me."

But he screws his eyes shut because, he can't, the resolve he’s counted on for years is broken and shattered to pieces and there's nothing he can do to not want her.

"… Please," she whispers, her voice cracking, pleading and he can feel her closer to him, the edges of her robes brushing against his arm, the scent of jasmine and desire consuming him.

How could he ever deny her anything?

And he watches almost dreamlike, as the garb falls to the floor, his mind going increasingly numb as the pale candlelight bathes her bare body, he is most definitely sure that this is just a dream borne fruit by his intoxication.

But dream or not, his mouth goes dry when she slips onto his lap, her body, her skin, flush with self consciousness, his arms tightening around her of their own accord, heat coursing through his veins like it was the most obvious, natural thing to to feel her against him, to feel her thread her fingers into his hair, and look into his brown eyes so passionately.

To feel her lips brush against his, as she speaks so softly, so quietly, but firm, "… They can't tell me whom to love."

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

Ichihime Week 2021 July 5th – Comedy

“Come on, Orihime it’s not horrible.”

“BUT IT WAS!”

Tatsuki sighed and stirred her drink while her friend blubbered into the table top.

“So? He asked you if you wanted to go out and get some coffee some time. That’s good, right?”

Orihime looked up at Tatsuki, her wounded puppy mode in full effect.

“But then I said ‘I like coffee cake! It’s like I was in the seventies!”

Tatsuki didn’t really know what that meant.

“Look, Ichigo’s a bone head. He probably just thought you meant ‘Can we have coffee cake with it?’ Besides, what if…”

Orihime looked away.

“What if he was joking?”

Tatsuki stood and rounded the table until she was standing beside Orihime. She knelt down until she was at eye level with her.

“Orihime?”

The other girl turned her head so she could meet her best friend’s gaze.

“Yes, Tatsuki?”

“Ichigo doesn’t have the most common sense, but when you get right down to it, he never jokes about relationships. And I mean never.”

“But--the coffee cake...”

“You guys were at a wedding between two dead people! Coffee cake doesn’t even begin to describe putting a damper on your relationship.”

Orihime sniffled.

“You think so?”

Tatsuki grinned.

“I know so. Now, go tell him you want to have coffee with him.”

It was almost like watching the very words she’d said melt and take root Orihime’s mind. Her expression went from forlorn to determined in the time it took to blink.

“Yeah!”

Orihime stood, fists clenched in determination.

“YEAH!”

Orihime bolted from the open air cafe, fist raised, chanting “yeah!” over and over again, making quite a few pedestrians stop.

IH

“Ichigo, get out here! You can’t stay in there forever!”

“I’m not staying in here forever. I’m staying in here for the rest of my life.”

Karin huffed. Why did her brother have to be such a friggin bone head?

“Look, Orihime said ‘I like Coffee cake’, how is that a rejection?”

“Because I should have been straightforward.”

“Can you at least open the door? I’m getting real tired of talking through it.”

Why couldn’t Ichigo just quit this weirdo pining and talk to Orihime again? Honestly, this was getting out of hand.

“Karin?”

Karin turned to see her sister standing at the bottom of the stairs.

“Yeah, Yuzu.”

“Orihime’s here to see Ichigo. Something about...coffee cake?

[heavenshield]

ORIHIME INOUE // B.LEACH

 forgive me i’m still iconing so rn you just gotta accept the hueco mundo arc icons!!

‘jiwoo another orange haired sunshine girl?’ yeah i have a type moving on

seemingly just your ordinary and everyday person you spot on the street, but there’s more to her than just her smile

as stated above, is a sunshine girl! she’s very bright and optimistic, as well as kind and compassionate. she can come off as clueless or naive and has a habit of daydreaming, but knows when to be serious. and even then, she tries to keep the mood light for herself and those she cares for

has had her own share of troubles and heartache. raised by her brother when he took her and ran away from their less than stellar parents until he passed. she’s been through a lot prior to awakening to her powers and afterwards, but they’ve helped her grow into who she is today

is able to see things humans usually can’t! she has a high spiritual awareness, so it’s no issue for her to sense things like ghosts or demons, spiritual beings that usually aren’t perceptible 

looks like a cinammon roll, is a cinammon roll however she’s also capable of taking you out. her best friend tatsuki trained her in karate and she has a black belt level. so go ahead come on try it and see what happens. this girl has literally survived having a hole blown in her side as well do not think she is weak and fragile

has a unique power when it comes to her ‘healing’ in that she doesn’t heal normally, but rejects the damage done to someone/something. quite literally, she’s returning the person or thing back to it’s state before receiving damage! she can bring back lost limbs and even resurrect the dead but, as of right now, she’s only capable of erecting her shield which also can stop lethal falls! her power of ‘healing’ is so great that it is said to trespass into God’s territory as, in a way, Orihime is literally rejecting the fate of what’s happened

is chief expert on weird foods. this girl at a whole loaf of bread at her desk. with red bean paste. just a whole, unsliced loaf in the middle of class. every food combination is fun to try in her eyes. do not diss them

is not someone to try and tack advantage of. pacifist she may be, she has gained a strong will and resolve, and will strike back. in her words, she doesn’t care about being subtle. don’t attack until she says she’s ready

may seem a little bit on the weird side, but she’s unapologetic in who she is and doesn’t die down her emotions/feelings for anyone or anything. she’s very human in this and while she has her doubts and insecurities like everyone else, Orihime always tries her best to move past them and continue on

god bread is so good. don’t you love bread? bread is the best thing ever created. #1 bread fan right here

[ginjithewanderer]

It’s me, back again with another essay for Tetora’s birthday, except this time I want to really look into his character and what makes him the hardworking boy Ryuseitai wouldn’t be the same without. I used a lot of stories as reference, so I put together the banners from ! events/gachas he’s in in chronological story order here, mostly for my own use (though like the wiki disclaimer says, some of it can be shaky). At the time of writing, there aren’t enough !! stories to warrant a whole timeline, nor have the ones he’s in been fully translated, but I tried to mention the parts I’ve read (either translated or in-game with my limited understanding of Japanese).

Tetora is first introduced in chapter 8 of the Enstars! main story, as a first year at the very beginning of the school year. From what we see of him in those appearances, it’s easy to dismiss him as an excitable boy with too much energy for his own good. While that hotheadedness is part of his character, there’s so much more to him than that and I feel like he’s really not given enough credit from the fandom as a whole for it. Tetora is a character who’s shown a lot of depth over the course of the Ensemble Stars story and that’s what I want to show through this.

We don’t really know much about Tetora’s childhood or family based on the currently released stories, but with the little bits of information we do have, it’s possible to piece things together to get a vague idea of what his home life is like. Tetora doesn’t come from a very rich family, and we know from multiple stories that his parents go to work early and/or work long hours as a result. Combined with the facts that he’s an only child and that he regularly gets his lunches from the school cafeteria and other meals from a konbini because his parents don’t have the time to make proper bentos/meals, it’s reasonable to conclude that he spends a lot of time alone at home.

It’s probably also because of that that he looks up to Kuro and Niki so much. In Niki’s third idol story, Tetora says that watching Niki’s show made even bland food taste delicious, but also that it saved him. While he didn’t elaborate aside from saying his parents were having a tough time with work and !! hasn’t provided any more lore yet, I interpreted that as him seeing Niki as a companion of sorts, since he was alone so much. He does also call Niki “Aniki” on instinct, and says that he feels closer to him thanks to their ways of speaking being similar (they both attach “ssu” to the ends of sentences, for example). As for Kuro, it’s mentioned in Motor Show that Tetora only got into karate because he admired Kuro, and the way he acts around Kuro in the ! main story says all it needs to on that front.

… but knowing more about that part of the main story says even more. The main story takes place after the first years have gotten into the units they applied to, and Tetora had just been rejected from Akatsuki, instead having to settle for Ryuseitai. At the time, he was pretty upset about the whole ordeal, especially since he had wanted to get into Akatsuki so badly. In fact, he spent pretty much the whole time between the start of the year and Supernova frustrated by it, only coming to terms with being in Ryuseitai by the end of the latter event. Because of that, his attitude in the main story is the first time we see him doing something he has a habit of doing — trying to put up a positive front, no matter how he’s really feeling.

Instead of wallowing in the negative emotions he felt after what happened with Akatsuki, Tetora tried to make something else work out in his favor instead: the Ryuuousen. The reason he was so excited about it, and so concerned about everything going as planned (and started panicking when Kuro showed up late), is because he was almost desperate to succeed at something after his failure with the unit he had his heart set on. In the end, though, that ended up going wrong too. The student council interrupted the match before it ended, even though he didn’t want to accept defeat, and that didn’t do his confidence any favors.

Of course, his confidence in himself wasn't really that high in the first place. Tetora has been shown throughout the Ensemble Stars story as someone who’s deeply dissatisfied with himself and takes every opportunity to belittle himself, whether it’s out loud or in his thoughts. He calls himself worthless, weak, hollow, and even goes as far as to say he hates himself in Orihime and Hikoboshi. He also tends to blame himself for anything that goes wrong when he’s around. Despite how he grows and changes himself over his time at Yumenosaki, these insecurities of his seem to stay as strong as ever. Even as a second year who got to lead Ryuseitai N and is captain of the karate club, he continues to feel like he isn’t good enough.

He’s equally quick to compare himself to other people, saying how they’re better than him in different ways. He’s open about how jealous he is of some people’s looks and sometimes other traits they have. He also uses people like Kuro or Chiaki as a standard to measure himself against, saying he can’t do things the way they can because he’s still inexperienced. With his insecurities, though, comes the way he recognizes his shortcomings. He knows what his weaknesses are and what mistakes he’s made, and he’s constantly trying to improve them — even if he doesn’t feel like he’s improved enough — to reach his ideal of becoming a “man among men”.

That goal of his is reinforced throughout the story, and he’s determined to reach it one day no matter what happens. Even when things go wrong, he tells himself that he’ll get there eventually, as long as he keeps working hard at it. He does get upset at his failures for a while and is prone to pessimism when they occur (which he acknowledges), but he always picks himself up in the end. His idea of a “man among men” isn’t really solid, though, and it really just comes down to what traits he admires in others. That includes traits like strength (both physical and emotional), kindness, honesty, and level-headedness, but also skills that are typically considered feminine, like cooking and sewing.

Part of that also comes from the fact that his concept of a man among men comes from the people he looks up to: his desire to learn to cook comes from his admiration of Niki, and his respect for things like sewing from Kuro. In fact, he even got into martial arts in the first place because he looked up to Kuro. In the same way, it was after the Beasts story that he decided he didn’t have to get rid of the parts of himself he considered “girly” or weak, and instead could convert them to strengths like those he saw in Arashi. Because he sees others as so much better than himself, he tends to admire a lot of people like this, and always tries to see the best in the people he does — even if they themselves think he shouldn’t.

It’s that devoted nature of his that manifests as determination when it comes to his goals. Whether it’s a person or an aim, Tetora gives everything his all, and it’s why he’s able to bounce back when things go wrong. He's willing to take on any number of challenges to reach his goals, and early in the ! year (like in Hero Show) even told himself it'd be pathetic to give up after minor setbacks. Similarly, his determination to have something work out in his favor is why he set up the Ryuuousen in the main story, as mentioned earlier. This persevering nature and the hard work he puts into things because of it are where his Ryuseitai introduction comes from - black flames are the mark of effort.

… Which he also thinks is his only merit, as he's stated more than once. Despite his other qualms with himself, he’s aware of his hardworking spirit and considers it his biggest strength. Tetora is someone who believes that he can achieve his goals as long as he works hard towards them, and that gives rise to his desire to be seen as responsible and independent (like by showing his seniors that he can handle things on his own). He’s even expressed how he likes when Chiaki doesn’t interfere with Ryuseitai’s activities after entrusting things to him, so that he can show some responsibility instead of being babied and having things taken care of for him.

In the same way, he got pretty upset in The Four Beasts of Fistfighting when Kuro arranged the Ryuuousen without talking to him about it, and when the former said he’d pat Tetora on the head if he won against him. Tetora hates being treated like a kid, or as someone who can’t take care of themselves. This is reiterated in several stories, too, including Beasts, where he says how he doesn’t like when Arashi refers to him using -chan, since it feels like she’s treating him like a kid. This ties in with him wanting to be seen as more mature — a man among men.

Continuing on that point, it's also why he puts up a strong front, even when he's not doing so great (Motor Show is a great example, but he's been doing this since the ! main story). He doesn't like giving up on things or appearing weak, and especially not if it means he'll be seen as someone who can't do things without outside help. Even if he's tired or upset about something, he tries to keep smiling and keep up his energetic character around others so that they won't worry about him. That applies even more when he's in charge of something, since he has a strong sense of responsibility and wants to be a capable leader.

He can put too much energy into trying to be a good leader, though, which ends up exhausting him in the !! timeline (for example, his second idol story, where he says he spent hours just thinking about how to reply to a member of Ryuseitai N in a way that didn't sound too dry). Even before then, though, he was always trying to do his best for the people around him, including things like staying calm before lives where the other two first years were nervous to try and help them relax. While he may have started off a little clumsy and tended to rush into things without thinking, by the end of the ! summer, he had already become a lot more reliable.

He also just really enjoys helping people out, saying in School Fes that he always wants to help when he sees a friend in trouble. He's always quick to offer anyone assistance, even with small tasks like moving things from one place to another. This has led other characters to say that he really is hero-like, as befitting of his status as a member of Ryuseitai. It also ties in with how empathetic he is towards others. He’s protective of his friends and has said many times (like in Sweet Halloween) that he gets upset when his friends are, and often tries to help them out or cheer them up when that happens.

There’s also the reason Ryuseitai N ended up with too many members — he didn’t want anyone to feel the way he did after his rejection from Akatsuki, and ended up making the entrance test for Ryuseitai too easy as a result. Even if it did cause the unit to struggle financially, it shows how much he took what happened to heart and how he doesn’t want people to go through anything bad, even if he had to face it himself. Similarly, he tries to take other people’s feelings and situations into account at all times — such as the time he argued with Midori in Climax but tried to be understanding of the fact that Midori was only in the idol course by accident — and doesn’t want to push his own opinions or ideals onto others either.

Tetora is a really honest and straightforward person, and doesn’t think people should hide things from each other either. This shows in the advice he gave to the Aoi twins and Tomoya in Christmas Live and Sweet Halloween respectively, though he says in the former story that he didn’t think he should be lecturing them as an outsider. More than that, though, it becomes obvious when he’s putting up a cheerful front, since a lot of the time other characters end up seeing through it. In Motor Show, it fails entirely after he accidentally let out that he was stressed in front of Chiaki, and ended up having to tell him everything.

Because of that, though, he’s also very trusting of people, and doesn’t always notice when someone doesn’t have the best intentions (à la Beasts). By the !! timeline, however, he’s gotten better with that. A clear example is his consistent distrust of Mayoi, even if the latter does give him reason to be suspicious. Then, of course, there’s Rinne, who’s the first person Tetora has openly said he dislikes. By the time of Sweets Box in autumn, he’s still annoyed by Rinne’s actions in the main story and says Rinne “pisses him off.” Despite that, he does still admit that Rinne can be open-minded when it comes to some things, which further shows his own willingness to understand other people’s situations.

With all of that said, it’s clear that Tetora is someone who does his absolute best, both for himself and others. He has a lot of energy and doesn’t like sitting around for too long, but that energy always goes to good use, whether it’s training himself or helping people out. Despite his deep-rooted insecurities about himself, he’s always striving to do better. That (along with everything else) is why I love him so much, and I hope this helps you learn a little more about him (unless there’s nothing new in here for you). There’s a lot more I would’ve liked to talk about but it’s already time to post this and I wanna finish reading some !! stories before I get into my opinions on his time as Ryuseitai’s leader (though I have a lot of thoughts on that already), but I’m really glad Tetora exists and is such a well-written character.

[asukaskerian]

Whenever the Spit It Out update talks about his fraccion, I have to go reread one of your fics where he still has them bc -cries everywhere- I like to think that Szayel was the nastiest thing Dinner!Grimm ever choked down and he did it more to have Yylfordt back than for the power boost. "You'll miss them if you don't take better care of them"? "You can reincarnate when I do along with the rest of them"? Just kill me about it!

And then in Howling there's a chance Orihime's going to reject Grimmjow's bite scars along with the rest of the fraccion's injuries and I am, in fact, a little Fuckt Up thinking about them letting him do it again, this time not for their survival but as a mark of his protection and their trust in him.

"Somewhat minded us being dead"? It's been five years and he doesn't have a single new fraccion. If there were offers (and surely there were), he rejected all the ones he noticed, bc they're his sworn men and he will have no others.

I can imagine other arrancar trying it with Grimmjow pre-Kurosaki Round 1 (where "it" is "flirting but fealty"/ sucking up) and either: he doesn't notice bc he doesn't give a shit about arrancar that aren't His, he notices and turns them away bc he's all set, or his fraccion notice and tell the hopeful/ scheming arrancar that Grimmjow-sama doesn't need fealty from the likes of you.

I mean! Yylfordt says "... Ain't nobody's emergency snack", only mostly joking and! Come on! When you said "Fucking kill us already" while attacking him against your will, Grimmjow hesitated! He hit with his claws tucked in, he stayed on the defensive as long as he could! Do you want that love letter in writing or what?!?!?

muahahahaha all must love grimmjow's pack... and despair!

I like to think that Szayel was the nastiest thing Dinner!Grimm ever choked down and he did it more to have Yylfordt back than for the power boost.

pretty much, yes ;_;

And then in Howling there's a chance Orihime's going to reject Grimmjow's bite scars along with the rest of the fraccion's injuries

aw no, no worries! i mean, she could if she tried, but, when he bit them he did in fact take in a part of their selves, their accumulated souls, so she'd have to also take those out of grimmjow at the same time and the power levels would mean she really has to force it and would notice something's wrong. she's just reverting them to their last stable and healthy configuration! but dang if it wouldn't be awesome for them to offer to be marked like that again... ahhh. *__*

i just LOVE the idea of hollows trying to hit on grimmjow fraccion style because like, there were five of them and they all stayed alive a while! he can obviously take care of his people! only barragan has more fraccion and they're all slavishly fawning and kinda fanatical, at least grimmjow's guys didn't have their attitude trained out of them! ... and grimmjow doesn't even notice he's being hit on, because he didn't take fraccion just to have fraccion, he took those guys in particular because of their common history... and also how they're all tough little assholes who love to wreck shit. /loyalty-ships aahhh yess.

man, i can imagine hollows trying to get grimmjow to take them in AFTER his first have died, like "hey i can replace them, no problem", and it would probably end very badly. tbh he's probably gonna be "no way am i getting close to more people and trusting them after i lost my first set so out of nowhere and so stupidly" for a very long time. i could see him being totally unwilling to get attached to people lower than his power level to avoid that and make it some kind of subconscious policy. too risky. it wasn't his job to babysit them but he sure as hell should have trained them better and not let them rest on their laurels and it was his fault for assuming and letting them assume that of course they were so much better. he was arrogant and let them be arrogant and they all paid for it. not again, nope, he won't make that mistake twice. :(

[anime-moreanime-animeagain]

🤣 😂 😂 Forget Orihime’s reject. Ichigo has the real reject. “Oh no! My friend is asking me for help and I’m dead! I REJECT!” 😂 😂 I just cannot believe he was like “naw eff death, I’m gone go save my friend!” Didn’t he give her those barrettes in the first place? Idk I can’t remember all I know is that was hilarious and awesome lol

Every reasonable person: No Ichigo it’s impossible it’s taken Renji and Rukia 40 years to get to their level you can’t storm soul society and defeat all the lieutenants and a couple captains in one week!

Ichigo: hold my beer

Every reasonable person ever: No Ichigo you can’t come back from being dead enough that your heart is literally gone because of a hole big enough to fit a small person through it, and power up enough to beat Mr. Sad Eyes.

Ichigo: Sorry didn’t catch that, what were saying was impossible again?