Jūshirō Ukitake
A shrine dedicated to Jushiro Ukitake from the show Bleach; I grew up on Bleach and honestly it was my introduction to both self-shipping and OC/Canon ... but it was not with Ukitake, it was actually with Toshiro Hitsugaya that I was head over heels when I was a kid, and who I made an OC to ship with.
Obviously as time passed, I grew up and didn't find much appeal in him anymore, instead finding myself softened up more and more towards Ukitake instead, especially as I was actively following the manga release.
Count me still kinda pissed off with how his character was handled for reasons below that are spoilers.
Spoilers below
Ukitake's death to me felt so ... hollow, pun not intended. But to have him basically carrying a part of the Soul King all along who gave him a second lease on life, to accept his duty as taking on the role of a new Soul King ... only to have Yhwach suck out Mimihagi to leave him to die?
Nothing ... nothing else? Just an arc released years later as a manga that showed he basically was sent to hell? Like the fact he was used to show that Captains never properly return to the cycle of souls felt almost like a spit.
Anyway I'm still mad he never had a Bankai reveal. I don't know if the anime changes anything regarding his death but most likely it hasn't.
I never ended up falling into the OC/Canon hole for him because my OTP is him with Shunsui Kyoraku, but I'm also very weak for academy friends who deeply understand each other better than anything else.
It's hard to put into exact words why I'm so stupidly head over heels over this man even years later, but gentle personality and treated like shit by the source material would be the easiest way to put it. Um ... you can also kind of tell where I got my black eyebrows thing for Sylvie from.
I have a couple fanfic recs as well that expand a lot on his character or offer alternative universe pathways:
Bleach Brave Souls Collection
Here are all the Ukitake alts I have so far in the game Bleach Brave Souls (which I've been playing on and off since it's release in 2016 world-wide, though I lost my original account).
The 6 star versions can be clicked on to see their full artwork, even if I don't own them and they're greyed out.
5/6-Stars
4-Stars
3-Stars
