Ichigo/Orihime
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Kurosaki Ichigo/Inoue Orihime |
| Alternative name(s): | IchiHime |
| Gender category: | M/F |
| Fandom: | Bleach |
| Canonical?: | canon |
| Prevalence: | common |
| Archives: | http://ichixhime.actifforum.com/ |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
IchiHime is a pairing between Kurosaki Ichigo and Inoue Orihime in Kubo Tite's Bleach manga and anime. It is the fifth-most-common pairing in the fandom at AO3, and the second-most-popular m/f pairing.
Canon
In the manga, Ichigo and Orihime are classmates who first met in early childhood. Orihime has a crush on Ichigo that develops into love as the story progresses. The theme of protecting one another comes up again and again throughout the canon, signifying the characters' mutual importance to one another. The manga ends with the two of them happily married and raising a son, Kurosaki Kazui.
A full list of Ichigo/Orihime moments from the manga and the anime can be found here.
Fandom
This article or section needs expansion. |
Initially, the fandom had the strongest presence in the IchiHime FC on the original (now defunct) BleachAsylum forums. It migrated to the Five Lifetimes, One Love forum in 2007 due to constant shipwars.
Fests and Events
The most important IchiHime event was the annual Tanabata Festival. The Tanabata myth's relation to Ichigo/Orihime was explained as such:
Orihime's name and Kubo associating her with 7/7 (for seventh day of seventh month) as well as naming her after the star "Vega" in one of the title pages (Bleach chapter #5) is based on the Tanabata. Ichigo would be her Kengyu/Hikoboshi. [...] Tanabata is also related to Obon holiday. And Ichigo's birthday of July 15 happens to be farewell Obon celebration. So those two holidays intertwine much like Ichigo and Orihime's story does. On another note, the Tanabata's date of 7/7 is associated with the importance of Time and the hope of being together in the future.
The Tanabata Festival, unlike other IchiHime events, was held every year since the creation of the Five Lifetimes, One Love forum. It was eventually discontinued due to Bleach fandom's decline in the previous decade.
| Fest | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanabata Festival | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| FLOL Holiday Exchange | x | x | x | x | ||
| Halloween Contest | x | x | x | |||
| Winter Wonderland Contest | x | |||||
| Spring/Sakura Contest | x | |||||
| The Ultimate Hali Challenge | x | |||||
| FLOL Fanwork Challenge | 1 2 |
Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Meta
- Left of Center by annwyd on The Shipper's Manifesto (2006)
- Ichigo's Id, Ego, and SuperEgo by crystaldawn (2009)
- The Id and the Ego - A look into Freud's theory and how it relates to Bleach by eskiwen (2010)
- You Don't Know IchiHime Shippers by crystaldawn (2010)
- Re: You Don't Know IchiHime Shippers by qwirky (2010), a rebuttal to the above
- IchiHime Reflections - an analysis of manga chapters 1-661 from an IchiHime perspective by siruannika.
Fanfic
Fanart
Fanmixes
Vids
- If I Die Young (Orihime & Ichigo) by MichikoChiba (2010)
- Ichigo x Orihime - Better