Okay, so I saw @a-love-transcending-time ‘s ask about the popularities of ships back in the day.
Was IchiRuki popular among manga reading fans before the anime aired?
Yes, it was. Even in Japan. To be blunt, I’d say IchiRuki fans were quick to get onboard while those who have RenRuki and or IchiOri as their preferred CPs took a while until we finally saw some fanworks in production before the anime debuted—or after certain events/milestones were shown in the manga/anime. I’ll list below to give a proper timeline with the franchise, so that it’s more visible about when stuff started coming out.
I will be using doujinshi to showcase this. Why? Because for starters, I am not going to give out fansites for fanart only to have people attack and or leave hateful messages on jp fans’ guestbooks when their sites are old and aren’t updated anymore, and these sites I am linking are secondhand. Two, producing and publishing doujinshi (fan comics) / anthologies / 4koma (4-panel comics) for people to buy speak volumes with how much effort, time, and money they put into it to publish multiple copies.
Here’s some quick statistics:
Bleach manga serialized on August 20th, 2001.
Bleach anime aired on October 5th, 2004.
Inoue Orihime’s crush was made apparent in Chapter 2 and in the mini Sora arc (September 3, 2001 & October 12th, 2004 onwards respectively).
The first Deathberry titled chapter was Chapter 10, which debuted on October 29, 2001.
Abarai Renji’s first appearances were in Chapter 51 & Episode 15 (September 9, 2002 & January 18, 2005).
Renji and Rukia’s backstory was revealed in Chapter 98 & Episode 32 (August 25, 2003 & May 17, 2005).
The second Deathberry titled chapter was Chapter 151, serialized on October 18, 2004.
I’ll let the rest of the post speak for itself.
IchiRuki doujinshi (took approx TWO months)
Dec 2001 (I own this one, it is definitely IchigoxRukia)
Bonuses: (or the instances where IchiRuki fandom took the extra material and ran with it with love)
March 15, 2009 (Fade to Black-based doujinshi. Theatre release was Dec 13, 2008 and the DVD released on Sept 30, 2009. Sure got on that movie fast before a hard copy of the movie was out in Japan to buy/own.)
Dec 30, 2010 (Based on the Magic Lamp episode with Genie Ruki-Ruki, the episode aired on Sept 7, 2010. That was also quick.)
October 21, 2012 (Succubus Rukia x Ichigo, either based on Kubo’s Halloween spread or the Halloween episode that aired on Jan 11, 2011, and this doujinshi was produced just close enough to the date of Halloween as a tribute.)
I’ll stop there. There’s still a ridiculous amount of doujinshi produced every single year since 2001 to present day. R-18 doujinshi became rampant starting 2006 onwards. Want a hint of what possibly sparked the sudden spike of IchiRuki doujin in 2006? Chapter 195: Death & Strawberry (reprise) debuted on Oct 3, 2005 — the “the man in my heart” speech happening shortly afterwards in the following chapter/week on Oct 10th.
Fun fact: A staff member who did the storyboards for Bleach’s anime episodes 101 and 109 did three doujinshi for the series in 2006, 2007, and 2008. You can read more about them here. Yes, this tidbit belongs under this section for a reason.
RenRuki doujinshi (nearly five months for halfway, took approx eight months for full ship then halts until another year)
Dec 2002 (Renji→Rukia / Kurosaki family)
Aug 2003 (has Renji x Rukia, Ichigo x Tatsuki)
Nov 2005 (has Renji x Rukia, Ikkaku x Nemu)
Nov 2005 (has Renji x Rukia, Gin x Rangiku)
About accurate for Japan’s consistent third popular pairing in the first and 2008 polls. It continues to grow in number in 2006 - 2011, then slows to a couple a year at best since 2012. Still a fairly large number for an m/f ship totalled with a decent popularity.
IchiOri doujinshi (took nearly two years)
Then doujinshi for this CP became more common in 2008 onwards - approximately seven years after. Still in relatively low numbers compared to other het ships.
For the record, Uryuu x Orihime has been a thing circa August 2004 and December 2004.
Whether it’s explicitly romantic or not, the focus on Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship was still high and surging in the early years of the Japanese BLEACH fanbase before the anime even had a chance to air, go into filler arcs to provide extra fanservice, etc., with rapid numbers multiplying each year from different circles and artists. This pairing, you could say, has doujinshi coming out of the woodworks since day one at the first chance they got.
One final word: Have fun with free passes to doujinshi for more content. Treat yourselves and or others. Be good.