1)When IRs say they would have accepted IH is Ichigo had thought of Oirihme in a way he has thought of Rukia: You mean, platonically? It’s funny cause if Rukia were a man nobody would’ve been surprised they weren’t canon nor doubted it’s platonic in canon (even if some people like it as a ship in fanon, just like yaoi shippers, lke me, do). But because Rukia is a woman IRs thoughtit HAD to be romantic. Well, guess what, Ichigo and Rukia share the same kind of bond that many male duos (that people ship) have; unique and special in its own way but still canonically platonic. So, no, thank you, we like the way Ichigo thinks about Orihime just the way it is, which is (as we suspected all those years and, unlike you, we were right), romantic.
2)When Anti-IH bring up the fact that most people didn’t like the ending: Just remember that you could fix most of the problems with the story and its ending and leave the same canon pairings and the only ones that wouldn’t like it would be the Anti-IH. So, no, we don’t mind that people didn’t like the ending, because we know that, unless you’re a shipper, it has nothing to do with IH or RR being canon. (It’s worth mentioning I’m generalising when I say shipper. I used that word for linguistic purposes, because the alternative doesn’t sound that well there. So, don’t take it personally, cause I’m also a shipper)
As a multi-shipper, I have to say IH moments in the manga really only reflect Orihime’s perspective. From Ichigo’s side there is nothing to speculate on. Ichigo’s interactions with Orihime are plain and he doesn’t expand on anything with her other than a desire to protect her. It’s a damn shame because I do enjoy the couple.
I personally wouldn’t attempt the “IH is as important in the manga as IR” argument. There are several reasons for this, but it pretty much boils down to Rukia being the queen of Bleach. There isn’t a single female in Bleach who comes close to touching her popularity or fan-power.
It’s not that they relect only on Orihime’s perspective, it’s that Orihime is the only chacrtacter that explicitly stated being in love. For the others, Rukia, Renji, Ichigo and Ishida, moments weren’t as explicit and we had to speculate on all of them. Saying there was nothing to speculate on Ichigo, when many people including non shippers and IHs saw it comming and we’e proved right, is ridiculous. If you understimated those moments or didn’t interpret them as such it’s understandable but the ending proved that you were mistaken in doing so and we were right in doing the opposite. Sure, the focus on Orihime is much greater but this shonen we’re talking about, it makes sense that Kubo (who’s stated he didn’t want to turn Bleach into a romanctic story) concentrated 90% of the romance on a female non protagonist character and kept his protagonist’s, Ichigo, part mostly implicit and to a minimum, Just like it makes sense that, being a shonen, a platonic bond like Ichigo and Rukia’s got a lot of focus. You’ll see this in other shonen mangas of the like too. Doesn’t meant you have to like the way they do it but it’s generally the norm.
And I advice you check out this post to see what was there to speculate on: http://ichinoue.tumblr.com/post/149149871875/why-ichihime-was-obvious-as-hell-for-endgame So, maybe personally YOU didn’t see it that way, but at this point you can’t deny we were right in our speculation because the manga proved us right!
If you enjoyed the couple, it’s a pity it’s not enough for you, but don’t invlidate IchiHime just because you didn’t get it right nor exactly what you wanted.
As for the “IH is as important in the manga as IR” I have no idea what you’re talking about, I never compared their importance in my original post, just their dynamic (platonic vs romantic). And like I said before, it makes sense the IR platonic bond would get so much focus being a shonen manga, but that doesn’t change their platonic dynamic.
And I don’t know what Rukia’s popularity or fan-power has to do with IchiRuki’s importance in the manga. If it were like that IR would’ve been canon because of it, yet the manga is a separate thing. And my point was that for neutrals/non-shippers the pairings weren’t a problem in the ending, but all the flaws in the story, so if all of those were fixed they would be ok the ending even if the ships were still IH and RR. So it boils down to whether the Anti-IH part of fandom (not Rukia’s since not all Rukia fans/lovers are anti-IH) is bigger than the rest of the Bleach fandom, to see whether the reason most of the Bleach fandom didn’t like the ending has to do with the ships or not.
I’ve read that post before and the reasons are not valid. They are shipping-based biased opinions and requires things to be ignored. In the IH moments, Ichigo does not leave room for anything to be inferred. The only real reason why IH could be predicted as end game is inferred from Kubo’s actions, not Ichigo’s.
