sin titulo

[tumblrhalix]

I've been wondering something about Renji's zanpakuto guard.

There are various elements engraved on it. At the top and botton of it there is what looks like fangs, and more specifically they look snake fangs, which makes sense because his zanpakuto spirit is part snake. But then, the rest of the pattern is what looks like a lightning bolt on each side, which is a little strange because we would expect for something baboon related, to show the baboon part on the guard the same as the snake part. Unless that what look like lightning bolts are supposed to represent the baboon part. They are on Renji's neck (a shorter lightning bolt, with one less stroke than the ones on the guard), and the snake fang is there too:

So, maybe they aren't lightning bolts but simply tribal tattoos with that form, and that is what represents the baboon part of Zabimaru, his tribal tattoos.

But, if they are really lightning bolts, it can make sense, because Renji's power is related to fire things. He has used Zabimaru bankai as a canon to fire energy to the opponent, and has burned opponents. But Renji's zanpakuto guard has a big representation of the lighting/tattoo part, so I wonder if he, in the future, would develop more the use of lightning powers when using his zanpakuto, if they are really that, lightning bolts.

When Ichika appeared in the manga for the first time, she showed her zanpakuto:

And we saw that her zanpakuto guard had the form of a lightning bolt, and people immediately thought she could have lightning powers, but, at the same time, they also thought that Ichika's zanpakuto guard has the form of Renji's tattoos on his neck, which are basically the same as the ones on his zanpakuto guard, but people usually don't think that Renji has lightning powers. I suppose it's because Renji has powers that are hard to classify. His bankai extends and is strong, so he uses force to fight, but it can also emit bursts of energy (and the things we saw in his filler fight with Ishida, but I'm not sure to consider what his bankai did there canon). What his bankai emits is a lightning bolt? If Ichika's zanpakuto is going to have lightning power, then Renji should have the same power, because she inherited her zanpakuto guard shape from him.

In Ichika's case, the guard is just a lightning bolt, so her powers would be centered around that, so they would probably be much more intense than Renji's lightning powers, I suppose. And, if it's not a lightning bolt, then maybe her power is going to be something tribal and related to a baboon, or other animal.

[tumblrhalix]

What Renji really said in chapter 173

I found an old tweet from Kubo where he had written, in Japanese, the phrase that Renji said in this scene:

And, translating that tweet, I realized that Renji wasn't saying what I thought he was saying.

First, how did I find that old tweet? Well, sometime ago I had heard about that Kubo had exchanged some interesting comments with Renji's actor of the first Rock musicals, Eiji Moriyama, on twitter. It was with Kubo's old account, in 2015, the one that later, that same year, Kubo deleted. But Eiji Moriyama has his account since 2011, and his tweets with Kubo can still be seen on twitter (despite above them it's written "This post was deleted by the post author" because Kubo, obviously, deleted all his tweets in 2015). What were those tweets about and why they got my interest? They had to do with Renji, Kubo told Eiji Moriyama that his wife, Kubo's, loved that phrase of the panel above.

In 2015 I read Kubo's twitter from time to time (but not those tweets with Eiji Moriyama, I didn't know about them). Sometimes Kubo mentioned his wife. In one of the tweets I read, Kubo asked people for help, because his wife wanted to get Renji at a gacha game. Also when he wished Renji a happy birthday, on August 31, he said that Renji and his wife had the same birthday date. So, with all of this, I supposed Kubo's wife was a fan of Renji, or at least she liked him, even though if it'd only be because they had the same birthday, lol. I´m not going to lie, that Kubo's wife seemed to be a Renji's fan made me happy. Here are the tweets with the translations, they are cute:

So when I heard about that tweet with Eiji Moriyama where Kubo said that his wife loved what Renji said in that scene, I tried to find it. I went to the Eiji Moriyama's twitter and, searching for his tweets with Tite Kubo, it was easy to find them. This conversation appears on 2 tweets, I've taken an screenshot of both and put the translation below to be more understandable:

What Kubo wrote in the first tweet is this:

"ちなみに当初は恋次の「誰が放すかよ馬鹿野郎が」も入る予定だったんだけど、LINEの規定で「馬鹿」がNGということでお蔵入りになりました。”

and its translation:

"By the way, we originally planned to include Renji’s line, “Who’s going to let you go, you idiot?”, but it got scrapped because LINE’s guidelines prohibit the use of the word “idiot.”"

And, when I got it translated, I thought the translator machine hadn't translated that, "you idiot", well, because that line had to be "you bastard", that Renji was saying to Aizen, and bastard was surely the word that LINE had censored, because, why were they going to censure "idiot"? it's a mild insult. And most of the translations of the chapter I had read, fan translation, Viz, and the official Spanish one, said "bastard" as an insult aimed at Aizen:

I used more translation machines, and of all them translated it "you idiot", so I was confused.

But that "you idiot" sounded familiar, I remembered Renji often called Rukia like that. I checked if the Renji's line that Kubo had written on the tweet, was really the same as what was written on the Japanese text of that panel. And it was the same. Well, Kubo had used only kanjis for the word 馬鹿野郎 = "you idiot" = bakayarou, on that tweet; on the manga Renji says the same but he replaced the first 2 kanjis of "baka" with Katakana, so Renji said: バカ野郎 in the panel , but it's still pronounced the same, "bakayarou", and when you translate it with the same translator machines, the result is the same "you idiot". I searched for moments in the manga where Renji says that, "you idiot", to Rukia:

Surely there are more, but these ones I found them quickly because I remembered them. Here Renji used the 4 kanjis for "bakayarou" as on Kubo's tweet. I don't know why, in the panel of chapter 173, Kubo had Renji saying the same word but with half katakana/half kanji, but it means the same.

So, here I realized that the translations with that "bastard" aimed at Aizen were, probably, all wrong. It seems the word "bastard" is simply said "yarou"; "bakayarou" is "idiot", but it seems it's still a strong word, enough to be censured by LINE. Renji uses that word with Rukia, but by the way he is saying it to her, we can say he says it in an affectionate mode, but in his rough style.

Then, in this scene in which I thought Renji was indirectly saying sorry to Rukia, saying to Aizen that he is not going to let Rukia go, and calling him a bastard, instead, Renji was talking directly to Rukia, telling her, first, "I'm not letting go of you" and then “Who’s going to let you go, you idiot?", with the flashback of when Rukia let go of his hand because he let her go to be adopted. This is a more personal apology to her, he is talking directly to Rukia, and he is basically saying that only a stupid, crazy, person would let her go. He is admitting his mistake from the past, talking directly to her. In the previous page, Renji was talking to her too:

And in the next page Renji was still talking to her, and it'd be:

The other day I found on Twitter that someone had uploaded some photos of pages of the manga, with what I think it's the Spanish translation of Argentina, and this page says "I'm not letting go of you" and "Who’s going to let you go, idiot?", so, apparently, the correct one. So, at least this editorial translated it correctly:

So, even 20 years later, lol, you can still discover new translations mistakes by the editorials that translate Bleach. It's a pity we have to read translations and not the original text, because we are believing and discussing wrong things.

Renji saying to Aizen that he is not going to let Rukia go and calling him "bastard!" was, really, pretty cool, but Renji talking to Rukia and apologizing directly to her makes it more personal, and it's more romantic. I like both, but canon is always better because it's what really happened.

[tumblrhalix]

WHY WAS RENJI THE ONLY ONE WONDERING WHY URAHARA HAD CHOSEN RUKIA TO HIDE THE HOGYOKU?

I've always wondered this. Thanks to Klub Outside we know that was what Renji wanted to ask Urahara, and Urahara told Renji a half truth and half lie, but it seems Renji was satisfied with that.

Well, we know Rukia is very important to Renji and he is always worried about her, and, of course, that is a good reason for the question/s that he wanted ask Urahara about her. But, there are other people who also worry about her, and they didn't seem to be wondering the same question. We can think Kubo wanted that Renji would have this role to show his concern for Rukia because he is the one closest to her and he is her romantic interest. But it's strange that even Rukia herself wasn't wondering that question, and she should be the most interested in wanting to know everything about what Urahara had done to her. And it's also strange that Renji didn't want Rukia to know that he was going to ask Urahara about her:

Maybe that Renji didn't want to make her worry if he thought his questions to Urahara were important enough to affect Rukia, but again, why Rukia didn't asked herself the same questions. Another thing that it caught my attention is that, although the scenes with Renji trying to ask Urahara his questions are treated in part in a comical way, there is this panel where Renji has a serious look and the panel is darkened, implying that this matter is really important to him and giving the impression there is some hidden mystery about it.

We can say that Kubo already hinted at Renji being the one worrying about this matter in these panels from chapter 175, when Aizen reveals that Urahara had hidden the hogyoku within Rukia's soul. Here Kubo bothered to make a close-up panel to show Renji, hurt, but probably listening to Aizen:

We see Rukia was astonished when she heard Aizen's explanation, Ichigo too, so, why didn't they ask Urahara the same question as Renji did later? It looks like Ichigo only thought that an apology was needed, but no explanations, from Urahara:

One thing I find interesting about the close-up panel of Renji in chapter 175 is that Kubo put it just before Aizen clearly reveals the truth, that Rukia was, in fact, the soul that Urahara chose. And to me this implies that when Renji heard Aizen say that Uraraha hid the hogyouku in a soul, still not saying who, Renji immediately understood that soul was Rukia. Neither Rukia or Ichigo figured out it with just that, they only got surprised when Aizen clearly said that it was Rukia the chosen one. Kubo could have put that Renji's close-up panel at the same moment as Rukia's and Ichigo's reaction panels, next to them, but he chose to put it before Aizen cleary said it. I think this and the fact that only Renji wondered why Urahara had chosen Rukia can have a relation. This can imply that Renji knows something about Rukia that not even Rukia herself is aware of. Renji is the one who knows her best and he is also the one who knows her since they were kids. I've been wondering if Renji witnessed or noticed something strange when he lived with Rukia in the Rukongai, or when they were at the academy, something that it had him wondering some things about Rukia.

I've also thought if Urahara hid the hogyoku inside Rukia at some point during the years when Renji still lived with her, and Renji noticed something/has some sort of memory about it, and not what many people think, that it happened when she went for the first time to the world of the living with Kiyone, an event that Rukia doesn't remember, which, yeah, it's pretty suspicious. But there are also some answers from Kubo in his interviews about some Bleach movies that might imply that Kubo didn't want that the movies touched on Renji and Rukia's past together, because then restrictions would be needed. I explained about this here , and I wondered why Kubo wouldn't want that the movies would tell some story about Renji and Rukia when they lived together, if he, supposedly, doesn't have to tell, in canon, more about that period.

The fact is that there are questions about the hogyoku and Rukia that Kubo hasn't still explained, for example, Kubo was asked, in an interview in 2008, when Urahara had hidden the hogyoku inside Rukia and he answered that was a secret, and this hasn't still been revealed in the manga, despite the manga is finished. And it's clear from Aizen's explanation in chapter 175 that he implied he knew that Rukia had the hogyouku inside her before she went to Karakura, so we also have to know when, and how, Aizen found out that Rukia had it. Kubo has to explain too why Rukia's cover in chapter 266 has a different typeset for her name and for her surname, because he himself has said there is a a secret about it. So we hope that he is going to explain and develop these mysteries, in a future manga, and maybe then we'll know if Renji was aware of more things than we thought.

[tumblrhalix]

Renji's poems

I wanted to analyze these 2 poems that are in the volumes with Renji's covers. I've read some English translations, the Viz ones and the fan translations, and they are a bit different from the translations that these poems have in the official translation of the volumes published in my country, Spain. And I think those small differences, in my opinion, make that the poems have more sense and helped me to understand them better.

Volume 11 poem

届かぬ牙に　火を灯す あの星を見ずに済むように この吭を裂いて　しまわぬように

The English fan translation of this poem was this:

I will light a fire on an unreachable fang, so that I won't have to see that star, so that I won't let it tear at my throat.

And the Viz one is:

Light a fire to the fang that cannot be reached so that I do not have to see that star so that I do not slit this throat

These 2 translations are basically identical.

The Spanish (from Spain) translation (I don't know if I got to translated it well to English, but I hope the difference is understood):

In his fangs, which cannot reach it, a flame is lit, so that he does not have to look at that star, so that his voice does not fade.

(In the original Spanish:

En sus colmillos, que no pueden alcanzarla, se enciende una llama, para no tener que mirar a esa estrella, para que su voz no se apague.)

The last two verses don't really change , they basically mean the same in all the translations. Well, in the Spanish translation the poem is written in the third person, but, whether this is right or wrong, that doesn't change the meaning. The difference is in the first verse. In the first two translations they both talk about a fang that cannot be reached, but in the last one it's the fangs which can reach ("it", supposedly referred to the star). And I think this makes more sense knowing Renji's story in that volume, and the title of the volume "A star and a stray dog", and what Renji says in chapter 98: "I bark at the star but I don't have the courage to jump and grab it", the dog is Renji, and so the poem talks about fangs, his fangs. He can't reach the star, who is supposed to be Rukia, and she appears with an ethereal appearance on the chapter cover where their story is told and that it basically has the same title as the volume cover:

"An unreachable fang" of the other 2 translations really doesn't make any sense if Renji himself is that fang/s (can't he reach himself?). The next parts of the poem are similar in all the translations, and the meaning looks more understandable,

"so that I do not have to see that star so that I do not slit this throat"

or

"so that he does not have to look at that star, so that his voice does not fade."

Here Renji is saying that his suffering is so much that he would bark so much (continuing with his metaphor with a dog) to the point his throat would get slitted, and thus his voice would get lost, all of this because he can't reach the star, Rukia. So, to endure this suffering, it would be better for him if he doesn't see the star, he yearns for her so much but he can't be with her, or, other interpretation might be that he can only look at her, from afar, and he wants more than that, so it would be "so I do not have to (just) see that star". So that seems to point at the 40 years where Renji and Rukia didn't talk to each other. Renji wanted to go to meet her, but he is told is better for both of them if he doesn't, so he tries with all of his willpower to avoid her, the same as she did, because at least this way the pain is less.

Then we have that "light a fire" "lit a flame", which appears in all the translations. Why a fire? What does this mean? I had some ideas but I wasn't totally sure, until I saw the volume 73 poem and the drawing above it that Kubo drew:

It's Zabimaru shikai, Zabimaru with the appearance of having been burned. Plus, Zabimaru shikai is thooted, it has what looks like fangs. So in the volume 11 poem, the fangs have to be a referrence to Zabimaru, which is a symbol of Renji himself too. He lighted a fire on Zabimaru in the volume 11 poem. Now, to continue the explanation about why a fire, the volume 73 poem gives the answer. There are differences in the different translations too:

Volume 73 poem

牙より滴る火は消えず 刃立つ野を焼き払い 友の姿を炙り出す

The English fan translation:

Fire, dripping from my fangs, does not disappear But keeps the battlefield burning Bringing the true face of a friend to light

The Viz translation:

The fire that drips from fangs does not fade The blade burns away the field Revealing my hidden friend

The Spanish (from Spain) translation:

The fire that falls from the fangs does not go out. rising up in arms and razing the fields with fire I reveal the form of my friend.

(In Spanish:

El fuego que cae desde los colmillos no se apaga. levantándome en armas y arrasando a fuego los campos revelo la forma de mi amigo.)

The first 2 verses are similar in all the translations and they basically mean the same, and with this poem is when I realized that fire is referred to Renji's power, his zanpakuto power, this was more obvious seeing what his new bankai did in his fight with Mask, Renji burned him. In both poems Kubo uses "fire" to describe Renji's power, it falls from his fangs, his zanpakuto. In volume 11 the fire was lit, his power started being really developed in a serious way, Renji needed to get stronger because he couldn't reach the star, Rukia. Renji knew that he had to get stronger to be able to see and talk to Rukia, their relationship depended on his power, that was what motivated him to get more, and thanks to his power he became a vice-captain, what put him on par with Rukia's social level. Whether or not he thought he was capable of achieving this goal, he at least felt he was doing something to be able to be with her, reach the star.

However, in volume 73 poem, it does the impression that he is not desperate anymore, surely because he fixed his relationship with Rukia, but his fangs continue still dripping fire despite that fact. He is still getting stronger and developing his power, but his motivation to get stronger has changed. Now this power that continues falling from his zanpakuto fangs has a different goal, now his power simply helps him to fight: "but keep the battlefield burning", this means that he is still developing his power, but to be a better fighter, it's not anymore a way to reach the star that he couldn't reach, because he has already reached the star, he already has a relationship with Rukia.

About the last verse, here is where there are differences in the translations that can change the meaning, depending on how people interpret it, what "friend" Renji is talking about. In the fan translation it looks like is referred to a person, the Viz one is more ambiguous, and the Spanish translation is more clearly referring to a "thing", not a person. When I read "I reveal the form of my friend" was clear to me that he is talking about the new form of Zabimaru bankai, he reveals the form of his new bankai, his friend is Zabimaru, this basically means that Renji is now on good terms with Zabimaru and because of that his zanpakuto spirit revealed him its true power. Renji's cover and his poem are on volume 73, but I think Kubo wrote this poem thinking about the chapters where Renji reveals the new form of his bankai. At that moment Renji could't have that volume cover (the volume 63), but when he finally put Renji on a cover he wrote a poem dedicated to that moment, the reveal of his new bankai.

[tumblrhalix]

The databook that came with the Jet artbook showed that Kubo had drawn another cover for chapter 173, the image on the left, before he finally decided to change it for the definitive one we know. Not much is said about this change in this databook, except that the final version showed with more intensity Renji's intention to protect Rukia.

The 2 covers are pretty different. When I saw this first cover it seemed to me like an actual past scene where Renji is training, because it looks like he is wearing a sleeveless shirt (although it's not that clear because the drawing is still unfinished) and he is wiping away the sweat and blood with it. It might be from his last training before finally reaching bankai, which was important to be able to save Rukia, or it can represent his past trainings during the years before, when his aim was to be stronger than Byakuya.

I've always thought that the definitive 173 chapter cover, with Renji and Rukia, is a symbolic drawing of Renji and Rukia's separation. But now, thinking that the first cover might be an actual past scene, it made me wonder if the final cover can be a real scene of Renji and Rukia's past, not only a symbolic representation of their separation. And I think it's possible to see it as a real scene.

Following with my previous analysis about that they might have had a sort of relationship during 9 years after Rukia was adopted, this might be a scene where, for example, Renji was training, because of that he is shirtless, Rukia had gone to see him, and here he paused to get some rest and go to talk to Rukia, Renji was already barefoot and Rukia took off her shoes to be comfortable. Or it could be taken even further, the cover also has an erotic air to it precisely because Renji is naked from the waist up and they are both barefoot. I've read some people say that it looks like they just had sex and then put some clothes on. The truth, the first time I saw this cover I had something of that impression too. So, we can imagine they couldn't stop their romantic tension, and it happened what had to happen between two persons who like and love each other. Analyzing the cover, Rukia's expression and posture transmit resignation and longing, she looks sad and pensive. It looks like she is nervously interlacing her fingers. Renji's posture is more energetic, his body and muscles seem to be tense, but his head and back are slightly tilted, he looks depressed, and he is pressing the sides of that small wall. Both have their heads turned towards the other, in a way that conveys yearning but fear to look at the other in the face. Going by their body language, we can speculate Rukia had told him something he didn't like, for example, that they had to stop talking/seeing each other.

And, why did they have to stop seeing each other? Maybe during some time they had been ignoring their feelings because they couldn't have a romantic relationship because of their very different social status, and they tried to keep it just a friendship and nothing more, but that finally didn't work. And Rukia was aware that Byakuya wouldn't approve a romantic relationship between her and Renji, and if it happens and it's ever discovered, she knows Byakuya and the name of the Kuchiki family will be damaged, and she doesn't want to harm Byakuya with her behaviour, and she can also think that Renji, apart of herself, could get into trouble. So she told Renji that she wants to stop seeing him. Or even maybe Byakuya already found out that there was something between them and warned Rukia about the consequences if she continues her friendship with Renji, or if she aspires to have something romantic with him. And here Rukia told Renji that they should distance from each other from now on, because seeing each other is going to make them suffer. Renji doesn't want, but he reluctantly agrees to do it, because maybe that is better for Rukia, and he also feels guilty of this complicated situation because he is the one who didn't stop her when she got the adoption offer.

There is also the scene in chapter 682 where it seems implied that they, purposelly, wouldn't even pass by each other, that they themselves were the ones who had decided to do that: to avoid each other:

But, in chapter 144, it looks like Renji did really want, at least, to cross paths with her and approach her, but it seems that Rukia didn't:

Because that "she knows it herself", here Kira is pointing at the fact that Rukia herself doesn't want to approach Renji, she knows her place, she is going to keep her distance from him. She didn't even try to look at him here, when Renji was deeply looking at her. I think Rukia did notice his intense look, but she kept her gaze fixed ahead. So, I suppose here Renji had to accept their separation was going to be so extreme, there was no room even for the exchange of some words when they stumbled upon each other. Now, the question is why Rukia had that attitude with Renj, if she was still angry at him because he agreed with her adoption. This is what I have, partially, always thought. Probably, after some time, she wasn't angry at him anymore, at least not as much as before, but she didn't want to approach him because that could make her suffer, because she still loved him.

But, in the case of this idea that Rukia and Renji still had some sort of relationship after her adoption, it had to happen a scene where they decided to stop seeing each other, and it might be the 173 chapter cover one. And the scene in chapter 144 might be the following one after that: Renji can't still accept it and looks at Rukia longingly when she passes in front of him accompanied by her brother Byakuya, he wants to approach her, but Kira warns him. I find interesting that "it's for your sake... and hers too" I wonder what Kira thinks it could happen to Rukia if Renji approaches her or if she goes near Renji, what's wrong with talking to an old friend, or just saying hello and exchange a few words with him, what is going to happen to a member of the great noble familes for something so innocuous? I think that Kira knew that Rukia was in love with Renji, and their relationship being or becoming romantic is what was dangerous for her, or at least it would put her in a difficult situation with her family. Or Kira thinks Rukia is protecting her own feelings not interacting with Renji, precisely because Kira knows that she loves him.

Renji already had the idea of being stronger than Byakuya since the moment Rukia was adopted by him, but I think after this scene of chapter 144 his interest was reinforced, he had to reach her social level, and both goals are, in fact, joined, because to become at least a vice-captain he had to get stronger. And, in canon, when he became a vice-captain, a rank that it's said that it put him on par with Rukia's social status, is when he decided to talk and approach her again.

One of the things I find most attractive about the idea of the cover being a real scene is that we might have a very important RenRuki scene from their past, not only a really beautiful symbolic drawing, and we always had it in front of our eyes and we hadn't realized it yet.

Anyhow, it's still just an interesting idea to analyze, but probably much less likely than them not talking to each other since Rukia was adopted, because Kubo always puts the emphasis of their separation on the scene of the academy when Rukia receives the adoption offer and she lets go of Renji's hand, which he has used 4 times in the manga (although, on the other hand, we might say that maybe Kubo repeated that scene so much instead of drawing new panels, because he didn't want to show more of the kind of relationship they really had). But I also think that Kubo is hiding something from Renji and Rukia's past, and this is one of the reasons because he chose not to show Rukia's meaningful past scenes with Renji in Rukia's flahbacks in her fight with As Nodt. During those almost 50 years since Rukia was adopted there can have happened many things that Kubo hasn't still told, for example, when, how and why Rukia mentioned Renji during those years, since that was what made that Byakuya called Renji by his first name when he became his vice-captain.

[tumblrhalix]

I'm going to talk about the title of this novel, WE DO knot ALWAYS LOVE YOU, that it's very interesting because it can have various meanings.

We know that Kubo has said that he himself was who came up with this title, he said it on Klub Outside. He has also said that "knot" is a reference to chapter 144, when Yumichika talks about Renji and Rukia's broken relationship and that it's going to be much more difficult to tie it again than it was to untie it:

So with that "WE DO knot" we know that Renji and Rukia got to tie their relationship again. And, if this was what they wanted, it wasn't only their friendship what they wanted to tie, because to tie = to marry in the novel title. They have colored the knot in red, so it seems a reference to the red string of fate. That "WE DO" can also be a second meaning as a reference to what they say when they accept to marry in the ceremony, although it is rather "I do" but, it's undertood. And "WE DO knot" can also be a second reference to "tying the knot" as a "we get married". These last meanings are very possible second ones, but the only one which is canon for now is Kubo's answer about the reference to chapter 144.

The truth it's a pretty romantic title, it has too that "always love you". I think with this line it's clear that Kubo is saying that Renji and Rukia have always been in love with each other. Plus, "knot" is written different, in color and size, so there is like a separate title that is read "WE DO ALWAYS LOVE YOU", which is like affirming that they have really always been in love with each other. And it's "WE", so it's referred to both, both of them always loved each other. It might be taken as a wedding wow too, as a "I will always love you". It's written in the present tense, but it has that "always", so I think it probably refers to both, the past and the future.

A last meaning that the title might have is if we read it as "WE DO not ALWAYS LOVE YOU" so it's not a "knot" but "not". And this might be a reference to the 40 years of separation where they didn't talk and even avoid each other. Again it's referred to both, "WE". During those years they both couldn't love each other, they couldn't have a romantic relationship.

It seems like a very well thought out title.

[tumblrhalix]

When I saw Rukia's and Renji's poses in this really cute new Bleach merchandise, they seemed perfect to be sitting together, so I inmediately thought to do an edit like this one, they sitting next to each other with their hands touching.

[greatkiryukazuma]

If you highlight Tutorial in main menu of Bleach: Rebirth of Souls, it gives you a RenRuki image.

[tumblrhalix]

Many years ago I read an entry from the Livejournal Soul_Society, which was a very active place in the fandom during the first years of the series, where someone found very interesting the similarities between Renji and Rukia's symbology in chapter 98, and a famous poem of shakespeare, and this person wondered if Kubo based it on that poem. The post:

KUBO TITE IS A GENIUS!!!!

Okay, well, I've been in this community for a super long time but I've never posted. I've also been into Bleach for a super long time, and h

The poem :

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark,

It's clear that last line reminds a lot of the "A star and a stray dog" title. That bark, even though is not referred here to a dog but a ship, is very easy to associate it to a dog .

If Kubo really based Renji and Rukia's "star and stray dog" symbology on it, he should have read the poem in English, because that "bark" is only related to a dog in the English language. Kubo has used some references for characters' symbology in other languages, like "Rosa Rubicundior, Lilio Candidior" for Renji and Byakuya, for a chapter and a volume title too, which is part of a song in Latin, although in this case he used the exact words of that song, not a resemblance of it.

That Shakespeare's poem talks about true love that overcomes all the obstacles, so it fits very well with Rukia and Renji's story, their love for each other remained through time and a long separation where they couldn't talk to and cross each others' path. They finally got to be together and marry, and too, in Renji's case, his love for Rukia was what kept him focused to overcome his fears and his self-imposed limits.

Even though Kubo wouldn't have really used that poem as a reference for "a star and a stray dog", it's really curious that the similarities are many.

[tumblrhalix]

When I talk about the period of Renji and Rukia's separation I usually say "almost 50 years" or "more than 40 years" of separation. Because there are 2 chapters where are said those 2 different statements:

-In chapter 179, Byakuya tells Rukia about her sister Hisana, and he says she died 50 years ago, and then 1 year after this he found Rukia and immediately adopted her:

-Then, in chapter 00-sideB, Ikkaku mentions that Renji's will has been strong for 40 years but that it's about time that they (Renji and Rukia) have the relationship that they used to have:

To make both stataments coincide I always think that Ikkaku's was just an estimate, and he knew they were some years more, he just rounded it (although that rounding it should have been 50 instead of 40). I think Byakuya is more reliable than Ikkaku in this case, because Byakuya must perfectly remind the exact date of his wife's death.

But, thinking about this matter, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe they are referring to different things. Byakuya is indeed saying the period of time since Rukia was adopted until the moment he tells Rukia about Hisana in chapter 179, and that time is 49 years.

But what Ikkaku is talking about is Renji's will to endure not talking to Rukia. So this would suggest that there was a period of time since Rukia was adopted, so 9 years, where Renji and Rukia still talked to each other, and then something changed/happened and both decided to stop doing it, and even avoided each other.

In the flashbacks of chapter 144 Renji had the intention to approach/talk to Rukia, but Kira warned him about it, so it looks like Renji didn't really have the intention to stay away from her since she the moment she was adopted:

And after this is when Renji tells Ikkaku and Yumichika that he has the goal to surpass Byakuya.

When I read those flashbacks of chapter 144 I thought they would take place little time after Renji graduated from the academy and started his life as a shinigami in a division. But it could be that before these scenes, and during 9 years, this include years of academy of Renji after Rukia was adopted and the first years of Renji as shinigami, Renji and Rukia had some sort of relationship where they sometimes talked to each other and tried to keep a friendship but that finally didn't work because, for example, they wanted more but that couldn't be with their current circumstances. If they interacted during some years after the adoption that would also explain that Byakuya calls Renji "Renji" because Rukia called him like that at that time where she still kept contact with Renji.

Both chapters were published with just a difference of around 6 months, chapter 179 is in volume 21 and chapter 00-side B in volume 23, so I don't think Kubo forgot he had made Byakuya say 49 years since Rukia was adopted. Or perhaps it was a typo and they wrote 40 instead of 49 in the 00-side B chapter, lol. Or Ikkaku only took into account the years that he had known Renji when he arrived at the 11th. I still think that Renji and Rukia stopped talking since Rukia was adopted. But I find interesting it might exist something we didn't know of Renji and Rukia's past during their separation.

[brujeria-histeria]

I think its more since Ikkaku knew him since he was in 5th squad first. Also Renji might've not had the resolve to get Rukia back at first because he fought himself about not getting in the way. Eventually he realized he wanted her back.

[tumblrhalix]

When Renji said he didn't want to get in the way, I've always interpreted it that he was referring to not get in the way of Rukia being adopted, this is, that was the best for her and he wasn't going to stop her despite his feelings for her and even the feelings he thought that Rukia had for him. Basically he decided for both of them. Those words appear just after Renji is aware that Rukia is very disappointed with his decision when she removes his hand, but he is trying to convince himself that this is the best for Rukia, and he is not going to interfere even though it hurts her too, so he kept telling himself to stay out of her way during those moments, to stop himself from doing what he really wanted, to tell her to reject the adoption offer, to tell her to stay with him:

I think Renji did want to keep at least a friendship with her, he had given up his feelings for her but I don't think he had given up his friendship with her.

But, until now I thought they had kept separated since the same moment of the adoption because of Rukia herself, because she felt very hurt by Renji's attitude during their separation and because he decided for both of them, and because to interact with him with restrictions was painful to her. But now, I find it an interesting option they kept some sort of relationship, and then something happened. Even reading again chapter 144 flashbacks, it looks like someone more or less forbade them to keep their relationship because it was going to a dangerous route (romantic love), could it be Byakuya? It's true they might have been aware of this too since the first moment Rukia was adopted, but I think important nobles can still have some sort of relationship with common people

[tumblrhalix]

When I talk about the period of Renji and Rukia's separation I usually say "almost 50 years" or "more than 40 years" of separation. Because there are 2 chapters where are said those 2 different statements:

-In chapter 179, Byakuya tells Rukia about her sister Hisana, and he says she died 50 years ago, and then 1 year after this he found Rukia and immediately adopted her:

-Then, in chapter 00-sideB, Ikkaku mentions that Renji's will has been strong for 40 years but that it's about time that they (Renji and Rukia) have the relationship that they used to have:

To make both stataments coincide I always think that Ikkaku's was just an estimate, and he knew they were some years more, he just rounded it (although that rounding should have been 50 instead of 40). I think Byakuya is more reliable than Ikkaku in this case, because Byakuya must perfectly remind the exact date of his wife's death.

But, thinking about this matter, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe they are referring to different things. Byakuya is indeed saying the period of time since Rukia was adopted until the moment he tells Rukia about Hisana in chapter 179, and that time is 49 years.

But what Ikkaku is talking about is Renji's will to endure not talking to Rukia. So this would suggest that there was a period of time since Rukia was adopted, so 9 years, where Renji and Rukia still talked to each other, and then something changed/happened and both decided to stop doing it, and even avoided each other.

In the flashbacks of chapter 144 Renji had the intention to approach/talk to Rukia, but Kira warned him about it, so it looks like Renji didn't really have the intention to stay away from her since she the moment she was adopted:

And after this is when Renji tells Ikkaku and Yumichika that he has the goal to surpass Byakuya.

When I read those flashbacks of chapter 144 I thought they would take place shortly after Renji graduated from the academy and started his life as a shinigami in a division. But it could be that before these scenes, and during 9 years, this include years of academy of Renji after Rukia was adopted and the first years of Renji as shinigami, Renji and Rukia had some sort of relationship where they sometimes talked to each other and tried to keep a friendship but that finally didn't work because, for example, they wanted more but that couldn't be with their current circumstances. If they interacted during some years after the adoption that would also explain that Byakuya calls Renji "Renji" because Rukia called him like that at that time where she still kept contact with Renji.

Both chapters were published with just a difference of around 6 months, chapter 179 is in volume 21 and chapter 00-side B in volume 23, so I don't think Kubo forgot he had made Byakuya say 49 years since Rukia was adopted. Or perhaps it was a typo and they wrote 40 instead of 49 in the 00-side B chapter, lol. Or Ikkaku only took into account the years that he had known Renji when he arrived at the 11th. I still think that Renji and Rukia stopped talking since Rukia was adopted. But I find interesting it might exist something we didn't know of Renji and Rukia's past during their separation.

[recurring-polynya]

Sorry if you have been asked this before but I was wondering is there some reason why Kubo never really showed too much regarding Rukia’s feelings towards Renji ? It’s not only her but even Gin & Ichigo with Rangiku & Orihime !! Like he gives enough so people can sense something but he doesn’t give a lot away. Is it about interpretation or he just simply doesn’t want to write romance too deeply ??

Kubo has said quite plainly that he doesn't want to put romance at the forefront. I think he's said this various times in various ways, but here's a pretty definitive quote from an interview he gave at the 2018 San Diego Comicon:

Q: Speaking of Ichigo's relationships with his friends, there seems to be a love triangle between Ichigo, Rukia, and Orihime. Do you delve more into this in later volumes? A. Tite Kubo: (laughs) I get asked about that a lot! I don't want to make Bleach into a love story because there are much more exciting things about their personalities and things that they can do instead of getting into the romance aspect of their relationships.

Kubo's answers are sometimes a little cheeky, but I don't see any reason to read this as anything other than face value. He may have had additional reasons to leave romance out of the story--it's a shounen and he didn't think that stuff would be of interest to the core of his readers, he didn't want to deal with angry ship opinions, etc, etc, but the long and short of it is the guy said "this is not a kissing story" and it's not.

Not to get too nitpicky--this was an interview, there's some degree of translation involved--but I actually find this kind of funny because while I agree that it's not a romance, I would *absolutely* classify Bleach as a love story. Bleach is about 600 love stories. It's about the love between a boy and his precious friends, the love between big brothers and little sisters, about the love between captains and lieutenants, about love that can only be expressed in battle, about love that turns poisonous and corrupts, about love that saves and purifies, about a love for the world you live in and want, with all your heart to make better. And while it's not a romance, I think it is about romantic love as well.

So, even though that's the real reason, I think it is also perfectly in-character for Rukia to act the way she does and I want to yap about it. I can tell right now this is gonna get long, so I am going to put it under a cut.

Just to get it out of the way up-front, I will briefly cover the other characters you mentioned. Both of this could easily merit their own essay, but I want to talk about Rukia, so I'm gonna keep it brief.

My interpretation on Gin and Rangiku is that they were not on romantic terms at any point of the canon timeline. My guess is that when she made it to the Academy and caught up with him again, it very quickly became obvious that he was no longer being genuine with her, and I think she cut him off. He is on a mission for revenge; she doesn't understand why he acts the way he does and distances herself from it. That being said, I (and I think many people?) find their parting scenes to be deeply, tragically romantic. I think this depends on your definition of "romantic." It never would have worked. He ruined it. If he had lived, it would change nothing. But Othello loved Desdemona, too. A story being a tragedy doesn't preclude it being a love story.

Ichigo is a teenage boy with a heart the size of three worlds. I think the amount of emotion he would like to leak out of his body is zero. I think the amount of emotion that does leak out of his body is so high that the signal-to-noise ratio makes it very difficult to determine discern anything meaningful. My reading of Bleach is that he does have special feelings for Orihime and that they are a slightly different flavor than he has for other people, but it's super hard to tell because he makes the same loving puppy eyes at Chad and Uryuu and Renji and Grimmjow. This guy is constantly torn between loving everyone he knows with the luminosity of a small star and trying to act too cool for school. Also, he's very young. He's still figuring this out, too.

Okay! Let's talk about Rukia!!!

The thing about Rukia is that she is really, really uncomfortable expressing affection. In the flashback scenes where she talks about how much she admired Kaien and Miyako, she's shown standing far away and looking at them from a great distance. When Byakuya compliments her bankai, she squeezes her eyes shut and has to look away.

Ukitake comments at how remarkably "open" he finds her to be with Orihime, even though what they are actually doing is training. You want to see a love confession? Here's Rukia's love confession to Orihime from We Do (Knot) Always Love You (Renji is here, too):

Feeling a little shy and fidgety, Rukia hesitated a few times as she replied to Orihime. "Th-that's because, Inoue I consider you……my……b-best girl-friend! So therefore……I thought…I should tell you first……" She spoke as her last few words became a little mumbled. "……your face is redder than the time I asked you to marry me ya know." "Sh-shut up!!"

A thing I really like about this though, is that while it is portrayed as something that sometimes holds Rukia back in her relationship, it's not portrayed as some sort of fatal flaw. She's a private person, and that's ok. This isn't a quality we often get to see female characters have. If this were a romance story, maybe we'd have to see her overcome this, but it's not! It's an action story and Rukia is a cool and stoic character, which is exactly how she wants to be!

I'm always pounding my shoe on the table over this, but I really, genuinely think that a significant chunk of Renji's character/personality design was specifically to be Rukia's love interest, which I think is based as Hell of him. He's good-looking, he's cool, he's devoted to her, he's powerful along the rules of the worldbuilding, but not in a way that overshadows her. And he meets her where she is.

The scene where Renji carries Rukia down the 8,000 flights of Soukyoku Hill stairs is, in my opinion, the most romantic scene in all of literature. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Rukia is so upset about being rescued, she is cannot stand the fact that anyone cares about her, or worse, that they would risk themselves for her. It's so clear that Renji understands this, and in the gentlest possible terms, asks her to accept his (and Ichigo's) help, as if she has any say in it at this point. He doesn't even make eye contact as he very obliquely says Let us care about you.

This causes Rukia, the most repressed woman in the universe, to hunch in on herself so that he can't see her cry and then he tells her to shut up. I am making little graspy hands at my computer as I write this. This is so good. Imagine. Imagine someone understanding you so well that they would spare you from your own emotions in this way. I am going insane.

This is not a Hallmark Christmas movie. This is a love story for those of us who struggle to connect with others.

I want to kind of hop out and say that I think there's a certain kind of person (me), who gets interested in romances almost exclusively from stories that have little-to-no romantic content. This is not an accident. For me, this is how I like it. I want to read about characters who save the world and I want them to be very business-up-front about it. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't mind if they kissed on screen once, but I don't need it. I have an imagination for that. I have fanfiction for that. I literally want them to do it on their own time. You know what's romantic to me? Meaningful looks. Backing each other up. Fighting in synch. Matching outfits. This is romance to me, and I think Rukia might actually agree with me.

This isn't to say that this is all of Rukia and Renji's relationship. I think they have talked about feelings, I think they've probably held hands and kissed or whatever, but where and when and how it happened is their own business. I think Renji probably wouldn't have minded getting on on-panel smooch, but this feels exactly how I think Rukia would want her relationship portrayed: We looked very cool and then, several years later, we were married.

Oh, and they also very much did get the horniest panels in all of Bleach, which, weirdly enough, I think Rukia would also approve of.

[tumblrhalix]

Great insight about Rukia's personality. I agree with most of what you said.

But, I still miss something from Rukia's side with respect her relationship with Renji. I don't have any doubt that Rukia has been in love with Renji, at the very least since the academy. I interpreted it like that since their backstory was told in chapter 98, and the following scenes in other chapters only reinforced that view. What I miss is seeing Rukia's inner thoughts, or her expressing them, about Renji. Not really her romantic thoughts about him, but her thoughts about the painful, and long, situation their relationship went through, their long separation. I think that, precisely, the fact that Kubo was conscious that Renji was Rukia's romantic interest, and that she was in love with him, has made that he considered it was better not to touch on Rukia's thoughts about Renji.

Because, when I read the manga, I could see that Renji had been a very important person in Rukia's life. They lived together and survived together, went together to the academy, at some point they only had each other. Obviously they were very very attached to each other. The moment of the separation from Renji seemed even harder for Rukia than for Renji himself, and it wasn't on good terms either. However, we are never shown Rukia's thoughts about her lost relationship with the person who had been so important for her during a lot of time, and that it was also broken in a traumatic way. Rukia has expressed her thoughts about other important relationships and persons in her life, like Kaien, Ichigo and Orihime, even Byakuya, with who she also had a complicated relationship. But nothing about the almost 50 years, not only not talking to, but even purposelly avoiding Renji.

When you know their story, you can only find this strange. It's like the elephant in the room, it's there, it's so obvious, but Kubo doesn't touch on the subject. I know Kubo said he has a motto that it says "if it is hidden, it is the flower". He also said in an interview "it's more important what I don't draw than what I draw", what basically means the same too. This can have been the reason because, in her fight with As Nodt, Kubo omitted Renji in her fears among the persons that appear in her thoughts. It seems clear it was intentional, and the reason has to be to make us think why Renji is not there, when he is one of the most important persons, and at that moment I also think it was her most important relationship too, in her life.

But I think, maybe if Renji and Rukia's relationship wouldn't be a love story, which Kubo doesn't like to show as much as other type of relationships, he had put Renji in that scene, with the flashbacks of Rukia and him that define their relationship, and what Renji is to her. What I think is that maybe that the important moments of Renji that Rukia might have remembered, at least in the manga, because the anime changed it, might have been new ones we haven't seen yet, some of them of explicit romantic nature. After all, there have to be an explanation for something so strange that it looks intentional.

If I have to say what I would like to get the most from a new Bleach manga is more flashbacks of Renji and Rukia. More flashbacks of when they were kids, flasbacks of the academy period, and flashbacks of when they avoided each other. Only a few panels explaining something new of their past would make me happy. I love Bleach flashbacks, of other characters too, they add new pieces to complete the characters' and their relationships puzzles. And the puzzle of Renji and Rukia's relationship is in their past, it's a relationship that it was already written at the start of the manga, it only had to be revealed, and it was doing it by the pieces of their past that Kubo told us from time to time. The truth is I want more pieces.

[tumblrhalix]

With this last one, they have animated the scene where Rukia lets go of Renji's hand, 3 times. First, in the old anime. Then, in the movie Fade to Black the scene appears again in Renji's memories when he is trying to remember Rukia. And finally, from Rukia's perspective, I like a lot this last one, it's a different angle and the focus on their hands separating is powerful, and the light of that large window in front of Renji adds a special atmosphere.

[tumblrhalix]

So, I was looking for a good quality image of this screenshot of the Bleach anime 20th anniversary video, and I couldn't find any with a clear image. Someone on Twitter posted quality screenshots of the video with Rukia's memories of Ichigo, Kaien and Byakuya, and all of them were good, except this one which still looked blurry. Then I realized that those scenes are supposed to be from Rukia's perspective, and in this scene with Renji the image is blurry because she was crying! Rukia had tears in her eyes and because of that the scene is seen blurry. It's a great and subtle detail. I love it

[tumblrhalix]

Question 606 from Klub Outside is an interesting one, because it can give a glimpse of the years of separation of Rukia and Renji, and of how Rukia dealt with the situation.

Translated by @reikorun Q606. 2024.04.15 Byakuya addresses individuals outside his family either by their last name or full name, so is t

Because, Byakuya has called Renji "Renji" since the start of the manga, this is when they arrived at Karakura to capture Rukia. This is before Renji and Rukia's reconciliation, so, why did Byakuya know that Rukia called Renji "Renji"? This implies that Rukia often talked about Renji. It should be often because, that Byakuya decided to call Renji by his first name implies that Byakuya had gotten so used to hearing about him that he already felt Renji as someone familiar, so it was just natural for Byakuya to call him simply "Renji". Or Byakuya saw something else in the way that Rukia talked about Renji. Because Rukia calls Ichigo "Ichigo" too, and Byakuya still calls him by his full name or simply "Kurosaki", even although he has come to appreciate him. So something must have noticed Byakuya that impelled him to call Renji by his first name.

I don't know if Byakuya and Rukia talked much between them about Renji, because they had a distant relationship that it made the communication between them difficult. Maybe Byakuya sometimes asked Rukia some things about her past, and then here she talked about her friends and the person who was with her at the academy. But also, with his indirect methods to worry about Rukia, perhaps Byakuya asked other people that Rukia talked to, maids and servants, or her division members, about what she would tell them. Even maybe Byakuya was sometimes secretly listening to some Rukia's conversations, lol. I've also read some theories that maybe Rukia said Renji's name in her dreams.

Another possibility is that during those years of separation, despite they avoided each other's paths, Renji and Rukia met sometimes when Byakuya was accompanying her, and they acted very awkwardly while Byakuya raised an eyebrow, and then Byakuya would ask Rukia about that guy.

Through all of this it's probable that Byakuya realized of the importance of Renji for Rukia, and I even bet he guessed the type of importance. Because I had always speculated that Byakuya had chosen Renji as his vice-captain because he wanted to know more of him because he knew of Renji and Rukia's past relationship, and this new answer from Kubo almost makes me sure of it. Because I doubt that Byakuya would choose someone like Renji, from the 11th division, not the type of shinigami that he would prefer to have next to him, if not for an ulterior motive.

I'd like some manga panels about this matter.

[recurring-polynya]

People now hopped on this theory that the reason renji wasn't in rukias fears was bc she had absolute confidence in him and his abilities and she had nothing to worry about when it comes to renji as opposed to byakuya, ichigo and orihime. And i wish i could subscribe to this theory as well but i feel like that's not how fear works? And if rukia believes renji is invincible and nothing bad can ever happen to him ever... that's not really a good thing. That's why renji being the "fear you've been trying to avoid" worked so well, but kubo had other ideas i guess. How probable do you think this theory is?

I am always going to look to the manga first for "what Kubo meant", and I think the manga-only scene where Rukia tells Renji to go hide himself between fights is a pretty strong argument that she does not have anything close to "absolute confidence" in him. Further, the strongest evidence that she might have that view is the fact that she tells him he can handle Mask by himself, except that the delivery of that line in the anime came off to me as a lot less "I have full confidence in you, babe" and a lot more "This man is a clown and you can have him."

It feels like the anime is trying to cram as much as they can into a very strict time limit, and they are stripping out what they gotta in order to do that, most of which is character stuff. The way they paced the episode made me feel like you were supposed to be focusing 100% on how spOoOooky As Nodt's fear powers were, and 0% on whatever Rukia was going through internally.

The OG anime did Renji dirty constantly. TYBW has not been nearly so bad, but they are definitely reducing Rukia and Renji's role from that in the manga (and perhaps they are doing that to everyone. I can't speak to that, but R&R are my blorbos, so I can say for sure that they have both lost a lot of scenes and not been prominently featured in trailers despite being longtime primary characters.) Whether or not "something bad happening to Renji" was the reason he wasn't included in Rukia's first fear montage, the fact that they didn't just plop him into it suggests to me that Kubo had a reason, and that it was a strong enough reason that they kept it that way. Personally, I'm just going to keep believing my unhinged secret Renruki content conspiracy theories, and the fact that the anime cut it just supports the idea that there was secret, volatile content that was worth cutting.

[tumblrhalix]

I've seen that this scene, that it has now been adapted by the anime but in a very different way, is being analyzed to prove if Renji is one of the most important persons to Rukia or not.

In the first place, that people have doubts about Renji's importance to Rukia is laughable. Renji and Rukia, who lived together during many years, and part of that time were just the 2 of them, surviving in that poor place, obviously forged a very strong bond. Renji was the most important person to Rukia during years. And later, after a very long and unwanted separation, they regained their previous relationship where they have again the strongest bond. Renji is the person with who Rukia spends her time in the Soul Society when she is not working or is with her family Byakuya, he was and still is her best friend (by the time this scene appeared in the manga).

What I don't undertand is why some people instead of thinking why Renji is not there, reach the conclusion of "Renji is not that important to Rukia", which doesn't make sense. I very much agree with what a Japanese renruki fan said on Twitter: "I don't think you're the right person to read BLEACH if you think that Renji's absence in that scene = poor Renji". kubo drew it like that because it has a meaning.

In fact, the Japanese fans I've seen on Twitter have been trying to interpret that scene to understand why Renji is not there, because the reason is never going to be because he is not really important to Rukia, so those fans try to find the real answer.

I had told my interpretation of those scenes of the manga here:

sin titulo

RENJI AND RUKIA'S RELATIONSHIP IN THE BLEACH RELATIONSHIP CHART AND CHAPTER 568 The fact that the creator/s of this chart didn't put a line

The truth is I was confused and I'm stil confused about the meaning of which were Rukia's fears in that scene, and why Renji is not there.

And the anime adaptation has made it even more confused, because they have simply copied what happened with Byakuya in his fight, in his case with Rukia's image, and in Rukia's case with Ichigo, Orihime and Byakuya. Why did they change it? No idea, and I'd find strange that it was Kubo's idea because the scenes in the manga have, in my opinion, a much deeper meaning, they were Rukia's meaningful memories of those relationships, and Rukia might feel fear of losing those relationships, not of their deaths, just like she lost her relationship with Renji. But in the anime it looks like Rukia is afraid they die so that would mean they really try to put those persons as the most important or closest to Rukia, which doesn't make sense if Renji is not there.

But with what I don't agree at all it's with the explanation that Rukia is not afraid for Renji because she knows he is very strong now. I doubt that Rukia think Renji is stronger than Byakuya or Ichigo, who went to the Royal Realm too, and, above all, it's just natural to be always afraid for the safety of the loved ones when they are doing something dangerous, like fighting someone very strong, or simply to be afraid to someday lose the loved ones.

I was very interested in how they were going to adapt the scene in the anime, and I didn't like it, it was much better with Rukia's flashbacks of important moments of those relationships. At least they didn't add Renji in the anime scene, what means kubo didn't forgot Renji when he drew that chapter in the manga, and it means that Kubo left Renji out on purpose, for a still unknown reason. I'm happy for that, and, despite I'd someday want to know why, in fact Renji is really being highlighted with respect to Rukia's other relationships precisely by not being in that scene.