The head-canon post.
So since I might as well do SOMETHING with this account: headcanon! This here post will have a list of handy headcanon ”facts” (which do not mean they have to gel with your headcanon at all, or even canon for that matter: this is just general ideas and speculation that I have) that may help people understand how I read him and his motivations. With that said, onto the list!
*Shinji Hirako’s ACTUAL first love, was none other than fact Unohana Retsu. When he joined the academy he was a gangly, smartmouthed kid from a poor district, used to hard knocks and thinking of the shinigami as little else but a mean to climb higher in the world. Unohana however was pretty, smart, kind, friendly and just about nothing like he expected a shinigami to be, and when the two of them met he decided almost then and there that he was going to be captain one day, so he could stand at the same level as she did... and ask her out.
Of course, going through the academy and becoming a shinigami he gradually matured, made friends, and eventually wanted to be a captain for reasons beyond winning the fair healers hand. Did he ever, at any point spill the beans to her? Hard to say, but she probably knew. She was so clever it was downright uncanny, which Shinji did not mind in the least. He also still thinks she is BANGING.
*Shinji is downright obsessed with killing Aizen. He feels personally responsible for allowing things to go as far as they did, and considers himself at fault much more than Urahara should feel: all Urahara did was figure something out that Aizen most likely could have figured out on his own given enough time, Shinji was responsible for his entire rise to power. Aizen chose Shinji because Shinji was clever enough to help his cause but not clever enough to truly hinder it, and Shinji is determined to never end up in a situation like that again.
*As a result of this determination, Shinji has trained himself to quickly adapt to new and strange situations. He’s the first one to try and close distances between new factors and the Vizard, even if he’s never completely honest and open.
*The Vizard consider Shinji their leader for a variety of reasons, most having to do with his intelligence rather than his strength. There is the aforementioned obsession with killing Aizen which makes him ungodly motivated, but also his ability to adapt to new environments. Shinji has always been the one to keep up with the general trends and changing behaviours/codes in human society, and even if he always keeps a certain personal style about himself, he’s also the guy who’s job it is to figure out how the Vizard should adapt to whatever society they happen to live in at the moment. Moving, housing and integration are matters that mostly fall on Shinji’s shoulders. He is quite simply the most human of the Vizard, and that makes him the best choice of leader in the human world.
*On another note: Shinji does NOT look Japanese. Or even Asian for that matter. That long, straight, blond hair? Natural. He has long since given up trying to work out exactly WHY everyone in Soul Society get’s a Japanese name and why it all looks Japanese when the Japanese are far from the majority of the worlds population (logically speaking wouldn’t they be living in some sort of Chinese/Hinduistic kind of afterlife if that was the deciding factor), but has decided to simply roll with it.
*Shinigami can speak whatever language they need when they enter the living world. Being dead and coming from some sort of big swirling nether that gathers all the deceased to them does funny things to your head, and hence all Shinigami can instinctively understand whatever language is being spoken at them at the moment, as well as speak it themselves.
*Shinji is not overly concerned with whatever nationality he once had, and has sported a number of fake names as the Vizard moves around the human world. They’re mostly European fake identities, mostly Northern and Western European.
HEAD-CANON REGARDING HIS INTERACTION WITH OTHERS.
Now, this is a kind of tricky part, because it also involve how I read OTHER characters, readings people who play those characters may not necessarily agree with. But I think it’s important to Shinji’s character to note this, so I’ma write it up anyway. Everyone is of course free to their own interpretation of these characters, but this is a short hand list of how I see them, through Shinji’s eyes.
*Love is without a doubt Shinji’s primary BFF in the Vizard. They’re similar in the manner that both are intelligent, observative, and fun-loving guys with wacky senses of humor. Shinji can banter with Love over this and that and utter nonsense for hours, just as much as they can discuss serious matters and play-insult each other. Though Shinji is not that big a fan of Shonen Jump, preferring slightly more demanding fare such as seinen, josei and books, he follows most of their comics anyway because he likes to keep up with Love. Love IS however far colder and less caring about others than Shinji, and often prefers the most brutal and straightforward approach to Shinji’s tricksy ones. This can become a point of contention between them, but by now they know the matters they will disagree on and as such don’t talk about them that often.
*Rose and Shinji get along alright with each other, but not to the same extent as Love and Shinji. Their common interest in music is a strong uniting force, even if Rose’s taste is a bit too foppish and outrageous compared to Shinji’s more down to earth, rythmic and swinging tunes. Rose primadonna behaviour and flaring temper isn’t exactly a MINUS to Shinji as he has played on it many times for laughs, but it can get a little irritating sometimes when Rose refuses to adress problems directly and starts being all passive-agressive. In short, Shinji thinks Rose is a funny primadonna, and good company as long as he has the good sense to not screech over every little injustice done to him.
*Shinji likes Hachi. He and Hachi have this… weird kind of relationship where Hachi knows that Shinji is not nearly as mean as he acts like but keeps quiet, and Shinji heckles Hachi as much as he truly admires and considers him to be the badass doting uncle of the group. Hachi bears with Shinji’s heckling because he knows that’s how the pecking order goes (Hiyori > Shinji > Hachi and Hachi loops back to owning all the Vizard at times). Hachi is the adult who takes care of things in a calm, mature manner and Shinji considers him a godsend (lol) for it. Mad props to you old guy. Even if you should go on a diet.
*Lisa is Shinji’s second BFF in the group. She’s smart, sharptongued, hot as hell and likes to wear short skirts: how can Shinji do anything BUT love her? They shared sarcastic banter even before they became Vizards, and he likes to borrow her choice of reading material if it’s not too schmoopy and romanticized. Shinji prefers the stuff that makes you think for yourself, and as such is not very hip on the most mainstream of romance stuff that she reads because she consumes almost ANYTHING in that genre. The simpler stuff when she’s bored, the more advanced fare when she’s in that mood. They both have great fun mocking the everliving hell out of the genre’s most schmoopy and trashy fare… and yes, they have MST3K’ed Twilight together.
They’re more friends than anything else, even if Shinji occasionally playflirts with her they are just too different to be anything more than that. Lisa is much more of a cynic than Shinji, and much more aggressive: this leads to the occasional difference of opinions between them, and Shinji and Lisa treat those much the same as how he and Love treat theirs: by steering clear of them.
*Shinji and Kensei and Mashiro… is one paragraph because more often than not, Shinji thinks of them as a unit, rather than two different people. They’re almost always together and always very loud. He totally considers them the manzai team of the Vizards.
Shinji prefers to let Kensei handle Mashiro because she is honestly too much of a wild child to stand on her own for long. She goes with her instincts and gut-feelings and asks brusque and rude questions which Shinji always tell her to ask Kensei instead. Kensei seldom approves of this, mostly because HE often tell Mashiro to ask those kind of questions to Shinji. Kensei and Shinji are REALLY different from each other: Kensei being a rough, rowdy fighter type who’s always loud and says his piece without hesitation, while Shinji being more laidback, colder, thinks before he acts and talks and doesn’t give much for fighters honor.
This should mean they don’t get along that well, and Shinji loves teasing the hell out of Kensei through since Mashiro is ever so easy to trick into doing fun stuff and Kensei’s reactions are always worth a laugh, but at the end of the day there is a certain kind of understanding between the two. This makes it so that they can’t actually say they’re CLOSE, not like Shinji, Love and Lisa, but they really do get each other… because they are both the total tools of their respective loli-companions.
As a final note: Lisa bought him the pink apron, and Kensei can’t say no to gifts. And that’s why he does most of the housework.
*Finally, Shinji and Hiyori. This is going to be long.
Hiyori is violent, rude and does not give Shinji one ounce of respect. She frequently hits him, insults him and everyone around her. So why doesn’t he do anything abot it? Because it’s what they do. It’s their routine, if you will. Shinji gives back just as good as he gets, and has been doing so for long.
Shinji is protective of Hiyori, not to an overwhelming degree, but moreso than he is of any of the other Vizard. Hiyori took the longest to dominate her Hollow, Hiyori is the youngest all the Vizard, Hiyroi deals with having her home taken away from her and being forced to live in a world where they have to constantly move and uproot by lashing out and being angry, and Shinji gets that. Shinji takes the brunt of her abuse because he’s the leader, and that’s what a leader should do. She’s the runt of the litter, the one everyone else keeps an eye on and is patient with.
So yes, Hiyori gives Shinji a lot of grief: they can hardly go a minute of conversation without sneaking in insults towards the other. But at the end of the day Hiyori makes Shinji feel relaxed. Hioyri doesn’t worry about tactics, strategy, where to go next and what to do, she leaves all that to Shinji. And Shinji almost never has to talk to her about serious matters but can concentrate fully on their good old smacktalk routine, she’ll call him baldy and he’ll call her brat and that’s all they need to say. They help each other feel like nothing’s ever changed and everything is familiar, comfortable and safe. As long as Hiyori insults Shinji, Shinji feels at ease. As long as Shinji calls Hiyori a brat, Hiyori feels taken care of.
It’s a weird kind of co-dependent, abusive yet heartwarming relationship and yes… yes, I cannot deny it. I ship it. OOCly, that is. ICly well GOD no. Shinji would rather french a Hollow than think of Hiyori in that way. Even if Hiyori grows up and attain curves to rival BLEACH’s upper echelon of topheavyness Shinji will REFUSE to think of her as anything but ”That brat that I used to wipe the nose of and freak out by pretending I was gonna shove her snot in her face”.
*Rose, Love and Lisa have a… Thing. A kind of relationship that is one of those complicated Things that you can’t really define in words because it’s just a lot of Stuff. Shinji is aware of this Thing they have together, but doesn’t mind because they have known each other for a long-ass time and they don’t let it get in the way of their duties. He does however tease them about it non-stop.
*Speaking of relationships, Shinji HAVE had relationships with humans! Some women actually find a guy with confidence, smarts, great hair and a greater vocabulary attractive, you know! But they’ve all been brief affairs, one night-stands because he doesn’t believe humans and shinigami can have relationships that last Sorry IchiRuki fans please don’t lynch me. Or Shinji.
He tries to spread them out over the years however, because he notices that Hiyori always gets upset when he ”fraternizes” outside the group. Team unity being something he’s pretty serious about he tries to follow her wishes as often as he could, which DOES lead to some… frustration, on his part.
*Shinji is actually quite the Disney-fan! It started with their old, classic shorts which he found hilarious. Weirdo talking animals moving in perfect sync with music? How could he not love it? For the same reasons he’s also a big fan of Looney Tunes, who is Disney but often without the jazzy tunes but with more raunchy humor. Shinji loevs raunchy humor.
*This has also made him be the chaperone whenever Hiyori and Mashiro wants to see an animated movie, since Kensei has no patience with cartoon nonsense and Love prefers more mature fare. They have seen pretty much everything Disney has put out during the 20th century. Mashiro likes them because of all the pretty colors and funny animals and cool action scenes. Hiyori likes them because of the cool action scenes and pretty princesses. Shinji is well aware of this, and boy howdy does he tease Hiyori for it. Coincidentially, his favorite movies are the Lion King and the Emperor’s New Groove.
*Yes, by the way, this does mean that sometime during Ichigo’s training session Shinji had prepared a musical montage that had Be A Man. Ichigo probably didn’t mind until Shinji started singing along.
*Though Shinji is often the guy with the most connections to the outside world, his pop-culture knowledge is NOT up to the very last minute. He keeps a general eye on meme’s and the like, but recognizes cultural flotsam that will be over as soon as it arrived for what it is and ignores it because frankly, he HAS more important things to worry about. He lets the other Vizards keep up with the latest entertainment news (such comics, manga, books, movies, music) and celebrity gossip, because he can both take that stuff and leave it.
*The way I write Shinji is mostly inspired by the anime. I made the account after watching the Turn Back The Pendulum-arc, and Masaya’s nasal, drawn out voice just brought this image to mind of a guy with a really thick accent, full of slang and grammatical twists and turns that had a certain sense of elegance even if it wasn’t anywhere NEAR correct or proper. As a result I realize that it may be difficult to read at times, and that it probably is quite far from Shinji’s actual dialect, but I’m unfortunately just having so much fun writing Shinji this way that I am unlikely to change my ways anytime soon.
Shinji in relation to his old guard. The captains that he once knew. Their interactions and relationships weren’t as dynamic as the ones he has with his fellow Vizard, since they were always much more steeped in rules and regulations.
*Ukitake was that guy who is really nice and who everyone gets along with, but who in Shinji’s eyes was a little bit bland and who he never quite gelled with. He respects Ukitake’s wisdom and leadership, but there really wasn’t much they had in common. A good man though, likeable enough.
*Shinji was a bit more fond of Shunsui, if only because they could be fellow horndogs with one another. Many were the times they spent debating the finer qualities of various ladies of Soul Society.
*Unohana and Shinji shared a respectful and generally amiable friendship. They were both perceptive and intelligent people, she was just a lot more laidback about it and he never felt comfortable about telling his raunchiest jokes in her presence, so there was always a slight bit of tension there.
*Yamamoto is… well, he’s Yamamoto. Captain Badass, the biggest beard ever, the symbol of the shinigami themselves. Shinji had difficulties getting along with the old man, but had mad respect for his accomplishments.
*Urahara is a close friend of Shinji: more than anything Urahara is the guy who is THE most like Shinji in terms of personality, and they just GET each other. As he once said, the Vizard owe a great deal to Urahara Kisuke and Shinji intends to repay the debt in full. Not much more to say here since they haven’t been shown interacting that much: they’re just really good pals and people who understand each other, even if Shinji will never stop teasing Urahara because he remembers the days when the storeowner was a hatchling fresh from the egg and trying his best to be captain.
*Shinji and Yoruichi is the story of two people who are comrades in snark, witticisms and raw sex appeal.
Okay, maybe the latter applies more to Yoruichi than Shinji. But just like with Urahara and Shinji, Yoruichi and Shinji get along great and really understand each other, having interacted as captains and possible even before that. She’s funny, quickwitted, hot as hell and easy to talk to: how could he not love her?
Okay, so love is the wrong word. Shinji is unabashedly in lust with Yoruichi, but that and considering her a friend is about as far as his feelings for her goes. He thinks she and Urahara are pretty much perfect for each other and has no inclinations or desires to get between them. He respects them both for all the sacrifices they have made for the Vizards, and if they need anything they just have to ask: Shinji’s got their back. Especially Yoruichi’s.
That is all for now, but if you have any other questions regarding subjects you have on your minds, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll see what I can whip up!
*Shinji Hirako’s ACTUAL first love, was none other than fact Unohana Retsu. When he joined the academy he was a gangly, smartmouthed kid from a poor district, used to hard knocks and thinking of the shinigami as little else but a mean to climb higher in the world. Unohana however was pretty, smart, kind, friendly and just about nothing like he expected a shinigami to be, and when the two of them met he decided almost then and there that he was going to be captain one day, so he could stand at the same level as she did... and ask her out.
Of course, going through the academy and becoming a shinigami he gradually matured, made friends, and eventually wanted to be a captain for reasons beyond winning the fair healers hand. Did he ever, at any point spill the beans to her? Hard to say, but she probably knew. She was so clever it was downright uncanny, which Shinji did not mind in the least. He also still thinks she is BANGING.
*Shinji is downright obsessed with killing Aizen. He feels personally responsible for allowing things to go as far as they did, and considers himself at fault much more than Urahara should feel: all Urahara did was figure something out that Aizen most likely could have figured out on his own given enough time, Shinji was responsible for his entire rise to power. Aizen chose Shinji because Shinji was clever enough to help his cause but not clever enough to truly hinder it, and Shinji is determined to never end up in a situation like that again.
*As a result of this determination, Shinji has trained himself to quickly adapt to new and strange situations. He’s the first one to try and close distances between new factors and the Vizard, even if he’s never completely honest and open.
*The Vizard consider Shinji their leader for a variety of reasons, most having to do with his intelligence rather than his strength. There is the aforementioned obsession with killing Aizen which makes him ungodly motivated, but also his ability to adapt to new environments. Shinji has always been the one to keep up with the general trends and changing behaviours/codes in human society, and even if he always keeps a certain personal style about himself, he’s also the guy who’s job it is to figure out how the Vizard should adapt to whatever society they happen to live in at the moment. Moving, housing and integration are matters that mostly fall on Shinji’s shoulders. He is quite simply the most human of the Vizard, and that makes him the best choice of leader in the human world.
*On another note: Shinji does NOT look Japanese. Or even Asian for that matter. That long, straight, blond hair? Natural. He has long since given up trying to work out exactly WHY everyone in Soul Society get’s a Japanese name and why it all looks Japanese when the Japanese are far from the majority of the worlds population (logically speaking wouldn’t they be living in some sort of Chinese/Hinduistic kind of afterlife if that was the deciding factor), but has decided to simply roll with it.
*Shinigami can speak whatever language they need when they enter the living world. Being dead and coming from some sort of big swirling nether that gathers all the deceased to them does funny things to your head, and hence all Shinigami can instinctively understand whatever language is being spoken at them at the moment, as well as speak it themselves.
*Shinji is not overly concerned with whatever nationality he once had, and has sported a number of fake names as the Vizard moves around the human world. They’re mostly European fake identities, mostly Northern and Western European.
HEAD-CANON REGARDING HIS INTERACTION WITH OTHERS.
Now, this is a kind of tricky part, because it also involve how I read OTHER characters, readings people who play those characters may not necessarily agree with. But I think it’s important to Shinji’s character to note this, so I’ma write it up anyway. Everyone is of course free to their own interpretation of these characters, but this is a short hand list of how I see them, through Shinji’s eyes.
*Love is without a doubt Shinji’s primary BFF in the Vizard. They’re similar in the manner that both are intelligent, observative, and fun-loving guys with wacky senses of humor. Shinji can banter with Love over this and that and utter nonsense for hours, just as much as they can discuss serious matters and play-insult each other. Though Shinji is not that big a fan of Shonen Jump, preferring slightly more demanding fare such as seinen, josei and books, he follows most of their comics anyway because he likes to keep up with Love. Love IS however far colder and less caring about others than Shinji, and often prefers the most brutal and straightforward approach to Shinji’s tricksy ones. This can become a point of contention between them, but by now they know the matters they will disagree on and as such don’t talk about them that often.
*Rose and Shinji get along alright with each other, but not to the same extent as Love and Shinji. Their common interest in music is a strong uniting force, even if Rose’s taste is a bit too foppish and outrageous compared to Shinji’s more down to earth, rythmic and swinging tunes. Rose primadonna behaviour and flaring temper isn’t exactly a MINUS to Shinji as he has played on it many times for laughs, but it can get a little irritating sometimes when Rose refuses to adress problems directly and starts being all passive-agressive. In short, Shinji thinks Rose is a funny primadonna, and good company as long as he has the good sense to not screech over every little injustice done to him.
*Shinji likes Hachi. He and Hachi have this… weird kind of relationship where Hachi knows that Shinji is not nearly as mean as he acts like but keeps quiet, and Shinji heckles Hachi as much as he truly admires and considers him to be the badass doting uncle of the group. Hachi bears with Shinji’s heckling because he knows that’s how the pecking order goes (Hiyori > Shinji > Hachi and Hachi loops back to owning all the Vizard at times). Hachi is the adult who takes care of things in a calm, mature manner and Shinji considers him a godsend (lol) for it. Mad props to you old guy. Even if you should go on a diet.
*Lisa is Shinji’s second BFF in the group. She’s smart, sharptongued, hot as hell and likes to wear short skirts: how can Shinji do anything BUT love her? They shared sarcastic banter even before they became Vizards, and he likes to borrow her choice of reading material if it’s not too schmoopy and romanticized. Shinji prefers the stuff that makes you think for yourself, and as such is not very hip on the most mainstream of romance stuff that she reads because she consumes almost ANYTHING in that genre. The simpler stuff when she’s bored, the more advanced fare when she’s in that mood. They both have great fun mocking the everliving hell out of the genre’s most schmoopy and trashy fare… and yes, they have MST3K’ed Twilight together.
They’re more friends than anything else, even if Shinji occasionally playflirts with her they are just too different to be anything more than that. Lisa is much more of a cynic than Shinji, and much more aggressive: this leads to the occasional difference of opinions between them, and Shinji and Lisa treat those much the same as how he and Love treat theirs: by steering clear of them.
*Shinji and Kensei and Mashiro… is one paragraph because more often than not, Shinji thinks of them as a unit, rather than two different people. They’re almost always together and always very loud. He totally considers them the manzai team of the Vizards.
Shinji prefers to let Kensei handle Mashiro because she is honestly too much of a wild child to stand on her own for long. She goes with her instincts and gut-feelings and asks brusque and rude questions which Shinji always tell her to ask Kensei instead. Kensei seldom approves of this, mostly because HE often tell Mashiro to ask those kind of questions to Shinji. Kensei and Shinji are REALLY different from each other: Kensei being a rough, rowdy fighter type who’s always loud and says his piece without hesitation, while Shinji being more laidback, colder, thinks before he acts and talks and doesn’t give much for fighters honor.
This should mean they don’t get along that well, and Shinji loves teasing the hell out of Kensei through since Mashiro is ever so easy to trick into doing fun stuff and Kensei’s reactions are always worth a laugh, but at the end of the day there is a certain kind of understanding between the two. This makes it so that they can’t actually say they’re CLOSE, not like Shinji, Love and Lisa, but they really do get each other… because they are both the total tools of their respective loli-companions.
As a final note: Lisa bought him the pink apron, and Kensei can’t say no to gifts. And that’s why he does most of the housework.
*Finally, Shinji and Hiyori. This is going to be long.
Hiyori is violent, rude and does not give Shinji one ounce of respect. She frequently hits him, insults him and everyone around her. So why doesn’t he do anything abot it? Because it’s what they do. It’s their routine, if you will. Shinji gives back just as good as he gets, and has been doing so for long.
Shinji is protective of Hiyori, not to an overwhelming degree, but moreso than he is of any of the other Vizard. Hiyori took the longest to dominate her Hollow, Hiyori is the youngest all the Vizard, Hiyroi deals with having her home taken away from her and being forced to live in a world where they have to constantly move and uproot by lashing out and being angry, and Shinji gets that. Shinji takes the brunt of her abuse because he’s the leader, and that’s what a leader should do. She’s the runt of the litter, the one everyone else keeps an eye on and is patient with.
So yes, Hiyori gives Shinji a lot of grief: they can hardly go a minute of conversation without sneaking in insults towards the other. But at the end of the day Hiyori makes Shinji feel relaxed. Hioyri doesn’t worry about tactics, strategy, where to go next and what to do, she leaves all that to Shinji. And Shinji almost never has to talk to her about serious matters but can concentrate fully on their good old smacktalk routine, she’ll call him baldy and he’ll call her brat and that’s all they need to say. They help each other feel like nothing’s ever changed and everything is familiar, comfortable and safe. As long as Hiyori insults Shinji, Shinji feels at ease. As long as Shinji calls Hiyori a brat, Hiyori feels taken care of.
It’s a weird kind of co-dependent, abusive yet heartwarming relationship and yes… yes, I cannot deny it. I ship it. OOCly, that is. ICly well GOD no. Shinji would rather french a Hollow than think of Hiyori in that way. Even if Hiyori grows up and attain curves to rival BLEACH’s upper echelon of topheavyness Shinji will REFUSE to think of her as anything but ”That brat that I used to wipe the nose of and freak out by pretending I was gonna shove her snot in her face”.
*Rose, Love and Lisa have a… Thing. A kind of relationship that is one of those complicated Things that you can’t really define in words because it’s just a lot of Stuff. Shinji is aware of this Thing they have together, but doesn’t mind because they have known each other for a long-ass time and they don’t let it get in the way of their duties. He does however tease them about it non-stop.
*Speaking of relationships, Shinji HAVE had relationships with humans! Some women actually find a guy with confidence, smarts, great hair and a greater vocabulary attractive, you know! But they’ve all been brief affairs, one night-stands because he doesn’t believe humans and shinigami can have relationships that last Sorry IchiRuki fans please don’t lynch me. Or Shinji.
He tries to spread them out over the years however, because he notices that Hiyori always gets upset when he ”fraternizes” outside the group. Team unity being something he’s pretty serious about he tries to follow her wishes as often as he could, which DOES lead to some… frustration, on his part.
*Shinji is actually quite the Disney-fan! It started with their old, classic shorts which he found hilarious. Weirdo talking animals moving in perfect sync with music? How could he not love it? For the same reasons he’s also a big fan of Looney Tunes, who is Disney but often without the jazzy tunes but with more raunchy humor. Shinji loevs raunchy humor.
*This has also made him be the chaperone whenever Hiyori and Mashiro wants to see an animated movie, since Kensei has no patience with cartoon nonsense and Love prefers more mature fare. They have seen pretty much everything Disney has put out during the 20th century. Mashiro likes them because of all the pretty colors and funny animals and cool action scenes. Hiyori likes them because of the cool action scenes and pretty princesses. Shinji is well aware of this, and boy howdy does he tease Hiyori for it. Coincidentially, his favorite movies are the Lion King and the Emperor’s New Groove.
*Yes, by the way, this does mean that sometime during Ichigo’s training session Shinji had prepared a musical montage that had Be A Man. Ichigo probably didn’t mind until Shinji started singing along.
*Though Shinji is often the guy with the most connections to the outside world, his pop-culture knowledge is NOT up to the very last minute. He keeps a general eye on meme’s and the like, but recognizes cultural flotsam that will be over as soon as it arrived for what it is and ignores it because frankly, he HAS more important things to worry about. He lets the other Vizards keep up with the latest entertainment news (such comics, manga, books, movies, music) and celebrity gossip, because he can both take that stuff and leave it.
*The way I write Shinji is mostly inspired by the anime. I made the account after watching the Turn Back The Pendulum-arc, and Masaya’s nasal, drawn out voice just brought this image to mind of a guy with a really thick accent, full of slang and grammatical twists and turns that had a certain sense of elegance even if it wasn’t anywhere NEAR correct or proper. As a result I realize that it may be difficult to read at times, and that it probably is quite far from Shinji’s actual dialect, but I’m unfortunately just having so much fun writing Shinji this way that I am unlikely to change my ways anytime soon.
Shinji in relation to his old guard. The captains that he once knew. Their interactions and relationships weren’t as dynamic as the ones he has with his fellow Vizard, since they were always much more steeped in rules and regulations.
*Ukitake was that guy who is really nice and who everyone gets along with, but who in Shinji’s eyes was a little bit bland and who he never quite gelled with. He respects Ukitake’s wisdom and leadership, but there really wasn’t much they had in common. A good man though, likeable enough.
*Shinji was a bit more fond of Shunsui, if only because they could be fellow horndogs with one another. Many were the times they spent debating the finer qualities of various ladies of Soul Society.
*Unohana and Shinji shared a respectful and generally amiable friendship. They were both perceptive and intelligent people, she was just a lot more laidback about it and he never felt comfortable about telling his raunchiest jokes in her presence, so there was always a slight bit of tension there.
*Yamamoto is… well, he’s Yamamoto. Captain Badass, the biggest beard ever, the symbol of the shinigami themselves. Shinji had difficulties getting along with the old man, but had mad respect for his accomplishments.
*Urahara is a close friend of Shinji: more than anything Urahara is the guy who is THE most like Shinji in terms of personality, and they just GET each other. As he once said, the Vizard owe a great deal to Urahara Kisuke and Shinji intends to repay the debt in full. Not much more to say here since they haven’t been shown interacting that much: they’re just really good pals and people who understand each other, even if Shinji will never stop teasing Urahara because he remembers the days when the storeowner was a hatchling fresh from the egg and trying his best to be captain.
*Shinji and Yoruichi is the story of two people who are comrades in snark, witticisms and raw sex appeal.
Okay, maybe the latter applies more to Yoruichi than Shinji. But just like with Urahara and Shinji, Yoruichi and Shinji get along great and really understand each other, having interacted as captains and possible even before that. She’s funny, quickwitted, hot as hell and easy to talk to: how could he not love her?
Okay, so love is the wrong word. Shinji is unabashedly in lust with Yoruichi, but that and considering her a friend is about as far as his feelings for her goes. He thinks she and Urahara are pretty much perfect for each other and has no inclinations or desires to get between them. He respects them both for all the sacrifices they have made for the Vizards, and if they need anything they just have to ask: Shinji’s got their back. Especially Yoruichi’s.
That is all for now, but if you have any other questions regarding subjects you have on your minds, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll see what I can whip up!