CHARACTER
» Name: Ganju Shiba
» Fandom: Bleach
» Reference: http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Ganju_Shiba
» Canon Point: Chapter 182
» Gender: Male
» Age: Appears to be early twenties, actual age unknown. (Soul Society will never make sense.)
» Orientation: Unknown. He really doesn't have any interactions in the manga that would imply anything one way or another -- he doesn't show romantic or sexual interest in anyone (which makes sense, as most of his interactions occur while he's just trying to accomplish the mission of saving Rukia and get out alive -- not much time to worry about anything else). The only potentially relevant thing is his saying that Rukia must be really cute if all these guys want to save her and wanting to see for himself. He also admits that Yumichika's pretty good looking, for what that's worth, although it's really just an objective appraisal. He notably doesn't comment on Orihime's appearance -- he might just not be into the busty type after growing up with Kuukaku.


» Personality:

Ganju Shiba rarely makes a good first impression. He comes off as a loud, brash, arrogant punk -- running around town with his boar-riding gang and bursting into houses unnanounced, carrying all kinds of supposedly badass sounding titles, yelling and getting up in people's faces. If he was ever intimidating at all, though, he loses most of that edge after you've spent about two minutes with him -- as you soon notice the adorable bow on his boar, and find out that his gang has a 9 PM curfew, and that all his titles are self-declared.

He definitely seems immature when you first meet him; he's the youngest of the Shiba family, and it shows ("Bothering people is what the Shibas do best"). He lives with his older sister, Kuukaku, and defers to her -- he may protest and whine (but he was the one who started it!), but at the end of the day, he does what she tells him to -- he's not about to risk disobeying someone as scary as her.

But he's actually surprisingly capable and pragmatic, and can handle himself maturely and intelligently when the situation calls for it. When both he and Ichigo are too proud to openly train together, Ganju just happens to let Ichigo see his special technique and learn it for himself -- he's stubborn, but not pigheaded, and comes up with clever solutions. And he's got a quick and practical mind when it comes to battle; when he's up against someone stronger than himself, he focuses more on
strategy and getting out alive than on brute strength or honor (and the same goes for assisting others -- "I can't help you win, but I can help you get away"), making use of fireworks and sand bombs and anything else he has on hand -- and he's not too proud to beg for his life if necessary. And as brash as he can be, he can let go of his pride and be the mature voice of reason when he needs to be. He tells Ichigo to stop worrying about him and Hanatarou and focus on the person he's fighting, or else he'll be done for; he recognizes when he'll only get in Ichigo's way and vows to keep moving forward; he accepts the task of saving Rukia in Ichigo's place so that Ichigo's sacrifice won't be for nothing if he loses.

And he shows a lot of growth throughout the story in his attitude toward shinigami. His older brother Kaien had been killed by a shinigami (who, to his later dismay, turns out to have been Rukia), and when he first appears, he outright hates all of them, even beyond what's logical. (He says "A shinigami is a shinigami. There are no good ones or bad ones," not taking into account Kaien himself -- where does that put him?) Yet he hasn't completely closed his mind to them; he says that he wants to "know the reason why my brother never hated shinigami, why he believed in them even in death." And if the first few he met (Ikkaku and Yumichika) only solidified the things he hated about them, meeting Hanatarou Yamada ended up changing things completely. Hanatarou is the opposite of everything Ganju has thought a shinigami was -- meek and modest, self-sacrificing, good. The two of them end up mutually helping each other out a lot -- Hanatarou heals Ganju and is willing to risk his life to protect him and Rukia; Ganju carries Hana around to help him escape danger and ends up going out to confront Byakuya himself so that Hana doesn't have to.

With Rukia in particular, he initially refuses to help her upon finally seeing her and recognizing who she is ("No one would give his life for her, not this woman"). But he ends up continuing to help quickly after -- even if it's mostly for Hana and Ichigo's sake. And by the end, when she comes to apologize to Kuukaku, it's clear that he's forgiven her altogether.



» Appearance: Ugly. :| NO SERIOUSLY it's actually kind of a running joke in the series that he really isn't attractive at all -- people will throw insults at him and he'll protest all of them except that one, which he just dances around and never outright denies.

He's tall and muscular (the character book puts him at 6 feet and 234 pounds) with black hair that's on the long and shaggy side, always kept back out of his face under a bandanna. He's got a broad face with a strong jawline and a nose that's just a little crooked, and visible cheekbones. His brows are on the thick side; the left has two bare strips through it, where the hair was probably singed in a firework accident and never grew back properly. His eyes are a little beady and narrow, but have the long, thick lower lashes that are characteristic of the Shiba family. Like everyone else in Soul Society, he's always seen dressing in traditional Japanese clothing, though he throws a little gangster twist in there sometimes with sunglasses and fingerless gloves.



» Suitability: n/a


SAMPLES

» "amatomnes" Entry:

H-Hey, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Kidnapping and taking a man's clothes? Even if they aren't his best pants, that's still a damn shitty thing to--

--Oh, wait, there they are.

...Not that it makes the rest of this any better, though, so someone'd still better tell me what the hell you're all tryin' to pull here.


Ah, jeez, I wonder what time it--

Shit, Sis is gonna kill me.



» "amatomneslogs" Entry:

Ah... Shit, Hana, how'd you get to be so good at this?

That thought was still fresh in Ganju's mind when he awoke. Well, as fresh as any thought could be in his hazy, bleary state -- a single clear memory amongst a jumble of blurry thoughts.

And when the rest of his mind finally settled enough for that line to register with him -- for him to realize what he'd just dreamed and oh god what he was feeling down there, he immediately yanked the covers up over his head to hide the furious red color that suddenly flushed his cheeks.

Oh, man, he had so not meant to dream that, and-- wait, what the hell was this thing around his neck? And wait, since when did he sleep naked?

He tossed the covers back off and sat back up, lifting them up to look underneath to see if he'd somehow kicked his clothes off in his sleep, but as he sat up now, he realized he didn't even know where he was, because this sure wasn't the tatami mat he was used to sleeping on at his sister's house.

It was still dark, but his eyes were gradually adjusting, enough for him to make out the switch on the lamp and turn it on.

...What.

His sister had been known for her crazy tastes in architecture, but this still didn't look like anything he'd ever seen in Soul Society, and after simply blinking at the strange room he was in, he finally got up and hurried to the window.

"Oi, Bonnie-chan, you down there?" he shouted as he leaned out, probably waking up half the building. But Ganju had absolute faith in his brother, and so he had faith in the boar his brother had raised and trained -- if anyone could get him back home from whatever the hell this weird place was, it was Bonnie.


Unfortunately, Bonnie wasn't there.


He turned back from the window with a sigh, running his hand through his slicked-back hair. All right, all right.

Time to rely on his own resourcefulness.