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Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot
The manga did have a lot of Ichigo x Inoue already a lot in the original manga but never that strong. I'd say Kubo wasn't aiming at romance but the other staff members from the anime were confused as heck when you revise the ending sequences of the movie shipping.
Rukia and Renji had at least a backstory in the early volumes but the anime completely removed that in favor of Ichigo x Rukia content. The anime sure liked shipping.
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There were a lot of Orihime x Ichigo moments, but I'd say they were mostly one-sided. It was made clear from pretty much her first appearance that Orihime was in love with Ichigo, and that's been her drive throughout the entire series. Her confession before leaving for Hueco Mundo is the most romantic scene in Bleach. Ichigo never expressed romantic feelings for either Orihime or Rukia, but it was at least shown that he found Orihime very attractive when the outfit Urahara gave her in TYBW made him blush like crazy. Ichigo had other scenes where he displayed embarrassment seeing women in skimpy outfits or outright naked (the earliest was probably with Yoruichi), but not a single one with Rukia.
With Renji x Rukia, it's pretty much the other way around. It's made clear during Ichigo's fight with Renji that Renji loves her, but Rukia never seems to see him as a romantic interest.
Amusingly, Kubo was asked fairly recently on his website what he thought of the anime shipping Ichigo with Rukia, and he said he saw no such thing and certainly didn't give them any instructions.