The only thing at concerns me is the shipping half. Maybe it's just me losing my faith in people being able to be decent about this sort of thing, but there does tend to be a mutual tendency on both sides of the "main ships" to kinda gloat that a certain moment fails to meet fan expectations. I think a good shipping rule would be: talk about your ship, or if you're going to talk about an opposing one, be constructive and listen to what they have to say. If it gets to hairy, just agree to disagree.
That's my personal stance on that sort of thing, too. As long as people are being polite, they can defend their moonbat theories till the cows come home, and people are free to debunk you with canon evidence. I did plan to make a shipper courtesy guideline in the profile.

I think if people come at it without feeling like they have to win or prove that their ship is better, it may be easier to discuss things most people don't want to discuss.

Yep.

I also like the idea of character discussion. For a show with as long a cast line-up as Bleach, this could work well, especially if (like me) you don't particularly feel like joining over 9000 comms to make a post when you have no intension of contributing anything else. Most of the characters/ship comms are best suited for finding fanfics/art for your favorite characters, but not so much discussion.

I haven't even thought of a name for the place. Any suggestions?