#at this point i believe takasugi and kouka are the same person lmao

[milesmoerales]

i’ve been thinking about this a lot: takasugi resembles kouka in a lot ways. they parallel each other, in my honest opinion. warnings: this post may contain spoilers and be biased since i love both takasugi and kouka. also, this is mostly my gushing hahaha

1. appearance

takasugi and kouka smoke a kiseru, have green eyes (kouka’s eyes are more likely teal), and are 5′7 feet tall. they also have alluring auras and share calm exteriors.

2. how they cope with loneliness

lonely people are more likely to smoke. there’s a causal link between the prolonged experience of loneliness and smoking. the loneliness appears to lead to an increased likelihood of smoking behavior. as we all know, both takasugi and kouka are usually seen smoking kiseru.

they both like solitude, but they’re also lonely. takasugi’s loneliness is caused by shouyou’s death and kouka’s is caused by her endless life and i believe smoking a kiseru is how they cope with loneliness because smoking may provide short-term relief of stress and anxiety.

3. takasugi-kamui and gintoki-kagura are likely mirroring kouka-kamui and kankou-kagura

kamui respects takasugi a lot. i mean he isn’t type of character who gets along easily with people, but he’s drawn to takasugi (despite he wanted to “kill” him the first time they met).

kamui barely gives a damn about other people except he cares a lot about his mother, kouka. it’s kind of surprised me when kamui (and harusame 7th division) took takasugi who’s in his comatose state to rakuyou and kamui also saved him when he’s about to fall from the cliff.

while the relationship between kagura and gintoki, it’s obvious the way kagura treats gintoki as her earth father. there’s a plenty of scenes when gintoki parallels kankou. also, kamui doesn’t respect gintoki the way he respects takasugi. kamui always has desire to kill gintoki (imo, aside from being strong samurai, the reason kamui wants to kill gintoki because he kind of reminds him of his father?).

4. sorachi uses flowers metaphors to describe takasugi and kouka

for takasugi is sakura (his yukata in the early manga is sakura patterns) and for kouka is bay flower.

sakura is commonly associated with samurai and its blooming season is described as powerful, glorious and intoxicating, but tragically short-lived. sakura really represents takasugi's life. he's powerful as a swordsman, people especially his subordinates admire him, but sadly he dies at such a young age after accomplishing his goals.

also, sorachi always associates takasugi with sakura petals. the image of falling sakura is meant to prelude the end of said flowers and it describes how takasugi lives, glorious yet short-lived.

while kouka is symbolized as bay flower because her name in kanji literally means bay flower. her name referencing how a flower that is picked will wither also referencing how when she left the planet and became ill.

5. takasugi has the same fate as kouka (and how takasugi/gintoki kind of resembles kouka/kankou) 

takasugi sacrifices himself to get his happy ending aka he wants gintoki to stop suffering and brings sensei, someone they love and respect a lot, back to life. he chooses to end his life as long as he’s by his best friend's side and the people he cares about are alive. takasugi is dying in gintoki’s arms.

it's the same how kouka sacrifices herself to be with her family. she chooses her own happy ending by living in her family's side rather than spend eternity living alone in a lonesome planet. kouka is dying is kankou’s arms.

takasugi happens to be an altana mutant just like kouka.