#bansai kawakami

[regnigt]

Gintama Flower Suite, Part 20: Sweet Pea for Bansai

I chose the sweet pea for Bansai for two reasons: the shape of the petals remind some people of violins, which together with its strong but sweet scent cause it to be associated with music. But the shape of the petals are also reminiscent of butterflies and moths, never inappropriate for a Kiheitai leader.

The purple sweet pea is associated with luxury, elegance, creativity, ambition, success, and admiration.

[incorrect-kihentai]

Takechi: Did you have to stab Gintoki?

Takasugi: You weren't there. You didn't hear what he said to me.

Matako: What'd he say?

Takasugi : 'What are you gonna do, stab me?'

Bansai: That's fair.

[massaccre]

Happy Birthday Bansai-san! 🎊🎂

[sankatsuka]

Bansai Kawakami and Kiheitai Discussion - The Humanity that Drives Kiheitai

After watching Gintama till the end, my favourite faction in Gintama is undoubtedly Kiheitai. The Liberation Army arc was my most favourite arc in the entire series - it had a really interesting commentary on characters impacted by the loss of their home and loved ones.

What stood out to me the most was Bansai's gradual realizations as he lived nihilistically down Takasugi's path of destruction. How Bansai has actually always carried the spirit of a Samurai who wanted to protect his country - his home. So he is the one able to open Takasugi's eyes to the present, to the fact that Kiheitai had become akin to a home to all of them who are just nobodies who have lost everything.

Warnings: I bring on some talking points from my previous discussion about Takasugi's character. My interpretation of Takasugi's character is heavy on Takagin. (read here)

The end of the Shinsengumi Crisis arc shows how Bansai is the most open about learning about other beliefs outside Takasugi's. This distinguishes him from the other members of Kiheitai we've seen so far, who seem to blindly be following him as they've lost all purpose. This hints that Bansai hasn't lost his purpose, and it's related to protecting people, with how much present-day Edo drew him in.

We are given confirmation during Kiheitai's formation that Bansai has always been living with that desire to protect the people of his country. He ends up joining Takasugi because there was no other way forward, but seeing Takasugi's charisma probably reinforced his belief that he would be able to protect this country. This is why Bansai isn't blindly devoted to Takasugi, and is able to see with his eyes that present-day Edo never needed to be protected. That it Kiheitai themselves who couldn't face the present.

He acknowledges that Kiheitai were the blind ones, blind to the people and themselves. This makes what Kiheitai truly is clearer to him: they were just a bunch of people who lost everything and wanted someone strong to exact their vengeance while carrying the weight of their anger. And Takasugi is a lost hero who strayed from his path away from the Joui 4 because he was too weak to face the present like them (I do think that Takasugi is most burdened by his guilt of choosing Gintoki over their teacher they fought for and cherished, like Enshou leaving his brother to die to be with his now-wife. But I don't think Bansai knew about this and thought Takasugi couldn't get over his anger of the lives lost only for his teacher to only die in vain. Like how nobody knows what Enshou had done to his brother to the very bitter end too...)

Having taken such lessons from present-day Edo and knowing what Kiheitai really is, Bansai's path became clearer to him. He has to be the comrade who spurs Takasugi to the right path, to rise and become the hero he really is, the one who moves forward because of the present living and not the dead from the past.

Bansai was no longer fighting to protect Kiheitai's ambitions of overthrowing the government, he would die fighting protecting the spirit of Kiheitai. Which he does by telling Takasugi he has to keep going because Kiheitai is always chasing him, not for their goal of overthrowing the country.

It's thanks to this and Kiheitai demonstrating Bansai's final words that Takasugi wakes up. He isn't a hero fighting to protect the country, he was just an ordinary person who has to live for his present - the Kiheitai who has always been chasing after him, not to achieve their ambitions that just proved pointless at the end.

The reason Bansai is the one capable of seeing Kiheitai for what it really is is probably because of what Takasugi saw in him when they met. Takasugi only chose to recruit Bansai at the start, whereas he showed disappointment in Henpeita's half-heartedness and straight up turned Matako away. Both of the latter two had given up on fully living as themselves, and Takasugi encouraged them to find their proper answers instead of relying on him and didn't deem them as strong enough to follow down his road with such fragile resolve--But Bansai didn't give up.

Bansai was still chasing after his desire to protect the country and it's people until the very end. He didn't have the eyes of someone who gave up and wanted to end things in the best way possible like Henpeita. Bansai was doing everything he can to protect as many as he could (Matako and the imprisoned Joui rebels, probably even placing a bet that Takasugi could bring about a miracle in the prison).

That's probably why Bansai didn't close his eyes entirely to the present-day Edo and the ideals they all live by. He's still chasing after the country he wants to protect, and there was no absolutely certainty Takasugi's methods were the answer. In the end, he finds his answer in the heroes that are powered not by the dead, but by the people who follow them (Joui 4). And he is capable of seeing that heroic spirit that should be in Takasugi, and how his sights should be on the Kiheitai that is chasing after him, and not the dead of the past.

For such a strong-headed guy who wanted to protect his country so strongly, Takasugi couldn't let Bansai's life go to waste to a country that forsake his efforts. Not when Takasugi knows the pain of trampling over corpses, and the country they were willing to put down their lives for wouldn't even carry that burden alongside them. Even if Takasugi himself didn't know where he was going, he was willing to put his trust in a miracle somewhere along the way - as long as he could protect these people.

For these people who were willing to put their lives down in the name of justice in a country that didn't even care about them, Takasugi refused to let them lose their precious lives that way. He spares Henpeita because of this, but also decides against recruiting him because he wouldn't drag down someone who still had a chance at living a normal life. Bansai was already at the stage of idiocy where he couldn't be saved anymore, so instead of leaving him to die for that meaningless cause, Takasugi recruits him. Because he was planning to fight till the very end for a miracle, and that was a better cause than the country for people who were willing to throw their lives away. Even if it was just blind confidence.

And because of this, Henpeita reaches out to Takasugi again, that the miracle he wants to bet on to keep living was Takasugi himself, instead of a normal life. Matako also proves that the same miracle she would bet her life on at a young age was Takasugi by joining them on the battlefield.

This was the Kiheitai Takasugi intended - a place that only had idiots and nobodies who would die for their justice, and he wouldn't let their deaths be wasted on the country that wouldn't honour their spirit.

(Because Takasugi detests himself for having forsaken his comrades' deaths, because he would have forsaken their wishes to save Shouyou for his own wish of being with Gintoki. So he takes it up on himself to make amends even as a dead person walking. I'm sorry I have to include so much Takagin, I have to emphasize why Takasugi cares so much about honouring people's lives.)

For that Takasugi, Bansai tells him that Kiheitai are always right behind him. Even if he's lost everything, as long as those eyes have something they are headed towards, Kiheitai will follow suit. Because they chose to follow Takasugi, and at some point found a home in each other. So they would fight to protect that home, instead of the country that they knew they've already lost their place in but still foolishly have the heart to want to protect.

So their deaths would never be wasted. Of course, he's free to make amends by sacrificing himself, but that's only at the very end after he's achieved whatever he was seeking.

But ultimately, it would've been better if they could all live normally in this home they found. As Bansai fights to the very end, he remembers that he and Henpeita resolved to die for the sake of a hero who could change the country. But now he's fighting for the sake of going back to the peaceful times where they can finally start facing each Takasugi for who he really is: their friend.

Because Bansai knows now, what spurred them on wasn't their ambitions to make a miracle to happen - it was the place they all found in Kiheitai.

(Also, I love how Bansai and Shinpachi have such strong parallels. Their shared connection with Otsu, Gintoki and Takasugi saving the other, Bansai protecting Shinpachi. It feels like the two of them share a strong love for the home that raised them, and Shinpachi may have ended up like Bansai had he been older and lost everything.

I wish I could've seen them spending more time together, Shinpachi may have been able to wake Bansai up to face the present before it was too late as it is in canon...)

[courtesanofdeath]

I will play you a requiem, I daresay.

happy birthday bansai ~

[jdramasource]

GINTAMA 2: RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN (2018) dir. Fukuda Yuichi

[ghostiekins]

Takasugi - Lantern Flowers: Latern flowers are often given as offerings to help guide the souls of the dead during Obon and Takasugi was drawn with them in the Pride Kakumei opening which I felt ties in a lot to his journey throughout the series.

Bansai - Periwrinkle: I think the Kiheitai in general is kind of heavily defined by their loyalty/feelings toward Takasugi so I chose periwrinkles which represent faithfulness and trust for Bansai, since he seems to have an absolute loyalty and trust towards Takasugi.

Matako - Carnation: Similarly for Matako, I chose carnations because they represent love and fascination and are also a gift typically given on Mother's day. I feel the combination of all of those attributes tied in well towards to Matako's feelings toward Takasugi.

[raccoonclty]

edo's worst emo band

[babygray]

Moon viewing.

From the 2023 Gintama calendar.

[thepixelblender]

[sandreeen]

Kubota Masataka (Kawakami Bansai) || Making of Gintama 2

[imyoiiiiichi]

[whosname]

I have to. I blame @joelletwo

An extra

[averagelonelypotato]

takasugi's weird and off putting self managed to pull in a baddie, a diabetic perm head, space merchant who vomits more than he gets laid, and a hot topic songwriter

[sakukaguxxi]

Gintama Kiheitai AMV

Song: Red Wine - Rolling Quartz

[gabriella0807]

My second Gintama edit. It's about the Shinsengumi Crisis Arc.

Song: Foo Fighters - Walk

Thank you for watching and for any kind of feedback. 💛��