#i understand sorachi now

[whosname]

Happy Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 day! White haired idiots, am I right?

[joelletwo]

wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

[azukisoul]

Translation of HijiGin manga: Diary Exchange by saki1010_gt (Twitter)

I think about this manga literally once a week because I think it's akin to something Sorachi would write, so I'm sharing a translation here!

MANGA LINK | Out of courtesy to the artist I'm not reposting her art here, please visit the tweet, refer to the translation as you read along, and show the artist some love!

And the link to the Twitter thread of this translation if anyone is interested!

Translation

[page 1]

G: Oh, so you like me, huh, Vice Chief-san?

G: That's not a good joke to go along with this alcohol.

H: Even so, this is a once-in-a-lifetime confession. Don't make light of it.

G: Hmm.

G: Well, if you say it like that,

G: I can probably answer you through a diary exchange.

H: ...

H: Okay, sure!!

[page 2]

H: Who would have thought that a man one would assume to have dysfunctional relationships like him would suggest a diary exchange?

H: 70% of the world's HijiGin starts with physical contact (based on experience), how hard to get are we being, really? Even rural middle school students are more chill in their relationships than us.

H: Still, handwriting and way with words are also treasure troves of information on one's personality.

H: Maybe it's unexpectedly also a good way to know more about this guy who is the hardest to understand in all of Gintama.

H: I gave him some questions in my first diary I passed to him so he wouldn't have too much trouble writing his, let's see what his reply is...

G: The fleeting spring is slipping away and the heat is encroaching upon us, but I hope you are doing well as you are... Or whatever, doing that each time is a pain so I'm just gonna talk normally from now on like you told me.

H: Hmph, he's unexpectedly a decent writer.

G: Um, first off, my favorite food, right? It'd have to be sweets for sure. Anko and dango are my favorites, but recently I'm into fresh cream too... Yaaawn. I woke up early today so I'm getting kind of sleepy...

H: Hm?

K: My favorite food is sukonbu.

[page 3]

K: I can eat boxes and boxes of sukonbu. I also like foods that go well with rice. Stuff like seaweed tsukudani is the best.

H: Why is the China girl the one answering!? Anyway, the diary exchange thing got completely found out by the kids! Whatever happened to his personal life!?

S: A place I'd like to go have fun at would be a Terakado Tsuu concert.

H: Glasseees!! You too!?

S: Ah, but you don't have to trouble yourself with going with me. I'll just go with the Yorozuya. You can just get us the amount of tickets we need.

H: Plus, he's rude and no fun at all!

G: Wait, what? I was dozing off and suddenly the page got filled up somehow.

H: Yorozuya, realize that you've been infiltrated by an entity called your family! And either way, why don't you read the page back a little!

G: But this kind of thing isn't bad, too. I can say stuff that are hard to say out loud here. To be honest, about you, I... I actually quite...

H: *ba-dump* Huh? Yorozuya?

[SADAHARU PAW PRINT]

G: Man, that's so out of character to say! I'll never write that again! Well, then, until next time. —Gintoki

H: THAT DOOOOOOG!!! I CAN'T READ THE MOST IMPORTANT PAAAAART!!!

[goldenlaquer]

(SPOILER) I WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO FINISH THE LAST BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW!!!!!

What do you think is Takasugi’s fate???

OH 🥺🥺🥺 All this time you were saving your(question)self for me?!?! 🥺🥺🥺

I'll leave my answer under the cut for all my peeps who are still holding out 😔❤️:

The bare-assed kid is just some rando Ma*ko picked up and Takasugi is now having the time of his, er, life soaking in a lava river in hell. (it's takasugi, he'd raise an army called the kihelltai and crown himself king of hell while using satan as a footrest, all in the span of a commercial break, that's just the type of man he is 🥺)

Alright, alright, I'll be for real now 😔

Takasugi was always a babe, but now he's really is a babe, as heavily insinuated. And what I'll say about this plot point is what Gintama has already said. Just a teacher protecting his student, just one of Shoyo's last gifts to Takasugi— can you really call that a miracle?! 🥺

Ach, I'm going to cry again 😭 because Sorachi is so clearly playing with forgiveness and redemption here; Takasugi finally being able to forgive himself, to at last allow himself to rest from the years living as a guilt-ridden, vengeful machine. If anyone sorely deserves this second chance, it's Takasugi. (I'm leaking, I'm leaking)

Anyway, what happens after is anyone's guess as good as mine ofc ofc— but for sure, babysugi is going grow up eventually. I wonder, since his rebirth is powered by altana, if he grows up a normal rate or if it's sped up like Shoyo's. I'm placing bets on the latter.

And will he keep his memories? Or lose them? Losing them could be interesting, and I'm sure Ma*ko would fill him on the memories that he lost anyway, but the additional benefit of him losing the memories is that he can live his second life without the burdens of the first-hand pain he went through the first time around.

Omg but the comedy... Chibi Takasugi vs Grown-ass Gintoki... Suddenly Gin-chan is living his shoka sonjuku memories again while facing this precocious child that Takasugi was, but now he can't even have the benefit of punting the little guy across the room without everyone ganging up on him calling him a child-abuser (He started it! is no longer a valid excuse for you, Gin-chan... you're the adult here, you man-child)

A LOT of ways Takasugi's fate can go from here on out, but one thing is for sure, he'll be happy :')

(personally, if there was an option to keep takasugi as an adult, that's an option i'd take, but i can absolutely understand why sorachi did this for him and i love it too)

[inkonssstantgeissst]

i keep thinking about reborn immortal Takasugi. cuz like, wow he'd be an absolute terror wth why would Shouyou think it was a good idea to bring him back, and as an immortal

but also, i keep thinking, why would he bring back Takasugi but not Oboro? i mean i understand why Sorachi would, but Shouyou?

so like, i keep thinking about an AU where both Takasugi and Oboro are brought back as baby immortals and then Matako raises both of them cuz like i feel like Takasugi would be a lot more chill then and also it would be adorable

i just want Matako to be like "yes these are my sons now" and like she already loves Takasugi dearly but i feel like she'd fall in love with Oboro too because he's an absolute angel

also Oboro deserves a second chance and Takasugi doesn't deserve to be immortal alone and honestly Matako would be so good with them istg

[piduai]

I totally agree with you , I tend to remember the bad more than the good . I guess for self care it's better to just watch the arcs you loved . I watched the episode 153 or 157 something ( I don't remember the exact number but it's about Kagura not wanting to sleep ) more than ten times because I liked it. I think it's the best way to view an anime like this.

After all not much is to be  expected from an author like this.

The aliens versus us is just a way to portray the pre opening era . CLEARLY . No reach. If he could write "THOSE FOREIGNERS " he would. Very weird it's giving Isayama with Snk , the world population vs us the people of ( I don't remember honestly 🥴). It's like a nostalgic / xenophobic stand but not outspoken.

I just wish we got more contents of characters like Asaemon and nobume + mutsu these three really could introduce  interesting drama with their profession and personalities. I will never NEVER get over it 😩👹. You know what ? I wish gunatama was a female only cast ( I DARE TO SAY IT👹👹👹)

Also I don't like Emosugi , Kamui is so  cringe , he's what to expect from a teenage boy. He's so predictable, a violent  emotional red hair emo .

But  Takasugi Dramasuke ?!  I just can't . His rage is valid but he never gave anything . A plate of pasta without salt . The hype about him is what all his character is . I never understood it. He doesn't look cool and I think his feet smell NGL.

He's the example of a delayed frontal lobe growth. Soratchi just used limited appearance to tune the citizens on. I don't know how they fell for it . When the whole truth was finally exposed i was disappointed 🧍🏻‍♀️.

I don't know how to explain it and why . He's just so cliché i thought ginballma would be more original but it's not when you look back when it's about serious topic.

i don't have arcs i particularly hate, tbh i watched it in 2013 for the first time and a lot of the cultural & linguistic jokes flew over my head, as well as a lot of references. so now i rediscover a lot of stuff on my rewatch, which is fun. but ig if you have stuff you really hate it's just better to skip altogether, i mean who cares. i only started rewatching it bc i need something to play in the bg while i eat/do my nails/clean around the house etc and short series end too fast while i don't feel like committing to a long series i haven't watched yet

yeah i do wonder, i didn't notice it the first time at all but now it feels very sus. it's also funny that earth = japan it seems, the word japan is never uttered actually but the existence of other nations is never brought up either. and amanto = foreigners, with kagura and the rest of the yato being alien chinese while catherine being alien something vaguely southeast asian. with the rest being animals. i don't think it's that deep just something that made me raise an eyebrow

asaemon is a one arc character and mutsu was shown for a bit towards the end, but nobume was snubbed lol. but again everyone else who isn't g*ntoki was also snubbed. with nobume it's a shame that her shoyo disciple side was never explored while some whomstie (oboro) got an entire thing around it. zura was also sidelined when it comes to this. nobume didn't really do much after sabuchan died from what i recall which is a shame. but also the cast is HUGE so with sorachi's limited formulaic writing abilities it's understandable lol

people always praise the character writing in gintama and i always disagreed with that because 98% of the cast is the same thing from different angles, or rather it seems that he can't write anything else. default character in this series is kind of a rude jerk who is actually super duper kind and niceys deep down and when it matters, and if push comes to shove they'll give you a helping hand no questions asked. most of them have their own quirks (kagura is an abrasive glutton, tae is arrogant, mean and backstabbing, nobume is aloof and apathetic, kyuubei and tsukuyo are overly-serious and awkward and so on and so forth) but the mold is the same. which is like, fine for shounen standards, and a lot of them are very likeable, but let's be real no giocondas are being painted here

i liked kamui until it was revealed that he actually fr fr is obsessed with his mom and sister and this whole time he was just lonely and misunderstood and lashing out. boring. he was fun as a power-hungry #psycho little shit but obviously we can't have any divergences from the mold in this house. as for takasugi he's always been one of my favorites so i can't say much here lol to each their own

[starllightss]

Tiny Yorozuyas

[nullians]

It's a real shame how I don't have anyone to scream about gintama with..

[polylerman]

The opinion of an observer

I’m always an observer on this fandom for long long time. Today I’ve decided to express myself after reading the fanfiction of Musingsofme on AO3. Lol.

I like Tsukuyo character so much. I personally think that this is probably the best character development of Sorachi. This character is deep and complex.

Well she is rebel. And the best way to show how rebel she is in the place that is full of sex like Yoshiwara is to be virgin. The whole plot about Hosen arc is also to show how brave and rebel she is.

The most interesting story to me is the whole thing about Jiraia. Actually Tsukuyo was very lonely. She was sold to Yoshiwara when she was young, then rebelled so strongly, ending up being trained to be a special force of Yoshiwara. This was where she met Jiraia.

Tsukuyo knew no love. Even if the relationship between her and Jiraia was so abusive, she embraced it anyway because this was the only kind of care and love she experienced. And with all of the responsibilities and expectations she was put on, in the end she removed the fun out of her life.

Then one day she met Gintoki who actually gave her new perspective in life. The thing is that this guy is the first one in her life that said to her “Hey! You know what? You don’t deserve this shit at all. You deserve something better. Life doesn’t have to be pure and clean. It can be dirty, but beautiful at the same time”.

So for Tsukuyo, she respects Gintoki because he has freedom that she hasn’t. She would like to be like him and she knows that she can’t.

The time has gone by the respect somehow turned into something more than that. The more she knows him, the more she falls for him slowly.

For Gintoki’s side, I know Sorachi didn’t confirm but he gave many clues. The well-played arc to me is love potion. There are many layers in this arc.

Well let’s have a look how the incense works. So at the beginning Sorachi has started introduce it by Hinowa. What she understands is that… ok! You will fall for the first one you lay your eyes on after you smelled it. This is just what people ‘believe’ how it works. But right after this, Sorachi also showed how the incense actually works.

What happened to Kagura and Shipachi is the first event to proof Hinowa wrong. Then Sorachi also tried to confirm with what happened to Kyuubei, Otae and Kondo. The incense made them realize their true feelings and be honest.

Now Hinowa is completely wrong.

Same thing as Tsukuyo. First she saw his dick, but actually she likes him as a person.

These are what happened to many characters who smelled the incense. What about Gintoki? Well actually for me the same thing happened to him.

Many might have said he smelled it too much that he got crazy. Well the fight between the ideology he believes (the same issue as Tsukuyo – he doesn’t want to rely on anyone or everyone is equal) and the effect of the incense kept happening inside him so strongly that it just showed up like he’s gone crazy. For Gintoki, he said something so cheesy at the same time being so serious, then said something crazy again like he’s drunk. It’s up and down like he’s been fighting inside with the drug so hard. (Also he always came back to her.)

He talked about his believe that everyone is equal again. And then…being so damn cheesy and serious again.

They stick together again. He even said “Sorry! I don’t know why I did that.”

In the end, he spent time with her without Shinpachi or Kagura.

Also he’s here in Yoshiwara alone again even if it’s so far from where he lives. And why on earth he was on the rooftop that night. Was he looking for her knowing that she’s working?

And actually this is not the first time he’s here alone.

He’s in Yoshiwara alone again and didn’t expect to work. Literally just came to see her them.

In the red spider arc, he’s not here alone. But it’s clear that he didn’t come here for work.

And yep! Gin-san likes looser women.

So saying that Gintoki NEVER likes Tsukuyo is kinda wrong to me.

There is also the whole thing about their backgrounds. Like Gintoki who were the one who executed Shouyou, Tsukuyo also executed Jiraia to save Gintoki. And he was very shocked.

Now they have very similar path.

For Tsukuyo like she said at the end of love potion, Gintoki is everyone’s man. She accepts that she loves him but she doesn’t believe that she deserves him. Same shit as Gintoki, he believes he deserves to be alone. He is haunted by his sins in the past. He’s a no-good man.

During the fight with Jiraia, Gintoki kept talking about how coward Jiraia is and comparing himself to Jiraia.

“Tsukuyo’s already stronger than you. Cowards should settle for fighting cowards. And if you need an opponent, I am more than enough!”

This is somehow he talks to himself as he compared himself to Jiraia. He is a pitiful creature who will never reach the sky.

Well they are both tsundere. Both of them believe that they don’t deserve each other. But they do!

Sorachi said sorry about the fact that Gintoki character was barely developed. To me, he did try with Tsukuyo and the events in Yoshiwara. What he said to Jiraia or Tsukuyo is the thing that reflects himself.

Well I like this ship so much. I’ve never ever thought that I still have fanfiction to follow after it ended, but the truth is that I have. Lol

Thank you everyone who contributes fanfiction to this community until now.

[tae-shimura-is-my-wife]

An anon sent an ask, but since they used a word that's banned from tumblr, the post will not show up, so i will post here:

TW: Ag3 gap mention

Anon ask: "As cute as GinTae is I just can’t ship it romantically. Gintoki’s pushing 30 and Otae’s b*rely legal. It’s sick. Keep all those old men away from her!"

Well, i'm not surprised for seeing a commentary of that nature, this will be a long post!

This may be controversial, but for me ppl with Tae age are ad*lts, idc if they were a teenager before or whatever, i seen them like that and will treat them like that, where i live this b*rely legal ting is just weirdo f*tish, bc here nobody cares how old you were before, just how old you're now.

Right now to Tae, generally this kind of relationship would make me uncomfy, but there multiple factors that didn't:

Gin didn't have to wait Tae become legal unlike certain ships, because he meet her as an ad*lt woman.

Tae is treated like any other women in gntm, yes she's younger, but this isn't a focus, it actually doesn't matter, different from other anime/manga where the youngness of the female character makes her more "appealing" since she's closer to being innocent and that stuff.

Gin doesn't disrespect her or see her as less for being younger, especially because every young ad*lt in this anime/manga is treated and seen as an ad*lt, they being younger doesn't erase that fact. Plus, he didn't keep pushing himself on her and he doesn't like to see her getting uncomfortable.

Power balance, yes Gin is older and stronger than Tae, but they have similar roles like being Four Devas, at the same time, Tae has more money, a house and owns a local. And it's important to say that Gin never uses his status as a Four Deva to disturb Tae or force her to stay with him.

So with gintae, there's no power imbalance, no disrespect, no gr**ming and no haras*ing.

Regarding how Tae is treated by narrative:

I think that people with a mentality like yours sorry if it sounds rude, that's not my intention, should be annoyed beyond ships, if the problem is that Tae is b*rely legal, then you guys should condone Sorachi for saying he wanted to marry her, for making jokes about Gin f*cking Tae three times, for having characters thinking that Gin liked her, for talking and reparing openly about her body, especially older man characters, for making her work at dawn, drinking excessively and having to deal with perv drunk men, for offering herself to be a pr*stitute and the list goes on...

Because where you're from, you probaly see ppl at her age as b*rely legal, but as i said other cultures just see an young ad*lt, who know the sh*t they do, Tae is never treated as b*,rely legal, just as an ad*lt woman, if she was a minor before it doesn't matter, it only matters that before time skip she was an ad*lt, but i understand why you would be uncomfortable with huge age gaps.

[animebw]

Short Reflection: Gintama the Final

I’ve always been in love with stories.

As a kid, I devoured as many books as I could get my hands on. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, yes, but also Neil Gaiman and Thomas Covenant and countless other authors and novels I’ve long since forgotten. Ditto movies, TV, and animation. I consume stories more ravenously than anyone else I know, perhaps moreso than most people on the face of the earth. The experience of losing myself in fiction, of seeing myself reflected in the struggles and triumphs of imaginary people, has meant more to me than I can ever properly put into words. Heck, the reason I started this blog in the first place is because of how desperate I was to communicate that feeling to others. Stories have helped me understand life, helped me better myself, helped me find friends and community I never would have otherwise. Stories matter to me. Stories will always matter to me.

And no story has mattered quite as much to me... as Gintama.

Gintama is, without question, the greatest work of fiction I’ve ever experienced. It’s the funniest comedy I’ve ever laughed at. It’s the most exhilarating action romp I’ve ever cheered at. It’s got the single greatest- and largest- cast of characters you’ll ever find, in anime or elsewhere. Its plot effortlessly sets up the longest narrative domino chain ever and brings it all masterfully crashing down. It weaves together countless threads, countless ideas, countless ways of telling a story, all somehow working in lockstep within the same universe. And just as the cherry on top, it’s also the greatest story about stories ever told. Through its jokes and its drama alike, Gintama is a rousing battle cry for the power of storytelling to change the world, a masterful guide to smashing tired tropes apart, a full-throated argument for the importance of letting old, harmful stories go and letting new, brighter tales take their place. It will make you believe in the power of storytelling- and the importance of doing it right- even if you’re the most jaded person on the face of the earth. And it accomplishes all that while still being, itself, the greatest, most entertaining, most moving, most overwhelming, most beautiful story anyone has ever written. Gintama is the standard against which I judge all other media, the impossible bar that can never be reached again but must always be strived for. Even three years after I finished its TV run, it remains the unmatched pinnacle of all the fiction I’ve seen.

And now, almost two decades after Hideaki Sorachi wrote that first chapter... it’s finally over.

Gintama: the Final is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s the final installment of Gintama’s story. It’s the conclusion to over 360 episodes of buildup and payoff. It’s the final battle for the fate of Edo, the final challenge for Gintoki, Shinpachi, Kagura, Katsura, Takasugi, Sakamoto, Otae, and everyone else in this rowdy, ridiculous city to overcome. Picking up right where the Semi-Final OVA left off, this movie wastes no time jumping straight into the action (well, almost no time; the hilarious recap segment that kicks the whole thing off is the perfect primer for the chaos to come). It’s a nearly movie-long climax, racing from start to finish on pure adrenaline as every single character faces down the remnants of Utsuro’s grand design. Now that the show’s done all the hard legwork of actually setting up the characters and stakes and emotional investment, the movie finale can jump straight into the fire and low the audience away with one staggering action setpiece after another, all building on each other to incomprehensible heights of awe until it finally slows down for a twenty-five minute epilogue at the very end. I’d almost compare it to End of Evangelion on that front; two legendary shows with endings compromised by production issues, finally getting to end things on their own terms with the cinematic scope such grand finales deserve.

Yes, I’m comparing this adaptation of a crass, poop-filled Shonen Jump manga to the series that literally defined the face of modern anime. Deal with it.

Because Jesus fucking criminy hopscotching Christ on a bagel, this movie is amazing. It’s nothing but gobsmacking moment after gobsmacking moment, one jaw-dropping action beat immediately being topped by the next one, a never-ending cascade of sword strikes and punches and explosions and energy blasts all cracking off with the brazen confidence of a series standing at the top of the world, putting on one last spectacular fireworks shower before packing it in for good. To call it epic would be an insult; to call it legendary would be the understatement of the century. And thanks to that big shiny movie budget, it’s all rendered in some of the most stunning animation I’ve seen all year. Every frame is gorgeous, every blow is beautiful, every moment is brought to life not just with polish, but with genuine grace. From the chaos of battle to the moments of love and connection- and yes, even to the batshit absurd comedy- this movie is a visual marvel. Gintoki and Utsuro’s final showdown, in particular, climaxes in a sequence of wordless visual storytelling edited so perfectly, bringing so many of the shows’ most powerful themes and arcs to a close just through the flow of one shot to the next, I almost couldn’t believe it was real. There’s no way human hands could have put something so beautiful together. It just isn’t possible.

But that’s always been the beauty of Gintama, isn’t it? Every time you think it’s finally peaked, it somehow keeps rising higher. This show is defined by doing the impossible over and over again, never resting on its laurels, always striving to be that much better, than much bolder, that much more satisfying to watch unfold. So really, it’s only fitting that The Final manages to blow my expectations out of the water once again for the road. This may not be the most complex or challenging arc Gintama’s ever done, but in terms of sheer impact, this may well be the highest peak it’s ever reached. So many characters, big and small, bringing their story to a close. So many thematic ideas all woven into a grand tapestry, finally complete after fifteen years on air. This show started with such humble beginnings, with roughshod animation and a story that was only barely showing signs of the monster it would grow into. And now, it’s reached its end with an veritable atom bomb of a climax, a sprawling epic reaching its end with unparalleled fireworks and a production lavish enough for the gods themselves. If there’s a bigger glow-up in anime history, name is, because I don’t think it exists.

And I’ve seen that change in real time. I’ve seen this show grow from its humble beginnings, getting better and better by the episode, until it stood head and shoulders above all its contemporaries. I’ve laughed louder, I’ve cried harder, I’ve fallen deeper and deeper in love with every last character living their ridiculous lives in this ridiculous city. Where so many stories falter as they go, Gintama’s footsteps only grew surer. Where so many stories peak well before they end and gradually lose when made them special in the first place, Gintama never stopped setting new gold standards of quality. And where so many anime’s ending fizzle out in disappointment, Gintama sent us home with one of the greatest finales to any piece of media I’ve ever seen. This scrappy underdog has accomplished something that so few of its shonen contemporaries even come close to: it lasted for hundreds of episodes and never stopped improving for a second, finally ending its run as the best possible version of itself. I thought I couldn’t love Gintama any more than I did at the end of its TV run; I’m happy to say this show proved me wrong one last time. I love Gintama more now than I ever did before. I love every step of the journey it’s taken me on. I. Love. Gintama.

But now, it really is over. No more false starts or fake-out endings or unexpected delays for the anime staff to use the characters as mouthpieces to complain about. Gintama is really, truly over. This incredible story I’ve spent god knows how many words gushing over has come to an end at last.

And you know what? I couldn’t be happier.

That may honestly be the most surprising thing about Gintama: the Final. Going into it, I was so certain that when it was over, I’d feel empty. I’d feel sad knowing that this was all the Gintama I was ever going to get. Now that it is over, though? All I feel is joy. Joy that it ended as perfectly as I could possibly ask for. Joy for all the good times its given me over the years. Joy that I was given something so unspeakably beautiful to carry with me for the rest of my life. Will I miss it? Fucking absolutely. But as this show itself is well aware of, all things in life must come to an end. We can’t hold back the future forever; times change whether we want them to or not. All we can do is move forward, taking with us the things that truly matter and letting them enrich the paths we have yet to walk. Gintama may be over, but it will always be a part of my life. The feelings it brought out of me, the thoughts it inspired in me... my life will forever be touched by the Odd Jobs crew and all the dumbasses they befriended over the years. I couldn’t be more grateful for the journey it’s taken me on.

And I couldn’t be more grateful for being able to share that journey with all of you.

Gintama: the Final is a masterpiece. But really, did you need me to tell you that? The final chapter of a story that’s only ever gotten better, a story that’s already re-written the rules of what’s possible in storytelling too many times to count, a story that’s blasted so high into the atmosphere it might as well be in orbit at this point... what else could it be, but a masterpiece? It’s joy and wonder, shock and awe, beauty and bravery in equal measure. It’s the perfect ending to a perfect show, the pinnacle of a tale with far too many pinnacles to count, one last hurrah to celebrate everything it’s been able to accomplish. It’s astonishing. It’s unbelievable. It’s an achievement that shouldn’t be possible. It’s one of the most satisfying endings to any piece of fiction ever. It’s a goodbye fifteen years in the making that somehow leaves you wanting for nothing. It’s the last, greatest achievement of the greatest story ever told.

It also features a scene where a tear-jearking reunion is interrupted by Gintoki’s legs detaching from him and becoming sentient old men after being pooped out of Sadaharu’s ass.

It is, in other words, nothing more or less than Gintama.

And there will never be any higher praise than that.

Thank you, Gintoki. Thank you, Shinpachi, Thank you, Kagura. Thank you, Katsura, Takasugi, Sakamoto. Thank you, Otae, Kyubei, Tsukuyo, Sacchan. Thank you, Hijikata, Kondo, Okita. Thank you, Shoyo. Thank you, all the characters whose names it would take far too long to list. Thank you, Sunrise. Thank you, Bandai Namco. Thank you, Hideaki Sorachi.

Thank you, Gintama.

And thank you, everyone reading this now.

We will always be... forever Odd Jobs.

10/10

[lilac-5ky]

I stared at this picture for an hour and Tbh, Sugi-kun is tooo cuteee!! We have to thank sorachi for making this boi!😭

I'm going to jail because of him

Ahahahahaha don't worry about jail time, I'll be in the next cell for sure! We can expand the Shinsuke community there, it's just another business opportunity heh.

Other than that though, I absolutely adore Sugi-kun! He looks so cute and innocent, the kind of boy who could be also very polite while up front aggressive. I don't know, in my eyes he looks so gentle and pure, you just want to make him blush and squeeze his cheeks, he is that adorable! I have a huge collection of fanart about him and I do have lots of cute pictures of him as a child. I'll share some with you but SHHHH I am not sure who made this, I DIDN'T MAKE THEM DON'T SUE ME WONDERFUL ARTISTS OF THIS WORLD!

Look at how adorable his blushing expression is!!!!!!! I can't even, he is too cute, he breaks my heart into tiny pieces. Such a good boy for real.

It's kinda faint here but you can still see it!

I can totally understand why Gintoki teased him so much, I wouldn't be able to resist myself.

Like even as a child, he has this gentle and sophisticated demeanor, how can you not love him?

I think that one of the things I like the most about Takasugi is that he hasn't changed exactly. He was always this adorable and although now he is leaning more towards the sexy than the cute side, his features are so beautiful and kind. That's just one of his appeals to me, even when there is ugliness around him, he is the most precious and beautiful thing. Even when he grew up under such conditions, he was always adorable.

LOOK. AT. THEM. NO. COMMENTS.

Finally, I wanna talk about this beautiful smile/laugh of his. Takasugi in general does smile a lot but it's mostly sneers and smirks, it's not really genuine. But here, this is him genuinely smiling and being happy! I would give anything to protect that smile, I completely understand Gintoki. His smile is the most precious thing, I can't even-

I JUST WANT TAKASUGI TO BE HAPPY OKAY GENUINELY HAPPY! HE SHOULD BE SMILING AND HE SHOULD BE HAPPY, HE DESERVES IT!

I think I may have used this ask in order to fangirl more myself. I- I apologize okay I have so many feelings about him. Whether it's a kid, a teenager or the yakult man himself (sounds like a superhero lmao) I just love him with all of my heart. He is the most precious thing ever and of course I spend most of my days looking at thim.

So fear not, for we'll continue the Takasugi movement in jail if we get caught! No fear in admiring the beauty of this world and kid Sugi is the epitome of beauty!

[ukaiknowsbest]

what do you think of gintama in general? is it really a masterpiece or just overhyped

My answer is BOTH. Here's why:

AS A WISH - GRANTING STORY

If you grew up on other wish-granting stories especially those from CLAMP, you realize that Gintama isn't that special. The formula is the same: there's a shopkeeper, there's a request, there's usually an apprentice (or two), they fulfill a request, sometimes their life is in danger, sometimes the solution isn't as straightforward as it should be, they finish the mission, they collect the reward. Along the way you discover the characters more, their pasts are revealed, their intentions are brought to the surface, they try to grant their own wishes, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail, sometimes it's in between.

If you look at GIntama that way then it's pretty standard fare. You read Getbackers, Petshop of Horrors, Mob Psycho 100, it's all the same thing.

AS A PARODY

Gintama's real strength comes from it being a parody anime. I can say that it's a masterpiece in that regard. I don't have much experience in gag series like this. But Gintama sure kicked it up a notch with the popculture references and making fun of tropes. Everyone from Sorachi, the editors, the marketing team, everyone must have been really ballsy and gutsy to let this work of art come through and be allowed to be published.

I'm saying this because I was so reluctant to start Gintama if not for the numerous prince of tennis parodies that they have done and because of sorachi and konomi-sensei's art exchange for Prince of Tennis 20th year anniversary. The parody aspect was definitely what sold GIntama to me.

I am still pretty impressed by the feat it has accomplished while taking advantage and making fun of all the things that came before it.

ON SORACHI AS A WRITER

Okay Gintama has 704 chapters and almost 400 episodes. and only about 30-40% of that is actual plot. Anyone with no patience would balk. It's a real btch to get into. People should understand that. Nobody has that kind of time nowadays. It's absolutely unfair to expect people to hang on that long.

That alone says a lot about Sorachi as a writer.

It is so clear, so damn clear that he didn't have a real idea for the plot, that he had no real goal all along. Bruh. GIntama has at least 4 alternate endings jfc. It's almost a miracle how SJ let him get away with all of it. Now this is not to say that he's a bad writer. He's different. He managed to convinced everyone in the project to let him just go with flow and deal with things when they happened. Maybe it's his charisma, or his skill but he managed to convince everyone to let Gintama happen and for that I have nothing but sincerest awe.

Now I am not an Shonen Jump expert. I don't read/watch a lot of SJ so I don't know how unique Sorachi is from all the others. I'm gonna talk from my experience being more immersed in seinen / shojo and sports anime.

Personally I like how Sorachi reuses ideas from older chapters and more foundational characters and incorporates them into later (and sometimes more serious) arcs. Good ideas should be reused imo. He gives good payoff most of the time. It's actually quite fun seeing concepts from comedy arcs being used in serious moments. Many of the characters aren't one-sided too. There are some exceptions but overall most of the character designs are good and well thought of. It feels very organic, very real.

It has one of the best depictions of war I think. I've talked about it in other posts. Actually i talked about all the cool things I like about Gintama in an older review that i did few months ago. I put the link at the bottom of this post.

ON BIGOTRY

Then again, Sorachi falls into the same old bigoted rhetoric that SJ is super known for. You see every kind of bigotry in Gintama and you remember that "ah yeah, a japanese man wrote this, surrounded by japanese male editors in a very japanese male dominated publishing company." All the bad '-isms' are in Gintama whether we like it or not.

I don't know if it was by design that it's supposed to make watchers uncomfortable. Maybe it does. It jokes around those bigoted -isms, yes, but we all know that for every joke there is a half-truth to it. Gintama reflects the situation/beliefs of japanese traditional society on the ground whether we like it or not.

Now I'm bringing this up because of the hype people give to it.

OVERHYPED

I do not know how Gintama is marketed in japan but most non-japanese reviews I've seen are talking about Gintama with an image that is wayy too wholesome that it should have.

Yes they tell you about the poop and dick jokes, yes they tell you about the parodies, yes they tell you about how it gets serious at the end, yess they tell you how badass the ladies are (and act like it's the epitome of feminism), etc etc. yada yada

the kicker?

they dont tell you about the bigotry. you suffer it for yourself. What's worse is they tell you that you're an overdramatic idiot and that you're too soft if you get bothered by the questionable elements in the show.

Most of the big gintama accounts do not welcome almost any criticism of the media and they bully people/call them names for having problems with characters and the plot "coz it's just for comedy! it's for fun!" nevermind if people are feeling actual discomfort.

It's disappointing really.

My verdict? The fandom leaves much to be desired. They are hyping gintama to unholy levels to the point that its core messages are forgotten. It's not only the fandom, The anime producers themselves do it. The merch team do it. It's not fun.

Gintama needs trigger warnings. Lots. It's the kind of series where you need to develop an acquired taste for it. You're supposed to grow into it, get used to it. People acting as if it should be loved on the spot and that there's nothing wrong about it are jerks and gatekeepers. :)

here is my first review post of gintama back in january btw.

[seigibathala]

thank you for all the tsukuyo art you make! every time I'm reminded of how obsessed and insecure her haters are about her and her ship with gintoki (they LITERALLY can't stop talking about her and gintsuki, it's amazing) I remember how much content sorachi sensei gave us and how tsukuyo is loved by so many, that all her fans are too busy moving on and making content so i think her haters are just jealous that they don't have that. anyway you're one of my favorite gintama artists!

Hello (っ＾▿＾)۶

Appreciate you sending msg to me!!! I’m a huge fan of Tsukuyo for a long time now and I’ll take advantage of this ask to a long post. I always see how fans love her, gintsu shipper or not! But of course, some people dislike her, and that’s okay! But what I noticed are others who dislike her will make long ass post about how she should have been a better character if she didn’t fell in love, if she didn’t depend on Gintoki. Some call her ridiculous terms and even wants her dead and updated it in her wiki! (It’s so funny they are so pressed about this 2D character to that point) Her haters call her “terrible woman”, “selfish woman” and DM her artists (including me) asking us to stop drawing her with Gin. See it’s hard to be her fan too.

Gintama ended and I still don’t understand others can’t move on about her. Only remaining here are her fans and of course I am a huge gintsu shipper and I continue to draw Tsukuyo and GinTsuki. I think it’s the same for other content creators I know who loves her.

Tsukuyo is a well written character, she is the love of my life, the light of my soul. You see, since she was a kid, she was sold to Yoshiwara and fight for hers and Hinowa’s freedom, a girl who stood on her own for a long time, don’t know how to rely on others, and HEY! how about this time, let her learn that it’s okay to depend on others? It is okay to be saved? It is okay to fall inlove?

Now she can love and lean on others too and that’s her development.

I also agree that she has many precious moments with Gintoki, an arc dedicated about the two of them, so it makes other shippers insecure about this ship. It’s funny because no one is canon in the end, yet they are so pressed about gintsuki.

I’m can’t promise to make other gintama content but well I am a shipper so it’s my responsibility to draw gintsuki! TYSM again anon 😊

[mariaantonnietta]

Okay, the promised is debt.let"s talk about Gintaka moments!!!

I said a long time ago I was gonna do a compilation of Gintaka/Takagin moments. And I will deliver right now! (op skimmed the jp twitter and is excited/can’t wait to see the movie )

Ok, no, this will be mostly my disorganized headcanons, moments where I can see the ship with my shipper googles on, some paralels? Haha, honestly just to show the ship some love!!!

It’s also my perspective on why I love this ship!!

Of course, I'm going to talk about all the series and go back and fort, so there’s going to be spoilers all around, so if you have not seen the manga end, best skip it.

The rest is under the cut, let’s go!!!!!

So, I started shipping  Gintaka/Takagin  after the Shougun Assasination arc, best  strangled friends story I have ever seen.  I like a lot of Gintoki ships, but it became my favourite really fast. Then, looking back, I noticed these haha:

the first meeting in the show (ep 17). I know it was threatening, but watching it again the fireworks exploded over their heads as they met.Isn’t that  a romantic troupe? (and also in this scene makes Takasugi face scarier, haha). And also how Gintoki stopped Takasugi blade, so obvious for point one that they knew each other.(the interactions here are so painful in retrospective 'When his father saw his son's head, imagine the rage he felt?😭')

(and then there’s also , in the extra episode where the yoroyuza go to China, they help a poor dude with his first date with a girl, and Gintoki comments how the first date  should have fireworks, haha, at the time there were some images on pixiv of child Gintoki and child Takasugi seeing the fireworks together, it was so lovely, good headcanon!)

There's the Senbonsakura arc, and Takasugi appearing at the reunion scene looking at the moon, woah (there's also them crossing paths, but that's more dramatic of the ideologies maybe, still this a shipping post so ' them crossing paths there, the athmosphere of fated (rivals) people!!!')

( ‘They both had sad eyes’)

I like how even as they are different their core is the same, even if not these character are so raw together in their feelings

Let's talk about the movies for a moment: in the movie version of the Benizakura arc, Gintoki dreams with Takasugi, and IDK, but for how haunting it is, it also feels intimate, and that makes it hurt most.

About the second movie when we saw it we didn't know what the hell happened to Takasugi, but looking back he's dead by that time....maybe. (why didn't you give us a clear answer at the end sorachi).Okay but for practical purposes of what the cast knows he's dead (maybe...ahhh let's says it's like that) and well, haha, gintoki of the future dying looking at the sunset haha don't think of him daydreaming things.(When I saw the movie I had the impression that takasugi was dead, for both katsura clothes that are not called as a joke, and future gintoki 'the only one that can kill me is me', if takasugi was alive, he wouldn't let gintoki claim that so hypotrically, that's what I believed.)

There's the mini arc of the underseas dragon palace, (I remembered this one because of takasugi 'monster' form) I'm just gonna said that even if I read too much into ot there are some interesting paralels maaaaaybe, this one is a strech.

Talking about far fetched things, you people remember the Love Chorris arc? The one with the virtual girlfriends game? I think I am not the first person to point this out, but if you analyze Gintoki girl:

Gintoki selects her and (accidentally)kills her son.After that, she is bend of killing him in return in revenge. With his son corpse at her back to haunt him too.

She later confesses to him that she knew he wasn't at fault for her sons death, and that she focused on blaming him to be able to handle the pain, that she's grateful of Gintoki for understanding this.

The spirit of her son aproves their relashionship.

Now tell me this doesn't remain you of someone in particular and his relashionship with gintoki. And this is gintoki mind perspective and hopes, and fears.

(Well it probably isn't that deep, its the chorris arc, but still)

The way you can see Sakamoto’ jokes as a friend teasing because he knows they like each other. The fight when they to a red district gaining another lining.

The rajuko arc, when they exchanged blades to save the other newfound friends/family. The fucking red string of blood that they form together.

In the manga there was the famous saying attributted to takasugi historical counterpart :

'I want to kill all crows in the three thousand world, and sleep in with my heart's master'

This if I remember correctly because crows caw mark the morning, and in a brothel you have to leave.

So the meaning is ' I want to kill all crows in three thousand worlds(so that morning never comes) and sleep/stay in (forever) with my heart' master'

(Of course this could refer to shouyo, but it could be about gintoki, they go directly to meet the other)

It's a famous saying used in songs, I believe.

The part when he doesn’t want to see more rain, its of course because seeing gintoki's crying was imprinted in his mind for so long and influenced how he thinks. He is so important to him!!

And of course the final arc, where they are more open to each other,(the strangled friends are so happy to be together again) both Takasugi who finally let go of that 'burn the world down' and of Gintoki that walks besides him. The way Gintoki looks at Takasugi with a soft expression on his eyes. Matako ' I have never seen before Shinsuke sama with those eyes, I couldn't stop them'

The Glorious Days ending, that's when one (me) realises, 'oh ... this two care about each other and want to save the other' and while it isnt surprising for Gin, it was for Takasugi at the time.Rewatch the openings and endings in general, and see Takasugi place in them. IDK, he is usually the last alone waiting under the moon. And it gets me...cant really explain that.

The radio call, how we couldn’t see gintoki's initial reaction as Takasugi talked to him, gintoki even pretending not knowing (painfully bad) he didn’t know the other voice.

And of course the myriad moments in the final arc, Gintoki promply saying he is the one he wants to protect, the death sequence 'maybe we were just born under that kind of (tragic) star'

Gintoki teading takasugi that his parents would cry if they see the delincuent he is bringing home 🤣🤣.

Fuck, in the spin off Takasugi as a student novel, when he and Gintoki meet they can't keep the skit up, they talk directly to each other.

Also about the special episode, there's another...uh this is more of a paralel, and purely a headcanon, but here it goes: the yorozuya meet with kamui while trying to help a woman about her mother setting her up in blind dates, and in one moment she starts mothering both kamui and kagura and they get, well their eyes are animated different in that moment, and then they start listening to her. They were probably remainded of their own mother. And then I realised that I have seen Kamui make those eyes before (I will look for a pic, it's a very distintive shift), when talking to Takasugi. Is in one op too.

Of course the childhood friends dynamic. Regardless of nature, nobdy can deny the deep connection these two have.

(Here's the image from the op, is less obvios in the ep I think...or I'm overthinking, that's more possible)

Here’s Kamui and Kagura’s eyes when tehy get scold by the mother:

(I’m not crazy, they are similar XD Maybe XD)

I remember thinking to myself at the time 'woah, Kamui shows a admiring expression with takasugi somentimes' and now I fully believe is a childlike more like expression because takasugi reminds him of his mother(subconsiously). I can see the resemblance, especially towards the end of the series. As Gintoki and Umibozuo paralel too(both of them act like Kagura's dads) I just....haha parallel things.

There's a hundred things more, I'm sure I'm forgetting some (may add in a reblog after). All their fucking dialogue with each other is so intense. I I just love this ship sooo much

Totally up to talk about this ship if someone wants to!!

[a-username-not-found]

Gintama SS Arc

'Post Amanto War' Outfits

I love them so much

After 2 years:

Okita Sougo is now working in 'mafia' in pursuit of what threatens and post danger to the government. I think it suits him well. Unrestricted without Hijibaka's clauses of discipline as they temporarily catter Shinsengumi to gather Odd Jobs and find Gintoki. I love that Sorachi kept their 'American/Foreigner' look that is supposed to be an influence of Amanto/foreigners to their culture historically. Look at those suits and coat of Sougo, damn. I think it's cool to see him use a gun rather than a bazooka but he's got ways to go before becoming a sniper. He quoted her question to him in the FS Arc and told her, "Are you the type of person to do that?" Or something along the lines.

Kagura obviously grew not just her hair but also her body. It was implied that Kamui taught her the ancient technique of controlling your body in your favored age. Though I'm pretty sure Kagura doesn't know it's her brother bc of the different form he has then and from Umibouzu's and Abuto's comments. I love that Sorachi utilized her Chinese themed outfits into that without (over)sexualizing her, thankfully. It would've been better if the animators added the detailed design in her cloak but I understand the consequences. Also, her right glove must be a nod to her 19 years old self in the movie. According to Sougo, she's gotten 'shrewd', lol. Kanna's name must also be a reference to HashiKan.

Don't you love how it's Sougo welcomes Kagura and not Shinpachi who she first met and yet doesn't realize it's her?

I stopped writing fanfics to provide content on tumblr, how's that huh

It's been years with numerous posts, fanfics, fanarts, and theories yet I'm still craving for okikagu content

Stay safe