#it was one on oboro and shouyou/utsuro

[bossladytae]

~

[averagelonelypotato]

so like when he gets a new persona, does the other one just go to sleep or ?

[yu-sigao]

I just finished Gintama and I'm still in awe. It's been a day and I still don't know how to collect my words of how deeply this anime struck me.

Utsuro was a beautiful villain. The way I interpret him is that he is almost pure yin - cold, dark, destructive, and all consuming, like, well, an 虚 ("utsuro", void.) But in East Asian cosmology, while yin is death, it is also fertility. It is the feminine component of the universe and required for land and animals to reproduce. So within a field of yin, there will always be a seed of yang.

This seed of yang is of course, Yoshida Shouyou. Just as yin inevitably grows yang, Utsuro talks of Shouyou's emergence as inevitable in episode 328.

"The one that hated humans, the one that feared humans, and the one that longed to be human... They were all me. It was inevitable that he would appear to stop them. The only Utsuro that stood up to Utsuro."

He even usually wears white compared to the black of Utsuro's cloak. Shouyou is warm, kind, nurturing, and active; it's said he never stopped fighting against Utsuro, even if at first he lost. And arguably that fighting is what got him killed. Utsuro slays him internally as Gintoki slays him externally, and when his body is burned in fire - a classic symbol of yang - Utsuro reemerges. The seed has sprouted, grown, withered, and returned back to fertilise the earth. Yang flows back into yin.

What I find interesting is the decidedly feminine metaphors that Oboro and Utsuro himself use to describe the formation of his different personas. He is said to have "given birth" to countless versions of himself (again also from episode 328), which further strengthens the association between Utsuro and yin.

This is not the first time a birthing/maternal metaphor has been used in Gintama. Consider Shouyou's speech to a child Gintoki:

"There's no difference between a monster and the child of a monster. They are both inhuman beings that are only born within a bloody pool of sin. And a monster's sword cannot cut another monster. So, Gintoki, stop trying to grow stronger by imitating me... You have to grow stronger than me by using your own sword, the sword of a human." - (episode 317.)

If in this metaphor, Utsuro is the parent and Shouyou is the offspring, then what does that make Shouyou? Shouyou subtly implies he considers himself a monster. Is this true? If you view Shouyou as a parental figure to Gintoki, Katsura, and Takasugi, then what does that make them?

Gintoki was called a corpse eating demon as a child, and by the time he was fighting in the Joui wars and forced to execute Shouyou, he had not shed that reputation. He instead became known as the Shiroyasha - white demon. Clothed in the colours of yang like his master who longed to be human, but a monster nonetheless. And a monster's sword cannot cut another monster. That is why when Gintoki kills Shouyou, Utsuro is born, and the cycle starts anew. It is only after 300+ episodes of character development that he becomes human, and can put an end to Utsuro.

"The people here must be what you were to me. Just as the eternal monster from that day became human by meeting you... Meeting you kids, the little monster with sad eyes from that day has also become human, hasn't he?" - (Shouyou to Gintoki in Gintama: The Final.)

But the cycle is never over. A baby implied to be Takasugi's reincarnation is born in the Altana gates at the end. At first I thought this was a cheap trick, and that Sorachi only did this to keep fans happy, but it does fit the theme of eternity and neverending cycles.

Gintama, to me, is about cycles, and the difference between productive and unproductive cycles. The Naraku's name refers to a sort of Buddhist hell, and they dress like Buddhist monks. The relevance of the Buddhist theme of reincarnation in regards to Utsuro's story should be obvious. But instead of a march towards enlightenment, Utsuro's numerous lifetimes are more like an ouroboros eating it's own tail. He did unto others what was done unto him, escalating into a plot to destroy Earth, which got him nowhere but perpetuating pointless samsara. He destroys himself as he begets himself, experiencing moral degradation and isolation as he shies away from even his other selves.

Or a cycle can be like making a philosopher's stone, which is what Gintoki experienced: a process of continuous refinement that produces objects of further and further purity. To use Buddhist terms, enlightenment is an ongoing process. The work of becoming human takes as long as your life will. And Gintoki is made human by his relationships with Shinpachi, Kagura, and every single person he met over the course of the story, while Utsuro remained so focused on himself, he destroyed his other selves.

Utsuro recognises his mistake upon his death:

"Humans are hollow beings. But because they know that, they take root in the heart of others, never fading, even after death, and continue to live forever, is it?" - (Gintama: The Final)

His hollowness and eternity did not have to mean all this pain. He denied the version of himself, Shouyou, that went against his omnicidal death wish, and was life giving instead. In giving life, Shouyou became mortal, and was given death. In death, Shouyou became more influential and powerful than Utsuro, having touched the heart of people who would come back to defeat him. The immortal becomes mortal becomes immortal. Yin flowing back into yang flowing back into yin.

In the end, everything goes back to where it started, yet everything is new again. The Yorozuya are back, and Edo is still Edo, even as Tokyo looms on the horizon. I can only hope for the baby we see at the end, that if they are immortal, they will have a kinder life than Utsuro/Shouyou did. That they will be more human than monster. The monster's child became human, after all.

[yamameta-inc]

the thing is. why was shouyou in jail for so long before being executed. i mean it doesn't really matter. in the end the set-up is what it is in order to force gintoki to make that choice on the cliff that day because it's what the entire story is based around. and the details aren't really important enough to dedicate time to.

but theoretically. if you were to think about it. the only logical answer is that he was being kept as a normal political prisoner. oboro was there, guarded him, exchanged words with him. a tendoushuu member was on the cliff that day. it seems very odd on the surface. to make sense of it, what must have been the case is that oboro and the naraku were there simply because the naraku by definition serves the tendoushuu, and the tendoushuu were simply the main representatives of amanto power influencing the japanese government. so oboro, presumably, just didn't tell the rest of the naraku who yoshida shouyou really was.

that kid in takasugi's flashback told his dad about shouka sonjuku to get back at takasugi for humiliating him. there were already rumours about shouyou spreading seditious ideas. the authorities were going to arrest shouyou for political reasons.

oboro saw shouyou living happily with his juniors and got so jealous he burned the school down.

in truth, these two facts may be two interpretations of the same event, simultaneously true despite being completely different. but if you had to arrange the two as separate events on a timeline, the first one must have happened, well, first. shouyou says to takasugi at the end of that flashback: welcome to shouka sonjuku. perhaps they weren't actually chased away that time, or perhaps they moved elsewhere and moved into a new building. gintoki is the only character who ever appears in the flashbacks where shouyou is being led away, where the school is burning, but we don't have details about that because we don't need to.

shouyou's willing to come quietly as long as his students aren't hurt--he's willing to sit in a prison cell for years, and he's willing to be executed on that cliff for the same reason. it probably chafed at oboro more than anything, knowing how strong shouyou really was but seeing him just sit docilely in his cell. "i believed he would come back to me." but shouyou had been right in front of him for literal years, fully willing to talk to him if he wanted to talk. instead oboro had waited until shouyou died. until it was a "clean slate", until there would be no complications. the exact same trick they tried to pull years ago. did he cling to that, convincing himself it was right because of the echo it provoked in him? it worked the first time, right? (though the result of that first time was him being left out.)

oboro could've, at any moment, simply betrayed the naraku. on that cliff, who would've stopped him if he cut zura and takasugi's bonds and freed his sensei? but that would've meant gintoki winning, and he wanted to see gintoki lose.

the tendoushuu would've had no idea there was anything extraordinary about the execution taking place. they didn't know about shouyou's immortality, about the history of the naraku--the naraku themselves didn't know their founders had been one person. literally no one knew anything except for oboro, and he kept his silence. he kept silent to the people who threatened his sensei, but he also kept silent to his sensei himself, and he kept silent to his juniors for all those years. oboro is a character who suffers in silence to a truly ridiculous degree, all his best and worst intentions a secret to the rest of the world.

and then utsuro walked out of his funeral pyre and was immediately like... lmao. let's reveal myself to the tendoushuu. also i'm going to join the naraku as the leader again. you don't mind right

[joelletwo]

gintama time loop reading that i had while watching

(laid out for my own reference. this doesnt have to interest u guys.)

okay so like. watching gintama and getting to kintoki arc. what i knew was 1. i was getting into the anime art style changes i had varying feelings about which signaled 2. i was getting into the back half of gintama 3. what i knew about the back half of gintama is that utsuro exists, gintoki did something fucked up on that cliff that ppl cant stop talking about and drawing parallels to with every arc of gintama, and ppl (i sensed) think the writing of the ending is stupid

kintoki arc has yorozuya and tae promise:

before breaking Gintama The Series into a distorted au where the chars are WILDLY different but still play out their roles to their arc-concluding purposes. birthing in me the image of a gintama that can fill any shaped-hole you put it in and still have the same basic inherent form it moves towards (whatever happened on that cliff, which i sensed was being gestured at in kintoki arc w the beheadment seppuku but had no idea the fucking. extent of lol)

gintama making formal changes (ugly or lovely art style shifts, at some point a radical change in thrust of story with the introduction of utsuro as a final and plot-twisty villain) but (hoping that it's) remaining the same at heart... or being railroaded into being the same. somehow the yorozuya promise became about. being cognizant of being in the narrative timeloop** and being subjected to Circumstances. being cognizant that something was being taken from u (catharsis of ending--) and also inflicted on u (--replaced with episodic and genre-typical* endless storylines)

(*not a slam. just that gintama's storylines are all about like. accepting the horrors. which is a journey of experiencing the horrors in order to come to terms with them that is harrowing to be subjected to over and over and over again. [cest la vie]

**and timeloop was also being flavored by me understanding yoo joonghyuk orv's regressions as about the endless iterative failures of making progress on a journey of recovery from trauma. all timeloops are about that to me now.)

thought shelved until obi-one's arc where, although i understood him as an oboro figure, he was performing a shouyoutsuro role of being a dearly missed mentor figure who comes back for happy family times yayyyyy but oh no he came back Wrong (a disabled cyborg programmed to betray against his own will). and Evil (needs to be taken down, and the shimuras-through-gintoki have to be the ones to dismantle their own happiness that it turns out was always retroactively tinted by this grief).

the presentation of nostalgia as longing for a return to the past that cant actually be achieved. or rather, you can achieve it, but Time changes things, and the past you get back won't actually be the same.

this helps me shift what i know about utsuro (shouyou but Wrong) into being about. what actually isnt that textually present in the series? but has to be assumed, i think? bc like? of course? the desire to have shouyou back (tho now i ask: whose? gintoki's? again, not really... in the text?). you can have shouyou (idealized gintama timeperiod where everyone is happy and innocent) back! you can have all the shouyou (early days swagful gintama anime that i am constantly missing as i move into the future material) back that you want! and its gonna fucking suck (for the chars and for the audience)!

and that basically ends up being the framing thought i take with me into utsuro's introduction................... it gets lost the more i actually see him and late-game gintama for myself and gain the context i never had for everyones blogging i was seeing. but. still. the theme i understood to be what gintama was telling me. you cant get back what you lost. and if (when) you try, you only come face to face with what was damaged in the losing.

however...................................

the further i got into silver soul and through to the ending the more it was............ interesting but confusing that, as i put it, the chars were "fighting the representation of the dangers of Nostalgia with More Nostalgia"?

and still i dont know what to do with the ultimate last-pages ending of gintama being a return to the status quo (with cosmetic changes). yay we defeated the evil specter of our past that haunted us and kept us in the desire timeloop. now we can get back to the episodic timeloop that we spent the fight with the specter... desiring to get back. hm. well!

[soppymilkgin]

wonder if one of the things trapping the narrative was not just shouyoutsuro undying but shouyou's guilt? his guilt for letting oboro die and living happily for all those years while he was suffering lead to being arrested lead to the cliff and his guilt for choosing to make connections and inflicting them with the pain and responsibility of dealing with utsuro. we see a lot of sensei feeling terrible and apologizing for everything in the final chapters and theres a relief in seeing gintoki having become a human and simply being there to send him off as yorozuya gin-san. so much of the buildup to the end shows us gin-san's guilt and since shouyou and gin are so *indescribable and indistinguishable* mirror-y, then absolving shouyou's guilt would also play a significant part in ending the series (the eternity)

[inkonssstantgeissst]

Takasugi: you have no control over me. you have no control over me

Oboro: i and fate have control over everything

Utsuro/Shouyou: i am tired of being controlled by my fate

Katsura: there is no control in this world except for the control one holds over oneself

Gintoki: control? ha, as if

Tatsuma: there is no absolute control, but there is always influence

[crytoki]

cryverse the crack gintama au where everyone is alive!! time and space are not real, there is only existence. unfortunately takasugi oboro utsuro & shouyou all go through babyhood again

preface:

shouyou is reborn again (again!)

when the baby is forming both shouyou & utsuro exist within it. once it grows hands shouyou rips out the heart and cuts off the nasty bits and throws them away, then from the trash heap those chunks coalesce and become utsuro in a new body

shouyou gave birth to the takasugi baby in the upper realm (he reproduces asexually like a flower)

shouyou baby appears way before, takasugi baby has to take another year almost before it appears

when utsuro bubbles up into a conscious state he realizes the baby takasugi is soon going to come of the dragon gate and is like wtf i want baby so he sits there and pulls out the escenses of oboro

utsuro is psycho and wants to beat shouyou and so manages to pull an oboro baby out of there first

once shouyou find his takasugi baby he goes on vacation to the maldives and relegates the baby to gintoki & co

the plan is the baby will have the fathers gintoki zura and tatsuma

because takasugi doesnt need to be parented properly! it may not be good for the baby but think of the content, and shouyous peace. this can also be a learning experience for his students

they (gintoki & co) make a family channel on youtube and parade takasugi baby

gintoki is emotionally unstable, zura is posh with dumb wholesome energy, tatsuma has a degree, shouyou is a role model to all, utsuro and petty & hates shouyou so also wants a kid (which he achieved), oboro is a bully, takasugi is a menace to society in all ways

gintoki occupies the baby by playing soccer with him

dont forget time doesnt exist!

they all decide to make their own youtube channels for passive income

everyone lives in one big house

kagura still lives at the yorozuya but gintoki lives in the house, gintoki goes to the yorozuya during working hours and kagura comes to the house outside of working hours

oba z is still real

tatsuma was kicked to earth so mutsu could regain all the funds he lost and now he is being held hostage by gintoki and zura to help them raise the takasugi baby before he can go back

preface done

this part is all about their youtube channels because thats the only part of this au with flesh

oboros most viewed is him literally stabbing gintoki and it gets taken down and takasugi does a political video on it

zura is a beauty guru with 30mil subs

when anyone cosplays zura is in charge of makeup

(the growing) oboro has 25mil and his whole channel is 30 second clips of him beating up gintoki

oboro has a second channel where he post his workout adventures with (the growing) takasugi

takasigis yt has 25k nd all of it is like: (｡◕‿◕｡)➜ picnic with oboro, arcade with gin (＾∇＾)ﾉ♪, spitting on tatsuma ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ, zura does my makeup (*v*;)

everything takasugi makes is cute

takasugi does those really clean neatly packaged videos where it's like 'letting my family pick my fits for the week' and you're like wow this is so cute but they're so rich it could never be me

takasugi does lifestyle videos mostly but otherwise does whatever he wants

he likes to make political videos

gintoki has a baking channel

you watch one of gintokis videos because he has 5mil and its like "taksugi is UNDERRATED, go sub— [oboro walks in with vlog camera, punches him, laughs, walks out] [gintoki stand up, unfazed] oboro back at it again haha he does that sometimes, anyway lets get started"

oboro has 3 videos on his channel that are not featuring gintoki which are "my dad reacts to my yt" and no one has seen utsuro smile that much in real life

takasugis most viewed video is abt how oboros channel is abusive but then he does a collab with him right after

"but we all hate gintoki anyway"

there's a series of collabs from takasugi and oboro about the gintoki cat (seperate from the real gintoki)

first ep they find the cat injured on their daily jog

the end is them releasing it into the wild after taking care of it for a while

however there is a great contrast between the videos posted to each of their channels

its the same footage from different angles but oboros videos end up violent, everything is blurry and in motion and red.

there are 50 lens flare memes and the audio is horrific

half of the audio in oboros vids are him hyperventilating into the mic

oboros videos are like entering the gates of hell

and then there'll be random shots of shinsuke perfectly clear and not red and thats the only part that doesnt scream psychopath

it's like a still shot of shinsuke taking care of gintoki cat

and then gintoki enters the room to ask about where the cinnamon went and it all turns red and hellish again

oboro blacks out gintokis face in the video

gintoki does a video where he retitles oboros videos and they all end up "abusing gintoki [earrape]"

oboros top/pinned comments are always either takasugi commenting something nice about the video or a rando asking if oboro is okay

zura doesnt collab with anyone except elizabeth but elizabeth never shows up in the others vids so it becoems a conspiracy of where zura actually lives and takasugi ends up doing a political video on it

takasugis most viewed video ever is "how i was reformed and became a gen z ft. gin" and its just a synopsis of the gintama universe

oboros most viewed is him literally stabbing gintoki and it gets taken down and takasugi does a political video on it, but the political video isnt about oboro, its abt the yt community guidelines and oboros video is used as an example

takasugi does a house tour one day and his room is covered in pink and white and plants and hes like "so I'm actually into gardening but dad's herb and tomato farm is outside so I have a mini greenhouse in my room for mint leaves and stuff" and the top comment is from oboro and reads: loser

gintoki is the second comment and he's just like you never told me you had fresh mint and takasugi replies that he never asked

gintokis most viewed video is "strawberry cake with shinpachi" because it ends with someone breaking into shinpachis house and trying to kidnap tae and the footage is literally gintoki frosting the cake then shinpachi yells out from where he was finding more sprinkles and gintoki picks up the camera off the tripod and runs with it, decides to post the footage

takasugi ends up doing a political video on it

they are all part of youtube red show where they do the 3z universe

takasugi does poetry on his channel too

he has one "moon watching on the roof" where he encourages his subscribers to make a line of a poem in the comments and then he makes a series about taking comments from there and making full poems from it

he also has a playlist with a billion haikus

there's a minecraft series w katsura and gintoki and oboro on takasugis channel

they all have custom skins that's just their character except katsura who is elizabeth

oboro spends every moment trying to kill gintoki so when they go to the ender dragon everyones decked out and gintoki and oboro have wooden swords and thats it

katsura revolks gins rights bc after they took away oboros he started getting mad w power

all of them are shit at building so their base is just a big shack of cobble

when they want something nice gintoki just drags tatsuma to his chair and tells him to go until hes done

tatsumas like "this is slavery" and gintoki spits on him

tatsuma actually joins the series after they defeat the ender dragon and he and takasugi create an empire

the reason he joins is because he wants to sit in his own room and not get spat on

however as soon as he joins it becomes a chicken race of gintoki trying to kill tatsuma and oboro trying to kill gintoki

but takasugi and zura backstab tatsuma and try to kill him too

they force him into the brown square for the building theyre working on and if he tries to leave they kill him

his inventory is 10 bread and they dont give him anything else unless he builds

tatsuma himself has 10mil and its like high brainpower science space and engineering videos

gintoki comments "nerd" on every video and takasugi ends up doing a political video on it

footnote bansai is still alive

[shirokokuro]

Holy [Shouka Sonjuku Memes], Batman!

(Spoilers below)

[rampagingnoble]

just remembered one of my favorite headcanons wherein utsuro, despite being hellbent on dying; hence would retaliate aggressively if opposed, actually had to hold back amusement upon seeing these pictures in rakuyou arc because:

shouyou's impertinent sons disciples and their friend looked ridiculous. why did his men (oboro....?) even used these? sjsgsh

for gin's photo, utsuro recognized it was actually kotarou dressed as gintoki instead of gintoki himself (technically, he is shouyou. he'd be able to tell them apart)

[seal7035]

ficlet.

Shouyou’s eyes squeezed shut, doing his best to retaliate against the malicious force within. Unfortunately, all of his limbs were as stiff as rocks, mirroring the state his physical body was in, bound, stranded by a cliff. Far in the distance, the cries of his students outstretched. They were calling their teacher, begging, screaming for someone to stop. To stop what? Shouyou had an inkling of an external entity approaching him, but the presence of Utsuro overwhelmed all the senses perceiving it. 

_____

“Sensei, if you were to lead a battalion, would you rather mobilize all of them at once to win a quick, absolute battle, or would you fight many drawn-out, strategic ones with only a fraction of them to minimise casualty?”

“Hmmm, both seem like viable choices. Between a certain victory and survival of your comrades. Which is more important? Do you have to trade-off one for the other? Is there a way to achieve both? I’m sure you would figure out your own way, my brilliant, little General.”

His little General was dead silent now.

_____

It felt weirdly nostalgic, strikingly resembled multiple times when Shouyou chided his rowdy batch of students, who played just about any trick to avoid work, discipline… and the consequences of running from said discipline. Gintoki, Koutarou and Shinsuke being the culprits of most misadventures, frequently dragging another soul into their schemes.

This was the first time Oboro was at the receiving end.

_____

Where there was death, there were the crows.

_____

“Don’t do it, sensei.” Gintoki said with a growl, warning, though as harmless as a grumpy pup, “There are boundaries even teachers don’t cross.” His face pulled into a grimace, a very stiff one to put the displeasure on full display. What a stubborn child Gintoki was, even though he needed to overcome these inane fears to grow.

“I’ll sing a song. That will assure you I’m still around, right?”

“Sensei… That’s not the point.” The student retorted, lips pursed in embarrassment.

“Well then…”, he cleared throat, ready to unleash his inner Kumiko **sugi. Adjusting his outerwear to appear more like a professional vocalist, Shouyou gathered a breath and, “Deredere dere Deredere dere Deredere dere Deredere …”

[thefatedmeeting]

HHH i made this last september when we thought it was gonna end and i’m posting this now because... soon it IS gonna end this time for sure... probably ... seeing recent events

i made this little (long) text... i am very emotional abt it... thank you if you read it

i don’t have enough words to express my love for this series, honestly. i have been keeping up with it since 2013-2014 and it was an absolutely wild ride full of laughter, incredulity, tears and a lot of feelings in general... with all the flaws and plot mistakes and retcons, i just can’t bring myself to dislike the end and sugi’s death, which i think is the tying up sorachi has been trying to find in this MESS of jump giga and the app and whatever else. i feel this in my bones, dude.

i love sugi as a character and although i wish he hadn’t died (like i still can’t believe how shochan and isaburo and bansai did) and this ultimately doesn’t solve gintoki’s struggle (to choose between his friends or shouyou), but... if this makes sense, it was like sugi had the power of choice this time around. it was A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE AND TERRIBLE CHOICES but it wasn’t just gintoki who was choosing this time... it was everyone (coughs i did miss zura in the end scenes though where he at btich). and i think as a tie-up, it’s meant to say something like... gin can’t move on from his traumas if his traumas are still chasing him - in the form of utsuro/shouyou and... sugi, in a way. oboro died as well in the same way. i don’t appreciate this kind of writing very much as i don’t like characters being killed for these reasons but i sort of understand what was being said, i think...

and tbh ever since shogun ass arc - the string of events, the pacing, the plot... even though it all couldve been much better... sorachi has never said he would do it perfectly, in fact he had always said just how stupid he is in regards with writing endings (god. big mood though). i was very frustrated at first because we, himself included i think, believe gintama deserves the kind of ending that ties ALL loose ends and makes you feel all happy and warm (i still thing the second one will happen... i hope so), but i kind of understand him a bit better now that i have started writing my own original things; he has been trying to tie up the loose ends a lot - loose ends that he brought himself, but i have to say it is TONS TONS better than bleach or naruto’s het bad endings that were brought up last minute... at least utsuro has been around since like 2015 or something and ruining everything consistently lmao

but now that it’s ending (or.. i feel it is ending sdfsdf), more than ever i just feel how much it has helped me, this series? like i was in the end of high school when i got hooked into it? this fuckin kid that didn’t know anything about being a grownup or about having initiative in her own choices and was severely anxious and depressed, and just recently having found out about their sexuality?! i was very lost.

if this makes sense, gintama just felt like. it felt like gintoki came to life and personally slapped me, grabbed my shoulders and said: “CALM DOWN. it’s okay to struggle. you will find your way, sooner or later, but things will come to you if you hope they will... and when you manage to get up and work towards them, you will know how worth living your life is”. and that’s like. exactly what i needed. it didn’t feel like a hug, but it felt comforting like it was one. it felt like a little gesture, like a small pat on the back, like someone ruffling my hair, while i was crying and lost. felt a little like hope. and i repeat, i can’t find enough words to express how thankful i am to this series... i hope i find a way to write this to sorachi at some point.

i am as reluctant as sorachi is to part with this series and i honestly don’t think i ever will in a sense; i feel it’s so close to my heart that all the lessons, all the chapters i read have been engraved in my soul in a dirty gross silver, in true gintama fashion, i won’t ever forget the little things that helped me grow up to the adult that i am today, and that i’m still learning to be. 

i want to keep on drawing and writing for it - i cant help it because it’s the way i best express myself. though i haven’t been able to do so lately because of work and uni and my life that has been leaving me LOVED and HECTIC and LAUGHING and NUTS and CRYING and LOST and then FINDING myself again, rinse and repeat, like it’s its own version of this manga... 

i am ready to read the last chapter. but it’s not really goodbye for me... so i say, “see you later”. because i will always return to it when i need it, and when i miss my little family of stupid nonsensical characters i know i will find them. i hope they will find me too.

love you, gintama, with all of my heart and soul. thank you for everything, and see you later. take care-

-i’ll be calling you!

[averagelonelypotato]

Gintama royalty au where the Yoshida brothers grew up as prince’s of the kingdom. Upon their parents death, Shouyou was chosen to be the next ruler while Utsuro, the bitter man he is, was jealous. Utsuro was always jealous of his twin brother who was loved by all. He spent a year planning his brother’s death to ensure he the becomes his. But his plans are put on hold when his brother brings home a brat, Oboro, a peasant child that Shouyou’s bleeding heart decided to name his ward, Utsuro treats him like a page regardless.  Utsuro’s plans are put on hold a second time. He waits and plots again, deciding to join his Shouyou on his journey to hunt and slay the corpse eating demon, prepared to murder his brother and blame his demise on the demon. However once again, Shouyou’s bleeding heart interferes with Utsuro’s plan as the corpse eating demon turns out to be a stinky little brat, Shouyou names the child Gintoki and brings him home. Now two brats interfere with Utsuro’s claim to the crown. Years go by with Oboro the dutiful son adored by the servants, peasants, and scholars alike. Along with Gintoki, the kingdom’s trouble maker, boasted on the training fields and adored by the kitchen staff. Utsuro comes up with a new plan but is once again thwarted by Shouyou taking in two new brats. A runt and a prodigy. The sole survivor of house Takasugi and a peasant prodigy and remaining living member of his family. Now Utsuro has three troublesome brats who interfere with his plans and annoy him to no end, but at least he can threaten Oboro and use him as a pawn in his plan. Years go by with Utsuro growing more jealous, plotting to overthrow and murder his brother and his brats. In the years that pass by he creates an army named the naraku, with him as the leader that will be the key to him overthrowing his brother’s rule and finally getting what was rightfully his. In the years that pass by the kingdom will grow to love Shouyou’s wards and see them as the heirs, Oboro, Gintoki, Katsura and Takasugi were the unofficial princes of the kingdom, love by all. Even with the recent addition of Mukuro, the quiet mysterious young girl Utsuro found and decided to bring into Shouyou’s care, the kingdom and her new brothers grew to love her as well as the princess. 

It is quite the tragedy that when Shouyou and his kids are returning to the castle from their family picnic they are intercepted by the naraku soldiers and escorted to the palace and notice the gloom. They walk in the throne room, bloodied, all of Shouyou’s court and ministers dead. The soldiers force Shouyou and his children to kneel. Shouyou, furious demands to know who is their leader, only to have his face turn into disbelief, hurt, betrayal when his own twin brother, his biggest supporter and confidant, walks in with his crown, dressed in dark robes and smugly sits on his throne wearing his crown and looks down at him and his children. Utsuro then has the audacity to reveal Oboro as his pawn, the one who helped him, have him released from the rest of Shouyou’s family and make them watch as Shouyou’s first child kneels and swears loyalty to the new king, enjoying the pure pain on his brother’s face and relishing in the screams of anger, hurt, disbelief and betrayal of his children as their own brother betrays them. He’ll then call his spy he ordered to spy and gain shouyou’s trust, Mukurom and have her kneel and swear loyalty to her. He’ll give the rest of Shouyou’s brats the choice to swear loyalty to him, they all refuse. Which Utsuro has no problem with as it’s more fun for him to execute Shouyou with his children given the perfect view of him doing it, giving him the satisfaction of seeing the three brats faces as he does it. He makes the guards drag the now orphaned children to the cells, delighted in how broken they look, he sets plans for their execution at noon tomorrow. In the cells late at night Mukuro and Oboro both bump into each other on their way to the cells, both of them with the idea of freeing and allowing their brothers to escape. The three broken children escape into the night before their former brother and sister even made their way to the cells. Each of them split up gone into different directions running away from the now corrupt kingdom that was once their home. One focuses on revenge, one on focuses on change and rebellion while the other just focuses on living. A few years later the young girl ran away from the tyrant Utsuro’s reign, finding a new family with a man who lost his, a man working to eradicate the tyrant’s reign and it’s family line. Most of the late king Shouyou’s children have all escaped from the clutches of their evil uncle and hidden from him. Only Shouyou’s first child, Oboro remains, bound on a promise shared between a dead man, a traitor and a fool. 

[vtsvro]

thoughts about chap 703? i'm seeing a lot of hate so i want to hear your opinion.

Everyone is still overwhelmed by the chapter, but many of those - especially those full of hate - seem to forget or overlook many things and why all this has happened in the first place.

Takasugi did not get as much hate compared to other characters such as for example Utsuro. In fact, he was majorly seen as the ‘‘basic antagonist’‘ who turned from friend to foe, the one who added ‘‘emo’‘ and ‘‘grudge’‘ to the whole series. A typical ‘’Vegeta’’ or ‘’Sasuke’’, if I may say. We’ve seen many facets of Takasugi, and he is much more than that; in fact, he was much more even before the recent chapter. If we compare the disciples of Shouyou, we’ll see that each one of them shows how to deal with death and Shouyou’s legacy:1. Oboro: Due to his mistake, he dedicates his life to everything that’ll reverse his action, even though that seems impossible.2. Sakata Gintoki: Runs away from the past until he has to ultimately face it.3. Katsura Kotarou: Learns from the past and moves on to make a better future.4. Takasugi Shinsuke: Filled with regret and hate towards those that seem to forget or trivialize what has happened.All of them found a family in Shouyou and with the Shouka Shonjuku; and all of them found a new family (Gintoki Kabukicho and the Yorozuya, Katsura Elizabeth and the Joui) except for Oboro and Takasugi, though Oboro was still - in some way - by his family’s side. Takasugi - despite having the Kihetai, which is still not comparable to the other relationships - was the only one who would not let go of his anger - how would that even be possible - and lived his life to end it; yes, his only goal was to ruin himself along with the world (what Utsuro did). Some chapters ago, Sorachi added a quote of the historical Takasugi Shinsuke, which goes like this (there are different translations):

If we look at Gintama itself, we know that by that he means eliminating the Naraku who were responsible for Shouyou’s death and then die next to his master. His sole goal was that, nothing more.But along the way, he protected many; in fact, he protected the world. He went through one of the most beautiful character developments, and turned his goal into one that would benifit others. Did it have to end that way? If you ask me, even though he is one of my absolute faves since the beginning and it hurts me to no end, it had to be this way. Sorachi could pull the classical Shounen and let him end up with someone he did not care about at all - like Matako, or Tae, since they have a few scenes together. But that would make no sense, just like it made no sense with any other Shounen-series. You see, Gintoki has a logical future - the Yorozuya and Kabukicho; it does not even have to end in some romantical way. Katsura found his place as well - he is no longer a radical Joui. But Takasugi? Or Oboro? It would first of all not fit the character, and second of all not Sorachi, to change them like that. I am glad that this chapter was so beautifully dedicated to Takasugi, because we know that his role in the series was not a minor one. I have never felt anger or hate once towards the series or Sorachi, because if we look at the details and the bigger picture, we see that everything makes sense and has its reason to be that way; everything connects and nothing is left out or trivialized. There is a quote dedicated to the historical Takasugi by his colleague of the Shouka Shonjuku, which goes like this:

「動けば雷電の如く、 発すれば風雨の如し､衆目駭然､敢て正視する者なし｡これ我が東行高杉君に非ずや」,“When Takasugi moves, it’s swift like a thunder and lightning. When he utters, it’s fierce like a storm and downpour. Everybody was overwhelmed, and nobody ventures to look at him straight in face. Togyo (a nickname of Shinsaku) Takasugi was a man exactly like this.”Sorachi did him no wrong, neither his character nor the man he was based on. He was indeed like thunder and lightning - everything he did and said had dedication and much more sorrow. It may not be the life and end he deserved, but sometimes in life, you do not get happy endings or beginnings. But you may be able to help others in your own way, and grow from it, even though you won’t benefit from it in any way.

[yamameta-inc]

hi hi i hope you are still doing essay commentary because WOAG this latest oboro visual poem meta thing. messed me UP. predictably your mention of third person perspective is my favourite part of the whole post. im wondering why you chose those specific oboro and gintoki Eye Moments for example. but anything else or anything more on the rainbow body segment that you want to talk about would be wonderful! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

(— groupofcrows main)

yesss thank you for the question! i love talking about this stuff.

So the rainbow body is a phenomenon and concept from Dzogchen, a tradition within Tibetan Buddhism. Essentially, when a master attains full knowledge, their body changes. I'm not going to go into the details here because it's not too relevant, but upon death the master's body will dissolve into light instead of leaving a corpse behind, and then their spirit can go wherever in the world to aid others. (Very much like how I think of Shouyou's final death in the final arc where he The World arcana's himself into sublimation.)

I was originally going to go in a different direction with the collage, but it didn't work with the flow as well, and it was difficult to get suitable quotes. You haven't seen the end of the rainbow body quotes though, I have a bunch more I'm saving for another collage. lol.

Anyway, what's meant by "third person perspective" in the actual definition of the rainbow body is just that this is what's observable to the people around the master. Buddhism is largely concerned with the internal, which is probably why it's phrased this way. I took it and ran though! The first screenshot in that section is of Gintoki's iconic PTSD moment when he sees Utsuro's face for the first time, perfectly coincidentally in the arc where Utsuro is depicted with a LGBT pride aura as he moves for no reason (except, I presume, hilarity). What more significant moment of "knowledge" attainment is there for him? For Oboro, though, that moment of horrified realization is when he "realizes" he's been replaced, that Shouyou getting to live means that he will actually, you know, live his life and move on.

I juxtaposed these moments because, in a way, Gintoki and Oboro are already "third person perspectives" of each other. I've already talked about how Oboro is a retroactively created echo of Gintoki. What's fun in the wording of the quote is that it's the third-person perspective of someone else attaining knowledge, right? Oboro and Gintoki are "at the scene" of their respective deepest horror, with Oboro's image being second because it implicitly frames him as potentially looking at Gintoki. Because that's indeed what happened. Oboro is also always looking at Gintoki, but not at all in the same way as Takasugi.

In the execution pic, he's simply watching the execution--Gintoki is just the guillotine, and despite how terrible this moment is for everyone involved, Oboro isn't haunted by this. Some part of him knows that the worst is yet to come--that Gintoki will survive because of this choice, so one day he may come to the truly horrible realization, Utsuro. And so the images also imply that Oboro is looking at Gintoki's realization with horror. Oboro in the present had already come to this realization long ago, and so he's become empty of all (or almost all...) desires, attachments, resentments and lets himself be dressed by the narrative in priestly attire without protest.

What about Gintoki? He's not watching anything in this moment except his own memories flying past, but we, the viewer, are watching him have this realization. Just as we watch Oboro have his realization, and understand the catalyst for the entire underlying tragedy of Gintama. Which was Gintoki, or rather Oboro seeing Gintoki. In this situation we are also literally the third person. Gintoki finding out about Utsuro is just the sound of a pebble hitting water a very, very long time after Oboro first dropped it into a well over 10 years ago.

But also, Gintoki meeting Utsuro is quite literally why Utsuro has that LGBT pride aura going on. Because Utsuro needs a very dramatic entrance scene, because this is a very tense moment the narrative can't not gas up. So that we can enjoy it as viewers.

[joelletwo]

way too late to be articulating this thought but every time i loop hayloft and see the goofy utsuro!takasugi->oboro!takasugi noooo lil sibling dont kill sensei by killing sensei. kill sensei by killing ourselves. convolution. i am more and more fueled into getting as stupid as i can in my gntm postcanon lol. takasugi's eye has always been fine and he crawled out of that tower miraculously alive. so did oboro. separately. bc they. separately. uno reverse took over shouyou and utsuro's bodies respectively. all the other altana bodies in the terminal died for real tho so shouyoutsuro did as well. so whos that baby? why its my good friend shouyou(tsuro. theyre integrating.) the fourth :)

and the shouyou body takasugi took over just had a normal ass stab wound thats easy street hes fine now. but the utsuro body oboro took over was 1. largely metaphorical 2. also stabbed 3. more importantly underwent ego death something bad. so oboro's still on borrowed time he just gets enough to hang out with everyone until they get bored of him after a month and then he goes crawls in the woods and dies. one more time