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fluff269 · 9 months ago

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Okay, was anybody going to tell me that the official music video of the 6th opening of Yorinuki Gintama-san has strong gintaka vibes or was I just supposed to find it out myself?

First I would like to show the lyrics of two specific scenes in the actual opening:

A silver-haired guy is looking for a place to return home

following the memories of a time that can't come back

We didn't get to see each other, but we're not apart.

With this we realize that this part of the song is from Gintoki's point of view, who's feeling homesick. The first scene shows him remembering Shouyou, Katsura and Takasugi in his childhood, and then Sakamoto, Katsura and Takasugi again during the war.

Someday when we've gotten to meet,

I'll surely shout aloud "I'm home!"

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere.

In the second scene, Takasugi is seen putting on bandages under a cherry tree, when Bansai, Matako and Takechi arrive to look for him. The lyrics could be interpreted as Gintoki being the one who greets Takasugi so that he doesn't have to do it in front of those looking at him or the other way around.

Now let's see what the official music video (今日もサクラ舞う暁に) by CHiCO with HoneyWorks) shows:

At daybreak when the cherry blossoms were dancing,

we were having dreams.

Wow Wow Paint them in the sky and run.

Go my way

A silver-haired guy is looking for a place to return home

following the memories of a time that can't come back.

We didn't get to see each other, but we're not apart.

The memories of us laughing and crying are even now, even now

living right here.

As you can see, the story of the protagonists of the video has several similarities with that of Gintoki and Takasugi. At the beginning, a silver-haired boy is shown remembering his childhood and noticing the absence of a purple-haired boy who is no longer by his side. But when they were together, he was heis friend and rival.

At daybreak again today when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we found our dream.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere,

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

paint your dreams and run.

Go my way

The video includes speech bubbles in some scenes (which I didn't consider for aesthetic purposes), but it's very curious that at one point the purple-haired boy mentions that he has won 56 consecutive times, in the same way Takasugi kept track of his victories and defeats against Gintoki.

My burning wounds still make me run,

holding onto the memories of that time I want to go back to (Wow)

I superpose myself with how I used to be and laugh.

As I was that day when I hid my weakness, even now, even now

I'm right here.

The purple-haired boy is later shown with who appears to be his father. Here both the tone of the song and the visual effects change to demonstrate greater seriousness in the scene. The lyrics seem to indicate a change in perspective towards him, who also longs to return to those days. It's striking because it expresses similar feelings to Takasugi, in addition to showing a complicated relationship between father and son.

At daybreak again today

when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we grasped hold of our dreams.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

The event that broke the video kids' friendship was basically the purple-haired boy beating up his friends at the dojo without any explanation (strangely similar to a little samurai doing dojoyaburi), which caused the silver-haired boy to confront him.

If we can restart,

and find a place with them,

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

draw your ideals, and run.

Go my way

I'll say goodbye over and over many times.

I found the only one truth.

Though getting more and more wounded, the past stays the past.

I reach my hand out to the glaring answer.

We didn't get to see each other, but we'll always be connected.

The memories of us laughing and crying are even now, even now

living right here.

The silver-haired boy questions if their dreams couldn't coexist. It isn't until many years later that he understands the actions of his friend, and he decides to go look for him. The purple-haired boy is under a cherry tree, reminiscing about the past. There were 4 friends, and in addition to the protagonists of the video there was a boy with long hair and another who is the tallest in the group, which reminds me of Joui 4.

At daybreak again today when the cherry blossoms were dancing (Wow oh oh)

we found our dream.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

On your mark, run! (Go my way)

Someday when we've gotten to meet,

I'll surely shout aloud "I'm home!"

So that you won't be laughed at

by those who are even now watching from somewhere

It's after all this that they meet again. The silver-haired boy throws a bokuto at the purple-haired boy and they clash their swords at the beginning of a friendly combat that symbolizes the reconsolidation of their friendship.

Wow (Wow) Wow (Wow)

paint your dreams and run.

Go my way

I think it's important to highlight the use of cherry trees during the song and, well, in the title itself (At This Dawn When Cherry Blossoms Are Dancing Again). Gintoki once said that the darkest time of the night is just before dawn, and he and Takasugi have been depicted together using cherry trees in the manga, anime, and the final movie. So this could be another poetic way of showing how they would be at their worst before meeting again, a reunion that has a happy connotation for both of them.

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fluff269 · 9 months ago

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Gintoki Sakata Discussion: Takasugi's Influence on Gintoki - What it Means to Truly Protect Your Soul

This is DEFINITELY overthinking it and stretching it beyond canon, but nevertheless I wanted to share my recent thoughts... Spoilers for the entire story, of course. Also, warning for Takagin/Gintaka.

Maybe it was Takasugi who ironically inspired Gintoki to be who he is today: the man who never gives up, even if he's beaten down and everything seems hopeless - he will stand back up and protect everyone and everything around him. Just like how Takasugi senselessly was as a dojo challenger.

When Gintoki was younger, he was never like this. He was just fighting for his survival. When Gintoki first meets Shouyou, Shouyou points out how Gintoki was just wielding the sword to protect himself in a harsh, bloody environment.

This is why Gintoki doesn't give up when sparring Shouyou. He needs to be as strong as possible to keep protecting himself. Gintoki brings up how he has never lost to an adult - as if he wants to beat Shouyou simply so he can never lose ever again (so he wouldn't end up dying).

And then, Shouyou mentions how monsters are something born from a bloodstained karma. Gintoki is naturally drawn to bloodshed and death, because losing meant death in the environment he used to grow up in. So he needs to be strong and be capable of killing others so he can survive in such a place. You can just see it in the fear in Gintoki as a child standing on a pile of corpses.

(It's probably why Gintoki carries his sword around with him everywhere as a child, too. So he feels safe at all times.)

This all goes to show how Gintoki would have never had anything he would want to fight for as a child. He would just fight to be with Shouyou who was the only one he could trust or to protect himself. That's why this personality to want to protect everything within his sword's reach was definitely never innate.

Then comes Takasugi, whose Gintoki's first impression of is an irrational kid who would challenge a poor temple school with no actual reason other than wanting to win. You can see how Gintoki is clearly confused by him.

And even after losing many times, he just wouldn't give up on coming back. Gintoki even tells him to give up - he had no reason to keep getting hurt and beat up like that. It wasn't like he had to fight for his survival like Gintoki, he was clearly a privileged kid.

It is only when Takasugi wins and laughs that Gintoki no longer expresses this confusion and disagreement with Takasugi's actions. It's shown in how Gintoki suddenly tells Takasugi to come back, when Gintoki had initially told him to give up.

As if Takasugi's and everyone's smile and laughter after all that ridiculous irrationality made Gintoki realize something that made him change his mind.

Gintoki had a glimpse of Takasugi's way of living - to fight to the very end and keep getting back up for what you want, even if it was silly and stupid. In the end, you'll be rewarded with your own laughter and the people around you laughing along to your sincere, honest spirit.

It was a pointless, dumb way of living, but everyone was still laughing like that and happy. So maybe there was actually some worth in living dumbly and straightforwardly like that.

This may even be why Takasugi's laughter always stuck with Gintoki, even as he cut him down. Because it defined his life - that you should live by facing the present - just as much as Shouyou's words to use a sword to protect your soul stuck to him.

It was Shouyou who first taught Gintoki that what you truly want to do couldn't be the desperate instincts driving you, but rather something deeper down that should feel genuine - the soul. Then it was Takasugi who came along who seemed to demonstrate what living as your soul really was like - to do what you felt like doing in the moment, no matter what the people around you would say.

Even Shouyou encouraging Takasugi's pursuit suggests how this was Gintoki's lifelong answer. And only Takasugi could have demonstrated it best for Gintoki to imitate (instead of imitating Shouyou, as Shouyou had warned him against).

It truly feels like Takasugi is the humanity Shoka Sonjuku cultivated (Katsura did already know what he wanted, after all).

Takasugi's straightforwardness could have inspired Gintoki to tap into his own dull feelings deep down that he carries as he lives his everyday life. If those simple feelings for Takasugi were to grow stronger, then could there be such a thing for Gintoki too? Instead of being drawn to the joy of beating someone stronger than him, Gintoki could realize he seems more inclined to just living for some reason--

Even with no ambitions, he was still fine with just sitting around doing nothing. No matter how mundane, monotous and boring his everyday was without the excitement of a dream, Gintoki was still living for some reason. Maybe his joy in life was right there then--

--It was people. We see throughout the story that Gintoki is solely motivated to fight for the people around him.

Gintoki's actions have always, always been motivated by a desire to protect the people around him. He loves them: simply seeing them laugh when they want, cry when they want and fight to live as their truest selves. So isn't it fine for him to just want to fight for something as simple as that? Just like how Takasugi only fought for the petty reason of growing stronger.

This could be why Gintoki can now confidently say that he just loves the world as it is, even despite all the tragedies that's happened in it that made him suffer.

Not only did Takasugi potentially inspire Gintoki's present way of life, but Takasugi may even be the embodiment of what Gintoki found himself loving most about the world - that imperfect humanity of simply living, chasing what you want, getting lost, failing and suffering, but celebrating those small victories when you finally get there and laughing with everyone. This soul is what Gintoki always wants to protect within Edo, too.

After all, the mundane moments they shared in Shoka Sonjuku and Takasugi's laughter are the only things running in Gintoki's head as he resolves himself to cut Utsuro-Takasugi down. Gintoki truly loved them all.

If this wasn't the case, Gintoki would have never told Takasugi to come back. If Gintoki's motivations was never just the joy of seeing people be themselves, he would have set out and pursued whatever his soul wanted from being inspired by Takasugi's straightforwardness. He wanted to see Takasugi again, because he wanted to see that sincere, straightforward soul once again.

It could be why Gintoki is the one who disagrees with the way Takasugi does things in the present more than anyone.

If it was Takasugi who taught him that happiness of being sincere and straightforward with chasing what you wanted, and given that same spirit was exactly what Gintoki realized he loved most and wanted to protect - Gintoki would fight with all this heart for Takasugi to be that person Gintoki loved again.

It's also a nice touch that Gintoki says "I, the you who is me" when declaring he would never give up to Takasugi, as if implying how Gintoki took that lesson of straightforwardly never giving up from Takasugi himself.

Just as much as Gintoki's acceptance of Takasugi helped him, Takasugi's straightforward passion helped Gintoki just as equally.

After the events of the story that help Takasugi come to terms with himself, Takasugi's straightforwardness is later emphasized as his strong point that resonates with people. It wouldn't be a surprise then if he was the natural source of this straightforwardness in Gintoki, especially when the latter has always been defined as an empty person.

Takasugi and Gintoki are opposites who complete each other, to the point that even outsiders who only briefly meet them together no longer cared about how one of them was a terrorist. One way of seeing it is Takasugi represents the strong, unrelenting humanity that Gintoki realized he loved and wanted to live for, and Gintoki represents the impossibly white soul that the outcast Takasugi found as a place to belong to.

It was important for them to find each other: for Gintoki to realize he wasn't empty and was always capable of emotions, and for Takasugi to realize he wasn't wrong for who he which the world made him feel.

It's why their life-defining events most often involve the other: Takasugi's laughter was a pivotal point in Gintoki's life where he finally grasped a real reason to fight in his empty everyday, while Gintoki's tears was a pivotal point in Takasugi's life which forced Takasugi to face his biggest enemy: himself.

Ironically enough, their ways of living now could even be said to be a a reflection of their love for each other: Gintoki facing the present because he loved that part of Takasugi and wants to be in the present with him, and Takasugi facing the past to feel closer to Gintoki who is obviously incomplete without the emotions of his past.

Naturally, there is no present without the past, and it feels like Takasugi decided to live in the past to represent it for Gintoki (but probably more because he's too scared to face the present because of his self-hatred and blame, but to be fair Gintoki is afraid of facing the past too even though he should). It's why I liked that the story ended strongly with Takasugi's death, because its impact really conveyed how there was someone who was always chasing Gintoki's entirety - he definitely had a place in someone's heart. He would still be loved no matter what, even if he always felt he was a monster different from others for how he grew up and thus would never properly have a place to belong.

You can see I really, really love Takasugi... From inference and parallels alone, Takasugi has always demonstrated so much importance to the narrative, but it's never laid out beyond how he's the one who lost himself and now has to redeem himself.

Gintama feels like a story about the two of them, not just Gintoki. Especially if Takasugi was the one who originated Gintoki's straightforward way of living, and given how Takasugi seems to literally be the human sword Shouyou prophecized to cut down Utsuro in the end.

It's really because Gintoki avoids thinking about the past and Takasugi hates himself for his emotions that we have to infer how much these two affected each other... But I do enjoy things not being shoved in my face, the avoidance really makes it a lot more emotional.

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fluff269 · 9 months ago

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fun fact: 3z!takasugi has the highest grades out of everyone despite being suspended from school all the time

bonus fun fact: 3z!bansai composed the school anthem of gintama high school based on takasugi's soul music...and the lyrics sings about how nobody ever studies for tests

#perfect sugi was there ever any doubt?!

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fluff269 · 9 months ago

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quick and messy but obligatory takagin valentines comic

#omg BEST gintaka valentine comic ever?!!#such a great job at the comic!#and such a cute storyline #waaaaa 😍#thank you OP!!!#gintaka #takagin #gintoki x takasugi

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fluff269 · 9 months ago

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okay, so here's my post digging into kirimusubi, one of the songs DOES did for gintama the final.

this is largely based on two existing translations (turn on english CC for the video), both of which i compared carefully and supplemented with my meagre understanding of japanese and some research.

both translations are generally pretty good, with the tumblr one (not sure where it's originally from) being more literal and the youtube video one smoothing the words to sound a bit more natural. one or the other seems more accurate in different places. here's more or less what i believe the lyrics to mean, with a priority over conveying meaning:

The stardust in the night sky that I look up at is always Beyond the silver dream In order to regain the old bond that I lost/was lost We have been trying to wash away even red-dyed fate And kept searching And finally got here in that hollow sunlight We swore that we would never let go of each other again [kiri musubu], shedding tears at the unruly/rough tenderness/kindness In order to love, we must continue forward on this path no matter what The stardust in the night sky that I look up at is always Beyond the silver dream If you're going to bitterly abandon yourself and go mad Why not live an upright life that's like you? (as in, when people say "That's just like you" or "that's not like you") With wounds/scars in our chests, Let's walk, then laugh like brats again So that one day, our shadows will meet again [A cry from the underbelly of my blazing soul] or [A blazing cry from the underbelly of my soul] (where "ura" is used, as in ura and omote, to denote the "other side" of the stomach) Engraves the proof that we once lived together in this place The destination of our messing around is always Beyond the silver dream If you'll do anything to protect someone, Raise your fist [kiri musubu], shedding tears at the unruly/rough tenderness/kindness In order to love, we must continue forward on this path no matter what A cry from the underbelly of my blazing soul Engraves the proof that we once lived together in this place The destination of our messing around is always Beyond the silver dream

so. there's a LOT to unpack here. but first, let's address the lyric i left untranslated, which is also the title of the song: kiri musubi. so what does this term actually mean?

literally speaking, these words mean "cut" and "tie." you might recognize kiri as a different form of "kiru." interestingly, the video translator translated it as "in the clashing swords." i'm not sure this actually has basis in anything, but it's a neat thought.

see, the title of the song is almost certainly an inversion of musubi kiri, a specific kind of knot in the japanese tradition of knot-tying, mizuhiki. what does this knot signify? well...

"a knot that's difficult to loosen once it's been tied" brings to mind the way that shouka sonjuku trio describe the bonds between them. for example when they're complaining about it in the beginning of the final (ch 699):

this is just one of the many terms used in the song that evokes a specific moment or line of dialogue in gintama. for example, "raise your fist" and

but i digress. the shocking truth is that the song's title, and part of the lyrics in its chorus, deliberately invokes a marriage and funeral simultaneously. "tying the knot" and "cutting the knot," literally. in case you didn't think the movie-original sakura blossom boat scene was enough.

that's not all, though. because i would argue that the words being inverted--kiri musubi rather than musubi kiri--alongside the other lyrics imply that rather than "a wish for something to only happen once," the song is expressing a wish for something to happen once more. "to regain the old bond that was lost" and "that we once lived together in this place" make it pretty clear what's being implied, i think.

and yet, kiri means to cut. it means to snip away that difficult-to-loosen knot. and the rest of that line is about shedding tears at a violent kindness, a kindness that must be performed no matter how difficult because. if you'll do anything to protect someone, you'll even use their corpse, your sensei's corpse, as a stepping stone.

and the irony is pretty clear here too. the wish for something to only have to occur once--but this isn't the first time gintoki has had to cut down takasugi, or lose shouyou. so naturally, the words are inverted. that hope was dashed. the whole arc is a bizarre rehashing of their past. but in that happening, there's also opportunity for a different kind of wish. whatever your thoughts are on the writing choices for the final arc, this song seems like a sincere dedication to the emotions therein...

so like. what the fuck is up with that

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