Utsuro was a poorly written villain
Quite surprising considering other villains Sorachi has written and even more surprising taking into consideration he’s the final boss. I tried to keep this as concise as possible focusing on both the character and the story.
How he affected the story
Gintama, through its comedy and serious arcs, showed how people struggle and overcome different situations in their lives. The main characters, Gintoki, Shinpachi and Kagura, have suffered losses that made an impact on them and on who they’re. This is especially true in Gintoki’s case, since he not only lost the war, he lost his friends and his master, by his own hands. Then, part of Gintoki’s story arc was to show how he deals with the consequences of his decision. However, when Utsuro was introduced a large part of the emotional weight said decision entailed dissipated. Gintoki was supposed to be one of the many orphans, one of the many who fought, one of the many who lost. And how with the same events he, Katsura and Takasugi took different paths. But Utsuro changed that, giving them a chance to atone themselves, something no one in the universe could have. At the beginning we’re told this character isn’t Shouyou, they just share the same body, although this would prove to be incorrect later. That Utsuro killed the Shouyou persona, but it still was Gintoki the one who killed his master. That Takasugi knew it all along. The story had to adjust itself to work around Utsuro, instead of Utsuro explaining the story.
This power helped to explain the advanced technology present in the series and why the Earth was a target. Nevertheless, it was never really explained how it worked. People could regenerate with some blood, or ashes, it wears off after some months or years, can reincarnate, can possess bodies… it became the ace up his sleeve to justify the plot. Besides, it was properly introduced to the series pretty late, in chapter 554. Said chapter discloses Utsuro as a being born of altana, but how this happened and what makes him different from Kouka, who died when she moved away from her birth planet, isn’t explained either.
Utsuro founded the Tenshouin Naraku because the government decided it, then lead the organization for centuries. His backstory is tragic, he was persecuted, tortured and killed. However, most of the time he was very passive in the sense of letting things happen. If people found out somehow he’s immortal, why couldn’t he just go to another town once discovered? Or another country for that matter. He always stayed in Japan, letting himself be locked up and leading a group because others told him so for 500 years. He wanted to escape the suffering but didn’t make an effort until the last years of the story, when the Shouyou persona decided to leave and pursue happiness. Later he rejoins the organization in order to end himself by blowing up the entire planet since he can’t die for some reason, although he tried to survive when he fought against everyone. On top of that, dying, as seen in chapter 703, was actually easy.
What does a final boss, or any antagonist for that matter, need? A video I watched (The Dark Knight — Creating the Ultimate Antagonist by Lessons from the Screenplay) explains it very well.
1. A powerful antagonist is exceptionally good at attacking the hero’s greatest weakness
2. Antagonists pressure protagonists into making difficult choices
3. Antagonists compete for the same goal as the protagonists
4. An antagonist causes the hero to grow
Something powerful about Utsuro was his physical strength and immortality, but there wasn’t any other struggle that actually posed a threat. Despite knowing vital information of Gintoki, he didn’t use it to target any vulnerability of him. Utsuro didn’t succeed into pushing Gintoki’s limits, test and reveal his character, either. Maybe he wasn’t the right antagonist to our hero, or maybe he could’ve been if handled differently, who knows. But he failed to have a profound and specific effect on the story and the protagonist. There wasn’t any battle of beliefs and principles, or a moment when Gintoki really questioned himself, or the chance to understand where Utsuro was coming from because of what Utsuro’s goal was. He just wanted to die. In order to to that, he must sacrifice the entire planet. The good guys can’t allow that to happen, right? The problem is, it’s way too impersonal.
There’s more to be desired of the final boss than be a fully crafted character and complement the protagonist in things such as personality, values and objectives. They need to be the climax of the story, therefore, embody the story. Ultimately, Utsuro’s theme was about emptiness, he thinks everyone is hollow and is useless to struggle against fate. But in the end he realizes that, in fact, people are hollow, but because they know that, they can bring other people in to live on inside them. This is the reason why Takasugi couldn’t be the final boss, there’s just not philosophycal weight in him realizing that since it wasn’t his theme and he never detached himself from people. However, since there never was a clash of ideologies between Gintoki and Utsuro, that realization falls flat, also because the way the antagonist is overcomed is essential to the conclusion and Gintoki did it just by hitting him.
I understand that Sorachi didn’t have everything planned from the start and coming up with new ideas each week can be very difficult and stressful. But not being able to craft the final villain since his first appearance (ch. 541 in May 18, 2015) to the last (ch. 703 May 27 2019) it’s a shame since it affected the story in a negative way.
TL;DR: OP villain 😈 fails in his quest to be a good antagonist 😢
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