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Expressing yourself through music - A Takasugi Shinsuke Analysis (Sort of)

SPOILERS WARNING !!!

This thread has a lot of my own interpretation and views onto it so please take it with a grain of salt! Okay let's go.

From his first meeting with Bansai to Takasugi Shinsaku's poems, there is a lot about Takasugi's character surrounding music. Let's go through all of it since this is a topic I rarely see discussed and it honestly makes me insane.

First of all, it's important to note that Takasugi has very few moments where he's the narrator. This means there are few insances when we get a clear view of his thoughts, and we need to infere those through other characters as well as his words and actions.

The time we get a narration by Takasugi is his famous poem about rain.

In Sorachi's words ''Takasugi has the soul of a poet''. This is very true and very important— Takasugi has the soul of an artist. One who has the soul of an artist and poet is one with emotional depth, with sensitivity and an appreciation from the world, one he learned through Shoyo's words and that comes from within. This poem also obviously connects with Matako and Gintoki.

Now there is also this from @ cultoftakasugi,

As we know, this poem is used in the manga.

I recommend checking out this post for further analysis on how poems connect to Takasugi's (and Gintama's) story, but regardless, you get the picture. Shinsaku's poems, and poems in general, are important to Takasugi's character as a means of conveying his thoughts and narrative.

During the rain poem scene, gold butterflies are shown as imagery besides the rain. As we know, butterflies are a part of Takasugi's identity and possibly his most important visual symbol. (There is also the argument that it might be meant to be a moth instead because of their self-destructive tendencies but honestly they do look like butterflies to me so I'll go with the popular opinion.)

So, all in all, that scene is a very scene of Takasugi's identity, a glimpse into the shape of his soul. But this is not the only time where Takasugi communicates through art, or more specifically music.

A few times Takasugi is shown playing the shamisen, especially early on, instrument he learned from Bansai. He learned the importance of not interrupting a performance when he met Bansai, and saw how he used his instrument as a weapon. Both men communicated similarly at the time, and Takasugi learned one more means of communication through Bansai and their meeting. It's important to note that shamisen is a very important symbol of identity and diversity in Japan. It's another way for Takasugi to communicate himself and learn one more sense of his identity (which Takasugi has been searching for since he was a kid).

Then we have all the various songs through the anime. Of course, I'm aware that song lyrics from the anime aren't hard proof for character analysis since they were not in the manga, but most of this analysis is going to be about symbolisms either way and I do believe these are important to an extent. Just don't take it overly seriously.

Song lyrics are many times used to showcase Takasugi's feelings as well, to the point where I have to wonder just how many were written with him on mind. I made a post about Gintaka lyrics parallelisms a while ago, but I'm bringing them back.

These are from Glorious days and Bokutachi no Kisetsu respectively— both being songs that are essentially about Gintaka both in video and contents of their arcs.

This one feels more coincidential, but I'm still adding it since the song is also from Benizakura, so it's also connected to Gintaka. This is my personal interpretation so you're free to disagree, but I always felt like Bokutachi no Kisetsu was from Takasugi's perspective while Bakuchi Dancer was from Gintoki's due to their lyrics. Either way, these are interesting coincidences for sure. There's also that we have this about Gintoki changing Takasugi's world through lyrics and then in Silver Soul we have Takasugi getting a reason to live and fight with his friends in huge part thanks to Gintoki, being made immortal because he HAS to do this, he's meant to live right now......... food for thought. And there's more.

It's important to note that this song's original MV is a love story, with Takasugi and Gintoki being direct parallels of them (this is a topic for another time, but Gintoki and Takasugi also have direct parallels with Umibouzu and Kouka which is crazy to me). Anyways you get the picture.

I'm always iffy to bring up openings and the like for analysis because I'm aware that a lot of it is fanservice, but then I remember how DOES made Kirimusubi explicitly for Gintaka and I think I'm gonna take the bait ngl. Because there's a point where I have to wonder how much is bait and how much is genuinely a queer story that just happens to be a shonen. But this is also a topic for another time. Feel free to read these threads if interested on this!

And we can't forget about Shura, the first song to focus on Takasugi. The chorus 'someone please put out my fire and let me fly free' as well as the butterfly imagery paint the full picture, as we know Takasugi holds suicidal thoughts and does end up ''flying free'', although his fire is well alive inside Gintoki.

And then there's my personal bomb Glorious Days, which is a direct peek into Takasugi and Gintoki's brains.

This to me can both be interpreted as Gintoki towards Yorozuya/Joui4 and Takasugi towards Shouka Sonjuku.

Most of the lyrics are definitely Gintoki's point of view, though, and we get a clear glimpse of how strongly he wanted to save/protect Takasugi. So, at the very least, we can trust the lyrics to give character insight that is confirmed canon.

Then we get to Kirimusubi. Don't even get me started!!

This is also not the only time where gintaka has marriage symbolisms.

Sorry that's not really related, but I wanted to mention it. I guess this is also Gintaka analysis now. Anyway. You get the point that lyrics are often used as a means to show Takasugi's inner thoughts, much like his poems, and I believe there is a lot of Takasugi's soul in music.

This is present in the OST in general, but especially with Kono mabuta no oku ni. The title of the song means 'behind my closed eye-lid', and it's played many times in emotional scenes, usually about Takasugi or Shouka Sonjuku. I bring it up because of Gintoki and Takasugi's fight in Shogun Assassination arc. Something that really stood out to me during this fight was the use of music, and just general sound direction (god i love Gintama's sound direction esp on this arc and Soul Silver).

During the flashbacks we get of Takasugi's life in Shouka Sonjuku and his conversations with Shoyo, the music is very peaceful, a very warm piano that brings us to that place with them, to a nostalgic time of Takasugi's life as well as his happiest times. This fight shifts perspectives as they clash swords— we are Gintoki, then we are Takasugi, we see things through both of them by turns. When Takasugi remembers, it's extremely warm. He feels that memory as a peaceful sound. It's a huge contrast from the music and sound direction of the fight itself, aggressive and intense. However, when we're on Takasugi's POV and we go back to the fight, it's still the same piano. Takasugi is stuck on that memory, his sound is still peaceful and nostalgic, which sounds beautiful, but it just represents how he can't move on. He's under that warm tree, on those blankets Shoyo provided. In many ways, Takasugi is still a kid at heart.

I believe this is all I wanted to mention but I might be forgetting stuff. Either way, this wasn't meant to be a very long analysis, just a peek into why I believe music is such an important point of Takasugi's character and communication. He truly is an artist. (please make more modern aus where he pursues art thank you)