I was reading your "Takasugi is just like a butterfly" theory (excellent meta btw!) and now I am curious: do you like his actual manga!yukata design? as in which version do you like better? ofc Takasugi looks hot good in both lol--is just that I have never seen his actual manga design anywhere in fics or in fanarts (never even seen his manga panels colored T_T) but yeah the manga!yukata design is way more... complicated(?) so I can see why the anime decided to change it. what can I say, this man is a fashion icon 😭
omg I'm terribly sorry for getting to this so late! I've neglected my inbox a bit while working on my fanfic ideas, so this got buried in there T-T
Honestly, I love both equally and I can't speak in favor of the manga yukata since, like you stated, we haven't seen a colored version of it, BUT if we did, then perhaps that one would outshine his anime butterfly one. The design of his manga yukata is so intricate and the meaning behind it is well thought of! I've read this theory on aminoapp about its design and you can find it here if you'd like to read into it, but I'll quote some of the things mentioned regardless.
Manga!Shinsuke's yukata analysis!
Looking at Shinsuke's most iconic yukata, we can see the theme of nature in the form of sakura flowers, mountains, clouds, and trees.
Sakura blossoms are known for being ephemeral, an attribute shared with butterflies. Sorachi might have made his yukata have a simpler butterfly pattern for the anime so that it's easier to draw and anime, but the concept remains the same. Ephemeral beauty. Something that doesn't last long, unlike the impression it leaves behind. Therefore, sakura blossoms and butterflies are both perfect symbolisms for a man whose life, albeit strong, held an unparalleled beauty in its entirety.
On the other hand, mountains could be seen as the exact opposite of sakura blossoms and butterflies. Mountains are unmoving and unyielding. They remain even after all nature around them dies. This could indicate Shinsuke's unyielding focus to his goal, the memories and the comrades he never forsook, and his ideals. No matter what, mountains can be viewed as a symbol of strength, and Shinsuke surely is a very strong individual.
As for the clouds, in a way, they too symbolize impermanence and are also linked to the divine due to proximity, but personally, when I view the clouds in relation to Shinsuke, I think of his famous poem-like saying in the Rakuyo arc. Clouds bring rain, and we all know how Shinsuke's sick of seeing the rain. The rain to him is both something he can't escape and haunts him, as well as something he's initiated himself. The clouds are an omen of his struggles and the pain he's brought upon himself; the very pain he is tired of feeling.
To sum up, the pattern of his kimono shows his life's flow, his ambitions, and his struggles. It's a very intimate exposure of his inner world, and for a man who doesn't let others in, he sure likes to put all that he is on display.
Since we got into this, I want to include another similar yukata of his, and the meaning behind it.
They look very much alike I know, BUT this one has two notable elements: Peony flowers and Shochikubai.
Starting with the latter, Shochikubai is an expression for Sho, chiku, and bai, the japanese words for pine tree, bamboo, and plum (picture below for reference on what the basic design is supposed to look like). Shochikubai traditionally refers to the 3 friends of winter and it's associated with good fortune. To quote this article right here, Shochikubai is an allegory for weathering hard times through various attributes of each element. A pine tree is tenacious and rooted deep enough to hold. Bamboo can bend in the breeze without breaking, while plum trees are the first to blossom in winter like a promise of hope.
It's hard to properly discern them in this image, but the leaves definitely belong to the pine trees and the little flowers are a mix of sakura blossoms and plum blossoms. Anyway, tenacity is a trait that defines Shinsuke, and the hope that is carried through winter is similar to the hope for a miracle that carries him through his rebellion.
Lastly, the bigger flowers are peonies, a symbol of love and nobility that is mostly preferred by women. A lot of people say that Shinsuke went down this path because of revenge and hatred, but really, his love for Shinsuke and all that he held dear from his days back at Shoka Sonjuku drove him. Nobility is something that Shinsuke himself has forsaken and claims to have never had, but many times he's shown kindness towards others and done the righteous thing. They are both elements of his personality, albeit well hidden.
To conclude this unnecessarily LONG answer, the kimonos he wears in the manga have such deep symbolism that one cannot ignore. They are a small peek into who he is as a person and all he represents, and because of that, I'll have to give them an extra point over his iconic butterfly yukata. One thing's for sure, Shinsuke surely knows how to dress to impress and he might as well be the most fashionable character in the entirety of the show. Hopefully this wasn't a snoozefest for you, I just thought it'd be interesting to explain why I favor his manga yukata more and provide proper reasoning.
Oddly enough and I'm probably the only one who thinks that, but I find a lot of similarities/parallels in Kagura and the Yoshida Shoyo part within Utsuro.
There’s this weird ressemblance given during gags , as if to encourage you to look more deeply, that they are also pretty heavily paralleled.
They are characters who were dubbed as dangerous “monsters” who can’t escape from their fate of continuing to be used as dangerous “monsters”, or otherwise going on rampages as their nature dictate, but who then decided to fight against their nature, against themselves and change.
Not because of some moral righteousness ‘killing is bad’ thing, but because they didn’t enjoy their lifestyle as weapons, and as people who hurts others for their job, and because they wished to live their life the way they wanted and on their own terms.
Yoshida Shouyo, is a character that mostly appeared in flashbacks, and we didn’t know much about him except the fact that he was an human individual, a pretty skilled one even, except that he was killed roughly 10 years ago before the story. He is shown as a gentle teacher, but also a mortal, and he got involved into too big an event, the joui war against the Amanto, that is implied to be a situation he wasn’t physically strong enough to fight his way out of, and died because that.
A human, who, like other humans, has a normal human body, is mortal and died eventually
Later on, he is revealed to be Utsuro, described by Nobume as someone who could destroy a country by himself, a true crow, is overpowered as hell, and not only in skills, as even in brute force he easily overpowered Kagura, a yato. And he isn’t really easy to kill, rather his regenerative abilities are so broken that he is pretty much an immortal, even if you shoot him, dismember him or even decapitate him.
This play in expectations is also something that happens in episode 4, for a certain character
I mean, in Kagura's introduction episode, you see her as a harmless and skinny human girl who on first appearance, isn’t someone who give a tough or strong impression. You see her getting run over by a scooter, get knocked out.. by the impact of the scooter hitting her ? And she is bleeding quite heavily.
Gintoki and Shinpachi and us the audience panic thinking it’s something she might die for, even emphatised by Gintoki asking how she is doing while he is driving to the hospital, and Shinpachi, voice trembling, say she’s not even twitching, meaning those injuries (from the scooter ?) are really grave.
But not a minute after, these observations/assumptions are proven false, she is absolutely fine from what are actually bullet wounds, she then put that car out of comission anyway despite having received damage that would have been quite grave for a normal person, and she does that without breaking a sweat.
When learning that Gintoki and Shinpachi thought she was dying and were taking her to a hospital, she's baffled that these two humans over there think she is ''someone who would die from (something as mundane as) getting run over by a scooter'', and those injuries already healed supernaturally fast, in an unnatural/non-human manner as well, which clashes with our assumption that she was a human. And we see that she has quite the unnatural strength, casually stopping a running scooter with one hand.
The harmless and mundane image starts to crumble, and that girl is way more dangerous than how she initially appeared
It is revealed later in the episode that Kagura is from the most overpowered clan in the universe.
She then also reveals she is pursued by people who believes that she should either continue fighting from them (especially since she’s the strongest among them) or die as she is too much a threat otherwise, if she isn’t a resource they can use, she is a resource they must get rid of.
She also has an extremely calm temperament in the beginning and because of the fact that her ideology is more or less pacifism (at least compared to her kind), or at least, not giving into her nature as a “beast” (as Yato and everyone else dub them), she never attempts to fight those yakuza or take them out.
She doesn't even react when Gintoki say «we don't call someone capable of stopping a scooter with their bare hands a girl, we call them mountain gorillas » and ditch her, where any other female character, or just character in general would have been annoyed.
There is often emphasis on the manga on Kagura being unfazed and calm where other characters aren’t (the examples given are not even close to the total number).
The same thing happens with Shouyo, he decides to quit the Naraku because he doesn’t want to continue to carry out the killings and because he wants to change, but the Naraku won’t leave him be, and is refusing to let him be if he is not an asset to them, he put emphasis on the fact that they (him and Oboro) can’t kill their pursuers
Inoue reveals later in the episode that she is in fact a Yato, a species that he describe as « don't look different from humans, but boast phenomenal strength, They've destroyed countless planets » ( a pretty good description of Utsuro, especially after he destroyed several planets via altana instability ), that they’re bloodthirsty and violent “monsters”, and he note that Kagura was hiding it, and that she can't deny her nature.
But Kagura answers that she is sick of hurting people and that this lifestyle makes her unhappy, and that she’s dissatisfied with living that way.
In Kamui and Kagura's backstory, they were shunned for their nature as yato, and people in Rakuyou harrassed them over it and wanted them gone
It’s pretty obvious, but Utsuro also is someone so biologically different and dangerous from the rest, due to being an Altana mutant and an immortal, that he was heavily shunned, tormented and persecuted and people never let him be.
He also posed as a regular teacher as Shoyo and hid all his past history and everything related to his immortality in order to live as regular a life as he could.
In ep 4, the umibozu arc, and Yoshiwara in Flames arc, people allude to the fact that the Yato tribe is a cursed clan of bloodthirsty beasts, and Kagura can't deny her nature and she is destined to continue her life as a bloodthirsty “monster” that will probably kill lot of people because of her nature.
Kagura says that she is indeed a yato and that she can't deny being affected by her nature, but she also say that she decided she will fight to change, and that she will fight to not lose against her yato instincts and fight to not lose against herself.
She’s the only one Yato in the series who stated that ideology, and is someone who stuck to her idology through thick and thin( Abuto fight aside).
Even other yato like Umibouzu, who says that meaningless violence isn’t the way, doesn’t believe they can be anything other than beasts and that people can’t change, and Abuto initially show disdain to the idea, yet Kagura manage to change anyway, and her ideology and her fight to not lose against herself are never something she give up on or run away from.
Even in situations where she isn’t able to change her circumstances directly, there were still people who were moved by or acknowledged her way of life, and this prompted Umibouzu to share the fact that Kagura wanted to save Kamui and that she wanted him back where Gintoki initially didn’t care about the situation outside of the fact that he may get murdered by Kamui along the way, and this prompt him to interfere and try to talk sense into Kamui during the Rakuyou fight.
And Abuto, who was initially ecstatic over Kagura “being released from her chains” and constantly egged her on to continue her rampage as a yato, as a “beast”, later goes on to say during the Rakuyou battle that Kamui’s berserk state is unsightly, and that whatever he do, he should do it as himself and with his own fists, and call that state “running away”.
Utsuro is a superhuman being dubbed as a monster who killed countless people and spilt a lot of blood and killed a lot of people.
But among the many people that were Utsuro, Yoshida Shoyo decided that he didn't want that lifestyle, and became the only Utsuro incarnation that fought against Utsuro, even where all his other selves failed, and fought to not lose against Utsuro/essentially himself.
He may have lost somewhere along the way, but his struggle are something that eventually moved Oboro, Nobume, Gintoki, Zura and Takasugi and his impact still influenced these characters even several years after he last interacted with them. It was never for nothing
I can't think of any characters outside of Kagura and Yoshida Shoyo, where the « not lose against yourself » theme is featured as heavily.
And it is a really compelling one, and they will always be some of my favorites characters because of that, because that unending fight against yourself is something that will always be way more interesting than fighting some random enemy/monster.
A story about a living dead, who lives for centuries to came, while humanity constantly is beating and cutting him down, burning him alive, torturing him and killing him again and again...Who at some point was imprisoned for centuries, until the world completely forgot his even existence....And his mind breaks, breaks to thousand pieces, to thousand personalities to help him cope, to the point he forgets forever who he originally used to be...
After centuries his cell finally rots and he is free ..Him and his thousand personalities, to roam, to hate, to act against humanity and splattered everything on their way...And they kill and kill, until they are captured once again, but instead to be through in prison , the former government decided to use them as a tool to shut down rebellions....So they named them the respected leader of the Naraku...An organisation of deadly assassin's ( former children of rebels), who the government enslaves,brainwashs and trains them to serve and secure the Shogun's reign for another 7 centuries.....
For 7 centuries until now, many of his personalities have served as leaders, but one is different...This personality doesn't hate humanity and wants to change instead...It names itself Shoyo after a pine tree, a stubborn idea who was borned one day just like the tree... So Shoyo decides to escape with one child of the Naraku, Oboro who believes in him and calls him Sensei...
They are trucked down, and Oboro use himself as a shield to make him escape...He believes him for dead and he is left all alone to wonder, until he finds a nameless child in a field of corpses... A alone child who humanity calls a demon and is left to fed for himself....And something clicks
He names the child Gintoki (silver soul, his silver lining) and he pures all the love he never believe he had in himself to raise him...He becomes a teacher, a father...He creates a school and takes under his wings a number of handful children...But nothing is over yet... Utsuro still lives deep inside him and his breef happiness is over too fast... He is captured again as a rebel teacher this time , while his students began a rebellion against the government to take him back... Gintoki is the leader, who with Katsura and Takasugi ( his other two students/children) and a number of comrades are fighting hard every day against hord of monsters, until they are only three left....
Gintoki is forced to choose over him (the father he deeply loves) or the lives of Katsura and Takasugi...So he choose the latter...And he is happy, cause he taught him this way, but now his Shoyo personality is dead and Utsuro ( the empty one) is there to give an end to everything...
Ten years are gone, and Utsuro has create a intergalactic war to destroy earth, to end all humanity and the source of his immortality...To be able finally to die....But a single perm of silver hair stops all his plans forever...Why he can't kill this one single human being, why memories who belong to his previous life black his mind...Shoyo is long gone... Why he feels this regret, why he can't just give the end he so much wanted all this time....He fails and as a result and he has now only one single soul.. Shoyo returns after 15 years....He is finally able to meet his child as an adult and a parent of two... The protector of a whole town...His former student and the current boss of the Yorozuya...And he has not regrets any more...
He gladly gives his life for them...To end Utsuro and his existence once and for all... At in the end, after centuries of pain, he is truly free...To die finally in peace...And on his last moments on this earth, for the first time ever, he wishes to have just a little more time...
Gintoki's relationship with his master/father is one of the deepest and most dark relationships out there...For a gang anime, this relationship is on of the saddest I have ever experienced until now and the most well written...Where parental love and faith can win over war and death....:)
This is the very first impression that maybe everyone can get from Kamui, one of the main villain of Gintama. He looks like a young man who having fun with everything around him. But like the proverbs we’ve heard, “beautiful souls sometimes came from most broken past”, he has so much complexity inside his head.
I personally interested at how Kamui appeared and involved in every prominent arcs. I also interested that how many people interpret Kamui in various ways, and I am triggered to do one. From this rambles (maybe some with opinions and rants), I want to explore more how deep Kamui’s character building and revelation in certain chapters, especially his position as a big brother and son on Rakuyou Decision Arc.
Okay, you can count it as late birthday celebration for Kamui ww
And it will be a very long, please bear with it.
Introduction
From the first introduced in the series, Kamui becomes one of the hardest main villain to be understand, along with Takasugi Shinsuke. He appeared in Flame of Yoshiwara arc as side characters and encounter Housen who had been the main villain of the arc. From the first appearance, Housen stated that he was having “Mom’s Issue”. And it was proved by how he opened way for Seta to meet Hinowa by outrageously killing Hyakkas.
He is shown to be fun-loving man who loves to hit things with no exception. He claimed his self as the strongest Amanto on Harusame and interested to ruin the world with Takasugi until the end of Shogun Assassination Arc.
Background
Rakuyou Decision Arc mainly gives us a huge flashbacks of Kamui and his family background, especially among his beloved mother. From this arc, we’ve seen Kamui was a family-loving son who wants a normal living together with his parents and sibling.
But, the reality said another thing when he found out his mother (that he called Mother/Mami) dying because she actually could not live outside of her home planet. Meanwhile, his father was trying to find a cure for her and leave the family in the family. Make it double, that Kamui was the only one that could be relied on to take care his mother and little sister. If I count correctly, he had to bear it since he was at least 4-5 years old.
At first, Umibouzu gave Kamui a duty to protect the family when he didn’t around.
“You should be strong so you take care of your mother and sister”.
But from all over of Kamui’s experiences toward protecting his family, he questioned what kind of “strength” he ought to need. He did not want Kagura involved in the mess that picked up by neighbors who hate them because of their mother, but ended up got hurt. In the other side, he was prohibited by his father to not use his power recklessly. He was in the edge of the cliff and cornered by a beast, he could not get anywhere.
As a first-borns, he realize that he should be on the top to protect everything, but at the end the things that he wanted to protect was slowly faded and he could not avoid it. It frustrated Kamui so hard and he could do nothing. So it comes to the conclusion that he should “separate” his family. He wanted his mother to come home to her planet and alive, even thought they couldn’t be together. At least, that’s what he tried to save his mother and their family.
Isn’t it resembled to how Umibouzu acted to ‘save’ the family? Yes, it is. And it is failed. It made him more frustated than it should be.
Decision to be Stronger
When we talk about the first son, we could imagine how first son should be. Strong, capable, and awesome. That’s also what Kamui wants from himself. It’s something that barely easy to be shouldered on, especially when it comes to a family that overcome with big issues just like Kamui’s family. But, the strength he understood when he was child it’s not about the strength from his inner-self, but merely from the outside. I guess it is because how he mirrored himself through his father.
He started to obsessive about strength when he realize he could not surpass his father. The first thing that we could notice is how he dare to broke his father’s arm and tried to kill him. At the end, he threw up his family and live to become stronger and beat his father.
I do think that Kamui did this because he “claimed” he failed to protect his family, and he realize that the only way to do is to leave the family and broke his relationship with them, especially Umibouzu. That’s why in the whole story line of Gintama he searched for power and Umibouzu to beat. This is also related to why he wanted to beat anyone that he met, including Gintoki and Okita. I guess it is because of imagery of his father who could not be deleted throught his live. “If I want to throw up my family, I have to get rid my father so the family is no longer there”, just like kind of the mindset, so that made him wants to beat more people so he could be stronger.
Abuto is the one who knows him the best on how big Kamui’s obsession toward power. After his “failed attempt” to protect his family, Kamui ended up to leave and be stronger in his new family, Harusame. He then leaded by Abuto and Housen, ended up becoming the strongest captain among the Harusame. Abuto who much older than him even admired how strong he became. He even admires Kamui’s tough and fun smiles every time they on show. It’s because Kamui and whole 7th division Harusame he led has no way to turn back or even find another way. Kamui realize he could not go back for what he did for his family, especially when he did not see his mother’s last moments.
But deep inside, Abuto realized that Kamui is not that strong. Kamui won’t forget how screwed up his past and decisions to leave his family. Even thought he is the strongest among Yato tribes, he is still a little brat who wants his family back. That is shown how understandable Abuto if Kamui talks about his family, includes his little sister (Kagura) and no-good father (Umibouzu).
Abuto may be his best companion and the closest family, but he nor Takasugi can change his real family that already planted inside his heart. He may be the strongest, but not the strongest when it comes to a family issue.
Why did he so obsessive? Why didn’t he try to at least talk to his father about this?
Please let us be remembered that we are talking about Yato tribe, extraterrestrials who lived and exalted power among everything. And yes, we are talking about both power, physically and mentally. If they didn’t have enough power to protect, then they are nothing. Power is their pride and this is something that they cannot deny. Kamui and his family born and live with that idealism.
To make it wider, both Kamui and Umibouzu didn’t have any ease to show their emotion more than just in battle. We know their basic instinct comes through battle, that’s why Yato began to extinct (even thought the main reason because of the broken Altana from its home planet). Hence, they ended up in quarrel. They think that “power” is the only way to solve this. And we could not hinder these mindset since they are Yato.
In another context, Kamui realize that he has limits that avoided him to get stronger, which was his family. Inside his heart, he was still be remembered as a big brother / oldest son who has a big responsibility for his family. He may broke his father’s arm, but he could not beat his little sister to the death. From all talks he made, he realize that he could not kill his family, and that’s what he hated most. That’s why he had to kill Umibouzu as the strongest of the universe to surpass his limit, which is his family. Sounds ridiculous? No when it comes to Yato instinct.
Deep brother, deeper hurt
All over these talks, I have a belief that Kamui in his deepest heart is a “Stupid Big Brother”, just like Kagura and others shouted every time he shows up.
This is shown by how he tried so hard to be ‘villain’ just to make sure his father is in home. He even dared to try abduct his mother so his father came up and try to stop him. He didn’t only try to make Papi home, but also keeping his faith that his father still wanted to reunited with his family. From the deepest of his mind, Kamui just wants a ‘normal family’.
He understood that Mami would not be lived much longer. He also understood how hard Papi trying to find his mother’s cure. I cannot assume that Papi was not merely had journey to find Mami’s cure (some people assume he didn’t want to see his wife dying, but I don’t think this is true enough from how loving Papi to his family), but most of us agree Papi’s decision is the rightest choice for the family. If Mami’s incurable, the only thing that they can do was living together in one roof and having a ‘normal family’ even thought it’s just for a while. He was too sad to see his family is not united just like other family did.
From the story line, I guess Kamui understood clearly that even thought his mother came home, the planet had been dead and the Altana she need for her life was rotten. So even thought he tried all things he could, at the end he could save nothing. It really hit him hard. All of his father’s hard work and his also her sister’s patience gained nothing. He failed himself as a big brother, a son, and a protector of his family.
He may regretted his parents’ meeting and feeling toward each other. He may even regretted his birth. “Why should we meet?”, he may murmured. He was just too caring and loving hence he raged illogically. This is something that first-child think the most. If he is strong enough, he may at least drag his father and guard his little sister so they could at least having dinner together safely and happily. And even, he may could save his mother’s love within the family. But in the end, he couldn’t.
He failed to protect his sister from bad guys, he failed to save his mother from her unavoidable death, he failed to fulfill his father’s request to protect his family, and he failed to let him go from his claiming of his faults. He thought that he was the one who should be blamed. He thought he was not strong enough to protect his family, and he decided to leave because of his inability to fulfill his duty. It doesn’t sound absurd when it comes from 9-year-old alien boy who has dysfunctional family.
At the end, Kamui’s way of life and emotion give us a reflection of how big a burden of first-borns from the extraordinary families, whether they have big wealth, authority, and things that makes them should be on top. It is not about how Kamui ended up chose false road, but how he could not choose other thing because how complex his life became. It made him frustrated so bad so that made him to cut his relationship with his family. He want to be someone new, but at the end he could not because he actually ran away from the fact that he was still a crybaby who lost and want to come home yet he could not.
But fortunately, Umibouzu and Kagura in their deepest heart still wants Kamui to come back home. They opened their heart to him, even thought he was still struggling to find out what goes on his life. They want to show that,
“You’re not alone, we also grief over Mami’s death. But, she did not regret it, yet she was happy to leave her planet and dying with her family. So, please don’t mourn alone and come home with us.”
He could be the first children, he could claim supposed to be the strongest to protect all of them, but he could not condemn himself alone for things broken on his family. He has a ‘family’, so it means he shouldn’t bear it alone.
There was nothing to be on fault, but how we could face those faults to be better so there won’t be no or at least less regrets, living together as a family in heart. That’s what Kagura, Umibouzu/Papi, and even late-Kouka/Mami wants from Kamui, and maybe from Kamui himself.
There I made it. I hope this is good explanation for you, haha.
I also owe some thank you notes for all Kamui and Gintama enthusiasts throughout tumblr who also gave me some explanations and thoughts about him hence inspires me to type this. I hope this rant could give some new opinions toward Kamui, but I also hope this is not the end of our discussion.
