Evolution of Otae vs. Gintoki x Sacchan part two
gintama has 704 chapters and one of the most memorable running gags is otae riling up sacchan and sacchan riling otae up over ginsacchan endgame. This is a 3 part post where I trace an aspect of otae and sarutobi’s friendship that’s both hilarious and fascinating to me.
part one L1-156
part two L157-364
part three L365-700
how much will the rivalry build up into? stick around to find out!
L246 Influenza Arc
Right after Kondou revealed himself to be hiding in Otae’s cupboard, Sacchan pops out of the vase in the tokonuma. When the stalkers were settled in the futons, Kondou and Sacchan kept on competing about from whom they got the flu from. Shinpachi dumps water on them to shut them up. Otae disposes of Kondou first by making him stand outside naked. Then Gintoki follows suit by tricking Sarutobi into thinking that he was gonna lay on top of her. Instead gintoki dumps sacchan in the inner corridor with Shinpachi’s body pillow of Terakado Tsu.
L265 Character Poll
Sarutobi asks Otae to meet up with her and convince her to do join her do something about their poll ranks. Otae starts the fight by telling Saruobi that Justaway scored better than her. Sarutobi responds that “in her dreams she’s always first with Gin-san.” (--> take note of this lol)
Sarutobi also adds that Otae is no better than her because Otae was outranked by two gorillas. They have back and forth btching until it came to the point where Otae threatens to kill Sarutobi and Sarutobi responds by calling Otae a “Gorilla Hussy that should get out of the way.”
Kyubei appears just in time to stop them from fighting. She brings news and information about the new girl, Tsukuyo, The three unite to take down those at the top. Otae leaves Sarutobi and Kyuubei to deal with Tsukuyo (since the two were more motivated against Tsukuyo) while Otae murders Sorachi, the mangaka herself. They eventually meet up with tsukuyo and pulls a scam on her to make her join them.
note how easily otae and sarutobi come into fists. When faced with common adversary, they become strong allies lol
L280 Cooking class
Otae. Shinpachi and Kagura all attend cooking class. Kyuubei was invited by Otae too. Sarutobi appears while challenging Otae that she will never allow Otae to feed Gin-san even if Otae learns how to cook. Otae responds that Sarutobi
“should give up and open her eyes because there is no way that she and that slop will make anyone happy.”
...this is the first direct verbal attack Otae has ever done against Gin x Sacchan. Compared to the previous times, Sarutobi didn’t even lead with an insult, rather this time, Sarutobi immediately laid claim on Gintoki once and for all.
If I may guess... Otae is really insecure about her cooking. She even mentions about not having a mom to teach her the stuff. Look, she had been bringing food regularly to Yorozuya, She wants her loved ones to eat her food. She wants Gintoki to eat her food someday (regardless of him being her partner or wtv..bruh..they’re friends...she doesnt want her friends and family to pass out because of her food)
therefore...direct action by Otae this time. Also I really wonder what “there is no way that you and that slop will make anyone happy“ means.
Otae otae, say something girl... why such strong words? It’s even more curious since she hasn’t really commented directly about gin x sacchan up until this point.
BENIZAKURA MOVIE
This movie came out after the release of the volume with the cooking class in April 2010.
At the end credit skit, Sarutobi appears while complaining how Otae was such a mom as the move heroine.
Sarutobi: “Moreover the woman who’s supposed to be the heroine looks like a nursing mother. Wasn’t it settled that I would be Gin-san’s wife? Then I’ll let this natto win Gin-san by my side!”
Otae: “Sorry about that! You can do whatever you want now but I will be the heroine of the next theatrical release!”
Again Otae reiterates that her only desire is to be the number one girl in the show (like L64)
I also think it was cool that Sarutobi using natto on Gintoki came right after cooking episode where Sarutobi vowed to just feed Gintoki natto.
L291 Santa arc
In the 2nd Santa skit, Otae tries to stop Sarutobi from seducing Shinpachi. Sarutobi replies that maybe Otae wants Shinpachi for herself because she is a sis-con after all.
Otae responds by saying “You little wench. Why not shack up with your silver-haired loser and leave my little brother alone?”
Sarutobi retorts that she does not know of a silver haired loser and she’s gonna focus more on punishing shinpachi S-M style.
Note: The interesting thing here is Otae brings the topic of Gintoki up herself. Gintoki isn’t even part of this skit. Otae has never brought up ginsacchan on her own before. She has become more intense and jealous?? willing to sell out gintoki to sacchan out of spite?? fkdjfdahj.
L294 New Years Cards
Things come to a head in the New Years Card Chapter. Sarutobi sends out wedding cards of her and gintoki to everybody with the message
“SORRY FOR BEING FIRST OTAE”
--> a callback to her words in character poll arc L265, where sarutobi said that “in her dreams she is always first with gin-san.”
Because of the wedding cards stunt, Otae straight up kills Sarutobi and Kondou and sends their bodies to South Africa. She informs everybody of this by sending out mourning cards for her pet pig and pet gorilla.
So... “there is no way that you and that slop will make anyone happy“ came true after all ;^_^
I think Otae’s frustration of always being targetted by Sarutobi slowly built up until it just..boiled over.
..........................................................
We see a slight change in dynamics in the next arcs..Sarutobi and Otae just bitch at each other for the most part. Gintoki isn’t even involved in the banter that much.
L338 Scandal Arc
Otae keeps referring to Sarutobi’s boyfriend (gintoki) as CG/Imaginary/3D to piss her off.
jfc she’s so mean and petty lol
L364 LADY DEATH
I included Sarutobi and Otae’s rant about Vegeta because if you put shipper glasses on... they’re kind of describing gintoki too lol
Sarutobi: You know it’s that pattern where you see the delinquent picking up a puppy in the middle of a rainstorm and you just fall for them. They do exist... those kinds of stupid women that fall for bad men. It’s a pattern where they say go out, get a speedy shotgun marriage. and then when they see the reality they’re in, they get a speedy divorce
Otae: Even that rich woman Bulma was taken in by a super saiyan that couldn’t keep a solid job. Also if you say he’s kind, the only tears he ever showed were about stuff like his saiyan pride or when he was scared of freeza. In the end that guy was all about himself.
if ya’ll remember. Sarutobi fell in love with Gintoki coz he was willing to marry her right off the bat after they woke up in an incriminating position together. Also he was generally kind and nice to sarutobi many times despite her hassling him.
Otae on the other hand focuses on wealthy Bulma falling for a Saiyan with no job. It’s understandable because Otae is still part of landed elite (tho the dojo is technically shinpachi’s property). Even she had learned to trust Shinpachi to the care of Gintoki who’s a dude with no stable income (and also a gambler, etc.). Also she had been witness to Gintoki being vulnerable in a few arcs prior (Benizakura, Yagyuu, Ryugu, etc.)
General Notes:
We saw Otae’s anger build up over time until it produced actualy results in the New Years Card Lesson. Scandal Arc allowed Sarutobi to live out (some of) her fantasies so I guess that’s why she mellowed down on riling Otae up.
They really have a fun dynamic.
But we’re not done yet! There is still part three!!