Hello. I’m here to talk to you all about the extensive relationship between the Shiroyasha and the Courtesan of Death. I want to get one thing out of the way though. Regardless of whether they’ll become an actual couple, I am almost a hundred percent sure that Tsukuyo will play a big role during the climax of the final arc. (So I don’t recommend reading this if you’re an anime only watcher)
So let’s start off with the parallels. Now Gintoki doesn’t just have parallels with Tsukuyo. In fact, a lot of the cast in Gintama have certain things that Gintoki can relate to. The biggest examples I can think of would be Hijikata, Jirocho, and Zenzo (Zenzo’s role in the SA arc was meant to mirror Gintoki’s flashback in the same arc). However out of all of them I’d say Tsukuyo becomes the one who not only mirrors but also contrast Gintoki’s character in the most ways.
Gintoki wears a black shirt underneath his yukata which he only wears the left sleeve while the right one is left dangling beneath his obi. Tsukuyo wears a Kimono that only has left arm sleeve. (Interestingly Tsukuyo’s black right arm cloth covers the part of her arm that Gintoki’s shirt doesn’t cover)
Their kimono and yukata exposes their right leg.
Gintoki’s yukata has blue swirls covering the lower side of the sleeves and the area beneath his obi. Tsukuyo’s kimono is decorated with yellow autumn leaves on her sleeve and the area beneath her obi.
Both of them have a blue obi in the manga (well Tsukuyo’s is more a very light shade of purple), and Gintoki has small lines of red on his shirt while Tsukuyo has a red belt. (the anime gave Tsukuyo a red obi and a blue belt instead).
They both wear knee high black boots.
Now let’s get into their backgrounds.
Their masters both “died” when they were teens.
Both Shouyo and Jiraia raise their students so that one day they might be able to end their master.
Shouyo and Jiraia were the names that their students called them, but these were not their real names (Yoshida Shouyo’s real name was Utsuro. Jiraia’s real name was Danzo)
Jiraia and Shouyo “died” so that their students could live on. (Jiraia saving Tsukuyo from the falling debris when Yoshiwara was on fire, and Gintoki killing Shouyo to save himself and his friends)
Their masters reappear again after their supposed death in front of their students. Shouyo re appears as the leader of the Naraku, Utsuro, and wears a mask and a hat. Jiraia re appears as the leader of the Red Spiders, and wears a mask that covers his face and hair. The members of both the Red Spiders and the Naraku have a tatoo to signify their membership. For the Naraku they have a tatoo of a Yatagarasu (which the wiki doesn’t say anything about regarding their members, but Kondo could tell that their jailors were members of the Naraku from the Yatagarasu tatoo on one of their arms in the FS arc, Nobume has one, and Gintoki and co. saw that the Samurai chasing them had Yatagarasu tatoos after they were talking about the Gintama live action movie in the final arc.) The Red Spiders had a tattoo of a red spider.
Gintoki killed Shoyo so that he could save Zura and Takasugi. Tsukuyo killed Jiraia to save Gintoki.
In Tsukuyo’s flashback we learn that Tsukuyo was constantly disobeying her superior and would get physically abused and locked in a room. Hinowa comes and she talks to her. Tsukuyo says that she doesn’t care if she dies. Hinowa then talks about stuff and Tsukuyo receives food from her. After this Tsukuyo swears to protect her. Gintoki eventually wound up in prison after the end of the war and was eventually going to face excecution. He would sometimes get beaten by the executioners, and he also didn’t care that he would die. But he was let free and wound up at a graveyard where he was given food from Otose. After this he swore to protect her.
They both end up living with the woman they swore to protect and a child.
They both lived their childhood without parents.
This is what Hinowa says about Tsukuyo: “She always tries to bear the burden alone. I’m always so worried. Protecting me and Yoshiwara for so long, when she’s only a woman… Yet she never tries to rely on other people when something happens. She’s so focused on protecting others that she doesn’t allow others to protect her. But it’s different with you people. When she’s with you, she’s able to relax. Able to face you on equal footing and ask for help or offer help. You people are a true marvel… Any heavy burden, any attempt to shun others feels stupid when we’re around you.”
And this is what Otose says about Gintoki: “Always seemed as though he were looking for something. Butting in where he wasn’t wanted and pitting his own body to protect the things that were important for other people. Almost like he was trying to atone for something. Meanwhile, he kept nothing for himself. Didn’t get close to anyone. He was always alone…But you know… There were other strays who were drawn to that idiot. Soon he could no longer stay alone. Maybe he just learned from them. That fatalism won’t make anyone happy. That’s life. Rough, isn’t it? But you know, when I see the expressions on those three faces, I start to feel that it’s not too bad.”
This is what Jiraia says to Tsukuyo: “You may not be the sun that shines above the people but I alone know of your lunar beauty which secretly illuminates this land.”
And this is what Tama says to Gintoki during Kintama arc: “True, your luster may not have been as bright as gold(...) Still, you were brighter than the fake glint of golden plating(...) Your silver was much more beautiful.”
When Gintoki’s friends all prank him because he can’t control himself when he’s drunk and wrecked all the bars they went to during the scandal arc, Tsukuyo comments that he’s a bad drinker. Sachan then calls her out on her hypocrisy and how she helped him wreck all the bars they visited. (Which makes you wonder why they didn’t prank her too.) But even so. I really don’t think I have to point out how bad Tsukuyo is when she’s drunk.
They share some similarities with Umibozu and Kouka in terms of relationship and character. For example during Umibozu’s first meeting with Kouka he says “How about instead of suppressing these Orochi, you suppress the Orochi in my pants.” Gintoki’s first words to Tsukuyo was “I thought those kunais were taking a stroll. How about it. Instead of these dangerous things. How about I use something better to stab you with.” Furthermore Kouka’s dress has the same high slit as Tsukuyo’s kimono, they both smoke a kiseru, they both have a somewhat stoic nature, and finally they both hit their love interest when they say something stupid(In Kouka’s case she would shoot Umibozu during many of his attempts to flirt. And Tsukuyo loves throwing kunais at Gintoki) I guess another parallel would be how Kouka was refined to the Yato home planet and was finally able to explore the worlds outside thanks to Umibozu, while Tsukuyo could visit the world above Yoshiwara after Gintoki freed Yoshiwara from Hosen.
Now for the stuff that contrasts
When Tsukuyo meets a new person she’s super nice to them. When Gintoki meets someone for the first time he more often than not won’t start off on a friendly note.
Gintoki is lazy by nature while Tsukuyo works way harder than she needs to.
Gintoki wears a white yukata. Tsukuyo wears a black kimono.
Utsuro has been referred to as someone who watches from above with him being a member of the Tendoshu and Naraku. Unless you guys haven’t noticed, there’s been a lot of instances where Utsuro is watching from above (like during most of the Rakuyou arc, some of the FS arc, and recently in the silver soul arc where he was watching from above as the people from Edo defended Kabukicho). Meanwhile Jiraia was always a spider on the ground that in Gintoki’s words "a lone spider spinning his web while looking longingly at the moon)
During one of the Gintaman episodes they were talking about ways to make the manga more interesting. One thing they discussed was about giving the main character a love interest, and Gintoki listed a bunch of traits.
She must be sexy with big boobs.
Her dream is to become the main character’s bride. (Probably not Tsukyo’s dream. But she did get pretty sad and jealous when she heard that Gintoki got “married” with Sachan during one of the New Year episode.)
She must speak with an accent.
She has 48 sisters (”In that case, can you carry everybody here? Your mothers… All 49 of them.” - Tsukuyo to Seita during the Yoshiwara in flames arc when he tries to carry Hinowa to safety)
She can’t hold her liquor.
And in this episode, the main character of Gintaman, Ginto, confesses his feelings to his love interest. However it’s important to note that this episode was filler.
EDIT; And what’s more important is that Gintoki wasn’t the only one listing these traits, he only said “that’s good” to almost every suggestion thrown at him. I still find some of the traits interesting though, but it was a filler episode regardless.
Well here’s where it gets interesting. The Red Spider arc has since become one of the best arcs when you rewatch it once you’ve caught up, and if you watch the final confrontation between Jiraia and Gintoki then you should get an idea where I’m going with this.
My prediction is that the Naraku and Utsuro specifically will target the place that has become the refuge for all the civilians in Edo. Yoshiwara.
Once the new threat has been established, Tsukuyo will of course return to Yoshiwara, and Gintoki will follow her to confront Utsuro. I also believe that the plot point at the end of the Yoshiwara in flames arc will come into play in which Kamui became the new owner of Yoshiwara. Kamui will return to Yoshiwara to protect his territory, which will be the end of his character arc. Maybe we will get a few nods to what Hosen said to Kamui, but it will be fitting for it all to tie together back in the place of his first appearance.
Tsukuyo, just as Gintoki learned about Jiraia, will learn about Utsuro. Currently she only knows that Gintoki lost his master just like she did. But she will need more details. It could come from Shinpachi or Kagura, or maybe even Gintoki himself.
If my predictions will come true, then the final clash will look similar to the showdown against Hosen. Gintoki, Tsukuyo, and Kamui are there, with the villain being a seemingly invincible monster with long grayish hair.
Even if my theory is pretty far off. Tsukuyo will have a big roll in the remainder of the arc. My biggest confirmation so far was when I noticed that all the characters that have been reintroduced so far have gotten 3+ chapters of panel time to shine. Tsukuyo got about a chapter and 5 pages before the focus shifted to Jirocho.
Will they become a couple?
I think so. For the pairing to become canon does not mean that the series will have to end with a timeskip where they have kids and Gintoki gets a haircut. Tsukuyo still loves Gintoki, and she has finally accepted these feelings. So what about Gintoki? I can see a couple of possibilities play out.
1. Gintoki falls in love with Tsukuyo during their final confrontation with Utsuro. The strength that she can give him during this time might be what triggers these feelings from manifesting
2. The series actually ends with a timeskip where they get together offscreen(I would really prefer that this doesn’t happen)
3. Gintoki has loved Tsukuyo all along.
Now let me explain the third one. There’s no secret that he finds Tsukuyo attractive. But as to falling in love, I think if this becomes the case it happened in the Red Spider arc. If I had to point at a moment and say that. “this is where he fell for her.” It would be when Tsukuyo carried Jiraia and did what Gintoki never could. Shoulder the master’s burden. Gintoki thinks that he’s a coward and that Tsukyo is far stronger than he or Jiraia could ever be. Maybe it’s just a case of his self destructiveness thinking that she deserves better, or something.
Now I see people bringing up what Tsukuyo said about Gintoki at the end of the Love Potion arc. That Gintoki will never belong to anyone, and that he makes his way into everyone’s heart. But understand what happens afterwards. Hotaru immediately follows that statement by saying that he’s just like the man she fell in love with, and even though the ceiling is open the hearts of the women in Yoshiwara will never be free. Afterwards we learn that the Carpenter never gave up on Hotaru and still loves her. Just think about how this all served as a lesson for Tsukuyo on the possibilities of love. And perhaps Mitsuba and Hijikata will serve as a lesson to Gintoki.
Maybe I’m biased since I ship the two of them. But if they do become a couple, then I think the foreshadowing and build up is nothing short of amazing. This would never work if they almost never interacted with one another and knew next to nothing about each other. They have great on screen chemistry and becomes a good example of how a end game couple can have enough substance to be believable and not be completely in your face... Well provided that the Utsuro confrontation happens. Not to mention that they have experience of acting like a parent with thanks to Kagura and Seita. (Yes, I know that Tsukuyo is more of a big sister to Seita, but she certainly acts like a second mother in place of Hinowa... which I guess some would support Hinowa x Tsukuyo)
Well thanks for reading this monstrosity, and here's hoping that Tsukuyo doesn’t become like Suzuran/Mitsuba/Kouka
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