attribution & grief & gintoki

I’ve spent my fair share of these blog posts talking about “protecting,” since that is the broad term for the things Gintoki aims to do throughout the series. I would be remiss, however, to avoid the subject of grief, which is arguably the central message and theme of Gintama. Gintoki’s character arc throughout the series can be narrowed down to accepting love and finding family, but that would be reductive. His character arc is, first and foremost, centered around his grief - for losing both his friends (Takasugi and Katsura) and Shouyo in an attempt to save both (saving Shouyo by following the practices of Shouka Sonjuku to protect its students, and saving his comrades by so doing). His arc is marked by his eventual discovery of what it means to be a student of Shouyo and Shouka Sonjuku.

As I discussed in my last post, Takasugi and Gintoki are character foils. One learns to move forward from the death of their teacher and continue carrying on the legacy of Shouyo and his school by building connections and creating family and protecting them (Gintoki); the other manifests his grief as unbridled rage and seeks to destroy everything that killed Shouyo, completely falling away from the teachings of Shouyo by doing so (Takasugi). Each grieves. Neither healthily. But Gintoki is able to move forward with his soul intact as a student of Shouyo, and Takasugi is not. 

At the root of their conflict is immense self-hate. Both blame themselves for being too weak to save Shouyo in the first place, and each become the symbol of their own weakness, which is why they become enemies. For Takasugi, who feels guilt over his actions and how far he’s strayed from Shouyo’s teachings, killing Gintoki is a final act that will free him to destroy the enemy - even(/especially) if it means destroying the world and himself in the process. Gintoki preventing that is a sign that he’s somehow forgiven the government and the Tendoushu for what they did to Shouyo, which is unforgivable.

[reminder that manga panels are read right to left]

For Gintoki, who carries Shouyo’s teachings and legacy and represents everything Takasugi isn’t and hates himself for, killing Takasugi is part of honoring both Shouyo and Takasugi himself before he does something he can’t take back. Gintoki still sees Takasugi as a student of Shouyo, and cannot bear to see him tarnish the name and legacy of their former teacher. Killing Takasugi is an act of mercy, is what it means to be a student of Shouka Sonjuku. 

But, enough with that. Returning to the self-blame for Shouyo’s death. 

In the aftermath of Shouyo’s death, both Gintoki and Takasugi become self destructive, albeit in different ways. Both attribute the death of their teacher to themselves and their weakness to prevent it from happening, even though it is a situation they are forced into by the hands of war (the bakufu, the shogun, the Tenshouin Naraku, Tendoushuu, the Joui War itself, and the amanto are all groups that could be easily blamed instead of themselves). This is, of course, not to say that Gintoki and Takasugi don’t also blame these groups. But they primarily attribute Shouyo’s death to their own failings because they should have been stronger. 

Takasugi manifests his self-hatred externally, and recklessly abuses others in an attempt to punish himself, because he doesn’t deserve the happiness of finding family or carrying on Shouyo’s legacy - he will take down those external factors, hurt himself along the way, and kill himself in the process. Gintoki manifests his self-hated internally, where he consistently risks his life for small things and keeps others around him at an arm's distance because he also deems himself unworthy after what he’s done. 

One of the first things Gintoki does after the war ends is step in the place of a young girl and get himself arrested in her stead. He outs himself as the Shiroyasha (his moniker during the Joui War - he and his friends are wanted terrorists after the war’s end for the crimes they committed and the danger they pose to the new regime) and accepts assassination for this girl, whom he does not know and has never met before. 

Later in the Four Devas arc, even after beginning to find a family, Gintoki pushes them away when Otose getting injured reminds him of Shouyo. He pushes them away out of a need to “save” them, knowing his death (which was basically guaranteed in this circumstance) would hurt them more but refusing to believe he’s worthy of their admiration and love. 

We see this again in the Beam Saber arc, where he pushes Shinpachi away in order to bring Shinpachi’s “brother” back, because he feels he owes that to Shinpachi after how much affection he has shown him, affection he doesn’t feel he is worthy of. Gintoki also can’t comprehend that Shinpachi wants him to stay by his side just as much as he wants his brother back. He feels that he has to give something back to him, that his presence simply isn’t enough.

Although Gintoki is able to grapple with his grief and manifest it in healthier ways, allowing himself to continue living as Shouyo’s student and learning what it means to carry his legacy, he never stops blaming himself for the death of his teacher. As described, this attribution makes him self destructive, depressed, and aimless.

I won’t go into the same detail for Takasugi since that would probably take ten thousand words and this blog isn’t about him, but Takasugi follows the same pattern, just externalizing his pain instead of internalizing it, and that serves to highlight Gintoki's character arc in a brighter light.

As nearly four different characters say at completely different times, Takasugi’s actions are a means of punishing himself. Gintoki says this particularly poignantly during their fight in the Shogun Assassination Arc - the first time the two face each other in over ten years. Takasugi asks him, “You probably wanted to save him more than any of us. So why? Why did you choose us instead?” To which Gintoki replies,

“If you’d been in my shoes back then, you would have done the same. That’s why you point your sword at me. That’s why you slash not yourself, but your alter ego. That’s why you seek a revenge that’d hurt you more than cutting yourself.”

The main antagonist of Gintama is Takasugi Shinsuke, even after he rehabilitates after his fight with Gintoki and the two learn to fight together again, even after discovering Shouyo was the alter ego of the immortal Utsuro, who is still alive. Because Gintoki and Takasugi are tied by something that goes far deeper than blood ever could, and Takasugi is a tragic figure until the end. He shields Gintoki from having to kill their teacher a second time by taking Utsuro host in his own body, and the act reminds Gintoki that killing Takasugi and Utsuro (killing Utsuro would mean killing Shouyo a second time, this time permanently) will not be in vain, because he has learned to carry the souls of those he cares about with him in life and live on for them. 

As such, the message of Gintama concerns grief, and Gintoki’s character arc goes beyond finding family - into recovering from grief, processing it, living with it, and learning to not blame himself so harshly for a situation he could not have changed.