"No matter what you choose, I'm sure you will continue to waver. But what's wrong with that? If life were so clear-cut then neither men, women, you or me would be leading such painful lives. We're all in the same boat. You're not the only one who's lost."
Gintoki Sakata
Sakata Gintoki is the protagonist of the Gintama series. He is the founder and president of the Yorozuya Gin-Chan, as well as a highly skilled samurai, having fought in the Joui War in the past.
In his childhood days, Gintoki, as an orphan, was found by Yoshida Shouyou in a deserted battlefield. For a while, he, along with Katsura Kotarou and Takasugi Shinsuke, were taught by him before his teacher was arrested and his school burnt down. In order to rescue their teacher, the three students joined in the last years of the Joui War, and Gintoki became known as the Shiroyasha (lit. White Demon) for his powerful swordplay and demonic white appearance.
After the Joui War, as a result of a trade to save Ikeda Asaemon, Gintoki was arrested and was supposed to be beheaded. However, he was soon released by the 16th Ikeda Yaemon. Some time later, he met Otose while sitting behind her husband's grave, where he made a promise with her late husband to protect her. Since then, he is a tenant in her house and founded the Old Yorozuya, and later, the current Yorozuya, consisting of Shimura Shinpachi, Kagura, Sadaharu and himself.
Nothing is known about Gintoki's biological parents. As a child, he looted food from corpses in the battlefield to the point of being known as a "corpse-eating demon." During one of his searches, whilst eating a riceball stolen from a corpse in a deserted battlefield, he was found by Yoshida Shouyou, who commented that Gintoki was a "cute demon." Startled, Gintoki drew a sword he had stolen off another dead body in self-defense. However, Shouyou told him that a sword used for self-defense, while fearing others, should be thrown away. He then entrusted his sword to Gintoki, saying that he could follow him if he wanted to learn how to use a sword. Gintoki agreed and later became his student. Along with Katsura Kotarou and Takasugi Shinsuke, he studied swordplay under the teachings of Shouyou.
Some years later, during the events of the Kansei Purge, Yoshida Shouyou was arrested, as it was claimed that he (and many others) were creating gatherings that would then create dissenters, and his school was burnt down. Gintoki, restrained, watched helplessly as Shouyou was taken away. Before Shouyou left, he told Gintoki not to worry, and asked him to watch over their friends, and protect everyone. He raised a pinky finger to Gintoki as a promise, and, though Gintoki's hands were restrained behind his back, his finger raised out in reciprocation.
In order to rescue their teacher, Gintoki, Katsura and Takasugi joined the final years of the Joui War. During the war, Gintoki befriended Sakamoto Tatsuma, and gained the title of Shiroyasha for his incredible swordplay and demonic white appearance, and also for being feared by both the Amanto and his comrades. However, once the war was lost, Gintoki disappeared for a period of time. It is noted that, in the present, that very few people know that Gintoki was the Shiroyasha (even the Shinsengumi did not find out until he revealed himself in Episode 246.)
A while after he disappeared, Gintoki heard about an insurgent who had been marked for death while trying to trade his young daughter, Ikeda Asaemon, and traded his head for hers. In the prison, Gintoki promised Asaemon to be beheaded by her in the future. Later, his supposed executioner, the 16th Ikeda Yaemon, released him, believing that Gintoki would be a good man.
Yorozuya Gin-Chan
Some time afterwards, Gintoki, starved, met Otose while sitting behind her husband's grave. He asked her if he could have the manjuu offerings she set out, and she told him to ask her husband, who was receiving the offerings, instead of her. Gintoki then ate her husband's manjuu without asking him, saying that dead people did not talk. In return, he made a promise to her husband that he would protect Otose until she dies. After this encounter, Gintoki became a tenant on the second floor of Snack Otose, and founded the Old Yorozuya with Kanemaru, Ikesawa and Furuhashi. Together, their business flourished and they became famous. Nevertheless, for many reasons, Gintoki threw his partners into a river, thus ending up working in the Yorozuya alone.
Gintoki made his first appearance at a café where Shimura Shinpachi was working, when his Chocolate Parfait was spilt by a couple of troublesome Amanto. In a moment of anger, he punched the manager and beat the Amanto with his wooden sword. However, Shinpachi was the one to take the blame and lost his job as a result.
Gintoki's parfait gets spilled
When Shinpachi's sister, Shimura Tae, learned of his doings, Gintoki was heavily beaten, and he offered Shinpachi a place in the Yorozuya in compensation. Later, Tae was forced to work in an illegal nightclub airship to pay off the debt of her family's dojo, and to save her, Gintoki and Shinpachi rescued her from the debt collectors and destroyed the ship. After bearing witness to his strength, Shinpachi decided to work with Gintoki and learn how to be a true samurai.
The two first met Kagura when she was hit by Gintoki's scooter. They then saved her from being caught by the gang she worked for, which had been using her for her Yato strength. After the gang was beaten, she stayed at Gintoki's house (much to his annoyance) to work for money, thus becoming another part of the Yorozuya.
The Yorozuya was asked by a client to find his missing daughter, Kimiko. In the search, they eventually found their way into a shady night club filled with Amanto. In the bathroom of the club, Gintoki bumped into Daraku and Kimiko, while the Harusame was trying to get rid of her because of her addiction to a drug called "Tenseikyou." (translated as "Paradise") He tried to protect Kimiko from them, but while in shock of seeing Kagura and Shinpachi taken away by them, Gintoki was caught off guard and impaled in the shoulder by Daraku. The impact caused both he and Kimiko to break and fall out of the window behind them, and both were knocked unconscious.
During his out-of-conscious state, Gintoki has a dream of carrying a dying body through a field of corpses, (which is presumed to be during the Joui war) and hears a voice from one of the dead bodies telling him to drop who he was carrying, he could not save him, and that he ultimately does not have what it takes to rescue anyone, nor protect anyone when it really matters. The corpse calls him reckless and uncaring, only swinging his sword at what's in front of him, not protecting anyone. He is also called powerless, and an attempt to coax him into just dropping everything, (namely those who are closest to him) and "taking the easy road," to which he wordlessly declines, and is shocked to find the body he is carrying is also a dead corpse. He then awakens. This dream is likely influenced by his subconscious telling him he is not good enough, and was triggered by his inability to save Himeko, Shinpachi, and Kagura.
After awakening, it is revealed that Gintoki and Kimiko were both saved by Katsura, who informs him of the drug afflicting Himeko, the Harusame, and warns him to not try and go after them in his bad condition. Instead of heeding the warning, he insisted on saving Shinpachi and Kagura, and, convinced by his desire to protect the two and as well as the fact that he owed Gintoki, Katsura later agreed to go with him. Disguised as "Space Captains," they attacked the Harusame's ship. As Katsura bombed their storage, Gintoki fought and knocked out Daraku and carried Shinpachi and Kagura home.
To help the neighbors stop a noisy inventor, Hiraga Gengai, the Yorozuya let Shinpachi sing in front of his house. After a while, one of the inventor's robots, Saburo, came out and the group came to meet Gengai. They managed to get inside his garage and moved Gengai's inventions to a place that wouldn't disturb the neighbors, namely the riverbank, but broke them into pieces in the process. Since Gengai needed to prepare the robots for the festival that night, the Yorozuya was forced to help him fix them.
During the festival, Gintoki talked to Gengai about the Joui War, and Gengai asked if Gintoki ever thought of avenging his fallen comrades. Later, while watching the fireworks, he was ambushed by his former Joui comrade Takasugi Shinsuke. Under the threat of a sword at his back, Gintoki was forced to watch Gengai's robots ran wild, attacking the Shogun and the Shinsengumi. Nevertheless, after a moment, he grabbed Takasugi's sword with his bare hands, completely immobilizing it before punching the other.
Gintoki then confronted Gengai and his robot, Saburo, asking him to stop what he was doing. Gengai ordered Saburo to fire towards the Shogun even if Gintoki stood in the way. Gintoki proceeded to attack the robot and destroyed it, noticing for a brief moment that the robot hesitated and lowered its weapon on its own free will.
Okita Sougo offered the Yorozuya a job which involved them tracking down the champion of Rengokukan, Kidoumaru. During the investigation, hey later found out that Kidoumaru had been raising dozens of orphans, and they decided to help him escape from the Tendoshu with his children. However, Kidoumaru was killed by the new Rengokukan champion, Onijishi. Later on, the children asked the Yorozuya to avenge their sensei, giving their toys as payment. Gintoki agreed to help them, despite Hijikata's warning.
Later, Gintoki entered the ring with Kidoumaru's mask, as he challenged Onijshi to a revenge match. As they started to fight, Gintoki's mask broke and he received a heavy blow from Onijishi. Gintoki, however, blocked the attack with his wooden sword to reduce the impact of the blow. He then went with a finish blow against Onijishi, thus defeating him. The Shinsengumi then also showed up to arrest the Rengokukan owners (despite knowing the consequences they may receive for their interferences.)
In a scooter accident, Gintoki lost his memory. Kagura and Shinpachi tried to trigger the restoration his memory by visiting many of Gintoki's friends and comrades. They almost succeed on multiple occasions, but outside interference always ruins their efforts, and wipes Gintoki's memory clean, yet again. During their visit to Otae, she suggests to Gintoki that he'd be better off to forget his old self and start a new life. Meanwhile, Sakamoto Tatsuma crashed his spaceship into the Yorozuya's house, thus wiping out the last remnants of Gintoki's previous existence. Now with no home, memories, or friends, Gintoki claims his old mess of a life to be null and void, and decides to disband the Yorozuya and start his life all over again.
He is later found, along with commander Kondou Isao, who had also lost his memory because of Otae's cooking, to be working in a Justaway factory by Yamazaki Sagaru, of which he had infiltrated because of the factory manager's shady background. Soon, they found out that the Justaways they were producing were actually powerful bombs that would be sold to the Jouishishi. It is also revealed that the factory manager, Banzou, had decided to destroy Edo after losing his job and his otaku son turned into a Yakuza member. To do so, he planned on using a giant cannon set inside the factory.
Kagura and Shinpachi find their way to factory, thanks to Otose's investigation, and help the Shinsengumi try and defeat Banzou's ambition. When Banzou begins to fire the cannon, they stood in front of Gintoki to protect him, and he starts to remember everything slowly. Having fully regained his memory, Gintoki grabs his wooden sword from Shinpachi and destroys the cannon. After its explosion, he walks away, telling Shinpachi and Kagura that "[They] are going home."
Train Samurai Arc
After opening a box that was sent to Shinpachi with a cake and a letter inside, Gintoki and Kagura ate the cake, read the letter and recklessly put it back. As Shinpachi read it, they made fun of him.
Later, when Shinpachi goes out with Eromes, Kagura, Otae and Gintoki stalk the couple throughout the entire date. Gintoki tries to calm Otae down about Eromes having cat ears, but he ended up being beat up by both Otae and Kagura, as they were jealous of how cute she was. Continuing to follow the couple, they came to Eromes's house and soon realize that she had tricked Shinpachi for his money. Gintoki angrily chased her and threw his sword at her, which missed. As he was having a conversation with Eromesu about how she deceived people to steal their wallets, Otae and Kagura ambushed her from the roof.
Kagura's father is prepared to drag Kagura home, and after witnessing the collateral damage their fight creates, Gintoki agrees children should return home to family. He encourages Kagura to leave, but when he sees her on the news fighting for her life, he doesn't hesitate to go help. Once things calm down, Gintoki hands over a letter Kagura secretly wrote to her father, one of many which remain unsent due to lack of address.
Katsura asks for Gintoki and the others, to help in rescuing Elizabeth from the clutches of an evil magistrate. Enlisting the help of Sachan, the four recieved some hasty ninja training, and formed the Go-ninja in order to storm the magistrate's home. Gintoki himself was the white ninja. After clashing with the magistrate's grunts and fighting their way through the various traps, they make it to the final room where Elizabeth was supposedly being held. Instead, they were confronted by Hattori Zenzou and his Shinobi Five. Gintoki faces off against Zenzou, who still holds a grudge over the Jump affair. Though the group was seemingly out classed by the professional ninja, they managed to defeat them using a combination of fighting, luck, and bad curry. In the end, it turned out that Elizabeth had never been captured, and had instead just left after an argument with Zura.
Gintoki stumbles in, hungover from a night of drinking, to find Sadaharu extremely large and with Shinpachi and Kagura's legs hanging out of his massive maw. He at first thinks he's still drunk, but after the other two confirm his abnormal largeness, he pushes the blame onto Kagura giving him too much calcium. (From his own precious strawberry milk, nonetheless) He then produces a bark translator, (with a corny Doraemon reference) and finds that the (incredibly rude) Sadaharu is in pain from growing back into his Jyushin form. He breaks the ceiling, causing a ruckus in Kabuchichou. However, Gintoki refuses to abandon Sadaharu, claiming he would have never taken him in if he was going to abandon him.
Gintoki and Shinpachi are later mobbed by reporters, but are rescued by the shrine maidens, Ane and Mone.
When the group reaches where Sadaharu had run off to, the miko girls tell Gintoki and Shinpachi to distract Sadaharu while they recite the incantation to seal him. While Sadaharu attempts to attack Shinpachi in his crazed state, Gintoki jumps in front of him and takes the brunt of his attack with his sword. He moves to attack, but cannot because he doesn't want to hurt his pet. Sadaharu hits him with his paw, heavily injuring him.
However, the group manages to seal the Inugami with the power of a baseball thrown in a five-pointed-star, and Sadaharu is returned to normal. The miko girls offer to take Sadaharu back if they don't want him anymore, but Gintoki declines, and before we can hear his reason, it cuts away.
When a baby that looks similar to Gintoki turns up on the Yorozuya's doorstep, Gintoki must now clear the misunderstanding that the child is his. It later turns out that there was more than meets the eye, with the child being the grandson of a wealthy old man. While trying to return the baby, Kanshichirou to his mother, he engages in a duel with Okada Nizou, who was hired help to Kahei, Kanshichirou's grandfather.
Elizabeth comes to the Yorozuya, alone, and they are unable to help him, due to the fact that he wasn't talking. They wonder where Katsura is, but Gintoki ignores the thought, and leaves for a job, leaving Shinpachi and Kagura to handle Elizabeth. He meets his clients, Murata Tetsuya and Murata Tetsuko, and is asked to find the evil sword Benizakura, which has gone missing.
Later that night, he saves Shinpachi and Elizabeth from the assassin and new member of the Kiheitai, Okada Nizou, who is revealed to have been the abductor of the Benizakura sword. Nizou sends Gintoki into a fury by claiming that he killed Katsura, and cut off his trademark long hair as evidence and a trophy. Gintoki refuses to believe him and engages him in battle. During the fight, Nizou overpowers him and he badly injures Gintoki, who was unaware of Benizakura's properties and abilities, and impales him, but he is managed to be saved by Shinpachi who cuts off Nizou's arm. He retreats, leaving Gintoki half-dead and bleeding out.
He wakes up bandaged and in the care of Shimara Tae. He wants to go help Kagura and Shinpachi, who both were fighting the Kiheitai without him, much to the displeasure of Otae, who threatens to kill him if he moves, claiming he is in no shape to be fighting. While he is under house arrest, Tetsuko comes to make him an offer in order to stop the sword. He declines her offer, but while Otae is out buying Jump, he attempts to leave to fight anyway. Otae, however, knew he would leave and set him up with a fresh change of clothes at the doorstep, and her favorite umbrella, which he promises to come back alive to return.
With the help of Tetsuko and a sword crafted by her to replace his broken bokuto, Gintoki manages to land on the Kiheitai airship. There, he encounters Nizou once again and they fight once more. During the fight, Gintoki starts out strong and evenly matched with the demon sword, but, as the sword drained Nizou's strength and became stronger, later is overwhelmed by the full power of the Benizakura and his previous injuries, even after reawakening the mentality of the Shiroyasha, and falls behind. He is knocked unconscious and wrapped in a binding tight coil by the Benizakura-controlled Nizou, but awakens right as Nizou goes to attack Tetsuko. He slices the sword in half, effectively ending its reign of terror.
During the aftermath, he is herded out by Shinpachi, Kagura, and Tetsuko, only to find that the Harusame Space Pirates have invaded the ship, called by Takasugi, who offered both Gintoki and Katsura's heads as prize for their backing. Gintoki and Katsura battle the Amanto while the rest of the gang flees, and during their fight, tell each other never to change for the worse, and if they ever did, to kill them. They then point to Takasugi, who has already broken this promise, and that the next time they meet, they will cut him down. With that, and the others retreating, they jump ship, and parachute down to the ocean below. When Katsura tells him that Shouyou's lesson book saved his life and that Takasugi still had his copy, Gintoki tells him that he threw his own book away because he spilled ramen on it.
A customer comes from a wayward town and requests the Yorozuya to find her son. They find out that the son had undergone plastic surgery changing his features. They suspect that the man is now working in a male host bar and join after discovering it is being harrassed by the Yakuza. After the Yakuza come to collect payment and fail, the mother who came to look for her son was swept away when the Yakuza was leaving to be seen later at the Yakuza's base helping a pet of theirs give birth. They capture her and threaten the son to pay back the money. He goes with all the earnings to gain back his mother but the Yorozuya enter causing havoc, saving the mother and impeding the son from losing his money. The mother leaves without her son, but she is proud of him nonetheless.
Gintoki helps Shinpachi on his journey to get back Otae back from Kyubei from the Yagyu family, who claimed Otae to be her bride. They all enter a competition where they attach plates to themselves and in teams have to take out the other team's plates to win. Kondo ends up in a restroom and cries for help after he finds out his toilet paper ran out. At the same time he realizes that Gintoki is in the same restroom sharing the "no toilet paper" problem. Afterwards, they realize that Yagyuu Binbokusai was in the stall between them, also without paper. Some time later, Toujou Ayumu arrives, and he planned to take Gintoki and Kondo down while they were defenseless and on the toilet. Unfortunately, Ayumu gets a stomachache also for have eating bad eggs and joins them in the last remaining stall. Now all four of them look for alternatives for toilet paper, all while crying for help. Binbokusai found double-sided sandpaper gave a piece to everyone away. Kondo and Ayumu find an important relic of their love on them, but in the end decide that the best choice was the sandpaper. Gintoki is left with Binbokusai as Gintoki uses money bill to use instead of toilet paper and Binbokusai uses a certain important scroll. After that, they both leave the bathroom and start their fight. Gintoki gets easily pulled around by Binbokusai with his attacks as Gintoki hardly manage to him because if his small size. Later on, Gintoki meets up with Shinpachi as they both team up against Yagyuu Kyuubei and Binkokusai to break their plates. After a bit of roughing around, Gintoki managed to maneuver around Kyuubei's attacks and break her plate in midair.
Gintoki breaking Kyuubei's plate
At that point though Binkokusai grasps onto Gintoki and hit him to a statue which in result breaks his plate. At the same time, Shinpachi comes with a surprise attack against Binkokusai, breaking his plate and ultimately winning the game for Gintoki's team.
Later on, Gintoki and his friends gets hired by Kondo to try to break down the wedding ceremony in which he was going to forcefully go to with Princess Bubbles. At the ceremony though Gintoki and his friends does not take the job seriously and complains about that there is only bananas as wedding food. However thanks to Shimura Tae the ceremony gets interupted and the marriage somehow got off.
Gintoki was "bribed" by Okita Sougo to pretend to be his best friend for the day. Even though it was supposed to be all a setup to assure Sougo's sister, Mitsuba, Gintoki admitted the friendship to Mitsuba at the end of the day.
When Mitsuba's health conditions worsened, Gintoki visited her at the hospital with her favourite spicy snacks.
Before Sougo headed off the battlefield, Gintoki, while pretending to be sleeping, listened to Sougo's most inner thoughts. He then headed off to the battlefield together with Sougo.
Tasked with buying the Owees by their clients, Gintoki and the Yorozuya queued up for the purchase of Owee. The situation later turned into a battle of the Yorozuya against the Shinsegumi. Gintoki, together with Kagura, took part in the final round of battle, Dragon Hunter lll, where each team will have to fight to defeat the bandits in the caves.
Abandoned by their teammates right at the start, Gintoki and Hijikata teamed up to make their way to the caves where they eventually was able to restore their health back to full. Using the village leader as their weapons, Gintoki and Hijikata started their fight with the bandits. However it became a hassle when Okita arrives from the casnio and Kagura at a much higher level and chaos happens.
When Hasegawa was charged with sexual harassment, Gintoki turned up last minute as his lawyer. Hasegawa remarked that Gintoki stood a chance since no one had ever won an argument against him.
Gintoki and the Yorozuya were asked by Hijikata to protect the Shinsegumi from Isao as he was unable to do so when the demonic sword's power started eating into his personality and turning him into Tosshi. Gintoki and his friends decides to help him as they steal a shinsengumi police car. Later on, while dressed in Shinsegumi uniforms, the Yorozuya headed off to the train and into the battlefield to save Kondou that was the target of the internal strife. There, Gintoki encounters Kawakami Bansai as he reveals Kiheitais plans to Gintoki about destroying the Shinsengumi. While the train that Kondo, Hijikata and the others were on explodes at a bridge and hangs to the edge Gintoki starts to fight with Bansai. At one point, Bansai stops Gintoki's movements with his instrument strings but Gintoki manage to break out of them in a painful way. When Isao protected Kondo and Hijikata from the shots from a Kiheitai helicopter Gintoki push Bansai into the helicopter in which causing it to lose balance. On the helicopter, Bansai takes out his hidden sword and pierces Gintoki's left shoulder as he argues to Gintoki that their country is rotten as Gintoki has lost his way of life. At that point, Gintoki had manage to use Bansai's own strings to tie Bansai and the helicopter together as he jumps down to the ground. Gintoki tells Bansai to leave Takasugi a message and says that what he tried to protect in the Joui Wars has not changed. Gintoki then pulls his wooden sword which was attached with strings to the helicopter as he pulls the helicopter down with all his strengh and destroys it . Bansai manage to survive somehow as he returns to Takasugi for a summary of the mission.
After hearing a news about a certain incident about aliens doing experiments on humans, the Yorozuya realized that their body part were changed into screwdrivers. Gintoki's analog stick was turned into a screwdriver and went into rage telling that he'll definitely kill the aliens who commited a grave sin to him.
The trio found out that they're not the only ones that has a modified body, and they decided to play Monkey Hunter, in order to return their bodies to normal. Gintoki's name in the game was "Ginko" with the appearance of a cute, short haired girl, carrying a large sword.
Otose asked the Yorozuya along with Otae to visit an old friend of hers who runs a Hot Spring. As they reached the place, only Gintoki and Shinpachi realized the place is a haunted run down Hot Spring. He tries to find ways to get out of the place as soon as possible but it only comes to worse when the road was blocked by a big boulder and Otae, Kagura and Shinpachi were possessed by ghosts, preferably called "Stands" and play UNO all day and night.
Oiwa, the owner of the Hot Spring chose Gintoki to be the new staff seeing he has a great resistance from being possessed. Gintoki scared to death, he acts as a staff with his screen name "Gin" under Oiwa's orders with the help of Rei, a ghost staff of the Hot Spring. Finding out Rei is also against Oiwa's way of running the Hot Spring, she helps Gin conspire with Mitsuhide, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi (nicknamed as "Brief Three"), to lessen the trust of the ghost coming by humiliating Ieyasu, the special guest of the Hot Spring. Unknown to him, the "Brief Three" is loyal to Oiwa and betrayed him instead and his harsh actions caused him to be imprisoned and lose hope. But then, he found a way to settle the score after seeing Otae, Shinpachi and Kagura as Stands watch him in despair.
Rather battling the customer Stands head on, Gintoki sang "The Thousand Winds" to purify them and with the help of his friends, they entertain them and gave them happiness that sent them into heaven. Oiwa gained more power as she fought Gintoki by inhaling her own husband and become her "Excellency" but Gintoki, by absorbing, Rei, Kagura, Shinpachi, Otae and some other Stands, dominated the battle. Oiwa was defeated through Xavier who possessed him as well.
Oiwa's husband cannot accept the fact and absorbs all of the Stands even from the living animals. Gintoki as Stands left his body and as he tried to return on it together with Otae, Kagura and Shinpachi, Xavier shoot them and took the body inside the inn. Oiwa's husband became more violent and forcefully tried to inhale all of them then Oiwa realized that her husband couldn't rest in peace because he cannot leaver her behind alone. The Stand was defeated after Oiwa apologizing to the mistakes she had done which caused her husband as Stand to be purified.
Oiwa decided to continue running the Hot Spring for the Stands even if she was alone. Gintoki left them behind with the assurance to his face that Oiwa will be doing well and will not be lonely, probably knew that Rei will continue helping her with the inn.
Shinpachi found a message in a bottle at the shore, asking him to be his pen-pal. After seeing the picture, he decided to properly work on the message but he doesn't know where to start. There comes Gintoki to the rescue.
Gintoki meets Seita who was trying to steal his wallet but got caught instead (even though Gintoki's wallet was empty to begin with). At Snack Otose Seita explains his situation about his desperate need for money to be able to meet the courtesan Hinowa of the underground city Yoshiwara. Gintoki makes a mistake at first that Seita wants to meet her because of sexual desire but then he reveals that may be Hinowa his lost mother. When everyone realizes his desperate need for money to meet his mother, Otose offers him to work at her Snack House to be able to help at bit of his problem.
After Seita had been working at the snack bar for a while, Gintoki went to Yoshiwara and at a bar he overhears the men who were given money by Seita for him to able to afford to meet Hinowa one day. The men had however spent Seita's collecting money for sake instead. Gintoki knocks them down and takes their wallets to repay for their crime. However because of his ruckus, Gintoki suddenly gets attacked by a Hyakka soldier who was disguised as a bar waitress. Gintoki flees as he meets up with Shinpachi, Kagura and Seita who had Hyakka on their tail as well. Gintoki then meets Tsukuyo as he protects Seita from her kunai by repelling them. Gintoki however got hit by one right in his forehead and tries to desperately act nonchalant about it. By making things worse, he gets noticed that Seita got hit by one of the kunai Gintoki repelled and as in result made him even more desperate but still tries to desperately act unfazed. Tsukuyo then knocks down Gintoki and everyone else with a kunai in which made them fall unconscious.
Later on they all ended up in underground pipes, & Tsukuyo faked their death to let them escape from Yoshiwara.She was asked by Hinowa to let Seita escape as she does not want him to get hurt by getting near her. Suddenly the group gets interfered by the Yatos Kamui, Abuto and Ungyou from the Harusame pirates who plans to capture Seita do bring him to Housen. Gintoki and the others gets easily tricked as the Yatos success capturing Seita and then destroy the pipe walls in which resulting the group loosing their footing. Thanks to Tsukuyo's help Gintoki and the group managed to survive the fall in one piece. Gintoki and the others then decide to go rescue Seita and then try at the same time get the sun back over Yoshiwara. Gintoki and his friends disguise themselves in Yoshiwara female clothing as they manage together with Tsukuyo infilitrate the Housen castle. However, once inside they got spotted right away by the Hyakka soldiers. Tsukuyo tells Gintoki and his friends to move on ahead as she will hold the Hyakka soldiers off for them. Gintoki then ask Tsukuyo to give him her blowing pipe as a promise that they will all survive and returns it once they fight is over.
As the proceed, the group encouter Abuto who plans to clean up the infilitrators. Shinpachi and Kagura offers to fight him while Gintoki will run ahead of them. Later on, Gintoki finally encounters Housen who had meet up with Seita who had finally reuinte with his mother even though it was revealed that she was not his real mother. Housen ask him what the reason is to be here and wonders if he wants to have a drink with women at his Yoshiwara. Gintoki answers that does not want a drink from a women who is crying as he notes Hinowa's tears and wants instead a drink from a smiling women without sadness.
Gintoki and Housen then starts their battle againts each other as Housen brings out his giant fightning umbrella and Gintoki had prepared a samurai sword. Gintoki got easily pushed back by Housen's first strike and after a some blows he gets smashed into the wall. Housen quickly jumps forth and grap his head into the wall. Housen tells Gintoki that the samurais has lost their place in life and that their world and women have already fall into the Amanto's hands including his own. He tells him that the samurai had already lost their battle againts the Amanto but Gintoki however laughs at his word and says that he is still fightning for the world. Gintoki then pierces Tsukuyo's blowing pipe into Housen's right eye making him feel a great pain. Under that time, Gintoki yells at Seita to run away with his mother. Seita though refuses as he does not want to leave behind his friends. Gintoki answered that he should do it for his sake as he does not want to fail to protect anything again. Gintoki suddenly gets hit again by Housen in which result leaving him to close death. After a short while, Tsukuyo shows up at the place together with several Hyakka soldiers as they all plan to take down Housen together. Tsukuyo sarcastically makes fun of Gintoki when she sees his condition but when she throughs a kunai at him to try to make him wakes up from his senses Gintok catch it with his fingers. Gintoki then returns back to the battle as he joins forces with Tsukuyo and the Hyakkas. The battle gets pretty tight as Gintoki manage to get some big hits at Housen as the Hyakka backs him up by throughing many kunais at him. Housen however easily defeat a lots of Hyakkas as Gintoki gets more injured from his attacks. At one point with the help from Tsukuyo Gintoki strikes a
Gintoki lands a big blow on Housen
big hit with his wooden sword againts Housen and attack several times after without Housen have time to strike back. Gintoki pulls Housen back againts the walls and with help from the Hyakka they do a finish attack several kunais. Believing that Housen is defeated everyone gets happy relieved. However, Housen then throughs back some kunais in which goes towards Tsukuyo. Gintoki then pulls away Tsukuyo and takes the hits from the kunai himself instead. a criticial injured Housen rise back from the wall and claims that no matter how many candles of light they collect they cannot compare to the sun. Gintoki however decline and says that with enough light they can melt the chains of Yoshiwara. At that point, the hatches to the underground starts to opened thanks to Seita, Shinpachi and Kagura who had planned to bring the sun down over the town. When Housen realise that they sun starts to shine into the city,
Gintoki's finish blow againts Housen
Gintoki then moves in and dealt the final blow on Hosen that sent him straight through the wall of his mansion and out into the sunlight. As Hosen was a yato who hadn't seen sunlight for many years, as stated by Hinowa in [[[Episode 144]], his body immediately reacted to the sun and he dried up, dying in Hinowa's lap, who had been carried to him by two rebelling members of the Hyakka, as seen in Episode 145. She had always wanted to show him the sun, and cried as she said that he was just a foolish old man who wanted to sleep under the sun, yet he built that foolish city (Yoshiwara), and turned everyone against him.
Hosen was buried at an unbearably hot place, as stated by Umibouzu in Episode 146. He was buried on a cliff with his umbrella used as a gravestone. Gintoki, who was there with Umibouzu, said that the prostitutes wanted Hosen to sunbathe in the afterlife. Umibouzu then told Gintoki that he didn't expect him to take down Hosen. However, Gintoki quickly disapproved that he did it himself, and said he never would have made it alone and that they just ganged up on him. Umibouzu continued that Kamui thought otherwise. Kamui had been put in charge of Yoshiwara, as he took credit for killing Hosen, telling the Harusame that it was a result of their investigation. But he hadn't sent anybody there, and had left the place completely unattended. According to Umibouzu, this was because Kamui had no interest in Yoshiwara. His only interest was in Gintoki, and he obtained Yoshiwara so that no one would lay a hand on them. Umibouzu then stated that Gintoki may have saved Yoshiwara, but he himself, would be killed.
Yorozuya Barbers Arc
Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi was left by the owner of the Barber Shop to buy some manga, without experiences, the Yorozuya find ways to do their duties as Yorozuya Barbers.
Tama was infected by a virus and with the help of the Old Gengai, it's up to Gintoki along with Shinpachi and Kagura to save her. He also met the Leukocyte King, which looked the same as him, only wearing different clothes.
Tsukuyo hires the Yorozuya to help her stop the most recent criminals appearing in Yoshiwara. Acting as a married thugs couple, Gintoki and Tsukuyo infiltrate into a group of thieves but they later discover that they only want to steal kamaboko. They escaped from the organization and investigated another one whose members have tattoos of spider in their bodies. The organization discovers the two and the leader ambushed Gintoki.
They found out that the leader of this organization was Jiraia, the former teacher of Tsukuyo and she was held captive by him. Thanks to Zenzo, Gintoki survived the ambush and went to rescue Tsukuyo. Gintoki after seeing Tsukuyo's situation was angered and when he knew that it was her former teacher, Gintoki proceeds to fight Jiraia to show that he does not deserve to be teacher due to how he made Tsukuyo suffer. By evading all of Jiraia's attacks with counterattacking, Gintoki escapes from his spiderweb and starts beating him up until overwhelming him. Jiraia still attempts to kill Gintoki, but Tsukuyo throws a kunai to his neck.
The Yorozuya goes on a hunt to lure and capture the Kabukichou Boss Cat Houichi ホウイチ, After Gintoki urinated on the grave of the stray cat he then passed out and woke up that he has turned into a white cat, at first he didn't notice that he transformed into a cat but after he asked for water from the talking stray cats, he then sees his reflection of himself on the puddle that he has transformed into a cat, he then panics and ask himself why he turned into a cat.
Ketsuno Ana, the girl who gives the weather on television, and a person whom Gintoki admires, has begun to have bad weather forecasts and people are beginning to complain about the situation. Gintoki and the other Yorozuya decided to help her causing the trio to be caught up in the world or onmyojis and demons.
Gintoki had his contract shikigami named Gedomaru which was given to him by Ketsuno Ana to help them fight against demons.
Gintoki dresses up as Santa for Kagura but soon Umibozu shows up as one as well, in which turns into a fights between the two of them of who will be the true santa for Christmas
Gintoki broke Ayame's glasses, which caused him to buy her new glasses. When they went to buy glasses, Gintoki gave Ayame the Shopkeeper's glasses causing Ayame which was useless to her. At the same time, Gintoki brought Ayame's glasses to Gengai to be fixed.
After the two year timeskip, when Shimura Shinpachi visited the Yorozuya, he found Gintoki with a drastic change in appearance along with Kagura. Gintoki has a long hair and a scar in his face that resembles Yamcha from Dragon Ball.
Shinpachi together with Hijikata Toushirou later found out that a two year timeskip has never happened. It was actually because of an alien wart that absorbs a memories host that has full ambitions and change it to its two year future self and the only way to kill it is by hitting it with a paper fan. They dealt with the alien wart that infected their friends but it caused them a great trouble with some circumstances that kept them from killing the wart. Shinpachi, as the last man standing successfully defeated the warts that infected his friends and even Hijikata but then, Gintoki suddenly smashed his head with a paper fan telling he is infected as well.
It turned out Gintoki was the only one who was not infected by the wart since he doesn't have any ambition at all.
At the end of the episode, Gintoki activated the Getsuga Tenshou, parody from Bleach.
Gintoki drank himself into a stupor during a celebration. Consequently, he didn't remember the events that occured during that party in the next morning and woke up in bed with Otose, realizing that he must have had sex with her. As he struggled to piece together what happened in the night before, he learned that he apparently did not just have sex with Otose, but also with Shimura Tae, Sarutobi Ayame, Yagyuu Kyuubei, Tsukuyo and Hasegawa Taizou. With the help of Hattori Zenzou, Gintoki struggled to lose their affections by appearing committed to each one of them, while trying to the women to find out that she slept with all of them. Each plan of his backfires until the women figure out that Gintoki lied to all of them and beat him up. As Gintoki felt guilty for betraying all of them, he vowed to never drink alcohol ever again. Right after that, Zenzou revealed that the entire thing was just one big prank and that every woman he supposedly slept with was in on it. When Gintoki then learned that Hasegawa was not in on the prank and that it's possible that he truly slept with Hasegawa, he instantly started drinking again.
A brothel had hired Yorozuya to make a certain customer in jailor outfit to pay his debts. Gintoki found out the man was actually a real jailor and was put in jail for falsified accusations.
In order to save Shinpachi and bring him back to reality, Gintoki started playing the Love Choriss game but was stuck with the most unpopular character of the game, Shiramizu Pinko. Pinko's son died when Gintoki shut the game with force. After the event he was haunted by Pinko and her son's visions even in real world even though other people excluding the fellow Choriss gamers couldn't see.
During the Love Choriss event, when forced into a corner, Gintoki, with his imagination, was able to remodel Pinko into his dream girl, successfully allowing him to face off Shinpachi in the final round. In the end, he was the one who fell deepest in the game world which woke the others back to reality.
After a "misunderstanding" between police forces, Shinsengumi and the new Mimawarigumi, almost-arrested Gintoki is offered a job by Mimawarigumi chief Sasaki Isaburo. He was to infiltrate Check It Out Gang, which held connections to Jouishishi. But when the gang kidnap and hold hostage a younger half-brother to Sasaki and assisstant to Hijikata Toshirou, Gintoki only sticks around until Sasaki makes it clear his job is over. After witnessing both black and white police uniforms fighting each other, Gintoki declares Check It Out Gang is with neither side but his own, Shiroyasha! More fighting ensues until the gang has been apprehended and everyone's (mostly) ok. Gintoki's arrested later by Hijikata for announcing his famous Jouishishi title and possibly attempted murder, but Sasaki Tetsunosuke vouched for his freedom and no charges were pursued.
After returning to his home from a vacation, he had found out that someone named Sakata Kintoki had usurped his place as a protagonist of the show. No one knew him and he almost gave up until Tama and Sadaharu came to aid him in his task. They formed Yorozuya Sepia in order to recover everyone's memories of him. Tama would go under alias of Matagura (Kagura's temporary replacement) and Sadaharu would be Sachiharu (Shinpachi's replacement).They tried a few attempts to bring back everyone's memories of him but fails. During one of these attempts, he manages to save Sarutobi Ayame from trying to fall down from a building(who in reality wanted to have more time with Kintoki) and is helped by Kagura and Shinpachi and the others slowly remember until he is accused of attacking Tama. Gintoki is able to defeat Kintoki after an unexpected fight(even after going through Mantama, another show that kind of Kintoki as the protagonist).
Tsukuyo and Hinowa tells him about Suzuran and her beauty that affected Yoshiwara. Hearing this he was invited by Suzuran herself thinking that he would have a chance to sleep with her but her appearance is not what she think she is. Learing that she had made a promise with one of her clients, he, Tsukuyo, Shinpachi and Kagura helps her find her clients. He finds out that her client is the former Shougun.
Because her former client is the Shougun, Gintoki says it's impossible to enter the castle to meet the Shougun. But Kagura says its not impossible to enter the castle. He, Shinpachi and Tsukuyo are shocked to see how Kagura is close to Soyo. Entering inside the castle, he meets Isaburo and Nobume for their duty to protect the Shougunate castle. To get the former Shougun attention without noticing, Tsukuyo suggests that they should play 'Kick the Can'. Gintoki resisted but had no choice but to kick the can at the former Shougun's room, but ends up injuring the current Shougun.
Hearing that Tokugawa Sada Sada is entering the room to speak with Shige Shige, both Gintoki and Nobume panicked and started to run away but is stopped by Tsukuyo. With no choice Tsukuyo and Nobume pretends to be prostitude while Gintoki tries to act like Shige Shige. When Tsukuyo tells Sada Sada about Suzuran, the Naraku guards comes and arrests and framed them for killing the high Bafuku.
Gintoki prepares to save Maizou
Gintoki and Shinpachi fighting against the guards
While in jail, Soyo comes and tells them a bed time story based on the actual promise between Suzur
Gintoki's rage to kill Sada Sada
an and Maizou. Learing that Maizou is the man that made a promise to
Tsukuyo and Nobume protecting Gintoki
Suzuran, the Shinsengumi lets them out and save Maizou.
Reaching to Sada Sada place, Maizou's body is thrown and an enraged Gintoki tries to kill Sada Sada but is blocked by an masked enemy.
Battling against the enemy, Gintoki gets himself hit by poison needles and is unable to move. When he relized that the enemy is Oboro, he seems to be shocked to meet him again. Hearing about Yoshida Shouyou's crime, Gintoki is boiled with rage and tries to kill Oboro. Overpowered and poisoned by him, Gintoki lays defeated until both Shinsengumi and Mimawarigumi arrived. Sasaki Isaburo and Mimawarigumi members attack the remaining Naraku members as Gintoki remains wounded and unable to fight. After some banter between the two, Sasaki shoots Gintoki in the chest claiming he is useless trash now.
Gintoki Kills a Naraku agent
Tsukuyo is sent into a rage after seeing Gintoki get shot. She runs over to him but neglects a Naraku member sneaking up behind her and attacking. Suddenly Gintoki's wooden sword is plunged through the Naraku members stomach, killing him. It turns out that Sasaki Shot him with a antidote to the poison that helps Gintoki recover. Gintoki leaves after Oboro and Tokugawa Sada Sada slashing two more naraku members along the way. Before he leaves Sasaki asks Gintoki what he wants, Gintoki replies that he wants "Sada Sada's Head", Sasaki says it could be expensive but Gintoki replies that his head is worth nothing, Sasaki covers Gintoki's escape and orders all his Mimawarigumi members to cover "That ordinary man" and to allow absolutly no one upstairs. Gintoki, Tsukuyo, and Nobume all leave together after Oboro and Tokugawa Sada Sada.
Gintoki personally tries to bring Shinpachi"s childhood friend Obi back from his senses.
Freeze Time Arc
Otose enters the Yorozuya shouting for them to pay their rent, when she suddenly freezes in place. Gintoki found out that everything froze except him, Kagura and Shinpachi. Gintoki remembers that last night, an alien gave him a weird clock. He was drunk when it was given to him, and he did not listen to what the alien said, telling him to protect it. In the morning, he slapped his alarm clock along with the clock the alien gave him, causing it to stop.
The Yorozuya finds a way to make the clock move and Gintoki found out that it works by moving the hands of the clock manually, and make Gengai fix the clock, but by doing this, it caused Gengai and Hasegawa die in different situations.
Later on, the trio found out that the clock was only running low on battery and saw that the battery needed was unique, and they searched for the battery. Things don't seem to go their way, causing ruckus until the clock runs out of battery and caused them to also froze in time. The SFX replaced the battery of the clock turning everything back to normal.
With the time returned to normal, Gintoki slapped his alarm clock and attempts to smash it, and the Universal Clock was nowhere to be found.
Gintoki, seeing the people in Otose's snack house confess and asks advice to Tama with all their problems, gave him an idea to rake money from it. He used Tama to open a Robo-Girl Confession Room. However, after sinners went and confess to Tama, he and Shogun was caught up in a terrible mess.
Everyone swapped genders, where both sexes appear to have a strong masculinity/femininity. Gintoki appeared to be slightly shorter with big eyes and fully equipped with a large chest, where s/he was shortly named Ginko.
In the female form, Ginko is flirtatious and seems to enjoy his time as a woman, even dressing up as a high school girl. She later encountered the female Hijikata and teases him how he won't get a man due to his fatness, and was later seen competing at each other by attracting males. She also encountered the male Sa-chan who seems to be not attracted to the female Gin, but was still eager with the S&M play. When the virus cannon was fired, people came back to their normal appearances apart from Gin, Kagura, Sa-chan, Tsukuyo, Kyubei, Kondo, Sougo, Hijikata, Sadaharu, Shinpachi Glasses. After some time, everyone seemed to be embracing their new bodies, while Gin was nowhere to be found, only to find that later he made Kyubei realised that he prefers his original female form, and later saves everyone with Kyubei by going to the planet that's sexes will also be switched. Everyone back to their normal genders, Gintoki was found sleeping at the cinema with everyone while Sa-chan clings onto him.
Gintoki is invited to a reunion party in which he encountered Katsura and Sakamoto who are already having a good time as soon as he reached the room. He turned his back against them realizing it was the idiots who started the party but he soon learned that the two were also just invited by someone else as Katsura showed the invitation with the name "Kurokono Tasuke" as the sender.
Katsura and Sakamoto only recalls a basketball game, a parody of "Kuroko no Basket" together with a Pokari. Gintoki has no idea what they were saying until a letter, delivered by Takechi Henpeita with words "Rest in peace, my comrade". They realized their memory of Kurokono is somehow related to Pokari.
The Yorozuya gets hired by the Shogun together with the Shinsegumi and others to protect him from a attempt assassination to him. Gintoki also finally had his clash fight with Takasugi in this arc. After a fierce fight Gintoki consults Takasugi that even if he have to kill him he would save the soul of his old friend Takasugi of the Yoshida school from his childhood. This led to a outcome where they both fought shortly together againts their true enemies of the Naraku faction.
Gintoki has a natural perm, which causes him no end of distress. His silvery-blue hair is in a perpetually messy state, which is sometimes exaggerated into a frizzy afro when Gintoki is injured. He has indeterminate grey/green/blue (in the manga) or bordeaux-colored (in the anime) "dead fish eyes" (comparison courtesy of Hijikata Toushirou), which are called such because they are nearly always half-lidded.
His standard outfit consists of a white yukata with a blue swirl pattern on the bottom and ends of the sleeves, worn so that his arm only goes through the left sleeve, and the right half droops down over his obi. Over this, he wears a black belt buckled so that there is leftover dangling from the buckle, from which his bokutōLake Toya hangs. Underneath, he wears a black, red-lined shirt with a popped collar and black pants. He also wears knee-high black boots, buckled at the top and above his foot, which appear to add about half an inch to his height. It is shown that he has a closet full of duplicates of this outfit, so whenever it gets destroyed, he can appear in the next episode or chapter with a new one.
All in all, his outfit suggests an air of laziness, and may be a reflection of Gintoki's own personal sense of style, though it is revealed that his usual attire is actually the school jersey for the Zunborans[1].
During the winter, he will sometimes wear a haori, thicker kimonos, or more layers, of varying colors, as well as scarves.
As with most Gintama characters, his outfit and appearance change regularly for the sake of gags.
Personality
Gintoki has an incredibly funny side. This can be seen by the way he "mistakenly" insinuated Hinowa's statement (in the 'Courtesan of a Nation Arc') to mean that he, Tsukuyo, Hinowa and Suzuran could have a foursome. His normal use of dirty talk, scatological innuendos, and ability to find ladies (Dominatrices in the Love Choriss Arc) in unstrategic places also seem to suggest this.
Gintoki's past continues to influence who he is and how he acts. He admitted to Umibozu in episode 42 that he believes having a loving family is all someone really needs in life, due to his lack of a family. He is very respectful of the memory of his teacher Yoshida Shouyou due to his kind actions (the death of his teacher is probably one of the main reasons he joined the Joui war). It is this respect for his teacher that caused him to be angered when Jiraia(Jiraia) called himself Tsukuyo's teacher and yet harmed and tortured her.
His inability to protect many of his friends in the Joui war still haunts him, even feeling regret of executing his own teacher when he was forced by Tendosho (under order of Sada Sada) in front of Takasugi and Katsura, and as a result, he is very protective of his current friends. He told Kawakami Bansai in the Shinsengumi Mutiny Arc the only reason he fought in the Joui war was to protect his friends, not for his country or the samurai way.
He acts like a coward most of the time, will attempt to leave behind his friends if his life is in danger, but this only occurs in the more comical stories, as he is willing to risk his life for anyone, and is shown to be extremely caring towards his friends. Gintoki has shown to be protective of them, to the point of going as far as stabbing and killing Naraku members, terrorists and amantos when he tried to attack them. He is extremely scared of ghosts, but is very sensitive to their presence and many times will try to deny their existence.
He has many childish personality traits despite his age, calling himself a child in a man's body. One such trait is his love of sweets to the point of nearly developing diabetes. He is mostly seen eating or drinking something sweet, with strawberry milk being his favorite.
He loves alcohol but his tolerance for sake that is not high. His love of alcohol has made him so troublesome that some female characters: Otose, Otae, Kyuubei, Sarutobi Ayame and Tsukuyo decided to teach him a lesson by playing a prank on him along with Zenzou during the Scandal arc.
He loves to eat meat and will go to great lengths to acquire the latest Jump issues, rivaling that of Hattori Zenzou who is similarly spirited. He also (just like Hijikata) has a hatred of the dentist and scared of ghost, something he is ashamed of due to his age.
Gintoki is very lazy, and is often shown reading Jump and lying around the Yorozuya. Due to his poverty, he is always behind on his rent and often runs away when Otose, his landlady, comes to collect the rent. He attempts to save money whenever he can, but he also loves to play Pachinko and other gambling games, resulting in him spending all his money. Even though he's lazy most of the time, Gintoki is quite a dedicated worker and always puts his mind on his jobs.
Gintoki seems to dislike his curly perm hair. To elaborate further, in Episode 5 he says his lack of girlfriends is due to his 'natural perm' hair.
Though several female characters have shown an interest in Gintoki, such as Shimura Tae, Sarutobi Ayame, Tsukuyo and on some occasions Yagyuu Kyuubei, he usually does not return their affections because of their physical abuse toward him. He even assaults Ayame who tends to stalk him, but he has a huge crush on the weather girl, Ketsuno Ana and once stated he wished to marry her (possibly because of the kind personality he sees on TV). It might be possible that he shows a lot of interest in any women that has a nice body and who does not have an angry personality, is a stalker or physically attacks him. This was proven in some episodes and during the pool arc, when he saw a woman with binoculars he got super excited, until he found out was Tsukuyo and lost all interest commenting that she is a drunk terminator.
Despite his appearance and initial behavior, Gintoki has a great amount of pride for the old bushido code. He takes it upon himself to rescue or avenge not only his comrades and friends but also people he barely knows.
According to Tama, Gintoki is bit of a sadist who shares the same personality as Sougo.
Despite all these traits (or perhap due to these traits) Gintoki possess immense charisma and is able to attract anyone, he always knows what to say to make anyone feel more comfortable and can make anyone laugh (even in the most inappropriate times) and feel alive. This ability has given him very loyal allies and friends from all sorts of people even former enimes, even leading to him getting the admiration and affection of a lot of women. As Hinowa pointed out he was able to affect Tsukuyo, and as has even made friends with the Shogun.
Strength & Abilities
Gintoki is a highly skilled samurai. His current combat skills were enough to make the blood-thirsty Yato Kamui staking his claim on him as his future prey in Episode 146. Umibouzu stated himself that Gintoki "carries himself with a certain grace" and that he is "like a master of the sword" in Episode 200.
There were times when Gintoki shows his rage when facing enemies with immense strength towards Jiraia, Doromizu Jirochou and Oboro.
His greatest strength seems to be his immense stamina and endurance, to the point where he has been called immortal by other characters. He could be the strongest swordsman so far presented in the series.
In his childhood, he was under the tutelage of Yoshida Shouyou along with Katsura Kotarou and Takasugi Shinsuke, where he learned how to become a decent samurai. As every student who was taught by Shouyou and survived, Gintoki became infamous because of his tremendous skills with the sword.
Yagyuu Binbokusai conceded that Gintoki's sword style may well be his own, and not affiliated to any school.
His weapon of choice is usually a bokutou , a wooden katana, engraved with the word Touyako meaning Lake Toya on the handle, carried by his waist. As Gintoki hates killing and mostly tries to avoid killing people, he barely uses a real sword to avoid vital damages. Therefore he is willing to adapt his bushido to other people or the current times in order to avoid needless loss of lives, as explained to Katsura in Episode 5. This is the most probable reason for his carrying a wooden sword and not a real version.
His bokutou was made from a ten thousand year old tree from another planet, claiming to have the ability to break even the meteorite. Whether it is true is still unknown, but it may be Gintoki's overall strength and skill that gives him those abilities. In the manga, it is shown that Gintoki always bought a new bokutou from the TV Commercial every time his current one is broken.
His bokuto was eaten during his fight with Okita Sougo who was possessed by the excalibur sword Maganagi
He has also been seen using normal katanas such as the one made by Murata Tetsuko in Episode 60.
As a child, he was attached to Yoshida Shouyou's Katana after he gave it to him. Gintoki would carry that Katana even during class. What happened to it has yet to revealed.
The other time he used a Katana and Jutte was when he borrowed from Terada Tatsugorou memento in the Devas of Kabuki District arc, Gintoki vowed that he would protect everything that was important to him.
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In fellow Shonen Jump anime Bleach, Gintoki was reading the manga in an omake wishing that he could use Getsuga Tensho, Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki's signature attack in DVD version of Episode 3. But when there was an opportunity to learn a secret signature move from the spirit of Touyako, Gintoki was too lazy and unmotivated to learn.
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Immense Strength : Has shown on several occasions unrealistic strength. During a fight with Hosen, implied as one the strongest characters in the series, Gintoki managed to injure Hosen; Kamui would go as far as to say that Gintoki defeated Hosen. He was also able to tear Bansai's strings, which were as solid as steel and designed to rip people's limbs off. Gintoki's muscles were hard enough to avoid losing a single limb before he finally tore the strings. There were also many instances where Gintoki does the "Great Cleave" knocking out people surrounding him with one great swing without even touching the oponent, just using the wind of his strength. Gintoki also destroyed Benizakura--the sword that could destroy thousands of warships. It is also seen that Gintoki can kill a person using only bare hands, and can be stronger when in rage.
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Tremendous Endurance and Resilience: Gintoki's ability to stay alive, regardless of how severe the injury is, during situations where he is shot by a gun, beaten to a pulp by Hosen, left to die by Jirochou, show his uncanny endurance. Though his endurance has a limit his body can't overcome, like when his pressure points were attacked with poison needles, physical pain barely stops him from making use of his combat skills to the full. In Benizakura arc Gintoki was mortally wounded by Okada but survived the attack. He comes back to fight Okada again despite being mortally wounded from his last fight. In Yagyu arch, Binbokusai held on Gintoki so he could fall on a stone structure and hit it at center mass, most would suffer a broken rib or excruciating pain but Gintoki was able to recover quick and even stand up to talk and lecture Otae. In the School of Beam saber arc Gintoki is yet again mortally wounded but was able to stand his ground until Otae and his gang came to save him. He also survived the Joui war, a war that would take days to finish and to fight against amantos, even when he was heavily injured he was still able to kill lots of opponents.
Unfathomable Agility : Gintoki has shown impossible feat of agility and speed despite not being a ninja. In Benizakura Arc he manage to keep up with Okada fuse with a sword Benizakura, a sword that collects data from fights thus gets faster and stronger each fight or as the fight progress. Katsura said that Okada is in pain during the fight with Gintoki because Okada's body could not keep up with the command of the sword but ultimately Okada succumb to Benizakura and was turned into an abomination. During Yagyu Arc Gintoki shows he was capable of speed that allowed him to out maneuver Kyuubei in mid air thus breaking her plate. In the correspondence arc Gintoki run along the walls of the building to save kirara from her death. The Fight against Hosen, Gintoki was able to dodge most of Hosen's attacks and ultimately out maneuver him. Gintoki's fight with Jiraia shows that he could keep up with a former elite ninja despite being injured.
Expert Sword-Wielding : Gintoki's ability to use his wooden sword impressed Yagyuu Binbokusai, the grand patriarch of the Yagyuu. It can match any swordsmanship technique since Gintoki's style is not even used in other schools.
Technique Copying: Gintoki can copy a technique, like how he used Oboro's poison needles when he only experienced being attacked by it once but he perfectly did it professionally. It is because he can observe an enemy's move and analyze it by the way it attacks.
Weapon Expert: Gintoki can use any kind of weaponry, like when he used spears in the Benizakura arc, can use Tsukuyo's Kunais and perfectly aim towards the target, and other weapons that are presented so far that he used. It is also possible that Gintoki can use a gun, as seen he can aim perfectly and can carry it lightly enough.
Spiritual Affinity: Gintoki can see and communicate with spirits, as shown in the Ghost Ryokan Arc.
In episode 133, it showed that Gintoki had some ability to play the Shamisen.
Relationships
Mentor
Yoshida Shouyou: Shouyou was probably the most important person in Gintoki's life, something that is further emphasized by Katsura who mentions that out of the three of them (Katsura, Takasugi and Gintoki) he should be the one to most hate the world. Shouyou took Gintoki away from the corpses of the battlefield and offered him a life as a student and taught him everything. Gintoki deeply respects him, to the extend that he gets furious if someone dirties the name of being a master. The death of Shouyou was devastating to him and until the present haunts him as he is the very one to execute him as he was given an ultimatum of either choosing his comrades or saving him. Remembering his promise to Shouyou to protect everyone, Gintoki and him shared one last smile with each other with Shouyou even thanking Gintoki, before he decapitates him. Gintoki treasures deeply the lessons Shouyou taught him despite the fact that he no longer has the things Shouyou gave him such as Shouyou's sword and the textbook, which he claims to have thrown away when he stained it with curry. This possibly means that he does not need material items to remember Shouyou and his lessons. One of the things Gintoki honors the most with his sensei is the promise they made the last time they saw each other. Although he controls himself, Gintoki has showed a dark side in which he wants to slay those who were related to the death of his beloved teacher, which is also showed by Takasugi and Katsura at the beginning of the series. During a Joui war when he, Katsura and Takasugi were captured by Tendosho, who was under order of Sada Sada, Gintoki was forced to execute his beloved teacher without any choice in front of Takasugi and Katsura. After Shige Shige's death during Nobu Nobu's reign whereas Matsudaira and Kondo are about to be executed, Gintoki reminds Kondo's fate becomes similar to his late-master's fate.
Gintoki cares about Kagura, especially when she's in danger or not in a good condition. (He saved her in episode 42, when Kagura was attacked by an alien, despite the fact that he abandoned her awhile ago; he even tried to skip his job to take Kagura to the hospital in episode 91). When she was feeling down because she didn't feel that her umbrella was as pretty as other girls, he ended up buying her a cute one (episode 111). Their relationship seems to be a "father/daughter" relation, as she greatly admires him and has even picked up several of Gintoki's bad habits, such as picking her nose. They are usually partners in crime and join together in many different gags.
Shimura Shinpachi: Gintoki met Shinpachi at a restaurant where he had ordered a Chocolate Parfait when a fight broke out between Gintoki and some Amantos because they were harassing Shinpachi and accidentally spilled his Parfait. Since then, Shinpachi has been with Gintoki. Gintoki and Shinpachi share a close, brotherly relationship, thought both are not willing to admit it (During the battle with Obi Hajime, both men state that neither see each other as brothers). Gintoki's bond with Shinpachi can be seen when he went as far as to get on his knees and beg for the Shinsengumi's collaboration to keep Shinpachi safe during the Beam Sword Arc. After the battle in the Harusame Arc, Gintoki finds an exhausted Kagura and Shinpachi who claim are too tired to walk home. Gintoki retorts on that, saying that he should be the most tired and leaves them be, proceeding to walk off. However, he returns seconds later and carries them home. For a man who often doesn't show his soft side, he can not help but care immensely for both Shinpachi and Kagura.
Otose: Otose is Gintoki's landlady and mother figure. They both met in a graveyard where Otose was visiting her husband's grave. There, she gave food to a hungry and weak Gintoki, and he vowed to protect her in her husband's place to show his gratitude. Although they argue about paying rent, they both care about each other. When Otose was cut by Doromizu Jirochou, Gintoki went into a murderous rage against Jirochou showing how much he cares about her.
Katsura Kotarou: Katsura has been Gintoki's friend ever since they were very young. They usually fight along side each other, so they can be considered very close friends. Gintoki always calls Katsura by the nickname "Zura", which literally means "wig", even though Katsura prefers his real name. They bicker with each other a lot and Gintoki often shows his annoyance and wants to get away when Katsura is acting stupid (which is very often). He has extreme faith in Katsura's strength, and was extremely angry when Nizou stated that he killed Katsura thinking it was impossible that Nizou killed him. Although Katsura did witness Gintoki being forced to execute their teacher by Tendosho (under Sada Sada's order) during their captures in the Joui war, Katsura may have forgave him as he feels Gintoki's regret on killing Shouyou with his own hand as part of their teacher's sacrifice to save Katsura and his allies.
Sakamoto Tatsuma: Both of them fought in the Joui War and till this very day, Sakamoto has a close friendship with Gintoki even though he keeps calling him Kintoki. Gintoki admits that Sakamoto is extremely strong but states that his head is empty. When Sakamoto retired from the war, he offered Gintoki to come along with him to explore space but Gintoki declined. Although Katsura witnesses Gintoki being forced into killing their teacher while they were captured in the Joui war, he still forgives Gintoki as the Shiroyasha has no choice but to kill his own teacher in order to save his own life, Tatsuma, Kotaru and Takasugi's life.
Kondou Isao: Gintoki has a lot of respect for Kondou after their first duel. Both of them also have the same desire to change Edo to become better and more peaceful, like Shige Shige. Although he wrote down a new Regulation that Yorozuya is to be hated, Kondo actually respects Gintoki as Yamazaki stated in episode 32. It is noted that it was Gintoki himself who coins the latter the nickname "Gorilla" by judging Kondo's appearance. After Shige Shige's death and during Nobu Nobu's reign when he and Matsudaira are about to be executed, Gintoki reminds that his fate is the same as his late-teacher's fate, just like the code of honors being passed on, the will of light to watch over Edo, his old Joui allies as well as Hijikata and his fellow former Shinsengumi, as the era needs them.
They both have similar personalities and are usually seen arguing or making comments about the other (mostly Gintoki), resulting in the two frequently clashing as rivals. They share the same traits and fears like being terrified of ghosts and dentists, but they can reach an unbelievable synchronization when fighting together. When Kondou is about to be beheaded along with Matsudaira during Nobu Nobu's reign and after Shige Shige's death, he did eventually ended up in the same situation as Gintoki's before and on the day the Joui war began, having the person who'd changed their lives better after they tell them keep the honor that has been taught by them carried on, is about to be executed.
Gintoki seems unable spell his name correctly from Soichiro, Soda, even Sofa. Okita seems to get along rather well with Gintoki. After a rough beginning, the two find common grounds in their love of torturing and humiliating Hijikata. After witnessing the fight between Gintoki and Hijikata, Okita said he would love to clash swords with Gintoki one day. Although a hit from Hijikata would often result in a violent retribution from Okita, he doesn't seem to have a problem with taking a lecture or a knock on the head from Gintoki. When his sister came to visit, Okita bribed Gintoki (with three chocolate parfaits) to pretend to be his best friend. Later when Okita left, Gintoki acknowledges the friendship to Mitsuba. In the Yagyuu Arc, Shinpachi referred to them as the "Sadist Duo".
Tama: Gintoki helped her when she was being tracked down by No. 502 and saved her head so Gengai could fix her. He also helped her 'let loose' after she began working at Otose's bar. Tama used Gintoki's appearance and strength as data to create the Leukocyte King, her virus defense system. During the Kintama Arc, Tama kept her memories of Gintoki and helped him regain his place in the Yorozuya.
Hasegawa Taizou: He often joins Hasegawa in the pachinko parlor or for horse-betting.[4] They seem to be good friends by doing everything they can to get money together.
Hattori Zenzou: He is the first ninja seen in the series with an apparently equal obsessive devotion to JUMP magazine as Gintoki. Although he was initially an antagonist, he becomes a major ally to Gintoki helping him in many times. Later, he assisted Gintoki and his friends to save the Shogun from Nobu Nobu Faction.
Catherine: Although Gintoki and Catherine constantly argue, Gintoki can still sympathize with her. He saved her when she was about to be killed by her former organization and when she was robbed by the man she loved. Although he did all these things mainly to protect what's dear to Otose, he still seemed to have the will to help Catherine out when she was in danger.
Takasugi Shinsuke: Although Gintoki, Katsura and Takasugi studied together under Yoshida Shouyou and had the same starting point, Takasugi views them now as his enemies. Takasugi seeks to destroy what Shouyou left behind, while Gintoki protects what Shouyou left behind. Imai Nobume said that the only similarities that Gintoki and Takasugi share are their sorrowful eyes. Gintoki and Katsura swore that they would do everything to take him down in Benizakura arc. Likewise Takasugi
Gintoki and Takasugi
said to Kamui that he wants to kill Gintoki. During the Reunion Arc. Its was revealed that Gintoki and Takasugi were also rivals during the war, likely because Takasugi succeeded in winning over a prostitute that they both wanted. [2] Another could be their rival leadership, which made Gintoki inadvertently offend Takasugi for his upper-class merchant family heritage, despite the fact that Takasugi was disowned. [3] The reason why he hates Gintoki, more, was because he was given an ultimatum into killing Shouyou when he was forced by Tendoushou, under order of Sada Sada to kill their teacher in front of them during Joui war, but in fact for the sake of his and his former allies' life. He soon began to reconcile with Gintoki.
Kamui: Elder brother of Kagura. Kamui has his eyes set on Gintoki as a prey after he and the Hyakka defeated Housen. He has combined his forces with Kiheitai. He later gain respect for Gintoki, when Tendoshu was the mastermind all along.
Kawakami Bansai: Kiheitai's assassin and negotiator. He was seen first time by Gintoki aboard Harusame spaceship next to Takasugi. When Bansai observed Gintoki and Katsura as they fought the Harusame troops, Bansai stated that he'd like to have a death match with both of them. He would later appear as the main antagonist of the Shinsengumi Crisis Arc, where he used Itou Kamotarou as a tool to destroy Shinsengumi from within. When he realized that Gintoki was fighting the Shinsengumi, he attacked Gintoki. They had an intense fight before Bansai was finally defeated by Gintoki. Later on Bansai was seen talking to Takasugi about Gintoki. He stated that falling in love with Gintoki's "song" was his defeat, with which he implied that he held back during the fight. He is currently became one of Gintoki's allies since findig out Tendoshu was using Kiheitai and Harusame into assassinating Shige Shige.
Rei:She helped Gintoki in The Ghost Ryokan Arc and joked that her reason for refusing to go to heaven was to wash Gintoki's back in the future.
Kurokono Tasuke: A Former Comrade of Gintoki when He was still in the Jouishishi. Later he helped Katsura and Sakamoto from the Kihetai.
Tsukuyo: Tsukuyo and Gintoki started off as enemies, but soon became allies and formed a deep and meaningful friendship. During the Yoshiwara Arc, their trust and friendship seemed to develop very quickly, as Gintoki forced Tsukuyo to promise him to survive and symbolized this by taking her kiseru, telling her she needs to get out alive if she ever wants to smoke it again. The events of the Yoshiwara Arc brought them closer together and formed a strong bond between them. During the Red Spider Arc, Tsukuyo admitted to Gintoki that her resolve to cast aside her womanhood weakens when she is around him. She unwillingly proved this when Gintoki accidentally groped her boob and she, despite casting off her womanhood a long time ago and daring him to touch her earlier to prove her point, suplexed him in her state of anger and embarrassment. In the same arc those romantic feelings for Gintoki were also hinted by Jiraia, who assumed Tsukuyo's will might have weakened because she fell in love with Gintoki. These feelings were also hinted when Tsukuyo aggressively congratulated him to his supposed wedding with Sa-chan. During the Pool Arc, Gintoki was also shown to be sexually attracted to Tsukuyo, as the sight of Tsukuyo in a swim suit entertained him, consequently calling her a hot babe. Though the moment Gintoki realized it was her, he went back to referring to her as a "drunk terminator." Tsukuyo also learned about Gintoki's past and was enraged when she believed he was shot dead, realizing that he shares the same fate as her, as both lost their masters. During the Love Incense Arc, Tsukuyo became more openly attracted to Gintoki after inhaling the drug that caused her to artificially fall in love with Gintoki. Gintoki himself became more caring towards Tsukuyo, more than the other notable females, even after inhaling said drug which allowed him to fall in love with every woman. He called Tsukuyo his woman in the same arc while Tsukuyo even called Gintoki 'darling' and Gintoki reciprocating by calling her 'honey' (though he used this word for every other woman during his drug educed state which made Tsukuyo incredible jealous). At the end of the arc, Tsukuyo gently and playfully blew smoke in his face, admitting that, although the effect of the drug was already nullified, being with him makes her happy.
Ketsuno Ana: Gintoki has a crush on the weather-girl, which he watches everyday. He even once escaped from his cleaning duties at the Otose Snack to go and buy a Ketsuno Ana figurine, but started tearing out calendar pages in despair when he saw on TV that she had suddenly gotten married. After her divorce with her husband, he started wishing for the chance to marry her and become a part of the Ketsuno Clan family. Gintoki blushed and tried to impress her when she came to odd jobs by trying to make everything look professional.
Gintoki is sleeping watching movie next to Sarutobi in Episode 277
She madly in love with Gintoki to the extent that she stalks him constantly and wants to have a SM (sadist-masochist) playtime with him. Gintoki's denial and sometimes even hostile attitudes towards her only encourages her as she believes it is part of the "sadistic" nature of Gintoki, resulting in a larger ambition to get with Gintoki.In the Scandal arc she mentioned that she would never trick Gintoki but in that case she did it in order to live with him. Though Gintoki usually treats her badly- to the point of open hostility- he did rescue her when she fell from a building during the Kintama arc and helped her regain her glasses that he accidentally broke. It is shown that it is not that Gintoki hates her but he is annoyed by her perverted attitude and for constantly stalking him. He mentioned more than once that he dislikes "clingy women." But it is possible if Ayame wasnt a stalker and a clingy woman at that, it is sure that Gintoki would fall for her, as seen that Ayame doesnt assault gintoki and physical abuse him, and can be sweet at times.
Shimura Tae: Often viewed as Gintoki's girlfriend on multiple occasions. Tae always seen to support him whenever she can just like in Benizakura Arc in which despite of her scolding him not to be reckless anymore, she still prepare his clothes and even lent him her favorite umbrella; knowing that she could not stop him from his will. Tae seen to be romantically attracted to him during the memory loss arc. He had become significantly more serious and Tae kept insisting that he didn't forget her. When he apologised, she tried to knock him on the head to make him remember but Gintoki touching her hand and apologising caused her to blush. She complimented him about his eyes and suggested that he stayed amnesiac as she preferred this version of Gintoki, causing Shinpachi to complain that she had fallen for him. In addition to that, she was even teased by their ugly classmates during the group date episode. Tae even appeared to be jealous when Gin went with Tama at the Snack Smile. During the Kintama arc, it was shown that she already remembers him before others and despite of not hitting him unlike from the other girls. Gin has shown some hints that he may have feelings for her like sacrificing his life for her during his battle with Kondo, reaching out for her when he saw her cry during the Yagyuu arc and helping Obi wan to come back home and even plead to his knees to the Shinsenggumi just like what Otae asked him for a favor. During the Soul Switch arc, Dozaemon, in which half of his soul went to it, even acted so worried for Otae having him in her house and Gin, in Hijikata's form, was even glad about it. They always spent together along with Shinpachi and Kagura. Both like sweets,read manga and both have determined stalker. They also making the other characters appear jealous like when Sarutobi Ayame thought that Gin and Tae had a child together. Sarutobi sees Tae as her love rival for Gintoki but they remained friends as shown in Popularity Poll arc where she defended Tae after finding out that Tsukuyo had a higher ranking. Kondo challenged Gintoki on a duel for Otae where the latter agrees to marry her (only in manga). But they remained friends as seen during Obi Wan arc in which Kondo quoted, "stuck here helping our rival in love" where he referred to Gin as their rival as he talks to Kyubei. During Yagyuu arc, Gin was asked (in the manga) by Kyubei's grandfather if he just fell in love with Otae where Gin did not answer nor object.
There was a lot of Gin and Tae tease throughout the anime and manga. Most notable was the episode 156 where the characters did not show their faces until the last minute.
During the Gintama: Final Yorozuya, it was shown that Gin infected Tae with a virus, resulting to a deadly disease called The White Plague. It is unclear how she got it from him since she was the only one from Gin's circle who got infected by it. Gin teased Otae as flat chested and Otae teased him as a lazy samurai but despite of it, they deeply care and support each other. Although they generally argue about everything with Gintoki making snide comments about her and Tae physically abusing him, they share a close bond. In the second movie, Gintoki was devastated at her condition and calls her "the craziest chick I know".
Yagyuu Kyuubei: Gintoki is the only guy that made Kyuubei behave like a girl and makes her nervous or blush whenever he touches her. She even cried for Gintoki during the Kintama Arc, when she lost the memories of him. This causes Toujou to use Gintoki to bring an end to Kyuubei's boyhood and make her develop romantic feelings for men and forget the romantic feelings she has toward Tae. It's inferred that she has possibly developed a few feelings toward him at the end of the Yagyuu arc, but she developed most of them at the group date, when he touched her in the hand and said that it felt nice to touch the hand of a beautiful women. In episode 217 Gintoki, upon seeing Kyuubei's breasts while she was in a swimsuit, commented that she had big jugs. In the Kintama arc, Gintoki touching her hand caused her to blush and throw him out of embarrassment.
Enemies
Gintoki vs. Oboro
Oboro: Successor of Tensho School and leader of assassin organization Naraku. They've encountered each other in the Joui war when Oboro slayed many of Gintoki's allies but Oboro failed to kill him. They've met up again when Gintoki confronted Tokugawa Sada Sada, Gintoki assumes he died when he impaled him with his Bokutou, but in truth he managed to survive and report to the Tendoshu about Shouyou's students.
Gintoki vs. Nizou
Okada Nizou: Okada Nizou was first met as a hired blade. He was employed by Hashida to find his grandson. He would later appear as a member of Kiheitai and as a wielder of Benizakura sword. He was defeated by Gintoki when the Benizakura took over his body. His fate remains uncertain.
Housen: Powerful Yato clansman also known as King of the Night. He was defeated by the combined forces of Hyakka and Gintoki and later killed when he came into contact with the sun.
Jiraia: Tsukuyo's master and original leader of the Hyakka. He appeared again in Yoshiwara after Tsukuyo learned to rely on others and intended to make her independent by killing all dear to her. Jiraia managed to defeat and almost kill both Gintoki and Tsukuyo during their first fight. After that he took Tsukuyo with him to make her kill him. Gintoki followed his threads to find him and stopped him right before Jiraia was going to slice Tsukuyo's skin off. He was then defeated by Gintoki.
Doromizu Jirochou: One of the Four Devas and leader of Dobunezumi yakuza. He is old Joushishi veteran who is also childhood friend of Otose. While not techically evil, he forsake his humanity in order to stop Kujaku Hime Kada to conquer the Kabuki District the same way Housen obtained Yoshiwara. In his last duel with Jirochou, Gintoki spared his life as he was important to Terada Tatsugorou and saved him from his suffering. He retired after Kada was repelled from Kabuki District.
Sakata Kintoki: An android which was created by Gengai to substitute Gintoki when he was absent. Kintoki soon conquered protagonist title with his hypnosis wave when Gintoki was away. Kintoki had altered Edo's residents memories so that he had always been the protagonist of Gintama (or more fittingly, Kintama). While Gintoki has many flaws as protagonist, Kintoki was designed to have none of them. However, Kintoki lacks genuine human empathy, and is single-minded in his goal to erase Gintoki from his own series, even when it comes to wiping the minds of other characters such as Tama or even the Kabuki District that had looked up to him.
Jugem Jugem: For some reason Jugem Jugem hates his face and likes to throw poop at him. All monkeys share this hatred for him.
Tokugawa Sada Sada: At the beginning of the courtesan of a nation, Gintoki feared giving away his disguise of Shige Shige to Sada Sada. Gintoki became determined to finish him after he and his comrades found out that he was a corrupted leader that used Suzuran just for political power and ripped off Rotten Maizou's arm, when Maizou made a promise with Suzuran instead of killing her. Gintoki later gained intense hate towards Sada Sada after he cut off Maizou's second arm causing Gintoki to throw Sada Sada into the wall with Oboro. The hatred reached its peak when Sada Sada revealed that he was responsible for Shouyou's execution and went on to badmouth shouyou in front of Gintoki; Gintoki struggled to stand up in spite of being poisoned by Oboro and tried to kill him. He failed to kill him, and Oboro poisoned him even more, but eventually carried out his revenge when Oboro shot at him with needles but managed to strike Sada Sada by mistake.
Daraku: Gintoki and Katsura charged into a Harusame ship to save Shinpachi and Kagura from Daraku and his Harusame pirates. His fate remains uncertain.
Onijishi: Dakini mercenary. Gintoki fought against Onijishi after the latter killed Oshou Doushin. His fate remains uncertain.
Hitotsubashi Nobu Nobu: Gintoki knows that Chonshu War, Shige Shige's death and Shinsengumi's defunction were caused by him, and Tendoshu. Like Sada Sada was, Gintoki hates him for being a tyrannical ruler, and is not worth his position as a shogun.
Trivia
According to Sorachi, Gintoki's name was based on Sakata Kintoki, also known as Kintaro, from a famous folk tale set in the Heian Period.[4] Kintaro became friends with the animals that lived on the mountain where he was raised, and was even capable of battling with them. After certain events, he became a samurai and eventually went under the name Sakata Kintoki (坂田公時). Sorachi-sensei, in one of the question corners explains this, and doesn't intend on making Gin-san a descendant of Kintaro.
Gintoki likes to order a custom "red beans on rice" dish at his local restaurant.
He might not look like it, but Gintoki was noted by Sorachi as a skilled chef. It was said that he was at the "steel man" level when it comes to cooking [5] (mentioned in episode 92's behind the scenes). He is also a capable baker, being able to bake his own strawberry cake at Shinpachi's house as shown in episode 2.
His design was actually for Hijikata's when Sorachi lost his first design.
It is only during the second part of Episode 97 that Gintoki did not assault Sarutobi Ayame. This maybe due to him been sick and feable, or it could be in the way Sarutobi approached him and slept next to him unchantedly that made him unable to beat to her.
Gintoki bows to the Shinsengumi for the first time in Lesson 406 in order to save Obi Hajime, which caused Sougo to take pictures or record Gintoki on his phone.
Gintoki's nickname Shiroyasha in the Japanese manga meaning White Demon is change to White Knight in the English translation VIZ media.
Even though Gintoki had swore not to kill people, but so far he had tried to kill Tokugawa Sada Sada, Oboro, at the beginning Doromizu Jirochou and tried to get rid without caring if they died to Sakata Kintoki and Kawakami Bansai, as well as killing Okada Nizou, and Housen. He was also seen killing Naraku agents in the Courtesan of a Nation Arc, as well as many Amanto throughout the Benikazura Arc and the Kabukicho Four Devas Arc
Ketsuno Cristel is the only female character to not really know him well and not to attack him at all.
In Episode 111, it was shown that Gintoki has at least 3 pairs of his normal attire (consisting of yukata and his black pants and shirt) when Shinpachi was hanging laundry inside their house.
In Episode 45, Gintoki accidentally revealed his genitals on the national news after forgetting to zip up his pants.
Whenever he loses after he gambles, he is commonly shown wearing pink boxers with strawberry pattern. In episode 111, some of his undergarments were shown hanging including the strawberry-patterned one.
Gintoki's nickname, Shiroyasha literally means "white demon".
Gintoki's dominant hand is his right one.
Apparently, Gintoki can sleep with his eyes open.
His favorite drink is milk / buttermilk strawberry.
In the Yoshiwara Arc, Gintoki stated he dislikes women that are clingy.
In Episode 175, it is revealed that Gintoki (as well as Hijikata) is afraid of dentists eventhough they are old enough to be not afraid of it.
Gintoki and the famous character "Uzumaki Naruto" from the popular manga "Naruto" share the same date of birth.
Lu Lingqi, a character from Dynasty Warriors, seems to be based on Gintoki's Gender Bender form.
Gintoki's voice actor, Sugita Tomokatsu, shares the same voice as Switch from SKET Dance, another Jump Manga Series. He did also the voice of Gintoki when they'd crossover with Gin Tama due to "Time Slot" Argument.
His favourite dessert is parfait.
He can't swim. (As confirmed by Tama in Lesson 472 and hinted at by him using floaties in/avoiding the water throughout the series)
Gintoki's voice actor, Sugita Tomokatsu is same as Hidenori Tabata from Daily Lives of High School Boys,
(To Hijikata, anime only) "You can slash away any number of men, but you can never betray a girl's innocence."
(To Hijikata) "I'm the same way. A long time ago I did something a lot like that. There were two things I wanted to protect. I didn't want to lose either of them. But it ended up where if I didn't throw one of them, I would end up losing both. I tried to protect both, but that was the same throwing both away... Even now, I dream about it... Wondering if there was some better way."
(To Kagura) "Here we don't call someone who could hold a scooter with one hand a girl, we call them mountain gorilla"
(To the loan shark Amanto) "The country? The skies? You can have them! I'm busy enough protecting what's in front of me. I don't know how many times I failed to protect what I wanted. I have nothing left, so at least if something has fallen at my feet I'll pick it up."
(To Terada Tatsugorou grave) "I won't forget this favor, the old lady probably doesn't have much time left. From now on, I'll protect her for you."
(To Katsura) "What's the use of fighting a futile fights? Do you really intend to lose more of your friends for something like that? I'll pass on that, as long as I'm alive I'll live by my own rules. I'll live how I see beautiful and protect those I hold dear."
(To Hasegawa) "So what if the government collapses or the country is ruined! I'm not civic-minded! All I want is to stand tall, and live on until the day I collapse and die!"
(To Katsura) "If you've got enough free time to fantasize about your beautiful death... Why don't you just live your life beautifully to the end?"
(To Shinpachi) "A samurai doesn't need a reason to take action. If something needs saving, all you have to do is grab your sword. Do you love your sister?"
(To Katsura) "All of the sudden I'm feeling this weight again. If I threw it away it might be easier, but somehow I don't feel like it. It would be too boring to keep walking without them."
(To Daraku) "Listen, I don't care what you do around the universe, but this is my sword, and anywhere it reaches is my country!"
(To Daraku) "Bastards who mess with my things, whether it's a general, space pirates or meteorites, I'll crush them!"
(To Hasegawa) "Men don't need to speak the same language, they can communicate with their soul."
(ToSakamoto) "Sorry, but despite how I look, I really love this planet."
(To Sakamoto) "I'll just relax here and cast my fishing line, I'll catch a shooting star or two and release them to the sky."
(To Hijikata) "Whether I go or not I'll die anyway, I have an organ more important than my heart. Although you can't see it, I feel it going through my head down to my feet, and I know it exist within me. It lets me stand on my feet, it lets me walk forward without trembling. If I stop here, I feel like it would break.... My soul will break."
(To Umibouzu ) "Relax. I have no intention on taking that annoying brat back, of course I have no intention on dying here, but I have no intention on letting her die either."
(To Umibouzu ) "I don't really get the little things, but if you have a caring parent what more would you need? I had always wanted a family like yours."
(To Nizou) "Those who can easily kill others are shit-heads who can't even see the pain of others, even if your whole body can see, your soul can't see a thing."
(To Kanshichirou) "Maybe, after you grow a little more and you still remember about me, come and find me again. I'll be glad to do more things with you then."
(To Kanshichirou) "Oh, it's a promise. A samurai never makes a promise he can't keep. Laugh a lot, cry a lot, and hurry grow to become an adult, I'll be waiting"
(To Kondo Isao ) "I told you, Mako-chan is your image mascot. Stupidly and barbaricly protecting the peace of Edo"
(To Katsura) "Zura if you ever change, I'll be the first one to cut you down"
(To Okuni) "You know, in our lives we are not readers but we are writers, the least we could do is change the ending"
(To Marinosuke) "If we're unable to climb down the mountain, then we won't know whether there's another mountain to climb up"
(To Shimura Shinpachi) "We're not here for justice or whatever and not for your sister either, we're here for you"
(To Yagyuu house 1st head along with Shinmura Shinpachi) "The world that surpasses men and women? I could careless idiot! People who let their love ones cry, doesn't matter if it's man or woman, are all scumbags who needs to be punished!"
(To Ryuzan) "Hey dad, she's not in rebellious phase, it's time to let your little girl grow up, you can't keep taking baths with her forever you know!"
(To Tama) "The ability to feel pain, is important for a living thing. We all live our lifes in troublesome meachine in one way or another, sometimes they leak oil. When that happens let it all out, if it doesn't stop then we'll help you clean it"
(To Bansai) "Then and now, what I protect has never changed."
(To Bansai) "I'll give you a limb or two. However, no matter how many you cut... this string... this rotten bond... If you think you can cut it, then just try!"
(To Kyoujirou) "Stop trying to act cool! If you really think the old man as your farther, live on! I don't care if you could only take is a single flower but visit his grave and live on!"
(To Katsura) "Compared to being young and beautiful, it's a much harder task to live and walk honestly even with a crooked back, when raising our souls beautifully is far more meaningful"
(To Otohime) "Why did you wait for him for hundreds and thousand of years, why among the hundreds and thousand words you've heard, only his words that you couldn't forget? Isn't because he looked through your soul when he said it? didn't you fall in love with that man's soul? So what if you're covered in wrinkles and your back is bent? whether you wear dentures or you're covered with age spots or you've gone senile, LIVE! Live on and greet him with that wrinkled face of yours"
(To Shinpachi) "I'm not interested on keeping anyone around who isn't willing to share, even if he's an animal."
(To Sadaharu) "The Sakata family will always share when times are tough, with food and also pain."
(To Tsuu's Father) "The best way to live a full life is to be a child, no matter what your age."
(To Tama) "I didn't forget it.... I couldn't if I tried. Because the colors of all you idiots are mixed into it."
(To Shachi) "You may be a powerless prisoner locked in a cell, but no man can put a lock on you or anyone else's dream. Release from this cold cell your dream."
(To criminal pigs) "If it’s a shinigami you want, there’s one right here, you buncha criminal pigs."
Even if you need to use that sword as a cane, move forward!"
( To Kurokono Tasuke) " A shadow won't appear on the ground unless there's at least a little bit of light . If just one person remembered, you won't get any punishment. So, if something happens, come and help us again. Kurokono."
(To Takasugi Shinsuke) "While you've abandoned a hundred, I've connected with a thousand. While you've destroyed a thousand, I've been saved by ten thousand. So what's an army of a few thousand? We have protected everything as just three people. We're the Yorozuya."
(To Takasugi Shinsuke) "Even if I......have to use my master's corpse as a stepping stone, Taksugi, even if I have to use your corpse as a stepping stone, I will protect the soul of his diciple, our comrade, Takasugi Shinsuke of Shouka Sonjuku. I am the disciple of Yoshida Shouyou, Sakata Gintoki."
(To Jiraia) "You still don't understand? Some of the things you sacrificed were too important. You abandoned your comrades? No. You were afraid of losing your comrades. You fought alone? No! You wouldn't have to feel the pain of solitude if you'd been alone to begin with. You abandoned your sense of self? No. You were running away from the pain you caused and the pain you endured. You're just a coward!"
(To Jiraia) "You don't have the right to call yourself her master! You don't have the strength to shoulder a student and their pain!"
Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya
(To Shimura Tae) " Your future.. Our future.. This world's future.. We'll change it for the better."
(To Enmi) " No matter how it is, I'll bear the burdens I've earned. And I'll take as many crappy curses as many times it takes."
(To Enmi) " Can't save anything? No. Even a dirty sword like me, can still protect something!"
(To Yorozuya) " I know we'll meet again. No matter when or where, I'll be in Kabuki-chou, working under the Yorozuya sign.. Its a promise."
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