"Once a Samurai decides to protect something, he protects it to the very end!"
Shinpachi Shimura
Shimura Shinpachi is a member of the Yorozuya, a samurai in training, and one of the three main protagonists of Gintama. He is one of the more normal characters of the series, delivering the requisite reality-checks or punchlines against other characters farcical antics.
Other than working at the Yorozuya, Shinpachi is also the leader of Terakado Tsuu's fanclub: Terakado Tsuu's Imperial Guards, and is very serious about it.
Shimura Shinpachi grew up with his sister Shimura Tae and his father in their family dojou Koudoukan.
Their father died when they were young, leaving them to take care of the dojou and the debt to the Loan Shark Amanto.[1]
At his local temple school, Shinpachi befriended Takachin.
When Takachin was bullied by other children, Shinpachi tried to help but ended getting beaten up as well until Otae saved them. They were close friends until Takachin accidently soiled himself while Shinpachi pretended to be sleeping to avoid helping Takachin.
Shinpachi would later become acquainted with Yagyuu Kyuubei due to his sister's friendship with her. When the debt collectors tried to harm Tae and her brother, Shinpachi was knocked out by the time Kyuubei came to help them, although it cost her her left eye.
Shinpachi mentioned that he ate his sister's cooking when he was younger, which made his eyesight go bad and resulted in his need to wear glasses.
While working at a café and being beaten by the manager behind the shop, Shinpachi encountered Terakado Tsuu during one of her street performances. Although he didn't understood her song, he was emotionally moved. After gaining encouragement and motivation from this encounter, Shinpachi would create the Terakado Tsuu fanclub: Terakado Tsuu's Imperial Guards.
Appearance
Shinpachi has black hair and brown eyes. He wears a light blue keikogi with blue linings and a blue hakama. Bespectacled, many other characters have pointed out that Shinpachi's glasses are his charm point. Sakata Gintoki even went as far as to say that Shinpachi's glasses make out 95% of him and that they are more Shinpachi than Shinpachi himself, with the rest being 3% water and 2% garbage. [2]
Throughout the series he is seen wearing various disguises and has been shown in different styles for gags.
Shinpachi is best known for his trash talking when the people (especially Gintoki or Kagura) say or do idiotic things (which is very often). He is frequently teased by Sakata Gintoki, his supposed employer, and later on by Yagyuu Kyuubei for having a 'sister-complex' because of his attachment towards his sister. Since he doesn't have as much physical strength as Kagura, he is often bullied by her, who often tends to literally give him a thrashing. He takes charge of all the household chores in the Yorozuya due to his 'inclination to care for other people (as he explained during the Goukon in Episode 88). He also likes to save leftovers, bringing Tupperware to store the food and is called 'domestic' because of it.
All of the above points, combined with his plain bespectacled look has made him the archetypical downtrodden nerdy character. Shinpachi is also a rabid fan of fictional pop-idol Terakado Tsuu, and often gets so moved by her songs that he starts crying listening to them. He is the strict leader of the Terakado Tsuu's Imperial Guards,a fan club with deep admiration and devotion to her, and has made 99 regulations that he makes sure the members loyally follow. Whenever someone breaks one of the rules and regulations of the fanclub, he personally issues their punishment with a flying nose-hook. Most of the time, the Sergeant is on the receiving end. Shinpachi himself has been shown to break some of the regulations that he punishes others for doing the same.
Shinpachi also likes to sing, and has been seen singing karaoke-versions of various songs by Tsuu, but is completely tone-deaf.[3]
Strength & Abilities
He has limited dojo training, but inherited a dojo together with his older sister Shimura Tae called Koudoukan (恒道館), specialising in the Tendoumushin sword-fighting style (天堂無心流, Tendou Mushin Ryuu).
Although Shinpachi's fighting abilities are not as powerful as that of his two friends (Kagura with her monstrous Yato strength and Gintoki with his sword mastery), and is joked that his combat ability was merely 1Kelp above normal human; in truth he is still stronger than average swordsmen and can fight alongside with others in battles without being only a burden to them. He grew a lot stronger over the years and also finally gained actual combat experience, which he lacked according to Takechi Henpeita. Sorachi himself had stated that Shinpachi is pretty skilled, the reason for not being obvious is because he is always surrounded by "monsters" and is often not the main fighter in the group.
He has been shown to be able to fight with not only his sword, but using hand-to-hand combat in a boxing match, and also using his intelligence; as seen when he was able to knock back Kyuubei and beat her grandfather, winning the game against the Yagyuu clan[4], when he figured out a way to get past Tosshi's human wall[5], and when he fought with Tosshi in a boxing match[6].
In episode 213, he defeated Chin Pirako who was a feared and extremely skilled swordsman herself, in two blows, proving how strong he became. He also defeated Obi Hajime in a deathmatch, causing Hajime to admit that Shinpachi has become a strong warrior.
In addition to his skill with the sword, he has also been seen using the powerful nose hook technique that is used by several characters in the series, and possibly even invented it.
His combat ability drastically changes depending on whether or not he is wearing his glasses, as he has a very poor eyesight. Just like Sa-chan, his poor eyesight makes it impossible for him to fight against decent combatants.
Relationships
Family
Shimura Tae: Shinpachi's older sister. They care about each other very much to the point that Gintoki says Shinpachi has a sister complex.
Shimura Ken: Shinpachi's father. When they were young Shinpachi & her older sister Shimura Tae always gets punished by their father for fooling around.
Mentor
Obi Hajime: He was the former chief coach of the Koudoukan. He was like an older brother to Shinpachi and Otae. He went missing before Shinpachi met Gintoki travelling around the Galaxy.
Friends and Allies
Sakata Gintoki: Shinpachi follows Gintoki with admiration for him in order to learn the way of the samurai, which leads him to work in Yorozuya. He quite regrets following him because of Gintoki's irresponsibility for everything, but at the same time they started to have adventures which leads Shinpachi to start considering him as mentor and brother. He even got mad at Gintoki when he didn't consider him as a brother when Gintoki told Umibouzu about not having a family. Gintoki is the only person he would listen to whenever he refuses to listen to his sister. During the Guardian Dog Arc, he said to Nakamura Kyoujirou that he considered Gintoki as a family.
Kagura: Kagura is like a sister to Shinpachi even when she beats him or offends him. However they both care for eachother very deeply as comrades as even though they have their differences they would always help eachother when they need it and they have the common care and respect for Gintoki.
Yagyuu Kyuubei: Shinpachi and Kyuubei are friends due to the fact that the latter is friends with Otae.
Kondou Isao: Shinpachi views him as a annoying stalker and most of the times he would prefer having Gintoki as a brother-in-law rather than Kondou. He the least person Shinpachi would pay attention to.
Katsura Kotarou: They are very respectful to each other, but at times Shinpachi wonders about Katsura's lack of common sense.
Taka-Chin: Taka-chin is Shinpachi's childhood friend from temple school. They managed to reconcile after Shinpachi saved him from his old biker gang.
Yamazaki Sagaru: They both basically share the same personality and are both considered plain by their companions. They are often opponents when the Yorozuya goes against the Shinsengumi.
Unlike most of other people who become his torturing victims, Sougo had a respect for him like most of other Shinsengumi, as shown during pen pal arc.
Takechi Henpeita: Shinpachi once fought Henpeita during the Benizakura Arc to clear Katsura a path. They've become allies during the Choshu War in order to protect Shige Shige, but this was a set up by Tendoshu and Nobu Nobu.
Abuto: When Kagura was overwhelmed by Abuto during their battle, Shinpachi tried to help Kagura but was easily defeated. Later, he and Kagura were saved by Abuto from falling.They later became allies in the near end of Shogun Assassination arc.
Love Interest
Otsu: Otsu was girl meet on the streets performing that he met during the times he was looking for a job before meeting with Gintoki. He started to like her songs as far to create a fan club for her.
Kirara: They became penpals after Shinpachi found her message in a bottle near the beach.
Pandemonium: Pandemonium larvae are snacks for Shikigami. Shinpachi fell in love with one of the crotesque creatures after their lips accidentally met. He sees only a beautiful face of a lady on the disgusting larva. Pandemonium was chomped by a Shirino Clan's Shikigami. Pandemonium was later seen in Satan Festival where Shinpachi once again fell in love with the larva. This time Pandemonium was crushed by Gedoumaru who was irritated by Shinpachi's idiotic behavior.
Anigasaki Momo: A game character from Love Choris, Shinpachi chose her due to his taste of older sister type.
Enemies
Eromes: Eromes tricked Shinpachi into thinking she is interested in him to steal his wallet.
Hitotsubashi Nobu Nobu: After what the tyrant did to Shinpachi's sister while she opposed against the tyrant's regime for killing an innocent people heartlessly since the day after he sold his humanity to Tendoshu, the assassination attempt on Shige Shige, Shinsengumi being disbanded and at the same time Kondo and Matsudaira are about to be executed five days later, Shinpachi becomes more enraged and wished the tyrant was dead as hell like Shige Shige's evil late-uncle, Sada Sada was.
Story
Shinpachi would soon start working at the register in a café, but only having known the way of the sword, he made alot of mistakes. Some Amanto who were there as customers, tripped him over so he spilt Sakata Gintoki's chocolate parfait. Enraged by this, Gintoki attacked the Amanto and fled the scene, leaving his wooden sword and the blame with Shinpachi. Shinpachi followed him and they would soon encounter Tae, who brought them back to the dojou. Debt collectors then came along and took Tae with them so she could start working in an illegal flying nightclub. However, after a series of events, the nightclub crashed into the ocean, Tae was rescued by Shinpachi with help from Gintoki and the debt collectors went to jail, as stated by Gintoki in episode 3. This led Tae to give her "permission" for Shinpachi to join the Yorozuya, after which he would become a regular member, share many exploits and do various jobs with Sakata Gintoki and Kagura.
Harusame Arc
On this arc, Shinpachi with Kagura and Gintoki is trying to search for a missing person. In the club where they suspect the missing person frequently come. While Gintoki was in the bathroom because of his hangover Kagura asked Shinpachi if they could just fool the client by bringing in a stranger, but the stranger passed out and was suspected for the drug "Tensei Kyou"
A group of pirates from the Harusame, suspects Shinpachi and Kagura from the Joi Faction because of their suspicious act and they were captured.
In the boat they were forced to wake up and talk where the Joi faction HQ or Kagura will be killed byDaraku, even though Shinpachi doesn't know anything. Kagura doesn't want to trouble him so she kicked Daraku and let herself fall but was saved by Gintoki.
Gintoki then piggyback ride them home.
Gengai Arc
Otose calls the Yorozuya to help the neighbours stop a noisy inventor, Gengai. So the Yorozuya prepared a mic and speaker for Shinpachi to sing in a louder volume enough for Gengai to come out scolding for being noisy. After a while one of the man's robots comes out and they soon manage to get inside his garage. They move Gengai's invention to a place that wouldn't disturb the neighbors. But then Gengai needs to fix the robots all over again to prepare them for the Amanto festival, so when he asks the Yorozuya to help, they run away instead but ended up helping him anyway.
At the festival, Kagura and Shinpachi became somewhat attached to robot Saburo until he was called out by Gengai. Shinpachi and Kagura continued to enjoy the festival and meet Hasegawa and Okita Sougo along the way.
When Gengai tried to attack the Shogun and the Shinsengumi, Shinpachi faced and tried to convince him to stop before Gin came to the scene and finally stopped him.
Rengokukan Arc
Okita Sougo offered to Yorozuya a job which involved them tracking down the champion of Rengokukan, Kidoumaru. They later found out that Kidoumaru raised dozens of orphaned children and in the end tried to aid them to escape from the wrath of Tendoshu. Kidoumaru was killed by the new Rengokukan champion, Onijishi, as he was escaping with the children. Later on, the children asked Yorozuya to avenge their sensei's murder as they offer to give away their toys as payment. After Gintoki finishes his speech to Hijikata ignoring his warning of not to interfere, he decides to join him along with Kagura. When Gin finishes off Onijishi in their revenge mask, he enters the arena with Kagura to fight the Rengokukan forces. The Shinsengumi then also shows up to arrest the Rengokukan owners even though their interference would have cost them their heads.
Memory Loss Arc
Kagura and Shinpachi drag an anmesia-stricken Gintoki around town. Kagura and Shinpachi tried to restore his memory, almost succeeding few times, but always returning back to start by outside interference. They met with various characters like Otose, Catherine, Katsura, Sachan, Otae and Kondo. When their place becomes a crash landing pad for Sakamoto Tatsuma's spaceship, Gintoki encourages them to live on without him and disbanded the Yorozuya. Despite their attempts to reason him, Gin leaves them behind.
Shinpachi goes to the Yorozuya building and whatever has remained. He finds Kagura there waiting until Gin comes home. He feels that Gintoki's memory tree has withered and their existance is like a small branch of the tree, not being able to rustle Gintoki's memories. But Kagura believes even if she is just one branch in his memory tree, so she'll still cling and believe in him. After that Shinpachi joins her and wait together for Gin's return.
With a tip from Otose, they learn of a "silver-haired worker" in the Justaway factory. Kagura and Shipachi arrive just in time to protect Gintoki from harm along with the Shinsengumi, only to trigger his memories. After Gin destroyed the cannon that was threatening Edo, Gin walked away telling Shinpachi and Kagura that "We are going home".
Train Samurai Arc
The Tsu Terakado Fan Club is on a train discussing about a new pop idol with cat-ears that has overthrown Otsu in the Edocon sales ranking. The Sergeant of the Fan Club comments on how cat-ears are the factor that make the new pop idol better than Otsu, which infuriates Shinpachi. In the meantime, next to them a drunken Matsudaira is harassing a cat-eared Amanto girl. Shinpachi throws the Sergeant and accidentally knocks out Matsudaira, helping the girl unwillingly. The girl thanks Shinpachi and wants to show her appriciation to him in the future.
For the next days, Shinpachi is dazing off unable to take that girl out of his mind. He goes to the Yorozuya and finds out that Kagura and Gintoki have opened a box mailed to him, eating the cake and reading the letter it contained. Shinpachi grabs the letters and learns that it's from Eromesu, the girl he saved at the train. She wants to meet with him to show her gratitude towards her hero. Shinpachi gets all nervous because he has a date, but he wants to stay loyal to Otsu as the President of her fan club. As he can't find anyone to ask advice, he goes to an Internet shop and asks question on a Samurai Chat. Several characters of the show with humorous nicknames respond to him like Katsura, Hasegawa, Kondo and Sachan. This results in a hilarious exchange of messages through the net, which leads Shinpachi to go to the date prepared for anything that will come.
He goes to the meeting place in order to meet that girl. During the date, Eromesu displays a huge level of cuteness, which makes Shinpachi even more shaky than usual. After taking a walk, Eromesu proposes to Shinpachi that they go at her home because she is tired, taking advantage of the fact that her parents are missing. Eromesu takes a bath, while Shinpachi is worrying about moving on too quickly, having also fears that "the show will get cut off, if they show such stuff in a shounen anime". As soon as Eromesu finishes her bath and encourages Shinpachi to take a bath and that she will be waiting at the bed, he forgets about his doubts and decides that he will become a man this day no matter the consequences to the show.
Shinpachi takes a bath and heads to bed to meet Eromesu and become a man. Meanwhile, outside of her house, Gintoki, Kagura and Otae continue to stalk the pair, when they suddenly see Eromesu leaving the house with a laugh on her face. Shinpachi finds his clothes along with a card from her saying that he stole his heart and his wallet. The same thing has happened with Matsudaira before while they were on the train. Shinpachi is furious about that. As Eromesu is attacked by Gin, Kagura and Otae, who have been stalking him during his date, a huge sign is about to fall on Eromesu. Shinpachi comes in and protects her at the last moment. He forgives her and says that he doesn't have any hard feeling towards her, but at the last moment he draws his sword and knocks her out, telling that what he said was a lie. Shinpachi says that he has become stronger after this incident and he will be more loyal from now and on having Otsu in mind.
Umibozu Arc
Go-Ninja Arc
Inugami Arc
Infant Strife Arc
Benizakura Arc
Mother Arc
Yagyuu Arc
Shinpachi is on his way of saving his sister Shimura Tae from the forced marriage with the help of his friends Sakata Gintoki and Kagura and the Shinsengumi Kondou Isao, Hijikata Toushirou and Okita Sougo.
The Yorozuya is on a job of fixing a roof and Shinpachi cannot concentrate after noticing his sister's odd and gloomy behavior wondering if there is man causing her actions. At first, he suspected Kondou Isao who, on the same place, is having an arranged marriage to the Orangutan Planet princess, Bubbles who is a 100% pure gorilla. After receiving their payment, Shinpachi caught a glance at Otae and Kyuubei kissing. Enraged, Shinpachi attacked Kyuubei but he got taken down easily. It shocked him when his sister suddenly decided to keep her promise to Kyuubei and bid goodbye to everyone while tears flowing from her eyes.
Shinpachi cannot accept Otae's rash actions and decided to come to the Yagyuu household together with Kondou to challenge Kyuubei and bring his sister home with the reason of taking back the student of the Kodoukan Dojo. They are then followed by Hijikata, Okita, Gintoki and Kagura acting as students and as they run amok, Kyuubei showed herself and decided to make a game where each member of the parties need to put a plate somewhere on their body and with rules whoever has a broken plate is out of the game and if the leader's plate broke, that concludes the match.
After choosing Shinpachi as the leader and doing random acts together, the students went separate ways. After the battle betweek Kagura, Sougo and Nishino Tsukami, Shinpachi and Kondou were surprised to see Sougo defeated knowing he is an elite fighter. As Shinpachi gets closer to him, he noticed a phone at the side and checked on it hoping to find some kind of evidence pointing the responsible. As he opens the phone, he has seen an image of Kagura grinning while stepping on Okita and Nishimaru. As Kondou rants for the person responsible, Shinpachi calmly stands and ferociously stomped on the phone until it shattered into pieces. He faced Kondou with a tensed look pretending he is mad as well and is seeking for revenge. When Kondou noticed him sweating a lot, he acts mad and blamed the room for being hot and not having an air conditioner. He passed through several rooms until he and Kondou reached the room where Hijikata and Kitaooji Itsuki are having meal at the same table. Right after finishing the meal, Shinpachi and Kondou watched the two as they clashed swords through the end in which Hijikata won. After that, the three of them headed to a toilet. As they wait outside, Shinpachi is starting to get worry over Hijikata seeing he lit a firework and thought of it as a cigarette. As soon as they see Kyuubei and Toujou Ayumu coming, they ran, leaving Kondou who is stucked in one of the stall because of the toilet paper rack being empty. Hijikata on the other hand, let Shinpachi escaped after Kyuubei spotted them.
While the others finished their own battles, Shinpachi made his way to Otae and ran together, not listening to everything she is saying as she tried to resist but Otae kept being stubborn forcing Shinpachi to slap her only to be punched back. Shinpachi later found out Kyuubei's real gender as well as the reason why Otae wished to stay even if she wants to be with everyone–it is because she felt responsible for losing Kyuubei's left eye when she saved them against the debt collectors. Shinpachi attacked Kyuubei unaccepting the idea Otae marrying another girl despite knowing it and later on teamed up with Gintoki who is fighting Yagyuu Binbokusai. Shinpachi and Gintoki were in disadvantage as Kyuubei and Binbokusai ganged up on them. Kyuubei talked on how Shinpachi is weak and always needed to be protected, keeping Otae from making fake smiles when Gintoki protected him after he got knocked down but Gintoki defended Shinpachi telling them they don't have the right to talk against him for they don't know anything about him. As soon as he got his glasses back, he was able to throw Kyuubei out, destroy Binbokusai's dish and won the match.
Later on, they all attended Kondou and Princess Bubbles' wedding. As Kondou asks for back up, Shinpachi ignored him and keep putting bananas in a container to take home. Otae arrived in a dramatic entrance as she speared Kondou on the wall and ran with a wide smile on her face along with Shinpachi and the others.
Hardboiled Detective Arc
Fuyo Arc
Owee Arc
A brand new game console is hitting the streets of Edo— The Owee! The Yorozuya and Shinsengumi compete against each other for the Owee. Katsura v.s. Kondo in dating sims and Yamazaki vs Shinpachi in Tetris. The final match is a tag team battle in a role-playing game simulator.
Shinpachi together with Gintoki and Kagura tried different ways to get ahead of the line.
Hasegawa Prosecution Arc
Shinsengumi Crisis Arc
Ryugujo Arc
Guardian Dog Arc
Monkey Hunter Arc
Ghost Ryokan Arc
Correspondence Arc
Shinpachi found a message in a bottle a shore and he is in trouble of giving a proper reply.
Shimura Tae seeks help to Sakata Gintoki after noticing her brother's odd behavior like locking himself in his room and seeing a lot of crumpled white papers everywhere.
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Kintaro Arc
Yoshiwara in Flames Arc
Yorozuya Barbers Arc
Otsu Arc
Shinpachi is on a quest of being an official Terakado Tsu Fan Club but an unexpected enemy appeares before him—the Tsusengumi led by Tosshi.
Tama Quest Arc
Red Spider Arc
The Yorozuya visited the Yoshiwara for a job request from Hinowa. While Tsukuyo and Sakata Gintoki head to the hideout of the Benigumoto (Red Spiders), Shinpachi along with Kagura gathers information about the person responsible for spreading illegal drugs in Yoshiwara. They found out that the mastermind's identity is unknown, having many faces and names yet he was able to destroy the other leading drug syndicates through his webs in an instant.
Shinpachi and Kagura stayed at Hinoya together with Hinowa and Seita as they wait for Gintoki and Tsukuyo. Hinowa is happy and thankful for them seeing how Tsukuyo can relax, can act as an ordinary girl when with them and can act stupidly in which Shinpachi wonders if it is a compliment or an insult. Hinowa also told them Tsukuyo's past revealing the reason behind Tsukuyo's resolve on giving up her womanhood and keeping the burdens alone, not relying on others.
After Gintoki was defeated by Jiraia, Hattori Zenzou saved him and brought him in Yoshiwara. Shinpachi is seen calling for him, together with Kagura and Seita. When a fire spreads on Yoshiwara, Gintoki ordered Shinpachi and Kagura to exterminate the fire. Doing so, they cut every threads causing the fire with the task of keeping the title 'Savior of Yoshiwara'.
When the town is on recovery, they visited Yoshiwara again especially Tsukuyo who had injuries both physically and emotionally. They later found out that Tsukuyo is just faking her rest and continuously patrolling around Yoshiwara. Shinpachi accidentally spilled the idea of keeping Tsukuyo working while having fun in which they framed Gintoki for a free drinks but instead spending time with Tsukuyo who acts as a courtesan under Hinowa's request.
Shinpachi is one of the victims of Tsukuyo after getting drunk and one of the persons who waved at her after thanking for meeting them all.
Character Poll Arc
Rokkaku Arc
Kabukicho Stray Cat Arc
Diviner Arc
Santa Arc
Kabukicho Four Devas Arc
Jugem Arc
Glasses Arc
Timeskip Arc
Scandal Arc
Vacation Arc
Love Choriss Arc
Shinpachi gets addicted to a dating sim game called Love Chroiss, his character is Anigasaki Momo which he choose due to his taste of older sister type. Shinpachi later introduce her to his sister Shimura Tae.
Renho Arc
Host Club Arc
Kintama Arc
Courtesan of a Nation Arc
Beam Sword Style Arc
An old friend of Shinpachi returns to help her sister in her dojo.
Freeze Time Arc
Shinpachi and Kagura are walking on the streets while the other; living or non-living have been frozen.
Confessional Arc
Kagura's Boyfriend Arc
Excalibur Arc
Homeless Arc
Dekobokko Arc
HDZ48 Arc
Patriot Reunion Party Arc
The Joui Patriots, Sakata Gintoki, Katsura Kotarou, Sakamoto Tatsuma are having a reunion organized by an old friend they cannot remember—Kurokono Tasuke.
Shinpachi never made any appearance in this arc.
Feigned Illness Arc
Grim Reaper Arc
Soul Switch Arc
Kaientai Arc
Afro Arc
Love Potion Arc
Shogun Assassination Arc
Farewell, Shinsengumi Arc
Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yoruzuya
The second Gintama movie shows a grown-up, 21 years old Shinpachi. He is now a better swordsman, his hair grows a bit, is more serious, and he wears a black outfit(in reference to Gintoki's black shirt and pants). 5 years after Ginoki's disappearance, Shinpachi aims to protect what was left of Edo(without Kagura), and continues to follow in Gintoki's footsteps. Now he has abandoned his interest in Otsu , forgotten the need of friends, and throws away his straight man attitude(though at times, Shinpachi almost reverted to this irritated behavior).
Trivia
When the characters of Gintama were being made, Shinpachi was originally going to be a part of the Shinsengumi as Nagakura Shinpachi (永倉新八), who was the captain of the Shinsengumi's second unit. Instead, he was given glasses and became the one to throw the punch lines, receiving his last name from Shimura Ken (志村けん), a Japanese comedian.
Whenever Makoto, the 'Centaur' character/mascot played by Gintoki with Kagura as a corpse makes an appearance, Shinpachi is the hind quarters of the horse (for example Episode 124).
The name of his okama counterpart and his genderbend version is Pachie.
The name of his magical girl counterpart in his own version of the Gintama ending is Magical Yun Yun Pachina.
In Episode 106 of the Gintama anime he was portrayed as a horse with eye-glasses while the others were shown as warriors on horses.
Shinpachi's name contains "Hachi" which means 8, which also means infinite or glasses (he wore glasses). He also placed on 8th rank in 3 Gintama character polls.
Shinpachi is similar to Gintoki that they both are in love with their idols and got upset when their idols were engaged.
In the popularity poll result, Shinpachi has been placed 8th place 3 times in a row.
In Episode 241, it's said that Shinpachi looks similar to Sakaguchi Daisuke, who plays the character itself.
Shinpachi has the same voice actor as Teppei Sugihara in Sket Dance.
Quotes
(To Shimura Tae) "You're so unfair, Sis... Smiling brightly every single day, but you never show your true feelings in the slighest. Even if you're hurt or want to cry, you're forcing yourself to smile. Always without saying anything to anyone. You bear the burden alone, you decide alone and you end up smiling alone! Please stop forcing yourself! If you're hurt, then tell us! I won't let you say you're alone! Because we all... Because we saw your crying face... We all gathered here for that one reason alone! Those guys would rather die than say it was for your sake! But you know, when you cry... there are others that share your pain! Please remember that!
(To Shimura Tae) "Sister... Sister... Sister! It doesn't matter if two years have passed! I can go anywhere as long as I'm with you!"
(To loan shark amanto) "I don't care about the dojo. I love the dojo where my sister laughed, if it only makes her cry, then I don't need that kind of dojo!"
(To Daraku) "This is the Samurai Country, you guys get the hell out of here!"
(To Takachin) "Taka-Chin I'll always be with you, I hated my own weakness so I always want to be stronger, that's why..."
(To Sakata Gintoki about Terakado Tsuu) "Anything is fine, if I'm able to, I want to repay her from that time."
(To Goemon) "Do you still call yourself human? You're mother is a XX!!!"
( To Terakado Tsuu) "Scandal or not, we'll never stop being your fans."
(To Banzou along with Kagura) "If you want to shoot then go ahead and shoot, whether Edo burns or what ever that has nothing to do with me! But if you shoot this person, it'll be a problem."
(To Sakata Gintoki along with Kagura) "Without you saying, we're already living how we wanted to. We're here because we wanted to. We're with you because we wanted to!"
(To Sakata Gintoki and Kagura) "If you want to say that i am a SinCon that's fine. I love my sister, i don't want to leave her, i want to stay with her always but...if she's going to leave with a man she truly loves, whether that man's lazy and always late playing his rent, or a gorrilla stalker, a crazy mayo addict, a sadistic freak, madao, or a guy with hemorrhoids, as long as she's happy that's okay."
(To Sakata Gintoki and Kagura)"If i have to see my sister cry like that, i can't just do nothing. I just want to see her smiling always, i guess that's sibling for you"
(To Yagyuu Kyuubei along with Sakata Gintoki) "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 Sakata Gintoki) "Just so you know, I'll always be at Yoruzuya, so you can think of me as a family."
(To Tama) "Living without protecting what needs to be protected, is the same as death to a samurai."
(To Tama) "Once you decide to protect something, you protect it to the very end, THAT'S A SAMURAI!"
(To Tama) "A samurai's position is higher than a hero or a demon lord! Also, they're weak against a woman's tears."
(To Sakata Gintoki) "Aren't you supposed to be Sakata Gintoki? The man who's let so much slip away, who's failed to protect so much...but swore that he would never run away from his responsibilities! Didn't you promise her husband? Once you've decided to protect something, you'll protect it to the very end! Isn't that what makes you Sakata Gintoki?! So what if Otose-san's life was in danger? This isn't enough to kill Otose-san off! Isn't enough to kill us off! Isn't enough to kill you off! Because you're going to protect us! Because we're going to protect you! Isn't that what Yorozuya is about? Isn't that how the three of us protected so much over the years?
Movie
(To Gintoki) " If you're in this planet for tourism, you're either have real guts or a complete moron. If you don't want to die, go home. Country bumpkin or thug, I'm not letting anyone else make things worse in this town. But if you people think that wearing a mask can protect you from the white plague, maybe you are the dumb ones."
(To Kagura) " Talking about it won't change what happened. No matter how much we want it back, those days are long gone. The job he left behind.. I'm going to finish it. I'm going to stop the white plague!"
(To Gintoki) " This is the world where we met him. I don't want to abandon the Yorozuya's home world or the fact that I worked here."
(To Shimura Tae) " Yes, Aneue. It Gin-san, he's back."
(To Gintoki) " Are you goofing off the first thing in the morning? You haven't forgotten the promise you made with my sister and us have you?"
(To Gintoki) " We kept them this whole time. As worthless as it might be, it was the last memory we had of him. We thought that one day, we'd have the complete set again. But now.. But now..! Why are you leaving again?! And we finally got to see you again! You're going to leave us, leave everyone behind and run off somewhere?! Gin-san!"
(To Gintoki along with Kagura) " You created a peaceful future, and we're going to wreck it. You gave your life to protect our future, but we chose... To bring you back to that future!"
