Tsukxyo - Gintama And Gintsu Brainrot

no dejo de llorar desde ayer a las 3 am porque asesinaron a gojo :(

happy pocky kunai day Gintoki,

Five Moments I Totally Missed In the Love Potion Arc Until This Year

A lot of discourse has been mentioned about this controversial arc since 2014, but to my surprise, there was actually a lot that I didn't quite catch due to the subtlety of Sorachi's writing.

I mean, we all knew that Sakata "I Desperately Need Therapy" Gintoki had a lot of layers and hypocrisy to his character, but I'm always impressed when I can still cut through moments of ambiguity/stupidity and find a consistent reasoning to his actions.

And yeah, sometimes that's also applicable to the way he acts towards Tsukuyo. I love of course the general crowd of nay-sayers who keep crowing that he has no feelings for her, but it actually still doesn't negate the fact that our 5'4" Gorilla Overlord somehow wrote a pairing where the name happens to be "Silver Moon". That's cheesy, and horribly coincidental. But hey, I respect the dedication to an aesthetic.

Moment Number One: "Get Your Hands (And Eyes) Off My Woman" Obviously, we love this line. Sorachi "Actual Madlad" Hideaki decided to ruin thousands of lines by upgrading the iconic Red Spider arc line "Get your hands off that woman" to "Get your hands off MY woman". WE GET IT GINTOKI, SHE'S YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. STOP IT ALREADY.

Bro, you're not even dating this woman. Fuckin' chill. All the Gintoki simps in this fandom should really be wishing they were Tsukuyo in this moment, tbh.

Anyways the next page is classic trolling... OR IS IT????

Eight years after this arc was serialized, this panel still manages to make me wheeze. Absolute comedic gold. Tsukuyo calls him an asshole for the disgusting way Gintoki is objectifying women, because he's an animal.

BUT.

HE'S STILL BEATING UP ALL THE MEN WHO LOOKED AT HER!!!

WHY?!?

Oh, I'll tell you why.

BECAUSE HE'S A POSSESSIVE ASSHOLE. By all accounts, he should be understanding that it's not the men's fault - they're under the influence of the incense, just like he is! Even Tsukuyo tells him:

But he still beat them up because they're looking at HIS WOMAN. He's being EXTRA, and he KNOWS it, but he's doing it ANYWAY!

Bastard. And why are you still calling her honey lmao

Since most readers focus on the outrageous garbage coming out of Gintoki's mouth, it's easy to miss that Gintoki is still acting like a possessive weirdo. Tsukki can 100% take care of herself, and he definitely knows that, but in his stupid kind of chivalry, he still wants to make it clear to everyone that it's not OK to look at Tsukki in a way that is more than just innocent admiration.

Moment Number Two: Pretending to be a fuckboy to make Honey's job easier

The love incense, obviously, made things difficult for Tsukuyo. And not in a "holy shit, I saw my crush's dick and it's making it hard for us to have a professional working relationship" but in a "people are under an influence where bad shit could happen left and right".

Sakata "My Silver Perm Ruins All My Chances With Women and Not The Fact That I'm Emotionally Avoidant to All Forms of Romantic Intimacy" Gintoki goes to TOWN with his new found powers, of course.

Tsukuyo, is of course fuming at his (perceived stupidity). She's assuming that he wants to sleep with these women who's fallen under his artificial charm due to the incense, and let's be freakin' real here! Man himself said, "My etiquette is to seduce them equally as just holes" which is a disgusting thing to say in pretty much any context.

BUT, as with Gintoki's actions, there is USUALLY A MOTIVATION behind his words. If he's consistent about one thing, it's that he always pretends to not care, but then near the end of an arc you find that he always did care.

In this case, he used his new honey-getting powers because he wanted to group all the women into one place.

Proof:

What's amazing is that he's still calling her honey. Yeah, Mr. Darling is here to help is honey out!!!!!!!!!

Moment Number Three: I skipped ALL the steps and went straight to a marriage proposal

I MEAN, IGNORING THAT HUGE BOMBSHELL WHERE HE'S LIKE, YEAH ACTUALLY I WANT TO BE YOURS IN A SPECIAL, EXCLUSIVE, PUFF-PUFF ACTION WAY, there's also the fact that uh...

HE WANTS HER TO BE FREE???

Historically speaking, when a courtesan's contract in Yoshiwara was "freed", a patron would have to pay a huge sum of money so that she wouldn't have to work there anymore, and generally that was done with the intent to marry her.

Besides the fact that he doesn't have actual money to do this, he's also actually NOT DATING THIS WOMAN IN ANY CAPACITY, so it's fucking ridiculous for him to say this kind of bullshit.

BUT at the same time...

I think it's really sweet that he's sort of thought of her as his wife subconsciously. Damn, Gintoki, make it happen already lmao.

BONUS PANEL OF HIM THINKING OF HER AS HIS SOULMATE:

Many people have already pointed this out, but there is a pun in Japanese with the word "iku". It can mean, to go somewhere, to orgasm (hence the "come" lmao), or to die.

He wants to do all three of those things with her???? TOGETHER??? SIR, THERE IS A PROTOCOL TO RUBBING YOUR BITS TOGETHER. YOU SHOULD ASK HER ON A DATE!!! Although it's nice that you guys want to pass on together, hahaha. You must be so sure of your choice in soulmate, Gintoki!!!

Moment Number Four: Hotaru got her happy ending, Tsukuyo reveals her hope through actions

So the sypnosis of this arc is basically - this courtesan once had a childhood love who grew up to be a carpenter and could never forget him, even after being sold to the underground red light district. When Yoshiwara was freed, she went to find him but saw him talking with another chick and it drew her into despair. She decided to ascend to heaven, but not before by dousing Yoshiwara in clouds of incense until Yorozuya and Tsuntsunkuyo stop her. Compassionately, they then set her up with Carpenter Dude at the end of the arc.

One of my favorite aspects to Tsukuyo is her capacity to forgive and see the best of people. Hotaru, technically, should have been punished more severely for, I dunno, wreckless endangerment of the public, or unleashing toxic gas in a small underground city - but instead, Tsukuyo decides to play Wingwoman and hook her pal up with her true love.

She's a real friend in need, honestly.

After Tsukuyo complains about what a piece of crap Gintoki is, Hotaru giggles and knows that Tsuntsunkuyo is in dokidoki with him anyway. She even compares him to her childhood love... which I feel is telling.

Personally, even though Tsukuyo thinks Gintoki will never settle down, I've felt the subtle nudge from Sorachi's part that implies Tsukuyo is supposed to parallel Hotaru's journey in love as well. Both Gintoki and Tsukuyo have played important parts in getting people to get romantically closer - whether it's Suzuran and Maizou (in Courtesan of a Nation arc) - or his best buddy and a ramen widow (Katsura and Ikumatsu, in the Homeless arc) - or even just to reunite an ex-husband and his patient soulmate (Hasegawa Persecution arc) - it's amazing that these two have an arc together for themselves that is romantically coded as well.

While they may have given up on love themselves, their own heart still yearns for it. Thus, "the hearts of the women of Yoshiwara cannot be free", meaning that even if you live and work in Yoshiwara, you still can't escape from the power of love.

I think in this panel, Tsukuyo doesn't say anything which speaks volumes. I think she hopes for something more even if she thinks it's not realistic, either. It's ambiguous, but Sorachi is clever like that.

moment number five: Darling makes Honey laugh (and lowkey confesses something to her, too)

A lot of people read this panel on the surface and are like, "Yeah!! He's never gonna fall in love!!! Checkmate, GinTsu shippers!!!"

Well, it's interesting because Sorachi actually revised this line several times until the final one was sent for the tankoban. Link/proof here.

Original line (this chapter was translated as the scans came out): Even normally, I'm constantly inhaling some idiot's secondhand smoke.

The final version of this line goes like this: The smoke from some idiot's smoking pipe is enough to make me choke.

Sorachi corrected it to specify a kiseru, which is a tobacco pipe. Who else in is standing next to him smoking a kiseru??? LOL. The specificity has a message to it, I think. Sorachi intended Gintoki to refer to Tsukuyo and not have it mistakenly interpreted to refer to anyone else, in my opinion!

Additionally...

In Yoshiwara, if you tell someone "I love you", it is considered an obvious lie spun by courtesans to make more money from their patrons, and so to obscure such obviousness, you could say things like "The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it?" (while referring to the person second-handedly). I wonder what Gintoki was trying to tell Tsukuyo here? Sorachi has left the arc (and series) ambiguous, with neither a clear no or yes for their futures. I like to think he is saying, "Yeah, you smell, but I'm used to it." hehe

Still... I think this is cute.

Gintoki complains about the smoke outrageously to make her laugh. He probably understood the intent behind her confession - that she likes him, but doesn't need her feelings to be reciprocated - and wanted to reply back in a back-handed way that she would also recognize.

And what a way for her to return his words! Instead of a kunai, she just smiles at him. Beautiful Tsukuyo has grown into a woman who is no longer unsure of her feelings, mature enough to accept them and to embrace this new part of herself.

What did I learn from noticing these things?

That Sorachi is sneaky, but there's an "aim" to all of these details.

GinTsu is so... subtly written? Like there are LAYERS to all of these things?? In a "comedic arc", Sorachi employs so many Japanese puns and references and SO MUCH PINING, omg.

Gintoki needs to stop fast-forwarding his life and grow a pair. It's clear that Tsukuyo would be OK with a coffee date by now, lol.

inspired from sempiternal fic