I want to
start this meta by saying this – I love Sorachi Hideaki! He is one of the best
mangaka in the industry and I am so glad that despite everything he managed to
keep Gintama alive in the industry where corporate heads prefer to prioritize
money over original ideas and artistic freedom.
Instead of
going for typical “hero’s journey” narrative where everything serves to
progress main character’s power trip, Sorachi tells more introspective story.
At first glance, Gintama is not that different from any shonen manga: it has
its big fights, heartfelt speeches about power of comradery, the Main Villain
of the Arc narrative, etc. However, there is something more going on in this
story. Unlike other manga that tend to focus solely on the Main Protagonist (or
at best the MC and his closest friends/rivals), Gintama uses the fact that it
doesn’t have the main goal that characters want to achieve (or does it?) and
takes its time to focus on every character in this story. Everyone has the time
to shine in Gintama, but there are certain characters who receive much more
focus than the others do.
These
characters serve for Gintama in three ways – they progress the main plot, they
serve as the way for Sorachi to explore certain themes and their character arcs
help Sorachi to structure Gintama in a certain way. Gintama isn’t just chaotic
parody galore – it’s a very carefully structured narrative but instead of using
the main plot to make us invested in it, Sorachi uses his characters to make
this job done.
While we
can clearly understand that the focus of the story is Yorozuya trio, they are
not the only main characters of Gintama – you can actually see the whole main
cast in this last poster.
And I want
to talk about one of these characters in particular – the one character who
sparked a lot of controversy in this fandom – Tsukuyo.
To me this part was super important. I’m sick and tired of people saying Tsukuyo is weak and useless. Gin himself said that she’s strong. I repeat, he said that she’s strong. She’s not only strong physically but mentally also. Gin himself sees Tsukuyo’s strength.Tbh I don’t understand what y’all are reading with ‘cause it certainly isn’t with your eyes. What? She’s useless and weak because she fell in love? lololol. Time and time again Sorachi has shown how love doesn’t make someone “weak”, and instead it’s actually something so beautiful. Do you have any idea how much strength it takes to embrace feelings?Y’all basically have the same twisted mindset as Jiraia (who btw is the villain js). Tsukuyo doesn’t fret over her feelings for Gin 24/7. She is an individual with her own mind and her own drive. She is much more than a love interest. She is an independently strong character on her own. Stop bashing on her and trying to spread damn lies that she’s weak ‘cause Sorachi sure as hell doesn’t see her as weak. Y’all are starting to sound like broken record players. Miss me with that bs.
“she’s meant to represent weak women”
this was actually said out loud by actual WOMEN in this fandom about tsukuyo. tsukuyo, who saved dozens of women from death and hid them amongst her military force by training them as combatants, who rightly chose hinowa, her parental guardian over the man she loves UNTIL hinowa forced her to leave, and she left – to PROTECT HIM – and actually SAVED him – was said to represent weak women.
that aside.
as if the term “weak women” is so inherently simple, so trivial, so diminutively negligible, that it can be dismissed with a wave of the hand and a snort of the nostril.
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 