GinTae

GinTae is the het ship between Sakata Gintoki and Shimura Tae from the Gintama fandom.

Canon
The relationship between Gintoki and Tae begins when Gintoki tries to run off after causing her brother to get fired and framed for his crime. Tae brings Gintoki back to her house and demands that he takes responsibility since she and her brother need every penny they could find to protect their father’s dojo. Gintoki then offers his business card and introduces himself as Yorozuya Gin-chan, an odd job who does all kind of works.

When the loan shark comes to collect his debt, he gives Tae two options as a way to repay him, sell the dojo or sell herself. Tae chooses to go with the loan shark to work at his club as she believes that it is her duty to protect something that her parents cherished. This strikes a chord with Gintoki as he later reveals that he also lives by the same principle.

Just as Gintoki sees something special in Tae, Tae also sees something special in him that she allows her brother to go work with Gintoki by the end of the first episode.

As season one goes on, Gintoki and Tae start to grow closer and their relationship stronger. Tae often uses his service to solve her problems. She gets him to help her ward off her stalker, catch a pervert that stole her panties, and help a friend get her money back from a scammer. They also work together several times to help Shinpachi when he got played by a girl and when Shinpachi tries to save his childhood friend from a biker gang. The time Tae spends with the Yorozuya also develops her friendship with Gintoki into a partnership filled with mutual respect and trust. Season two onwards see the two of them becoming more and more intimate with each other.

Apart from interacting while on the job, they also spend a lot of their free time together doing domestic family activities with Shinpachi and Kagura, like having dinner together, attending festivals, going for a holiday, visiting the bath house, and shopping.

Gintoki and Tae are the closest heterosexual relationship in Gintama, being not only the parents figure to Shinpachi and Kagura but also the leaders of Kabukicho. They are often perceived as a couple by close friends and acquaintances, even though most of their interactions are familial at its root.

Gintoki and Tae have been shown to have deep, unspoken understanding about each other. Such meaningful bond is demonstrated as early as in Gintama’s first major arc, when Tae is looking after Gintoki after he gets severely wounded. She voices her concern for his safety and advices him not to push himself too hard for the sake of Shinpachi and Kagura, but still prepares his clothes for him to go into battle, much to Gintoki’s surprise. To reciprocate Tae seeing through him, in Yagyuu arc, Gintoki tells her that he understands the reason she agrees to marry Kyubei in the first place is because she is just trying to protect what’s important to her, and so does he, which is a callback to the first episode.

Like many heroines in anime, Tae can be very controlling of Gintoki and violent towards him, but she also respects him highly in the more serious arcs. Despite her boss lady attitude, she sees Gintoki as the head of her family, sometimes even letting him make the decision for her and her brother.

Both of them respect and admire each other but are too proud to admit it' . They are both shown to care deeply for each other but would resort to tsundere-ish insults to hide how they actually feel about the other, with Gintoki calling Tae ‘uncute woman’ and ‘craziest chick I know’ and Tae calling Gintoki ‘stupid man’ and Mr Demon who destroyed the world’.

Both Gintoki and Tae also have been described by other characters as being very discreet when it comes to their true feelings. Gintoki will hide behind his dead fish eyes while Tae hides behind her smile. This trait is necessary to prevent romance from overshadowing the family theme in Gintama because people tend to view romance as superior to family and friendship. In the Whinery episode however where the true nature of Gintoki and Tae's relationship is being depicted by parody characters, it is revealed that the reason Tae always whine about Gintoki is because she has feelings for him, and Gintoki also reciprocates her feelings by staying by her side to listen to her complains.

Quotes
"Tsk. I saw something I shouldn't have."

- Gintoki (about Tae's crying face) "It's obvious, isn't it? I'm here to cut down your first love."

- Gintoki

Fanon
In the Japanese Gintama fandom, GinTae is the second most popular Gintoki het ship, but it is quite the opposite in the western fandom. KonTae and GinTsu are its rival ships. Gintama fans that support the Gintoki x Otae coupling typically also enjoy GinHiji, KyuTae, and GinSachi. Furthermore, fans may also ship KenKao from the Rurouni Kenshin fandom due to the similarities they have with Gintoki and Otae and the fact that RurouKen is also one of Sorachi's favourite manga series.

In contrast to the other popular ships, such as KonTae and GinTsu, neither Gintoki nor Otae has exhibited love interest in the other. This is due in large part to Gintama's family premise, and any confession of love in the series is frequently one-sided and played for laughs.

Critics of the ship further point out that Gintoki has never expressed explicit interest in any of the Gintama women, making the likelihood of him being with Otae seem implausible. Supporters of the ship, on the other hand, point to the depth of their relationship and the prominence of Gintoki and Otae's relationships in the series. Their attraction for each other are often illustrated subtly, such as in Soul Switch arc where Gintoki subconsciously choose Tae as his soulmate, and Otae blushes when Hijikata (in Gintoki's body) confesses to her.

One of the reasons for the ship's popularity is the romanticisation of Gintoki and Otae's roles as the alpha male and female in the Gintama universe, with Gintoki being the King of Kabukicho and referred to as Danna (Boss) and Otae being the Queen and referred to as Anego (Boss Lady). Some fans believe that Otae plays the most crucial role in fulfilling Gintoki's yearning to belong to a family, because it was her decision to let her brother follow Gintoki that set off the chain reaction that eventually formed the Yorozuya or 'Sakata Family.' (Otae let Shinpachi to work with Gintoki, Shinpachi stayed with Kagura when Gintoki initially refused her, and Kagura insisted on keeping Sadaharu with her.)

Since Gintoki's character is motivated by his aim to protect what's important to him after failing to do so in the past, fans of the ship feel Otae is the best candidate to take Gintoki to the next phase of his adult life through marriage to the Silver samurai. This is owing to Otae's familiarity with not only Gintoki, but also with his previous and current families. Otae is the only woman in Gintama who has met and interacted with Gintoki's adoptive father and all his Joui brothers.

Fans of the ship also point out that all 3 Gintama films use the "Aw, they really do love each other" trope with them, and position Gintoki and Otae as the hero and heroine of the movies.

Fandom
GinTae Tag on AO3

GinTae Tag on Pixiv

GinTae Posts on Tumblr

GinTae Tag on Instagram

GinTae Posts on Twitter

GinTae Uploads on Youtube

Trivia

 * According to an official Jump poll made in 2013, GinTae is the second most popular het ship in Japan. Tae was voted as the 5th character and second female character (after Kagura) to be paired with Gintoki on the Jump cover.
 * Gintoki fought all 3 of Tae’s love interests; Kondo, Kyubei, and Hajime
 * Tae is the only female character (besides kagura) who has met all of Gintoki’s previous family (Joui 4 and Shoyou sensei)
 * Tae bumps into Gintoki in cat forms both times he was turned into a cat. This is a nudge to her resemblance to Otose who loves to pick up strays, Gintoki being one of them
 * Until the end of the series, Sacchan still sees Tae as her one and only love rival
 * GinTae trended on Yahoo Japan several times, including when the final chapter was released.
 * GinTae shippers celebrate GinTae Festival every October which is the birthday month of Gintoki and Tae.
 * GinTae shippers use the emoji ocean wave and sakura 🌊🌸 or strawberry and sakura 🍓🌸 to symbolise GinTae
 * GinTae Final Fantasy or Gintae FF is a term that are frequently used by Japanese shippers to talk about GinTae after chapter 670