GinTae

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

Canon
The relationship between Gintoki and Tae begins in the first chapter when Gintoki tries to run away 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 gets 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 on holidays, visiting the bath house, and shopping.

Season 1
 LESSON 1, EPISODE 3  Gintoki and Tae meet, Tae rides on the back of Gintoki's moped to stop him from running away. Gintoki is dragged to Kodokan Dojo where he learns about Tae's sense of duty in protecting her father's dojo. Gintoki takes note of her willingness to sacrifice her own happiness in order to protect what was important to her parents, tickling his fancy. When Gintoki arrives with Shinpachi to rescue her, he reveals that he also lives by the same principle; "What's important to my client is important to me. I'll do anything to protect them." At the end of the lesson/episode, against her best interest Tae let Shinpachi go with Gintoki.

 LESSON 8, EPISODE 8  Shinpachi asks Gintoki for help when the Shinsengumi Chief starts stalking and harassing his sister. Tae pretends to be engaged to Gintoki to throw Kondo off her back, but it doesn't work. Jealous of Gintoki and Tae's "cuddly" relationship, Kondo invites Gintoki to a duel to settle who will get the girl. But Gintoki makes a deal with Kondo that he will bet his life instead of Tae's. So even if Kondo win, Tae will not be his, though he's free to court her however, but if he loses, he will leave Tae alone. At the end of the lesson/episode, Shinpachi and Kagura walk away in disappointment for the dirty way their leader handled his job, but Tae is amused and admits that she's beginning to get him.

 LESSON 28, EPISODE 18  When Tae tells Gintoki that her panties have been stolen by a panty thief, he fantasizes about women not wearing any panties under their kimono despite their calm demeanor. Gintoki also says that he's certain the thief is going to return to Tae's place because of the quality of her panties. Finally, he declares that he will catch the panty thief to protect his pride as a man and Tae's purity as a woman.

Origin
Gintoki and Tae's relationship is believed to be based on Sakamoto Ryoma and his wife, Narasaki Ryo. Ryoma and Oryo's relationship is a very popular romantic story in Japan. The couple is famously known as 'Japan's First Honeymoon'.

Despite both Sakamoto and Oryo inspiring their own characters in Gintama, both of them are not romantically involved in the series (apart from a running gag where Sakamoto keeps asking Oryo to marry him). Instead, GinTae shippers believe that the elements from Ryoma and Oryo's real-life relationship were given to Gintoki and Tae. Here's how:


 * Oryo's father, Masasaku Narasaki often gave money and goods to young samurai who came to him for help, and he took good care of them. After he died, his family fell into poverty, and Oryo being the eldest child had to work to support her mother and siblings. Taking advantage of their impoverishment, Oryo's younger sister was taken to be sold off to a brothel in Osaka. Oryo's backstory was roughly used as the plot for the first lesson/episode of Gintama. According to Shinpachi, his late father loved to help people until he was taken advantage of and the siblings had to deal with his debts after he died by working part-time. But instead of her younger sibling, Tae was the one taken by the loan shark to work as a prostitute.


 * After her father's death, Oryo began to work at an inn called Ogiwa where she first met Ryoma, who often visited Ogiwa. In Gintama, Gintoki often visits Snack Smile, the cabaret club where Tae works, whether invited or not.


 * Ryoma took a liking to Oryo's free-spirited personality after hearing the story where she sneaked into the kidnappers hiding port with a knife in her pocket to rescue her sister on her own. She beat up two men after telling them to kill her, and successfully brought her sister home. When Ryoma heard about this story, he was overjoyed. In a letter to his sister Otome, Ryoma introduced Oryo as a 'very interesting woman'. He described in detail how Oryo had jumped on the bad guy and punched him in the face after he threatened her. In lesson/episode 1, Gintoki is shocked to see how wild Tae is when she wields out her knife and screaming at him. She also punches the loan shark in the face for provoking her.


 * When Ryoma asked for her name, Oryo wrote it on a piece of paper and Ryoma laughed as soon as he realised that both their names contained the kanji for 'dragon'. He said to her, "You're just like me", and believed that they were meant for each other because of how similar they were. In the first lesson, Gintoki introduces himself to Otae by showing his name on a card. He then seems intrigued when Tae says that she wants to protect what's important to her parents, later revealing that he also lives by the same principle. Besides that, they both also share the same birthday month, the same fear of ghosts, the same love for ice cream, among many other similarities.


 * After they got married, Ryoma took Oryo out of the Ogiwa Inn and sent her to work at the Teradaya Inn, where he had been staying. The landlady of the Teradaya Inn, Otose, made Oryo her own adopted daughter, making her a maidservant to Ryoma. In Gintama, Gintoki is a resident at Otose Snack House. Otae is not only seen as the young Otose but she is also in charge of Yorozuya when Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura are out of service.


 * After the Teradaya incident, Ryoma was seriously injured. At the suggestion of Saigo Takamori, the couple was sent down to Satsuma to recuperate in the hot springs. Ryoma and Oryo set sail from Osaka on the Satsuma clan ship for their 'honeymoon'. In Gintama, Otose sends Gintoki and Otae, along with Shinpachi and Kagura to visit a hot spring. Saigo and Otose also suggest Tae as the new Deva of Kabukicho and force Gintoki to come with her. Furthermore, Gintoki's injuries are often treated by Tae.


 * It was also recorded that Oryo was devastatingly bad at cooking and was called ”メシマズ”. This trait is similar to Otae's tendency to create 'black matter' every time she tries to cook.


 * Isami Kondo, the head of the Shinsengumi who was an enemy of Ryoma, was fond of Oryo and always sending her gifts such as comb and hairpins . In Gintama, Kondo is obsessed with Otae to the point of stalking her. He also buys things for her like yukata and baseball tickets.

Quotes
"I'm going to wager my life instead of Otae's. Even if you win, you don't get Otae. But I'll be out of your way. You can court her or whatever you'd like afterwards. Of course, if I win, you'll keep your paws off her."

- Gintoki, Episode 8 "What a clumsy man. But that's alright, I'm starting to get you."

- Tae (about Gintoki), Episode 8 "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
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 their friends and even outsiders, even though most of their interactions are familial at its root.

In the Japanese Gintama fandom, GinTae is the most popular Gintoki het ship (not taking GinKagu into account since it is seen as problematic), but it is quite the opposite in the international fandom. KonTae and GinTsu are its rival ships. Gintama fans that support the Gintoki x Tae coupling typically also enjoy GinHiji, GinZura, KyuTae, and GinSachi. Furthermore, fans may also ship KenKao from the Rurouni Kenshin series due to the similarities they have with Gintoki and Tae and the fact that RurouKen is also one of Sorachi's favourite manga series.

In contrast to its rival ships such as KonTae, GinSachi, KyuTae, and GinTsu, Gintoki and Tae almost never exhibit love interest in the other. This is due in large part to Gintama's family premise, and any confessions of love in the series is frequently one-sided or played for laughs. However, Sorachi did write a special parody episode about Gintoki and Tae’s relationship to prove that he meant to set them up together.

     

Gintoki and Tae have been shown to have deep, unspoken understanding about each other. Such meaningful bond is demonstrated as early as in the first major arc, when Tae is looking after Gintoki after he gets severely wounded. She expresses 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.

 

Both Gintoki and Tae also have been described by other characters as being very discreet when it comes to their true feelings. Gintoki often hides 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 anime fans tend to view romance as superior to family and friendship.

It is evident in the more serious arcs that both of them respect and admire each other but are too proud to admit it. They have been shown to care deeply for each other but tend to 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’. 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 ending up with any one of them seem implausible. Supporters of the ship, on the other hand, point to the depth and the prominence of Gintoki and Tae's relationships in the series. Their attraction to each other is often illustrated subtly, such as in Soul Switch arc where Gintoki subconsciously choose Tae as his soulmate, and Tae blushes when Hijikata (in Gintoki's body) asks her to go out with him.

One of the main reasons for the ship's popularity is the romanticisation of Gintoki and Tae's roles as the alpha male and female in the Gintama universe, with Gintoki acting as the King of Kabukicho and referred to as Danna (Boss) whereas Tae dubbed as the Queen of Kabukicho and referred to as Anego (Boss Lady). GinTae shippers believe that Tae 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.' (Tae let Shinpachi to work with Gintoki, Shinpachi stayed with Kagura when Gintoki initially refused her, and Kagura insisted on keeping Sadaharu with her.)

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

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 Tae 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 Tae's similar life principles, as well as her familiarity with not only Gintoki, but also with his previous and current families. Tae 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 Gintoki and Tae, and position them as the hero and heroine of the movies.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

GinTae Tag on AO3

ART

GinTae Tag on Pixiv

TUMBLR

GinTae Posts on Tumblr

INSTAGRAM

GinTae Tag on Instagram

TWITTER

GinTae Posts on Twitter

YOUTUBE

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.
 * Sorachi's one shot, Shirokuro features two main characters that resemble Gintoki and Tae
 * 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 is frequently used by Japanese shippers to talk about GinTae after chapter 670.

Behind the Scenes

 * In February 2021, Gintama movie staff confirmed that Tae is considered the heroine of Gintama.