Gintama

Episode 313

Chock-full of revealing glimpses into the past and pulse-pounding action, episode 313 is another exciting entry in the Farewell Shinsengumi Arc. Although we've been given occasional peeks into Kondo, Hijikata, and Sogo's pre-Shinsengumi days, viewers now know the full story behind Edo's second most elite police force. Additionally, Sasaki—a character whose loyalties are as difficult to place as Severus Snape's—finally has his past brought to light.

With Gintoki and Sogo keeping Oboro and Nobume busy, Hijikata, Elizabeth, and Saito focus their efforts on rescuing Kondo and Katsura. Just as Sasaki is about to finish Kondo off, the cavalry arrives and proceeds to do battle with a squad of Mimawarigumi officers. Although Hijikata and his fellow officers appreciate the sacrifice their commander tried to make, they realize that without Kondo, there's no Shinsengumi.

Unlike last week's choppily-animated affair, episode 313 features some truly impressive (albeit brief) battle sequences. The skirmishes between Hijikata and Sasaki and Sogo and Nobume are particularly impressive. (Regrettably, we see very little of Gintoki's fight with Oboro.) While cartoonishly inflated, Hijikata taking out at least a dozen of Sasaki's men with a single sword swing is incredibly cool.

Fluidly-animated fight scenes notwithstanding, the flashbacks are the real meat of this week's episode. Now that the Roshigumi has unified under Kondo, the newly-formed peacekeeping group has made the streets of Edo considerably safer. In recognition of their exemplary service, there's even a decree to make them an official police force. For their first mission, Kondo and company are charged with providing security detail to a young Hitotsubashi Nobunobu and his father Narinari during an upcoming trip. However, this is only the mission on paper. In an effort to get rid of his political enemies, Tokugawa Sadasada has tasked Sasaki with organizing the assassination of the Hitotsubashis. Following their deaths, the Roshigumi will be expected to take responsibility for the slayings and commit seppuku.

It's interesting to explore the differences between Sasaki as we see him now and what he was like before the events of the series. Sure, he was still meticulously practical and arrogant in his younger years, but he also displayed noticeable trepidation when it came to taking innocent lives. Prior to the current arc, Sasaki's defining character trait was his propensity for sending texts and emails with his flip-phone. However, he wasn't always a fan of such Amanto-inspired technology. As it turns out, his wife wanted the two of them to stay in touch via texting while she traveled to the countryside to give birth to their daughter. Although he's initially flummoxed by his new phone, by the end of the episode, Sasaki is texting like a champ. Though we never actually see Sasaki's wife, the audience is privy to the couple's correspondences. After numerous attempts at deciding on a name for their firstborn, the Sasakis ultimately decide on “Nobume.” (Hint, hint.)

When he visits a Naraku compound and meets a prepubescent Nobume (who at that point was known as “Mukuro”), Sasaki is disgusted to find orphaned children being trained as assassins. Not wishing to subject children to taking lives, Sasaki hatches a plan to put the brakes on the assassination. By making it seem like the plot was foiled by circumstances beyond his (or anyone else's) control, the clever young noble reasons that Sadasada won't be able to punish anyone. Having overestimated the interim shogun's benevolence, Sasaki arrives home to find his wife and newborn daughter slaughtered, with a bloody Mukuro standing over their bodies. With nothing left to lose, Sasaki prepares to kill the pint-sized assassin, but upon seeing that she actually wants to die, he sheaths his sword and tasks her with helping him bring down the country that would condone such a brutal act. He also orders her to kill him once their mission is complete.

As Nobume reveals to Sogo, Sasaki's ultimate goal is to incite a full-scale rebellion in order to “destroy everything and significantly weaken the country.” However, the Naraku are intent on stopping this plan at all costs. As a battalion of Naraku airships descend on Kokujo Island, they're met by a fleet of Mimawarigumi submarines, and another layer of chaos is added to the increasingly bloody battle royale.

Gintama has always been good at making the audience empathize with its characters, and Sasaki is no exception. The vast majority of the time, these characters are defined by humorous quirks (i.e., Sasaki's texting addiction and obsession with making “email friends”), but their backstories have an uncanny knack for eliciting feelings. Like Xellos from Slayers, mystique has always been a part of this character's appeal, but until now, we never really got a sense of what drives him. Much like Takasugi, Sasaki is motivated by vengeance brought on by a devastating loss and seeks to destroy the country that facilitated that loss. He isn't good—but he isn't exactly bad, either. His bond with Nobume is made even more fascinating when it's revealed how it began under such dark circumstances.

There aren't many laugh-out-loud jokes this week, but learning more about the Shinsengumi's origins and Sasaki's tragic past is a satisfactory tradeoff. Ever since December, Gintama has consistently addressed hanging plot threads, and I can't wait for the next big reveal. I'm just curious to see whether or not the Shinsengumi and Sasaki stories are the best plotlines for the show to go out on. With the series' next hiatus looming, I wonder how they'll manage to finish this arc in the limited amount of time left.

Rating: A

Gintama is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for over two decades.