Remembering Love: Gintama and the Art of Zura
Some of you may have already be aware of this by now, but one of my most favorite anime character is Katsura Kotaro aka Zura. Last week, we talked about the underdog, Shimura Shinpachi, but for this fourth and final week of the Remember Love project, I will be entailing the epicness of this man, Zura Katsura Kotaro.
Kotaro is a Joui terrorist and like Takasugi, aimed to bring freedom to Edo. However, in contrast to the vicious Takasugi, Katsura plans to retrieve Edo in more peaceful ways.
He fought in the previous Amanto War together with Gintoki, Takasugi and Tatsuma, so needless to say, he is exceptionally strong as well. His swordsmanship is on par with Gintoki and perhaps, even Takasugi and he can handle bombs like an expert, always bombing his way out of Shinsegumi’s reach during his terrorist activities.
As an individual, Katsura is.. to put it in a simple manner, random. He is like a troll. At times, he is a pacifist, and at times, he is atrocious.. but most of the time, it could be said that he is just an idiot. He planned idiotic strategies like flipping the Shinsegumi’s toilet papers backwards and getting himself injured in irrelevant and silly ways. Unlike Shinpachi, Katsura has no common sense and sometimes, even people like Gintoki had to step up with some comebacks. The two is indefinitely one of the best straight man/funny man combo I had ever seen.
Katsura has a large and random array of skills. Other then his rapping, he is also a master of disguise; he had disguised himself as Captain Katsura, Zurako, Katsurio, III Smith and many others. How he was able to fool most of the Shinsegumi members with his “painfully-obvious” disguises is completely in the dark for me.
Brimming with randomness, Katsura is the main driving force for Gintama’s insanity. He is one of the few which makes Gintama, an already crazy show even the more so crazier. When you’re watching Gintama, be sure to especially look out for this man… and his duck, Elizabeth, as they would emerge from the shadows and troll at the moment you least expected it.
List of Participants – Week 4
- Nopy
- Justin
- Ty-chama
- Chikorita157
- Nadav
heeeeelll yeaaa :) he is one sure random insane freak out in the show. Zura is the hugest reason i watch gintama. both badass and funny as hell. i still remember the OP that featured his earliest fights with gin. twas worth downloadin just for those battle scenes. one of his greatest moments (in my view at least) was when he was featured on TV and gave out an episode of “a modern day joui life.” yet in the end he ended up hiding a bomb in a letter of for the shinsen. :) long live his type of character!
Same for me :D The other characters are just as insane, but none can be as idiotic crazy as the good old Zura. That episode’s pretty funny, he was also epic during the early “ninja episodes”. Zura disguised himself as a “pine tree” and used curry attacks xD
Zura ja nai, Katsura da! – the only thing I learned from him is that being a bomb-wielding can be prideful. Captain Katsura ftw!
What I learned from him is that I need to raise a pet duck.
I’m not entirely sure about Zura being the driving force of insanity for this series but yeah he is still one of the most entertaining/badass characters in the history of anime
To me, I think he’s one of the most craziest character in Gintama, but the others without a doubt are just as crazy as him.
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Zura sounds like an interesting character, almost like a combination of the crazy girl with the class president archetypes in anime.
That’s a weird comparison but feels oddly right~
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yup zura is such..crazy, idiot but cute..^q^
Indeed :D
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Do you remember an arc in which Katsura wears a wig and becomes one of Shinsengumi members in team 3? I once read a chapter of that arc but can’t find it again. Please help meeee ;___;
Katsura gets into a lot of disguises but sorry, I can’t remember it :\ If it’s a manga, it may be possible it’s a future arc not yet adapted to anime, and I don’t read the manga.