Kotarou Katsura

About Katsura, Kotarou

Katsura is a former comrade of Gintoki's from the Joi war days. While most of Japan bent the knee to the Amanto, Katsura refused to give up the fight. He's built himself a loyal following and continues to wage resistance operations against the Bakufu, making him one of the most wanted men in Edo and a constant headache for the Shinsengumi. His weapon of choice is a metallic grenade, and he's earned the nickname "Daybreak of the Joui Faction" among his supporters—a title that carried real weight, especially when other terrorist groups went to war to avenge him during the Benizakura arc. But Katsura's motivations have softened over time. His early methods were pretty brutal, like bombing an Amanto embassy, but he's gradually realized that Edo has people worth protecting. These days, he believes real change doesn't have to come at the cost of destruction. Because he's basically always being hunted, Katsura lives in disguises. His go-to is a pirate outfit complete with an eyepatch and a fake scar, under which he operates as "Space Captain Katsura"—though his cover usually gets blown anyway. Between resistance work, he picks up odd jobs to fund his activities, and he's surprisingly easy to move emotionally with his dramatic storytelling (which absolutely does not work on Gintoki). Katsura has an outdated sense of humor that makes him reference retro stuff constantly—like the time he tried to buy a Famicon while everyone else was lining up for the OwEe. He's also apparently developed feelings for Ikumatsu, the ramen restaurant owner, and has held official business meetings in her shop. The running joke between him and Gintoki hinges on nicknames. Gintoki loves calling him variations of "Katsura"—"Zura" (slang for "wig," playing off the double meaning of Katsura's name) in the original Japanese, or "Casserole" in early English versions. Every single time, Katsura loses his mind correcting him, even when it's just in someone's thoughts. Somehow he knows. He's got an almost supernatural ability to detect when people aren't calling him by his actual name, which has become one of his defining quirks. His character is loosely based on the historical figure Katsura Kogoro.

Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.