"Get on your knees! I am the Queen of the Kabuki District!"
Tae Shimura
Tae Shimura (志村 妙,Shimura Tae?), or just Otae (お妙,Otae?) (the "お" (O) is an honorific used to refer to women), is the older sister of Shimura Shinpachi. The Shinsengumi have almost accepted her as the de facto lady boss, or rather the consort of their boss Kondou Isao, by calling her ne-e-san (姐さん,ne-e-san?).
She works at Snack Smile as a cabaret hostess to keep the family doujo Koudoukan going (though more often than not, she behaves more like a bouncer). In addition she is the leader and one of the original members of the Diamond Perfume.
Shimura Tae grew up with her brother Shimura Shinpachi and her father Shimura Ken in their family dojou Koudoukan. Their father died when they were still young, leaving them to take care of the dojou, and also to be left in debt. Tae still wants to revive her father's dojo, as she believes that a child does not need a reason to protect what its parents once loved. To get money for the dojo restoration, Tae works in Snack Smile as a Cabaret Hostess. She's popular and became the "main attraction" of the Hostess Club because of her charming personality and her no bullshit attitude. Kondo Isao often visit the club to stalk on her and harass Tae. He 'fell in love' with Tae when he was served by her in the Hostess Club and misunderstood her intention to make him feel better as her customer. Tae strongly disapproves of his stalking activities and beats him up every time he does, as he even hides in her house and follows her wherever she goes while trying to make her go out with him.
When Otae was younger, she beat up the bullies who made fun of Yagyuu Kyuubei. From that moment on, Otae and Kyuubei were close childhood friends. Kyuubei greatly admired Tae because she was strong and carried even the heaviest burdens with a smile on her face. When Kyuubei saved Tae from her debt-collector's abuse and lost her eye in the process, Tae promised Kyuubei to marry her and become her new left eye.
Appearance[]
Tae is a beautiful young woman that attracts numerous men, which makes her the main attraction of the famous cabaret club Snack Smile and even amanto have tried to use her beauty to gain something. It also causes opponents to heavily underestimate Tae's combat skills and cunning, thus causing opponents like the Dobunezumi Group to gang up on Tae and getting outsmart by her in the process. She has short brown hair that is tied back in a ponytail and brown eyes.
(Quote from Otohime about Tae's appearance) "She's beautiful! I-Impossible! Why is she so beautiful when I'm hitting her? It's like the ethereal beauty of a falling flower!!" (Episode 117)
She wears a pink yukata with red sakura on it. She once admitted in her own words that she is 'flat chested'.[1] She can also be very aggressive when treated unfairly and inappropriately, and her weapon of choice seems to be her fists and a naginata. She's always wearing a smile on her face, due to her promise to Obi Hajime, the former instructor of Kodokan Dojo. Just like Sakata Gintoki's dead fish eyes, Tae's smile makes it hard for people to read her. Her smile leaves a gentle impression, however, just like Kamui, it also signifies when she is about to seriously injure someone.
She is very proud about her own good qualities, but very insecure about her bad qualities as well. Though outwardly appearing sweet and good-natured, she can be quick to temper and a has violent disposition, in particular towards 'gorilla-like stalkers'.
Since their mother died in a young age, Tae always took care of her little brother Shinpachi and protected him. She is a very brave and strong woman who always cares more about her family and closest friends than even about herself- very similar to Gintoki. She always tries to look strong and happy, thus she always smiles, even if she's hurt or feels sad.
(Quote from Shimura Shinpachi about Tae's personality) "You're so unfair, Sis... Smiling brightly every single day, but you never show your true feelings in the slighest. Even if you're hurt or want to cry, you're forcing yourself to smile. Always without saying anything to anyone. You bear the burden alone, you decide alone and you end up smiling alone."
Her speech manners are totally unlady-like, peppered with vulgar descriptions, especially of human genitalia, frequently prompting Shinpachi to scold her saying that 'girls should not speak like that'. She is also very rough, as she is very often seen scolding her stalker, Gintoki and even her own brother in a very harsh manner.
She generally acts sweet and kind, but she gets angry easily and has a no-nonsense attitude. This ironically causes others to compare her to a gorilla due to her monstrous strength. In addition, she is rather two faced, often pretending to act nice and sweet around others to let their guard down before backstabbing or deceiving them. Two prime examples would be when she and Ane competed for the prime spot of cabaret girl and Otae pretended not to care and concede the position to Ane out of kindness only to bring in prime customers to raise her own ranking and when she pretended to to be kind to Katsuo and gave him packages of mascot character items to sell around Kabuki-cho to improve the city’s image only to have him arrested as the items were pirated.
She can also be selfish, as she was upset about being placed 17th in the popularity polls and was perfectly willing to eliminate the characters ahead of her or assimilate the characters to absorb their popularity.
Shimura Tae's "dark matter" fried eggs
She loves the expensive brand of ice cream called Bargain Dash (破亜限堕取), a parody of the Häagen-Dazs ice cream in real world, and her most famous cuisine specialty is aka fried egg (卵焼き tamago yaki), but labelled as 'Dark Matter' or even 'Pitiful egg' by Gintoki and others. This dish has caused the following side effects when eaten: causing Shinpachi's eyesight to deteriorate over long periods of consumption and forcing him to need eye glasses, giving Kondou Isao amnesia, aggravating Gintoki's amnesia, [2][3] and causing Yagyuu Binboksai to have diarrhea. [4]
When not eaten, it can be used as a ballistic missile, as seen when they went up against the Tagosaku-possessed Oiwa which she said "burned" in the Onsen Chapter. In fact, literally everything Shimura Tae touches will come out burnt, even sushi (which does not require fire to make). [5]
Strangely enough, the konjac jelly she made for her younger brother in Episode 126 (of the Pen-pal Chapter) came out properly as konjac jelly. However, this can not be considered canon as she was not seen actually making it in the manga, and the scene with her talking to Kagura afterwards was a filler.
She was revealed to be a die-hard fan of B'z band as she sang the chorus of Taiyoh no Komachi Angel while facing a sunset, thinking she was all alone, before Shinpachi, Hasegawa and Gintoki came along.[6]
Ironically, she has a constant fear of monsters, as seen during the Test of Courage in Episode 68 when she and Oryou entered the Test booth. When she's scared, her fear turns into anger, thus it caused her to go berserk, destroy the skeleton model, make Oryou vomit blood (due to her German Suplex Hold) and smack up Ochi-san in the process, only proving to the others that she was the only scary monster around.
Strength & Abilities[]
Tae inherited a dojo together with her younger brother Shimura Shinpachi called Koudoukan (恒道館), specialising in the Tendoumushin sword-fighting style (天堂無心流, Tendou Mushin Ryuu). She is an experienced combatant, allowing her to determine skill upon sight, like that of Kondou long before the two associated.
Tae specializes in the use of a Naginata, even to the point where she is capable of "one-arm swinging" and performing devastating cuts. Other than that, Tae is also seen to be a very capable hand-to-hand combatant when unarmed, having the ability to take out Otohime's soldiers with a single punch, or send several people flying at once during the Love Potion arc, giving her a brutish reputation that existed even in her early years. Known to be Tae's brother, Shinpachi was rarely the victim of bullies during his childhood. This protective treatment was also given to Kyuubei at that time, whose bullies were victims to Tae's protective nature on a regular basis.
OTae crushing solid steel with her bare fist
Her hand-to-hand combat capabilities are equally matched by her impressive physical strength in walloping other people. She was able to give Kondou Isao a concussion using a mere pico-pico hammer (an inflated squeaky toy hammer) even though he was already wearing a safety helmet. [7] Her display of physical strength also included being able to punch holes in a wall without any effort, as well as creating a whole crater with a mere drop kick during the Ryugujo Arc. However, unlike other characters, Tae is rarely involved in actual combat. Hijikata Toushirou and Sarutobi Ayame were the only major characters Tae faced in combat as of yet. Her display of combat is mostly limited to physical abuse against her friends, specifically Konodu, this trait perfectly potrays her as more of a bully than a warrior. Other than Kondou Isao, Sakata Gintoki is also frequently on the receiving end of her violent treatment.
List of Victims[]
Thus far, Katsura Kotarou, Yagyuu Kyuubei, Tsukuyo and Kagura seem to be the only main characters acquainted with Tae not to have been roughed up by her. Her list of 'victims' include the following characters:
For trying to get in her way and eliminate her during the character poll arc.
Afraid of her when he lost grip himself ask her if she knows penile break, and feels disgusting when ask her about disgusting things.
Afraid of her when the kid ask who the criminal is when he saw her beating Kondo seriously, her or his vice commander Kondo. So he lied to the children that the police sells "Patriots", to avoid himself from being one of her victim during Patriot arc.
Funnily enough, her horrible cooking, which is mostly described as "dark matter", is also considered a deadly weapon. She can form dark matter out of any kind of food using only her hands. Even Hiraga Gengai was not able to identify her food and assumed that it is an unknown poisonous matter from outer space. The dark matter can instanly poison the person who eats it and leave permanent effects,the effects are so powerful that even cyborgs like Obi Hajime had to have the hazardous material removed in order for his machine body half to operate. When it comes in contact with someone’s skin, it can lead to severe burns. Though it should be noted that Tae does not use her bad cooking in actual combat. It was defined during the Guardian Spirits Arc to be a curse of the hundreds of eggs she had burnt, as a result of which all she cooks is now burnt.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Shimura Shinpachi: Tae's younger brother, who she can be overly protective of. Since the death of her parents, Tae has taken over the responsibility to teach and parent her little brother, willing to exceed any emotional limit. As stated by Yagyuu Kyuubei, it gets to the point where Tae feels forced to use a fake smile regardless of how painful any situation is, simply to comfort her brother. However, despite of how overprotective Tae is, Shinpachi is often on the receiving end of her very rough treatment, equally to those abusing Shinpachi. People tricking or hurting Shinpachi are usually common victims of Tae's abuse. This goes back to even their childhood, as Shinpachi was very often spared from bullying due to the childrens' fear of his sister. Her protective instinct doesn't even stop at larger threats, such as the giant bear causing even the Yorozuya and Shinsengumi to flee, who was taken out by Tae upon his supposed attempt to attack her brother.
Shimura Ken: Tae's father, who left his beloved dōjō to her when he passed away. Even though the dōjō and the debts connected to it merely caused Tae to suffer consistently, she attempted to to revive it and eventually succeeded, due to her strong belief that protecting what's dear to a parent is a child's utmost duty. During his lifetime, Ken often hit Tae for misbehaving, treating both his children very roughly.
Friends & Allies[]
Kagura: As stated in the aftermath of the Umibouzu arc, Tae treats Kagura as her sister. Tae acts like an older sister to her, like to Shinpachi. Kagura looks up to Tae and wants to be like her, and often acts just like her when Tae is about to hurt someone.
Oryou: Oryou is Tae's co-worker and friend from Snack Smile. The two are frequently seen together at work. She helped Tae in the competition with Ane and was also with her during the Test of Courage/Horror House (though she nearly got strangled to death by the frightened Tae in the process). Tae helped her out when she was in need, though she always made it clear that she is not going to lend any money to Oryou.
Tsukuyo: When Tae first heard about Tsukuyo, she intended to eliminate her, as she had a higher rank than her during the Character Poll Arc. However, Tsukuyo joined the Diamond Perfume at some point and became friends with Tae since then.
Sarutobi Ayame: Sa-chan considers Tae her love rival, as she assumes that Tae has romantic feelings for Gintoki and
Kyuubei stopping Tae's and Sa-chan's fight in Episode 182
because Gintoki deeply cares about Tae while he constantly rejects Sa-chan. She often picks a fight with Tae and they both were often enough about to cut loose and fight each other with all they've got. Nevertheless, Sa-chan considers Tae a friend. When Tae was about to die in the movie, Stay Forever Yorozuya, Sa-chan cried and angrily shook her, telling her that she wouldn't allow her to die until Tae hasn't seen her and Gintoki finally becoming a couple and get married. As well to Shinpachi too, because Ayame didin't want he's alone. During the time as group idol Diamond Perfume, they get along easily. As well working together to crushed others idol's popularities.
Tokugawa Shige Shige: Sometimes slipped her vulgarity towards him, not only he has an inner perversion, although she did respect him as a great leader, even after his death when Nobu Nobu took over Bakufu in his tyranical reign.
As a fellow sadistic psychos, Sougo is far more respecting her nicely without doing any stupid manners on her, he and Hijikata witness how dangerous Shinpachi's sister is when their leader, Kondo never knows how to quit stalking her but ended up beaten by her badly.
Love Interest[]
Yagyuu Kyuubei: Years later, Otae became Kyuubei's fiancee out of obligation to what happened to her eye. Although Shinpachi and the rest stopped her from going through with the marriage, she still remains in friendly ties with Kyuubei afterwards.[8] Kyuubei is with Tae all the time and is barely seen without her. Although to Tae, Kyuubei is just her precious friend, Kyuubei's feelings for Tae haven't changed at all, meaning that she still loves Tae. Kyuubei protects her with her life and doesn't tolerate anyone who tries to harm Tae in any way. She does her best to give Tae a reason to smile, though she wishes to become that reason herself. Nevertheless, Kyuubei is also happy if Tae's smile is not even directed at her. During the Character Poll Arc, Kyuubei even wanted to go as far as to eliminate everyone who was ranked higher than Tae, including herself, meaning that Kyuubei planned to commit suicide after eliminating the others to make Tae rank first. During the Beam Sword Style Arc, Kyuubei was also about to commit seppuku, as she couldn't forgive herself for trying to kill Tae's first love and almost caused Tae to suffer.
Sakata Gintoki: People often think they are a couple. When she first met Gintoki, she tried to make him commit seppuku, as he had caused her brother to get fired. Although they generally argue about everything with Gintoki making snide comments about her and Tae physically abusing him, they share a close bond. When he saved her, she started admiring his soul and skill as a samurai, which she felt was a great example for her brother. When Gintoki was wounded in the Benizakura Arc, she nursed him and told him to get rest, but is often powerless to prevent Gintoki from risking his life on his own. It is also hinted that Gintoki makes her smile everyday she sees him around Shinpachi and Kagura from the day she was saved. There are, however subtle hints that Tae has romantic feelings for Gintoki, such as when Gintoki's memory were lost. He had become significantly more serious and Tae kept insisting that he didn't forget her. When he apologised, she tried to knock him on the head to make him remember but Gintoki touching her hand and apologising caused her to blush. She complimented him about his eyes and suggested that he stayed amnesiac as she preferred this version of Gintoki, causing Shinpachi to complain that she had fallen for him. He is the only person she trusts and can discuss her brother's problems with. It is hinted that she considers Gintoki along with Shinpachi and Kagura as her family. Tae really trusts him and Gintoki really cares about her. She also takes care of him when he is sick or wounded and supports him in crises and fights. They support and protect each other and play a major role in Shinpachi's life.
Obi Hajime: He was the former chief coach of the Koudoukan. He was like an older brother to Shinpachi and Otae. He supposedly died before Shinpachi met Gintoki, but was later revealed to have survived the explosion that supposedly killed him. He's noted to be Otae's first love by Shinpachi. Obi is one of the biggest influences in her life. as he taught her to smile in any kind of situation, as well as being her tutor when she was younger. Although Tae carried almost every burden with a fake smile on her face, she couldn't help but cry when Obi finally died.
Kondou Isao: Kondou is obsessively and annoyingly in love with Tae. He constantly stalks her, which often results in her beating him, which she has every right to. He is also very possessive about Tae and jealous of Gintoki and Kyuubei for being close to her constantly. Despite hating him for being a perverted gorilla stalker, she ruined the ceremony to save him when he was forced to marry the Gorilla Princess. In "The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya, Tae even went as far as to kill Kondou after he tried to kiss her right before the alternative future was erased. Kondou's feelings for Tae on the other hand know no boundaries. He tries his best to protect Tae and give her a reason to smile along with Yagyuu Kyuubei since the day he fell in love with her. After Shige Shige died, when Shinsengumi disbanded whereas Kondo and Matsudaira are about to be executed during Nobu Nobu's reign, Otae's feeling for Kondo begin to soften. After he, Katsura and Matsudaira are safe, but lost one of their important allies, Sasaki Isaburo, and before leaving Edo, as a suggestion from Katsura for their safety to enact their plan to bring a sudden return of corrupted Bakufu and Tendoshu to justice, Tae and Shinpachi wishes Kondo both good luck and survive, and he promises to return to Edo alive.
Hijikata and Gintoki asking Tae out during the Soul Switch Arc.
Enemies[]
Eromes: Tae hates her for having a cat appearance and for pushing Shinpachi's love illusions to far to be true. When Eromes stole money from Shinpachi, Tae and Kagura finally decided to crush her.
Otohime: Tae considered Otohime's heart "laughably wretched" and was convinced that no matter how much effort she put into being beautiful, she would remain ugly, because she didn't know that real beauty is. Otohime ordered her subordinates to kill her for being more beautiful than her and insulting her, which has caused Tae to attack her and her subordinates. When Otohime finally realized that Tae's words were true and had a change of heart, Tae, Yagyuu Kyuubei, Hasegawa Taizou and the Yorozuya saved her from being crushed when her palace collapsed.
Tae revealing her true colors to Ane
Ane: As they are both the most profit-making Cabaret Hostesses, Tae and Ane are competitors. When one of them had to be fired, Tae ruthlessly tricked Ane to get rid of her, despite knowing that Ane seriously needed the money. Neither of them was fired, though. In Episode 264 it was stated that Tae is the main attraction of the Hostess Club she works at, meaning that Tae is in fact the best Cabaret Hostess, though Ane is more popular among Matsudaira Katakuriko, who always spends a lot of money when visiting the Hostess Club and is one of the most important regulars due to his high position. Though while the Shogun, who is by far the most important guest, preferred Tae's services, he is not a regular in the Hostess Club.
Hitotsubashi Nobu Nobu: After witnessing Nobu Nobu's tyrannical nature as he murdered her colleagues for no reason, she was the first person to have the courage to oppose him and his rule.
This section is a stub. Please help to expand it, thank you.
Otae was born and raised in her father's dōjō, where she learned how to use weapons at a very young age. Both her parents died during her childhood. Her mother died very soon after Shinpachi's birth and her father died only a few years later. Her role model was the head coach of her father's dōjō Obi Hajime, who was also her first love. He died during an explosion in the Edo Terminal. With both her first love and her parents dead, Tae was left alone with her little brother, her father's dōjō and his debts. Though the dōjō caused her to suffer constantly, she didn't even consider selling it. Thus she constantly had problems with debt collectors, who even physically abused her brother. Her childhood friend Yagyuu Kyuubei tried to save her from the debt collectors and lost her eye in the process, causing Tae to feel guilty and promise her to make up for it one day. She tries to revive her family dojo that her and Shinpachi's father left them after his death by doing whatever it takes such as working at a Hostess Club, though by now she really enjoys being a cabaret girl and is very popular among her guests, due to being the main attraction of Club Smile. [9] (Though, she was forced to spend their money first in fortifying their house to keep off annoying gorilla like stalkers i.e. Kondou)[10] In order to be able to pay the debts, Tae was at some point even ready to sell her own body and perform in slutty outfits. However, it did not come to this, as Sakata Gintoki, who she met at that point, prevented her from having to go this far. Gintoki soon became a very close friend of Tae and by now plays a major role in her life.
One of Tae's guests in the Hostess Club was the leader of the Shinsengumu Kondo Isao, who instantly fell in love with her. He stalks her constantly since the day they met, though Tae doesn't feel the same way about him and very often beats him up. Nevertheless he also became an important part of her life.
When Otae realized that Gintoki lost his memories, Otae intended to beat Gintoki up with a hammer until he regained his memory. When Gintoki stopped her and grabbed her arm with his new charming demeanor, Otae started to develop romantic feelings for the new Gintoki. When Gintoki finally started to remember who he was again, Tae forcibly fed him her Tamagoyaki. However, her horrible cooking only caused Gintoki, along with Kondo to faint, giving Kondo amnesia and worsening Gintoki's state.
Otae got angry and battled Sarutobi Ayame after being accused of having a child together with Sakata Gintoki. As soon as Tae interrupted the fight by blocking Sa-chan's attack and holding her arms in place, she noticed that Gintoki and his supposed child were trying to
slowly crawl away, casuing Tae to throw them into a river.
Otae complied with Shimura Shinpachi's request and took care of the severely injured Sakata Gintoki. While knowing about Sakata Gintoki's plan to get rid of her in order to help Murata Tetsuko, Otae pretended to buy Sakata Gintoki a Jump-magazine. Instead she brought him his clothes and her umbrella in order to give him the opportunity to help Murata Tetsuko.
Otae was taken away by her childhood friend Yagyuu Kyuubei, who sacraficed her left eye for Tae's sake back then when they were children. Kyuubei intended to marry her, and as Otae felt guilty about what happened to her eye, she agreed to leave her family and friends to marry Kyuubei. Shimura Shinpachi decided to face the Yagyuu family and save her sister from the marriage. Sakata Gintoki and Kagura, who couldn't bare the thought of Tae suffering either, joined him. So did the top three Shinsengumi, as Isao Kondou refused to let her engulf herslelf in misery for the sake of her family. The Yagyuu family decided to have a battle with the Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi to decide whether they'll free Otae or not. While the fight already started, Shinpachi finally found Otae, who had no intention of leaving the Yagyuu family. After hitting Shinpachi and telling him that she never asked for help, she finally revealed her reason for agreeing to the marriage. After Kyuubei then told Shinpachi that Kyuubei lost her left eye while protecting Otae, it came to a final battle between the four remaining participants of the battle Gintoki, Shinpachi, Kyuubei and Yagyuu Binbokusai, which made Otae realized that she wants to go back to her friends. After Kyuubei's defeat, Otae went over to her to hold her precious childhood friend in her arms.
Later on Otae wished to make up for making her friends worry about her and therefore saved Kondou from the wedding with the Gorilla Princess by kicking her in the face, screaming "You bitch! What do you think you're doing with my m-...".
Otae and Kyubei have saved his daughter from some punks, so he wanted to take them to Ryugu Palace. On their way, they saw Yorozuya and got lost on an island.
On the island, Hasegawa, Gintoki and Shinpachi saw Otae singing B’z’s Taiyo no Komachi Angel, and she got emberassed when she saw them. They tried to make her feel better and found Kyubei on their way. She drew an ice cream, but the waves erased half of it and made it look like poop, and she used her body as a wall to protect it from the waves. After she saw them, she got emberassed and Otae tried make her feel better. They found Kagura, stating that Laputa must definitely be on that huge cloud. She also felt very bad when she saw them and Otae tried to make her feel better with Kyubei. At last, they saw Katsura. He was drawing an SOS with his piss and was singing Taiyo no Komachi Angel. He saw a giant cloud and stated that Takizawa Crystal must be there and ran out of piss. He also protected the SOS from the waves with his body, making Gintoki and Shinpachi furious. They talked about their situation and made three groups. Hasegawa and Otae were in charge of cooking. Hasegawa caught lots of fishes and Otae burned his sunglasses to start a fire.
Hasegawa and Otae came and they entered into the cave. The skeleton was Kamenashi’s wife. Through tv, they saw the people in Edo getting old and Kamenashi explained that this is the work of Otohima and stated that they are the only ones that can stop her. Turtles appeared on the shore and attacked them. They tried to hold on until Gintoki and Katsura comes back, however, they returned as old mans and the turtles caught them.
In the prison, they started to talk about their strategies and Gintoki was watching sumo watches with Katsura. Kagura thought Gintoki was eating something and attacked him. Katsura got disturbed by the noise and stated that kids must stop playing with the mega drive and go outside. They all got annoyed by Katsura and Gintoki’s behaviours and some turtles appeared. They took Otae and left. The turtles took Otae to Otohime and she stated that Otae isn’t beautiful at all, making her go crazy and provoke Otohime to show her face. Because Otae insulted her, Otohime wanted to execute Otae. When Otae said to Otohime that she was ugly and didn't know what real beauty was moments before her execution, Otohime dropped her in a pool full of sharks.
Kyuubei and Kagura then came to save Tae and freed her from the rope, they teamed up to kill the sharks as well as Otohime's subordinates. After that, Tae beat up the last guards protecting Otohime and finally continued beating Otohime up until she stopped her project. Their fight was interrupted by more subordinates surrounding Tae with their guns, buying Otohime enough time to let the poison spread inside her palace, letting everyone, including her own subordinates, age extremely fast.
Gintoki and Katsura managed to activate the antidote and everyone in Edo got back to their old selves. Otohime lost and got stuck under the parts of the cannon that was destroyed. Otae and others saved her.
Otae was worried about Shinpachi, who did not share the letter he received from a girl with his sister. As she didn't realize that Shinpachi locked himself up in his room to read the letters he received and thought that he was masturbating in his room, she asked Gintoki to talk to him.
As Otae and Kagura were the only ones who were unable to see the stands in the inn, they were unknowingly turned into stands themselves while cleaning themselves up in the hot spring, leaving it up to Gintoki alone to find a way out of the inn. Later on she was turned into an actual stand and joind her powers with Gintoki's to defeat Oiwa and her husband.
Being unhappy with her character poll ranking, Otae teamed up with Sarutobi, Kyubei, Kagura and Tsukuyo to get the top ranking and formed the Diamond Perfume to go against the higher ranked characters. During this Arc, Tae managed to sweep the Shinsengumi's Commander Kondo Isao out of the way and even managed to "absorb" the Vice-Commander Hijikata Toushirou for a short amount of time. The Diamond Perfume (including Tae herself), the Shinsengumi and Katsura Kotarou were defeated by Sadaharu and Elizabeth.
Otae and Kyuubei met Gintoki, Katsura and Kondo while they were in their cat forms (Kondo was in his gorilla form) and gave them food. Though to Gintoki, Otae was more of an obstacle, as she prevented Kyuubei from giving them delicious meat and fed them her burned out Tamagoyaki, as raw meat isn't healthy for cats. Otae patted Kondo's hair, saying it was a cute gorilla, and Kondo almost freaked out and cried because of happiness.
Otae played several roles in Kondou's, Kyuubei's, Sa-chan's, Gintoki's and Umibouzu's santa scenarios. She played the role of Kagura's mother during Kondou's santa scenatio, the role of every pedestrian during Kyuubei's santa scenatio, herself during Sa-chan's santa scenario and a schoolgirl during Gintoki's and Umibouzu's santa scenario. She also voted each santa's scenario, though instead of using signs with each santa's score, she used signs with death threats or compliments directed to herself.
Two years later, Otae became Kondou Isao "wife", for paying up her up on rebuilding her father's dojo. She later appears to revealed that she was cheating on Kondou and "had a kid" with Hijikata. It was later that she having a kid with Hijikata and being Kondou's wife was proven to be fake, by being a victim of a virus.
Otae gathered her co-cabaret girls and arrived to backup the fight with the Yorozuya against the Saigou Family & Dobunezumi group to protect their town.
After successfully winning the Kabuki war, Otose and Saigou, who were impressed by her performance during the war, offered her to become one of the four Devas. Ever since Otae became a part of the new four Devas. It is hinted that Tae is meant to be the replacement for Kujaku Hime Kada, as her way of managing the Kabuki District is not all that different from the Peacock Princess Kada's. Just like Kada, Tae uses devious methods to harm the Yakuza lead by Kurogoma Katsuo, who does not approve of Tae being one of the four Devas.
Otae went on vacation along with the Yorozuya until she was disturbed by Shinsengumi, who accidentally caused the half-naked Shogun to land on Otae. Otae kicked both the Shogun and Kondou down, causing more trouble for the Shinsengumi who ruined her stay. Later on she was seen helping Gintoki and Hijikata who were both gliding down a snow hill without being able to stop. However, she, the Shinsengumi top three, the Yorozuya, Katsura and the Shogun were cought by an avalanche causing everyone to get lost in an uninhabited snow area. Otae teamed up with everyone to find the Shogun to prevent them all to be executed and helped searching for a safe place so that her group won't freeze to death. She departed from the group and found a cave. After discovering the cave, Tae realized it was inhabited by Chupacabra, though instead of trying to escape, she killed and cooked them. When she suggested to explore the cave even further and kill every Chupacabra inside, everyone else ran away from her, searching for a new hideout all over again.
Otae slept with Gintoki when he was drunk during a celebration. When Gintoki payed Otae a visit in the next morning and told her that he can't even remember the night, Otae punched him. To calm her down, Gintoki asked Otae to try starting a relationship with him. When Tae agreed to that, they lived together in a house in which Gintoki hid the other women he slept with (Tsukuyo, Yagyuu Kyuubei, Sarutobi Ayame and Otose) as well. The women, who were all in a relationship with Gintoki at that point finally met, but didn't know about each other's relationship with Gintoki. They all didn't name their partner so they didn't figure out that they were all in a relationship with the same man. They arranged a romantic date in the cinema, where everyone was supposed to appear along with his boyfriend. Hattori Zenzou provided Gintoki with dolls that looked exactly like him to date all women at once. As Gintoki failed to control his dolls properly, one doll kissed Tae. Tae, who thought that the doll was Gintoki, angrily tore the doll apart, trying to kill Gintoki for kissing her. When she finally realized where the real Gintoki was and what was going on, she beat Gintoki up along with the other women. Afterwards, Zenzou finally revealed his and the women's secret and told Gintoki that all of this was merely one big prank from the very start.
When Kyoushirou was about to lose his host club because of Madame Yagami's upcoming visit, every single host except for him quit. Gintoki, Shinpachi and Kagura tried to gather other people to support Kyoushirou and become Takagamahara hosts. Although Takamagahara only provided male hosts, the Yorozuya asked Tae, as her aggressive behavior makes her seem manly. After Tae beat Gintoki and Shinpachi up for implying that she's manly, Kyoushirou explained that she could be useful as she is the best female hostess and has a lot of experience as a hostess. She volunteered to be the waitress, though she behaved more like the boss of the Takagamahara and invited Tsukuyo and the Hyakka, Yagyuu Kyuubei and her subordinates and Saigou Tokumori and the Drag Queen Clubhouse. Later when Madame Yagami appeared, Tae was already drunk and kept drinking with the other girls, although she was an employee and not a guest.
Otae, who, like everyone else, forgot about Sakata Gintoki and could only remember Sakata Kintoki, was confronted with the existence of Gintoki. While Kintoki managed to convince everyone that Gintoki is merely a criminal who killed Tama, Tae was the only one to admit that she couldn't believe Kintoki's words and trusted Gintoki. She was also among the ones who remembered who Gintoki was before Kintoki's hypnosis wave was nullified.
While Gintoki fought Kintoki along with the others, Otae teamed up with Shinpachi and Kagura to support him.
When Kintoki was trapped in an illusion after being defeated, Otae and the Yorozuya appeared in his "nightmare". In this illusion, Otae played the role of a coach who caused Kintoki to lose his only chance to find his reincarnated girlfriend.
After Obi Hajime's death, Otae and her brother went on vacation to come to terms with Obi Hajime's death. After they returned, Tae visited Obi Hajime's grave to assure him that she and her brother are doing fine.
After Gintoki and Hijikata switched souls and Gengai made the others to switch souls too, the dead cat, who had Gintoki's other half soul, went to Otae's house, since she was taking care of the cat as a "pet". At first, Hijikata and Gintoki followed the cat to Otae's house, and made a plan to seize the cat, which included a flirting session with Otae. Both Hijikata and Gintoki were flirty with Otae, but she rejected both.
After a bit, Kondo Isao (in Shinpachi's body) took Otae's hand and left running with her to "be safe (Kondo was planning some incestous stuff)", but Otae complained and screamed, and the cat, who was knocked by Sarutobi Ayame (in Kondo's body), heard her and jumped to rescue her. Otae escaped back to her house and found that everyone was there.
Gintoki (still in Hijikata's body) was trapped by Sarutobi (still in Kondo's body), who was being way too flirty with him, and Otae asked if something was going on between the two of them. At first, Gintoki said that they were just friends, then he said that everyone in the Shinsengumi were homosexual, and that was why suppossedly Kondo fell in love with Otae. Before Gintoki could finish the sentence, Otae punched him.
Before Otae could be disappointed of everyone's behaviour by trying to seize the cat, Shinpachi (in his glasses) put on Otae's face, and she could finally see who everyone really were. Because of this, Otae didn't interfere anymore in the fight for the cat.
Otae visited Kagura at the hospital, and assisted to her funeral. When Kagura's coffin was heading to the crematorium, Otae helped Kondo Isao and Hijikata Toshirou to carry a huge boulder and throw it to Kagura's coffin, much to her dislike. They did this because they thought that it was the way to mourn the dead among the Yato tribe.
She played the castanets at the Hanakuso (snot) DiamondZ 48 band, along with Sarutobi Ayame, Yagyuu Kyuubei and Tsukuyo. Later the band played to support Terakado Otsuu in her competition against the Galaxy Kingdom Bitches 48 band.
Gintama The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yoruzuya[]
In the second Gintama movie, Otae is shown after five years. Her hair color changed from brown to white due to an uncurable and deadly illness called "the White Plague". Tae refused to die before she didn't meet Sakata Gintoki one more time to say good bye. Sarutobi Ayame stated that not just Tae's physical condition, but also her will was weakened because of this illness, as Otae never took abuse from anyone before she was infected by the White Plague, but did nothing when she was abused by Ayame after being infected by it. She later died at the same time Blight was stabbed by Gintoki.
After Gintoki figured out what the source of the White Plague was and manipulated the past war to prevent it from spreading, Otae, who was now in great health again, came back to life and took part in the war. During the war, she fought Amantos back to back with Gintoki and later joined by Yagyuu Kyuubei to give Gintoki a chance to reach Blight and end the war.
Trivia[]
She was the only person during the Kintama arc who didn't feel hate toward Gintoki even when she believed the lie that he hurt Tama and she was the first person to start remembering Gintoki.
Gintoki is the first person Otae bows to during lesson 405.
The kanji character for her name which is 妙 means 'strange'.
Otae was born on Halloween. This might be an allusion to her scary demeanor.
It is believed that her personality and traits is based on Sakamoto Ryoma's Third older sister named Sakamoto Tome (坂本乙女) know as Otome (お乙女) by everyone, she always was described as being violent and angry towards Sakamoto during his childhood to get him prepared to be a strong samurai.
Though it is stated that, unlike the Shinsengumi, her character was not based on a historical figure, there are a few historical figures that Tae's character, story and combat-style could very well be based on.
Her favorite food is Bargain Dash, a parody of the ice cream Haagen-Dazs.
Otae has the same cooking skill as Bianchi from Hitman Reborn.
Otae has the same voice actress as Kagome Higurashi from InuYasha, Chidori Kaname from Full Metal Panic!, Milly Thompson from Trigun, Koala from ONE PIECE, Miho Amakata from Free! and Shihouin Yoruichi from Bleach.
In Tales of the Rays, in the collaboration event with Gin Tama, Milla from Tales of Xillia 2 gains a costume of Tae through the mirrage arte "桜花千嵐".
(To Shinpachi) "Does a child need a reason to protect what our parents loved?"
(To Shinpachi) "Shin-chan it's just like you said, nothing good will come by protecting this dojo, you only feel pain. But giving it up is also painful. Things that you can't take back are painful to keep or throw away. Since both ways are painful, I rather suffer protecting it."
(To Shinpachi) "But Shin-Chan, if there's a time where your friend takes the wrong road, at that time, even if it ruins your friendship you should stop him. THAT'S A TRUE SAMURAI FRIENDSHIP!"
(To Shinpachi) "Shin-chan, you're a lucky boy. That's because you have a goal to guide you through the darkness. The truly unfortunate are those who stand still without any sense of which direction to go. And it's hardest on the person who's running out in front, when he can't tell left from right. ...True, they aren't nice enough to slow down for you. They may take a lot of detours... but you believe that he's moving forward, right? You're very fortunate to have someone like that, Shin-chan. No matter how far he gets, you'll still be able to see him. As long as you keep moving, I can promise you that you'll be able to catch up. It only makes sense, since I will always be there to kick you along."
(To Yagyuu Kyuubei) "Kyu-chan... You are you. It doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman. You'll always be my precious friend. So please... don't cry. And you dare to call yourself a samurai?"
(To Tomu) "Do you think your fake beliefs will work on us? We believe in something more certain, and that's friendship!"
(To Sakata Gintoki) "If 'sorry' was enough, we wouldn't have seppuku."
(To Hijikata Toushirou) "So you intend to eliminate the woman who is the source of your boss's scandalous behaviour? I would expect no less from the demon vice-commander. You're used to doing dirty work after all. However, there's no point in worrying about the Shinsengumi at this point, since your Shinsengumi and everything else... will be absorbed by us!"
(To Otohime) "I'll say this straight from my heart. You're ugly. Your heart is truly laughably wretched."
(To Otohime) "You're not the only one... who ages with time. No matter how beautiful a person may be, they will still age and eventually die. But even so, even if appearances change, don't you believe that we have things in us that don't change? Even as our bodies crumble, even as the months and years take their toll... Don't you believe that we all have something that time can't spoil? Even if you cover us with winrkles, we won't lose to you. That's because we know what beauty truly is."
(To Dobunezumi gang) "It's not very nice of you to decide the fate of the Kabuki District on your own. This town doesn't belong to any of you. It belongs to us cabaret girls! The Jirocho gang and the Okama gang can bring it on. We'll show you how terrifying the Kabuki District truly is!"
(To Dobunezumi gang) "Who are you calling a regular cabaret girl? Get on your knees! I am the Queen of the Kabuki District!"
(To Obi Hajime) "Please watch us, Obi-one-niisama. The crybaby who always followed you around and I, who always admired your strength... have become much stronger after meeting everyone else. Strong enough to stop you."
(To Shinpachi) "Shin-chan, I was thinking that I couldn't go back anymore. Those days would never come back. That's what I thought. But it looks like... I can still smile."
(To Tsukuyo, Sarutobi Ayame and Kyuubei) " Even when they're together, they avoid looking at each other. They know that seeing each other's sadness will just make them feel worse. Looking at each other brings back memories of the past... and memories of him. Honestly, what in the world is that idiot up to? If he doesn't come back soon, we're all going to drift apart. If he doesn't come back soon... I won't be able to say goodbye. I wish I could see it only one more time... The three of them, smiling together."
(To Gintoki) " Whether its a cursed past or a cursed future. We, the Yorozuya, will always be there."
(To Gintoki) "Haven't you been saved from hell yourself? You, Mr. Demon, who destroyed the entire world."
References[]
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 1, Lesson 1, p. 41.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 7, Lesson 50, p. 23.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 7, Lesson 50, p. 23.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 14, Lesson 117, p. 13.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. Shueisha, Vol. 22, Lesson 187, p. 9.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 20, Lesson 175, p. 9.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 3, Lesson 17, p. 13.
↑Sorachi Hideaki. Gintama. VIZ media, Vol. 15, Lesson 123, p. 4.
.jpeg){kind=link}
