Gin Ichimaru: THE SNAKE | BLEACH: Character Analysis

gen ichimaru is the silverhead blue-eyed snake in the grass he is considered to be mysterious and untrustworthy his motives are largely unknown for the majority of his appearances in the series in this video i want to reveal the mystery behind his sinister smile along with understanding his true motives and purpose for defecting from the soul society and joining eisen as his closest ally why did gin betray everyone what was the purpose behind his actions let's analyze his character to understand the sacrifices that he makes and the reason behind why he acts the way he does in the series [Music] gin first appears in chapter 65 and in episode 20 of the anime he is condescending and often results to sarcasm to intimidate others this causes him to be difficult to read and understand it also results in others around him feeling uncomfortable through the way that he mocks others while smiling and appearing well-mannered prior to his betrayal he was still not trusted by others within the goti 13. he is fully aware of how he makes others feel often enjoying putting others through discomfort as seen in chapter 145 when he toys with rukia he appears before rukia while she is being escorted to her execution portraying the extent of his twisted mentality gen gives rukia hope by offering to help her stop the execution from going ahead he gives her hope just as she has accepted her fate when he reveals that he was lying i didn't really intend on helping her it is a cruel purposeful act which demonstrates how evil he was prior to his betrayal in one of his early appearances in chapter 75 he greets ichigo and company as they arrive at the gates of the cerete during the saw society arc the gatekeeper jidambo decides to lift the gate to allow the intruders to enter as the gate is opened ichigo sees gin on the other side of the gate as though he was expecting them this whole time convenient appearances like this draw suspicion towards his character and serve as the basis for questioning his every action going into the soul society arc gin defeats jidambo and releases his spiritual pressure to prevent ichigo and the others from entering into the serete he merely deters them instead of killing them which is what he should have done he once again acts purposefully and spares them as though he knows that they will find another way to get into the cerete prior to eisen becoming the main antagonist of the series we were led to believe that he was killed by ginn during the solstice heighty arc his evil wide smile and the way that he was written to be consistently unpredictable and hard to read made it a plausible theory to assume that he did indeed kill eisen to understand gin we need to look into his past their reasoning behind his actions are explained during a couple of flashbacks which involve gin and rangiku they explained the reason behind his betrayal of the soul society and his subsequent loyalty to eisen which spanned over 100 years during his childhood gyn lived within the rukongai district we learn in chapter 129 that gin first met rangiku who was collapsed and drained of a spiritual pressure he offers their food to replenish her spiritual energy and the two of them become acquainted we learned from a data book called bleach official bootleg karaburi plus which focuses on the gotai 13 that gin and rangiku started living together after their first meeting their relationship is further expanded upon in chapter 415 which shows us a young gin collecting wooden branches from the forest when he sees three shinigami kneeling before a young sasuke isen we can assume that this flashback occurs while gin and rangiku were already living together gin sees the three shinigami hand over an orb to eisen he then recalls that they were the same three shinigami he spotted near to where he first found rangiku drained over spiritual energy he realizes that eisen is their leader and he had instructed them to use the hokyoku to collect the energy from the citizens of rukongai from this single observation he resolves to kill eisen like a snake peering at his prey through the bushes he sets his sights on eisen and patiently waits to strike him at the most opportune moment when he least expects it rangiku tells us in chapter 133 that gin had a bad habit of disappearing without telling her where he was going when they were younger this habit hadn't changed despite him now becoming a captain chapter 416 shows us one such occasion where gin had wandered out without telling her where he was going she followed his footsteps in the snow to find gin wearing a shinigami robe with blood on his face he turns around to tell her that he has decided to become a shinigami so that he may change things he is driven by his desire to no longer see rangiku cry as she is one of the very few people that he truly cares about they both entered into the academy together and trained to become shinigami gin had graduated only a year after being admitted to the academy due to being a prodigy he was assigned a position within the fifth division of which eisen was the lieutenant the rest of gin's past is shown to us during the 10 back the pendulum and everything but the reign flashback arcs during the fourth chapter of the turnback the pendulum arc his desire to remain close to eisen results in him killing the shinigami holding the third seated position within squad 5 eisen witnesses this and is impressed by the young gin choosing to offer again the third seated position while also willing to cover up that he killed shinigami nine years after the beginning of the turn back the pendulum arc we see gin aiding eisen in his holification experiments appearing to have no issue with watching citizens of wukongai undergoing forced holification this including him killing the third seated position of squad 5 is the beginning of gin actively partaking in evil axe and tarnishing his own morality for the sake of gaining eisen's trust the jungkin appears alongside eisen during the holification incident which was such an impactful event that it resulted in several members of the gotai 13 becoming vizards who were consequently exiled from the soul society guin is seen often with his eyes squinting along with a sinister smile which evokes feelings of unease and discomfort it is difficult to interpret gin with any ulterior motives as he is a very convincing right-hand man to eisen's plans when urahara and tessai arrive to help their comrades gin is not surprised by their arrival and appears to have been anticipating them after they turn back the pendulum arc we see again in the everything but the rain flashback which spans from chapters 528 to 537. during this flashback we see gin who is now older and appears to have become the captain of squad 3. despite having become a captain he was still a reliable subordinate of eisens following his every command during this time gin was helping eisen to locate the whereabouts of the wizards while also continuing their holification experiments genn observes ishin battling with the hollow called white that isen had created he comments on how ishin's surprise involvement could disrupt their plans when eisen tozen and gin arrive on the battlefield cloaked and concealed for a closer view of the battle between ishin and white eisen attacks isian from behind gin notices that ishin has knowledge of another enemy on the battlefield gin tells eisen that ishin is aware that someone other than the hollow has just attacked him questioning if it is safe to just leave him while he has knowledge of this but eisen dismisses gain's concerns chronologically before his first appearance in the series he already aided in horrific acts and in hindsight looking back at these events shows us how much he devoted himself to his desire for revenge he did all of this just so that he could protect rangiku's smile despite now knowing that he had good intentions all along it does help us to understand him but it does not alleviate the air of mystery and discomfort that he brought about whenever he would make an appearance throughout the series this is especially shown through how gin enjoys making others feel uneasy and fearful of his presence now that we know about gin's backstory and his motive for action we can now analyze the additional information that kubo provides about gin through the poems he writes for him as well as explaining the meaning behind the names of his abilities on zombocto guinea chumaru is featured on the cover of two bleach volumes volume 20 and 47. at the beginning of these two volumes there are two poems written about his character which aid in our understanding of his mysterious nature the poem in volume 20 speaks about the beauty and ugliness of love those who do not know what love is liken it to beauty those who claim to know what love is liken it to ugliness interpreting this poem from the perspective of gin's character we can assume that the poem is referencing the relationship between kin and rangiku the first half of the poem speaks about people who seek love purely through an idealistic perspective while love is painless and beautiful the first half is for those who have never experienced love but simply desire to experience it the second half elaborates upon the first by describing the perspective of those who have experienced love and have a better understanding of it than the idealistic dreamers do those who have experienced love liken it to ugliness this is in reference to the lengths that someone would go to for the sake of their love applying this interpretation to gin's character we can understand that he has forsaken his morals his humanity and his beauty all for his feelings of love this poem features at an early point in the series and we can see that it hints at gin's toxic desire for revenge and his love for rangiku how something as pure as love can fuel his actions and result in him aiding eisen through following his orders gin appears as an ugly villainous traitor to us the reader and the characters in the series who are oblivious to his true intentions this is what makes his character feel so well written there are hints dotted in the series regarding his relationship and past with rangiku and we only really have the veil lifted about his true intentions in chapter 414 it is very subtle and the whole love aspect doesn't feel overbearing it is subtly stated and allows for a great motive behind his desire for revenge kubo once again allows us to read between the lines and piece together a deeper understanding of his characters through the nuances that he writes into his manga the poem in volume 47 describes the dilemma that gin faces if you became a snake tomorrow and began devouring people if you rod your love for me with that mouth that you used to devour people could i still say that i love you as i do today this poem symbolizes gin having come to the end of his journey looking into a mirror facing his own reflection as he questions himself he does this through questioning what if the roles were reversed and rangiku had become the snake that devoured people yet with that same mouth she proclaimed her love for him would he be able to say that he loves her too after realizing all of the wrong that she has done through gain trying to see things from rangiku's perspective he is questioning if everything he has done for the sake of his love for her has been worth it the price he has had to pay to protect her smile and ensure she would not cry anymore was it all worthwhile gain is wondering if you could still say that he loves her and be accepted by her after betraying the soul society being involved in killing innocent people and helping eisen this poem explores the predicament that gin has created for himself as he puts herself in her shoes and wonders if he would be able to love rangiku if she did wrong for his sake he tries to understand their feelings for him after having come so far volume 47 features gin's reunion with rangiku which i want to explore in the hopes that it sheds more light upon the dynamics of their relationship prior to leaving the soul society gin tozen and eisen were surrounded by the gotai 13. rangiku had grabbed gin holding him captive to prevent him from getting away the three defectors managed to escape but before gin leaves he tells rangiku that he would have liked to have been held captive by her a little while longer he apologizes to her this occurs in chapter 178 she is properly reunited with gin in chapter 411 as she arrives to stop isen and gin who are in the real karakura town in the next chapter 412 we see gin ensuring eisen that he will get rid of his old friend rangiku eisen says that they have plenty of time and allows him to catch up with her ghin insists that she is in the way but eisen replies not at all this subtle exchange reveals how aware eisen is of gin's relationship with rangiku and how gin tries to dismiss these assumptions by displaying loyalty to eisen by taking out rangiku gin grabs her and gets her out of eisen's side just as he said she is clearly agitated and understandably mad at him she does not want him to touch her as she demands that he lets her go rangiku reveals that she waited for him to arrive in the real karakura town despite barely being able to stand gin asks her why she would do that while barely having any strength she states it was because she knew that he would be here her desire is to confront gin in order to ask him face to face what made him serve under eisen was the reason worth betraying everybody including his lieutenant izuru kira who trusted him completely gin asks her if she is certain if kira indeed completely trusted him and was betrayed by him or perhaps was it someone else he is referring to rangiku who indeed is the one who completely trusted gin i felt betrayed by his actions the most he comes closer to her and asks her why did she have to come he draws his blade to her and calls it a nuisance as it appears that he has taken it out we see rangiku collapsed on the ground as gin leaves her heading back to eisen when he returns to eisen he is asked what he did with her to which he replies that he killed her izan confirms that her spiritual energy is no longer present he expresses his surprise as he assumed that gin would have shown her mercy this shows that eisen was well aware of his feelings for her and how she may be weaknessed again however he dismisses these notions as he reminds eisen about the first time that they met how he referred to himself as a snake this moment is important to understand gin as he describes his own character better than anyone else could he states that his skin is cold he has no heart he slithers looking for prey with the tip of his tongue swallowing people that he cares about whole he likened himself to a snake because that is the kind of creature that he is totally detaching himself from the notion of mercy that eisen tried to label him with eisen says that he is ready to leave and desires to kill and hang the bodies of ichigo's friends somewhere visible for everyone to see moments after reminding or should i say warning eisen about his true nature he catches him off guard and pierces him through his chest with his umpteo kin reveals that he knows how to escape kyokasugetsu's power he does so by touching eisen zambakdo in its unreleased state he waited for decades to learn how to escape the hypnotic effects of sui getsu just so that he could exploit this weakness at the most opportune time nobody within the gotai 13 knows about this he states that despite not knowing the weakness to eisen zumbakdo it was interesting watching the gotai 13 try to defeat eisen eisen trying to remain composed reveals that he was expecting gin to betray him but was curious as to how he would try to take his life again leaves a fragment of his zombucto within eisen's chest and it is here that we learn about the true nature of ginzambakdo it does extend but upon expanding or contracting it disintegrates and within the blade is a deadly poison that has the ability to dissolve cells similar to the fangs of a snake his zamboak dough is his fang that he uses to deliver his venom the fragment that ginn left within isen is inside his heart he advises him to say his last words quickly as he is about to die soon gin activates his bankai and uses his ability called kill kamishini no yari which translates to kill god killing spear this is significant as it shows that ginn was destined to kill eisen who strive to achieve a godly status ginsenbakdo is also called shinso which translates to godspear the name of his bankai matches with his true intentions for those willing to look closely into the words that the characters speak the names of their abilities and zombakdo as it reveals hints that have been there from the very beginning pointing to events like gin's attempt to take izan's life the god-killing spear was indeed used against a god as ginn tells him that he will finally be able to die now with a hole in his chest saying that this should make him feel happy the hole in his chest is in reference to his obsession with merging hollow and shinigami powers so eisen who is a shinigami now with a hollow hole in his chest is an ironic visual representation of that which he seeked gin retrieves the hokyoku from eisen who seems to have been killed as his body breaks down to a cellular level however eisen survives the attack and despite taking the hokyoku it belongs to eisen and ends up returning to him as he confronts gin and cuts him down you can see the anguish in gin's eyes as everything he sacrificed and live for fades to nothing his efforts are mounted to nothing gin tries reaching for the hokyoku in a final futile attempt to stop eisen but he grabs his wrist and rips his arm off he then impales him through the chest before throwing his body into a nearby building gin recalls back to the moment that he promised rangiku that he would become a shinigami so that he may change things so that she won't have to cry anymore it is incredibly emotional to see gin defeated and on the brink of death as we finally understand his motives realizing just how misunderstood he was up until this point rangiku awakens the sense that gin has been attacked by eisen we learned that he used aikido spell called hakufuku on rengiku which confuses and disorientates its target resulting in them falling unconscious explaining how he non-lethally subdued rangiku before you return to eisen she rushes again when he sees her he feels regret that he could not return to her that which was taken from her he does however feel relief knowing that he had the chance to apologize to her gain sacrificed everything till the very end he made himself appear as a monster to everyone including the one that he loved the most his encounter with rangiku before he attempts to kill eisen answers the poem from volume 47 he realizes that rangiku would not be able to accept a snake who devoured others with the same mouth that he declares his love for her the question posed from the poem is answered through his realization that she would not be able to say that she loves him in return after everything he has done she is crying while holding him in her arms revealing to us how deep of a bond the two of them shared and how tragic it was that he dedicated so much of his time for her happiness in order to prevent her from crying just to see tears in her eyes as he is about to die through his dedication he proved that he would have done anything for her even compromising his sense of right and wrong he is a complex character who really gave us a lot to think about through how he spoke and acted convincing us of his sinister nature when in fact his intentions were good and resulted in him dying for the sake of these intentions in his final moments he looks at dungai ichigo and sees the difference in the expression of his eyes he no longer sees feelings of anxiousness doubt and fear reflected in his eyes they appear stern and fixated he describes them as being stronger upon seeing this he feels relief knowing that he can leave the rest to ichigo now during the battle in fake karakoram town in chapter 398 ichigo attacks gin from behind as they battle together for the first time since gin first appeared and cut off jidambo's arm back in the soul society arc the two of them battle each other and exchanged words which helped to shed some light on ichigo's understanding of gin as a character and what gin perceived about ichigo also ichigo reveals that during battle he understands his opponents through their crossing of their blades further describing that he can sense why the person is fighting or whether if his opponent is looking down on him or not he says that he was not able to sense this from ginn because during their last encounter gin was not looking at ichigo they begin to battle as gin describes ichigo as a creepy kid and understands why eisen appears to be interested in him this entire battle feels like gin testing ichigo out assessing his strength and his mental fortitude chapter 404 gin takes a break from fighting to talk to ichigo he states that it is inevitable that he and his friends are going to die now that eisen has absorbed the hokyoku he can feel ichigo's resolve being shaken as he manages to catch ichigo's slip and indirectly admit that he will be defeated this further wavers ichigo's resolve he continues to tell ichigo that he is weak and wonders if he was always like this as he tells him that he was scarier back when they first clashed their zambukto in the soul society arc he advises ichigo to just run away as he is disappointed by his lack of resolve gin continues to ridicule ichigo and makes him come to realize how futile his efforts really are he mentally breaks him here as he says that he is not a warrior not a soul reaper not a hollow and not even a human he questions if he can beat eisen who is too much for yurichi ishin and urahara can he really match their level of skill against an opponent as strong as eisen he doubts that ichigo would be a worthy opponent especially in the state that he is in now he tells him to run away once more and that he isn't interested in him anymore even eisen would be disappointed to see him like this he tells ichigo that he knows he is scared because ichigo can sense eisen's true power and how impossible it is to even fathom to defeat him we see ichigo utterly succumbed to gin's onslaught of words which cause ichigo to feel hopelessness as he appears to be in anguish this situation explains why kin is so relieved later when he sees dungai ichigo as the whole purpose of this encounter was to help ichigo to come to terms with his fears and to realize the difference in his power compared to eisens sure enough gin did plan to kill eisen but knowing that ichigo was broken in the hopes that he would rebuild himself to be stronger was a great backup plan which proved to work as ichigo returns with stronger more determined eyes far removed from the fear-induced doubtful eye skin had seen before while analyzing gin's character it is difficult not to mention the parallels that he shares with another silver head captain of the gotai 13. yes i'm talking about toshiro hitsugaya both of them were gifted youths considered to be prodigies for their ages hitsugaya especially as he was the youngest shinigami to become a captain throughout the whole history of the gortai 13 as well as this isem was involved closely with the two of them in regards to how he manipulated rangiku who gin was close to and momo who hits gaia had grown up with through eisen harming and manipulating them it causes gin and hitsugaya to share a common desire to kill eisen however the two of them fail at this task the similarities however do end here as the two of them take totally different approaches to enact their desire for revenge against eisen for gin wanting to kill eisen came before everything else in his life his desire for revenge was placed above his lothar rangiku his honor as a shinigami and his sense of humanity however hitsugaya did not neglect his bond with momo he openly expressed his concern for her and remained within the gortai 13 honouring his commitment as a captain and did not commit any atrocious acts like gin during the battle and fake karakura town hitsugai had his opportunity to take out eisen but failed ginn observed this and later tried to exact his revenge to his own way which too failed after gin had revealed his true intentions his character arc was completed his purpose was fulfilled upon saying kill kamishini no yuri which just so happens to be one of my favorite lines within bleach it is symbolic of the moment that ginn was able to get payback for what eisen did to the one he loved how he enjoyed being loyal for over 100 years to the one who hurt rangiku the patience self-restraint and the sacrifices that he made for his purpose resulted in being one of the most selfless yet selfish characters within bleach selflessly he wanted rangiku to no longer cry while selfishly allowing himself to be absorbed in revenge to bring about his selfless desire the mystery and complexity behind this character is the reason why gin is still remembered to this day as one of the best characters to feature within bleach if you enjoyed this video and would like to see more like it then please consider supporting my channel on patreon i have multiple tiers with rewards including access to an exclusive discord server video scripts as well as being the first to know about unreleased upcoming videos thank you for your time and whatever you choose to contribute i will appreciate and it will mean a lot to me [Music] you

Channel: DBZimran

Views: 274,148

Keywords: Gin, gin ichimaru, gin bleach, gin vs aizen, gin vs ichigo, gin ichimaru vs ichigo, gin ichimaru vs aizen, gin ichimaru vs toshiro, gin ichimaru death, gin ichimaru bankai, gin ichimaru past, gin ichimaru backstory, bleach, bleach 2020, gin ichimaru character analysis, bleach character analysis, gin ichimaru analysis, rangiku cries for gin, history of gin ichimaru, gin ichimaru explained, gin betrays aizen, bleach analysis, ichigo, aizen, gin ichimaru theme

Id: N_cI-JhsVgc

Length: 22min 6sec (1326 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020