Kotarou Katsura

Kotarou Katsura is a character from the Gintama anime and manga.

Koutarou is the leader of a moderate Joui faction and a fugitive wanted by the authorities. He is also proficient in the art of escape from the Shinsengumi (formerly), penitentiaries and explosives.

Appearance
He has long black hair (Okada Nizou wondered whether Katsura is really a man, for having such silky hair in Episode 58). He sports olive-brown eyes and has an attractive demeanour. Neptune Shoukaku in Episode 319 describes him as a dainty guy with effeminate and delicate features. He typically wears a blue kimono with a yellow sash. The fact that he typically wears a pale blue haori on top of his kimono and white socks with slippers suggests that he is particular about how he dresses and carries himself. He is never seen lying around or sitting in a unrefined manner, and he typically keeps his arms in his sleeves when not carrying anything. Since he is a wanted man, Katsura usually uses disguises to hide from Shinsengumi or to wander freely in public.

Personality
Katsura's illogical decisions often suggest him to be a complete moron, though this may be a result of his lack of common sense rather than actual stupidity as in his childhood he was considered a talented genius who was able to attend a prestigious school without having the money to pay for it. Despite that, Katsura couldn't identify the Shogun by his physical appearance, or by his nickname "Shou-chan" during the Confessional Arc. It was later revealed that both the Shogun and the Joui rebel knew each other all along. Although he appears as an idiot most of the time in the series, he is very smart and sensible when serious circumstances arise. Katsura is hardly ever seen joking, which only serves to amplify the oddities of his character. He also has an extreme imagination and improvisation, as he sometimes does the voices of some inanimate objects and tends to have long and dramatic flashbacks and reflections out of pointless matters.

Katsura is also very persistent and kept pestering Gintoki to join him in his Jouishishi rebellion. He is a charismatic leader and commands great respect from his followers. One of his Joui followers described him as a man who cannot back down once he gets into high spirits over something. In fact he was able to rally a big group of followers in a very short time during his prison stint in Episode 110.

Thrifty in habit, he eats simple meals like soba, and once advised Elizabethagainst eating 'strawberry milk and parfait' so as not to weaken the body and the spirit (see Episode 58), though he has a soft-spot for nmaibo (Nmaibo), a corn snack modelled after umaibo (umaibo).

Katsura is very polite, usually adding the honorific "dono" to people. He takes great care not to offend any person. When he thought he offended the human punching bag, he gladly offered his "treasure", a borrowed Nintendo cartridge. Katsura also loves animals, especially the paw pads of dogs and cats.

Katsura has a soft spot for housewives (or fetish, just choose), especially widows, as shown in the Owee chapter when he was playing the dating simulation and his bond with Ikumatsu. Later on, he digresses on this soft spot by bluntly admitting that he does in fact has a fetish for unfaithful wives. During this digression, Gintoki points out that Katsura has always been shy about women, even as a kid, and mentioned his first crush being the neighborhood widow.

In the beginning of the series, Katsura hated the world for taking away Yoshida Shouyou life and was willing to cause destruction against the government and Shinsengumi. But after seeing how Gintoki acted and falling out with Takasugi after the Benizakura Arc, he decided to find more peaceful solutions. It is also possible that his encounter with Ikumatsu and hearing about her past might had influenced him as well.

His sense of self-preservation started in his childhood, since his parents died from an illness, having been stripped off of their mansion, and he was left roaming the streets together with his grandmother. While visiting the grave of his parents, his grandmother told him that no matter how strong or great a warrior may be, if he dies, he wouldn't be able to protect his country or anyone at all. So to be a great general, one must be more careful and more fearful in order to survive and lead the war. When his grandmother died, he was on his own until he met Sakata Gintoki and Takasugi Shinsuke. While studying under Yoshida Shouyou, he made a resolve to be "a samurai who is both more cowardly and stronger than anyone else" so he could protect his comrades. This resolve earned him the nickname "Runaway Kotarou".

Abilities
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: In his childhood, he was under the tutelage of Yoshida Shouyou together with Sakata Gintoki and Takasugi Shinsuke. He learnt swordsmanship from Yoshida Shouyou, Katsura uses a Katana and is a highly skilled samurai. Part of the legendary "Joui 4", he earned the nickname "The Nobleman of Madness". This was evident that once he decided to go all out on Shoukakau, he ignores defense and was capable of making offensive skills, even comparable to a rampaging beast.

Enhanced Endurance:Katsura has shown a great amount of endurance, as seen during the Rakuyou Arc, during his battle against Neptune Shoukaku. Despite being brutally injured by Shoukaku, he managed to get up and eventually defeat him.

Enhanced Durability:Katsura has shown during the battle against Shoukaku to have a hard head, being able to defeat Shoukaku with a headbutt due to this when both of them were heavily exhausted.

When Katsura was trained by Sarutobi Ayame as ninja to save Elizabeth, according to her his speed doesn't fall behind a true ninja, and he was ranked B as his speed was good but his awareness was moderate.

According to Gintoki, Katsura has never caught a cold because he thinks that his body resisted the cold. It turns out that his body can absorbs viruses to the point of where it strengthens his immune system which turns him into Ill Smith.

Master Tactician:In addition to being the leader of a fairly large terrorist group, he is also a bomb specialist and is extremely good at gathering information on a variety of people.

He is a crafty, creative and intelligent person despite him not appearing that way, shown by the following: Engineering Specialist:He is shown to be quite good at technology, as evidenced by the following: Disguise Master:He is a master of disguises:
 * He was a prodigy as a child, due to which he was able to obtain a scholarship to a distinguished military school despite being poor.
 * His stunts to escape Shinsengumi's sight by using a Nmaibo as a smoke bomb.
 * He carries a parachute pack under his haori.
 * Whenever he incorporates food (curry or fried rice) into his fighting style, enemies become quickly incapacitated from indigestion and severe diarrhea from consuming the food.
 * He used Takeshi's Famicom "Super Monkey Adventure" cartridge against the Shinsengumi.
 * In Lesson 173 it was shown he knew Yamazaki Sagaru was a spy sent to infiltrate the Joui the whole time. (In the anime this was changed to lengthen the episode).
 * His cunning is shown in Episode 110, where he told Suekichi he gained control of the prisoners and started a revolution in the gaol to change their lives for the better, while in actuality it was all a trick and he was planning to escape all along.
 * The true extension of his tactical abilities was displayed 2 years after the battle. By using the wide information network in his disposal, he's able to determine more about the Tendoushuu's final whereabouts and events that occurred within the 2 years after the battle against Utsuro and their true plans. Taking a high position not only to help rebuild Edo and gather extensive information, he also collaborated with the Shinsengumi in performing a false assassination attempt in order to take out the corrupt political members within the new government and to prepare for the true battle. Through this, his allies were aware of preceding events and take measures to prepare for it.
 * He is a bomb specialist who prepares his own time bombs.
 * He is one of the few to own a personal computer (an Apple laptop as shown in Lesson 85), he frequently spends time on forums and sends people spam messages to join the Joui on cellphones.
 * He was able to master use of the Super Matsui Stick RX within a few seconds of getting it.
 * In Episode 223 he disrupted a terrorist group's radar net so that the latter would not know where they were, and guided Matsudaira Katakuriko by sending him a map on his cellphone in order for him to rescue his daughter.
 * He immediately knew how to pilot a Gunsam without prior experience in Episode 234.
 * When he dressed up as a pirate, Katsura called himself "Captain Katsura".
 * He dressed as a soccer player and called himself Captain Katsura.
 * He disguised himself as a travelling Buddhist Monk.
 * While having an interview, Katsura just wore a Groucho glasses disguise.
 * In Episode 60 it was shown that he managed to escape from Nizou, he hid and disguised himself as Elizabeth.
 * He also has his own custom Renho disguise which is also a space suit.
 * He also went by the name "DJ Ozura" as his rapper identity but Kondou Isao saw through it.
 * When Katsura was crossdressing, he went by the name "Zurako".
 * On Episode 98, Katsura called himself "Katsuo" when he cosplayed as Mario during the Bentendo Owee event.
 * In Episode 120, he went by the not-so-clever alias of 'Joey (Joui) Katsura' when he was working undercover as an Amanto in an exclusive Amanto-only Restaurant, with the intention of forcing it to close down by blowing it up, before the extremist factions come and caused trouble.
 * He quickly disguised himself as a waiter when hiding in Ikumatsu Ramen Store.
 * He disguised himself as a maid called "Ichihara Ezurako" in order to spy on Matsudaira.
 * He disguised himself as a Shinsengumi member called "Hashira Afuro" during the Afro Arc and he was not recognized by anyone.

Trivia

 * According to Sorachi, Katsura is modeled after Kido Takayoshi who went under the name Katsura Kogoro, a man known as "Runaway Kogoro" because of his feat of eluding from the sight of Shinsengumi during Bakumatsu.
 * In the Japanese drama "Shinsengumi!" that Sorachi-sensei used to get some of his ideas from, he would always be known to elude capture.
 * Gintoki calls Katsura by the nickname Zura, the term being a shortened form derived from Katsura.
 * He is shown to sleep with his eyes open several times; once in Episode 110, Episode 233, Episode 272, and Episode 318.
 * He is shown to mistake his basic vocabulary easily, just as when he mistook "nakama" (which means comrades) into namaka, manaka (main character of Ichigo 100%) and ManaKana (which is a japanese girl group composing of twin girls).
 * In Episode 112, on his birthday, he made a short Katsuratama segment (parody of Gintama).
 * In the real history Ikumatsu was originally a Geisha, but eventually she and Katsura got married.
 * A Katsura is the name for a wig.
 * Episode 234 has Katsura piloting a mech visually similar to the RX-78-2 Gundam. This may be a casting gag as Akira Ishida previously voiced Athrun Zala from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.