Tae Shimura

Tae Shimura
Information
Japanese Name:	志村 妙
Romanized Name:	Shimura Tae
Official English Name:	Tae Shimura
Date of Birth:	31 Oct/Scorpio
Age:	18+
Titles:	Otae Anego Big sis
Physical Features
Height:	168 cm (5' 5")
Weight:	49 kg (108 lb)
Status:	Alive
Professional Status
Affiliation(s):	Shimura Family, Snack Smile
Occupation(s):	Cabaret Hostess
Voice Actors
Japanese VA:	Yukino Satsuki
English VA:	Shelley Calene-Black (movie)

(About Gintoki) What a stupid man... But I understand him.

Tae Shimura

Shimura Tae (志村 妙 Shimura Tae ), or just Otae (お妙) (the "お" (O) is an honorific used to refer to women), is the older sister of Shimura Shinpachi. While the Shinsengumi have almost accepted her as the de facto lady boss, or rather the consort of their boss Kondou Isao, by calling her 姐さん ne-e-san.

She works at 'Snack Smile' スナック「すまいる」 as a cabaret hostess to keep the family doujo Koudoukan 恒道館 going (though more often than not, she behaves more like a bouncer).

Background

Shimura Tae grew up with her brother Shimura Shinpachi and his father 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

Otae and Kyuubei were close childhood friends and Kyuubei greatly admired her because she was strong. They promised to get married when they were younger. When people came to the dojo asking for money, Kyuubei protected her losing her eye in the process.

Appearance

She is a young woman with brown hair tied back in a ponytail and brown eyes. She is very pretty. She wears a pink yukata with red flowers on it. She once admitted in her own words that she is 'flat chested'. She can also be very violent, and her weapon of choice seems to be her fists and a naginata. She usually smiles.

• Tae Standard
• Otae as a stand
• Otae in winter garbs
• Otae old
• Otae in a swimsuit
• Tae in her childhood with Kyuubei
• Tanned Otae
• Otae Real Smile

1/8

Personality

Highly egotistical about her own good qualities, yet remarkably stoic in the face of adversity, leading Shinpachi to say that she would still smile even though inwardly she feels sad. Though outwardly appearing sweet and good-natured, in reality she has a quick temper and a violent disposition, in particular towards 'gorilla-like stalkers'.

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 ruff as she is seen scolding her stalker, Gin and even her own brother in a very harsh manner.

Shimura Tae's "dark matter" fried eggs

She loves the expensive brand of ice cream called Bargain Dash (破亜限堕取（バーゲンダッシュ)), a parody of the Häagen-Dazs ice cream in real world, and her most famous cuisine specialty is the 卵焼き tamago yaki aka fried egg, but labelled as 'Dark Matter' or even 'Pitiful egg' by Gintoki and others. This dish has caused the following side effects when eaten:

1. caused Shinpachi's eyesight to deteriorate over long periods of consumption, thereby needing eye glasses
2. aggravated Gintoki's amnesia
3. made Kondou Isao lose his memory
4. caused Yagyuu Binboksai to have diarrhea

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). 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.

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. This made her so scared it caused her to go berserk destroying the skeleton model, making Oryou vomit blood (due to her German Suplex Hold) and smacking up Ochi-san in the process.

Strength & Abilities

She inherited a dojo together with his 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 specialises in using Naginata and she can even use only one hand swinging.

This is matched equally by her physical strength in walloping other people though she is not known to be a fighter. She was able to give Kondou Isao a concussion using just a pico-pico hammer (an inflated squeaky toy hammer) even though he was already wearing a safety helmet. Other than Kondou Isao, Sakata Gintoki is frequently on the receiving end of her rough treatment.

List of Victims

Thus far, Katsura Kotarou, Kyuubei and Kagura seems to be the only main characters acquainted with Otae not to have been roughed up by her. Her list of 'victims' include the following characters:

Victims	Reason for physical abuse	First time being abused
Shimura Shinpachi	Skipping his job For humiliating her Mistaking him as the underwear thief	Lesson 1, p.20 Episode 3
Sakata Gintoki	Having Shinpachi fired from his job Been offensive toward her Been irresponsible on paying	Lesson 1, p.21 Episode 3
Loan Shark Amanto	For demanding her and Shinpachi to sell their dojo.	Lesson 1, p.28 Episode 3
Kondou Isao	Stalking Trying to control her life	Lesson 8, p.5 Episode 2
Underwear Thief	Stealing her panties	Lesson 28, p.18
Hanako	For getting brainwash by Tamo's dream catcher group	Lesson 48, p.3
Hasegawa Taizou	For trying to check her out	Lesson 64, p. 15
Kikuya boss	For sexual abuse toward her	Lesson 74, p.2
Oryou	She was so scared during the test of courage that she accidentally hurt her.	Lesson 82, p.11
Ochi-san 落さん	She thought he was a real ghost	Lesson 82, p.12
Eromes	Betraying Shinpachi	Lesson 86, p.18
Yamazaki Sagaru & The other Shinsengumi members	For trying to convince her to save Kondo from marrying a gorilla	Lesson 110, p.8
Hijikata Toushirou	For trying to get on her way and attack her during the character poll arc.	Lesson 268, p.3
Tokugawa Shige Shige	Without notice by think him to be a sexual abuser and to get rid of Kondo	Lesson 344, p.10
Obi Hajime	For not noticing that he was her first love and trying to say dirty about her and gintoki.	Lesson 403, p.15

Relationships

Family

• Shimura Shinpachi: Otae's younger brother, she can be over protective of him.
• Shimura Ken: Otae's father, she trying her best to save his Dojo.

Mentor

• Obi Hajime: He was the former chief coach of the Koudoukan. He was like an older brother to Shinpachi and Otae. He went missing before Shinpachi met Gintoki travelling around the Galaxy. According to Shinpachi, her first true love was Hajime.

Friends & Allies

• Kagura: Kagura addresses her in the very respectful term of 姐御 ane-go aka 'elder sister'. Otae acts like an older sister to her, like to Shinpachi.
• Oryou: Oryou is Tae's co-worker and friend from Snack Smile and the two are frequently seen together at work. She helped Tae in the competition with Ane and was also with her in the Test of Courage/Horror House (nearly getting strangled to death by the frightened Tae in the process)

Love Interest

• Yagyuu Kyuubei: Years later, Otae became Kyuubei's fiancee at 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.

• Sakata Gintoki: People often think they are a couple. When she met Gin she felt mad by trying make him commit seppuku, as he had caused her brother to get fired. When he saved her, she started admiring his soul and skill as a samurai which she felt was a great example for her brother. It is also hinted that Gin makes her smile everyday she see him around Shinpachi and Kagura from the day she was saved. When he loses his memory, she even seems romantically attracted to him. He is the only person she trust to discuss her brother's problems and to be honest the most to. It is hinted that she consider Gintoki along with Shinpachi and Kagura as her family. 
• Obi Hajime: Noted to be Otae's first love by Shinpachi, Obi is one of the biggest influence in her life as he taught her to smile as well as being her tutor when she was younger.

Enemies

• Eromes: For having cat appearance and for pushing Shinpachi's love illusions to far to be true.

Story

She tries to revive her family dojo that her and Shinpachi's father left to them after his death by doing whatever it takes such as working at a Hostess Club. (Though, she was forced to spend their money first in fortifying their house to keep off annoying gorilla like stalkers i.e. Kondou)

Infant Strife Arc

Otae got angry and battled Sarutobi Ayame after being accused of having child together with Sakata Gintoki.

Kabukicho Four Devas Arc

Otae and her co-cabaret girls arrived to backup the fight with the Yorozuya against the Saigou Family & Dobunezumi group

Timeskip Arc

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 with 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.

Trivia

• She was the only person during the Kintama arc who didn't feel hate toward Gin even when she believed the lie that he hurt Tama and she was the first person to start remembering Gintoki.

• Gintoki is the main guy Otae forces to eat her cooking compared to everyone else.

• Gin is the first person Otae bow to during lesson 405.
• The kanji character for her name which is 妙 means 'strange'. 

Quotes

• (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 throwing it away 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) "When a friend is crying, you should cry together. If your friend is worried about something, you should hold your head and worry together. when a friend takes a dump, then you should take a dump as well. If you're a friend then you can share any kind of pain with them."
• (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!"

References

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