#yaemon ikeda

A handful of significant characters served the series' main protagonist well, and given their roles, it's odd how they were not effectively used in the Gintama series as, say, the Yoshiwara characters whose sole connection to Kabuki is a single character who mainly returned as a love interest very abruptly in the second arc. The series has many hints of connectivity throughout its lessons regarding how certain characters that held specific positions in government would be used in the Gintama ending story plot. Still, nothing was ever really done right by them—characters like The Oniwaban: Zenzou, Sarutobi, the former head, Shinobi-Five, etc., were initially going to be written with much greater importance in the middle of the series to combat their often comedic appearances, yet the story that would have build up their lore and connected them to the inner workings of the Bakufu and its extended world building never came to be. Thus, they are thought of as mere gags to many fans in the end, which is a shame as the unwritten Ninja arc could have opened better doors for other characters that held much importance and had a shared history with Gintoki in some way yet received very little attention to the point that the mangaka himself merely forgot some. Characters like Oboro, Asaemon Ikeda, Yaemon Ikeda, Nobume, and the Yagyuu clan, who were heavily involved with the government, had the potential to do more but ended up having minuscule roles in the end and go entirely unappreciated. Fans even speculated that Shimaru Saitou, third division commander of the Shinsengumi, was a former member of the Oniwaban. It is unclear whether this is true since the Oniwaban never received their much-needed development to be on the same level of relevance as the Shinsengumi.