Shinsaku Takasugi

He was one of Shouin Yoshida loyal disciples. He, along with Katsura, are on a mission to find their master, Shouin Yoshida, who has been missing for quite sometime, but ended up in a some town where they encountered the Ryouma where he got into a heated argument after he rudely questions the latter as to how he got Shouin Yoshida's guitar. He, together with Ryouma and Kogoru, later on formed a band where he is the band's bass player. He is one of the five people who has a Peace Soul.
==Personality==
He likes exciting things and is a freak of spicy things. He is short tempered and brash. He doesn’t really get along well with anyone except Kogoro and Shoin.
He doesn't want Kogoro to tell anybody about the day they first met.
==Overview==
He came from Choshu with Kogoro in search for Shoin. When Shinsaku saw that Ryoma got the guitar of Shoin he thought that maybe Ryoma did something to Shoin, so he got angry and started a fight which was stopped by Kogoro. Later on, they discover that Ryoma has the Peace Soul, and they stay together with Ryoma and slowly become friends with him (although Shinsaku doesn't really think that way).
He also has the peace soul, but at the start of the anime he couldn't awake it because he was missing something. Later on when he was giving a concert together with Ryoma and Kogoro, he managed to activate it and afterwards also cried out of joy.
A couple days after the dead of Kondo. Yataro comes and tells them Shoin will be giving a concert tomorrow. At the concert Shoin really appeared, but the music he plays isn't his usual rock and it's starts hurting the bands ears. Katsura suggests it must be an impersonator, but Kaishu tells them it really is Shoin. So Shinsaku climbs on the stage to check out if it really is Shoin. On stage Shoin regonizes him. Shinsaku asks why Shoins music is different compared to back then when Shinsaku and Katsura were stil his apprentices. Shoin says this is his music and continues playing. Then the shinsengumi appears and they start to attack the band. But Hijikata comes and protects them and says the music Shoin is playing is the Heaven's Song and Ii is behind this. The music is getting worse, but Soji appears and he starts singing. Shinsaku tries to get the old Shoin back and he hears Shoin inner voice asking the band to release him. Shoin is being forced to sing Heaven's Song. The band decides to release Shoin's soul with their song, and Soji and Hijikate help them. Shoin's soul leaves together with his body and says his last words "Good bye, my beloved apprentices". At the end Hijikata and Soji join the band.
After everything went well for a while and other new rock bands started to appear. Yataro came with some bad news. The government arrested a bunch of rockers all at once, but that wasn't the only thing. The government destroyed their instruments and even those who supported rockers had their homes demolished. Shinsaku knew this couldn't continue like this and suggested they should kill Ii, but Ryoma stopped him saying they shouldn't resolve this with violins. At the end they decided to go to the concert where Justice would perform (the new idol group of the shinsengumi) and they would perform there.
At the concert while they were playing, Ryoma stopped playing. That's when the Shinsengumi came and they had to run away. After they ran away, Shinsaku got angry at Ryoma. He asked where Ryoma's passion for rock went, but it seems like Ryoma can't see his passion right now and he doesn't know what rock is, anymore. After hearing that Shinsaku walked away saying: "I can't play with you any more" and went to kill Ii, alone.
Shinsaku went to Ii where he said he would like to play Heaven's Song from now on (It was a lie ofcourse). But before he could do anything, Yoshinobu arrived at the castle and saw through Shinsaku's act and casted magic on him. At the concert Shinsaku started playing the Heaven's Song, but thanks to Ryoma's help he got back to his old self. Afterwards they started playing all together again and got the people who were under the control of Ii's magic, back. Although Ii tried to get in their way with his magic, Yoshinobu stopped him with even greater magic. The castle turns into a big speaker and Yoshinobu makes his official appearance as the 15th shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was first seen as a boy who helped out Ultra Souls from time to time.
When Katsura asked why he helped them he answered: "I was unable to do anything I wanted and was bored. I wanted to see the Ultra Soul which is said to have the power to change the world. I wanted to see if it could change my monotonous and borind days." After Ryoma saw that Yoshinobu was crying he knew he had to help him.
Thanks to Katsura they managed to get into the castle, although they had to leave him behind. In the castle Soji, Hijikata and Shinsaku were also left behind to make an opening for Ryoma.
At the end Ryouma saves Yoshinobu and everybody was still alive and a new era of rock started.
==History==
His parents died when he was young and was raised by a lord's steward. The steward took responsibility for a dispute between Shinsaku and a government official by killing himself. That's the reason why he hates the government and the Shinsengumi so much.
==Trivia==
*He dislikes tofu.
*His favorte food is chili pepper.
*His voice actor, Suzuki Tatsuhisa, has played the role of Okita Souji in another Shinsengumi work before.
Category:Characters
Category:Music