Thank you for purchasing the 10th volume of Gintama! Somehow I got there, but every week I feel like I’m still walking on a rope called a deadline… Actually, it’s more like toilet paper than rope… It’s as if I’m being told to walk on a simple roll of toilet paper unrolled and stretched across the Grand Canyon valley. On top of that, behind me, a little monkey with glasses tells me, “If you don’t cross right now, you’re going to fall!” and pisses on it. And every week I miraculously manage to make it, seriously it’s a miracle!
I’m starting to be like Pegasus Seiya, it feels like my microcosm is going to burn. Until I started walking this rope, I had a misconception of the situation, as I knew nothing about it. I thought I was like a Gold Saint, and I thought it would be so easy to move. Instead, it’s anything but easy! The cloth I’m wearing… it’s not gold, it’s not even bronze! It’s just corrugated cardboard. I’m wearing a cardboard cloth made by my father on a Sunday. It’s hard for a Saint made of corrugated cardboard to advance on this rope! Anyway, since I went to the Grand Canyon of my own free will, I have to keep fighting even if my cardboard is torn, until the microcosm burns down…
– Saint Sorachi –
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 24
QUESTION FROM MR. JON B, TOKYO METROPOLITAN AREA
How do you do? I have a question for Sorachi sensei: are the ninja named Hattori, who appeared in Gintama volume 6, and the famous Zenzo Hattori the same person? I really want to know, so tell me!
ANSWER:
They’re the same person, they both have hemorrhoids, remember? But in the 49th lesson, neither Gin-san nor Zenzo saw their opponent’s face… I consider their first meeting to have been later, in the episode where they fought over an issue of Jump. Gin-san even forgot that episode… He’s someone who forgets unpleasant things right away. By the way, the Cats Punch (Catherine’s former thieving companions) also included a man named Hattori, but he has nothing to do with this character. He’s a different person. Sorry for complicating things.
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER
QUESTION FROM MISS EMILY “THE CRITICAL WOMAN”, SAITAMA PROVINCE
I like Sagaru Yamazaki. Why is his name Sagaru*?
Was he given such a name because he grew up in a very difficult environment?
Or was he born while his parents were being pursued by persistent creditors?
If that’s the case, I feel sorry for him.
ANSWER:
The meaning of Yamazaki’s name is: “Look at things calmly by taking a step back and then face them”.
It has no negative meaning, as you imply.
If you continue to live looking only at the surface of things, trouble will happen to you. Take a good look by first taking a step back! So, the lesson ends here!
*Literally, “stepping back”.
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 26
QUESTION FROM MR. “WHY DO YOU OFTEN CHANGE THE SUBJECT FOR SENDING LETTERS? IT’S REALLY ANNOYING!”, FROM SAITAMA PROVINCE
Is the basic principle of Gintama episodes “gag” or “seriousness”?
ANSWER:
I personally consider each episode to be a separate story, and there are many self-contained episodes in the work. I draw each one by changing the mood, for example: “This time I will create a comedy”, “This time I will describe human warmth”, etc…
In short, my work is a pseudo-comedy with a historical-scientific setting and a lot of human warmth. All in all, it’s a manga you can’t understand.
However, it’s strange that I impose my point of view on readers by saying: “The manga was made according to this reasoning, so read it as I’ve explained”… In short, you can interpret it as you like!
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 27
QUESTION FROM MR. “HUH?! THAT’S THE LAUGHING STOCK?!”, FROM FUKUSHIMA PROVINCE
Dear Hideaki Sorachi sensei, how are you? Today, I’ll ask you something straight out! You are serializing Gintama in Shonen Jump magazine, drawing it with all your might, facing life’s storms and being criticized behind your back. Who is the character you think you love the most?
It will be, as I imagine, Kagura, since you have a lolita complex… Answer me! Come on!
ANSWER:
I like all the characters! Seriously, I’m not saying this to keep up appearances, but I like the villains too! I really do! Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to draw manga. So in regards to the ones that have little opportunity to appear, I always think, “Ooh, I have to save them somehow… Only I follow a certain cycle in my considerations that annoys me in that guy” or “I don’t know why, but I think you’re cute… Have you cut your hair recently?”. Basically, it’s the same as the real world. The one who draws my sympathy for now is Oryo, though I ignore why. It used to be Hasegawa, but I’ve had him appear so often that I don’t even want to see his face now! Anyway, that’s not a sentence to say towards the character published on a cover, although I’m back to wanting to see his face… I just keep repeating these things. By the way, I like Kagura a lot, although I don’t have a lolita complex. In regards to the three members of the Yorozuya it doesn’t have to do with the cycle or anything like that… Huh?! So I’m making an impression on you guys? You’re not backing down, are you?
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 28
QUESTION FROM MR. ASAZAKI OF OSAKA PROVINCE
I saw the Gintama anime. They’re very entertaining and I thought they were great! Since there were more known voice actors than I imagined, I was surprised!
By the way… Listen, Mobile Suit Sorachi sensei! How are the voice actors chosen? Do you choose them personally? I’ m an airhead, so I don’ t understand anything!
If you don’t mind, could you let me know?
ANSWER:
I think they’re usually decided by audition, unless certain voice actors are designated for certain roles by the production. A selection was made for Gintama as well. For example, some candidates for dubbing Gin-san were given lines to recite, and then only one was chosen. Then, there are writers who attend auditions, but as I once said, I’m on the edge of a cliff every week, and of course I don’t have time to go. So I insisted that they record the rehearsals on a CD so that I could express my opinions. Only, when I listened to it dozens of times, it seemed to me that everyone was beginning to sound like Gin-san… I didn’t understand anything anymore! I thought, “Do as you please!” … Anyway, with hindsight, all the voices are just as I imagined them, so I find the choices positive.
I thank all the voice actors for giving their souls!
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 29
QUESTION FROM MR. TIROL OF AICHI PROVINCE
The day after reading the 65th Lesson in volume eight of Jump Comics Gintama, my father pooped his pants while standing in line for the bathroom at a certain supermarket. That’s why he never went out, and when he did, his trousers were all messed up. Have you ever been involved in an existential crisis like that, Sorachi sensei? What should I do from now on? Let me know! (This story is true.)
ANSWER:
What? You want to know if I’ve been in a crisis because of my underside? I’ve hardly ever had anything like that happen to me. I was so delicate when I was a kid that I couldn’t poop outside, so no matter how much I was assaulted by stimuli, in kindergarten I always held back and did my business at home, by the time I started attending primary schools, I was a veteran fighter who had won numerous battles, and those around me looked like mere brats.
I was called “Guardian of the anus”, in fact I called myself that. I also invented a certain technique which consists of shaking my butt… By doing this, most of the stimuli strangely disappear. The important thing is to believe in yourself and never give up until the end! Then you won’t have any problems until second grade.
Eh…?! What? Yes, it happened! I pooped my pants in second grade! Even the Guardian expelled a streak of feces while shaking his butt.
It’s easy for me to get carried away because I was called the Guardian… But nobody called me that. There’s nothing a guy like me can defend. Anyway, luckily, it happened on the way home from school and I was still wearing a normal brief at the time, so by keeping my poo between my buns so my friends wouldn’t find out, I went home as if nothing had happened. So, I got a bit carried away… And for fooling my mates I was called “North Sea Tactician”… Well, nobody actually called me that! In an attempt to fool my mother I tried to destroy the evidence by flushing my underwear down the toilet. Then, as I feared, it got clogged, and the water in an instant lapped at the North Sea Tactician….
AAAAAAAAH!
The trauma…! Tora (the tiger) and uma (the horse) opened the sealed door that must never be opened! The topic for questions in the next volume is the one shown below!
Yorozuya Shinigami 