Thank you for purchasing the 32nd volume! Lately, I’ve been having episodes that are inappropriately timed, and I’ve been feeling embarrassed because impossible things have been happening one after the other at such times. It happened to me some time ago that, after drawing an episode using a character from the show, he committed a misdeed… But now that I’ve drawn a story about cats, my assistant “I”‘s cat died. And when I drew the episode about hemorrhoids, “I” was taken to the hospital by ambulance because his hemorrhoid condition worsened. As if to say… something always happens to “I”. Every time I pick up the pen in my hand, “I” gets hurt. It’s as if my “G” pen exists to be driven into “I”‘s hemorrhoidal lump rather than to draw. “I” is increasingly broken, a Death Note-like situation has arisen, and it seems that “I” lately suspects that I am Kira. So, every day his back is bent more and more, and by now “I” has become “L”. To my eyes, all the assistants have curved backs, as well as some connection to the FBI. It’s as if both my assistants and my editor, and the readers themselves, suspect that it was me who exploded the haemorrhoidal lump in “I”. And, under the circumstances, I’m beginning to think that I’m not drawing, Gintama, but Nodule Hemorrhoid Note.
Wanting to set the record straight, first of all I’d say that the hemorrhoidal lump is like a companion (i.e. a Yasufumi Terawaki*) for a mangaka destined to work sitting down all the time. He’s an annoying bastard that’s hard to hate. Collaborating while keeping Terawaki under control, who is a rascal and easily loses control… This is behavior worthy of a respectable mangaka, indeed worthy of Yutaka Mizutani**. In the case of “I”, he thought his was like Terawaki, but he turned out to be more of a Hiroshi Tachi***, aka a more dangerous companion. The one from “I” left riding a Harley, but it’s either Hiroshi’s fault or the Harley Davidson’s, certainly not mine. If his companion had been Hiroshi, “I” would have had to play the part of Kyohei Shibata****, but he tried to be Yutaka Mizutani. That’s why there was tragedy.
In other words, I had nothing to do with it, it was just inappropriate timing. The same goes for the cat, Pu, who left at the worst possible time. It was also painful for me to have a grieving “I” draw cats saying, “I don’t want to think about the cat anymore!”. Chappy, my parents’ dog, came to mind and I cried. After all, Pu had been close to him for a good eighteen years, only that companion… didn’t he mistake him for someone else again? Was it really Yasufumi Terawaki?
*Japanese actor who took part in the TV series Aibo, meaning “Comrade”.
**Another Aibo actor.
***Japanese actor who took part in the teledrama Abunai Deka, or “Dangerous Cops”.
****Another actor from Abunai Deka.
Crying, “I” drew the cats with the secondary roles. Of course, I was more lenient in checking his work, I wanted to free him from pain as soon as possible. I could no longer reject his drawings, indeed there was no need to do so. Since he had always stood by his cat, I told him to draw some respectable cats dedicating the work to his companion who had ascended to heaven. So, the result is this…
Dear “I”… how should I put it… it looks like they all have a slightly protruding jaw. In fact… they look more like Ken Shimura when he says “Aiin” than your comrade Yasufumi Terawaki… Or do they?
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 86
QUESTION FROM MR OKITA & KAGURA LOVE
Both Kagura and Kamui have a lot of appetite, but is it just them or all of Yato?
ANSWER:
They’re all gluttons. The Yato are endowed with great strength, but they also consume a lot of energy, so they have a different idea of energy supply than earthlings. However, the two of them are the ones who eat the most.
MY GOODNESS, WHAT QUALITY!
And so, the “Hemorrhoid nodule Note” special ends here… Dear FBI gentlemen, you now understand that the series of tragedies in question happened not because of the hemorrhoid nodule Note, but because he had the wrong partner, right? When Hiroshi Tachi is his partner, he must be Kyohei Shibata, while when Ken Shimura is, he must be Cha Kato. I guess this mistake crashed into his anus and caused a big explosion… But Pu’s death was no one’s fault. Since he lived for a good eighteen years, we can say that he passed away peacefully. Only in the end, he was drawn with a face that seems to say “Aiin”. But listen, dear “I”, it’s true that cats all look like they have slightly protruding jaws and look like Ken Shimura, but that time when you tearfully completed your job as an assistant, you were a respectable mangaka! So you don’t have to grieve! You’re not alone, just run and look ahead together with your companion, namely Pu, who’s watching over you from his ass, who is not Terawaki, nor Hiroshi, nor Shimura…
New topic: “Let’s pray for Pu with folded hands”.
Yorozuya Shinigami 