Thank you for purchasing the 40th volume! The other day I ran into my family after a long time, and I noticed that my older sister, who I’ve seen again after a long time, has become a questionable person… Well, she’s always been a shameless woman with her brain reduced to industrial sludge who mistakenly said “Hedoro pass” instead of “Middle pass”, but that time she gave me a terrible “Killer pass”, meaning she said, “Maybe I’ve started seeing spirits!” So I thought: “Are you stupid? At thirty-five years old, do you still want other people to take care of you?”. I don’t believe in that stuff, and I consider those who talk about it to be individuals who can’t stand to be alone. However, fearing that she had embraced some strange religion, I listened to what she had to say, half laughing… also driven by alcohol. Then my face gradually contracted. As if to say, I could see some spirits, in fact it looked almost like Bleach! And fixing my gaze on her, it seemed she was looking at a strange entity, as if she was carrying the Zanpakuto* “Hedoro” on her back. She was clearly staring at something enigmatic, so much so that even I, Hideaki Sorachi, an ultra-realistic, sarcastic and objective guy, couldn’t explain the situation. On top of that, my sister sees the spirits not alone, but sometimes with other people… in short, the situation is really terrible.
“Well, anyway, since I’m scared, I try to think that it’s all due to tiredness, or an optical illusion.” “You’re r-right! Maybe it’s just your impression…”
In this way, we both went to bed resignedly. But it was impossible to fall asleep. After all – we didn’t admit it just because we were afraid – the answer is clear. It was as if we had to answer the question in a class assignment: insert the missing syllable in the underlined space “__doro pass”. There is no other choice but “He”! although I don’t want to admit it, the only correct answer is “Hedoro pass”! in short, there was an atmosphere similar to this… You are sleeping with a relieved soul after emptying the Hedoro, i.e. the slime, but your younger brother is covered with Hedoro! Since then, you have been sleeping with the TV set on.
*appears in Bleach.
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 106
QUESTION FROM THE LADY “HOUSEWIFE WHO MAY LOVE GINTAMA” FROM AICHI PROVINCE
I’ll ask the question right now… In volume 25, Abuto lost his left arm, but as Yato… did he recover? (Even Kagura, when she was hit by a gun, recovered in one day!)
ANSWER:
No, he didn’t recover. Even though he’s a Yato, his arm doesn’t grow back. He uses an artificial arm. Since the Yato are a fighting race, they are often injured in battle, so they are equipped with advanced artificial limb reconstruction technology.
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 107
QUESTION FROM MR. NEW EIGHTH GRADE STUDENT
I’ve been thinking this ever since the episode “In a gokon, the funniest part is the waiting before it starts” in volume 16: since when did Gin-san and his friends start using telepathy? Or is it always better to play dumb on this one?
ANSWER:
If the characters understand each other even though there’s this kind of speech bubble… it’s because they speak softly!
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 108
QUESTION FROM MR. “SORACHI SENSEI, LATELY SUFFERING FROM AN ADDICTION TO CONTROVERSIAL TOPICS, YOU SHOULD ANSWER ANY QUESTION!”, FROM HOKKAIDO
Sorachi sensei, you are very good at drawing the Shogun’s brief! By any chance, are you one of the lovers of briefs?
ANSWER:
More than a matter of personal taste, in my day, wearing a pair of briefs at least once was considered a sort of rite of passage. At the medical check-up, everyone wore a pair so worn out that the elastics had stretched so far as to leave the testicles uncovered, looking like little click balls.
There were no tight-fitting boxers yet, and if you wore a normal pair of boxers you were treated like an anti-patriot.
“This is a boxer, make friends with him, boys! Boxer, sit next to the thong!”
“Tsk! What a snobbish student the newcomer is! Let’s take him down a peg now, Fundoshi-o*!”
Rumble Crash
“Hey! Who was the one who hooked the elastic band of the brief here?!”
I mean, that was pretty much the situation back then. So it was hard to find the right moment to become a boxer lover, and that’s why we all tormented each other: “How to wear a pair of boxers naturally without being obnoxious”?
By the way, back in my briefs days, I once went to the dermatologist. When he had me undressed, the front part was yellowish (it looked like some oronamin c** had fallen in), and I submitted to the examination while keeping my hands crossed in front of me.
I have since become a lover of boxers.
*The fundoshi is a traditional loincloth worn by men. -O is a suffix indicating the male gender.
**Energy drink.
CONTACT WITH THE READERS: QUESTION CORNER 109
QUESTION FROM MR. “THE ONE INSIDE SACCHAN IS VERY PRETTY”, FROM NAGANO PROVINCE
Good morning, Sorachi sensei! While playing Dragon Quest 5, after a long time, I got to the point where I have to decide who to marry. I’m really struggling because I don’t know who to choose between Bianca, Flora, and Debora.
ANSWER:
Bianca, by now, only has eyes for me, she is my bride. So you could choose any other slut, and I hope you will be happy forever!
That said, volume forty, the special “sister, how dare you start to realise something like this at almost thirty-five years old?”, ends here!
Well, I wouldn’t want to believe it either, and even now I’m looking for material to disprove it. But just imagine a scene in which a lady over thirty, and moreover the older sister with whom I used to mock the spirit pictures until recently, tells me such a thing in all seriousness! Scary, isn’t it?
A woman and a man in their thirties say to each other: “Well, that’s not a spirit, but an entity made essentially of thought, isn’t it?”. … It would terrify anyone and you’d think that such brothers should end up in hospital! Anyway, regardless of whether it’s an optical illusion or not, this story makes an impression, so I told her to get exorcised. She replied that she had already done so, either at a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. But they seem to have told her that if a certain person is psychic by nature, it’s not possible to lose this ability, and that she should go on living without paying too much attention to it. They seem to have checked her out nicely, telling her, “No need to worry, you have a very strong guardian spirit!” And when she asked what kind of spirit it was… “A defeated samurai, holding two decapitated heads.” …
Well, would that be what a guardian spirit looks like?! What’s he doing holding two decapitated heads? Anyway, since he’s protecting her, I can’t expect too much, but as a younger brother I would have preferred a rapper with two radios, or someone cheerful… But I don’t think so… Rather, let him take care of my sister…
New topic: “Ghosts don’t exist.”
Yorozuya Shinigami 