DECEMBER 17, 2023
The Gintama stage at Jump Festa 2024 was held between 9:30AM to 10:00AM (JST), at thr Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Chiba, Japan. The stage was taken by the voice actors of three main characters: Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki), Daisuke Sakaguchi (Shinpachi), and Rie Kugimiya (Kagura), who wore Gintama themed sweaters for the event.
The stage began with a short story of the three Yorozuya members gathered together for a Christmas party, held to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Gintama’s serialization. Sakaguchi held a short quiz, asking the audience to rearrange panels from the manga, the order of Kagura’s character art from the anime throughout the years, and seemingly identical photos of Sakaguchi, all in chronological order. The three voice actors arrived at a conclusion that Sakaguchi had not changed at all, and that he’s the same in all three photos.
To continue the guessing game, an illustration of Sugita by Sorachi was shown, asking to guess what’s inside the box that Sugita has his hands in. Sugita was confused as to whether it was a Famicom Jump Eiyuu Retsuden software or Housan Dango*. He went with the second choice, only to find that the content turned out to be Elizabeth shaped gingerbread cookies. Sakaguchi explained that the cookies were a Christmas present from someone, and after saying that, Fumihiko Tachiki (Hasegawa), appeared on the big screen. An excerpt from a special video featuring Tachiki and his confectionery teacher titled “Seriously Making Dandy Sweets” was displayed to the public.
The audience was also treated to an audio recording to be used in the story of the upcoming 3nen Zgumi Ginpachi Sensei anime. Their messages read as follows:
Sakaguchi: “Arigato, kibiunkoooo!”
Kugimiya: “Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone!”
Sugita: “Let’s make it a great memory, Necromancer!”
The audience loudly responded in unison to the messages with popular terminologies from the anime.
There was also a letter from Sorachi read by Kugimiya, who expressed his gratitude for the 20th anniversary of the serialization. He said “Merry Christmas. Sorachi here. As we move forward into our 20th year, we’re going to cut off the old bad guys, those male voice actors who do lousy things behind the scenes before they cause further problems. We’ll be running the show with just one voice actor, Kenjiro Tsuda, who is Sorachi sensei’s recent favorite. It’ll be okay if from here on out, it’s nothing but Tsudaken. He continued saying “Well, the industry has already been dominated by the successful Tsudaken, and even on Jounetsu Tairiku, Tomokazu Sugita was only shown eating shaved ice with nothing but with only the back of his head being displayed.” He also added that however, if care is not taken with Tsudaken, the moment the voice acting cast is announced, the character he may be in charge of, might explode by triggering the “Nanamin gaaaaaaaaaa” cursed technique*, thus Tsudaken having to leave. Sakaguchi reacted with tsukkomi, as typical of Shinpachi, while Sugita commented that Tsudaken was in the Silver Soul arc (as Admiral Shijaku).
The stage ended with Kugimiya thanking the fans for gathering so early in the morning, Sakaguchi expressed his gratitude for Gintama’s 20th anniversary, while Sugita vowed to face his work with firm determination.
20th Anniversary related announcements
As part of the 20th Anniversary project that will be held between 2023 and 2026, there will be an exhibition held at Ikebukuro Sunshine City in Tokyo, in the winter of 2024, called “Gintama 20th Anniversary Exhibition – Hatachi no Tsudoi”. Also starting on today, December 17th, a poll titled “Gintama 20th Anniversary All Character Popularity Poll” will be held, which will last until January 31st, 2024, and a “‘Arc That Made You Cry The Most’ Popularity Poll” will be held in conjunction with the former poll. The top 20 characters from the character popularity poll will be drawn as key visuals by Sorachi for the Hatachi no Tsudoi exhibition. A new Twitter account has been created for the 20th Anniversary.
Secondly, it was announced that the spinoff anime adaptation, 3nen Zgumi Ginpachi Sensei, is scheduled for a 2025 release date, which will be broadcast on TV Tokyo, among other channels. An illustration of Principal Hata, and Hijikata’s mayo strap were shown to the public.
*A Japanese documentary program that interviews people from various fields. The theme song of the program was also remixed into a song in the Gintama anime.
**Reference to character Nanami Kento and a scene from the Shibuya Incident arc in Jujutsu Kaisen.
Yorozuya Shinigami 