Volume 77

Thank you for purchasing volume 77! I humbly apologize for making you wait so long. Thanks to your heartfelt support, with this volume, Gintama finally crosses the finish line and collapses to the ground in a pool of blood. Thank you very much.

The work is now finished, but the journey to get here was incredible to say the least, as I tore through all the deadlines set as if they were the shoji* of a large family. In spite of the enormous discomfort I caused to the readers and insiders, as only an annoying brat of the kind that every large family boasts could do, I immediately got on the defensive by saying “That’s just the way I am”, taking on the attitude of a Big Daddy. In this way I was able to publish a volume of unprecedented thickness. I really don’t know how to apologize. To all living creatures…

I APOLOGIZE!
To all that exists in the universe…

I APOLOGIZE!
To Big daddy…

I APOLOGIZE!
to “I Apologize”

I APOLOGIZE!

*Sliding doors consisting of a wooden frame covered with translucent white paper.

By dint of apologizing, I’ve come to wonder, “What does apologizing even mean?” I feel so mortified that I have Gestaltzerfall, but let’s put the apology aside for a moment. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Gestaltzerfall, that perceptual phenomenon whereby a complex shape, when observed for a long time, seems to dissolve into its constituent parts. Well, I hope to have the idea of the terrible condition in which I find myself, from which I would just like to look away. To make you understand better, I want to compare it to a fantasy video game. So, the hero Sorachi was unable to defeat the demon king on Jump even though he fought against him for fourteen long years, until he learned the extension spell “(Giga)dein”, thus managing to penetrate the enemy’s castle. So far you had gotten there, right? Well, at that moment his partner was Editor Isaka lv33, a rather sturdy and tenacious man who had fought on the famous Major Route. One of those guys who, even though he was down to 3 HP, kept smoking his cigar like it was nothing. Then, scrutinizing his face and noticing with amazement that he had remained impassive, the hero Sorachi gained enough courage to resort massively to the Gigadein spell, until, at the save point just before reaching the demon king’s presence, he found himself inside Mp0. Convinced that Isaka lv33 was hiding a secret weapon, he turned back at one point but found him locked in a coffin smoking a cigar all the time. In fact, the entire screen was occupied by coffins. A long line of coffins that reached all the way back to Aliahan, his distant homeland. It was then that the hero Sorachi realized something: “I get it! The demon king… it’s me!”.

This fact dates back to February, when I couldn’t even finish the work on Giga.

Actually, even the demon king Sorachi, born hero Sorachi, had vaguely noticed that the voice of Isaka lv33, that strong and tenacious man, sounded more like a cry of pain when he uttered the words “Chief, entrust your back to me… ouch!”. Even the previous editor, Manabe lv3, had clearly said “Mr. Sorachi, I will follow you to the end… Hidebu*!”. Instead, Naito lv31, his predecessor, looked like a corpse because he didn’t even reply, “…”. Sorachi went forward pretending he didn’t hear those cries, because if he turned back he couldn’t continue because of the weight of the coffins. This was when he was a hero, but once he became the demon king he didn’t stop anymore. Since he was no longer a hero, he could not equip himself with either the Lotus armor, so he went to the site of the last battle completely naked, with a false cypress stick between his legs, using the coffin containing Isaka lv33 as a shield. “It may be that I can never again become the hero I was on Jump, but that doesn’t matter now. If there’s only one reader waiting for me, I have to fight until the end even making the boards on toilet paper. Buah ah ah ah ah!”… At that point Isaka lv33, now rotting, woke up and said “Iiih ih ih! High demon king, I have something here for you!”, and spat out a smelly object covered in bloody vomit from his mouth.

It was the publication on an app, a forbidden magic tool.

*”Hidebu!” is one of the expressions of Kenshiro’s victims, in Fist of the North Star.

Although rotten, Isaka lv33 followed Sorachi, now reduced to a demon king and unable to form a team after committing all those misdeeds, extending his life with an app. So as not to make his sacrifice in vain, I fought with all my might. So, I postponed the last chapter twice, also postponing the publication of the fanbook, and becoming the magnificent great demon king! The latter, it is well known, is also called “scum”. Episodic publication on an app and online is like a forbidden magical tool for a scum who repeatedly tries to contravene deliveries. For a magazine, it’s absolutely impossible to move the agreed-upon publication date because it physically goes out nationwide, but on an app it can be freely determined from time to time, so deadlines are random. As you might have guessed, the scum took advantage, so everything was extended and the false cypress stick between his legs went limp. No matter how much he fought, his attacks had no effect, plus Isaka lv33 kept hitting him with the “Zaraki” spell*. “It’s all over… if only I could strike another blow, just one… But what can I do now?”… Just then, when he was in the darkest despair, he was reached from behind by a gust of sweet breath. The enemy demon king collapsed to the ground unconscious, while the scum demon king turned back and saw before him Onishi putrefied, Saito putrefied, Jelly Belly putrefied, Congalala putrefied, Naito putrefied, Manabe putrefied, all spilling out of the coffins. They were the editors with whom he had made his great work Gintama.

P.S. Nakasaki, the third editor, moved to Hokkaido for work and rotted there.

*Magic formula that instantly kills enemies in Dragon Quest.

There is an urban legend that says that when a work published in Jump reaches its last episode, all the editors who worked on it go to pick up the boards and give the author a bouquet of flowers with words of thanks for the work done. Who knew they would also go to a scum mangaka like me, expelled from the magazine?!
“While we block the enemy by resorting to soft breath, you go ahead, scum!”… ” Those guys! How dare they meddle in affairs that don’t concern them! Tsk!I can’t see anything in front of me because my eyes are glazed over….” However, lifting up my fake cypress stick, I gathered all my strength and “Take thiiiis! It’s my last shooooot!”… so I smacked into the demon king’s forehead… “Booom!”… With a huge roar, the enemy’s giant body fell to the ground and I came into possession of 360,000 experience points and 7-8 panels to fill. I mean, it’s not that I came into possession, it’s that I had forgotten that there were 7-8 empty panels. As the rotting editors surrounded me holding a bouquet of flowers behind my back, as if expecting to collect the panels immediately, what do you think I did? Of course I pretended that my right leg was fractured.

In such a circumstance, a novice scum would pretend to have fractured his right arm and say “I can’t draw anymore, sorry!”. It’s too convenient an excuse, and it would quickly turn out to be a lie. It would be more likely to be unable to draw because of the pain of a fractured leg. You could ask the person on duty to wait an hour or so, showing that you are committed to drawing while stoically resisting the pain, exclaiming every so often “Argh, damn it!”. Then an hour later, “Oooh, no! I apologize but I’m afraid it’s taking me longer. Can you leave me alone for a bit? I’d like to concentrate. Maybe go eat something!” In this way, by making it look like you’re annoyed with yourself, you should be able to chase away the editors, put the security chain on the door, and turn off your smartphone to barricade yourself in your studio. As for how much time you can gain, it depends on the strength of the house, however I held out for a good six to seven hours.

Then, after rounding them up again and saying “You’ll have to excuse me, I forgot to charge my smartphone. The boards are ready.”, I kept them waiting for another two hours. At that point the editors, who were already pretty rotten, rotted completely, liquefying like doburoku*. So they were quiet then, and I was able to complete the boards at my leisure.

“I apologize for the long wait, heh heh!”… “Glub glub glub (Well, by dint of waiting for you, the flowers have dried up).”… With these words, the first doburoku tossed me the bouquet of dried flowers, the photo of which is published on the volume’s flap.

I’d say that’s it.

*Unrefined sake.

That said, what do you think of this video game-style fantasy account of my terrifying adventure? Since there’s a lot to be ashamed of, I thought about keeping quiet and not reporting anything, but given the discomfort I’ve spread around I didn’t think it was right to do so, so I decided to make the whole thing public. I apologize to those who may have found this unpleasant. As you have read, I have made so many mistakes that it would not be strange if I ended up being discredited professionally. The fact that I’m saying this may draw further criticism, but it’s been almost a year since I left Jump, and in that year I’ve allowed myself to do whatever I wanted. Of course, I won’t hide the fact that it’s been hard, but I’ve been able to work with a satisfaction that the stranglehold of serialization had made me forget, and I’ve been able to rediscover those genuine feelings that accompanied me when I was an unknown beginner who drew manga simply because he liked doing it.
I thank from the bottom of my heart, my editor, who put me in a position to work like this, and all the staff who contributed to the realization of this work risking their lives with me, but especially you readers, who did not get tired of waiting.
Thanks to you I was able to go back to being a simple gorilla who loves manga, I think I will start again, with a G pen of fake cypress, and with my full nudity. But I will by no means give up my royalties.

So, the last volume of Gintama, or rather the Gintama series, ends here. I do not make other considerations, also because I have already abundantly expressed my thoughts and feelings inside the manga. I entrust the rest to the Yorozuya.

Putting in all the love, gratitude, sense of shame … in short, everything, I dedicate these last lines to all those who have supported and supported my work in these fifteen years.

THANK YOU VERY MUUUUCH! CORN POOP!

See you again somewhere!

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