Thank you for buying Gintama volume 21. Well, there’s been a change in the editorial department. The editor of Gintama, Mr. Onishi, who I’ve mentioned and mocked so many times, is leaving. Even though letters have been pouring in that say, “Die, Onishi”, this brave man has worked hard as my editor for six years, and I want all my readers to see him off with a big round of applause. I’ve cursed him a lot, but we worked together for six years and I’ll miss him a little. When I was in school, I always had a hard time getting used to new classmates when I started a new grade. I used to put my head down on my desk for a week and pretend I was sleeping so that people would think, “It’s not that he doesn’t have any friends. He’s just sleepy.” So I am scared to death about the future now. When I see my new editor, I may have to put my head on my desk and say to myself, “Hey, somebody talk to me.” It makes me feel like skipping school. I don’t know what I’ll do if the new editor is an introvert and puts his head on his desk too. If we both have our heads on our desks, the meeting won’t go very well. While I was worrying about this, I had the opportunity to discuss the future with Mr. Onishi and my new editor, Mr. Saito, the other day…
Hideaki Sorachi
We’re changing editors at Gintama. Mr. Onishi, the man who found this hopeless punk of a manga artist in Hokkaido, is leaving. So I’d like to dedicate this volume to him.
Due to my busy schedule and inability to come up with a story that wouldn’t offend my editor’s fiancee, I was unable to finish the marriage proposal episode in time for the wedding reception. So I thought, “Good! I should leave it up in the air and pretend the plan never existed.” But on the day of the wedding, I heard Onishi’s father say in disgust, “What’s Gintama? Never heard of it.” So I started feeling the desire for revenge and thought about whether there was a way I could entertain my readers and cause damage to the Onishi family, so that’s how that episode was born. If you read the episode again, keep this behind-the-scenes information in mind. You’ll have an entirely different perspective on it. Please read it again. Read it with your family and be embarrassed, Onishi.
Sorachi’s Q&A: Haning with the Readers #57
<Question from “I’m a Big Yorozuya Fan, but the Shinsengumi Are… Just Okay,” from Gunma Prefecture>
Hello, Sorachi-sensei. I just noticed something. Shinpachi idolizes Otsuu, right? And Kagura likes enka music. So what kind of music does Gin like?
Gin doesn’t really listen to music. He sings commercial jingles to himself sometimes. For your information, Okita likes rakugo storytelling. He looks like the kind of person who likes rakugo, doesn’t he?
Thank you for purchasing Gintama Volume 20. One of my editors appears as Konishi in the 196th chapter in this volume. I actually drew that episode for Editor Onishi’s wedding reception because Yoshida, the editor who was organizing it, said to me, “Can you do something for him, Sorachi?” Yoshida came to the company the same year Onishi did. He’s a shrewd, good-looking guy who’s edited Death Note and D.Gray-man. But apparently he only cares about manga he works on because he had the audacity to ask me, “Can you do an episode where Onishi proposes to his fiancée in Gintama?” I said, “Hold on. I could, but the readers don’t know Onishi. It would just be a big inside joke for the staff.” I thought this was a reasonable reply, but he just said, “It’ll be okay. It’s Gintama.” People who were born in 1978 really are no good. On top of that, I was working on another story, the one about Ito and the Shinsengumi, and Yoshida wanted me to drop everything and do it so that they could present it at the wedding reception. Basically Yoshida was trying to obstruct my business. Seriously, people born in 1978 should be glad I don’t have the Death Note.
Hideaki Sorachi
Thanks to your support, I’ve made it to twenty volumes. I feel like I’ve been walking a tightrope since about the third volume, but I’ve made it this far, so I’ll keep doing my best until somebody cuts the rope!
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 10)
[To all the fans…]
Onishi: Give me some closing comments for your fans.
Sorachi: Can you please not ask me such a serious question all of sudden? (laugh) And can you please be a little more specific?
Onishi: Just say something about “Watch out or look forward to this part” kind of thing.
Sorachi: What did we already plan out? There was a ninja arc and…
Onishi: What was the ninja arc?
Sorachi: It was the part where Sacchan and Zenzo get really involved. Oh, and there’s the Kabukicho War arc.
Onishi: That was the one where all four lords of Kabukicho come in, right?
Sorachi: There’s also the story where we delve deeper into who Otose is. Plus, there’s also the Mutsu Sakamoto arc. That and the arc with Kagura’s brother. But it’s kind of depressing how nobody ever really looks forward to the serious story arcs. They want me to keep doing comedy, so it’s really hard to work with sometimes.
Onishi: I think it’s fine.
Sorachi: How do I make serious stories more interesting? Is it because of my drawings? Because they don’t look serious? Then my drawings are…
Onishi: It’s not that.
Sorachi: So most of this interview isn’t going to be printed, right?
Onishi: You think?
Sorachi: Is it going to be okay? (laugh)
Onishi: Probably…
[The End]
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 9.5)
Onishi: Do you even read your fan letters?
Sorachi: I do! That’s all I have left for enjoyment!!
Onishi: Okay.
Sorachi: What are you talking about? I put so much effort into drawing it so I can get a reaction from people! If I don’t get a reaction from my fans, it would really be depressing. I really need those fan letters.
Onishi: Did you see any weird letters?
Sorachi: I got one from a prison. He wrote it inside his cell and it went something like, “Gintama really saved me.” I feel happy that I can help someone like that.
Onishi: You get a lot from overseas, too, right?
Sorachi: Yeah.
Onishi: Do people overseas even understand the jokes in Gintama?
Sorachi: I’m just satisfied to know that Gintama is published in the North American version of Shonen Jump. They have so much popular stuff in it. Rurouni Kenshin is way up there on the popularity charts.
Onishi: Looks like samurai and ninja are really popular over there.
Sorachi: But the Americans still have a lot of misunderstandings. I remember in the Hollywood version of Godzilla, there was the opening scene where Godzilla comes out of the ocean. The fisherman in that scene was eating sushi while watching sumo on TV on his ship. The movies still depict a lot of strange misunderstandings about Japan.
Onishi: Well, Japanese people watch sumo, and we eat sushi. Just looking at the information that’s out there, it’s not wrong…
Sorachi: But watching sumo on a fishing boat while eating sushi?! (laugh) Come on.
Onishi: But the opposite is also true. There are plenty of stuff that Japanese people misunderstand about Americans.
Sorachi: Well, yeah…
Onishi: We have the image that they all watch baseball while eating popcorn. Outside of that, they eat nothing but hamburgers.
Sorachi: So the Americans will say, “We wouldn’t be eating hamburgers in that situation” type of thing?
Onishi: Probably.
(to be continued)
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 9)
[Observing Gintama]
Onishi: What do you have planned for future developments?
Sorachi: For what? Gintama?
Onishi: Yeah.
Sorachi: I can’t say that here.
Onishi: Just tell me what you have in mind without giving away too much.
Sorachi: I want it to end by volume 30.
Onishi: Volume 30?
Sorachi: If you don’t end it in 30 volumes, people won’t want to buy the full set.
Onishi: Of course not. What about Kochikame?
Sorachi: If a manga has that kind of energy then it might be possible. But casual stuff like Gintama isn’t going to last like that. To be honest, I think I’m stretching it already. Don’t you think it’ll be perfect if Gintama ends at volume 18?
Onishi: But there are a lot of fans that want you to keep drawing it forever.
Sorachi: If I keep making messy stories like that every time, past volume 30, it’ll be like Sazae-san.
Onishi: But Sazae-san isn’t messy. Everyone watches it.
Sorachi: It’s different. People watch that show because it’s on Sunday at that time slot. So, they watch it anyway because there’s nothing better on.
Onishi: I disagree. When I was small, I really looked forward to it. Each show had three episodes so it made me go, “All right! Another episode!”
Sorachi: For me, it went “Man, I got school tomorrow.” So I didn’t even feel like watching it.
Onishi: I watched it.
Sorachi: Don’t you get depressed starting at around the time that Sazae-san starts?
Onishi: I do… in a way. Then what about the Gintama anime?
Sorachi: I’m really happy that Gintama got turned into an anime. In the beginning, I was told that there were talks about turning it into an anime. But they never gave me any details, so I didn’t think it would happen. When I went to the Jump Festa Anime Tour ‘05, I saw the crowd’s reaction and I realized that Gintama was actually better known than I thought.
Sorachi: I felt like I was about to cry.
Onishi: I guess comic authors just can’t grasp the reality of it sometimes. Editors can because we have to talk to a whole bunch of people. Comic authors do nothing by shut themselves in their house and draw.
Sorachi: I didn’t know whether my comic was popular or not.
Onishi: You should be able to get a rough idea from the number of copies that were sold.
Sorachi: Those are just lifeless numbers. I can’t tell until I see it with my own eyes. But at the Jump Fest Anime Tour ‘05, I saw the crowd’s reaction and realized that people actually knew about Gintama. I was so happy.
Onishi: Is that how it is?
Sorachi: I shouldn’t call these people low achievers, but Gintama really is accessible to people like that. “We’re struggling, but we still try our best to live our lives.” I don’t think I’m drawing failures, but that probably means I’m a failure too.
Onishi: But that’s what makes it good. You’re giving the message of “no one is really a failure in the real sense of the word.”
Sorachi: It’s nothing fancy like that.
Onishi: It might not be your intention, but it ends up that way. In young boy’s comics, it’s typical to have the situation of a superhero coming out of nowhere and then destroying the enemies with his special powers. In your comic, there are lots of characters that vomit and pick their nose…
Sorachi: But doesn’t everyone do that?
Onishi: Do what?
Sorachi: Break down their characters.
Onishi: Not to the degree that you do it.
Sorachi: So I go overboard?
Onishi: Yes, you do. If Luffy became a peeping tom, wouldn’t that weird you out?
Sorachi: But Luffy did go peeping. It was in the last part of the Alabasta Arc.
Onishi: He did? Well, when Gin-san does it, it makes him look like a true pervert. Because it feels real and close to home.
Sorachi: (laugh)
Onishi: So he doesn’t seem like a happy perv. It’s more like…
Sorachi: It’s creepy? One wrong step and he would have lost all of his fans. That type of thing. Well, there is plenty of wrong stuff in the comic anyway.
(to be continued)
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 8)
[For the kids that are trying to become comic authors…]
“You have to illustrate ‘humans.’ That’s why you have to continue to pursue what it means.” - Onishi
Onishi: Do you have anything for the kids that are striving to become comic authors?
Sorachi: You can’t just read comics.
Onishi: Then what do they have to do?
Sorachi: If they want to be comic authors, then that means they like comics. But you’ll need something else aside from that.
Onishi: Yeah.
Sorachi: You have to join you school’s clubs that interest you… And you have to know how to live a normal life too. For example, you have you know what the life of a regular high schooler is like. At the same time, you need to have a crooked viewpoint on the matter.
Onishi: So, “know what a normal life consists of, but have a crooked way of looking at it.”
Sorachi: That makes me sound really pretentious, so please don’t put that in print.
Onishi: I can just write it in a way so you won’t sound like a jerk.
Sorachi: Please don’t…
Onishi: Fine. I’ll just tag a “I really shouldn’t be the one to say so, but…” type of line in front of it.
Sorachi: I don’t want that.
Onishi: I hope they’ll turn the comic author interviews into a kind of series.
Sorachi: Why? Do you like it that much?
Onishi: Everyone loves comic author interviews.
Onishi: But we don’t have many opportunities.
Sorachi: Then mine won’t be very useful. Maybe we should talk about more serious stuff.
Onishi: It doesn’t need to be useful. Everyone seems to like reading the diary blogs on Mixi. But I hate it.
Sorachi: (laugh) So you get annoyed when you read your friends’ diaries?
Onishi: It’s always people that don’t respond to your emails that update their blogs on Mixi every single day. It makes me do a double take. I just want to shout, “It doesn’t take that long to respond to my email,” at them. (laugh)
Sorachi: What does that have to do with Mixi? (laugh)
Onishi: (laugh)
Sorachi: Going back to the last question, most people who want to become comic authors usually start by drawing. That’s why they always end up trying to learn how to draw. I know that’s important too.
Onishi: Yeah. You have to illustrate “humans”. That’s why you have to continue to pursue what it means.
Sorachi: If you think about it, people who have no interest in becoming a comic author can actually be the ones that create some really great comics.
(to be continued)
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 7.5)
Onishi: So what else did you do in elementary school?
Sorachi: I was really active back then. I was really good at sports.
Onishi: Weren’t you on the basketball team during middle school?
Sorachi: Yeah. But I started to become less and less athletic, so I knew that this stuff wasn’t for me. You know how there starts to be a lot of really athletic people popping up here and there in middle school? That’s when I decided to go into comedy instead.
Onishi: Oh, you mean your way of life?
Sorachi: And I’m really thankful for that.
Onishi: Well, it brought you into the work you’re doing now.
Sorachi: Yeah.
Onishi: What did your parents get made at you for? And how did they discipline you when you were small?
Sorachi: Wait, are you asking me?
Onishi: “Are you asking me?” Who is this interview for? (laugh)
Sorachi: My teachers got made at me a lot more than my parents.
Onishi: Why?
Sorachi: I screwed around way too much… like during marathons, I took shortcuts, and I got punched in the stomach for it.
Sorachi: I called my P.E. teacher “gorilla” at the time. I took a shortcut and was running really slow. That’s when I saw him walk up to me. I changed my plan and just said, “My stomach hurts.” But it was too late since he could see right through my lie. That’s when he punched me in the stomach at full force.
Onishi: You’re really brave in the weirdest ways.
(to be continued)
Hideaki Sorachi Verbally Incontinent Roughly 43,000 Character Interview (part 7)
[Any childhood stories?]
“Isn’t this going to make us look really bad?” - Sorachi
Onishi: Any childhood stories?
Sorachi: It might sound weird coming from me, but I was pretty popular while I was in elementary school.
Onishi: Everyone liked you because you made them laugh?
Sorachi: Yeah. The classroom revolved around me. But only through elementary school.
Onishi: I’m sure you were a smart aleck when the teachers asked you questions.
Sorachi: It was nothing smart like that. But when I got up to middle school, there were people that were better at it than me in different ways, so I stopped right there.
Onishi: You didn’t want to stand out, but you did at the same time?
Sorachi: I’m a shy guy. But I just want to get everyone to laugh.
Onishi: Kind of a “look at me” type of attitude?
Sorachi: Not like that. But I never stopped wanting to make people laugh.
Onishi: So you do like the attention.
Sorachi: Well, if you put it like that…
Onishi: But you wanted a way to express yourself so you’re drawing comics even now, right?
Sorachi: Looking back, I guess that’s right. It seems like a terrible motivation to draw comics though. Now I feel all dirty.
Onishi: I think everyone works under a similar kind of motivation. They want to get acknowledged for their work, and in the end, they make something of themselves. Some people turn into comic writers while others become criminals. Speaking of which, we always talk about current events, don’t we?
Sorachi: Yeah, we do. We go back and forth with lines like, “this guy is probably like this.”
Onishi: Yeah. We talk to each other about the suspects and what kind of people they are.
Sorachi: Our meetings for actual work last about 15 minutes, but we talk about stuff like this for a really long time.
Onishi: The meetings always go off on a tangent.
Sorachi: I’m getting the feeling that this interview is really bad.
Onishi: Don’t worry about it. It’s just like a secret interview anyway.
Sorachi: Isn’t this going to make us look really bad?
Onishi: Don’t worry about it.
Onishi: It’s just a tiny little project that’ll be printed in the corner of a page in Akamaru Jump.
Sorachi: Written words are scary. They can’t tell what our emotions are, so they’ll just take the printed words at face value.
Onishi: Then just be honest when you talk.
Sorachi: That’s what I think I’m doing. But I think it’ll be even worse for my image if I get too honest.
(to be continued)
"You speak pretty well for a gorilla."
Archiving words of wisdom from Gintama's creator, Hideaki Sorachi
(Note: this is not an ask or RP blog, and we're certainly not Sorachi himself or asscoiated with him. Just fans doing this for the love of it!)
