By Hideaki Sorachi. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.
Another excellent volume of Gin Tama, which introduces another major character, and has a better balance between its goofy gag manga and its serious samurai action.
The majority of this volume deals with Tama the robot girl, first introduced to us as just a severed head, and the attempts of what seems to be everyone in the world to retrieve her. Naturally, she ends up at the home of our heroes, and after a highly amusing chapter where they try to access her memory but merely end up playing her like a Nintendo RPG, the robot armies start arriving to kick ass and take over the world.
Of course, we soon find out that this goofy plot is more serious than we thought, and that Tama is no ordinary robot girl. There are some nice fakeouts in this middle bit as the real villain is revealed, and you begin to wonder (as do our heroes) how pure his motivation really is, especially since that motivation seems to be for mass slaughter. (Really, for a Jump gag manga, Gin Tama has a damn high body count. Certainly higher than Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece.)
The enemy captures Shinpachi, so Gin and Kagura are off to the rescue, along with Tama, whose personality has been implanted into a killer assassin maid robot. With one eye. Never let it be said that Sorachi does not know his core audience. This leads to one of the funniest moments in the volume, where Tama puts a CD into her mouth and starts playing the Rocky theme to inspire our heroes. (The anime actually topped this, mocking music negotiations by having her play a “Rocky-ish” theme and Gin lampshading that they must not have been able to afford the rights.)
In the end, though, this is less about cool action and goofy jokes, and more about what makes a person’s soul. Tama is having to deal with people willing to fight and die for her, and the concept of the samurai, both of which pretty much blow her mind. When she finally comes to accept that, she’s able to make the emotional leap that she needed, and in the end can sacrifice herself as well. (Of course, she returns, if only as a head again, and we’ll see more of Tama in future chapters).
The best part of the manga is Gin snarking back at the villain. The whole volume has been gently mocking the robot maid concept, and Gin finally throws it back into the faces of those who love the fetish.
Gin: You’d force your own daughter to commit murder? Blind obedience… is that what you wanted, Daddy? A daughter who’d never leave you and never die? You don’t want a daughter… you want a robot maid.
For a series with as many strong women as Gin Tama has, this is particularly apt. The most popular females are the ones who can punt a man’s aass through a wall.
The manga flags towards the end, with two chapters focusing on buying a Wii (or rather, a Bentendo Owee). As always following an arc with somewhat serious issues, the author follows it with pure gag manga for comic relief. Seeing the cast cutting into lines and trying to play date sims is funny (Katsura, as always, wins the humor award, both for dressing up as Mario and for trying to buy a Famicom – behind the times, as always). Still, it’s light stuff compared to the earlier chapters.
If you aren’t reading Gin Tama, you’re really missing out. I’d argue it’s the 2nd best manga in Jump right now, behind One Piece. Highly recommended.
