By Hideaki Sorachi. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

There is little to no drama in this volume of Gin Tama, which I’m sure will make many people thankful. The closest we get is the plotline with Hasegawa and his estranged wife, and even that was half-serious, half-silly. Meanwhile, you also have some of the funniest comedy this series has scene yet.

I had been relatively unimpressed with the end of 17, which showed the gang all battling to try to get a Nintendo Wii (or copyright parody thereof). However, that plotline is resolved in the first chapter here, and is pure 100% fantastic. From the random HP division, to Hijikata being named ‘Turd’ (as his name is too long for the system to deal with), to everyone’s use of the kindly old village elder, this is a magical parody of the old RPG worlds. And naturally, being this is also a VR environment, everything ends in chaos.

This is then followed by a wonderful parody of old-school shonen, where a bearded man appears to our three heroes in a dream, and tells them it is time to learn how to grow stronger! Except none of them really have the desire to, and are mostly irritated with the man. And in fact, it turns out he probably didn’t have much to offer, as he’s still living with his mother. Secret Deadly Techniques apparently involve a lot of kicking people in the nads.

The majority of this volume is devoted to the Hasegawa plot I mentioned above. Due to his wretched luck (the man has the worst luck in the whole series, which is saying something as this series also has Kondo in it) he has been arrested for assaulting a girl on a subway train. He’d actually tripped and accidentally bumped into her, then when trying to save her from an oncoming train he pulled her into a move from Kinnikuman, the Muscle Buster, showing the whole subway station her panties. Needless to say, no one believes he’s innocent.

What’s worse, the prosecuting attorney is in love with his estranged wife, and will send Hasegawa up the river unless he signs divorce papers. Which he refuses to do, as he plans to win his wife back once he gets a decent job again. Luckily, Gintoki is on the case, and tries to do everything he can to help him… including being his defense lawyer.

The overall premise is serious, but the execution is utterly stupid, with Hasegawa continually making Dog of Flanders references, involving him in a dog suit and the girl he ‘assaulted’ as Heidi. Gin even shows up as Clara, in a rocket-powered wheelchair. The whole thing does eventually end in a rather touching flashback, showcasing Hasegawa’s stubbornness and his wife’s good heart. And then he trips again…

The last 2 chapters in this volume are probably the most ludicrous, dealing with the main female cast gaining too much weight, and having to go work it off at a dojo. The chapters are not as good as the rest of the book, but there’s still several funny moments. Seeing Kyuubei be cool is always worthy. Gin Tama is noted timed for volumes as precisely as, say, One Piece is, so you don’t always end with a band or with a cliffhanger.

This continues to be one of the funniest series being released by Viz, with great characters and a premise that lets its creator gleefully mock anything and everything, while still allowing for kickass samurai drama when it has to. Highly recommended.

Original manga by Hideaki Sorachi. Released in Japan by Sunrise, Inc., shown weekly on TV Tokyo. Released in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

Sentai Filmworks has recently been licensing a lot of long-running TV series from Japan, which surprises but pleases me. Rising from the remains of ADV, they seem to be looking for popular shonen that can come out cheaply and efficiently 13 episodes at a time. Eyeshield 21 comes out starting in May, and this month we had the first 13 episodes of Gintama.

Those who read this blog know that I’m a huge lover of Gin Tama the manga (Viz has made the title two words, Sentai Filmworks has it as one), so I was always going to pick this up. I was especially pleased as this was one of the series that’s legally available on Crunchyroll, so I had not expected DVDs. They’re pretty much bare-bones, with subtitles only and the only ‘extras’ being clean opening and closing credits. However, the subtitles are well-done, and the series’ foul language is not toned down. Best of all, although they are sparse, the series in-joke references and obscure Japanese media humor is also subtitled with brief explanations.

The anime itself does not begin with the first chapter of the manga, as one would expect, but instead has a 2-part double length episode opener that was written especially for the anime, introducing all the main characters (well, the early ones) as if we’d already been watching it. It works well. Gintama doesn’t really have a huge backstory you have to know to get into every episode. Gintoki has a tragic, serious past. Kagura’s an alien. Sacchan’s a masochist. (And a ninja, I suppose, but really, masochist is what everyone will remember). The episode piles on the humor, then gets serious as the client’s sad past and the villains’ nasty manipulations are revealed. Our heroes go off to beat them down, and after an equal parts silly and straight, they do.

After this, we go back and tell the story from the start, with Episode 3 introducing us to the bespectacled ‘straight man’ Shinpachi, his pretty yet psychotic sister Otae, and our hero, the lazy and permed Gintoki, who is a badass samurai with a tragic past who now carries only a wooden sword and eats parfaits.

The best part of Gintama, of courser, is that not only can anyone be the comedy character at any time, but anyone can be the straight man. This works well for our comic trio of Gin’s Odd Jobs, as any two can team up to scream at the other one and it seems reasonable. Likewise, Gintama’s status of being a broad, gag comedy – except when it isn’t – makes it pretty easy for the anime to insert filler comedy that fits within the confines of the plot of the day. In a series where anything can happen and the heroine is frequently seen picking her nose, coming up with stuff that doesn’t seem out of place is much easier.

Of course, having the luxury of 25 minutes to tell a story as opposed to 18 pages, we also sometimes get some richer character detail. I noticed this particularly with Episode 12, which introduces Catherine, the homely cat-girl thief who works at Otose’s. In the manga, this was a very early chapter and is clearly meant to focus more on Otose and her tendency to easily forgive and take in lost strays (i.e., Gin). The anime has the luxury of knowing that later on Sorachi decided to bring her back and start to redeem her, so makes Catherine far more reluctant in her actions, even crying by the end.

I can’t really recommend this to those who like serious samurai battles, even though there are many in this series, as I suspect the low humor will turn them off. However, the series is perfect for those who like low humor but don’t mind it turning serious whenever the author feels like it. In fact, many episodes of Gintama can get quite dark. The final episode of this set, 13, is the first example of such an episode, with Shinpachi and Kagura kidnapped by drug-smuggling aliens, and Gin and Zura busting to the rescue.

(It’s not Zura, it’s KATSURA!)

Whatever. A great anime, well-handled for its North American release, in an affordable 13-episode collection. Fans of shonen comedy will love this.

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.