Ok I hope ya’ll appreciate this because this took way longer than I expected.
Uh so as I’m sure a lot of you know, with the release of the final Gintama volume (77) they also released a “fanbook” which is a kind of series encyclopedia, called Koujien. It’s named after the popular Japanese dictionary of the same name. It’s super long, 432 pages long, so we’re not translating the whole thing, but I translated the relevant new information that was put at the end. So the last 30 pages basically.
This contains the cover and inside cover of the book, a sorta tabloid-style expose on the delays of the final chapter, a realllly long round table discussion between Sorachi-sensei and all of the editors that worked on Gintama over the course of the series, a couple pages of cut panels from the final chapter, a 4-page manga by Sorachi, and a final note by Sorachi. Basically we did the end of the book. And it’s really the only part that I was all that interested in doing, as it’s not a collection of old information or fan works.
Most of the book is a long encyclopedia of every character that ever showed up in the series, and it’s way too long for us to work on. It’d be like translating an entire wiki, it doesn’t really give you any new information. Mostly just stuff that you could already tell by reading the series. It also contains a long art gallery of color pages or just the character sorta cropped out of the color page and stuck on a white background, the original scrapped storyboard from before Gintama was first serialized, some comments Sorachi wrote for the tables of contents of all the issues of Jump… uhh… some letters he wrote to various anime events, and some ‘job well done’ fanart and stuff from his assistants. All of which, if you’re interested in that and want to check it out, you can buy your own here. But it’s very ancillary, so it’s not something this group is going to be working on. If someone else wants to translate all that stuff, you have my blessing.
So yeah, check this out if you’re a big fan of Gintama. I thought it would be a cool final thing to work on. And I hope everyone enjoys. The round table discussion is all text, but I thought it was a very interesting insight into Sorachi-sensei’s mindset during the course of the series and it gives us a tiny look into what it was like to work on Gintama, and all the suffering he put his editors through being late on every single manuscript.
Also we’re going to be doing a volume version of volume 77 still, which Kago is in the process of cleaning right now. So look forward to that, sometime in the near future. Though it is 360 pages long so it could take some time. (If you wanna just read the extras before we finish scanlating the whole thing, I posted it here.)
Edit: I added the author flap which I didn’t notice was even in the book the fist time around.
Gintama Koujien Fanbook Ending
Zippyshare
Mega
Online Reader (MangaDex)
More Gintama from you guys is always welcome!
I see how his feelings towards Laputa (Castle in the Sky) has influenced how he decided to end Gintama. “It can’t end there! Don’t leave me behind! It’s a little lonely now.” kind of feeling.
I love reading author’s notes and the creative process behind their work. Of course for the Gorilla it mostly involves lying on the floor and picking his nose. XD
Wow, thanks for translating all that! All I can say is damn…poor editors. I hope Sorachi sensei doesn’t cause as many delays with his next work. ;P Also, 8 editors? Is that normal? I’m guessing not.
I think it’s because Gintama kept changing editors over the years for various reasons. The last episode of the Silver Soul Arc Part 2 sums up what happened in 2015-2019 pretty nicely.
What, what? The Shinsengumi uniforms were inspired by Castlevania Symphony of the Night!
How did I not notice?!
Sorachi’s next work? Honestly, I believe he can write any genre he puts his mind to. I’d like to see him tackle a shojo manga next for fun.
Spectacular! Thank you so much~
Thank you very much
This is awesome, thank you so much!
Thank you HWMN!
I’ll admit I wanted something more definitive instead of an open-ended, life-goes-on ending even though I expected Gintama to end like that.
But after reading Sorachi’s thoughts on how he wanted to end Gintama with the heroes facing forward, running back to the readers I appreciate the final scene more.
It’s true. The classic ending usually is the main character showing his back after passing the baton to the next generation in many Shonen manga (’cause time skips, ect.). Even the anime did a hilarious parody of Gintoki passing the baton to Shinpachi as one of the “endings”.
Even though Gintoki’s an adult, he’s grown as a character yet he’s still the same lovable Gin-san! He’s come a long way from being a dead fish eyes protagonist. So Sorachi-sensei, you may be talking about teenagers when it comes to character growth and potential, but you’ve given all your characters more development than other main characters in an entire series!
Thank you so much guys!