Hideaki Sorachi has been having some troubles bringing Gintama to an end. After announcing that it would end, first the series moved from its Weekly Shonen Jump home to its own official app, and each of these final chapters has been shrouded in mystery. The final chapter of the series is especially curious, given that it has now been delayed twice. Moving from its originally planned June 10th to June 17th, the final chapter is now scheduled to release on June 20th.
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The Weekly Shonen Jump official Twitter account shared Hideaki Sorachi’s comment on the delay, and it’s as hilarious as you would expect at this point.
Ok here’s my translation of this note from Sorachi-sensei https://t.co/m5rsTB03lJ pic.twitter.com/RtOePJiiOT
— Kewl0210 (@Kewl0210) June 14, 2019
As translated by @Kewl0210 on Twitter, Sorachi’s apology reads as such “I’m writing this late at night on Thursday, June 13th, and I have finally finished Gintama’s final chapter. But, having gone past the point where we could get this out for the planned time on Monday, all of my editors over the years that had been ready with bundles of flowers to celebrate me finishing the final manuscript immediately turned those bundles of flowers into weapons and pelted me with them on after another.”
Elaborating further, “Good grief. It seems like no matter what I do, there’s no happy end for me…Nah, just kidding…After all my crimes of repeatedly having fake-out endings and delaying the final volume character book release date, I have no hope of recovery as a weekly manga author.”
Sorachi twists the knife even more hilariously as it seems like this really is the end, “I’ve probably lost my chance of ever being in Jump again and I’ll have to draw manga while fighting death-row prisoners in an underground fighting arena, but even if that’s the case, I have nothing but gratitude to all the readers and the motionless corpses of my editors laying at my feet for allowing me to reach the final chapter I wanted to draw. Thank you all so much. “
But Sorachi notes how his apology took a detour, and reminding everyone just why fans have stuck with this series through all the finale trolls, “This is kind of sounding less and less like an apology. I’m really sorry about that!!…This time it’s seriously ending! Let’s meet again in the final chapter!”
While fans have not believed it, it seems like Gintama really is ending on June 20th. But then again, they probably won’t believe it until they see it for themselves. Usually delays are met with bummed fans, but in this case, fans aren’t mad as it means Gintama gets to last just a bit longer.
Gintama was originally created by Hideaki Sorachi for Weekly Shonen Jump in 2003. The series is set in an Edo period Japan that’s been invaded by aliens known as Amanto. After the shogun surrenders, humans then are forced to live alongside these invaders. The series follows a samurai Gintoki Sakata, who picks up odd jobs with his friends Shinpachi and Kagura to pay the rent for their Yorozuya home base. After ending its run in Weekly Shonen Jump (and had fans thinking the series would end forever), the series continued for a few chapters in Jump GIGA magazine to wrap things up.
