That being said, not every Jump title released here is a hit on the level of Dragon Ball Z. Sometimes they never rise above 'cult classic,' and sometimes it's obvious why that happened.
GIN TAMA, by Hideaki Sorachi. First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2007.
PLOT:
In an alternate world where Meiji-era Japan has modern technology and aliens landed instead of Matthew Perry, Shinpachi is simply trying to get by. He's an ex-samurai with a failing family dojo who spends most of his days getting pushed around by others. Then a white-haired samurai named Gin charges into his restaurant, picks a fight, and drags Shinpachi along with him. Together with an alien girl with a penchant for violence, the three of them are ready to take on anyone and anything, be they permed Yakuza thugs, alien moneylenders, a rampaging octopus monster, or figures from Gin's past.
The appeal of Gintama eludes me. It clearly doesn't elude the Japanese public, considering it's got dozens of volumes to its name along with 350+ episodes of anime, a handful of OVAs and a live-action movie. I think the problem is that while I get why someone would find it amusing, most of that humor is lost in cultural translation.
Sorachi is kind enough to explain his inspiration for this series in the author's notes. He and his editor wanted to do both a historical drama and some silly and fantastical with no regard for real-world accuracy. Thus, in true "why don't we do both?" fashion, Gintama was born. The end result is essentially a Flintstones-style sitcom through a Japanese lens, something that allows Sorachi to poke fun at the historical dramas that inspired this series but also the foibles of modern-day Japan. Sometimes he gets downright meta with it, such as the chapter that's kicked off with Gin on a quest to score the latest volume of Weekly Shonen Jump.
Yet the whole premise requires the audience being familiar with the dramas and Japanese pop culture that Sorachi is mocking. That's not a problem for Gin Tama's original audience, but even the biggest weebs are going to miss some of the references. Even the title itself is a crude joke that requires some knowledge of Japanese. It's also not helpful that like a lot of gag manga, the characters here aren't terribly deep and exist more for the sake of jokes than anything else. Gin in particular feels like a fairly divisive lead; either you find his particular combination of laziness, immaturity, and decency appealing or not. That being said, even a great cast couldn't overcome the fact that this is truly an inherently Japanese comedy.
ART:
Sorachi is at least a decent artist. His character designs are actually kind of charming. I also appreciate that while there's clearly more than a bit of Eichiro Oda's influence here (be it the wackiness of the expressions or the fairly flat inking), he's not nakedly aping it in the way some of his peers did. He also clearly has fun finding ways to make modern technology look old, even if that mostly means slapping lots of wood and bamboo on it. He also makes good use of the depth of field in his panels. While the fights here are not particularly spectacular, his use of perspective helps make them feel a little more dynamic than they might be otherwise.
RATING:
Gin Tama is not without its charms, but its humor leans so much on Japanese pop culture and media tropes that it's not hard to see why its particular brand of humor never went mainstream. For most manga readers, it'll likely never be anything more than a novelty.
This series was published by Viz. This series is complete in Japan with 77 volumes available. 23 volumes were published; the physical volumes are out of print, but the series is available digitally via Viz and the WSJ app.
Unfortunately, Gintama is only available as a print release :(
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