Gin Tama - Production

Production

In 2003, Hideaki Sorachi was an up-and-coming manga artist who had already created two one-shots for the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. Although he was preparing to write his first serialized series, his editor suggested he create a manga series based on the Shinsengumi, mostly inspired by an upcoming TV-drama about the 1860s troupe as depicted by idol actors. Sorachi attempted to create this series since he admitted to liking the Shinsengumi, but ultimately failed to get anything off the ground. Instead of abandoning the idea completely, he remained focused on the historical Japanese era but began to create his own story, adding in elements of science fiction and fictionalizing many of the figures from the era to create a story more to his own liking. The original title of the series was meant to be "Yorozuya Gin-san" (万事屋銀さん?, lit. "General Merchant Gin-san"), but it did not have any impact on Sorachi. After great debate, he decided to go with the name Gin Tama after discussing it with his family, deciding on a name that sounded close to the edge without being completely off it. Although Sorachi considered the one-shot "Samuraider" to be very poor, the setting of such one-shot served as the base for Gin Tama such as the addition of alien characters. Sorachi had little hope on the manga's popularity, as he noted that people used to tell him the manga would not surpass the number of two tankōbon volumes. However, once the third volume was released, Sorachi found that he did not have "any fresh material to use".

The main character of the series was originally meant to be Toshiro Hijikata as Sorachi was a fan of the Shinsengumi, most notably from Hijikata Toshizō (the Shinsengumi who was the base for the one of Gin Tama), after he saw the film Burn! Sword!. When Sorachi could not "shake off" Hijikata's initial design, he decided not to use him as the lead character, but added him along with the Shinsengumi to the story. The pilot chapter from the series had a different plot to the one from the serialization: Shinpachi already met Gintoki in the story and there were more Shinsengumi to the story such as one based on Harada Sanosuke. As all these new Shinsengumi were older than most of the recurring characters from the series, Sorachi removed them thinking they were not entertaining. When asked by a fan, Sorachi mentioned that most characters from the series are based on real-life Edo citizens while Gintoki's character is roughly based on the folk hero Sakata Kintoki.

During the first year of the series, Sorachi believed that the source of the popularity of Gin Tama was partially connected to the Shinsengumi drama. While the drama ran during the first year of the series, when the manga was mostly shorter stories that established the characters and the world, he felt uncomfortable of making things related to the drama. By the second year and beyond, he became more daring in his stories and concepts, creating longer storylines that included more drama while keeping his sense of humor and satirization of modern Japan by way of his fictionalized past. When working in the chapters Sorachi commonly has problems to finish the manuscript, leaving his supervisor to take it before he could revise it. He figures on what to write by staying in his room or by going for a walk. Although he commented that some of his ideas are "random", he focuses on the fact that they are related to the manga. However, when he has problems to figure out what ideas, Sorachi is normally helped by his editor. Thinking of Gin Tama as a "non-sense manga", before writing a chapter, Sorachi focuses whether the chapter should be a comedy or a drama. When illustrating lines in the series, Sorachi commonly uses a felt-tip pen, a fountain pen, a brush-tip pen and a multiliner. For the major lines of characters he only uses a felt-tip pen and a fountain pen, while for the outlines a multiliner-0.8.