Gin Tama

Gin Tama (銀魂 Gintama, lit. "Silver Soul"), also known as Gintama, is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by and serialized, beginning on December 8, 2003, in Shueisha's . Set in an Edo which has been conquered by aliens named Amanto, the plot follows life from the point of view of samurai Gintoki Sakata, who works as a freelancer alongside his friends Shinpachi Shimura and Kagura in order to pay the monthly rent. Sorachi added the science fiction setting to develop characters to his liking after his editor suggested doing a historical series.

The manga has been licensed by in North America. In addition to publishing the individual volumes of the series, Viz serialized its first chapters in their Shonen Jump manga anthology. It debuted in the January 2007 issue, and was serialized at a rate of one chapter a month. An original video animation (OVA) of Gin Tama by Sunrise was featured at 2006 Anime Tour in 2005. This was followed by a full anime series, which debuted on April 4, 2006 in TV Tokyo and finished on March 25, 2010. A sequel titled Gintama premiered in Japan on April 4, 2011. An animated film premiered in Japan in April 2010. The website is streaming the series on its site, while Sentai Filmworks licensed the series, with distribution from Section23 Films on DVDs. Besides the anime series, there have been various light novels and video games based on Gin Tama.

Introduction
The story of Gin Tama takes place in Edo (known today as Tokyo because of its name change in 1868), Japan, which was conquered by aliens called "Amanto" (天人, "Sky People") in the late Edo period. The samurai of Japan fought the aliens, but after their defeat, the Amanto placed a ban on carrying swords in public. The plot is focused on an eccentric samurai, Gintoki Sakata who helps a teenager named Shinpachi Shimura save his sister Tae from a group of aliens who want to make her part of a brothel. Impressed with Gintoki, Shinpachi becomes his apprentice and works with him as a freelancer in order to pay the monthly rent where Gintoki lives, as well as to know more about him. The two of them rescue a teenage alien girl named Kagura from a group of Yakuza who wanted to use her superhuman strength to kill people. Kagura joins Shinpachi and Gintoki to work as freelancers and the three become known as "Yorozuya" (万事屋, "We do everything"). While doing their job they encounter the police force Shinsengumi several times, who normally ally with Odd Jobs Gin in their work since they commonly involve dangerous criminals. They also come to meet Gintoki's former comrades during the Amanto's invasion, including the terrorist Kotaro Katsura who maintains a friendly relationship with them despite his ambitions to destroy the bakufu. On the other hand, Shinsuke Takasugi acts as a major antagonist throughout the series, as he wants to destroy the bakufu in a more violent way than Katsura does.

Although the series' story is commonly episodic, there are also a few story arcs which are developed through several chapters.

Main Characters
Gintoki Sakata
 * Gintoki Sakata is a samurai living in an era when samurai are no longer needed. He is recognized by his natural curly hair and sweet tooth. He often blames his "perm" hair of sorts to be a source of some of his misfortune. Gintoki lives with Kagura and Shinpachi, taking on odd jobs to make the world a better place and to pay their rent. In the Joi war, he was known as the "White Demon" (白夜叉, Shiroyasha) due to his silver hair and white coat he wore in battle, which, combined with his impressive capabilities as a swordsman, made him famous among his comrades and struck fear into Amanto.

Shinpachi Shimura
 * Shinpachi Shimura is a teenager who joins Gintoki's freelancer business to learn the ways of the samurai. He stays at his family's dojo along with his older sister Tae Shimura. Both used to live there with their father who died when they were still children. In order to make their living, Shinpachi started working in a restaurant in which he met Gintoki when he was being tripped by aliens. Gintoki defeats the ambassador and his guards, not to stand up for Shinpachi, but to get revenge for his spilled parfait. Gintoki attempts to frame Shinpachi for the crime, and to make up for it, Gintoki helps Shinpachi save his older sister Tae from becoming part of a brothel as his father left them with an enormous debt.

Kagura
 * Kagura is the second person who joins Gintoki's freelancer business in the series. She is a young alien girl who belongs to the Yato Clan, one of the strongest and most bloodthirsty of the Amanto races, although Kagura rejects that part of herself. She came to Earth to earn money for her family, and to escape her violent Yato heritage. She found work fighting for a gang of hoodlums, but when they ordered her to kill her target, she ran away. Not long afterwards, she meets Gintoki and Shinpachi, when they accidentally run over her with Gintoki's scooter. After they help her to make a clean break from the gang, she intimidates Gintoki into hiring her.

Reception
With 31 volumes released as of December 2009, the Gin Tama manga has sold 29 million units in Japan. In March 2007, Shueisha announced that sales of the first volume had passed one million copies. Following volumes from the manga have also had good sales, having appeared various times in the Japanese comic ranking. The 17th volume from the manga ranked as the 10th bestseller volume from Japan during 2007. During 2008, the manga ranked as the 10th bestseller series with over 2.3 million copies sold. It also hit number 5 in Japan in the most sold manga in the first half of 2009 list, selling over 2.7 million volumes from November 17, 2008 to May 17, 2009. In 2008 Gin Tama was featured in two Oricon surveys; it ranked at the top as "funniest manga" and 5th in "most interesting manga". In another survey from 2009, it was listed as the sixth choice for what manga could adapted into a live-action film. In a poll from Zassosha's Puff Japanese manga magazine, Gin Tama was second in the category "Best Long Stories". Fuji News Network has cited Gin Tama as one of the responsibles for the wooden swords' popularity during 2008 as Hokkaido's retailers have experienced brisk sales in wooden swords to foreigners. In North America, Gin Tama has ranked as the best new shōnen manga from 2007 in About.com's 2007 Readers Poll: Best New Shonen Manga. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Award from 2008, Gin Tama was nominated for the category "Best Manga - Comedy", losing to Negima! Magister Negi Magi. English sales from the manga volumes have also been good with some of them having appeared in Diamond Comic Distributors's Top 300 Graphic Novels.

Critical response to the Gin Tama manga has generally been positive. Carlo Santos from Anime News Network found the manga to be a "one-of-a-kind comedy" praising the characters' personalities and gags. On the other hand, the artwork was criticized for being "hard to follow" when there are fast scenes.[5] Jokes regarding clichés from other shōnen series were also positively received by About.com writer Deb Aoki, who, like Santos, found the artwork to be "the only thing that distracts from the otherwise considerable pleasures of this loveable, goofy manga". However, characters' designs were praised for its variations including the ones from the aliens appearing in the series by Katherine Dacey from Pop Culture Shock who remarked that "These characters add visual interest and life to every panel, keeping the reader invested when the stories stall." Other negative comments regarding the manga have the few number of aliens appearing in the series as well as how some chapters are focused in fights such as Hijikata's fight against Gintoki. Michael Aronson from Manga Life concluded his review of the manga by saying that "The potential is there, but the execution is struggling" as still he liked the comedy from the story. Comics Village's Alex Hoffman mentioned that Gin Tama "can't truly be compared to those comics because of one thing: the jokes." He found the context from the series hilarious and like how there are new jokes in every chapter. Like other reviewers, Hoffman also disliked Sorachi's artwork, but still found the manga to be "a great comedy, or a great read."[118] Comic Book Bin writer Leroy Douresseaux found that the large number of characters with different appearances in the series allow the reader to remain entertained with the series as "at least every few pages or so present some unusual and interesting visual."

The anime adaptation of Gin Tama has received positive and mixed responses. The humor was noted to be improved after the series' introduction although some jokes were hard to understand due to the fact some of them are references to Japanese culture and other series. The notes on the DVD releases were criticized for lacking explanation of cultural jokes. Additionally, the humor's quality was found to be inconsistent within the first episodes due to the depth some bring, to the point that some viewers may abandon the series. The quality from the series was found to improve as the series continues as people would not be intimidated by its large amount of episodes. The characters' action were praised due to their knowledge that they are in a TV series, while the female characters were found appealing, something noted to be unusual for some other anime.