In the world of anime, Hideaki Sorachi’s Gintama is truly a gem that has taken the industry by storm. The series began in 2006 and quickly rose to immense popularity, which continues to be a delight to countless viewers even today. The show is a chaotic mess that features a parodic presence in its plotline, which makes it so unpredictable and a gold mine of pure comedic bliss.
While humor adds to the charm and the countless references to iconic anime series, the mangaka shares how Akira Toriyama’s one underrated gem of work helped him immensely to come up with this parodic masterpiece that takes humor to a whole other level.
During an interview, the mangaka got candid and shared how the legendary mangaka helped him get the appropriate tools to get started. As a result, he created a work that boasts heavy cultural references in all of its episodes.
Akira Toriyama’s Pre-Dragon Ball Work Inspired Hideaki Sorachi To Create a Comedy Gold
Whenever we think of Akira Toriyama, we remember his magnum opus, Dragon Ball, which boasts the most popular protagonist, Son-Goku, who has an insatiable need to become the strongest fighter in the world.
After all, the age-old Shonen series revolutionized the Shonen genre and inspired the next generation of mangakas to illustrate their ideas and take the manga industry to a whole new level.
Big names such as Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Kohei Horikoshi, and even Hideaki Sorachi have been inspired by the legendary manga artist. However, Sorachi-Sensei’s inspiration doesn’t come from reading the iconic series, but from a different work that helped him in the technical aspects of manga creation.
During an exclusive interview via Yorozuya Shinigami, the mangaka explained how he used to think about his “manga ideas” during lectures but faced issues about the intricacies that go into a manga. He said,
I used to fantasize about my manga ideas during university lectures, so I think I had a story and what looked like a name ready, by the time I started working on it. At the time, I wasn’t very conscious about planning and naming, and I guess I was just doing it at random. That’s why I don’t remember much about it.
Sorachi-Sensei added that Toriyama-Sensei’s Hetappi Manga Kenkyujo, a collection of lessons on how to create manga, immensely helped him in getting the knowledge needed to come up with his own work.
I had been reading Akira Toriyama’s Hetappi Manga Kenkyujo (The Hetappi Manga Laboratory), so I just relied on the knowledge I gained there, got all the tools I needed, and jumped right in, drawing without any qualms.
He concluded, saying,
I had no strategy or anything. So rather than submitting my work for publication or winning an award, I was just trying to see if I could really draw a manga and if I could complete a draft.
Indeed, the legendary artist thought about everything as he ensured that he would guide budding artists to follow their passion and draft their own ideas.
As a result, Gintama’s author would often refer to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball, even creating parodies that take a hilarious approach to the series.
Hideaki Sorachi Gets Candid on the “Hardest Part” of the Drawing Process
In the same interview, the interviewer was curious about the difficulties that the manga artist faces while he is in the drawing process. Without much thought he replied, “Backgrounds.”
He expressed his surprise, and how he had to spend eons to get the desired results. He said,
“Backgrounds”, by far. I was really shocked to realize that I had to spend a great deal of time and effort to draw these symbolic pictures that we don’t pay attention to when we read manga, and that we only see for a moment. Most people start drawing manga because they want to draw the characters, and it was hard for me to realize that the most effort and time was being taken away from that.
He added,
Of course, the backgrounds are an important part of the manga. But I was like, “Did I really work that hard to only get this result?” It’s like, “We worked so hard to get this much done, and that’s all we got? It’s a work that doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Nevertheless, the mangaka was optimistic, as he later shared how his first idea was turned down by Shonen Jump. However, he did not give up, as he noticed his flaws and worked on his strengths to convey his ideas, which “idiots can understand.”
With a never-give-up attitude, he came up with a masterpiece that would even rival Deadpool in breaking the fourth wall; he has made a global fandom for himself and took the anime and manga industries to new heights.
Gintama can be streamed on Crunchyroll
