Hideaki Sorachi

Hideaki Sorachi (空知 英秋, Sorachi Hideaki, born May 25, 1979)[1] is the pen name[2] of a Japanese manga artist best known for Gin Tama.[3] As of May 2016, the Gin Tama manga has sold 50 million units in Japan.[4]

Sorachi Hideaki
Born (1979-05-25) May 25, 1979
Hokkaido, Japan
NationalityJapanese
OccupationManga artist
Signature

Career

Sorachi became interested in manga during his childhood. However, during the 4th grade he showed his manga work to his father who immediately laughed at him, after which he abandoned his dream of being a manga artist. After graduating from college, he could not find a job and began drawing manga again to make money. He was able to live from his first work Dandelion, which was featured in the first volume of Gintama, along with a prologue from Sorachi calling it his first official work.

When starting serialization the manga was unpopular and was close to being cancelled. Although Sorachi was pleased with the first tankōbon selling all of its copies, he later learned Shueisha was afraid of poor sales which resulted in the minimum printed.[5] In order to increase its popularity, the author introduce new characters, the Shinsengumi, who felt memorable to his assistants.[6] 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."[7]

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.[8] He finished the manga series in 2019.

Crossovers and appearances

Kenta Shinohara (author of Sket Dance) used to be his assistant,[9] as well as Yōichi Amano (author of Akaboshi: Ibun Suikoden). Gintama and Sket Dance had a crossover chapter in Weekly Shōnen Jump which was the 349th chapter for Gintama and the 180th for Sket Dance.

Works
  • Bankara — One Shot, 2010 (featured in volume 38 of Gin Tama)
  • 13 — One Shot, 2008 (featured in Volume 24 of Gin Tama)
  • 3rd Year Z Class: GinPachi Sensei — light novels, 2006 – ongoing (illustrator)
  • Dandelion — One Shot (featured in volume 1 of Gin Tama)
  • Gin Tama — 2003–2019
  • Shirokuro — One Shot (featured in volume 2 of Gin Tama)

References
  1. Sorachi, Hideaki (2009). Gin Tama, Vol. 10. Viz Media. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-4215-1623-3.
  2. "Character Book 1 Interview". Yorozuya Soul. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved Sep 23, 2020.
  3. 2004年新年2号 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on February 5, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2009.
  4. "Gintama Manga Has 50 Million Copies in Print in Japan". Anime News Network (in Japanese). May 2, 2016. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  5. Sorachi, Hideaki (2009). 銀魂公式キャラクターブック2 「銀魂五年生」. Shueisha. pp. 194–195. ISBN 978-4-08-874805-4.
  6. Quick Japan (in Japanese). Otashuppan. October 2009. pp. 22–41. ISBN 978-4778311940.
  7. Sorachi, Hideaki (2008). Gin Tama, Vol. 3. Viz Media. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-4215-1360-7.
  8. Sorachi, Hideaki (2008). Gin Tama, Vol. 6. Viz Media. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-4215-1619-6.
  9. Tan, Kevin (24 February 2008). "Samurai sci-fi". The Star. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.