It has been announced that the box office revenue of the new animated film "Gintama: The New Movie - Yoshiwara in Flames," based on Hideaki Sorachi's popular manga "Gintama," has surpassed 1 billion yen. The film has been a hit, with audience numbers exceeding 700,000. Sorachi, the original author who plays the "super advisor gorilla" in this film, commented in a congratulatory message, "I'm sorry for acting like a super advisor gorilla, even though I was just giving some random advice over a highball. Please send all the applause and cheers to the guys who transformed my scribbled manga into a solid film. I'll be happy with half the box office revenue."
It was also announced that as the fourth special gift for moviegoers, an "illustration with a message of thanks for watching" using a teaser visual drawn by Sorachi will be distributed from March 6th. The illustration features a cool profile of Gintoki, and includes a new autograph from Sorachi and a message of thanks to the audience. The "opening footage (tentative) of the new movie" will premiere on YouTube from 8pm on March 6th. The footage released will be the first 4 minutes of the movie, with some exceptions.
The new movie is a completely new anime adaptation of "Yoshiwara Burning Arc," also known as the most passionate and famous episode in the original work's history. Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura of the Yorozuya family enter Yoshiwara, an underground red-light district that has lost its light and is now ruled by the "King of the Night," Housen. Directed by Naoya Ando and produced by BN Pictures, it was released on February 13th.
"Gintama" is set in a fictional Edo, where Sakata Gintoki solves various cases brought to the Yorozuya (a general store) alongside his friends Shinpachi and Kagura. The series began serialization in "Weekly Shonen Jump" (Shueisha) in December 2003 and concluded in June 2019. The first season of the TV anime aired from 2006 to 2010, the second from 2011 to 2013, the third from 2015 to 2016, and the fourth from 2017 to 2018. The animated feature films "Gintama: The Movie - The Red Shadow Arc" was released in 2010, and "Gintama: The Movie: The Final Chapter - Be Forever Yorozuya" was released in 2013. The film "Gintama: The Final" was released in 2021.
