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The story
News that Hideaki Sorachi, famous for ‘Gintama,’ has started promoting his new series using Gintama characters — reportedly because the new work is at risk of cancellation — became a hot topic on 5ch. Alongside comments like “He’s already made a fortune, isn’t that enough?”, the thread pointed out that new works from proven hit-makers like Masashi Kishimoto and Masami Kurumada have also been struggling across the board, sparking a debate over why even the most accomplished authors tend to have such a hard time with their follow-up series. The discussion also got lively over the sheer scale of Saint Seiya merchandising and the way character popularity spreads for Weekly Shonen Jump titles.
What people said
If Kurumada could earn 4 billion yen, this guy's probably raked in 10 billion.
However you look at it, Masami Kurumada's made way more money than that.
Gintama's merchandising potential is way too limited, though.
The toy royalties must be insane though.
You'd think the creators behind Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, and Gintama could put out something decent for their next series,
but they all end up putting out manga that's genuinely not fun to read.
Honestly, Busou Renkin got a lot of hype but it was pretty mediocre.
And then they end up clinging to sequels of their hit series, which mostly turn out to be pointless tack-ons.
Prince of Tennis is about the only one that actually stayed popular the whole way through.
Gun Blaze West was actually good, though.
Feels like I've heard that line somewhere before.
You could say that, or you could say the opposite.
First time I've ever heard NARUTO's fanbase blamed on fujoshi.
Sounds like someone who's never seen the NARUTO or Gintama movies.
Instead of starting a whole new series, he made 'Burn the Witch,' set in the same universe as the BLEACH sequel, and just brought all the Bleach fans along with him.
He went for the money in front of him instead of a graceful finish.
Or rather, I think he knows that's the only thing he's capable of drawing.
ZombiePowder had a good story though, I'd love to see that get a remake.
To be fair, Osamu Akimoto also kept drawing other manga for a while after ending Kochikame.
He did one with high school girls in it, I think.
He's been drawing Mr. Chris for ages.
Old and new anime, OVAs, over 10 movies, close to 1,000 character songs, tons of game adaptations (mostly otome games), musicals and stage plays, even a concert by the author himself.
It's quietly legend-tier.
Almost 1,000 character songs, lol.
Get that in the Guinness Book already.
A manga artist who holds concerts — that's got to be Kurumada (aka 'Tashike') and only him, in all of history.
Only handling the art while someone else writes the script is definitely not something Sorachi would want to do.
If anything, it'd be better for Sorachi to do the storyboarding (name) and bring in a separate artist for the actual drawing.
Story by Gotouge.
Art by Sorachi.
Let's go with that.
Figures keep coming out steadily even now — I wonder who's actually buying them.
Saint Seiya has basically become like Chiikawa, Gundam, or Peanuts (Snoopy) — a brand people buy into regardless of the story.
A pretty large chunk of buyers have never even read the original manga.
Who's even left at this point…
Shimabukuro's actually hit it big twice, with 'Seikimatsu Leader-den Takeshi!' and 'Toriko.'
Shimabukuro landing two hits is genuinely impressive.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Hideaki Sorachi is the creator behind ‘Gintama,’ a series that spawned an anime adaptation, a live-action film, and an enormous amount of merchandise, and the sheer scale of that character-driven expansion came up repeatedly in the thread. The central topic of debate was a tendency often pointed out in the industry: that the more successful an author’s completed long-running series was, the harder their follow-up work tends to struggle. Commenters brought up Osamu Akimoto, who kept drawing other manga for a while after ending ‘Kochikame,’ as well as the rare case of Saint Seiya, whose merchandise has continued to draw in buyers who have never even read the original manga. It’s not unusual for a new series to struggle after a hit series ends, but the reasons often have less to do with the author’s talent and more to do with the publisher’s rollout strategy and how easily existing fans transfer over — and the thread was split between attributing the cause to “the author’s own ability” versus “how the work itself was constructed.”
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “Hideaki Sorachi begins a desperate struggle as his new series faces the threat of cancellation!!“
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