October 10 is now officially Gintama Day in Japan
Japan's anniversary registry has recognized Gintoki Sakata's birthday as Gintama Day; Tomokazu Sugita accepted the certificate at a September 26 stage event, where creator Hideaki Sorachi's letter admitted he expected the anime to flop.
Gintoki Sakata's birthday now has a place on Japan's registry of commemorative days. The Japan Anniversary Association has approved October 10 as "Gintama Day," and Tomokazu Sugita, Gintoki's voice for two decades, collected the registration certificate on stage on September 26.
The occasion was a celebration for the Cho Enjo edition of Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames Arc, the re-animated theatrical version, which opened in Japanese cinemas on September 25. Sugita shared the stage with Daisuke Sakaguchi and Rie Kugimiya (Shinpachi and Kagura), producer Hiromitsu Higuchi and Kohei Onishi, formerly the manga's editor. Sugita pointed out that the association screens applications, so the approval is a sign of how broadly the series is recognized, and said he hopes October 10 might one day be printed on calendars, and even become a national holiday.
Hideaki Sorachi did not attend but sent a letter, and it was characteristically self-deprecating. Looking back to when the adaptation began, he wrote that he "honestly thought it was going to flop," doubting anyone could capture the manga's style on screen. He also recalled the casting: Shinpachi and Kagura were settled the moment their auditions were heard, while Gintoki took longer, with Sugita's occasional jumps into a higher register helping him stand out.
Sorachi's manga ran in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 2003 to 2018 before finishing in Jump GIGA in 2019. The TV anime reached 367 episodes, produced by Sunrise and later Bandai Namco Pictures, and Gintama: The Very Final (2021) closed the adaptation by covering the last arc. The first Gintama Day falls less than two weeks from now.
