Ask John: Why Hasn’t Gintama Caught On in America?

Question:
Why is the Gin Tama manga a harder sell in the U.S. than Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei? You would think it’d be the opposite, since you literally have to go through footnotes and endnotes to “get” most of the Japanese jokes in the latter series. Meanwhile, Gin Tama should appeal more to Westerners because it riffs on a number of themes found in popular shonen manga like Rurouni Kenshin. Plus, the art’s a lot more pleasing to the eye. So is it because of the sci-fi angle? Outside of mainstays such as HALO, Eva, and the Animatrix, that genre of anime admittedly don’t seem to be as popular here as well it was years ago. Is it “episodic comedy” angle, which seems to also afflict titles like Reborn and Hayate? Or is it just that the concept of people who can’t hold onto a full-time job or find steady work has less appeal in the current economy?

Answer:
On the contrary, I’m not convinced that Gintama is, in fact, a “tougher sell” in America than Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. Currently there are 22 volumes of translated Gintama manga available in the US, and four DVD volumes of the anime. Only 8 volumes of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei manga are available in English, and none of the anime has been officially released in America yet. Gintama clearly has a bigger footprint in America than Zetsubou-sensei does. However, the argument may be made that Gintama has not become remotely as popular in America as it is in Japan, and while the American cult followings of both Gintama and Zetsubou-sensei are small, Zetsubou-sensei may have a more devoted and intense following than Gintama.

Gintama is an odd beast in the regard that it’s one of very few mainstream shonen comedies to reach America. Typical Shonen Jump franchises to reach America have been action shows like Dragon Ball and Naruto, the suspenseful Death Note, and action comedies like Katekyo Hitman Reborn and One Piece. Mainstream shonen comedies including Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Keroro Gunso, and Crayon Shin-chan have met with limited American success, but more importantly, Gintama is unlike any of them. Arguably, there’s no other franchise directly comparable to Gintama in America. (Irresponsible Captain Tylor may come close, but Captain Tylor is now such an obscure title that it’s practically irrelevant for the purpose of useful comparison.) Gintama is a historical domestic comedy. While Crayon Shin-chan is also a domestic comedy (that sometimes employs historical settings and sci-fi), the art design of Gintama resembles typical anime while Crayon Shin-chan does not. The average cast age in Gintama is also similar to typical anime while the same cannot be said of Crayon Shin-chan. Unlike comedies such as Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo & Keroro Gunso that rely on exaggerated slapstick, Gintama has a more restrained, situational and often dialogue-based humor that’s not based so much in visual gags.

Gintama is an oddity because it’s not predominantly a visual gag or slapstick comedy akin to popular domestic releases like Trigun, Fullmetal Panic, or FLCL. It’s also not predominantly bishoujo fan service laden like Suzumiya Haruhi, Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star, Mitsudomoe, and K-On. Nor is Gintama quite as zany and esoteric as cult hit bizarre comedies like Excel Saga, Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, Kodomo no Omocha, or Baka to Test to Shokanjuu. Gintama is a series very specifically tailored for average, mainstream Japanese consumption. Happily, its also found some degree of American acceptance and success. However, Gintama isn’t exciting & conspicuous with either its action or comedy as titles like Dragon Ball, Inuyasha, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece are, nor is Gintama as esoteric and sectarian as cult favorites like Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei, Bakemonogatari, and Baka to Test to Shokanjuu. In effect, Gintama is a comedy targeted at mainstream manga and anime fans, but America does not have any mainstream manga and anime fans. America only has manga and anime fans at varying degrees of the fringes of mainstream. Unlike the very exclusive Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei series, Gintama isn’t esoteric enough to engage most hardcore otaku, but the very fact that it’s anime and trades on shonen anime characteristics and gag references to other shonen franchises makes it unappealing and alien to relatively mainstream American audiences. Obviously, the footprint of Gintama in America reveals that there are enough American consumers willing to expand outside of their strictly delineated realms of interest to watch and read Gintama, but there aren’t enough of such consumers to make Gintama a smashing success. Gintama is simply too mundane and mainstream for most hardcore American otaku, yet too foreign and subdued to interest most mainstream American audiences.