Books: Gin Tama Vol. #2

The second volume of Gin Tama cracked me up in a way that hadn’t happened since, well, the first volume of Gin Tama. I chalk this up to GT being a truly whacked-out original; it’s got the goony glee of Buckaroo Banzai* when so many other manga are the stale Star Wars prequels. The jokes are that much funnier if you’re already a general J-culture fan, but I think anyone can laugh at the sight of a giant alien dog thinking that his new owners are tasty as well as fun to play with.

What I loved right off the bat about the first book in this series was the setting — a reworking of post-feudal Japan that swapped “aliens” for “foreigners,” and combined that with an acid streak of irreverent humor to make sly jabs at the world we live in now. Also, the lead character was a true original as well — the perpetually broke and hypoglycemic odd-job man Gintoki, henpecked by everyone from his landlady to his buddies, and despite all that somehow living up to the ideals of a bygone age in his own way.

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