Hideaki Sorachi

is the pen name of a Japanese manga artist, most well known for his manga Gintama, which began serialization in 2003 and ended in 2019. He has also written numerous one-shots, including Dandelion, for which he won the Tenkaichi Honourable Mention Manga Award in 2002. As of February 2018, the Gintama manga has sold 55 million units in Japan.

Personal life

Hideaki Sorachi was born on May 25, 1979, in Takikawa of Hokkaido, Japan. Sorachi has stated that his pen name is derived from the Sorachi prefecture in Hokkaido, but Hideaki is a part of his real name. He has an older sister, and occasionally shares stories about her in the end notes of manga volumes.

In an interview, Sorachi described how watching Castle in the Sky in his childhood inspired him to start drawing manga, and how he feels like he "is always chasing after a castle in the sky".

Sorachi entered a university in Hokkaido, studying a degree in advertising. He recounted feeling unsure of his career path while enrolled at university, considering following his interests in both architecture and creating computer graphics. After graduating, Sorachi considered himself to be a "NEET", and sent his first work, Dandelion, to a publisher whilst being unsure of its potential success.

Career Sorachi, unemployed after graduating university, was able to live off Dandelion. Soon afterwards, he began writing the storyline for Gintama. However, interest in the manga slowly increased, to the extent that Sorachi found he did not have "any fresh material to use" after the release of the third volume. He later stated that he was overjoyed when the manga was adapted into an anime, and, until then, hadn't fully grasped the extent to which the series was popular. Gintama was featured in the 2005 Jump Festa Anime Tour, which Sorachi visited and recounted seeing "the crowd's reaction and realised that people actually knew about Gintama."

Writing style and influences

Researchers have credited the popularity of the Gintama series to Sorachi's uniquely humorous characters and satirisation of contemporary themes. Sorachi has also appeared in a life-sized suit of this character for promotional interviews on Gintama movie releases. In these appearances, a cast member will read out a letter written by Sorachi, about the stages of production or effort which went into creating the movie, frequented by sudden, comical one-liners.

Crossovers and appearances Kenta Shinohara (author of Sket Dance) used to be his assistant, as well as Yōichi Amano (author of Akaboshi: Ibun Suikoden). Gintama and Sket Dance had a crossover chapter in Weekly Shōnen Jump, marking the 360th chapter for Gintama and the 180th for Sket Dance. The author for One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, also drew the main characters Gintoki Sakata from Gintama and Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece for the Gintama exhibition, and gave commentary on the series.

Several other Weekly Shōnen Jump series have been referenced or parodied in Gintama, including One Piece, Naruto, and Dragon Ball. The second season of the anime adaptation of Shūichi Asō's The Disastrous Life of Saiki K also featured a crossover with Gintama.

During the premiere of the film Gintama: The Very Final, Sorachi hand drew physical cards of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba characters, including the protagonist Tanjiro, which were then offered to those attending the film's release. Sorachi wrote that the cards were acknowledging the success of the movie Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train.

Works Dandelion — one shot, 2002 (featured in volume 1 of Gintama) Shirokuro — one shot, 2003 (featured in volume 2 of Gintama) 13 — one shot, 2008 (featured in volume 24 of Gintama) Bankara — one shot, 2010 (featured in volume 38 of Gintama) Gintama — manga series, 2003–2019 Gintama: Mr. Ginpachi's Zany Class — light novels, 2006 – 2013 (illustrator) Class 2-B Hero Destroyerz — manga series, 2026–present

Awards Hideaki Sorachi received an honourable mention for the 71st Tenkaichi Manga award for his debut work, Dandelion. The Tenkaichi Manga Award was held from August 1996 to March 2003, replacing the Hop ☆ Step Award as a monthly newcomer award for Shōnen Jump, held by Shueisha. Sorachi later described, in an interview, that winning the award aided his career as a manga artist.