News

Gintama's 'Porori Arc' Anime Premieres on October 1

The official website for the Gintama anime revealed a new visual and the October 1 premiere date for the new "Porori Arc" anime on Monday.

The anime will premiere on October 1 on TV Tokyo, TV Hokkaido, TV Aichi, TV Setouchi, and TVQ Broadcasting Kyushu. The first episode will air at 2:05 a.m. (effectively on October 2), but subsequent episodes will air at 1:35 a.m., the same timeslot in which the anime that premiered in January aired. The new anime will premiere on October 2 on TV Osaka.

The anime will include short gag skits from the manga that haven't previously been animated. The show's staff haven't specified if the anime will also have other new or old content, or if the anime will be a series of shorts or a full 30-minute series.

Blue Encount will perform the opening theme song "VS." The rock band also performed an opening theme song for the 2015 Gintama anime. All-female group Ayumikurikamaki will perform the new ending theme song "Hankō Seimei" (Opposition Proclamation).

Hideaki Sorachi began the original Gintama manga in 2004 and it continues to be ranked among the top-selling manga in Japan. The manga has more than 50 million copies in print in Japan. Viz Media published the first 23 volumes in English. Shueisha published the manga's 69th volume in Japan on July 4, and will publish the 70th volume on October 4. The manga entered its final arc last July.

The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in 2006 and continued (with several extended hiatuses) until 2013. The fifth and latest Gintama television anime series premiered on January 8, before the reruns started airing in April.

Crunchyroll streamed the most recent series as it aired in Japan, and is also streaming English-dubbed episodes. The manga also inspired two anime films, including the "final" Gekijōban Gintama Kanketsu-hen: Yorozuya yo Eien Nare film that opened in 2013, and various OVAs and event anime.

Source: Animate Times