Prototype Shinsengumi: Gintama’s initial design.
This is an early draft of commander Kondo. But it’s Hasegawa! That’s right, the current Hasegawa is a dereliction of Kondo’s drawing. In fact, Hasegawa was the commander of the Shinsengumi. The Kondo that you have in front of you is sort of what you would get if you added the current Kondo and Hasegawa and then cut them in half: a useless old man who spends his time going to marriage meetings. By the way, Hasegawa is my first or second favorite character. I always look for an oppertunity to get him involved in the manga. Please help me.
“Who is this?”, this character seems to ask of himself. Well, it’s Nagakura Shinpachi, the starting point of the current Shinpachi. Originally, the story was about Shinpachi, who had left the countryside for the city in order to learn the art of the sword. Shinpachi met Kondo, who was running a dojo after the samurai had been eliminated from Edo because of the Amanto invasion. Then the Shinsengumi was formed, and the story continued. Shinpachi gave me a hard time: sometimes he was bald, sometimes he had a topknot. In the end, I had a hard time deciding what he would look like. But since he was a bit like Nobita from Doraemon, I made him wear glasses, and that’s how he got his current appearance.
And here we have Okita. A woman. Actually, it’s Otsuu-chan. This is where Kagura got her umbrella from. As I realized that there were only men in the Shinsengumi, I had imagined this female character for an ironic purpose. By the way, the first Kagura I drew was as tall as this character. But my editor did not think she was cute and asked me to give her a smaller size. He’s a pedophile, that guy.
Hijikata was supposed to have a main role. But I was unable to find any drawings of him, so I did what I could manage. Like this. In fact, it’s Gin-san. But a Gin-san who’s not Gin-san. As for the character, it’s Gin-san but more restrained. He’s not as lazy as Gin-san either; he’s quite subtle. Since I liked the real Shinsengumi, and especially Hijikata after reading “Moeyo, Ken”, I had a hard time getting rid of the image that I had of him. I couldn’t pin down the distinctive features of the character, which earned me the scorn of my editor. I then went on to explain that Hijikata could very well play a role similar to that of Inspector Zenigata in Lupin, and that’s how Gin-san came to have the lead role in the series. As a result, the main character changed dramatically. Names are very strange. I think I understand now just how powerful words can be. As for me, I find myself unable to break Hijikata’s image. But I can still ruin him through mayonnaise.
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