Episode 23

Episode 23
Japanese Title:	困った時は笑っとけ笑っとけ
Romanized Title:	komatta toki wa warattoke warattoke
English Title:	When you are troubled, laugh it off, laugh it off
Airdate:	September 12, 2006
Manga
Chapters:	Lesson 26 Lesson 27
Arc:	N/A
Theme Music
Opening:	OP1 Pray (Tommy Heavenly6)
Ending:	ED2 Mr. Raindrop (amplified)
Chronology

Introduction

Kagura wins a trip to space for three. But while the Yorozuya are on the spaceship, so is a group of hijackers and Gintoki's old friend, Sakamoto Tatsuma.

Plot

Kagura is shopping, when she suddenly wins on a lottery. The prize is a space tour for three people, so she goes back to the Yorozuya with an arrogant attitude to announce the news to her friends. The gang goes to the Terminal along with Sadaharu. but the staff does not allow them to take their pet together. Kagura re-assures them that Sadaharu is harmless and he won't even bite anything. At that moment Sadaharu goes to a near couch and bites Tatsuma Sakamoto's head. The gang boards on the spaceship without Sadaharu and they gaze at the awesome view, when a group of hijackers appears all of a sudden and demands the passengers' money. The Yorozuya quickly disarm them and the final hijacker is knocked out accidentally by Sakamoto as he returns from the toilet. He has Sadaharu with him still biting his head. Before Gin can talk to his old comrade, Sakamoto, an explosion in the cockpit injures the pilot and the crew so the plane is now out of control. Gin quickly takes Sakamoto to the cockpit to pilot the ship, as he is said to have great experience on flying spaceships. However, Sakamoto is unreliable because he is dizzy in closed spaces, so the Yorozuya try to take the wheel to pilot the plane. Sakamoto trips while trying to prevent them from breaking the wheel and as a result he breaks it himself. The ship has now crushed in a deserted planet filled with sand everywhere, so the survivors wait for help. Sakamoto is having a flashback from the Amanto war, in which he is talking to Gin about how he plans to go to space because he can't bare to watch more of his comrades die. Gin is sleeping though without listening to him but Sakamoto just laughs it off. Back in the deserted planet Kagura, Gin and Sakamoto have hallucinations from the blazing heat, however Sakamoto's crew finally arrives to save them. As everyone is boarding on the fleet, which, as made clear by Sakamoto, is used to bring profit to both Amanto and Humans, they are getting attacked by a Sand Bug, which grabs Sakamoto and some of the crew's members with its tentacles. Sakamoto uses his pistol to free his comrades, while the Sand Bug attempts to drag the whole fleet beneath the sand. Sakamoto orders the crew to use the ships' cannons to shoot at the beast even if he is still there. The crew fires at the beast but it didn't have any effect but to scare it and leading to submerge. As they try to shoot again to save their boss, Gin jumps on the cannon and pierces it with his wooden sword before jumping off board to save his friend. Another flashback is shown and we learn how Sakamoto decided to leave Earth because Gin stayed back to protect it so he didn't have to worry about it. As he is being dragged down, he is saved by Gin and they both make it back to the surface.

Trivia

• Sakamoto calls Gin "Kintoki", which is a slang for testicles.
• The planet that the tourist ship crashed on is most likely a parody of the Tatooine planet from the Star Wars series since it has two suns and only desert.

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