Lesson 481

Lesson 481
Japanese Title:	エッセイ漫画は作画楽
Romaji Title:	Essei manga wa sakuga-raku
English Title:	Essay Manga Are Easy to Draw
Release Date:	February 17, 2014
Information
Volume:	54
Number of Pages:	17
Chapter Chronology

Lesson 481 is the 481^th chapter of the Gintama series.

Summary

The chapter began under the form of an essay manga written by an octopus-like Martian named Kasei Jin. As a way to commemorate its 50th chapter, Kasei chose to visit Earth to do a research. According to his editor, the planet was no longer ruled by animals, but the "Exile."

Upon reaching the Earth, the mangaka tried to make a conversation with Otae, who replied by a punch and stated that she was a "B'z." Otose then explained to him that, thanks to the contact with the universe, the Earth's creatures became more diverse with more species. According to her, before the contact, the planet was ruled the samurai, who went extinct after an ice age, and Gintoki was a fossil of their poop.

As they interviewed Gintoki, they concluded that his sluggish behaviours was a way to survive through the ice age. After getting the editor to a BDSM session, Kasei believed that the "master and servant" relationship between samurai had become a "queen and pig" one, in which Gintoki was only an accessory at the bottom.

The editor suggested testing Gintoki's ability by attacking him with a pipe. Though, before the mangaka could try, Gintoki had been chewing one of his tentacles. Leading the two to his house, he served takoyaki as the lunch, with most of the Martian's tentacles as the main ingredient. Gintoki said that since the mangaka's tentacle would grow back, he could eat himself to survive. Frightened, he and his editor ran away in fear. On the spaceship, Kasei attempted to draw a manga chapter to warn the universe about the samurai's power. However, the editor ate his last tentacle and killed him.

Back at the Yorozuya (in the form of the Gintama manga,) Kagura commented that the manga was reduced to one page this week. Having found the editor muttering about something growing back while tying himself in a BDSM way on TV, Gintoki stated that there were scary things out in space.

Characters

Characters in order of appearance

1. Kasei Jin
2. Shimura Tae
3. Otose
4. Sakata Gintoki
5. Shimura Shinpachi
6. Kagura

Trivia

• The species Otose mentioned to Kasei Jin are artists in the real life: Exile, B'z, WANDS, W-inds, SADS and Sada Masashi, most of which are popular Japanese boy bands (except Sada Masashi.)
• The Jump issue Gintoki read had the lines "Amanto attack!" on the cover. It is a possible reference to the 1996 film Mars Attack! (as Kasei Jin is a Martian) or the Gintama manga itself (with the Amanto reference and the Joui War.)