Appearantly the new Gintama ED is based on Four Great Classical Novels of China:

Water Margin



Journey to the West



Romance of the Three Kingdoms



Dream about Red Chamber



Sadly among them I only have deep knowledge about Journey to the West (and a little bit of Romance of the Three Kingdoms). And as far as representation goes, each character seems to parody a figure in said novels, I’d be happy someone could elaborate on this. Below are some of my analysis if any one care to know :P.

Yorozuya team - Water Margin



The story, set in the Song dynasty, tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang (or Liangshan Marsh) to form a sizable army before they are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders and suppress rebel forces.



Boy did the novel’s plot fits Yorozuya perfectly haha. Never read (of watch adaptions of) this so I have no fucking idea who’s parody who, I can at least recognize those costumes tho.





Zura and Elizabeth - Journey to the West







Ah, my childhood’s dearest tale. I can actually write the plot for this tale without looking at the Wikipedia *cry tear of joy*.

So basically this novel tell the tale of Sun Wukong, a demon monkey that once wretched the heaven and was sealed under a mountant by Buddha for 500 years, until a monk named Xuanzang came by and released him. Together, they embarked on a dangerous journey to the west (namely India) to obtain Buddhist’s original sarced texts.

Zura’s suppose to parody Sun Wukong, a smart, cunning, rebelious demon monkey who tried to bring heaven down to his feet once, but then slowly tamed by Xuanzang (Elizabeth lol). He is very powerful and very loyal to Xuanzang, however, due to his old habit of attacking pretty much anyone annoyed him, Xuanzang put a sealing headband on him and every time he misbehaved, Xuanzang recited a spell and Sun Wukong got a major headace.

Oh and his weapon - the staff is actually the pillar supporting the undersea East Sea Palace, which he could shrunk and expanded at will.





Kiheitai - Romance of the Three Kingdoms







This novel stays at the highest place among the 4 novels due its lenght, complexity of characters and various highly-acclaimed military, political strategies and battles of wits (think of it as Death Note and Attack on Titan combined).

The novel tells a story of how the three states of Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu struggled and battled with each other to achieve dominance for almost 100 years in the end of the Han dynasty.

Takasugi - Cao Cao, the warlord of Cao Wei

A brilliant ruler and military genius, yet cruel and merciless tyrant. He’s famous for his doubtful nature, even to his pride subordinates. One of his famous quote is: “I’d rather betray people, than risking them betray me”.

The rest - one of them could be Liu Bei, the foil to Cao Cao, but I really have no idea who’s who.

Yato famity - Dream of the Red Chamber

A detailed life record of the rise and fall of two wealthy family in the midst of the Qing Dynasty’s decline in 18th century. Now I only know this novel by name, but I heard that some part of this is slightly NSFW woah!!!

Kaientai - Sorry I have absolutely no idea!