General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames

Gintama the Movie 2026: Yoshiwara in Flames (新劇場版銀魂 -吉原大炎上-, Shin Gekijōban Gintama: Yoshiwara Daienjō, literally "New Theatrical Edition Gintama: Great Yoshiwara Fire") is a Japanese animated film that adapts the Yoshiwara in Flames arc of Hideaki Sorachi's manga Gintama as a completely newly animated feature. It premiered in Japanese theaters on February 13, 2026, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Bandai Namco Pictures, Bandai Namco Filmworks, and Aniplex.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Japanese title	新劇場版銀魂 -吉原大炎上- (Shin Gekijōban Gintama: Yoshiwara Daienjō)²
Japanese release	February 13, 2026; 124 minutes; rated PG12¹
Source material	The Yoshiwara in Flames arc, previously adapted as episodes 139–146 of the TV anime³^•⁴
Key staff	Director Naoya Ando; supervising director Youichi Fujita; script Taku Kishimoto; character design and chief animation direction Shinji Takeuchi; animation by BN Pictures²
Format	Cinemascope (2.35:1), a first for the Gintama anime³
Theme song	"Sanzen" (燦然) by SUPER BEAVER⁵
Box office	Passed 1 billion yen within three weeks of release, running as the highest-grossing film in the Gintama theatrical series⁶
Home video	Blu-ray and DVD released August 26, 2026; original soundtrack CD released February 13, 2026²

Spoilers

Story

The film adapts the Yoshiwara in Flames arc, which the TV anime covered in episodes 139–146 and which is counted among the most emotionally intense stories in the series.³^•⁴ The setting is Yoshiwara, a giant underground red-light district beyond the reach of the law, ruled by Hosen, a member of the warrior Yato tribe whose overwhelming strength lets him control every concession in the district, including the courtesans.⁸

Gintoki Sakata, who runs the Odd Jobs (Yorozuya) shop in Kabuki-cho, meets Seita, an orphan pickpocket searching for his separated mother. Seita believes Hinowa, the top courtesan of Yoshiwara, may be that mother, and Gintoki and his companions throw themselves into a fierce battle to grant his small wish of seeing her once.⁸ The trailer also featured Tsukuyo, Hinowa, Seita, Kamui, and Hosen, characters central to the original arc.⁷

The adaptation adds material the manga's version of the arc did not contain. The teaser trailer teased appearances by Katsura, Gintoki's former comrade, and the Shinsengumi members Kondo, Hijikata, Okita, and Yamazaki, who were absent from the manga's version of the arc, and the official synopsis states that episodes and scenes not drawn in the original were added.⁷^•⁸

Announcement and production

The film was announced on August 16, 2025, at the Gintama Multiverse Festival event in Tokyo, as the closing announcement of the Gintama 20th Anniversary Project. Voice actors Tomokazu Sugita, Daisuke Sakaguchi, Rie Kugimiya, Susumu Chiba, Kazuya Nakai, Kenichi Suzumura, Tetsuharu Ota, and Mikako Takahashi appeared at the event, and a teaser visual drawn by Sorachi plus a teaser trailer were unveiled alongside the announcement.⁷ Bandai Namco Pictures, the studio that took over the TV anime from Sunrise at Season 4, handled animation production.³

Sorachi marked the announcement with a characteristically self-deprecating comment, writing that six years after the manga ended, seeing the work "squeezed until it loses all flavor" was, while looking at his bankbook, "a writer's dream," and joking that the series might end in a scandal involving Sugita's lower body.⁷ At the event, Sakaguchi declared that the Yoshiwara arc was being reconstructed as a completely new production with entirely new animation, and set a target of 10 billion yen at the box office.⁷

The staff list pairs a new director with veterans of the TV series. Naoya Ando, previously director of Paradox Live THE ANIMATION and an episode of the Tatsuki Fujimoto 17–26 short collection, directs; Youichi Fujita supervises; Taku Kishimoto writes the script; and Shinji Takeuchi, the TV series' character designer, returns in the same role with chief animation direction duties.²^•⁸ The film's music is by Audio Highs.⁵

Cast

The main trio reprises their long-running roles: Tomokazu Sugita as Gintoki Sakata, Daisuke Sakaguchi as Shinpachi Shimura, and Rie Kugimiya as Kagura.² The wider cast includes Yuko Kaida as Tsukuyo, Yuko Sanpei as Seita, Yuko Kaida as Hinowa, Banjo Ginga as Hosen, Satoshi Hino as Kamui, and Chikao Otsuka as Abuto, with Kappei Yamaguchi as Enshoku, Akira Ishida as Kotaro Katsura, and the Shinsengumi voices Susumu Chiba (Kondo), Kazuya Nakai (Hijikata), Kenichi Suzumura (Okita), and Tetsuharu Ota (Yamazaki).⁵^•¹⁴

Release and box office

The film opened in Japan on February 13, 2026, with a first-day stage greeting at Shinjuku Baltan 9 relayed live to theaters nationwide.¹^•⁹ Within three weeks of release it had passed 1 billion yen in box office revenue and was running as the highest-grossing hit in the Gintama theatrical film series, prompting "tsukkomi and support" screenings where fans could heckle the film together, with paper glasses modeled on Shinpachi's body given out at participating theaters.⁶

International releases followed in parts of Asia. CBI Pictures announced an Indonesian premiere beginning June 10, 2026.¹⁰

A refined special edition, the Super Blaze Edition (超炎上版), re-released in theaters nationwide from September 25, 2026. It applies refinements to more than 200 cuts, polishing character expressions and textures, action, camera work, and lighting, while keeping the same story with no added scenes, sound changes, or runtime change; new three-week runs of admission gifts accompanied it.¹¹ The Blu-ray and DVD followed on August 26, 2026, and the soundtrack CD, released on the opening date of February 13, 2026, offered an early listening experience of the film's score on the premiere date.²^•¹²

Context within the franchise

Gintama was created by Hideaki Sorachi and serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from December 2003, concluding in June 2019 with total circulation surpassing 73 million copies. Set in an alternate Edo period where aliens known as Amanto rule the land, it follows odd-jobs man Gintoki Sakata and his companions in a mix of science fiction, samurai drama, and comedy. The anime began airing on TV Tokyo in April 2006 and totals 367 episodes, plus OVAs, films, games, and novels.⁷

The 2026 film is the first theatrical anime film in the franchise since Gintama: The Very Final (2021), which adapted the manga's final arc and grossed over 1.85 billion yen (approximately USD 17 million) at the domestic box office.³ Unlike that concluding film, the Yoshiwara film revisits a mid-series arc: the original TV episodes aired in 2009, and the remake presents the story with modern production values, including the cinemascope format and reworked action sequences.⁴

On Rotten Tomatoes the film's single listed review, from Common Sense Media, rated it 2 out of 5 and judged it meant for readers already devoted to the manga.¹³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026