Gintama

This show engrosses you into its settings, themes, and characters so much that it becomes more than just a comedy. This anime got me near tears more than anything I have every experienced from both comedy and emotional moments. On top of that, this show has the two best shonen arcs to ever exist. This anime might take a while to get in to, but it is more than worth the commitment.

I watched this anime Iast year, expecting to get a light story. I didn't know that I was about to meet a piece of jewelry. It's hard to explain what Gintama is about. It can be describe as a comedy, shonen and slice of life. If you watch the first 50 episodes only, you will probable think this is a comedy. But you'll be wrong. It's much more than that. It's not the classic shonen, our protagonist Gintoki, doesn't have (and need) power ups. He's lazy and dumb. Character development is incredible. Don't expect to get one-dimensional characters, especially on Gintoki's side. Gintama is very "similar" to life: It has funny moments, tragic moments. Funny and dumb people being serious, serious people being funny and dumb.

Man, this is true art! You want emotions? This anime got em. God, I love gintama. (Kintama too)

I rarely laugh aloud when watching comedic shows, especially anime. Gintama can get me laughing for an entire episode! The humor only gets better as you go along, as you need to get to know the characters to appreciate the jokes/jibes fully. And then all of a sudden a serious arc slaps you in the face with nonstop action and cliffhanger episodes. Gintama is 70% humor and 30% Hunter x Hunter level action (for you shounen anime fans, I think you can recognize that high level compliment.) It just makes the action scenes that much more worth it and exciting when you get there. Not to mention the "serious arcs" somehow get even more intense and well animated the further you get, too. I'm SO happy I gave this one a try!

Every anime has it's funny, even hilarious moments. But not many are built around these moments. Gintama, for the most part definitely is.

This anime is completely insane. It's full of random hilarity and antics, while still maintaining a storyline (per episode and arcs). You don't even have to worry about fillers, because you won't know when they hit you, as there is no general plot. Plus, the fillers are just as funny and awesome as the other episodes, if not more. There are tons of references to anime and Japanese culture, which is kind of a down side for a person who isn't familiar with either or both. This reason also makes this anime almost impossible to dub and very hard to even sub! However, if you do get the jokes (and not all of them are reference related), you'll be in tears. It's not all just laughter though. There are definitely some heart touching, throat lump forming, beautiful moments in the anime too (though not as much).

All I can say is, if you're an anime fan and haven't watched it, you're doing yourself a big crime by missing this one. As the title says, I not only class this as one of the greatest anime, or even one of the greatest TV shows, but one of the most brilliant pieces of entertainment mankind has ever created.