Gintama

My watching this movie was for a very strange reason - my public library has it and it is on BluRay, and there were zero requests. So I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a try."

There is an audience for this type of movie but it definitely isn't me. In I suppose what is typical of Japanese movies of this sort we see lots of histrionics, very loud and animated characters speaking very rapidly and enthusiastically. For me I found it pretty much unwatchable.

If you have any concerns with this adaptation, don't worry I originally was concerned too, until I watched the parfait scene at the beginning, then I realized Gintama was in good hands here. The movie is literally just the anime but live action. The characters could be accurately described as their animated counterparts. I think Gintama is the only manga series to be translated into real world this easily because of its fourth wall breaking and anime parodies. Truly an amazing movie.

I knew nothing of the Gintama universe when I came across this movie for the first time. I was simply browsing for something to fall asleep to during a long flight, but this actually made me fully wake up, as every frame was simply too much fun. Visual fun, meta jokes for creative types, social critique that doesn't take itself too seriously, all sorts of good stuff on many layers. Decent plot and great acting, very fitting for the genre (whatever the genre may be). Needless to say, I had to watch this movie on a bigger screen for a second time.

By itself it's already amazing, and it would have been possible to stop there. The movie did make me look up the manga/anime, too, for more context.

The Gintama movie could have been better. The story was okay and entertaining and the characters interesting and likable. However, the CGI were very poor and the execution overall was weak, following the anime premisses so closerly, to the point that it was idiotic. Also, some, (not all) costumes looked quite fake. Other than that, the plot was nice, with many action scenes and some solid fights. The performances were good as well. So, five and a half out of ten.

Having watched this in October 18, more than a year after the movie release, I have the fortune of watching Bleach and FMA live actions as well. And this is undoubtedly the best.

I'm a Gintama fan (anime and manga) until the start of the final arc, which was too serious for my taste. But wow, this adaptation is so fantastic I don't know what to say.

Basically, this live adaptation only has an intro, one small comedy arc and the usual Benizura arc (which was already covered in a 2010 anime movie covering only that arc). I never thought the day would come where that arc could be live action and it doesn't disappoint. The production team only covered the most relevant introduction of characters and scenes for character development and left out the excess details.

Greats: Actors, acting, faithful to original source for scenes covered, music, graphics, CG, well basically nearly everything

Cons: The shouting parts might be too loud for cinema-goers (well, though it applies the same to the anime and 2010 movie), and a few details were missing that would build up the characters more (e.g. Katsura's real identity)

Kinda shocked to see a 6+ rating... not sure why it's so low but it is really enjoyable and Gintama-style. To add on, Gintama has better sword arts and CG than Bleach... lol