Gintama

Over the years there have been a multitude of comedy shows that have graced our TV screens, from the surreal stylings of Monty Python and sarcastic wit of Blackadder, to the sci-fi tomfoolery of Red Dwarf and the strange antics of The Fast Show. There are numerous notable series that have taken their rightful places in our DVD collections, and in an age where comedians are treated like rock stars, maybe it's fate that comedy anime would also come of age.

It's strange to say this, but humour has never been a strong department for the medium, partly because of the cultural differences between East and ... West, but mainly because the majority of anime comedies rely more on parody than anything else. The problem with this is that quite often the viewer is left without a frame of reference, so the humour simply goes over their heads. Some shows manage to get away with it purely by throwing out an almost constant stream of gags in the hope that people will understand enough of them to be entertained, while others like Seto no Hanayome and Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu have a slightly more careful approach.

The area where anime is weakest is where situational comedy is concerned. There are plenty of shows around that could invariably class themselves as sit-coms, but the penchant for studios to base their stories in some sort of school setting severely limits the quality of the humour. In essence, the industry's blind adherence to what they think is a winning formula has resulted in the dilution of just about every single joke that could be told in a school setting, so much so in fact that these days studios have fallen to relying on fanservice based comedies in order to make ends meet (pardon the pun).

Comedy anime isn't dead though, as there are some rays of light shining down on the wreckage of red noses, bladders on sticks and giant shoes. Nodame Cantabile insane otaku heroine and her long suffering boyfriend introduced many people to the world of classical music and the usage of otaku power when learning French. Genshiken took a slightly rose tinted look at the multi-layered world of the Japanese otaku, while Moyashimon payed homage to the classic American frat comedy National Lampoon's Animal House.

One series has, however, defied all the conventions, and has become one of the greatest comedy anime of all time. Incorporating elements from some of the best comedy of both East and West, the series has an anarchic streak that, at times, is more reminiscent of Monty Python, The Simpsons and Family Guy.

I am, of course, talking about Gintama.

The concept of a samurai sit-com isn't new to anime and manga, however it wasn't until the serialisation of Sorachi Hideaki's manga in 2003 that anyone actually realised the potential in this type of story. Set in a quasi-historical Edo, Japan (and possibly the rest of the world), has been conquered by an alien race known as the Amanto. The nation's strongest warriors were no match for the alien technology, and in an effort to prevent another samurai uprising, the powers that be have banned humans from carrying swords in public.

In this world there lives a former samurai with silver hair who runs the firm known as Yorozuya from his rented second floor apartment. From time to time he takes on odd jobs (yorozuya), for people in order to pay his rent and buy milkshakes and his beloved Weekly Shounen Jump.

He is Sakata Gintoki, and his destiny is to make you cry with laughter.

To say that the story is a bit on the haphazard side is probably a gross understatement, however Gintama is nothing if not consistent in its approach. The underlying story is of Gintoki and his "friends", Shimura Shinpachi (an average human teenager with no real special qualities), and Kagura (an alien who looks human and possesses monstrous strength), as they go through their days doing odd jobs for people, getting into arguments/figths with the Shinsengumi (police, kind of), drinking strawberry milkshakes (or some other flavour depending on Gintoki's mood), and trying in some small way to make the world a better place.

And that's really about as serious as many of the episodes get. The haphazard approach to the story is a purposeful measure that, strangely enough, works very well, mainly because Gintama is a comedy series. There are story arcs that occur over the course of the show, and even though they may include some serious or dramatic content, Gintama never once loses its sense of fun. Indeed, the comedy is the true strength of this series, not simply in its style and delivery, but also in its content. Many of the visual gags have to be seen to be believed (seriously, how the hell did they get away with the Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon), and whilst the series is top-filled with parodies, the humour is always involving so the viewer rarely feels like a joke has gone over their head.

That said, Ginatama has one aspect that is greater than all others in terms of its plot and comedy content, and that is its ability to turn the seemingly ordinary into something completely different. This is the main reason why Gintama can be considered a sit-com rather than a parody, as this aspect has more in common with shows like Blackadder and Monty Python than anything else. There are numerous occasions where the series will catch the viewer off guard with its sly, anarchic take on seemingly normal events (like being in a public toilet and running out of paper).

Of course, there are downsides too. Although the series is extremely strong in terms of comedy, it sometimes lacks when events take a serious turn. This may be due to the audience's reactions, as viewers may automatically think that something funny is going to happen next, however a part of it also stems from the fact that the comedy is sometimes too "strong". It's ironic to say this, but Gintama's greatest strength may also be its biggest weakness.

As with any long running shounen series animation and design are pretty good on the whole. The characters convey a sense of visual individuality that at times goes beyond that of other shounen anime, although this is tempered with a small degree of genericism that allows the humour to flourish . The colours are extremely bold and solid, while the backgrounds and set designs highlight the synergy between alien technology and Edo. The animation itself is of an extremely high standard, so much so in fact that some of the visual gags only really work because of it.

The high points of the visuals are the show's numerous and well crafted parodies. There are many occasions where the style, animation, end even the character design, changes to make the humour more immediate, sometimes occuring in the blink of an eye, and sometimes lasting for a good portion of a given episode. The series also plays around with a variety of concepts that most people only really read about, one example being an occasion where Gintoki and the gang are rendered invisible because the episode is incomplete. It's nigh on impossible to find another anime that not only mentions something like this, but also shows the viewer what it would look like.

Much of the humour comes from the characters themselves, but no matter how good the scripting is, delivery is everything when it comes to comedy, and in this respect Gintama is extremely well served by its seiyuu. The cast are able to perform with a panache that is sometimes astonishing, and their portrayals of their respective characters are so good that one would be forgiven for believing they were full time comedians. Possibly the best example of this is Kugimiya Rie (Kagura), who for many years has been typecast into various tsundere roles. Her portrayal of Kagura is truly excellent, especially in terms of comedy, and much like the rest of the cast she manages to not only maintain a consistent character for a an extended period of time, but has actually become more adept with her timing and delivery.

Gintama is generally consistent with its choice of music, and certain tracks are repeated throughout the series usually to add to the comic atmosphere of a given scene. That said, some of the more serious moments can feel a little off-kilter as the score changes can sometimes be a little sudden. As with any long running series the OP and ED have changed since the show began airing in 2006. These tracks are usually pretty good at capturing the essence of Gintama (which just sounds wrong), as a whole, and the opening sequences are designed and choregraphed to highlight the important aspects of the anime - humour, fun, some seriousness, and a large slice of anarchy.

In all honesty, there is no real reason to find the characters outstanding, and the fact that they are iconic, original and memorable is possibly Gintama's greatest triumph. Gintoki, Shinpachi, Kagura, the members of the Shinsengumi, and all the sundry characters, alien and otherwise, who appear in the show will find some funny bone to tickle. When taken as individuals each is a flawed creation that really wouldn't work were this any other anime, but the plot and scripting for the series, together with the talent of the seiyuu and the design of each character, turns this idea completely on its head. Much of the comedy is dependent on the characters, and it's because the series is so good at entertaining the audience that any noticeable flaws are generally forgiven or ignored.

Gintama is not simply a funny anime though. Over the seasons the show has gradually become a phenomenon in the medium, mainly because of its ability to maintain consistent humour for over most of its 201 episodes. The irreverent and oh-so anarchic humour can, at times, come off as weird, but this has only served to endear the series to more viewers.

Numerous fans refer to Gintama as their "anime crack", a sentiment which is understandable in a sense as it has the ability to lift one's mood in a way that few other anime can manage. That doesn't mean that everyone will be entertained though, but if the viewer approaches the show with the right sort of mindset (e.g. open), then the series has a lot to offer.

That said, shounen fans will definitely find Gintama appealing, not simply because it bears all the stereotypical hallmarks of that genre of anime, but also for its ability to creatively parody other shounen tales (like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, etc - who can forget the infamous DragonBleaPiece movie trailer). Fans of comedy anime like Seto no Hanayome, Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu and others of that ilk, will also find Gintama's ability to mess with everyday concepts worthwhile.

There are plenty of aspects to the series that possess a broad appeal in terms of humour, and it's to the credit of everyone involved with the production (from mangaka Sorachi Hideaki on down to the guy/girl who makes the tea), that the show never gets old, stale, or too bogged down in how good it actually is.

There's a new king of comedy in town. Make way for Gintama.

Gintama? Gintama. Hmmm, Gintama... Gintama or not Gintama, that is the question.

Now this is a show I've wrestled with for a long time. Many of my friends pledged almost fanatically this is the best anime in existence. I watched the first episode. So this is it? I was not impressed. As a person who found pleasure in the darkest and most gloomy kinds of settings, I would almost immediately say that this was not for me. Everything was just so weird and appeared to be arbitrarily glued together.

I was so naïve.

At some point I picked Gintama up again, I’m one of the people who are ... not easily moved to laughter but still, there had to be something to this… Let me tell you this, Gintama is a journey, a pilgrimage. You will not appreciate it after two or three episodes, even twenty may not be enough. It took me sixty whole episodes when I was finally thoroughly entertained but it was then that I realized: Gintama is like a snowball rolling down a mountain. It’s barely recognizable at first but the next time you turn your gaze in its direction, it will have turned into an avalanche.



Story: 9/10
Sooo… yeah, this is actually hard. Gintama is composed of a series of mini arcs that have no real connection to each other. You can’t call it a consistent storyline but it’s also not really episodic, there are also fillers organically weaved into the style and pace of the anime. A strange kind of hybrid, that still works somehow. We have different little events like the Benizakura, Yoshiwara or Popularity Poll arc, which all are amazingly done. Action, drama and most of all comedy, Gintama’s got them all and none of them are bad. Also, because I can’t find a better place to do this, let may tell you a few things about the often overlooked setting. The pseudo-medieval, post war Japanese capital Edo with modern technology, invaded by a multitude of alien races called Amanto. Sounds utterly random right? Wrong. It is my firm believe that this setting is actually the backbone of Gintama. Why you ask? Because it allows for the greatest number of possible scenarios, different people and places. You can have a samurai, a rebel leader, an alien and a penguin costume guy added to the cast and nobody bats an eye, because it still feels natural. Never forget the setting, it makes this anime what it is.


Art: 10/10
It’s strange, when I started watching I thought to myself ‘This looks somehow generic’ but at the same time ‘This looks somehow unique’. It’s hard to explain but that’s the feeling I get from Gintama. Visual quality may not be top notch here but it gets progressively better, a fact that is especially apparent in latter battle sequences. I would leave it at nine points but there’s another thing… facial expressions. They are beyond hilarious, I won’t say too much about it but you will understand once you have seen a few exemplary episodes.


Sound: 10/10
There are a few very iconic and memorable tracks on the Gintama OST, that’s probably due to the fact that they are used so frequently but that doesn’t mean that I ever got sick of them. Audio is mostly bright and uplifting, fitting to the animes focus on comedy. Opening and ending themes are also pleasing, notably Donten and Stairway Generation. This would also be a eight or nine if it wasn’t for the seiyuus. These guys are BRILLIANT! Every voice fits its character and Sugita Tomokazu is probably the most unique voice I have ever heard in anime. He’s now the voice of Gintoki for me, forever. Kugumiya Rie is a rather well-known name, revered for her roles as your run of the mill tsundere girls. Kagura was a kind of character that was probably new to her but she still did an excellent job. There are a dozen other examples but I’m not going into debt on all of them, only thing you have to know is that the voiceover job is amazing.


Characters: 9/10
Alright, so this is the deciding factor that makes this anime awesome. Here we have some amazingly thought out characters and not just for comedy purposes, most of them have a backstory, even the vilest of antagonists are not just pure embodied malice. This is also what causes the anime to take time to get going, you have to get to know the characters. A naked random guy is very much different to a naked Isao Kondo. Almost all of them are likeable, memorable and most of all funny. We have no focus on development here but such progression would do more harm than anything else. It takes time to get to know them and that process is very important, changing a well-established character after that process is complete doesn’t strike me as a good idea.


Enjoyment: 10/10
It takes time, 60 episodes to get it rolling, 140 episodes to have me almost dying of laughter but it was well worth it. Gintama maintains a consistent, no, increasing level of entertainment over the course of its 201 episodes. It’s already hilarious and would have been even better if I was capable of understanding the Japanese language without subtitles or if I’d seen more anime to understand all the parodies going on. Knowledge of basic Shounen Jump, Ghibli Movies, NGE, Doraemon or Gundam widely enhances the spectrum of jokes you can laugh about. Even without that and as part of a western audience, I found myself crying out in laughter over a majority of the jokes, there are just so many of them, no way you can miss everything.



Result: 10/10
So are all these people right, is Gintama the best anime of all time? I dare not to pass judgment unto that, simply because Gintama is so unique and unconventional that I feel it falls into a category of its own. There is no competition for this anime in its specific category because it’s the only one that ever made it there. This is not the best of all anime, this is just Gintama, don’t lump it together with all the others! Even if they’re brilliant, if they’re entrancing, if they’re masterpieces, don’t make that mistake. I myself who is speaking so highly of this anime have other favorites; this is simply Gintama, no need for comparison.

If you plan on taking a shot at Gintama and you’re not completely hooked after the first few episodes, bring a lot of patience, it will pay off.

This is my first review here, so please let me know what you guys think!

Gintama is about Sakata Gintoki, who is a samurai in an age where samurai\'s have been deemed unnecessary by the aliens who have taken over. As far as I can tell, that\'s about as deep of a story this anime has. But you probably won\'t care, because this anime is downright hilarious. The characters are funny, the situations they get in are completely ridiculous, and all the references to other anime/manga they have make it all the more enjoyable.

--Story--
As I mentioned earlier, there really isn\'t too much of a story line. ... Most of the story arcs last about 1-2 episodes, and some are pretty strange. But all the random references and pure comedy make up for any shortcoming in the story.

--Art--
The animation is just what you\'d expect from a good comedy anime. The characters have their distinctive features, the backgrounds are pretty detailed, and you get all the classic elements that you\'d expect from a comedy anime (depression lines, expanding heads, etc.).

--Sound--
The openings and closings are really good. They\'re all catchy and make you actually want to listen to them. The voice acting is well done and really gives life to the characters.

--Character--
The characters really make this anime awesome. From the Jump reading samurai Gintoki to the machine-gun-umbrella toting Kagura to the oversized skull-biting dog Sadaharu, everyone is unique and hilarious in their own way. There are a lot of recurring characters, and each has his or her own traits that set them apart from the rest. Also, a lot of the characters resemble characters from other anime, but with a twist. For example, the main character Sakata Gintoki is very similar to Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, as both are very accomplished samurai; but while Kenshin is for the most part kind and quiet, Gintoki is very eccentric, somewhat rude at times, and seems to be overall very apathetic about everything. Things like this really make the characters familiar, yet unique, and overall very likeable.

--Enjoyment--
This anime makes me laugh out loud. Literally. There have been occasions where I nealy fell out of my chair of laughter. I\'m always a little sad when an episode ends, because I laughed so much during the episode.

--Overall--
If you like comedy and have watched your share of anime, then I highly recommend Gintama. If you aren\'t well versed in anime, you may miss a bunch of references, but that shouldn\'t really affect your enjoyment of this anime. Overall, this anime is one of my favorite.

Gintama is an ongoing manga by Sorachi Hideaki. From 2006 to 2010, Sunrise, the same studio behind the Gundam franchise, did an anime adaptation which lasted for just over 200 episodes. So, does the anime manage to stay entertaining for that long, or even be entertaining at all? Let’s take a peek and find out.

Story:

There isn’t a single cohesive narrative to Gintama. There are some loosely connected arcs, and a whole lot of episodes that have nothing to do with those arcs, but there is no single narrative. The basic setup is that the world has been conquered by aliens, referred to in Gintama as ... “Amanto” and the government is still subservient to them. Samurai are no longer allowed to carry swords except for a few who work for the government or who have wealth and connections. In this world a samurai named Gintoki works by, in theory, doing odd jobs. Although that largely consists of him doing nothing. His crew consists of a youngster named Shinpachi, an Amanto girl named Kagura who possesses super strength and is highly vulnerable to sunlight, and a giant dog named Sadaharu, our cute character who requires ear scritches and belly rubs. Hijinks ensue as this group and the people around them get into shenanigans.

Let’s begin by looking at the problems with the series, shall we? By far the biggest issue is that the writing aesthetic is horribly inconsistent. Most of the episodes are highly random and intended for humour but when they get to the more story heavy arcs things take a huge shift into serious territory, sometimes including really heavy topics like sex trafficking, and it creates a huge tonal clash between episodes. You can’t segue from jokes about testicles and bloody rectums into a story about an underground city where children are sold to be raised as sex slaves. There is quite literally no way to make that transition so that it isn’t painfully awkward and completely disrespectful to the serious issue. It’s worse than that Captain Planet episode that dealt with AIDS. Sure, that was way over the series’ head too, but there wasn’t such a radical tonal problem. The tone isn’t the only thing that has problems with consistency, there’s also the continuity. There are three basic ways to do continuity. The first is having a strict, coherent continuity where everything matters. The second is to have a basic progression from one episode to the next but the details aren’t that important. The third is to toss continuity out the window completely, like Galaxy Angel. The problem with Gintama is that it does all three. Some episodes deal very much with continuity as being super important, others follow the more fast and loose route where there’s a progression but the details aren’t important and there are other episodes that don’t fit into any kind of continuity and will never be mentioned again after they’re over.

Now that we’ve been over that, let’s talk a bit about the comedy in this series that is, mostly, comedic. A lot of it is pretty puerile humour where someone defecates in their pants, or someone’s anus bleeds or where the punchline is something involving testicles. There are also a lot of bits where the characters will make loud references to some other piece of media and there are some other random bits of humour. The trouble is, a lot of it really isn’t funny. For example, there’s a running gag about one of the characters eating too much mayonnaise which is funny because… if he ate that much mayo in reality he’d weigh two hundred kilos and have to get around with a motorised scooter? There are two characters who pretty much exist for stalker jokes and there’s another running joke about Katsura getting annoyed by people calling him the wrong thing. There are times when the randomness can work and there are some points where they parody something competently instead of just making reference to it but they’re few and far between. I will give the series full credit for having some surprisingly clever deconstructions here and there, particularly when it comes to its treatment of trans-gendered characters.

Characters:

Gintama has a large cast of reoccurring characters, but very little in terms of complex ones. Most of them are used for one or two jokes and that’s pretty much it. I will say that there’s nothing wrong with that for a comedic work. You can have a bunch of fairly one-note characters as long as they have dynamics that provide good comedic possibilities and you can take advantage of that. The problem is the more serious episodes. This cast would be perfectly passable if the series didn’t have those largely serious story arcs but when you take a bunch of relatively shallow comedic characters and try to do something fairly serious with them it just quickly loses any sense of tension and the characters come across as heavily under-developed, if not as completely out of place.

Art:

The artwork and animation are pretty decent. There are some cases where they recycle footage or show a background with nothing happening, which they will almost always lampshade, but it’s competently done. The action sequences can be pretty strong, both when they’re doing something largely serious and when they’re doing a jokey action scene.

Sound:

The actors are pretty capable and no one does badly. However, the level of over-exaggeration in the series is really high and you might very well find yourself growing weary of listening to people shouting. The music varies. Sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s kind of annoying. Mostly, it’s just kind of bland.

Ho-yay:

There’s some in the series. There’s an openly lesbian character who shows up on a semi-regular basis and there’s a guy who is heavily implied to have romantic feelings for Sougo who shows up for a couple of episodes late in the series. There’s no reciprocation for their feelings, but they also aren’t used for jokes based on their sexuality. Some of the other characters act like asses about it at points, but the series itself doesn’t treat it as an issue. So, I’ll give Gintama some credit for treating its gay characters no differently than it does its straight characters. It is pretty refreshing, especially when you have “comedies” like Baka to Test that have to be as mean-spirited as possible about things like that.

Final Thoughts:

Gintama has a real problem with consistency. Its tone is wildly inconsistent which can lead to some really awkward and stilted moments. It’s inconsistent with what it wants to do with its continuity. If you like humour that’s more than a little puerile and pretty random then you might still enjoy the series in spite of that and there are some things it does pretty decently but it’s honestly not my cup of tea in that regard. I just don’t find ninety percent of the attempts at humour to be amusing. As such, I have to give the series a 4/10. Next week we’ll have this year’s film festival. Starting with Kara no Kyoukai 6 on Sunday. Because I’ve looked at that franchise first during the last two years and I might as well do it this time as well.

Gintama is a masterclass in comedy writing and variety; a series that grows in originality with each passing episode, so inventive and fresh, dynamic and interesting, it's no wonder it has become one of Sunrises' flagship series, not to mention a mainstay of Shounen Jump.

The plot - from the get-go - perfectly encapsulates what Gintama is about: it's absurd. The Gintama universe is limitless; anything can and will happen. This insane nature is perfectly explored through the episode structure. Chiefly, it's an episodic series, with multiple story arcs woven in-between. Each episode will see a new plot, exploring one (or multiple) aspects of this wide ... and wacky universe, along with the colorful and unpredictable cast. The stories range in genre, from thriller to flat-out comedy, but most have a humorous tone. Each episode is uniquely different from the next; they're brilliantly written, flawlessly executed narratives that fail to tire. The series displays a wonderful range of comedy, from parody to episode-long, painstakingly constructed, carefully executed gags; it's an ever-fresh and vigorous aspect and one of the series' many stand-out elements. The story arcs further explore the world and the characters of Gintama, some in humorous ways, but most in a more dramatic fashion, which adds further variety and heightened drama to the series. The diversity and imagination on display is hugely admirable, especially given the series' length. Gintama doesn't know fatigue; it stays at a consistent, extremely high quality throughout, with fresh new plot devices, scenarios and twists being continually introduced even years after its first broadcast - the writing is incredibly commendable.

The animation and art style is ever-impressive; the anime staff seamlessly bring to life such a crazed, hectic and involved world from the pages of Sorachi's manga. The anime has a colorful, visually pleasing style, with flawlessly animated explosive action set pieces, heart-wrenching dramatic beats and eye-watering comedic reveals. The character designs are incredibly diverse and evoke well Sorachi's artwork, with Gintoki becoming an instantly recognisable anime icon.

The sound and music is particularly well produced, with a huge amount of vocal talent on display. The score is incredibly elaborate and comprised of a vast variety of tracks, befitting of a series of this length. The backing tracks evoke well a number of different emotions, tones and moods, and blend seamlessly with the visuals, further bringing to life the world of Gintama. There are multiple stand-out compositions which are - above all else - memorable.

One of the most appealing aspects of the series is without a doubt the characters. They're imaginative, memorable and varied creations, each unique and appealing in their own different way. The main characters present incredible amounts of enthusiasm and are the real driving force behind Gintama, but certain members of the unbelievably vast supporting cast are almost as integral in their own right. Sorachi's marvellous creativity shines through in the characters, just as it does the story, and it becomes obvious the anime staff have a complete understanding of the source material and an unwavering dedication to bring it to life. Given the gag-based nature of the series, the characters start off rather one dimensional, with little room to explore their background or the depths of their psyche in the episodic ventures, but the story arcs greatly expand on both the main characters and the prime supporting cast, developing their hearts and souls to a substantial, admirable degree.

Gintama is a marvel, chock-full with everlasting potential. It's a series as side-splittingly funny as it is deeply heartbreaking. It presents a miscellany of different genres, tones, characters, scenarios, music, emotions and comedy, all blended into one exquisitely written, flawlessly executed, brilliantly produced, intelligent stunner of a series. It's among the utmost best anime has to offer.

Gintama is overrated trash. It has a slow start, corny parodies, lame repetitive gags, no concise plot and has "serious arcs" when it's supposed to be a comedy first and foremost. What a complete mess of a series.

Plot: (1/10)
The comedic episodes that take up 80% of the series is just there to flesh out the characters, the world and repeat the same jokes over again. It’s unnecessary padding that has no affect on the actual plot, hence why it’s filler. You can skip them, look up the serious arc episodes and watch those and you’d still be caught up with the story.

The serious arcs ... are short, overdramatic, have fake deaths, bland sword fights and are filled with the same overused shounen troupes like: nakama power bullshit or villains giving long cliche monologues. None of the arcs are even better than your average shounen arc, especially the overrated Shogun Assassination arc.

The whole structure is a mess. Some episodes are dedicated to the odd jobs, then the shinsengumi, one moment is serious then half way through it’s comedy. 3 episodes would be comedy, then the next 4 would be “mini serious arcs”, the plot’s all over the place!

Characters: (1/10)
The characters are over the top, unrealistic and have barely any development. Seriously, if you compare the Odd Jobs Trio from the first episodes to the latest episodes in the final season, you’ll see that they’re pretty much exactly the same characters.

The worst part is the comedy is terrible. It’s as if it was written for 12 yr old weebs. The constant abusive punches/kicks, repetitive gags, overused references to other shows, cheesy dialogue, childish parodies and poop jokes are shit. Also, there’s so many references to Japanese culture that even the average viewer wouldn’t get the humour.

Overall (1/10):
Seriously, if you want to watch a episodic comedy series then you might as well watch Spongebob instead because it at least doesn’t take 60+ episodes to “get good” like Gintama.

Gintama takes place in Edo(a.k.a Tokyo nowadays). Aliens who call themselves, the Amanto, have invaded Japan. In order to prevent another resistance of samurai's, they prohibited the use of swords. Only a handful of samurai's are remaining, Sakata Gintoki, a laid-back samurai who carries a wooden sword, is among these few. Together with Kagura, an extra-terrestrial girl with a monstrous strength, and Shinpachi, your average troubled adolescent, they'll take any kind of job as long as it fills their stomach and keeps them from getting kick out by the landlord.

Gintama is an action, comedy samurai anime with a sci-fi twist. You dont get to see ... this kind of anime's anymore, heck youve never seen an anime like this before. I mean seriously, where can you find a samurai whose role model is Bleach's Ichigo Kurosaki? Or an intense ordeal involving four adults who all recently took a dump in a comfort room that has run out of toilet paper and now they must decide on who among them has to run outside butt naked, to relieve them from their predicament?

Unlike most samurai's anime's, this anime is really all about the comedy.Dont misunderstand, their are several decent actions here and some of em are even pretty damn good but most of them are use for opportunity to present something extremely hilarious . Dont expect any amazing coup de grace here as Gintama doesnt want to be striking, it wants to be funny. But hey, it pays off. In an odd way, Gintama can be very unpredictable because of this. Its like watching the antics of Harry Houdini, you never know whats going to happen next.

To exaggerate something so insignificant is one of Gintama' primary nature. Now I would like to point out that Im not fond of slice of life anime's, because well lets face it, real life aint worth watching one cent especially when they all they do is talk about is the different ways to cut cheese. But Gintama is capable of making mundane circumstances into something incredibly ludicrous, that you have to be dead inside not to burst out and laugh your ass off.

A good example would be when the gang were all dead hungry but there's only one remaining food left? Who gets to eat the last food? The epic psychological warfare begins. If you havent noticed, every second of that is insanely diverting. And yes, that episode is the best Death Note parody I have ever come across. Its doesnt stop there. Gintama has all kinds of parody, whethers its Star Wars, Resident Evil, or some famous horror flick, there's nothing that can escape the derision of Gintama. It is so amazing how they were able to successfully mix samurai and modern pop culture into one show.

Gintama is promising from the start. It boasts distinguished characters that make up a unique combination that opens up future comic possibilities.

Gintama is episodic, meaning dont expect any heavy character development, although there are some minor alterations as the series progresses but it doesnt make enough difference to be considered. Who needs development anyway? As long as its funny, thats good enough for me.

The OP and ED in Gintama are pretty upbeat and catchy. Sometimes it can even make you laugh. As for the animation, it is fairly average. I have nothing against it because it fits right in the atmosphere of something utterly humorous.

Some people consider Gintama as the only thing decent anime that Shounen Jump serialized. Others think of it as the next best thing since sliced bread. I am neither of this. The way I see it, Gintama can only warrant two things for a person. Either they become fans of Gintama or become dumb with astonishment that they resort to watching paint dry.

If there's one thing you need to know about Gintama, it is blatantly comical.
And if thats what you have been looking for, then look no further. If not, look elsewhere.

Gintama is a very inconsistent and overrated series.

Many Anime fans tend to praise Gintama as the best battle shonen Anime of all time, and they inflate it’s status even further by giving it perfect ratings, and while Gintama is a show that does good in some aspects or during some arcs, it fails at being a consistent show throughout it’s long two hundred and two episode run, which hinders it from becoming good or even great by extension. Gintama is definitely not a bad show, far from it actually. It is just that Gintama suffers from problems that cannot be overlooked, and today we ... are here to see why this Anime is fine as it is, though not good and certainly not the greatest.

The first problem or issue that Gintama suffers from are the filler episodes that almost every battle shonen suffers from. While there aren’t many filler episodes in this series, there are still some filler episodes that cannot be overlooked, and they hinder from the overall show. Fillers hinder a show due to them not being necessary to the overall plot, and while the filler episodes here are considerably less than those of other famous battle shonen series, they still exist and cannot be overlooked.

A second issue that this series suffers from is the lack of any imagination or thought when it comes to the comedy in it. The comedy throughout the whole series boils down to:

- Poop jokes
- Toilet paper humor
- Someone calling Kagura his boss
- Someone saying “Zura Ja Nai, Katsura Da”
- References to other Anime such as Dragon Ball, Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind, and such
- Funny faces
- Jabs at otakus
- A homeless man
- An angry brother and an angry sister beating people up because they are angry

Due to this, the characters become plot devices to convey one or two jokes every episode rather than develop and move on from them. Heaven forbid a character evolves from the same joke he was given since the first few episodes, into a character who actually becomes developed and well written. Heaven also forbid this series learns how to create most of it’s jokes without the need to rely on references from other Anime, take a jab at some, or just use the same joke over and over again until it becomes stale. Toilet humor is hysterical the first time it is used, and the second time is not a big deal, but when it exceeds that line, that is when we have a problem. Besides that, the humor in Gintama is not so bad, the references could work at times and when they do, they turn hilarious and are genuinely some of the funniest episodes an Anime fan could see. Take a look at episode 119, which is probably the best Dragon Ball Z parody an Anime or anything for that matter ever pulled off. The same goes for episode 110, which is easily the funniest episode in the whole series, if not the entirety of Anime as a whole. Gintama has genuinely funny humor when it works, but alas, these episodes are a rare gem to find in a series that uses and repeats the same gags over and over again until they turn trite.

The third and most important issue that Gintama suffers from is the lack of a plot or a narrative that connects all the episodes together one by one. It feels meandering, as the viewer wonders why they are watching this series in the first place. Due to there not being a plot, it becomes predictable as to what it’s formulaic episodic structure will be: Either an episode about something absurd that comes out of nowhere due to this world being inhabited by all kinds of zany creatures, some unfunny jokes which are repeated over and over again, or some random enemy coming from afar to wreak havoc on the city. Rinse, and then repeat. It all feels pointless, because why watch Gintama when there isn’t even a plot or end goal in sight? This is my biggest problem with the series. After indulging myself in the long and predictable episodes, I felt dissatisfied with an ending that did not give me a solid conclusion to the series. Now granted, this is a series that is ongoing and there are different seasons, but that is not a valid excuse to end it on a lackluster finale. Take a look at Hunter x Hunter, which is the greatest battle shonen ever created, while the manga was ongoing, the Madhouse staff ended that Anime on a very good note, to the point where it could be considered the actual ending to the series without hurting it’s narrative.

Other issues that this series suffers from are the other issues that other battle shonen suffer from: The hero is too strong for his own good, and while he does struggle to get a win, it is still out of the realm of logic how he wins his battles. The fillers which I have mentioned above. The same predictable battle shonen formula that other series suffer from, where a villain shows up and then gets defeated, and the same juvenile jokes repeated over and over again. Gintama only has one thing going for it, and that is the fact that there is no power escalation in the series.

Now that we are done with all the narrative elements of Gintama, let us take a look at it’s characters.

The characters in Gintama are divisive. Some of them are rather well written and well developed, others are not so much. The characters that are one dimensional in Gintama are:

1. Katsura and Elizabeth, who are only in the series for the simple gist of making referential humor and acting silly to amass some laughs. There is nothing more to Katsura other than calling Kagura boss and saying “Zura ja nai, Katsura da.” He does not develop throughout the whole run of this Anime.

2. Shinpachi, as his whole character arc revolves around bullying his otaku friends and being an obsessed idol fan and having an annoying voice. Granted, he does get some episodes where he falls in love with some girl, but that episode is unnecessary since the Anime glosses over said girl, and is never used to develop his character further.


3. Most of the female cast, with the exception of Kagura. The women in the series either amount to fanservice or to annoy the males, that is it. Kagura is amazing though, as the series centers some or many of it’s episodes on her.

The characters who are well developed are Tomoya, Sugo, Gorilla, Kagura and some others from the Shinsengumi, as well as some villains like Itou and lord Housen.

Speaking of Housen and Itou, their arcs are the best in the whole series, followed closely by the Benizikura arc. As for the rest of the arcs, they aren’t nearly as emotional nor do they contain the same level of character depth.

Overall, Gintama is far from being the best battle shonen out there, as it suffers from many issues to even be called a good series. When an Anime makes you question the first fifty episodes of it’s run and think “When does this get better?” you know that Anime won’t turn out to be a good product. Though Gintama is not a good Anime, it is not a bad one either, as it has some very strong episodes going for it.

Japan, a nation which was once known as "samurai country", has been invaded by aliens called the Amanto who now pull the strings of the government. The samurai have been forced to become ordinary citizens and sheath their swords forever. Gintoki Sakata, a former samurai who follows his own code of "bushido", was once a fierce warrior who can now barely scrape together the change to purchase this week's Shonen Jump. What's a samurai to do?

Story
Gintama is not an anime that one should approach expecting a plot. It's an episodic action and adventure comedy that details the hilarious and ridiculous daily ... escapades of Gintoki and the other boarders that are a part of his freelancing business. The only thing that Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi want is to be able to pay the month's rent but instead wind up attracting trouble like a magnet. The jokes can be downright hilarious and the characters will literally go out of their way to say something funny at the wrong time. It's not a series that I would recommend to new anime fans because a lot (but certainly not all) of the jokes poke fun at the anime subculture and even the more seasoned fans might have trouble understanding some of the Japanese cultural jokes to a point where it's like a Japanese Family Guy. The fansubs do, however, take the time to explain a lot of the references. It's also great to approach this series with at least some knowledge of Japanese history, particularly the Bakumatsu and Meiji Periods, due to the fact that a majority of the characters are based on historical figures.

Art
The characters watch television dramas and read Weekly Shonen Jump but the scenery and the clothes do a good job of reminding us that this series is supposed to be based on the Meiji Period. The backgrounds are detailed and the animation is generally smooth. Facial expressions, as with any comedy anime, are important and the character designs suit the characters. The overall semi-realistic art style helps the characters seem more realistic as well, though, it's not something I personally found to be especially unique.

Sound
The themes are fun, catchy, and upbeat. I found that one of the most memorable things about Gintama's music was the fact that one of the ending songs, Mr. Raindrop, is entirely in (good) English! The background music does not particularly stand out but its "wild" style suits the anime. The voices fit the characters well and the acting is excellent.

And did I say that the most memorable thing about the sound of this anime was Mr. Raindrop? I meant to say that the most memorable thing about this anime was the popular idol singer, Otsuu, who writes these catchy songs with crazy lyrics, like, "Your brother is a hikikomori!"

Character
Characters are the single most important feature in an episodic series such as Gintama and this is one area where this anime does not disappoint. Every character has unique quirks that makes them interesting and the few "archetype" characters that are in this anime are parodies. Shinpachi's sister Otae, for example, has the appearance of the typical "sweet older sister" character but she's actually one of the most violent characters in the entire series aside from trigger-happy Okita. There is no "self-righteous" hero in this anime; every character is just another person trying to get by in the new Japan no matter how rude, weird, or downright strange he or she might be.

Enjoyment
This is the first series that I have seen in a long time that has made me truly laugh-out-loud. I sometimes even have to stop myself from laughing while reading the manga in study hall to avoid being stared at!

Overall
The best thing about this anime is that it's not afraid to laugh at its demographic, its medium, its culture, or even itself. It almost goes out of its way to make sure that it crosses the line. And, even though some of the jokes are hit-or-miss references, it's an anime that can leave even new anime fans laughing or literally thinking, "WTF?"

In just 25 minutes, this anime will show you that even a simple fight between friends over a sukiyaki pot can be more engaging than some epic battle between planets and solar systems (while there's plenty of that too).

I always thought there would never be an anime series that would keep me entertained beyond 50 episodes, and after watching over a 1000 episodes of anime in total, I'm convinced that this is in fact true... except for Gintama.

Watch this anime but be prepared to laugh your stomach out.

Gintama is a peculiar type of anime. It's a mix of 90's shounens and comedy.

Story:
The story is not the main focus of Gintama. The sroty is divided into arcs. Evey Arc starts with disconnected episodes focusing on comedy and then, after some episodes, it starts to dive in plot. This cicle repeats.

The comedy section oscillates between "Amazing" and "Ok". You cannot predict when you're going to get a funny episode and a shitty episode. Besides that, haf of the comedy comes from references to japanese pop culture and other animes, which most people won't get.
Still, when Gintama is funny, it's really funny.

The Serious ... section osclilates between "Good" and "Ok". It usually involves a recently introduced character... It still has funny segments, but not as many. it usually has a message or something to teach you, but it's not good enough on it's own. Nothing really happens and i wouldn't watch it if it wasn't for the comedy.

Characters:
Suffices to say that the characters are complex and interesting. They're all diverse and memorable.

Overwall, i think Gintama it's a great anime to watch casually. If you're feeling down, it can really light up your mood, and for that, i respect it.

My score is a 7. Not because it's bad, but because it oscillates too much. I recommend it to any anime fan. If you can keep following it, the comedy only gets better.

The point is: The comedy is it's highlight.

I don't really know how to start this off, but here it goes...

I first began this series out of complete boredom during the summer, but after wacthing the first couple episodes I thought to myself "

Story: The story is fantastic! Even though most of the episodes consits of crazy occurences that occurs with Gintoki and his friends (and shinsengumi), all the episodes are exciting and funny. But this series is not all fillers. There is a secret past with Gintoki and how he is connected to the previous war with the amatos (aliens) and samurais, and he encounters villians who try to harm to ... the civilians, his friends, and/or Edo.

Art & Sound: The art is now more modern, and is just awesome. I feel like I am at Edo (In Gintama). The sound is great...I guess...I never really encountered an anime with bad sound (unless the DVD was scratched, or the web site was bad...)

Character: It's a rare cicrumstance, but I have fallen for all of the characters. All the characters have a goofy, distinguishable, but also serious side, and I absolutly love it! The character's have their own odd personalities (and fetishes). The character's a developed beautifully, and the characters give the show an unexplainable magic.

Enjoyment: Can I give this a 100/10? This series has action, comedy (A lot of it too), but the series has a couple of serious, and sad episodes. I cannot predict what will happen next! I look foward to wacthing the new episodes! If I didn't enjoy this, why would I be watching (and giving you guys a review)? If you watch this, you WILL enjoy this, no doubt about it!

Overall: As you can see...I absolutly love this series. Do not miss out on this super-special-awesome (Sorry littlekuriboh) anime. There are many "Japanese" jokes, but everyone can love and enjoy this anime! I would give this a billion/10 for overall. I love this show with the bottom of my heart, and I know you will enjoy it too!!! (Watch a couple of episodes before you drop it, the first episode can be confusing)

My first time writing a review so people,please be NICE :)

I started watching Gintama when my friend recommendate me too.She said it was a hilarious anime and people who did not laugh while watching Gintama,have no soul or sense of humor.I gave Gintama a chance and tried watching but i didn't expected myself to laugh non-stop at the jokes and i didn't expected myself to enjoy every second of the anime.

Although Gintama is focused on comedy,DO NOT put the tissue box away.There will be tear jerking and touching arcs which will make tears roll down your cheeks.

And DON'T forget the action which will be showed ... during serious arcs such as Benizakura arc and Yoshiwara arc which will leave you wanting for more.

From a sadist freak to a space alien,Gintama charcters are lovable and you will NEVER see anoying and weak characters unlike in some other animes.You will fall in love with every characters in Gintama.Yes,even the "bad and evil" characters despite his "less screen time" gets a high rank in Gintama Polls.

After finishing 186 episodes in 1 and a half weeks,i declared that Sorachi Hedeki is the king of humor and wanted more Gintama episodes.Gintama is an awesome anime and people needs to give it a chance.

End of review :)
Thanks for reading and a big thanks to Animefan009 ;D

Gintama is the capstone of a generation of manga. The requirements to enjoy it are simple: Do you like gag and toilet humor? Are you familiar with the more popular manga and anime from the golden era up until the mid-2010s? If so, you'll most likely love this perfect blend of action, humor, and drama.

With that said, let’s dive into Gintama—its themes, structure, and how it compares to other works. We’ll also look at whether its beginning is misleading and how leverages the medium to deliver its themes.

So, what is this show about?

This show is set in Edo, the land of the samurai—a clear metaphor ... for Japan. The central thesis is that while the Amanto (foreigners, aliens) arrive and transform it into something entirely new, the core of what it means to be a samurai endures.

Gintama reimagines Bushido in a simpler, modern way that applies universally, regardless of one’s background. Giving an extensive focus on having something to protect and the strength in staying true to your values.

First things later, let’s talk art direction.

The character designs are remarkably recognizable, even the intentionally bland ones. The openings and soundtrack are memorable, too. Sure, there are moments when the lack of budget shows, but the series uses that to its advantage, turning it into a running joke that also pokes fun at the industry itself.

One thing worth mentioning is the voice acting. Some characters are brought to life with so much personality through the performances. Combined with Gintama's amazing filler content, it makes the show something truly special.

So, how does it start?

I quit Gintama after the first episode. Two years later, I dropped it again after the second episode. Finally, five years later, I tried the third episode—and now I’m hooked. I actually recommend skipping the first two episodes. They don’t add much and are so confusing and nonsensical that they become an unnecessary barrier to entry, where there’s already a lot to take in.

Beyond that, if you’ve seen any gag shows or sitcoms, you’ll find the beginning familiar. The early gags may only be mildly amusing at first, or even fly under the radar. After episode 3, it’s important not to skip any episodes, as the humor starts building momentum.

Comedy-centric shows often need to lean on other aspects as they go on. While the easy route would be romance, Gintama takes the battle shōnen approach. You can get a taste of this mix early on, though the execution improves by a lot over time.

What about the characters?

The characters don’t age and are tied to specific gags. Their introductions are usually semi-comedic, and they continue to reappear in gags that make you attached to their comedic side. But somewhere down the line, you start getting deeper, more meaningful explorations of their character. In other words, they’re gag characters with layers.

What about the story itself?

Imagine watching The Simpsons, and suddenly Lisa is fighting to the death with Bart in a three-episode arc that dives into a traumatic event from their childhood. That’s the kind of unpredictability Gintama offers. You never know whether the next scene will be comedic, gut-wrenching, or packed with action.

Every episode is a wild card. The characters might mess with the opening, the show might have a different title, and the tone can swing from somber to hilarious in seconds. Sometimes you’ll need to watch multiple episodes in one sitting, and other times just one will do. It’s worth looking up a list of arcs to get a feel for the flow.

It is also worth saying that there will be so many unexpected tie-ins. Characters and events that almost left your mind get brought back. Gintama fully utilizes its length to deliver both character arcs and interactions that cannot be as impactful were it streamlined of a lot shorter.

Then, what did I think of it as a whole?

Gintama is a beautifully crafted piece. Sure, there are episodes that fall flat, jokes that don’t land, or obscure parodies that miss the mark. The quality isn’t always consistent—sometimes the fillers are even better than the main episodes.

I can’t recommend it to everyone, though. As much as I love it and wish it were more popular, that would be misleading. There are a lot of crude jokes, mood swings, and references that make it hard to call Gintama a universally enjoyable experience. For its target audience, this is close to a masterpiece; for anyone else, it might just feel like a crude mess.

Gintama to be symbolized is like a bottle of fine apple cider. Its not the hot cinnamon one you enjoy at winter time, but a bubbly and sweet drink enjoyed alongside some of the finest of your holiday wines. Gintama is sweet. With a cast of bubbling and energetic characters who lift spirits. They just make the show sizzle with satisfying pops. At first Gintama feels like a kiddy drink laughable and nothing more. As you slow down and enjoy Gintama it becomes something more. There is certain tartness mixed in, a hint of something more dramatic, this only materializes itself once ... in a blue moon, yet you detected it. Its an edge darkness that only heightens the sweet bubble texture, it becomes a perfect balance of sweet and bubble with a hint of tart, resulting in something as great as the finest of wines . The over arching message of Gintama is to move on from the bad things and to work towards the good. Its to no matter what, through every trail and tribulation to live by your own “bushido code”. This is the morales of Gintama. Its 95% troll fun character shenanigans, 5% drama and dark morals. Yet, every bit of Gintma is a life lesson. Every episode and every title (some more troll than others). The fun episodes are meant to be enjoyed for fun. To tell you not to take life too seriously. The each drama arc is working through a hard time with respective values and morals. The fun episodes and dark episodes are both filled with pretty much the greatest comedy that the median of anime has produced. Using both mature and immature jokes, crude and clever, gags and satire, Gintama with comedy alone is a grand achievement. Yet on top it secedes in drama and truly great character interaction in a colorful world in which anything goes. This results in on of the greatest and most unique amines of all time (look at the damn scores).

The story of Gintama is about Gintoki Sakata after aliens have taken over the earth and life has generally improved for the world. Yet, a nasty sword ban on the public has put the samurai class out of work. Gintoki must now leave the bloody past behind and forge his own new samurai code as he does odd jobs in the city of Edo(Tokyo) and barely get by. Gintama is mostly comedy following along the ways of the odd jobs crew, each episodes and odd job generally goes around their own little life lessons, gags and stories. The series is very episodic. This takes 95% of the series as fun day to day shenanigans in a world dominated by weird aliens (So not really average by our standards). Under all of the tomfoolery is a dark feel. Gintama portrays this very well and sometimes the feel of the show can switch on a whim. Its the 5% not in the “happy” this is very well thought out drama arcs usually every 20 episodes, with lengths usually 3 to 6 episodes long. These arcs usually start softly, but usually end up serious and involve Ghosts from Gintoki’s past. This sense of past is never lost in the show, you always have a feeling that Gin cannot get over it. It shows through continuously through his actions. Sometimes he stops when others laugh. He thinks back to his war days laughing with comrades and then frames back to his odd jobs crew and new friends; he smiles and joins back in. Gin has a very well hidden PTSD. It mentioned by others, that he “has the smell of a beast to him” as when what he wishes to protect by his bushido code is threatened he’ll revert the “white demon” (nick name in alien wars) and risk everything life and limb to save what he cares about. This is a feeling that is constant through the entirety of Gintama, and in a sense this getting over the bad times and the past is the central meaning of Gintama as a whole.


Art of Gintama is very interesting, very inventive devices, vibrant color palates; the world also can turn dark very quickly. It creates a vibrant fun colorful world that shows its seedy underside. This makes for some great contrasts in animation and just the faces… so good. From troll faces to deadly serious, to plainly confused, Gintama mastered the art of drawing facial expressions. The style in itself isn’t very risky and thus feels above average and not amazing.

Sound is done by a variance of people. the Op’s and Ed’s are for a majority excellent. My personal Favorites from the 1st 201 episodes is the Op Donten with stairway generation being a close 2nd. Osts are well-done; Madao is an excellent theme with slow guitar that makes you just feel. Nothing though was completely off the walls amazing, but everything was great.



Character truly is the greatness of Gintama. It’s a plethora of colorful bubbles that light up the world. Each with their own past they also want to leave behind. The Main Main group is the odd jobs crew lead by Gintoki Sakata, and his two employees/ apprentices Kagura and Shimpachi + their beloved mascot Saduharu . The other best group is the elite police of this crazy world. The Shinsengumi, which is mainly Hijikata, Sougo, Kondo, and Yamazaki. The odd jobs team is like a family always together and always on each others nerves, but help when the time comes, this has created the best friendship speeches in existence. “He owns me five bucks… so I can’t let him die”. The odd jobs crew gallivants around the city of Edo. Gintoki a samurai for a new age, Kagura super strong and supper witty young girl, Shimpachi the only sane man here. It truly is a treat to watch. The Shensengumi also gallivant putting anti government rebellions down with ridiculous police work. They have the daemon vice- chief, the sadist Captain Sougo, the bland Yamazaki, the lovable idiot chief Kondo. They also have their own serious arcs and frequently end up with the odd job team by total accident in deadly situations. These groups with many colorful separate friends and characters make a colorful dish the compliments the totally colorful world of Gintama creating tons of funny moments, and some sad ones too. The characters of Gintama make this wacky world shine.


Overall Gintama is a mastery of comedy and drama. Truly meant to be enjoyed slowly. Something to be savored for what it is. Its not one to be taken too seriously or too lightly. Yet, it is a one of the greatest things to come to the anime median to date. Funny and heart warming, and sometimes just sometimes dark and gritty with a touch of feels. If you take your time to savor it, Gintama is one anime that you shant want to miss.

-Raptor 9/10

How should I put this... Gintama is incredibly disappointing.

Story: 2
Art: 6
Sound: 6
Character: 4
Enjoyment: 2
Overall: 2

The basic plot about the Aliens (the West) colonizing Edo Japan in the end of the 19th century could have been exploited nicely, but all I got was childish humour relying almost exclusively on inscrutable references and monotonous slapstick. I only watched season 1, but I just can't go any further. I smiled sometimes at first, but then it grew tiresome and eventually too painful to carry on watching.
The characters are not very interesting from what I've seen, which is a pity considering the character design is one of Gintama's strongest ... points. The animation was homogeneous, but totally lacked ambition. The dub was very good, the soundtrack was ok, the OP/EDs were quite generic.

Considering the huge amount of references, I totally get why this show is popular in Japan. However I cannot explain such a global, unanimous acclaim. My guess is this series is so popular on MAL because it did not get much attention in Western countries, and it might be a way for some weaboos and tryhards to distinguish themselves from those they call Narutards.

Or maybe I am just too old for this $#!†.

PS: I will still watch the movies though, hoping they deliver more than the series.

At first I was very skeptical towards the idea of watching this anime. For you see, to watch Gintama one must have a profound knowledge on Japanese pop-culture and language (as the show doesn't lack puns and references), none of which I have. Nevertheless, if you are one to appreciate a good laugh and a chaotic story line, Gintama is the anime for you.

My opinion on this show:

Story: 9/10

I can't help it but admire the author's ingenious approach towards not only fiction, history and adventures the characters come by, as well as the daily life of Ooedo inhabitants and all their small problems (e.g. the ... ups and downs of having to buy a new fan or when a young girl wants her undergarments washed separately from her father's). In the Gintama world, there are hardly any linearities. Even an everyday story will make a twist or turn somewhere until the end of the 20-minute episode. And it is most likely that the aforementioned twist will make you shed tears from laughter.
The show is also overflowing with d*ck jokes, b*tt jokes and the likes... Not to mention famous shounen manga, famous actors, etc. Nevertheless, toilet humor is an inseparable part of Gintama.

Of course Gintama also has its seriousness, as you will notice when you stumble across the small "arcs", sometimes revealing dark secrets from the characters' pasts and adding for a more thrilling experiences. At those times, Gintama may turn its back on humor for a while, to unsheathe its blade, but that doesn't mean it's utterly forgotten.

The reason why I gave it 9 (although my overall score is 10) is that a really small part of the characters' pasts is revealed. Imo, that's a turf many things could be explored on.

Art: 10/10

The anime is very well drawn, with nicely balanced colors and fitting for the pseudo-historical Japan landscapes. The characters are also well drawn, each with unique features, more than enough to distinguish them. The motions are especially well made, though not too frantic or annoying for the viewer's eye. The camera angle is also great, at times even stunning as it adds for more laughter or sharpens the breath-taking moment, depends on the case. There's more to add about the character design, but I'll do that later, when I share my impression on the characters.

The reason why I gave it 10? I am particularly an appreciator of good art, especially the characters, and this is one of the few shounen titles from what I've seen that has such a good style; they are not deformed, annoying (most of them) or made with the same template.

Soundtrack: 10/10

Gintama hooked me on the first opening, if it hadn't already with its synopsis (more like, the lack of it) ...and I was shocked when I realized it's made by Tommyheavenly6. Then, I thought to myself, this anime means serious business. Before I used to weigh anime on their openings and endings and more or less that hasn't changed much (although now there are many more things I judge in an anime). After all, OPs and EDs made 1/10 of the screen time of an episode and the OP creates your first impression of that anime. So far for 252 episodes Gintama hasn't got a weak opening. And as a matter of fact a weak ending. And those openings usually catch perfectly the overall idea of the show. If you are keen on watching this series and want to know what it's about, one glimpse at the opening would be worth a thousand reviews read. The opening can tell you straight away who are the main characters, what other characters you are to expect, what are their occupation or preferences (oft times the right word is obsession), their affections, friends, bonds, where they live... and what the story is about, but that could be described with one word: mayhem.

Gintama has OPs and EDs in J-Rock style, usually with upbeat sound, funky at times, with lots of guitars. The rhythm is quite catchy, so listening to them at least twice is a must. The soundtrack of both seasons is composed by Audio Highs, also with lots of guitars for the pressure moments, piano for the sad moments and drums for the punch lines. Audio Highs' themes are styled in almost perfect synchronization with the emotion charges a scene in Gintama could carry.

Characters 11/10

Gintama's character design is unique and I'm not talking solely for the silver-haired "tennen-paama" protagonist, although he is surely unmistakable with his bokutou and the manner he wears his kimono. All the characters are drawn as befits their roles in the anime, more or less, with lots of imagination poured into each of them and a feature (usually more than one) to distinguish them from the others. Also all the characters' seyuu fit more than perfect, as they have a diapason large enough to make any situation even more comical or sh*t serious. There are no banal characters, for each has it's own story to tell and contributes on their own way for the story; and last but not least - there's no character that's out of place in Gintama. Although most of them complain they aren't given enough screen time and the show is as random as it gets, with more people appearing every episode, the secondary characters pop up just when you though they were forgotten.

The characters are probably the thing I enjoyed most at the anime. As ridiculous as it sounds, they are all unique, as each of them has it's own backstory, a manner of speaking, dressing, preferable meals and many more, but most importantly: bonds. All these small features make the character stand out, not like some shallow figures, that stand there to fill the plot; and make it truly a "person" to sympathize to.

Overall score: 10/10
I truly enjoyed every bit of this anime and this review is pretty much valid for both seasons. I only want to add that, as an anime based on manga, it boldly adds its own brush strokes, such as complaining about sponsors and producers, or making top 50 most popular characters show. Where some people would consider this fillers, it merges with the story so swiftly that not even once it annoyed me; on the contrary, it makes it more vivid and diverse than you would expect from an anime based on manga.
There are many other things I wanted to say, but I either forgot as I typed or just decided it was long enough the way it is.
Thank you for reading my review and hope it was convincing enough to make you watch Gintama!~

I've never really been a fan of long-running shounen anime. I had some bad run-ins with series like Naruto and Bleach when I was a kid and ever since then I've tried my best to stay away from them. For the same reason, I'm quite sure I would never have made myself watch Gintama either if it wasn't for its incredibly high ratings which made me feel somewhat obligated to. When I eventually started it though about 1,5 years ago, it was very quickly made evident that Gintama is... different. Not just different from other shounen anime, but different from almost every anime. In many ... aspects it is more similar to western shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy, but still feels well and truly Japanese at the same time.


Pros & Cons:

+ Incredibly high peaks as far as comedy goes
+ Parodies anything and everything in brilliant fashion
+ Tons of diverse and original characters
+ Superb voice acting

- Quite mediocre when the comedy misses its mark, or when it tries to be serious
- Not much of an overarching story
- Surprisingly poor video resolution for its airing time


Taking place in an alternate reality in feudal Japan where aliens have invaded and conquered everything, Gintama is a story about... yeah what is it about really? It primarily follows a freelance samurai named Sakata Gintoki as well as his two friends/coworkers, and shows how they manage to make a living in the crazy new world that their country has become. Primarily though the show does just about anything and everything you can possibly imagine as no matter how strange or far-fetched an idea may seem, it is never too far-fetched for Gintama. Entire episodes taking place inside toilet booths? Alien giants causing havoc in town due to their unfortunate extraterrestrial love lives? Having storylines based on the results of a character popularity poll the series once held in Japan? A hilarious degree of fourth-wall breaking? Gintama has it all. It's really something you need to experience for yourself in order to properly get an image of just how silly it can be.

I'd like to say Gintama is *the* comedy anime that just about every anime fan can watch. With endless references to and parodies of hundreds and hundreds of other manga and anime, as well as an incredibly diverse sense of humour, it is highly unlikely that there won't be any point of the series that will be entertaining for any individual viewer, regardless of what their sense of humour may be like. The author seemingly knows perfectly how to appeal to almost any audience in this day and age as far as comedy goes, as the funny parts can go from being very complex and intelligent to being straight-up toilet humour. Because of this I'd also like to believe that the more anime/manga you've watched/read prior to watching Gintama, the more gags you will be able to understand and thus enjoy the series more. Thus this is not really an anime for newbies, but for anyone reasonably familiar with the anime industry then the sky is the limit.

Of course as is always the case with comedy, it is somewhat hit or miss. What makes Gintama stand out however is how amazingly high its peaks actually are. Occasionally the show displays moments of absolute comedic genius, as when Gintama is at its best it is probably the funniest anime ever made. Because of this there are certain individual episodes that stand out as some of the overall best episodes I have ever seen. It's physically impossible for *everything* to be funny however, and with such an enormous amount of gags there will still sadly be an overwhelming amount of time that will not entertain you. And given how incredibly long the anime is, when you put it in that sort of context you'll unfortunately realize that the amount of mediocre hours that Gintama contains is actually extremely high.

Case in point; Gintama is the most inconsistent anime I have ever seen to this day. It is a series that sometimes will make you cry with laughter, and sometimes bore you out of your mind. The comedic elements aside, it also has its fair share of more typical battle shounen-esque story arcs spanning a couple of episodes every so often. Ironic as it is, this is probably the biggest weakness of the entire show. When the series goes into a more serious mode it quite frankly feels more like a chore to watch through than anything else a lot of the time. While the story arcs generally aren't bad per se, they're nowhere even close to the same level as the better comedy episodes are. Like I mentioned before, the stereotypical long-running shounen series are not anything I enjoy very much at all, and thus when Gintama enters a similar sort of atmosphere it just comes across as a massive drop in quality for a couple of episodes. Of course once it's done with that part then it might immediately peak up to masterpiece-level again, it happens more than once throughout the series' progression. Like I said, extremely inconsistent.

As you might expect from such a huge series, the character cast of Gintama is massive. In addition to our silver-haired Shounen Jump-addicted samurai protagonist Gintoki, there's also the super strong humanoid alien Kagura who can eat an infinite amount of food and always wears a China dress, as well as the ultra-tsukkomi character Shinpachi who on his spare time is the captain of a famous pop-singer's personal fan club. The supporting cast consists of a guy who never gets his name said correctly, a super sadist, a mayonnaise-addicted freak, an old hag of a landlady, a ginormous dog, a 180 centimeters tall white penguin-like... "thing" who communicates by writing on signs, as well as several hundreds of others. There's an endless amount of characters to familiarize yourself with but given how long the anime is there's plenty of time for that.

The animation though... taking its time of airing into account it's honestly rather poor. For a series that finished as late as 2010 it still utilizes a 4:3 aspect ratio for the full duration of the show. Really? That aside the character designs are pretty clean and distinct, and the animations themselves are passable at least. I still feel that the show is a couple years behind as far as the technical levels go however, which may or may not be bothersome depending on whom you ask.

The soundtrack is very good however. Since the series is sometimes dramatic and sometimes about as non-serious as you can possibly get, it's pretty important that the music manages to reflect that diverse atmosphere in order to not drag it down, and it succeeds in doing this quite excellently. I don't think there was a single moment during these full 201 episodes where the audio ever felt truly out of place. The opening and ending themes are naturally in the double digits given the series' length, some of them being pretty awesome, and some of them were pretty meh.

What really stands out though is the voice acting. Now I haven't read the manga but as far as I've been told the main reason the anime is so much higher rated than the manga is because of this very reason. The effort put in by many of the voice actors/actresses is phenomenal, and it helps emphasize and exaggerate the gags immensely. I can only imagine how much less interesting many of the jokes in Gintama would have been if the people speaking them had been half-assing it, but as it is it's something that really deserves some special credit. I'd especially give a shoutout to Sugita Tomokazu's versatile performance as Gintoki as well as Sakaguchi Daisuki's incredible tsukkomi role as Shinpachi, which never fails to entertain and impress you. And if you thought Kugimiya Rie could only do loli tsundere characters, well think again.

Overall though, in the end it comes down to a numbers game for me. All the good aspects aside, the bottom line is still that sometimes the show is a comedic masterpiece, and sometimes it's a quite stereotypical and boring shounen series. Therefore trying to judge the entire anime with a single number feels a bit wrong to me, as sometimes I want to give it a 10 and sometimes more like a 5. But if I have to give it some sort of average, then in the end I'll have to resort at keeping it at a 7. As it is, despite the incredibly high peaks the anime has, it is still sadly outnumbered by the number of quite average episodes that will mostly fail to make you laugh. Of course it probably depends a lot on how you weigh quality versus quantity so I'm sure different people will find this fact to be more or less of an issue than others.

Gintama is perhaps the most famous comedy anime in existence and not without good reason. It is the one show that can and will make fun of anything and everything, and do so in style. It also probably has the highest peaks I have ever seen in comedy, and at times it can literally make you laugh until you cry. Unfortunately it doesn't do this quite as often as I would like, and a lot of the time it feels like you're drumming your fingers on the table in impatience while waiting for the show to get back into its element again.

However seeing as humour is one of the most subjective aspects of the human mind, I would still recommend essentially everyone to at least try watching Gintama (though perhaps not quite yet if you're still very new to anime). It takes a while before the show really gets going and even when it does it is still very up and down. That being said I know that there are a lot of people who found themselves seemingly rolling on the floor laughing during just about every episode of this anime, so who knows; maybe you'll be one of them too? I can't make any promises but as long as the potential exists that Gintama may be the most humorous experience of your life then I would eagerly recommend you to at least give it a chance. I mean what could there possibly be to lose?

Before I write this review which is very long overdue I would like to first establish that Gintama is my favourite series in both the manga and anime mediums and it is something that I will carry with me forever, it took me out of a very dark part in my life and set me on the right path. Gintama is something that becomes better as time moves on and you learn more about Japanese culture (of course, manga and anime) looking back at the series but it is also a very compelling story with slowly arching storyline with some really emotional moments and just ... some moments that really hit home to any anime watcher.

Secondly, I would like to note that Gintama is the funniest form of media (at least anime) that I have seen. I don't think that people quite appreciate the knowledge that the author (who refers to himself as a Gorilla in the manga) has, he is thoroughly up to date with todays manga and anime series, with American TV shows, to Japanese Pop artists and Idols, and to Japanese comedy all together. He is a true appreciator of comedy and this is very apparent in his series where he runs jokes sometimes volumes apart, he has running gags throughout the series and he ties in references to all works of media that his wide audience (most of the time) appreciates.

-Just going to do a quick overview and reasoning for my 10/10 on all scores for the anime-

Story: Gintama starts as a bunch of friends in the Edo period of Japan start up an "odd jobs" with the intent on doing any job for anyone around the town after the alien "amanto" take over the Earth for a low price to get by. They start making associates in all kinds of places from the "Joi" terrorists to the various policing organisations around the place to the Shogunate itself, with the more relationships that they build the more influence and responsibility the group gathers around the town, the several ties made really bring together the story; this story isn't really your general soul searching, power gaining Shonen, it is about protecting these ties with everything that the group has.

Art: With such an amazing source I do feel that Sunrise did a very good job animating Gintama. Character designs stay very true to their original sources and they did a very nice job giving you a feel as to what it would be like living in this run down town where Aliens and Humans live (seemingly) in harmony. The action scenes are done very - very well and the various "playful" facial expressions and such are done to perfection.

Sound: Gintama has quite a range of different scenarios and I think that the sound put together did very well at setting the tone for these scenarios. It has some very touching songs for those emotionally beautiful scenes, it has some really cool fighting music when necessary and some very comical jigs for the right moment. Another strong point in Gintama is its OPs and EDs, they really do get some amazing bands (SPYAIR does a few) in for these theme songs and they stay very true to the series.

Character: Gintama has some very loveable characters, they each play their comical role very well with their interactions with certain characters, one thing that I've noticed is how well Sorachi pairs certain characters with one another in both the humorous sense and in a social one. You also need to appreciate that every supporting character is either introduced during the series with some sort of arc that very closely ties each character with the group or they are done so in the same way with a flashback.

Enjoyment: Due to its episodic nature Gintama is something that you can show to friends at any point and they will love it all the same. As touched on earlier it is such an enjoyable series because of its diversity, there is something in it for everyone of all ages because the authors knowledge in anything funny is so diverse all the same. Watch it for the endless references, the fighting scenes, the comedy, you will not leave disappointed whatever your interests are.

To conclude in my bias I just really want to stress that everyone no matter what their tastes are should watch Gintama, don't get strayed away by these premise that because it is on the MAL top anime ratings that it must be mainstream trash. It is there for a reason, everyone that watches it loves it.

Story (5.1) - I have to say...its very confusing, and really hard to find connections in gintama between the episodes..sometimes there arent any..well, this aspect doesnt matter since the others are better.
Basically, Gintoki was once a samurai who fought for edo...and still continues to fight, on hiw own way, helping others and saving the world from alliens (sometimes). With the help of shinpachi, kagura, shinsengumi and some other characters, they will
get in all kind of situations.

Art (9.8) - Art is outstanding!! I really like it.. Gintoki looks so great, also, the shinsengumi are something that made me laugh all the time, especially Hijikata-Okita-Kondo..Shinpachi and ... his sister comes right behind, and kagura as well. In my opinion, design is very appropiatte for this kind of anime, and also the surroundings (environment, town, etc..) are very well made and gives the exact idea of some aspects. Indeed amazing how the characthers change expressions and their feelings, and art express that very well indeed, and also gives you a lot of comic moments.

Sound (8.6) - Op and Ed are great, i liked it..besides, it fits really well with the type of anime. I´ve seen better in this aspect, but this one still is good.

Characther (10.0) - Well, i cant give less than a 10...Each character is really unique..there are a lot of them who makes me laugh all the time, and its impressive how some characthers suddenly pass from a comic mood to a serious mood, and vice-versa. Originality is very very high.
They are really well devellopped and i have nothing negative to point here, so a 10.

enjoyment ( 10.0) - well, what can i say, i surrender ! There are some episodes who blow the ratings, some of them i cant give 10...i have to say its more than 10.. some of them make fun of some other anime and manga, others show ridicullous situations that makes me laugh for 20 mins non stop.. And there are also some serious episodes, where the characthers show their amazing abilities..impressive.
Gintoki is really outstanding, for me one of the best characthers ever, there are only a few who beat him in my ranking. Shinsengumi, well, maybe this is actually my favourite group of characthers, i mean, there arent anything like shinsegumi in any other anime i saw..gintoki-kagura-shinpachi gets close, some others from other anime also, but i dont remember to see a group at the same time so fun and hilarious xD.

how can i give less than 10.0? its impossible.

overall (9.5) - Story is the only problem in gintama, with some story and this one would be for me the best ever made without discussion..but as it is, its defenitively 1 of my favourite, and the nº 1 in comedy anime for sure..The other aspects are incredible, i recommend to everyone. If you like comedy, then dont search anymore...you just found it, gintama is the best choice ;)