Finished Gintama - review:
I am usually hesitant to pick up a long running anime (especially one which has 300+ episodes) and I can honestly say after completing Gintama that that was the best decision I have made in my entire life. Gintama is one of those shows which cant be described or reviewed easily because it is a mix of so many genres and has so much variety in terms of the story and the theme. But despite all that Gintama is primarily a comedy anime and that’s nothing less than any other anime, comedy is art and it can make people cheerful and recover from stress and trauma. For the most part Gintama doesn’t take itself seriously, breaks the 4th wall and remains usually light hearted which makes it harder for viewers when the actual plot/story/serious arcs hit because the underlying main plot of gintama is usually dark, emotional, violent and also depressing at some points and not just the main story arcs some other short arcs can also be pretty dark. You will hear at many forums that gintama doesn’t have a consistent main plot but it does and its an epic tale of vengeance, suffering, loneliness, war, death and the consequences of choices made. The plot is subtle and only unravels itself around mid ep-200s.
The main serious arcs are usually filled with feels (emotional moments which are guaranteed to make you cry if you have watched all the previous comedy eps), epic fights (which are usually extremely violent), very less comedy and plot reveals which will blow your mind (usually after ep300). Most serious arcs are masterpieces and are better than most shounen animes out there (imo).
Enough about the serious plot. Lets talk about the comedy. Well, the comedy will make you choke to death if you are eating something while watching because its hilarious on another level. The comedy ranges from parodies and references to character comedy to toilet humor to sexual and perverted humor. Most skits and gags have made me laugh to the point where I stopped watching gintama (for a day or two) because I was concerned for my health. But it could be hit or miss at the beginning because the first 200 or so eps’ comedy are heavily reliant on parodies of Japanese pop culture (usually manga and animes sometimes others). First few seasons are heavily episodic but as the show progresses more and more arcs occur.
Gintama has one of the best soundtrack of all time. ALL of the ops are incredible and most of the eds I enjoyed and the wide range of perfect osts (ranging from lazy ost to epic god tier osts) can make the viewer even more immersed in the masterpiece that is Gintama. Animation quality remains consistent and improves over time. Thematically, Gintama is pretty unique, overall, samurai era invaded by aliens and the technology is near to current era. Characters are extremely loveable, memorable and have distinct personalities and design which makes it easy to differentiate them. Its usually hard to find a show which does everything perfectly and gintama is it but don’t go in expecting epic battles in every other episode. Remember Gintama is a comedy anime first.
To sum it up (if you didn’t have read the whole review)-
Gintama is a MASTERPIECE ! GO WATCH IT! You wont regret it.
Overall – characters - 10/10, story – 10/10, setting – 10/10, music – 10/10, comedy – 9.5/10, animation - 8.5/10, enjoyment – 10/10.
