Gintama: Review. By Christopher Patterson.

The Show For Everyone Who Is ,To Put It Bluntly, Just In A Mood To Vibe

I must! I must tell you, dear reader, I have been incredibly grief-stricken. 1. Eau Grief stricken! You see – do it fast – here is a show in which I have procrastinated rewatching the third time… And yet one series that I loved uncontrollably since I lost my password to the terrible subscription I had to rewatch for it. If you feel like a failure, do I have the show for you. Our leads are terrible and trashy at essentially everything. They can’t do anything right; they casually ruin everything, but not in an emotional way, just in the “I guess I kinda do. Anyway” kind of way, and our villains are just as incompetent, if not worse. Also, the show makes it very clear it is on a low budget, and multiple episodes, you could argue, were drawn by a sad assistant unhappy with their life. Doesn’t it sound awesome? And yet, it’s beautiful. The show basks in its undying putridness and is one of the best examples of a show that needs no dignity to be both biting and undeniably humorously raunchy all at once.

Why? Because I said so. Yes.

Gniog  i ma?

EST-CE QUE JE VAIS?

Gniog  i ma?

Why does God send headlights before it rains?

Gintama is one of those mundane series with which I have a secular bond with. If it is raining, the thrift shop isn’t open, bills have given you a due two week break due to their own due bills, and you’re very bored and more bored and then tired, then, again… do I have the show for you! And “Mr. Raindrop,” I mean, if you are in that bad of a situation, firstly,- Fate and if so then what is present – Then listen to “Mr. Raindrop.”

While the series has its moving and story-focused moments, which I will discuss especially later, for the most part, it is just our lazy, pathetic crew doing useless stuff and just vibing. If that seems boring, then you will definitely hate this series, and I am primed to root for you and your casual, life-changing affairs. No.

How could I? What was I thinking? How do I think I think I said to myself when I had the small flat screen television set up primed on a rusty chair and a slumber from starting a new job pains. How, just possibly how, could I spend over, possibly and probably likely, hundred or so hours of my so called life watching something. It just wasn’t natural, my subconscious said. I can’t. I can’t. And then I just hit play and it all just happened. It was one of those days when you are binging something and it ends and out of sadness you search and try to binge as many shows as possible to mend the pain uncontrollably inflicted. 

Besides I was so young when I first watched Gintama I can only imagine–

I grabbed my coat and walked on the dotted line on the road with my head held high. 

銀 (Silver)

The cover is what caught my tired eye. Artwork that was circumstantial but to an interior that could’ve never meant W H A M  B A M every episode but meandering. Just perfect. It was all too prototypical till my sentences got all tired dna i was on rehto noitpo.

銀魂 

I told myself s-i-l-v-e-r is a 5 letter word derived from, maybe possibly likely, Latin likely to coin that something. S-s-s-I-i-l-V-v-v-E-e-e-R-r-r is a 5 letter word derived from Latin to coin something. I told myself s-o-u-l is a 4 letter word derived from, maybe possibly likely, Latin likely to coin that something. S-s-s-O-o-O-U-u-U-L-l-l is a 4 letter word derived from Latin to coin something. Something. And I knew none of those rambling over a title mattered much but it still consumed me. Just the name. I had no interest in asking someone what it meant since learning Japanese was kind of an interest of mine after my failure in learning Chinese which meant a waste of perfectly good time learning of thousands of peoples way of speaking and speaking to the behavior of the multitude of creators. And who knew that something that took nine hours of my soul was dedicated to a title that was a reference or so called pun relating to t-e-s-t-i-c-l-e-s.

The rain pronounced on my shoulders gently and I saw a beautiful pile of rain touch my mouth. I could not walk my way home but rather just take in the surroundings. All so moist. That moment could last forever and I would never have noticed. My thoughts were on a spiral cnod alec en a’m sap édia.

Gintoki is our chill narrator, who does essentially nothing but vibe and helps people if the price is right. Shinpachi is our blank piece of wood—no good, annoying whenever he appears, a fanboy who half the time wastes our precious time on this world by confusingly telling us how crazy everything is. Imagine the kid who no one notices, tells the teacher if she forgot they had homework, obsesses over a popular female artist, berates you if you do the slightest thing wacky, and just ruins the vibe. Kagura, is a prideful, vibey character that is a mixture of crazy and chill. Think of Killua from Hunter x Hunter just more lazy, incompetent, rude, and useless. 

If it isn’t clear yet, all our heroes are utterly incompetent and trash at their jobs. And it’s kind of in the show’s description, mind you. If I had to explain in the good old Lewis Carroll terms:

I want to be France or whatever it is to be predefined.

“Avez-vous deviné l’énigme?” dit le Chapelier, se tournant de nouveau vers Alice.

“Non, j’y renonce,” répondit Alice; “quelle est la réponse?”

“Je n’en ai pas la moindre idée,” dit le Chapelier.

Our heroes, everyone. Though, I kind of love it. No, scratch that; 1. Need to stop meandering I heart it.

A thing I find so funny is how Gintama vomits on traditional shonen archetypes. It grabs the shiny Shonen Jump family of heroes and vomits on top of that legacy, uses it as toilet paper and plastic surgery advertisements, and then berates it. 

When you see our hero literally start with running away from an epic battle and then talk about not missing some show on TV, you know you are in either one hell of a drug or one hell of a series. The sarcasm can’t and won’t escape you. 

You also see Gintama’s art style progress, which I love, starting with this iconic retro 2000s look before becoming even more detailed and static thanks to more detailed designs.

After a while I got stuck with the bores and took a daydream as I walked drifting now into the forest to dream bigger. Write better, I guess. J’avais même oublié ou j’avais trop peur pour lui dire que j’avais oublié de lui faire de l’aqua. Only ton knows this. That I suppose.

The openings of Gintama are probably my favorite of any anime. “Pray,” the first opening, is a vibrant and exiting opener and beginner to the series that really sets the more breathtaking mundane fun the series has to offer. It just excites you, but not in the “I can do anything” way but rather in the “Look at the clouds for six hours” kind of way. 

The ending to this opening, “Fuusen Gamu,” is equally good, and it is a song to listen to whenever you are going to a boring office job. The second opening, “Tooi Nioi,”  is more quiet and good listening when you are going to work in the blue hour. The ending to it is so iconic; as mentioned before, “Mr. Raindrop” is one of my favorite songs ever. It reminds me of when it rained at school and all I did was stare at the window and dream of finding a way to run out of the room and drink the rain until it was full. 

The songs after these are mostly decent but it is until a bit later the quality of the openings and endings greatly improves. The song “Know, Know, Know” is a startling hit in the gut that prepares one for the trials ahead for our leads. The ending “Acchi Muite” is one of the most pageant songs the series has to offer with it being a goodbye almost in song form, comparable to someone moving away from those they love. It just makes you emotional to remember all the good times. “Beautiful One Day” is one of the funner songs in the series, with a poppin’ mundane as we see our leads, in the opening, just going on mundane adventures in life. “Tongeoku Alien” is another of my favorites, with its exciting level of wackiness  with our leads being literally chased down while hinting at more to come. A way to end off the discussion of the openings is to discuss the last great song in the series, and kind of the final one for now, “Wadachi.” “Wadachi” has this beautiful goodbye quality to it like “Acchi Muite” but more solemn and calm as the story has ended.

I wrote a bit on some paragraphs and even made a structure. Just…

Gintama is one of those series it is easy to get lost in. I remember starting this review with a discussion of the casual Gintama episode reflected through the solid opening episode but lost myself in watching twenty more episodes before I could get past writing one dull and cranky sentence.

Though it’s oh so lengthy run that so many true established works may have succumbed to its effects, never did Gintama. Never. Not one episode, if I had to use precise prose, fallen to the disarray of repetitive existence. May each episode, Hieaki inscribed, be true to you and it shall be true to itself. That trust Hideaki had in the viewer to flow with his lack thereof is his opus.

One of my favorite things about Gintama is how, yes, it’s not the same as other shonens but in less of the blunt ways it delivers this and more of the personal bare ways it completes this. Even when it is at its most traditional shonen, it never caves in to letting our characters have a cheerful end. One episode we have an old man who’s dying and wants to see a lady in his past whom he met briefly and it turns out to be a character we know well already in the universe but when she meets him they say nothing rather he envisions her as before and passes. She may not even notice him nor care but he got his happy ending. Gintama purposefully leaves it feeling raw while giving you that confused yet understanding smile which is so relatable to the common mundane existence we all live in which Gintama possesses like no other. Or when Shinpachi expresses to Gintoi why he idolizes that singer and how he heard her when no one else did and it made his day and while she may and seems not to remember him, he will never forget what he got from it and will cherish it always and regardless. This humanness and revealingness the series has to illustrating how we get by day by day is its voice.

I would call Gintama’s characters a reflection of the shades of the creator rather than a revealing portrait of society. Gintama is a world of so many diverse and complex characters I would be here for pages after pages so to simplify, Gintama’s world is vast but is held together under a weave of “not everything is as it seems.” This goes for pretty much every character, even if not shown, where everyone in Gintama, as in works like Proust, reveal a different side to them that was always there but just needed the right moment to shine a spotlight on it. The seemingly unintentional aspect to Hideaki’s writing is how raw and vulnerable he feels in it. Gintama feels like an unintentional portrait of someone navigating the world through their writing. An unintentional coming of age story. As, like life, the story never ends after the big battle and the simple ones may be just as great.

1. Better Structure – Paragraphs too loose and uneven (isn’t all art uneven. Isn’t all art uneat. Neatness is such a waste of life like making notes.-..}

Gintama, thankfully, never treats its female characters secondary to the male ones, a trait that is often seen in manga and anime, and rather they are as, if not better, written. Take Shinpachi’s sister, Tae, who could’ve been written stereotypically, like in most anime, as a protective and harsh sister and nothing more. Instead, she is a complex person who is going on the adventure of life like everyone else who values her family and herself. She makes friends in the series but she never changes who she is. You can see the simplicity here, but Hideaki subverting stereotypes and giving her an individuality and a respect that all characters have makes his writing stand out. It feels like Hideaki writes people he knows which is incredible since most authors would then struggle into bias but it feels like he never does. Rather, he writes with a respect comparable to living a day in their shoes. As all artists are, it is based on influence and experience. Hideaki seemingly navigates this wave of influence one has with their life just brilliantly since he feels like just another person himself and just somebody who picked up a pen and wrote. And that is the charm of Gintama. The love for the average individual.

One thing I personally adore about Gintama is how neat the designs are. No character looks the same, especially in regards to their hair, and feels inspired by Japan’s history not just when the series takes place, a futuristic world stuck in the Edo period, but rather the 20th and 21st century history also feel on full display. Thanks to so many cultural references being related to Japan, a multitude of references, as nearly every character, even sometimes by name, is a clever reference to someone in history, I probably can’t fully even describe them all. Though, usually, Gintama’s humor translates quite literally abroad since it never loses its attitude or charm, even if some jokes might be off your radar. 

Aside from so many characters from their names just being references, the world of Gintama is stacked in Japanese history which means the most casual things are. It is a world where things seen as normal you will soon see their history which correlates quite much with our real world itself and the many things inflicted and things Japan has caused. Like our world, everything feels connected to one another not just in the moment but through the line of time. Besides reflecting Japan’s history and enough use of Japan to help one get aware of its customs, it also shows an evolution of those customs through its nearly twenty year run and also the anime and manga industry evolution.

A turn of the traditional shonen to one guy’s walk of life is Gintama. I would call it a story made for a reader of books rather than the hero of the narrative.

B. L O N G E R   P A R A G R A P H S (Why? Why can’t writing just be writing. Cause it is writing not writing. Well, for me, it’s en écrivant.)

Gintama primarily examines what it is to get on with life. You have your triumphs but you also have your mundane times and just living how you like is enough. You don’t have to follow ambition, rather live with one. Existence.

One of my favorite moments kind of exemplifies the series. There is this moment where Gintoki, afraid of the Shinsengumi he doesn’t know taking the anime’s spotlight, calls out the show for not making him the main character before demanding the opening be played. The next episode one of the Shinsengumi gets mad at Gintoki for forgetting him after three or four episodes. This fun, carefreeness just rocks.

Gintama is a series that doesn’t hold back its hits at the manga industry and basically anything else you can think of. Gintama is wide with its jokes and never really places itself anywhere. Well, except Japan, where it takes place. Though it never, in my opinion, really hits poignant commentary, even in its big moments, as much as examinations that work best as such in Gintama’s ever-evolving samurai-lost world.

Gintama really feels made by an author who evolves; starting the series in his twenties and continuing it to like his 40s, Hideaki really put his experiences and blood and sweat into it, and it shows. It really feels like a show made on a lifetime of experience and specific friendships Hideaki had that he pours, in his Gintama manner, into the screen this time around with a level of charisma, edge, and the right amount of middle ground to really catch you off guard. It is a work that feels made by someone who goes on random experiences in their own town daily and writes their life on screen. In a way, feeling somewhat semi-autobiographical despite that obvious impossibility based on even one episode of Gintama will make it crystal clear. But nonetheless, it feels that way. In nearly every episode, we are introduced to new, equally unique, and standout characters that feel so distinct and individual and always continue to reveal shades of them we didn’t see before.

3. Why so long? (Why so short? Length is limitless)

Gintama is a sum of not just Gen X in the manga industry but an almost growing pessimism burned with optimism, as you can see in many Gen X authors and relative to the era and time period it was made in (2000s). 

Gintama is one of those anime that goes hard for the plot. Think of the Death Note episode Gintama has and that animation and it overdoing every minor thing like Death Note if you need a reminder and remind yourself this came out like at the same time, long before jokes about it were common and as cool as now.

4. Grammar (It is fine. But- It is fine.)

No. Nononono. This is wrong. Repeat. Repeat. Rewind. Breathe again. Again. Again. And. Again.

I would call Gintama’s characters losers who entered their 30s and now have taken down the bad guys and now just sit around being lame, cringeworthy adults without Twitter. A true horror, I know. But that’s the fun part. Just seeing our leads doing boring things that don’t have much value but that’s the point.

Our hero here is not motivated but rather lazy, stubborn, and carefree. In a way, he is the most human hero ever. He realizes life is so short. Why care for what other flawed humans think is true, and rather just vibe and get enough money for some cereal? True vibe. And instead of a stereotypically written female character in shonen, we get Kagura, a well written three dimensional character who stands leagues above most anime characters. In most shonen side characters, we are left with the annoying friend who preaches how crazy everyone is, and here we get an even more annoying version of that who is as bland and unbelievably boring as I am saying it, Shinpachi. Standards were only predefined when he was created, so he can be excused from the equation of our great well written leads.

To be much, actually far much more specific, with these characters, Gintoki is what I would call a silent warrior with a heart of gold underneath that is mocked for all its influence over and over again, ruthlessly and unabashedly. His design, hair wise, has a white top that blends as it goes down to more light blue. I may be, definitely am, overthinking this but I find it quite préfigurant. This is a tool not forgotten by Hideaki even in regards to such minimalist and most would say unsuitable aspects such as the choices Hideaki delivers to his world, yet by either will or humours pure spite, or pen, he releases a creative flush. Sheer versatility.

Kaguya is probably the best written character, in my opinion, since she is the most complex main character out of our core cast. Her parents are representative of how love can conquer all limitations through their connection despite all the risks they have in loving each other thanks to the fate of death being present. After two kids of theirs are born, their relationship feeds into the stereotype that separated them from him going to work while she lays ill raising the kids herself. Though, it all likely hurts him and causes his absence and harshness to the kids due to the pain he is inflicted with seeing her in such a state. Regardless, we see the generational (a key element of Gintama) effect it has on the kids and two versions that play out. One, an older child, one with more memories of his parents and the world, acts out by the abandonment hitting more by becoming less kind and harsh on his sister and more solo. He is acting out not just for attention but for the mere fact of all the feelings he has regarding the situation. He is a tempest to his own narrative in his life that becomes clear. Kaguya, on the other hand, falls into freedom, after the abandonment and she finds light instead of darkness, likely due to her mindset and circumstance then and likely due to the people she met. It is a two sides of the coin, fate brings and fate destroys. There is a lot more to this relationship, but like all things Gintama, it would be pointless to discuss to a longer degree since that would be simply explanatory. Simply, watch the show yourself. It’s worth it.

Next

The Shinsengumi, our main comedic-driven antagonists, are all full of life and just so trashy at their job, which seems to be helping people and stopping war criminals like Gintoki, which they are somehow equally bad at doing. Really, nobody in this series is good at anything, as they must suck massively and in order be relatable to its audience. It’s kind of in the agreement. Also, not sure if I mentioned it, but they are incredibly lazy people. It’s one of those “if you ever feel like a failure, look there” kind of emotion I get from it. While I see failure as impossible in regards to value in reference to existence, it still sucks massively to see people doing so much and yourself working somewhere for less than three dollars an hour. That is what Gintama is really about. Failure is the biggest teacher since it is the biggest rewarder. Nothing. It makes you realize that getting on with life is the biggest reward you can receive, and you should never take it for granted. 

One of the scariest things to be turned into a different medium is one with a comedy genre attached to it. Simply since most jokes work thanks to the medium they are presented in. In Gintama’s case, one could say it had its luck, as the manga, in my honest opinion, just was terrible. Yeah, I said it. I didn’t laugh once, even when Shinpachi was off the page, and I know that is a low blow, but still it remains. A stick hitting my skull might get a better crackle, literally, out of me than over ninety-nine percent of whatever the manga thought was tolerable to my four or five senses (I’m not a scientist!). One of the reasons for this is that Gintama just feels made for the anime because its jokes feel based on animation. Moving pictures. Another is that the dialogue in the manga was excessive to the utmost degree. Like I’m here for a manga, not a light novel. Not clickbait from my Gintama. Another reason is due to the fact that voice acting really heightens Gintama. Without the specific voice actors chosen for the Japanese version, pretty much most of the jokes would fall flat. Simply, they go in on their performance.

I’m getting somewhere. Someone, I’m sure, once said to write dangerously so… Should I try?

Filler is a cruel sword cast down upon so many possible great anime series. Thankfully, Gintama has the cure. Simply put, when all your episodes can be reduced to filler, none of them are. If you can’t beat it, join it; in this case, it seems to be the lesson learned from Gintama, though you would be wrong, dear reader. Or right, Gintama knows no bounds in respecting its audience or really itself. It would actually be: if you can’t beat it since you are it, well, just deal with it I guess is what Gintama says. Gintama is a sitcom, and most sitcoms are, let’s be honest, enjoyable fluff that you can usually put on while doing actual significant things like playing Uno and not miss a thing. Gintama’s whole premise is: three losers just doing some nothing nowhere job they made up in some crappy, oddly sci-fi yet old-fashioned town full of also incredible weirdos. And, with that premise, it is clear Gintama knows parents cleaning their kids rooms will leave it on as boring garbage that might make them smile once out of the fact that it seems like you are supposed to. Or it’s: I’m not laughing at you; I’m laughing with others laughing at you. Gintama has that energy which is what I;m getting at. I’m getting somewhere you see. It has this self loathing nature to it that kind of never becomes clear and feels hidden behind the jokes and heartwarming moments but becomes apparent as it goes on. Though, as the author aged, it could’ve been a new type of humor added in. Or préfiguré.

A funny aspect that always keeps a reader like myself on my toes here is the biting rudeness our characters frequently and quite excessively display to one another. For instance, when Kagura is being eaten by a monster, our lead who has fought many battles and was basically at the top of fights, Gintoki and his friend Shinpachi leave their best friend to die and get eaten alive and then, out of anger, Kagura tries to take them with her to die. You could call this out of character and excessively too much, but I would call it dear viewer, Gintama. It doesn’t need to make complete sense. I mean does anything.

This is dangerous, right? (Dangerous is subjective. Consistency is just another form. I see that I don’t see Demythologization.)

I’ve spent so long pondering on all these things and did not, did i erus m’i, prends l’eau.

Let’s see. Well, you’re starting Gintama! You will be hit with two solid filler episodes that just get you on the action and vibe of the universe, which is quite funny as right after these couple of episodes they explain the universe as if the previous two episodes were some lost, unaired pilots that turned out to be some scam. For the general start, Gintama leads itself on more episodic episodes with narrative episodes being sliced very smaller until later in between, though, thanks to this, the first two episodes you could say were the perfect place to be. Though much later, the main plot line will be more of a focal point, which will be continued in a fantastic final film to end the series. 

There are also two film spin offs which are fine and work to the film medium (well, the second one at least) to give them stronger purpose, per se, but regardless, like most of Gintama, are just fun adventures.

Gintama I would call the cult classic of the anime industry in that it’s not forgotten just there and respected for that and how long it has stood its ground. It’s not easy for such a thematic and audacious show like Gintama to bare and last itself in the space of more business minded individuals yet it has persisted, despite looking as though it has been canceled and been destroyed quite fashionably to an early grave, yet it ended on its own terms.

They should plant trees on the road. On and on and on all over again.

Gintama is a story that leaps around a lot. I would call it a story that also feels like it leaps often. Plotlines will dramatically happen, and then two episodes later will be used as cheap, sloppy comedic relief. Instead of underpinning it, it adds to it. It’s like the author is just screwing around and joking in ways you never see authors doing. In the anime, we have a literal episode where our leads can’t even be animated and are instead cardboard cutouts and wax figurines who move themselves around, and it jokes about animators and basically the respect this show has budget wise. And this was like the 2000s. Tell me about any other show that would dare to do that. Both sopranos-level drama and office-level humor that will still make fun of itself and, oddly, degrade itself whenever possible. Just the audacity. The audacity!

Gintama is one of those series where canon is a loose term the series will continually break. If you rewatch Gintama, it becomes clear nothing is planned out and rather it feels like someone is probably screwing around for the thrill of it. Kaguyra’s dad, for instance, talks ill of his dead wife which later seems so out of character but seems more clear with regard that Hisdeaki likely didn’t create 500 extra plot episodes in his head to assume and know then. It rather, only later, just came to be.

For instance, our cold and unforgiving seemingly officer might randomly cry over some manga not because it’s some secret thing about him but rather because it’s funny and don’t think about it too deeply as that is the funny part. I have a fear that, looking deeper, if Lewis Carroll were to arrive in Gintama he would, surprisingly, fit well in.

“Really, now you ask me,” said Alice, very much confused, “I don’t think—”

“Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.

Cycles. Bad advice until someone takes the words right out of your mouth. Au revoir. 

I think our leads would have a few words to that Hatter. Anyway…

Though, if you are successful in the slightest at anything in your life, then I recommend Gintama. They say don’t give up one’s hopes when they’re down. When yours is up, though, how low can it get? One might wonder. Gintama might make you incredibly lazy, and that’s amazing. It will make one see that just living life is more important than a date or going places. I mean, who would want that? Just no. If you are tired and feel as though your standards are nothing, since standards are just words, watch Gintama. It is sure to make you get a bar just to lower it. Yet that is amazing. 

Gintama is unabashed parody magic. When it hits a narrative arc, it hits it in spades, with them spaced out nicely for impact and emotion. We see our characters as ones you might see in a sitcom, with a sitcom being something you put on while you’re cleaning or mowing the lawn. But then, Gintama switches to make you sit up in your seat, demand a rewatch, and cry your eyes out over the weirdest and most incredibly vile of characters.

One breaking point, for many, is the length. Yes, it will probably take most of your lifetime to finish the show, and yes, you might resent it for years to come, and yes, you might hold a grudge against my recommendation for you to waste your existence if we call it that, but that’s awesome. Life’s so short; why not just waste it? Gintama has no boundaries or standards and is gross out to the fullest and emotional to the, well, emotionalistist. If you want a ticket for everything, you have found the leader for that. 

VERDICT

Gintama is like a peculiar parody film from the 2000s mixed with compelling overly dramatic and melodramatic writing of that of The Sopranos mixed with the most epic of novellas at points mixed with music of all eras mixed with an author who probably, you know, invented the term vibe. That sounds like a lot, but really, it’s not. It’s not precise enough. Gintama is definitely, and I do mean definitely, not for everyone, but give it time, and if it warms up on you and you remember it, it will be your forever show. 

5/5Gintama: Review

Gintama: Review. By Christopher Patterson.

The Show For Everyone Who Is ,To Put It Bluntly, Just In A Mood To Vibe

I must! I must tell you, dear reader, I have been incredibly grief-stricken. 1. EauGrief stricken! You see – do it fast – here is a show in which I have procrastinated rewatching the third time… And yet one series that I loved uncontrollably since I lost my password to the terrible subscription I had to rewatch for it. If you feel like a failure, do I have the show for you. Our leads are terrible and trashy at essentially everything. They can’t do anything right; they casually ruin everything, but not in an emotional way, just in the “I guess I kinda do. Anyway” kind of way, and our villains are just as incompetent, if not worse. Also, the show makes it very clear it is on a low budget, and multiple episodes, you could argue, were drawn by a sad assistant unhappy with their life. Doesn’t it sound awesome? And yet, it’s beautiful. The show basks in its undying putridness and is one of the best examples of a show that needs no dignity to be both biting and undeniably humorously raunchy all at once.

Why? Because I said so. Yes.

Gniog  i ma?

EST-CE QUE JE VAIS?

Gniog  i ma?

Why does God send headlights before it rains?

Gintama is one of those mundane series with which I have a secular bond with. If it is raining, the thrift shop isn’t open, bills have given you a due two week break due to their own due bills, and you’re very bored and more bored and then tired, then, again… do I have the show for you! And “Mr. Raindrop,” I mean, if you are in that bad of a situation, firstly,- Fate and if so then what is present – Then listen to “Mr. Raindrop.”

While the series has its moving and story-focused moments, which I will discuss especially later, for the most part, it is just our lazy, pathetic crew doing useless stuff and just vibing. If that seems boring, then you will definitely hate this series, and I am primed to root for you and your casual, life-changing affairs. No.

How could I? What was I thinking? How do I think I think I said to myself when I had the small flat screen television set up primed on a rusty chair and a slumber from starting a new job pains. How, just possibly how, could I spend over, possibly and probably likely, hundred or so hours of my so called life watching something. It just wasn’t natural, my subconscious said. I can’t. I can’t. And then I just hit play and it all just happened. It was one of those days when you are binging something and it ends and out of sadness you search and try to binge as many shows as possible to mend the pain uncontrollably inflicted. 

Besides I was so young when I first watched Gintama I can only imagine–

I grabbed my coat and walked on the dotted line on the road with my head held high. 

銀 (Silver)

The cover is what caught my tired eye. Artwork that was circumstantial but to an interior that could’ve never meant W H A M  B A M every episode but meandering. Just perfect. It was all too prototypical till my sentences got all tired dna i was on rehto noitpo.

銀魂 

I told myself s-i-l-v-e-r is a 5 letter word derived from, maybe possibly likely, Latin likely to coin that something. S-s-s-I-i-l-V-v-v-E-e-e-R-r-r is a 5 letter word derived from Latin to coin something. I told myself s-o-u-l is a 4 letter word derived from, maybe possibly likely, Latin likely to coin that something. S-s-s-O-o-O-U-u-U-L-l-l is a 4 letter word derived from Latin to coin something. Something. And I knew none of those rambling over a title mattered much but it still consumed me. Just the name. I had no interest in asking someone what it meant since learning Japanese was kind of an interest of mine after my failure in learning Chinese which meant a waste of perfectly good time learning of thousands of peoples way of speaking and speaking to the behavior of the multitude of creators. And who knew that something that took nine hours of my soul was dedicated to a title that was a reference or so called pun relating to t-e-s-t-i-c-l-e-s.

The rain pronounced on my shoulders gently and I saw a beautiful pile of rain touch my mouth. I could not walk my way home but rather just take in the surroundings. All so moist. That moment could last forever and I would never have noticed. My thoughts were on a spiral cnod alec en a’m sap édia.

Gintoki is our chill narrator, who does essentially nothing but vibe and helps people if the price is right. Shinpachi is our blank piece of wood—no good, annoying whenever he appears, a fanboy who half the time wastes our precious time on this world by confusingly telling us how crazy everything is. Imagine the kid who no one notices, tells the teacher if she forgot they had homework, obsesses over a popular female artist, berates you if you do the slightest thing wacky, and just ruins the vibe. Kagura, is a prideful, vibey character that is a mixture of crazy and chill. Think of Killua from Hunter x Hunter just more lazy, incompetent, rude, and useless. 

If it isn’t clear yet, all our heroes are utterly incompetent and trash at their jobs. And it’s kind of in the show’s description, mind you. If I had to explain in the good old Lewis Carroll terms:

I want to be France or whatever it is to be predefined.

“Avez-vous deviné l’énigme?” dit le Chapelier, se tournant de nouveau vers Alice.

“Non, j’y renonce,” répondit Alice; “quelle est la réponse?”

“Je n’en ai pas la moindre idée,” dit le Chapelier.

Our heroes, everyone. Though, I kind of love it. No, scratch that; 1. Need to stop meandering I heart it.

A thing I find so funny is how Gintama vomits on traditional shonen archetypes. It grabs the shiny Shonen Jump family of heroes and vomits on top of that legacy, uses it as toilet paper and plastic surgery advertisements, and then berates it. 

When you see our hero literally start with running away from an epic battle and then talk about not missing some show on TV, you know you are in either one hell of a drug or one hell of a series. The sarcasm can’t and won’t escape you. 

You also see Gintama’s art style progress, which I love, starting with this iconic retro 2000s look before becoming even more detailed and static thanks to more detailed designs.

After a while I got stuck with the bores and took a daydream as I walked drifting now into the forest to dream bigger. Write better, I guess. J’avais même oublié ou j’avais trop peur pour lui dire que j’avais oublié de lui faire de l’aqua. Only ton knows this. That I suppose.

The openings of Gintama are probably my favorite of any anime. “Pray,” the first opening, is a vibrant and exiting opener and beginner to the series that really sets the more breathtaking mundane fun the series has to offer. It just excites you, but not in the “I can do anything” way but rather in the “Look at the clouds for six hours” kind of way. 

The ending to this opening, “Fuusen Gamu,” is equally good, and it is a song to listen to whenever you are going to a boring office job. The second opening, “Tooi Nioi,”  is more quiet and good listening when you are going to work in the blue hour. The ending to it is so iconic; as mentioned before, “Mr. Raindrop” is one of my favorite songs ever. It reminds me of when it rained at school and all I did was stare at the window and dream of finding a way to run out of the room and drink the rain until it was full. 

The songs after these are mostly decent but it is until a bit later the quality of the openings and endings greatly improves. The song “Know, Know, Know” is a startling hit in the gut that prepares one for the trials ahead for our leads. The ending “Acchi Muite” is one of the most pageant songs the series has to offer with it being a goodbye almost in song form, comparable to someone moving away from those they love. It just makes you emotional to remember all the good times. “Beautiful One Day” is one of the funner songs in the series, with a poppin’ mundane as we see our leads, in the opening, just going on mundane adventures in life. “Tongeoku Alien” is another of my favorites, with its exciting level of wackiness  with our leads being literally chased down while hinting at more to come. A way to end off the discussion of the openings is to discuss the last great song in the series, and kind of the final one for now, “Wadachi.” “Wadachi” has this beautiful goodbye quality to it like “Acchi Muite” but more solemn and calm as the story has ended.

I wrote a bit on some paragraphs and even made a structure. Just…

Gintama is one of those series it is easy to get lost in. I remember starting this review with a discussion of the casual Gintama episode reflected through the solid opening episode but lost myself in watching twenty more episodes before I could get past writing one dull and cranky sentence.

Though it’s oh so lengthy run that so many true established works may have succumbed to its effects, never did Gintama. Never. Not one episode, if I had to use precise prose, fallen to the disarray of repetitive existence. May each episode, Hieaki inscribed, be true to you and it shall be true to itself. That trust Hideaki had in the viewer to flow with his lack thereof is his opus.

One of my favorite things about Gintama is how, yes, it’s not the same as other shonens but in less of the blunt ways it delivers this and more of the personal bare ways it completes this. Even when it is at its most traditional shonen, it never caves in to letting our characters have a cheerful end. One episode we have an old man who’s dying and wants to see a lady in his past whom he met briefly and it turns out to be a character we know well already in the universe but when she meets him they say nothing rather he envisions her as before and passes. She may not even notice him nor care but he got his happy ending. Gintama purposefully leaves it feeling raw while giving you that confused yet understanding smile which is so relatable to the common mundane existence we all live in which Gintama possesses like no other. Or when Shinpachi expresses to Gintoi why he idolizes that singer and how he heard her when no one else did and it made his day and while she may and seems not to remember him, he will never forget what he got from it and will cherish it always and regardless. This humanness and revealingness the series has to illustrating how we get by day by day is its voice.

I would call Gintama’s characters a reflection of the shades of the creator rather than a revealing portrait of society. Gintama is a world of so many diverse and complex characters I would be here for pages after pages so to simplify, Gintama’s world is vast but is held together under a weave of “not everything is as it seems.” This goes for pretty much every character, even if not shown, where everyone in Gintama, as in works like Proust, reveal a different side to them that was always there but just needed the right moment to shine a spotlight on it. The seemingly unintentional aspect to Hideaki’s writing is how raw and vulnerable he feels in it. Gintama feels like an unintentional portrait of someone navigating the world through their writing. An unintentional coming of age story. As, like life, the story never ends after the big battle and the simple ones may be just as great.

1. Better Structure – Paragraphs too loose and uneven (isn’t all art uneven. Isn’t all art uneat. Neatness is such a waste of life like making notes.-..}

Gintama, thankfully, never treats its female characters secondary to the male ones, a trait that is often seen in manga and anime, and rather they are as, if not better, written. Take Shinpachi’s sister, Tae, who could’ve been written stereotypically, like in most anime, as a protective and harsh sister and nothing more. Instead, she is a complex person who is going on the adventure of life like everyone else who values her family and herself. She makes friends in the series but she never changes who she is. You can see the simplicity here, but Hideaki subverting stereotypes and giving her an individuality and a respect that all characters have makes his writing stand out. It feels like Hideaki writes people he knows which is incredible since most authors would then struggle into bias but it feels like he never does. Rather, he writes with a respect comparable to living a day in their shoes. As all artists are, it is based on influence and experience. Hideaki seemingly navigates this wave of influence one has with their life just brilliantly since he feels like just another person himself and just somebody who picked up a pen and wrote. And that is the charm of Gintama. The love for the average individual.

One thing I personally adore about Gintama is how neat the designs are. No character looks the same, especially in regards to their hair, and feels inspired by Japan’s history not just when the series takes place, a futuristic world stuck in the Edo period, but rather the 20th and 21st century history also feel on full display. Thanks to so many cultural references being related to Japan, a multitude of references, as nearly every character, even sometimes by name, is a clever reference to someone in history, I probably can’t fully even describe them all. Though, usually, Gintama’s humor translates quite literally abroad since it never loses its attitude or charm, even if some jokes might be off your radar. 

Aside from so many characters from their names just being references, the world of Gintama is stacked in Japanese history which means the most casual things are. It is a world where things seen as normal you will soon see their history which correlates quite much with our real world itself and the many things inflicted and things Japan has caused. Like our world, everything feels connected to one another not just in the moment but through the line of time. Besides reflecting Japan’s history and enough use of Japan to help one get aware of its customs, it also shows an evolution of those customs through its nearly twenty year run and also the anime and manga industry evolution.

A turn of the traditional shonen to one guy’s walk of life is Gintama. I would call it a story made for a reader of books rather than the hero of the narrative.

B. L O N G E R   P A R A G R A P H S (Why? Why can’t writing just be writing. Cause it is writing not writing. Well, for me, it’s en écrivant.)

Gintama primarily examines what it is to get on with life. You have your triumphs but you also have your mundane times and just living how you like is enough. You don’t have to follow ambition, rather live with one. Existence.

One of my favorite moments kind of exemplifies the series. There is this moment where Gintoki, afraid of the Shinsengumi he doesn’t know taking the anime’s spotlight, calls out the show for not making him the main character before demanding the opening be played. The next episode one of the Shinsengumi gets mad at Gintoki for forgetting him after three or four episodes. This fun, carefreeness just rocks.

Gintama is a series that doesn’t hold back its hits at the manga industry and basically anything else you can think of. Gintama is wide with its jokes and never really places itself anywhere. Well, except Japan, where it takes place. Though it never, in my opinion, really hits poignant commentary, even in its big moments, as much as examinations that work best as such in Gintama’s ever-evolving samurai-lost world.

Gintama really feels made by an author who evolves; starting the series in his twenties and continuing it to like his 40s, Hideaki really put his experiences and blood and sweat into it, and it shows. It really feels like a show made on a lifetime of experience and specific friendships Hideaki had that he pours, in his Gintama manner, into the screen this time around with a level of charisma, edge, and the right amount of middle ground to really catch you off guard. It is a work that feels made by someone who goes on random experiences in their own town daily and writes their life on screen. In a way, feeling somewhat semi-autobiographical despite that obvious impossibility based on even one episode of Gintama will make it crystal clear. But nonetheless, it feels that way. In nearly every episode, we are introduced to new, equally unique, and standout characters that feel so distinct and individual and always continue to reveal shades of them we didn’t see before.

3. Why so long? (Why so short? Length is limitless)

Gintama is a sum of not just Gen X in the manga industry but an almost growing pessimism burned with optimism, as you can see in many Gen X authors and relative to the era and time period it was made in (2000s). 

Gintama is one of those anime that goes hard for the plot. Think of the Death Note episode Gintama has and that animation and it overdoing every minor thing like Death Note if you need a reminder and remind yourself this came out like at the same time, long before jokes about it were common and as cool as now.

4. Grammar (It is fine. But- It is fine.)

No. Nononono. This is wrong. Repeat. Repeat. Rewind. Breathe again. Again. Again. And. Again.

I would call Gintama’s characters losers who entered their 30s and now have taken down the bad guys and now just sit around being lame, cringeworthy adults without Twitter. A true horror, I know. But that’s the fun part. Just seeing our leads doing boring things that don’t have much value but that’s the point.

Our hero here is not motivated but rather lazy, stubborn, and carefree. In a way, he is the most human hero ever. He realizes life is so short. Why care for what other flawed humans think is true, and rather just vibe and get enough money for some cereal? True vibe. And instead of a stereotypically written female character in shonen, we get Kagura, a well written three dimensional character who stands leagues above most anime characters. In most shonen side characters, we are left with the annoying friend who preaches how crazy everyone is, and here we get an even more annoying version of that who is as bland and unbelievably boring as I am saying it, Shinpachi. Standards were only predefined when he was created, so he can be excused from the equation of our great well written leads.

To be much, actually far much more specific, with these characters, Gintoki is what I would call a silent warrior with a heart of gold underneath that is mocked for all its influence over and over again, ruthlessly and unabashedly. His design, hair wise, has a white top that blends as it goes down to more light blue. I may be, definitely am, overthinking this but I find it quite préfigurant. This is a tool not forgotten by Hideaki even in regards to such minimalist and most would say unsuitable aspects such as the choices Hideaki delivers to his world, yet by either will or humours pure spite, or pen, he releases a creative flush. Sheer versatility.

Kaguya is probably the best written character, in my opinion, since she is the most complex main character out of our core cast. Her parents are representative of how love can conquer all limitations through their connection despite all the risks they have in loving each other thanks to the fate of death being present. After two kids of theirs are born, their relationship feeds into the stereotype that separated them from him going to work while she lays ill raising the kids herself. Though, it all likely hurts him and causes his absence and harshness to the kids due to the pain he is inflicted with seeing her in such a state. Regardless, we see the generational (a key element of Gintama) effect it has on the kids and two versions that play out. One, an older child, one with more memories of his parents and the world, acts out by the abandonment hitting more by becoming less kind and harsh on his sister and more solo. He is acting out not just for attention but for the mere fact of all the feelings he has regarding the situation. He is a tempest to his own narrative in his life that becomes clear. Kaguya, on the other hand, falls into freedom, after the abandonment and she finds light instead of darkness, likely due to her mindset and circumstance then and likely due to the people she met. It is a two sides of the coin, fate brings and fate destroys. There is a lot more to this relationship, but like all things Gintama, it would be pointless to discuss to a longer degree since that would be simply explanatory. Simply, watch the show yourself. It’s worth it.

Next

The Shinsengumi, our main comedic-driven antagonists, are all full of life and just so trashy at their job, which seems to be helping people and stopping war criminals like Gintoki, which they are somehow equally bad at doing. Really, nobody in this series is good at anything, as they must suck massively and in order be relatable to its audience. It’s kind of in the agreement. Also, not sure if I mentioned it, but they are incredibly lazy people. It’s one of those “if you ever feel like a failure, look there” kind of emotion I get from it. While I see failure as impossible in regards to value in reference to existence, it still sucks massively to see people doing so much and yourself working somewhere for less than three dollars an hour. That is what Gintama is really about. Failure is the biggest teacher since it is the biggest rewarder. Nothing. It makes you realize that getting on with life is the biggest reward you can receive, and you should never take it for granted. 

One of the scariest things to be turned into a different medium is one with a comedy genre attached to it. Simply since most jokes work thanks to the medium they are presented in. In Gintama’s case, one could say it had its luck, as the manga, in my honest opinion, just was terrible. Yeah, I said it. I didn’t laugh once, even when Shinpachi was off the page, and I know that is a low blow, but still it remains. A stick hitting my skull might get a better crackle, literally, out of me than over ninety-nine percent of whatever the manga thought was tolerable to my four or five senses (I’m not a scientist!). One of the reasons for this is that Gintama just feels made for the anime because its jokes feel based on animation. Moving pictures. Another is that the dialogue in the manga was excessive to the utmost degree. Like I’m here for a manga, not a light novel. Not clickbait from my Gintama. Another reason is due to the fact that voice acting really heightens Gintama. Without the specific voice actors chosen for the Japanese version, pretty much most of the jokes would fall flat. Simply, they go in on their performance.

I’m getting somewhere. Someone, I’m sure, once said to write dangerously so… Should I try?

Filler is a cruel sword cast down upon so many possible great anime series. Thankfully, Gintama has the cure. Simply put, when all your episodes can be reduced to filler, none of them are. If you can’t beat it, join it; in this case, it seems to be the lesson learned from Gintama, though you would be wrong, dear reader. Or right, Gintama knows no bounds in respecting its audience or really itself. It would actually be: if you can’t beat it since you are it, well, just deal with it I guess is what Gintama says. Gintama is a sitcom, and most sitcoms are, let’s be honest, enjoyable fluff that you can usually put on while doing actual significant things like playing Uno and not miss a thing. Gintama’s whole premise is: three losers just doing some nothing nowhere job they made up in some crappy, oddly sci-fi yet old-fashioned town full of also incredible weirdos. And, with that premise, it is clear Gintama knows parents cleaning their kids rooms will leave it on as boring garbage that might make them smile once out of the fact that it seems like you are supposed to. Or it’s: I’m not laughing at you; I’m laughing with others laughing at you. Gintama has that energy which is what I;m getting at. I’m getting somewhere you see. It has this self loathing nature to it that kind of never becomes clear and feels hidden behind the jokes and heartwarming moments but becomes apparent as it goes on. Though, as the author aged, it could’ve been a new type of humor added in. Or préfiguré.

A funny aspect that always keeps a reader like myself on my toes here is the biting rudeness our characters frequently and quite excessively display to one another. For instance, when Kagura is being eaten by a monster, our lead who has fought many battles and was basically at the top of fights, Gintoki and his friend Shinpachi leave their best friend to die and get eaten alive and then, out of anger, Kagura tries to take them with her to die. You could call this out of character and excessively too much, but I would call it dear viewer, Gintama. It doesn’t need to make complete sense. I mean does anything.

This is dangerous, right? (Dangerous is subjective. Consistency is just another form. I see that I don’t see Demythologization.)

I’ve spent so long pondering on all these things and did not, did i erus m’i, prends l’eau.

Let’s see. Well, you’re starting Gintama! You will be hit with two solid filler episodes that just get you on the action and vibe of the universe, which is quite funny as right after these couple of episodes they explain the universe as if the previous two episodes were some lost, unaired pilots that turned out to be some scam. For the general start, Gintama leads itself on more episodic episodes with narrative episodes being sliced very smaller until later in between, though, thanks to this, the first two episodes you could say were the perfect place to be. Though much later, the main plot line will be more of a focal point, which will be continued in a fantastic final film to end the series. 

There are also two film spin offs which are fine and work to the film medium (well, the second one at least) to give them stronger purpose, per se, but regardless, like most of Gintama, are just fun adventures.

Gintama I would call the cult classic of the anime industry in that it’s not forgotten just there and respected for that and how long it has stood its ground. It’s not easy for such a thematic and audacious show like Gintama to bare and last itself in the space of more business minded individuals yet it has persisted, despite looking as though it has been canceled and been destroyed quite fashionably to an early grave, yet it ended on its own terms.

They should plant trees on the road. On and on and on all over again.

Gintama is a story that leaps around a lot. I would call it a story that also feels like it leaps often. Plotlines will dramatically happen, and then two episodes later will be used as cheap, sloppy comedic relief. Instead of underpinning it, it adds to it. It’s like the author is just screwing around and joking in ways you never see authors doing. In the anime, we have a literal episode where our leads can’t even be animated and are instead cardboard cutouts and wax figurines who move themselves around, and it jokes about animators and basically the respect this show has budget wise. And this was like the 2000s. Tell me about any other show that would dare to do that. Both sopranos-level drama and office-level humor that will still make fun of itself and, oddly, degrade itself whenever possible. Just the audacity. The audacity!

Gintama is one of those series where canon is a loose term the series will continually break. If you rewatch Gintama, it becomes clear nothing is planned out and rather it feels like someone is probably screwing around for the thrill of it. Kaguyra’s dad, for instance, talks ill of his dead wife which later seems so out of character but seems more clear with regard that Hisdeaki likely didn’t create 500 extra plot episodes in his head to assume and know then. It rather, only later, just came to be.

For instance, our cold and unforgiving seemingly officer might randomly cry over some manga not because it’s some secret thing about him but rather because it’s funny and don’t think about it too deeply as that is the funny part. I have a fear that, looking deeper, if Lewis Carroll were to arrive in Gintama he would, surprisingly, fit well in.

“Really, now you ask me,” said Alice, very much confused, “I don’t think—”

“Then you shouldn’t talk,” said the Hatter.

Cycles. Bad advice until someone takes the words right out of your mouth. Au revoir. 

I think our leads would have a few words to that Hatter. Anyway…

Though, if you are successful in the slightest at anything in your life, then I recommend Gintama. They say don’t give up one’s hopes when they’re down. When yours is up, though, how low can it get? One might wonder. Gintama might make you incredibly lazy, and that’s amazing. It will make one see that just living life is more important than a date or going places. I mean, who would want that? Just no. If you are tired and feel as though your standards are nothing, since standards are just words, watch Gintama. It is sure to make you get a bar just to lower it. Yet that is amazing. 

Gintama is unabashed parody magic. When it hits a narrative arc, it hits it in spades, with them spaced out nicely for impact and emotion. We see our characters as ones you might see in a sitcom, with a sitcom being something you put on while you’re cleaning or mowing the lawn. But then, Gintama switches to make you sit up in your seat, demand a rewatch, and cry your eyes out over the weirdest and most incredibly vile of characters.

One breaking point, for many, is the length. Yes, it will probably take most of your lifetime to finish the show, and yes, you might resent it for years to come, and yes, you might hold a grudge against my recommendation for you to waste your existence if we call it that, but that’s awesome. Life’s so short; why not just waste it? Gintama has no boundaries or standards and is gross out to the fullest and emotional to the, well, emotionalistist. If you want a ticket for everything, you have found the leader for that. 

VERDICT

Gintama is like a peculiar parody film from the 2000s mixed with compelling overly dramatic and melodramatic writing of that of The Sopranos mixed with the most epic of novellas at points mixed with music of all eras mixed with an author who probably, you know, invented the term vibe. That sounds like a lot, but really, it’s not. It’s not precise enough. Gintama is definitely, and I do mean definitely, not for everyone, but give it time, and if it warms up on you and you remember it, it will be your forever show. 

5/5

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