Gintama.

After joining the resistance against the bakufu, Gintoki and the gang are in hiding, along with Katsura and his Joui rebels. The Yorozuya is soon approached by Nobume Imai and two members of the Kiheitai, who explain that the Harusame pirates have turned against 7th Division Captain Kamui and their former ally Takasugi. The Kiheitai present Gintoki with a job: find Takasugi, who has been missing since his ship was ambushed in a Harusame raid. Nobume also makes a stunning revelation regarding the Tendoushuu, a secret organization pulling the strings of numerous factions, and their leader Utsuro, the shadowy figure with an uncanny resemblance to Gintoki's former teacher.

Hitching a ride on Sakamoto's space ship, the Yorozuya and Katsura set out for Rakuyou, Kagura's home planet, where the various factions have gathered and tensions are brewing. Long-held grudges, political infighting, and the Tendoushuu's sinister overarching plan finally culminate into a massive, decisive battle on Rakuyou.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sakata, Gintoki Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Kagura Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Katsura, Kotarou Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Takasugi, Shinsuke Main

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Shimura, Shinpachi Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Kamui Supporting

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Elizabeth Supporting

Imai, Nobume Supporting

Hirano, Aya Japanese

Sakamoto, Tatsuma Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Sadaharu Supporting

Takahashi, Mikako Japanese

Miyawaki, Chizuru Director

Takamatsu, Shinji Sound Director

Kobayashi, Katsuyoshi Sound Director, Sound Supervisor

Kawakubo, Keiji Episode Director

Reviews

Mar 28, 2017

gagan5867

Recommended

While others may argue that this season was a dip in quality I would say the very opposite. When we talk about Gintama we mostly talk about its gag part but what I like more are the story like arcs with humor and not all gag arc which seems like a filler. This season focused on that very aspect. This season of Gintama has a nice story line with each episode explaining many plot holes like why people call Katsura zura (No it is not some plain nickname, it has meaning behind it), why did Yoshida Shouyo suddenly become his beloved students enemy and it ... also tells us more about Kagura's family. This season has sense in it which I particularly liked.
The story is well written and has been nicely executed. No complains about the art in Gintama (mainstream anime mostly have the budget for good animation too). I like both the songs along with the soundtracks used in battles and other scenes. You see a lot of character development in this season of Gintama. Overall it is a 9.5 for me.
I would really appreciate your views on the same. Drop a comment on my wall if you feel like it.
Thank you

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 27, 2017

_alpha-q_

Mixed Feelings

Mild spoilers ahead. More troublingly, it's lengthy as fuck.
EDIT: If you take the time to read, I've explicitly mentioned I'll be scoring this a 9 like the disgusting fanboy I am. But make no mistake, 6 is what I think it deserves. I say this beforehand, since otherwise you might waste *our* time going directly to my profile on seeing the score and flaming me for 'fishing'.


I wonder when it became natural for Gintama to have a score of 9 or above.
Every time a new season is announced, a few one-liners of "X being displaced from the top 10", or some acerbic remarks about how ... ridiculous one franchise having so many entries in the top list is are made, and then the matter is dropped.
I'm perfectly aware that ratings on this site are dogshit, with trolls and boosters running rampant in equal measure. Still, Erased and Re;Zero received significant backlash on their sudden rise. Gintama was just...ignored.

Maybe it's due to the non-confrontational fanbase. They just view haters as just being pitiable; more of a "your loss" viewpoint rather than a "fuck you" one. Trolls need triggered people to feed on, after all.
Said fanbase is also loyal as fuck. Fierce doesn't even begin to cover it. Most of the current reviews are 10/10s claiming Gintama to be the best thing since sliced bread.
And I agree completely. Gintama was my first 10, my only 10, and my absolute no 1 when it comes to anime currently. But the reviews don't address the elephant in the room, a point which I'm coming to.

This season is shit.

Which is harsh, admittedly. It stands head-and-shoulders above other battle series (shounen isn't really a genre, nor is it the only one utilizing plot armour). But Gintama's standard of comparison is itself, and this season pales in comparison to the others.

Shifting tones from comedic to tension-filled is hard for any creator. Period. Forcing an audience to believe that characters surviving comic explosions can die at the hands of random mooks is a massive leap. And it is especially hard in a universe without any flashy techniques to aid the transition, like Negima or KHR.
Hayate (the manga) has gone to shit in its final arc. Konosuba, the current comedy favourite can't really function without its comedy at all.
And yet Sorachi pulled it off with aplomb. He ratcheted the intensity higher and higher with each chapter, a near-miraculous feat. Until he perhaps took it too far.
See, the SA arc was morbid. Alongside the Shogun, it was the death of Gintama's comedy, a death more hard-hitting than most characters'. Gintama basically sacrificed a part of itself to set up the drama.
FS was oppressive in its atmosphere. One bleak event after the another, culminating in the introduction of Utsuro, shown to be the strongest antagonist till date.

Rakuyo gave us mid-bosses.

In all fairness, Rakuyo is more a transition to the final arc. Plot threads involving Utsuro's identity, origin and abilities had to be resolved. Altana (foreshadowed in the Inugami arc) had to be formally introduced.
Gintama was always short on true antagonists, and defeating Utsuro in the penultimate arc would be stupidly anticlimatic (in true Gintama fashion, but that part is dead now rip). So I understand the need to have new villains.

The problem is, they were given the same serious treatment reserved for Takasugi and Utsuro. I know individual fights have a lot of potential in any battle series. Each character can show the results of their training, new special moves, new deus ex machinas (Erza cough cough) etc.

What they don't have any potential for is tension.

A monkey, a mechanical tentacle monster, and a 1/3 functioning triclops with a wildly inconsistent lightsaber could have been a heap of laughs.
But cheesy dialogues (not that cheesy, to my pleasant surprise, they were fairly unique) were to be had instead. It was more a case of 'could have been better' instead of 'bad'. Even with all concessions made for hype and one-liners and sword fights and whatever, when the bumbling trio blasted off the arc picked up significantly. Gintama is one of the rare SJ series I have read that has the ability to actually impart some tension to its battles, tension that prominently arrived parallel to Utsuro's arrival.
Forced to be honest, a score of 7.5-8 would have been behind that 10.

Then BNP came and fucked things up.

Where to begin with BNP? They're my favourite bunch of fuckwits, for starters. They are giving it their all, clearly. Which is why they're my favourite. But it cannot be denied they are fuckwits and I hate them.
It started with a mild dislike of the new glossy artstyle. Which intensified when I realised the jokes weren't really as funny as in the manga or in previous seasons (and I wasn't any less immature--comic timing is a bitch). Skipping chapters was a fine mess slightly alleviated by the execution of the SA and FS arcs.
Maybe I'm just an idiotic hardhead unwilling to adapt to change. But the 2017 season has imbibed a fervent prayer in me wishing Silver Soul is not adapted by BNP.

See, I firmly believe Gintama is a cash cow. And the fact that a well-established cash cow is not being given sufficient budget for 12 decent quality episodes is mind-boggling. It seems the executives are going for profit margins rather than profit. "They'll buy no matter what I try" is a mentality I despise whole-heartedly in creators, no matter what medium.

I'll admit that I know nothing about businesses or the anime industry. It is entirely possible I'm barking up the wrong tree. But take one look at the after battle scenes between Gintoki and Sith Lord, note the amount of flashbacks in Gintoki v Kamui and then try to tell me with a straight face that they had enough budget. Scratch enough. It felt like they had the bare minimum amount of capital required to produce 10 episodes which they stretched into 12. The fight scenes seemed surgically pruned in length. While I'm no supporter of 50-episode battles...previous seasons man, previous seasons. Even the fight scenes seem a step down from the 2011-2013 seasons, and it took a heavy toll on enjoyment, something which no other Gintama is lacking in.

Here, I'll take a minute to question why they did not utilize any static backgrounds or other filler-type shit to conserve budget. Perhaps they felt it wouldn't fit the mood, but honestly, purely serious Gintama will never ever work after SA. A fact that Sorachi realized, seeing as the SS arc is a bucketload of laughs.
Even then, the Four Devas arc had a filler prior to its first episode which consisted of redubbed OVA footage. Redubbed OVA footage, which was still heavily enjoyable. Gintama is basically shit, the least they could do is use the reputation it has built up over ten years and air some planet backgrounds to ensure better quality. Eh, if they would go so far as to skip material I'm the fool for expecting stuff like that.

All said and done, this will probably be a 9 in my list. Rating is shit anyway, bite me. But for my true, impartial thoughts on the matter, 6 is the most suited.

Tl;dr- I spent a long time writing this, the least you could do is read it. There is no obligation, but plss.
k thx bai

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 13, 2017

agendator

Not Recommended

The fall of Gintama, by a fan of the series.

Back in winter 2016, Gintama° was pulling out the two greatest arcs of the series. And, one of the best action-drama sequences ever seen in the shounen genre. The amateur studio BN Pictures was in a pinch with the production. Yet Sorachi's writing was shining at its brightest, pushing the series to a whole new level. After the end of the Farewell Shinsengumi arc, Sorachi had two options. He could keep pushing higher, to scale up the series' finale with the power of the previous arcs. Or he could go through the lazy writing route. Sad ... thing he did choose the latter.

It is important to note that this is the same old Gintama, at least on a surface level. The comedy, now less frequent, is still on point. The basic plotline of the "story arcs" still the same. Lack of comedy might turn off some fans, but it's not a problem at all. What was not done right then? Why one of my favorite titles felt so mediocre in this particular season?

Emotional stakes. Not the lack of them, but the distance of them from the plot stakes. Picture this: A beloved one of yours turns into a evil monster. He wants to end his own misery but he can't do it himself. Then he realises the only way he could do this is to destroy planet earth. And the way he finds to achieve his goal is to provoke a universal-scale war. Now you see yourself going to a foreign planet far from home to... Do you see the problem here? We are going too many places and too far away only to get to a single point: The clash between Gintoki and Utsuro. All these light-years made plot and emotional stakes too apart from each other. Now the story is involving a lot of people, parties, places and actions. And all these have little to nothing to do with the emotional conflict. Tying emotional and plot stakes together is no easy task. Creating big ass events to see the action roll and nothing else sounds far easier, right?

Besides, the visuals looks the same from the last cour of Gintama°. Nothing impressive, as expected from a low-budget production. One of the most disappointing aspects though, is the lack of new OSTs. Sure, they added some new sound, but they for the most reused tracks from previous seasons. Almost every major arc from the 2015 season had their own OSTs, so what happened?

Most fans of the series will still love to their hearts this season. Shounen genre addicts can still find a good deal of enjoyment here. But, if you are one of the few people that loved Gintama for the writing gems it pulled out (aside the comedy), for poetic arcs like Mitsuba or Red Spider, for heartbreaking drama from Shogun Assassination and Farewell Shinsengumi arcs... Better stop. The next arc, Silver Soul, is by far only a bigger fest of the same meals compared to Rakuyo arc. Stop here, and save yourself from watching the fall of Gintama.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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