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It’s been nearly two and a half years since the last Gintama season ended. It’s nice to have this anime back, even if it for a short while.
We start off right where the last season left off, with Gintoki and Shinpachi meeting up after two years. Of course, Gintoki had to hide his identity… though you can hardly call that a disguise. Fundoshi Mask is probably the only time Gintama has ever made a Kyou Kara Ore Wa reference. Better late than never!
And although most people would assume that the Silver Soul Arc has already brought back all of the old Gintama characters, the two big missing ones have finally made their appearance. Forgetting Shachi is acceptable, but how Sorachi was able to forget about Asaemon is beyond me. At least the episode was able to make a joke about it. And there’s no better way of celebrating her appearance then by having her slice Gintoki’s nipples off, lol.
Gin’s thoughts of Shinpachi being a player and bringing girls over was funny. Probably one of the funniest Gintama gags in a long time! It kinda parallels the jokes from the beginning of Scandal Arc, especially the leaving-the-earth jokes. Gintoki’s silver hair was all they needed to realize he’s Gintoki but his very distinguishable voice wasn’t enough, lol. Ayy, it’s nice to see Hijikata and Sougo too. We still need Kondo back… but that’ll have to wait for next week. They did tease that banana dropping though, lol. Pachi and Gura got a whole of lot people to help them in reuniting with Gin. Everyone who’s lives were affected by the Yorozuya in some way are here to help. They got their old outfits on too. Ngl, I kinda wished that they kept their new outfits on for longer. As important as it is to have them look like how they used to be for the final battle, we got at most 7 episodes with the new outfits (even less episode for Kagura). Still, it’s hard to complain about a wholesome moment like this.
In terms of adapted chapters, this episode covered most of the stuff from Chapters 687-689, half of 690, 692, 697, and a bit of 698. A bit more than 5 chapters worth of content. Because of some skipped stuff here and there, the fast pace isn’t quite as noticeable. And really, only chapter 692 is the one they really skimmed over. Luckily, the content still flowed nicely in the anime episode. And I do think some of the skipped Shinsengumi stuff is being left for the next episode. Chapters 693-696 will definitely be covered in the next episode, though I wonder if some of the other skipped stuff will make an appearance in the next episode (Stuff from chapters 690-691). Honestly, I rather have them pace those chapters properly, than to jam-pack the episode with too much content. And I did like how they rearranged the chapters to make the episode flow better from the Yorozuya’s perspective. The Shinsengumi-related stuff will be left for the next episode.
I wonder if the Gin, Takasugi and Katsura scenes will be skipped entirely, left for the next episode, or left for the movie. Out of all of the cut stuff from this episode, these are the only moments that I think shouldn’t be skipped.
The animation was surprisingly alright in this episode. It's nothing special, but I was expecting it to look bad because the PVs were pretty limited and it's obvious that BNP put most of their effort into the movie. Still, not bad. The art style has definitely changed and this is what we'll be seeing for the movie. Character designs are more vibrant with more uses of colored outlines on the design. It makes them pop out more and I like it.
I’m glad they made the decision to adapt only the post-WSJ chapters for the movie, instead of all of the unadapted chapters. That’ll allow the movie to have the pacing it needs. That being said, adapting around 12 chapters in 2 episodes has caused a lot of stuff to be cut out. Whether we’ll see those cut content in the movie is up in the air for now. Regardless, this episode worked well on its own and all the important stuff was covered. Can’t wait for the Shinsengumi episode next week!
Loved it.
They brought back many old ost...
Comedy was wonderful as always,
There were some moments which made me emotional....
THIS IS FREAKING SEMI FINAL and I'm getting emotional........... (What will happen when final comes out)
OH! They also put I WANNA BE.... as OP
MAN.... I literally screamed throughout the whole song (coz I don't think I can sing lol)
And Wadachi at the Ed was very solid as well
While I did just watch the screen-captured version with subtitles, I do hope a better version gets developed soon. In the meantime, I'll just await the next episode.
WaterzBailed54 said: While I did just watch the screen-captured version with subtitles, I do hope a better version gets developed soon. In the meantime, I'll just await the next episode.
Fantastic return, man I haven't laughed that hard in a while. The jokes really do hit different in anime form. Missed all the shenanigans gin, shinpachi and kagura would get themselves into. Can't wait for the 2nd episode and the movie!
I was smiling for every single second of this. I'm so happy that this series is back even though the semi final is only going to be 2 episodes.
Long Hair Asaemon looked awesome and that very last scene with many familiar faces crowded around otose's bar made my day. Probably my favorite thing I've watched so far in 2021. I loved it
That was fucking great, and oh boy did it feel amazing to get some Gintama again. This was better than most of the episodes of the previous two seasons and was as good as the episode from the previous season where Gintoki was disguising as Takasugi and got his shit pushed in by the females that turned him to a terrifyingly divine state. Glad to see timeskip Shachi and Asaemon here. They cut some chapters and paced it a bit quick but the anime still felt like a blast to watch and from an anime-only perspective, still enjoyable. Makes the pacing for the movie seemingly be better since they have less chapters to adapt like this and more time for each to be refined.
Yeah.. this Anime ia still funny and Will always be funny... I Can finally see all the characters again... I Love this Anime.. and I like this actually continued the last Ep of the last season... Lol...
A two years time skip is actually two years IRL if you compare this special to the 2nd part of the silver souls arc. How I missed this glorious series.
I still can't believe, despite all these years, that I still somehow remembered even someone like Shachi and Asaemon, not even that, the face of many characters shown near the end of this ep is so recognizable, each with their own stories, arc, relationships and skits. What a wonderful experience it is for me to reminiscence the times when I watch Gintama years ago.
Shinpachi has grown taller, much taller, and he got a rather fabulous hair now, oh what am I talking about he never changed, after all, he's merely a pair of glasses. Meanwhile, Kagura has gotten even cuter, she has always had long straight vermillion hair, but it's even longer now. Love it all!
As per the usual, Gintama always guarantees you to a series of laughter and yet still has some serious moments within it as well. That's a given considering how many chapters are adapted into this 1 ep.
Nevertheless, I love it!
It was nice to see how everyone was doing. I didn't expect Shachi and the Reaper to return.
The Loincloth Mask gag was insane, on par with how Gintama is. It's always a comfort to me that no matter how serious Gintama gets there's always time for a good laugh. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It's a shame most people beside the main cast got about less than five lines/scenes. But as it was a setup for the Final it was okay.
Romeo said: The blu-ray for the movie has recently been released, correct?
Was this semi-final bundled with it?
Yes, and also yes.
Oh, that's good to hear, thanks!
That should mean if I'll be patient a while longer, I should theoretically be rewarded with a higher quality version of this, cool!
So that's what happened to the "missing" reinforcements. I thought them drowning in the pond was the canon one. lol Anyway, Yaemon with long hair! <3 Please render judgement upon my soul, I want your death's embrace!
Oh man, 16 y/o Kagura is so damn pretty! Long hair really suits her. I cant get enough of her.
Kinda sucks they went back to their old outfits. tsk
The comedy moments were really nice xD Gintoki with loincloth on his face xD
But now everyone is here to help him, and looks like it's up to serious stuff
Semi-final episode 1 first half was funny and good but 2nd half was great. Seeing everyone coming back together and mainly, Shinsengumi was great.
The scene between Gin & Kagura was hilarious!
How Kagura fails to identify the moment she grabbed that person head is beyond me.....I mean there is probably close to none out of Edo that had a white hair except one guy......