If you enjoy Anime and have never heard of Gin Tama, where have you been all these years? I know some great, amazing anime have come out, especially in recent years, but how have you not heard of Gin Tama? If you are unfamiliar (shame on you), click here for a rundown of the series.
In the massive shadow of the Big Three (The Big Three was a term used to describe the three most popular running series during their golden age in Jump‘s mid-2000s period – One Piece, Naruto and Bleach.), Gin Tama was often overlooked but to those that have seen it, a lot became dedicated fans.
I started watching the anime many years ago and have been watching it on and off to this day. It’s my go-to when I’m stuck on what to watch or if I’m feeling down and need a pick-me-up. Despite binge-watching the show for many years, I’m still not done, I’ve even watched the first live-action film adaptation twice, and it’s extremely faithful to the source material and just as hilarious as the show.
Gintama is a story of a handyman named Gintoki, a samurai with no respect for rules set by the invaders, who’s ready to take any job to survive. He and his gang, however, are also among the very few who have not forgotten the morale of a swordsman. Wherever they go, all they do is to create troubles.
Gintama | IMDB
Gin Tama is one big parody, each episode is like a filler episode from your favourite anime, but better. More on that later.
Starting off slow and steady, taking its time, the show follows a typical plot, but it isn’t long before the line between shōnen and comedy blurs. Sure, it has shōnen aspects to it, which are great at times, but it isn’t really its main genre. Comedy/satire is where this show falls into and owns it, it is just one massive parody, of itself, other shows and Japanese culture in general to the point where I’ve lost count of how many Dragon Ball references there are. There are many Japanese references, that a lot of western audiences, like myself, wouldn’t understand, but it is still hilarious.
Once the anime got into its groove after a few seasons, it became so self-aware that you expect the characters to break the fourth wall in almost every episode, the characters talking to the viewer about how the animators were feeling a little lazy that week or how if they keep saying something the show will get cancelled, some episodes weren’t even animated, just videos of someone walking around near the studio. It had many fake endings, which fans enjoyed, Xianwei Wu posted a great piece on the history of Gin Tama’s fake endings, which you can find here.
Episodes
Take the filler episodes from your favourite show, the ones people normally skip, and imagine each episode of Gin Tama is one of those filler episodes, but better. Each episode generally has at least one story in it, sometimes two, others might be multipart episodes if the story requires it. Below is one of my favourite episodes, Episode 231 When You Go to a Funeral for the First Time, You’re surprised by How Happy the People Are.
Intro: A beloved restaurant owner dies and the Yorozuya Three, plus the Shinsengumi Three, attend his funeral. Instead of moving on, however, the soul of the old man is overseeing the ceremony.
Plot: The Yorozuya and Shinsengumi attend the funeral for the old man who ran one of the local restarants, one where dishes were catered specially to regular customers and even fed the Yorozuya when they were broke.However, even as the Yorozuya and Shinsengumi are bound by grief, only Gintoki and Hijikata both notice one thing, the old man’s ghost sitting in attendance during the procession. And he is pissed. Leading them to believe that he’s come back to make sure his funeral goes well, meaning that they can’t leave until the procession ends and if anything are now charged with making sure it goes smoothly.
Gin Tama Wiki
Unfortunately, I can’t post the episode directly here, but here is a link to the episode on Crunchyroll. I feel this episode is one that can sum up the show pretty well. I think my number one favourite from all that I’ve watched is Episode 237 – Please take me skiing, plot here, episode here and GIF below.
Even while writing this, I’m sitting here giggling at the thought of the human snowboard episode where Gintoki rides the Shogun like a snowboard and a wild chase ensues.
Characters
Gin Tama has a wide variety of characters. Gintoki, the main character, Shinpachi, the straight man, and Kagura. These three make up the Yorozuya (Odd Jobs) group. The Shinsengumi (special police force) consists of several characters, most notably, Kondou (the commander), Toshi (vice-commander) and Sougo (captain). These are only a very small few compared to the large cast of characters. Sometimes a character will appear in one episode in the first season, reappear in the third season, and the characters comment on that fact in hilarious form.
Summary
All good things come to an end. Sadly, Gin Tama had to end at some point, and I dread the day I finish the anime. I highly recommend Gin Tama to anyone that has got up to date with their current shows or is looking for something to pass the time between their weekly releases. Gin Tama is full of fun, action, sorrow and more, and it will always be one of my favourite shows.
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