Rating: 4.9
Favorite Episode: Sworn Enemy
You have to find the comedy style funny otherwise you'll loathe the series. Gintama is mostly parody humor with serious/semi-serious arcs interspersed throughout. Personally, I didn't find most of the episodes funny mainly due to Shinpachi's constant screaming, and whole episodes dedicated to parodying Japanese celebrities, games, or obscure anime I haven't seen. If you don't like the humor then all that's left is the serious arcs, which unfortunately are generic shonen arcs. The serious arcs are formulaic and almost all go like this: A new foe appears, Gin gets hurt by the foe, the foe wreaks havoc while Gin is hurt, Gin miraculously recovers and fights the foe, Gin gives his monologue centered around the themes of the arc, and beats the foe. Finally, the foe's full backstory is revealed and they were never evil just misunderstood. Most arcs are not resolved by strategy or clever writing, but rather plot armor, and incessant plot conveniences. There are too many instances to enumerate but for example: in the Yoshiwara flames arc, Gintoki fights Hosen the strongest of the Yato (a superhuman race), ever. Not only does he get beaten, but he also takes a blunt kick to the face from Hosen. Instead of dying as any human would, he just sits there for 2 minutes, steaming like a titan then miraculously revives and beats the crap out of Hosen with his as seen on tv wooden sword to save the day. It's nonsense especially when Kamui another Yato took off the arm of Abuto (also a Yato) in one swing, and Kamui is WEAKER than Hosen. Using that logic a mere human with no powers like Gintoki should be dead in one punch fighting Hosen. It was the plot armor of being the main character that allowed him to even survive the fight. There are so many moments that make your head spin like: Gintoki being able to fight against lightsabers with a wooden sword, shinpachi going toe-toe with Utsuro in the silver soul arc, Shinpachi not dying when fighting hordes of yato in the shogun assassination arc, Takasugi not dying after he was destroyed by Gintoki and impaled in the shogun assassination arc, Utsuro not immediately blowing up earth via Altana, but waiting for no reason until the odds were stacked against him, etc... There are even thematic issue's like the silver soul arc undoing Gintoki's character by having him run away from the present to save his teacher of the past, when thematically it was established Gintoki has moved on from the past, and has found new meaning in the present unlike his counterparts Takasugi, and Katsura (for a while). There are no stakes in this show since everyone important enough besides the shogun will survive no matter what happens, God forbid the MC gets injured for more than 2 episodes. You would expect decent writing from what some call a "goated" shonen. Besides the Shogun Assassination arc, and the Yagyu arc I thoroughly disliked this series. There are other problems with this series, but this is already my longest review yet.
Favorite Episode: Sworn Enemy
You have to find the comedy style funny otherwise you'll loathe the series. Gintama is mostly parody humor with serious/semi-serious arcs interspersed throughout. Personally, I didn't find most of the episodes funny mainly due to Shinpachi's constant screaming, and whole episodes dedicated to parodying Japanese celebrities, games, or obscure anime I haven't seen. If you don't like the humor then all that's left is the serious arcs, which unfortunately are generic shonen arcs. The serious arcs are formulaic and almost all go like this: A new foe appears, Gin gets hurt by the foe, the foe wreaks havoc while Gin is hurt, Gin miraculously recovers and fights the foe, Gin gives his monologue centered around the themes of the arc, and beats the foe. Finally, the foe's full backstory is revealed and they were never evil just misunderstood. Most arcs are not resolved by strategy or clever writing, but rather plot armor, and incessant plot conveniences. There are too many instances to enumerate but for example: in the Yoshiwara flames arc, Gintoki fights Hosen the strongest of the Yato (a superhuman race), ever. Not only does he get beaten, but he also takes a blunt kick to the face from Hosen. Instead of dying as any human would, he just sits there for 2 minutes, steaming like a titan then miraculously revives and beats the crap out of Hosen with his as seen on tv wooden sword to save the day. It's nonsense especially when Kamui another Yato took off the arm of Abuto (also a Yato) in one swing, and Kamui is WEAKER than Hosen. Using that logic a mere human with no powers like Gintoki should be dead in one punch fighting Hosen. It was the plot armor of being the main character that allowed him to even survive the fight. There are so many moments that make your head spin like: Gintoki being able to fight against lightsabers with a wooden sword, shinpachi going toe-toe with Utsuro in the silver soul arc, Shinpachi not dying when fighting hordes of yato in the shogun assassination arc, Takasugi not dying after he was destroyed by Gintoki and impaled in the shogun assassination arc, Utsuro not immediately blowing up earth via Altana, but waiting for no reason until the odds were stacked against him, etc... There are even thematic issue's like the silver soul arc undoing Gintoki's character by having him run away from the present to save his teacher of the past, when thematically it was established Gintoki has moved on from the past, and has found new meaning in the present unlike his counterparts Takasugi, and Katsura (for a while). There are no stakes in this show since everyone important enough besides the shogun will survive no matter what happens, God forbid the MC gets injured for more than 2 episodes. You would expect decent writing from what some call a "goated" shonen. Besides the Shogun Assassination arc, and the Yagyu arc I thoroughly disliked this series. There are other problems with this series, but this is already my longest review yet.