Why You Should Watch Gintama Anime! 

Oh boy, well this will be long. Sorry. So, for starters your breakdown of whats going on with the Aliens is incorrect, they are not in another world, they are on earth. The Amanto (Aliens) invaded Japan which essentially pushed forward an industrial revolution (Think of when Europe invaded Japan essentially, its meant to be based around this and the fall of the samurai) The series in general follows Sakata Gintoki (Our Mc) who was a samurai during those times and ia one of the few survivors, just trying to make his way in a world he lost running an odd jobs business to servive, hut also to make connections (because at the end of the day Gintama at its core is about the human connection and living on through eachother, dealing with loss and moving forward with life) As with what the other commenter said, what it in Japanese with subtitles, the english version isnt good and is incomplete. As for the comedy, Gintama has a lot of different types of comedy, from parody and referential humor, to slapstick and pop culture as well as language and historical humor. It is heavily, HEAVILY geared towards its Japanese audience above all else, especially in the beginning of the series. If you don't have a thurough understanding of Japanese language, history and culture quite a few jokes are just going to fly over your head. One Joke that is changed between the english and Japanese dubs is Katsura's nickname- in the english version they call him Cobra, no dang idea why but whatever- in the Japanese versian his nickname is Zura, Zura can also be translated as Wig. So they're basically calling him bald, but also its in reference to his personality. "Runaway Kotaro" is who Katsura was known as during the war, but he's called Zura, especially by Gintoki and Takasugi, because he can put on the personaility of an aggressive fighter almost like a disguise, he alsobloces disguising himself. The title itself is word play too, Tama can mean Balls or Soul, Gin means Silver, but if you replace a single Kanji from it in the start to Kintama it turns it into Test**les.- which the mangaka does at one point. Kagura herself is a reference to how Chinese people speak and use Japanese dialect as in the Japanese version she's always messing up her words. The first 2 episodes villains are a parody of morning talkshow hosts in Japan, which is why they do the wave thing. I mean, I could probably go on all day 😂 Point being, lots of cultural humor that can be unfortunately lost on especially western audiances. The comedy does, in my opinion as the series grows, grow to envelope a wider audienc, even later making jokes about Michael jackson and Donald Trump/ Will Smith etc. The comedy may not be for you, and as others have said, if you are only in it for the serious arcs you're in for a rough time, especially if you don't like or understand the comedy. I cant really say much, i actually personally really enjoyed early Gintama and the stepping stones it set up for the rest of the series. General consensus among fans tends to be that Gintama wouldnt have touched our hearts the way it did without those episodes. It can be a slow start, especially for western audiences, but the build is well worth the emotional pay off and the beautiful story it does have to tell. The main story itself will weave through the background as the series goes, popping up majorly here or there and being a minor mole hill in many wpisode whethers its a senstence from a character ir an action that reflects more heavily later on, the plot takes its heaviest head towards the end of the series by about 100 episodes, buf that doesnt mean its not present throughout or that the sideplots thst build up the cast and the world are of any less importance. I love this series, its been my favoeite for a very long time, long before the 'serious' arcs were a thing. So hearnestly its difficult for me to understand peoples dislike for the beginning, but i can explain based off things ive heard. As for Gintoki being 'lame' he's a 27 year old whos had a hell of a life and lost everything during the war. The point of his character is, if i can word this well, taking the theme of what would happen if your main character failed at all their dreams, failed to protect what was important to them? How is life after that loss? Gintoki is moving forward with life, just wanting to live a happy, silly laid back life and enjoy the simple things. Hes moving forward from the past, there are other things but those statt pushing heavily onto spoiler territory. I love gintama for the characters, for the story of moving on after life has given you its hardest boot, of the memories and connections we make with others, of enjoying the small things we have. I love it for all the tears it made me shed and all the times it had me out of breath from laughter. I love it for the big plot twist it gave, but even for the smaller amd goofier stories. As someone who has suffered a huge loss in life, gintama was the show i needed to push me back in the right direction. I hope you do give it a true chance , but at the end of the day its there for you when you need it.

2 things: 1. watch it in sub 2. its a comedy anime, with some serious arcs, and over arching story. its an amazing anime, but if you're watching it for the serious arcs you should drop it.

Most people are slow readers and cant comprehed ish. They watch the same cliche my hero ahh.