There’s a few things I wanted to touch on in the video, but I personally felt it went off on a tangent a little too much (more than the tangents I already go on), so I figured I might address it here! “Why are there so many Gintama versions? Which do I watch?” -So first off, the many Gintama versions are just a naming joke. You know how Dragonball has Dragonball and DBZ, or Naruto has Naruto and Naruto Shippuden? Gintama is cashing in on the trend. -Generally speaking, just watch Gintama in the order that you see it in, e.g. Episode 1, 2, 3, and so on. For example, Crunchyroll has Gintama in the correct order from Episode 1 to 367, so that’s more than fine. I’d recommend Crunchyroll to watch the anime. Not sponsored, but it is the easiest option. Hulu also has some episodes, but I think only the first 100 or so, whereas Crunchyroll has the entire series…to an extent. -And as a general rule of thumb, if you see an episode that feels like a rerun, it probably is. At some point Gintama did air some reruns, and for some reason Crunchyroll added them to the collection. Other sites may leave the reruns out, but generally, if you see an episode and feel like you’ve seen it before, you’re probably right. I believe they sometimes end in “c” so that could help. “Where do I watch the movies/OVAs?” -At the time of writing this, it’s hard to say. Amazon and Hulu sometimes have the first two movies, as that’s how I first watched them, but I couldn’t find them at this time. When I find out where to watch them, or if someone else mentions, I’ll update this accordingly. -However, Amazon does have the Very Final movie available at this time, so I’d recommend that. The Very Final movie is also available to purchase either digitally or physically, and if you need to watch any one Gintama movie, that’s the one to watch. “What about the live action ones?” -Same situation as the other anime movies. I’ve seen them on Hulu, but I couldn’t find them at this time. I THINK you can watch them on RU-vid though for a fee. “Are there more OVAs?” -Quite a bit actually. Most of them are one-off specials, but there’s one in particular called Love Potion which was released as a Blu-Ray Special, and it’s one of the last manga chapters to get adapted. Like most of the movies, the OVAs are tough to track down, but if you want a general recommendation, the only ones you need to watch are The Semi-Final, and the Love Potion arc. “Can you talk a little bit more about Gintama’s production near the end?” -Right, so the gist of the situation is that the anime was intending to end around when the manga did, but Sorachi kept prolonging the ending, which resulted in the anime ending right near the end of the final arc. This ended up causing a weird production quirk, where… 1. The Gintama anime skipped some arcs, and then went around and adapted the missing chapters later And 2. The last stretch of the anime does have some missing content. It’s not enough to be detrimental to the series, but it’s noticeable enough to mention. -As such, I think it’s fair to recommend people to read the last arc of the manga if you want a more complete story. I definitely think the anime could have done a better job at handling the last stretch, as it’s annoying to tell people “by the way, watch the anime, watch the OVAs, THEN watch the movie”, but it is what it is. As a Fate fan this is nothing to bitch about. That said, the anime ending is still very good, and it’s one of my favorite finales to a story in general. The manga version adds just a bit of extra content that could be meaningful to some viewers. ”Can you talk more about those skipped arcs?” -So basically, there is a point in Gintama that’s designated as the “point of no return”, which is Episode 300. The anime decided to adapt this part before adapting most of the manga, which resulted in a handful of skipped arcs. -The anime would later adapt these chapters into a single cour known as the “Slip Arc”, but they did so just BEFORE the final arc, which creates this weird watch order where it’s “haha funny Gintama” > “oh SHIT” > “damn we’re really in the endgame huh” > “haha funny Gintama again” > “now we’re REALLY at the end”. -As such, as a viewer you have two options: 1. Watch as normal >This is what most people did, and if you were watching Gintama as it aired, it’s what we all had to do. There’s nothing wrong with this, as the comedy does create a nice breather in between the multiple serious arcs just before the last arc. But that said, it is a little weird to revert back to antics after the heavy plotlines from Episode 300 and on. 2. Watch up to Episode 299, then watch the Slip Arc, and then continue on to Episode 300. >If you want to follow the story like the manga, stop at Episode 299, then go right to the Slip Arc, which tends to be labeled as Season 9 on Crunchyroll. Once that’s done, continue as normal. -Personally I’ve done both, and they’re both fine. I like the small break between the penultimate and final arc, but I also like just following the story as it was originally intended. I think I prefer watching up to 299 > Slip Arc > The rest, but you’ll be fine either way. “I like the Monty Python bit, but when does Gintama actually get good?” -So personally, I feel like it actually improves after the Benizakura story. That’s when I feel like Sorachi really finds his groove in terms of both comedy and drama. But it really just depends; the first time I watched it, I think I started to get into it a little after Benizakura, and by the time Yoshiwara in Flames came on, I was all in. But obviously, it depends. Don’t be afraid to stop if it just isn’t clicking. “Any watch tips?” -Personally, I’d advise against binging…at first. For me, I basically had Gintama as my “backup” show early on. If there wasn’t something I wanted to watch, or just wanted something light to throw on after watching something heavy, Gintama was my go-to. I typically watched a few episodes here and there, with frequent breaks over the course of a year. To me it felt this prevented me from getting burned out too fast while I slowly got used to the show. -That said, eventually it did eventually become my main show after some time all the way until I finished it. Luckily I caught up right around when the 2015 season started, so after that it was easy to watch weekly. -Either way, it’s up to you. You obviously know your viewing habits better than I do, so if you wanna binge it, or just watch it a little over time, you do you. “Do you have any episode recommendations so I can see if Gintama is for me?” -Why yes! This is actually how I got into Gintama. My fiance showed me a random episode from much later on, and that was enough to pique my interest. I thought about including a few recommendations in the video, but I honestly couldn’t come to a good consensus because there’s usually a catch to a lot of the better recommendations. But here’s a few decent starter options, and if anyone has any other good recs, post it! -Owee Arc, Episodes 98 and 99: This one involves Yorozuya trying to purchase a game console, and it has a lot of great character moments, and a lot of solid video game based humor. -Ryugojo Arc, Episodes 115-118: Gintoki and the gang go on an adventure under the sea. While this one can be very hit and miss, I like that it highlights a large chunk of the core cast, and has a decent mix of comedy and drama. -Frozen Time Arc, Episodes 266 and 267: Time is stopped, leading to a lot of shenanigans. I personally really like these episodes, as they’re such a good example of how crazy Gintama can get. You don’t get too much info on everyone besides the main trio, but the humor and lack of context needed makes it an easy recommendation. -Yagyu Arc, Episodes 76-81: A mysterious person offers to marry Shinpachi’s sister, and naturally, many people are upset with this. I picked this one because it involves both Yorozuya and the Shinsengumi, and it gives you a basic idea of how most of the key characters are. The big catch is that a lot of the emotional beats don’t land as well without some context, but the sheer humor, action, and character moments make this an all time classic in general. It also introduces Kyubei, who’s super cool.
As a western anime fan, I find it frustrating to get anyone to actually sit down and watch Gintama properly. It's my favorite show and I wish I could share this experience with someone. I absolutely agree that it's underwatched, Gintama is a proper masterpiece.
It'll happen someday! My fiancee low key jokes that she knew I was a keeper when I actually sat down and watched it with her...and she's the one who got me into it in the first place lol
Gintama is something I've always wanted to get into either via the manga or anime, but I never got into because I was stuck on where to start. I've seen bits and clips of it's comedy and some of those scenes live rent free in my mind. There's also another reason I wanna get into Gintama, and that's one man. *Tomokazu Sugita.* If you were to ask what I think about when I hear that name I'd tell you: 1. A talking bat transformation trinket and the father of said trinket (Kivat the III & II) 2. The grandson of a very *bizarre* family that moved to the US (Joseph Joestar) 3. An SS-Ranked Grim Reaper and favorite FG protagonist of all time (Ragna the Bloodedge) This is coming from a dude that's mainly a dub guy, Sugita's probably one of Top 3 favorite JP VAs in the industry and I love a lot of his role Gintoki being *ZERO* exception.
The beginning is really how you wanna start, some folks say it's slow till like episode 60 but it's just really good all the way through and definitely gets bettet.
Sugita is one of my favorite VAs of all time, and he's at his best in Gintama and Haruhi (imho). If you want to try out a few episodes, I recommend the Owee arc, or just start at the beginning and watch a few!
GOAT anime. It's sad how its not very popular in America but I can make anyone sit down and watch all the Madao episodes. I'm so amazed a gorilla can make something so amazing.
Okay, so here is the thing; i have watched gintama up until the ... in flames arc (ninja asks gintoki for help and women of the night district is on fire arc (ca. 180 episodes sort of)). I never vibed with the humour, but the vibes and the themes of the show still resonate. Anyway, after watching your fromsoftware video and this one, I really like your style of content, exactly why I love youtube. I hope you will still upload content you are passionate about, I love that. I just subscribeted and I look forward to your future content!!
You nailed it comparing Gintama to Community, because that's the same vibish. Nice video pal, Gintama needs to be more popular... but as you said, it's not for everyone.
Great review. I only started getting into Gintama recently. I’m a gigantic anime and manga fan and I have dozens and dozens of different ones. Some of my favourites are Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Naruto, One Piece, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, Dragon Ball and so many others. I’ve been curious to get into Gintama for a while given how many great things I’ve heard about it. I started collecting the manga and watching the anime. I was really annoyed to find only 23 of the volumes were actually translated and brought over from Japan. Also, I’m more of an English Dub guy when it comes to watching anime and I was also annoyed to find only 96 or so of the episodes were dubbed. I assumed the cancellation of both of those were the result of Gintama’s comedy relying a lot on Japanese culture and so a lot of it didn’t translate well into English and so on, so that’s annoying. I’m still trying my best to see as much of it as I can, but from what I’ve seen so far, I’m enjoying it and I’m excited to see more. Again, given my love of so many anime and manga, especially Shonen Jump, it makes me want to see it more and more. I honestly can’t wait to get to the ending because I’ve heard a lot of people say just how satisfying it is as a finale to the whole thing. I also saw that Gintama: The Final actually was dubbed, so that’s a little weird, but I’m still excited to see it when I get there. I do a lot of different anime videos on my own RU-vid channel separate to this one and I’ve done some Gintama videos on it like talking about how much I love the songs and music and mentioning how I have a Gintoki collectible along with all my others.
I'm glad you've enjoyed Gintama in spite of all the roadblocks. I totally understand the frustration people have when it comes to reading or watching it dubbed, Gintama in particular has the double whammy of 1. Japanese jokes and 2. Really weird localization/dubbing/publishing issues. Like as you said, Viz stopped publishing it at about a third of the way through its run, and to my knowledge only about half the series is dubbed in English, and in different steaming services? I dunno, anyways I'm happy you're able to enjoy what you can!
