#except gengai has to watch it

[baragaki]

If you guys didn’t want to, I wouldn’t have minded one bit. Even if you didn’t serve any purpose, even if you were useless pieces of junk... As long as you guys, my friends, were beside me, I was fully prepared to die with you!

[agroupofcrows]

rewatched tama quest arc and going insane. what. what the hell is this. the way it parallels literally everything from ‘luke i’m your father’ utsuro reveal to gintoki/takasugi and leukocyte king/gintoki alter egoness.,,, tama(evil tama)/shoyo (utsuro),,,,,,,, and the whole entire final except takasugi actually died (or did he),,,,,sorachi so evil for this, i’m losing it. gintama cyclical mimetic yada yada pls end me (i’m sorry if this has been talked about before/is obvious i just needed to share my pain with someone

haven't watched it in years but the points you bring up are all great! I'll to do a rewatch in the near future and tag my following posts properly (and probably link ths aks?) thanks so much for sending this ask this is FUN

ok so relying solely on memory, my predictions are

metanarrative device tama? (virus -> compromised story/narrative. gintoki's chance/temptation to get out?)

kintoki/leukocyte/evil!tama/shoyo/utsuro/takasugi loss of distinction?

leukocyte king death scene and takasugi death scene are identical?

food motive hurts? idk

probably.... fits the hero's journey pattern? omg gengai as treshold guardian+necromancer i like this

probably mimesis idk ill think about it. maybe do the mimesis bingo for fun

bonus: ive a few really vague memories of thinking about tolkien character feanor and silmarils during this arc. now im going to find out if it was just me being Not Normal or there are actual similarities

not a prediction but a fact ive actually remembered: arc has some very sexy katabasis

like this is what i want in my sci fi

[gamechangeroo]

Just finished reading the end of Gintama, and boy do I have some thoughts. The one person I know in the physical world who has seen some Gintama seems to be operating under the impression that the main character’s name is Gintama, so I think my thoughts are better thought here.

Big giant endgame spoilers under the cut.

My main takeaway from the Silver Soul Arc was that Sorachi fucking adores these characters, and he respectfully understands that others do too. Surprising I know, but hear me out.

Over the first part of the arc, when everyone in Edo was trying to fend off a Liberation Army-Naraku sandwich, the plot progression became surprisingly formulaic. I mean, Gintama has some tropes and and story standards it makes fun of and leans on more than others, but this was… more extreme than usual.

To sum it up, our intrepid gang of outgunned and outmanned heroes find themselves caught in a deadly situation with no way out until… a group of other characters from a previous arc pop up at the last possible second to save the day! This happened again (Gengai) and again (Shinsengumi) and again (Jirocho and co) and again (Yoshiwara) and again (Saigou and co) and again (Hedoro) and… Well, I started to feel like I was a kid with a twenty page math worksheet that had me filling out the same multiplication tables over and over. Two pages in and I already know what’s on page 18, but they’re still making me fill it out anyway like repetition is the Babylonian with a chisel and my brain is the stone tablet that will be discovered in 3,000 years with 4*8=I WANT TO BE STEAMED CHEESE BREAD engraved firmly upon it.

Admittedly, I wasn’t liking how the finale was shaping up to just be a parade of characters we’ve seen through the years, but then I realized that Sorachi was pulling a Maes Hughes. He took out his wallet and showed us a mountainous pile of pictures of all these people he had created; he showed us what the culmination of the character arcs through the series have made them, and how each of them have gotten to the place where they could stand back to back with the Yorozuya and take on the universe for the sake of Earth in their own unique ways. He showed us these pictures in his wallet one last time before the series had to make its final fateful call inside the phone booth.

That’s the way I started to see it, at least. I still wasn’t glued to my screen for that part of the experience (excepting Gengai, Tama, and Kintoki’s part which was MASTERCLASS), but I respected the creative choice a little more.

Then into the two-year skip, we get a significant change of pace and some large looming questions. A big one being who are these characters beyond the ages and arcs we’ve seen them exist and who will they become? Sorachi heavily implied with his final fantasy japes that no one was getting a wrapped-up picturesque and-then-they-married-and-named-their-children-Boruto-and-Albus-Severus ending, but that didn’t mean people weren’t going to change. It was so refreshing to see Shinpachi’s leveled up swordmanship!

However, the question of where these characters were heading very quickly had to take a backseat to the conclusion of Takasugi and Shouyou’s arcs, which I didn’t find all that compelling, so I don’t really have a lot to say about it.

Instead, beyond the final final this-is-the-last-one-really final battle at the terminal, we finally got our answer of where these characters would go:

Nowhere.

Sure, the city may have changed a little. Princess Soyo’s role was a bit different and who even knows what Katsura’s going to do at this point, but mostly we have our Yorozuya our Yoshiwara our Shinsengumi etc, moving forward as they always have in changing times. They weren’t shunted into these roles for plot points or out of necessity, but just because they wanted to be there. I think that was Sorachi’s answer to the question of where his characters go and why:

Sometimes we choose to do the things that we do simply to be with the people we love, and that’s just fine.

Shinpachi doesn’t have some ultimate fateful calling – neither do Kagura or Gintoki –, but they have found a home in being together, which we’ve seen being built almost brick-by-brick throughout this entire gargantuan series. All things considered, it was a very kind ending made by a creator who sincerely cares about his story and about those who care to read/watch it.

In other words,

[mariaantonnietta]

Let’s talk about the Gintama 2 Movie!! (Be Forever Yorozuya)

AI wanna talk timelines, timelines!!, I saw the movie again and with the manga finished I want to discuss theories about it!!

Hello! Is me again, I want to talk about the second movie, because after seeing it I always want to try to desipher what happened in the timelines we didn’t see play out! Of coure these will be at best theories that are we can’t probe, but I still want to try to guess! And now with the manga finished, I think is time to revisit it with all the date we have!

I will talk about the second movie, the manga end, and everything, so stay with me having that in mind!

Firstly, this movie deals with time travel (fairly well I might add, I realycould follow all the time twists and make sense of them), and I believed it wise to add a timeline so everyone follows along. Behold my horrible graphic!

Haha, there are some things to say about the drawing. From left to right, The first line is to separate the time-points nothing else, (the movie was released at june 2013, the manga volume for the shinigami arc was december 2013, so I don’t know if I am being  a bit generous there, but in timeline I think it only matters is before Shogun assasination (after which it get serious until the end), and that it is before that point)

The other are the first (and first’s branch),  second and thrid timeline, I didn’t count Tama going to the past to bring past Gintoki as a separate timeline and more like a  little branch of the first because when Gintoki is sent forwards they converge (you can also see it as the rest of that branch dissappearing). All of them are in a sense a branch from the first timeline, but this one converges so.

(ask if something else isn’t clear, I tried T-T) 

Well now unre the cut the  rest of my silly ideas and theories!

A comment, but the only thing that is a bit out of place is Tama surviving in the second timelime?, like shouldn’t her be erased like GIntoki?, I think is either that she would otherwise cause a bigger loop (she doesn’t exist as time machine there->Gintoki cant kill his past self->Genma makes her a time machine->Gintoki kills his past self-> she doesn’t exist as a time machine->...infiinitum) She is the one that allows the timeline to exist. The other is that she is in a Schrödinger' situation that as long as the possibility that she will exist in the future exist she will (gintoki dissappeared because his posibility of future was erased as he killled his past self). Or time machine power makes her inmune to paradoxes, who knows...

Also, we don’t talk enough of  Gintoki dying in this movie. Both Enmi Gintoki of the first timeline, the past Gintoki of the second, and the  protagonist Gintoki we follow in the movie (first timeline branch) are erased, and from now on we are following the Gintoki who’s the future of the Shiroyasha of the third timeline. (the one who helped us fight the Enmi, from now on he’s the protagonist)

The same about the kabukichou people, I mean, nothing changes practically, except maybe the Joui members having seen something strange that day.

1) Now, something I wondering was if the events of the first timeline ocurred in the same way that in the third one. Was there a Shogun Asasination arc?, A silver soul arc?

Well, no. I think that there events unfloded differently...because GIntoki dissapeared for five years, and he did it  before the shogun assasination arc (this not only for the date release, but also the jovial athmosphere at the start at the cinema)

But did the events of the story play on in another manner without Gintoki regardless?, Why, I sure they did. 

Okay, follow me on this. I do not know if the shogun assasination arc happened or not (even tough a parallel can be made of Katsura and Shinsengumi alliance in both places), but I think that even if it did, it didn’t happen at all as planned.

I think everything went into disarray with the virus (don’t we know about that), any plan was left into the air, and Nobunobu or Shigeshige are in charge depending on their luck.

I also want to know what happened with Utsuro and the Tendoshou in this timelime.(Because cm’on, don’t tell me I am the only one who believed Enmi GIntoki looked a lot like a crow ) I want to know if Takasugi is dead or not, and how he died/where he is. (I asumme Sakamoto is fine, maybe helping people, is Zura with those clothes and Gintoki words, Gintoki going to the terminal that make me worry)

So, I started gathering those points and I believe I reached a theory about this.

Okay, so follow me. These are the things we know about the first timeline.

Gintok soon after watching the movie discovered he was infected with the virus. He suspected it was the Enmi, went to talk of the past with Zura to clear his mind, talked wiith Gengai about making a time machine if he didn’t came back. 

Left the Yorozuya to investigate if there was a solution, tries to kil himself when he doesn’l  find one. He fails. He has not other choice but to wander as he sees the world be destroyed by his own hands. 

I posted this photo because of the ships that surround the tower and attack it. It doesn’t say when this attack took place after he left, we could only see that he wasn’t there. But this image looks fairly similar to the one when the Altana liberation force attacks.

The tower also looks very similar 5 years later as after attacked by the altana liberation army. (I checked also with how it was when the Tegenism ship fell, it looks more like the after the attack)

(After Initial liberation army attack. Third Timeline)

(Five years later. First timeline) Probably they didn’t have resources to rebuild with everything falling down with teh virus. Why would some army attack, I think that maybe the earthlings that escape, some had the virus, that probably expanded it onto another planets, that now made the problem worse in the universe and some people really mad at the planet from where the infection came from. Or, it could be rebels, like the Kihetai, that are taking advantage of the political turmoil to attack their actual objective (the terminal, with the minawabanwu maybe too ) Or both.

(Two years later third timeline) I added this to show how it doesn’t look like the terminal we discuss, so I think if something happened, it happened earlier more than later. (Or later, but it was only one incident and not 2)

Another thing we know is that the Enmi look a lot like the Tendoushu. I compared staffs and things. Wondered if there were related to Tengenism (the weir religion that launches the last arc)

Well, It’s not basic staff like tendoushou, but the decoration is different tha the tengeism. The clothes are also similar but not the same (I know the these arcs came later, but sorachi could have used different designs and not similar ones, you know, also, it’s just throwing ideas)

(Enmi at the start, checked, Enmi Gintoki uses the same one (and same clothes))

Oboro staff is different. Tengenism have the same type. Tengenism symbol are wings (phoenix), not Enmi. But the similarities are there too.

So, we all know the Enmi are nanomachines that are used to destroy worlds right?. I wondered if Utsuro could survive that. The answer  I reached was that it depended. If the Enmi virus only worked on humans, it would probably not kill it. ut if after killing humans it affected animals, then plants, then destryed the planet vitality, well, that would do it. It would depend of how lethat it actually was. (in  the last case, he would be the last to die, and Gintoki would be the only one who survives as the new vessel...moving onto the next world until he dies naturally or some poor bastard kills him)

 Well, I’m gonna asumme that the Enmi would destroy the world to that point, because they were described as ‘beings  that caused damage enough to leave a planet uninhabitable’ and the other ‘uninhabitable’ planet we see is Kouka’s, that is dying and its Altana was almost nothing when she left. Zura said they were forbidden or being restricted because of this.

So we know the Enmi were beings that could destroy worlds,(probably up to their lifeforce), that were contained by something, that someone attacked the terminal tower looking a lot like a pseude liberation army, and that Enmi’s dress is eerie similar (but not the same) to the Tendoushu.

I believe they were also a ting the Tendoushu kept to themselves, a fraction that can destroy a planet to the point of leaving without life (Altana) sounds like something they would regulate. Maybe mercenaries was  a cover up, or maybe it was both.

Was the first timeline all Utsuro plan? Well, too many jumps there. I believe thst he vouldn’t do that trapped with Shoyou, I think that in the first timeline he did as in the last arc, he saw that mortals used that virus to harm the others, and decided to make use of that. He of course was the cause that they attacked the Terminal and is probably happy that all the universe may perish of disease.

Maybe.

Or maybe that was the plan, and Takasugi stopped him. (There are too many factors to see how things developed. But either kihetai + harusame maybe + minawabanshu and some others killed utsuro, or they died either fighting him or from disease)

The way GIn is dtanding aside as the ships atack the terminal (he can’t join) makes me think some kind of final battle took place.

(Gorilla might not know how Gintama was fgonna end, but he did have some ideas, and final fight at the Terminal tower was one that stuck all the series)

Does Gintoki know of Utsuro?, Who knows?  If you want my take, I think Takasugi and Utsuro both died figthing each other. As the terminal exploded.

I think he eventually at least, found out. Because he decided to go die there.

(also because you know, final fight at the terminal.)

2) In the second timeline everything is much more clear. Young GIntoki dies. I see 3 options unfolding

a) the one I call the normal one. GIntoki dies, people mourn him (because Gintoki just erased his future, not his past, young Gintoki body should remain), either Zura or Takasugi kills Shouyou (probably Takasugi, I’m thinkin so because Oboro mostly, he would pick if not shiroyasha, the other more known at the frontlines one, but could be either way), and is a bit diffrent but in practical mostly the same.(maybe some things are held back and the shogun asssination hasn’t happened yet, or maybe it did, who knows) We can’t tell more than thi.

b) Probably not route. shouyou discovers that Gintoki’s died and it gives him strenght to make keep Utsuru more in check, he uh...destroys things, there’s no need to kill him for now.things advance more or less like in canon,  with a lot of things we don’t see 

c) I cry route. Shouyou discovers what happened, and it kills off his personality (sends him to sleep at least). There’s no need for either Zura or Takasugi to kill him. They never find his master at the war (maybe they are told he is dead, and don’t believe it). They didin’t kill his master, but los Gintoki to who knows who, and don¡’t know what happened to master, Thingd happen more or less like in canon.

 3) Here someone (probabky kurokono!...ok no, leave me dream), wakes GIntoki from his drunk sleep and he and the joui 4 see a bizarre image of people from 15 years in the future attack the Enmi.(of course they don’t know this) They brieftly join them. They see from a distance how the future people dissapear. They continue with their life.

(That last one is canon, haha)

As you can see nothing has been cleared and these are mostly cool theories, a lot of other things are possible. But I don’t know, wanted to talk about it.

[razberryyum]

Gintama live action 2 movie review Part 3 of 3...SPOILERS!

Again, you should probably read Parts 1 & 2 first cuz now it’s like you’re starting a movie when it’s already 2/3rds over...which you literally are....

That image looks good whether it’s in black and white, animated color or live action.

I ship GinHiji no matter what form they are in, so this moment, where they’re like THISCLOSETOGETHER, of course made me happy.

Ok, I don’t think I’m crazy but this ass pounding scene went on longer than it did in the anime. It was unbelievable, especially how into it Tosshi was. They didn’t include a few of the other abusive moments between Gintoki and Hijikata, but this prolonged scene made up for it.

This happened. I don’t know why cuz I didn’t understand what they were saying, but bless Director Fukuda for finding creative ways to include Zura into the Shinsengumi Crisis Arc. I hope he continues to do that in future movies. 

This happened too. Actually in addition to the Evangelion parody, there was another reference to another famous anime when they were in Gengai’s warehouse, but I just didn’t include it. I’ll leave at least one surprise for those of you still planning to watch the movie (you should. Seriously watch it. Totally worth your time and honestly, why are you even spoiling yourself by reading all this? Of course I appreciate that you’re doing that, but please don’t think this is enough so that you don’t have to watch the movie anymore. WATCH IT DAMMIT)

Kagura the Queen saving everyone’s ass. She is really so awesome in the movie, Hashimoto Kanna did her proud. 

 Baby Itou was adorbs in the manga, anime AND in the movie.

The movie proving Shinsengumi drinking parties are the bacchanalian feasts that we all assumed them to be. 

I wanted to take a moment to just say how freaking amazing Nakamura Kankurou was as Kondou. He really was a perfect Kondou. Man went all out in the dramatic moments, totally brought tears to my eyes. I pretty much cried every time Kondou cried. My only lament is that he didn’t have any scenes with Otae. There was a point during the Snack Smile Host portion where he was on a tank screaming about Otae, which I’m sure was him confessing his love all over again, but I would’ve really liked it if they actually interacted cuz the short scenes they had in the first movie were so adorable.

Obviously I loved the movie, but if I really had to point out a flaw, I would say the Bansai fight scenes could have been better scored and his fight with Gintoki could have been better. First, the music in his fight scenes...it was pretty bad. Like, weird, generic 80′s electrical guitar shit. I think they were trying to go for rock and roll, but it ended up putting a damper on what were otherwise really well-choreographed fight sequences. I wish they would’ve just used Otsuu’s music. They didn’t need to explain why, we fans would’ve known immediately. And then his showdown with Gintoki was kind of weird because they inserted a lot of bad CG because of his strings...which were ridiculously thick, as you can see. There were some Matrix slo mo too which...I’m just not a fan of after the first Matrix. I also thought they should have kept the fight near the train instead of bringing it back to Edo since it lacked the heightened sense of urgency in the original scenes where Gintoki was trying to save everyone on the train. But on the bright side, Edo looked freaking amazing....reminded me Xandar in Guardians of the Galaxy.

I cried. I cry every time we get to this moment, but this time, I felt especially sad because I kinda wanted this Itou to stick around for the next movie.

I am so damn glad live action Yamazaki got his opportunity to shine on the big screen because Tozuka Junki was so delightful in Mitsuba-hen. Btw, one big bummer of the bluray set is even though it had a second special features disc, it DIDN’T include the special episodes that were shown on dTV. I was hoping they would be nice enough to include them since the had a whole extra disc, but nope. It was like cast appearance and character profile stuff. Nice of course, but still wasn’t what I was really wishing for. I wish someone would sub those and put them online like they did with the Mitsuba-hen eps.

They were sitting back to back in the manga/anime...I can’t decide if this is better, the same, or worse. It’d be nice if they were at least sitting closer cuz they were closer when they were sitting back to back. I know, I’m insane. Whatever, I loved this movie. I want a third one. And a fourth and a fifth. With this cast and Director/Screenwriter Fukuda. 

So, please, Gintama gods, give it to us. And let it cover either the Yagyuu Arc, Vacation Arc or the Baragaki Arc. Or basically any arc that can build upon these last two movies and yet be self-contained AND most importantly, include the Shinsengumi boys and Zura. I would love the Popularity Poll arc to be brought to life, since then Tsukuyo can be involved, lest anyone think I’m purposely excluding her, I’m not, it’s just the Yoshiwara arcs don’t include the Shinsengumi or Zura at all, and I don’t know how they can reasonably add all of them in, even though I would LOVE to see live action Kamui and Abuto too. And the Courtesan of a Nation arc is too involved. Maybe we can do that for the fourth movie. Gods I wish the live action can be an entire series. I could watch this cast act out every chapter of the manga. It’ll be costly, no doubt, but it’d be nice. Omg, except for one dude, wow I almost completely forgot about him because I kind of want to. Live action Takasugi is NO GOOD. I know Domoto Tsuyoshi was (is?) popular, I know he has lots of fans, Sorachi-sama is probably one of them, but holy crap is he miscast as Takasugi. It was actually physically HURTING me to see his scenes with live action Bansai (Kubota Masataka) because Bansai was so perfect in comparison. I mean, everything was just wrong with LA Takasugi...down to the fact that when he first appears in this movie, we see his ugly bare feet and legs first. It was such an off-putting entrance and yet, somehow fitting. I wish they would just recast him since, from what I heard, he didn’t even want to be Takasugi to begin with. But otherwise, everyone’s wonderful. I really hope we’ll get an American release, if not theatrically (though I wish it would be) then at least VOD or BD/DVD so that I can finally understand what everyone is saying through subs.

Anyway, that’s my long-ass review of the second live action movie, Gintama 2: Rules are made to be broken. Thank you for reading, please see it legally when you are able to so that Fukuda-san and his team can make enough money to make another one. 

[powerup-the-revolution]

I went to see the new Gintama live action movie today !! It was absolutely epic and I didn’t expect it to be aired anywhere else than in Japan, so when I saw that it aired in a couple cinemas in Taipei, I was over the moon :’)

A lot of feedback with a lot of spoilers under the cut !

Where do I start ? The humor was on point, as you’d expect from the Gintama franchise. Sometimes it got a little too heavy, making me feel glad I went alone instead of taking a friend who knows nothing about Gintama along, but this movie has made me laugh out loud more than any movie before.

Also, to my very great surprises, there were both traditional chinese and english subtitles !! My japanese is definitely not enough for me to understand all the jokes and references, so the english subs really saved my butt here.

The acting was, for the most part, really really great. I especially enjoyed the Shinsengumi, with Kondo delivering some of the best emotional moments (which was unexpected considering he’s often the butt of the jokes), Hijikata’s actor really nailing the Tosshi side, and Okita being his usual deadpan yet very intense character. And let’s not forget Yamazaki, whose actor was absolutely adorable and gave that one ‘murder’ scene all the glory it deserves :’)

Kondo gets a paragraph to himself, because he delivered the speech that really struck me as the most emotional and well-played scene in the movie : that speech about his flag not being pitch-white. The dialogue in itself sounded fairly the same as in the anime, but the actor did a superb job at delivering it. I was at the edge of my seat, watching him talk back to Ito with his cheeky smirk,  surrounded with the men who had just betrayed him.

I also really enjoyed the portrayals of Ito and Bansai. Like in the anime, Ito was very stoic yet menacing all through the movie, at that one said towards the end where he pleads for mercy went straight to my heart. Bansai’s outfit was definitely the best one out of everyone (yet it’s the only one that gets mocked xD), and his fighting techniques looked quite decent, though I personally wouldn’t have picked bright yellow for the color of his weapon’s strings ...

The only criticism I’d have towards the cast is Kagura’s actor, who looked a little stiff and out of things at some moments (I notably caught her staring at absolutely nowhere when adressing other characters, which looked quite strange), and Takasugi - though maybe it’s his voice that bothers me the most. Nothing can equal Edgy Samurai Dio.

Now for the music. For the first hour or so, it didn’t stand out much and was neither annoying our outstanding, but as the action got more intense, the music also gained a level of awesome. It felt a lot different from the original soundtrack, except maybe for a reoccuring theme that sounds very much like this arc’s original theme, but else it sometimes felt like I was watching some Ghibli or Makoto Shinkai movie. Which isn’t a bad thing ! The music as pretty and harmonious, with some memorable, more jazzy/rock themes that really impressed me.

And now, for the biggest part : the story. It’s been a long while since I saw the anime movie, so my memory might fail me on some details, but there are some important points that are definitely different from the original story.

First of all ... no cursed sword. It took me a while to understand why they changed such a big part of the plot - it was probably to give the story more closure, instead of having ‘Tosshi’ somewhat live on. I don’t remember whether the sword was pushed in Hijikata’s path by Ito, but this time around, it’s clearly said that turning him into a weak otaku was part of Ito’s plan to get rid of the vice-chief, before he eliminated Kondo himself.

The whole chip story held itself together, though it also meant that Tetsuko didn’t get to apepar again and was more or less replaced by Gengai - but this is where my memory fails me, as I’m not 100% sure what role either of the two have in the original story. The fact that Katsura also appears a couple times, and notably during the Mad Max-like battle near the train, surprised me a little.

I am also fairly sure that the whole ‘Bansai going after the shogun’ thing didn’t happen at all that way in the original story. It led to a rather puzzling battle between Gintoki and Bansai : the battle itself was absolutely epic, and has my favorite track out of the OST, but the setting of the battle felt extremely odd to me. It looked like it could have belonged in a Star Wars movie more than in Gintama, with how pitch-white and modern it looked.

There was some weird CG, some outrageous references that weren’t at all in the original story (I am still laughing about the Evangelion scene .. just get in the fucking robot Tosshi), a lot of mosaics, many epic reactions, very moving scenes ... Everything you’d expect from a good Gintama movie \o/

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Gintama, Episodes 16-18

How’s about a couple more for the road? In which you thought this meme was dead because the episode aired like 5 years before the meme was even a thing, but it was me, Dio! Oh, and one of my least favorite tropes manages to actually be really funny this time around, so that’s something.

Old Regrets

You know, it’s becoming an odd trend with this show that literally every session I watch gives me both a new thematic thread to pull on and explore AND a new kind of comedy to praise. At some point, you figure the well’s gotta run dry. But it it ain’t gonna be now. Because this crop of episodes added a powerful new dimension to Gintama’s exploration of reclaiming/abandoning the past: the regrets of the elderly. It’s first explored in a more comedic manner through the now-disgraced former assistant to the Almighty Prince Majin Bu (yes, that’s what I’m going with), whose firing has made him realize how unsure he is of where the path of his life is truly leading, and it works in a surprisingly poignant message about finding what you want so late in life amid the impossible-to-effectively-translate puns (as well as another gut-bustingly funny instance of the show breaking out the yodeling music unexpectedly). But the real meat of this theme comes in episode 17; with the tale of the genius inventor who lost his son to the war.

Gengai’s struggle is a fascinating portrait of a man trapped the things he wish he could change. He wants to tear down the new regime in vengeance for his son’s death, even though he knows it won’t really solve anything. He tries to fill the void with the robots he builds, even going so far as to make one to take the place of his son, but the joy of creation that first got him into the craft has long since been squeezed out by hatred and sadness. In the end, he doesn’t have the strength of will to fulfill his son’s request and build robots with joy again; he can only build to destroy. Like Gintoki and everyone else, his past is constantly nipping at his heels, torturing him with what-ifs and maybes. But unlike everyone else so far, he’s too old and beaten down to see a brighter path; all he can see ahead now is revenge.

The Black Beast of Vengeance

Which brings us to the surprisingly epic face-off between Gintoki and the former comrade who, as he put it ,finally polished Gengai’s fangs enough for him to start biting: None other than Dio Brando himself! Because that was totally his voice actor giving life to that eyepatch-wearing motherfucker. And my god, they couldn’t have picked a better smarmy bastard for this role. His chilling speech about the “black beast of vengeance” that drives people like him and Gengai to destroy reveals so much about the hopelessness and anger that boils and ferments long after the bloodshed of conflict is officially over. In some way, every character in this show is driven by that beast. By their failures and missteps, by their losses and regrets, they either fight back against the system or they stew within it until they explode.

Except Gintoki.

Gintoki has burned through the nihilism of the black beast and come out the other side fast enough to change it into white. He doesn’t see a hopeless situation with only one option; he sees all the ways he can still fight for what he knows is just in an unjust world. And with his newfound friends having recently re-awakened his samurai spirit, he’s not about to let some jackass 80s glam vampire wreak havoc indiscriminately. And he’s not going to let Gengai succumb to that anger.

Which leads to one of the most evil scenes I can recall in recent memory: Gengai’s robot son can’t bring himself to fire upon Gintoki in the same way his true son rejected his father turn toward war machines, allowing the silver-haired samurai to strike him down. Upon which, with his “dying” words, he tells his father the exact same thing his real son said before heading out to die in the war, that he deserves to be a happy tinkerer finding joy in the creation of new things and fuck me sideways with a corkscrew how did this goddamn show almost make me cry in the same episode wherein Kagura dispatches a massive robot with a battle cry of “DOMESTIC VIOLENCE”? Slowly but surely, Gintama is coming into its own, and I’m really damn excited to see how far it’ll go.

Also, it gave us the Joseph Joestar vs Dio standoff we never got, and god bless them for that.

NANI?!

Yet as good as this theme work was, it’s actually the comedy side of things that impressed me more this time around. Specifically, episode 18 managed to wring a fantastic episode of goof and guffaws out of one of my least favorite anime tropes: pervert shit. If you’ve read any of my other binges, you probably know I looooooathe when female characters are sexually harassed for the sake of “comedy”. I think it’s disgusting, degrading, and almost always used for the audience to get off on their humiliation. Long story short, I consider Mineta to be the devil’s anus. So the idea of an episode focused around a panty thief who steals women’s underwear and gives them to gross bottom-feeding excuses for men was, shall we say, not exactly appealing on the surface.

But this time, it actually worked. Nearly every joke made me laugh. And I think a big part of the reason why is that literally everyone is in on the joke. None of our protagonists are humiliated, physically or otherwise, over the entire course of the episode. They’re all allowed to trade sexually charged barbs with each other, regardless of gender, and the result is that no one ends up feeling victimized by the comedy other than the blathering robber himself and the men he supposedly represents. The point of the comedy isn’t to make light of sexual harassment or exploit it for cheap pandering; it’s to give every degenerate otaku who considers women’s autonomy beneath them a kick in the teeth, a more sardonic take on the same concept End of Evangelion mined for its now-infamous masturbation scene. And to cap it all off, it’s Otae, the nominal “victim” of the thief’s escapades, who gets the final blow in to take him down, with a battle cry of “don’t underestimate women!” Admittedly, Gintama hasn’t always handled this kind of material so tactfully (the assault scene in episode 3 is still a sore spot for me), but I’m really damn impressed that they managed it at all. Kudos, show. Here’s hoping you can keep it up.

Odds and Ends

-Rofl at that guy trying to light his lighter with a cigarette

-askdjhadskhasd the dramatic “changing glasses” lighting

-The scene of everyone asking to be driven to ridiculous places was another great example of understatement in action, all done without breaking the scene’s current mood. I giggled like a maniac.

-”Because you and I are the only ones in this show with cloudy eyes.” pfft

-”No, you look at least manager level.” Christ, he reminds me of Joseph so freaking much.

-”Shinpatchi’s the one who’s really suffering! He’s showing off that he can’t sing in public!” Ahh, karaoke night.

-”I just forgot, I have to make curry.” SUCH. A. JOSEPH.

-That was a cool shot with the fireworks illuminating Dio behind Gintoki. Scary as fuck, but cool.

-”An ancient spirit who punishes biker gangs that ruin festivals!” askjadshadsa

-Okay but why the random Jamaican stereotype tho

-”Wait, wasn’t that a key part of today’s story?” RIP Stefan. Your time was short, but meaningful.

-”I’m risking my life and panties here!” Clearly, these two things are of equal importance.

-”If you’re scared, then go home!” “THIS IS MY HOME!” rofl

-Otae bonding with everyone over their shared bloodlust? Very aesthetic.

-”Baagen-Daaz!” Get. Out.

-”You think such descriptive abuse would make me flinch?” Proud of you, Kondo.

-THESE FREAKING LAND MINES OH MY GOD

Man, it’s really cool to watch this show build on itself with every session. Here’s looking forward to more good times to come!

[kaoarika]

Wrote a bit about this on Twitter, but GUESS WHAT MOVIE I WENT TO SEE ON THE CINEMA THIS WEEKEND.

Of course, potential spoilers... although, in general... it’s the Benizakura arc. I mean... it’s kinda spoilerish? Now that the manga is already ending?

It was a pleasant experience although, I would like to point a couple of things: I went to the last day (a Sunday) of exhibition, in the first showing, which was, as pointed in my ticket, at 1 PM. We were like... 5 or 6 people, including me, so... I don’t know how well the movie made through this festival. I remember reading somewhere that the anime movies didn’t do well when they were shown (two years ago, although I DO consider other factors, too, as lack of promotion- I would have gone to see them... if promotion was more present, but LOL no one of my IRL acquaintances LIKE Gintama-, and availability -a.k.a. going to the other side of my city w/no transport whatsoever except spending much more on public transportation than a freaking ticket- so... it’s very obvious Gintama isn’t an exact mainstream title that may do well in Mexico.

However, other factors may have influenced too - I went on a Sunday, and at 1 PM. Almost a Matinée showing, too.

Anyway.

I was amazed that some distributor may have shown interest in this, tbh. WAY too soon (7.14 is when the roadshow STARTED in Japan) even, although somewhere in the official page of the movie it was mentioned that the movie WOULD DEFINITELY be shown in the American continent.

The movie was pretty good?? As expected from Fukuda Yuuichi, who I previously enjoyed his work on Yuusha Yoshihiko and the drama adaptation of Aoi Honoo. Most of the comedy was top-notch, and the actors do KNOW how to time their comedy acts while balancing out the drama aspect of this storyline, which, obviously, is Benizakura-hen, once again.

I cannot complain that much about how this arc was chosen over a proper introduction (although in usual Gintama fashion, ACROSS ALL MEDIA, the cast joked about this same fact), but with much more reason, this is the arc that the roles of important characters are introduced and Gintoki’s past and present clash, and of course, it has a long term effect on the series. Kind of amusing watching this movie with the proper future context (I wasn’t the only one there, tbh... people behind me were talking loud about manga spoilers). It would be very interesting if there was a sequel... probably adapting another arc -crosses fingers, PROBABLY for Yoshiwara in Flames... although the one with Itou betraying the Shinsengumi would be interesting -again, Kiheitai present, but also introducing Bansai who was absent here... although I’m pretty fuzzy if he played an important role in Benizakura, too *it’s been a long time since I read the arc*.

Then again, the adaptation had its own issues, I guess? I cannot complain about that either... then again, it’s not one of my favorite arcs of the series... most of the things I have issue with, are in origin. But there were a bit of few missed chances. I mean, Gengai has a past thing with the Kiheitai... Otose WAS mentioned (but not seen)... although maybe I’m losing something there a msitranslation somewhere? At the end of the day, the subs that the movie had were somewhat bad.

META REFERENCES. WHAT. I’m pretty sure I lost some of them, lol. There were a few directed to Oguri (Gintoki), to Hashimoto (Kagura)... to the same series, for freaking hell... Nice, nice.

This is mostly personal opinion, but I enjoyed this adaptation even more than the AnKyou movie that I went to see last year. I know it’s like comparing apples to pears (different tone of story, different directors), but then again... as an adaptation, I think this is how you CAN make it, while trying to put original content (pretty sure the whole Henpeita part was played with a much more humorous tone here than in the manga/anime... then again, he is played by Sato Jiro, and I’m certain it was mostly ad-libbed... see the whole Buddha talks in Yuusha Yoshihiko and TELL me they aren’t ad-libbed), too. Not that I’m biased, btw. I was... mostly dissapointed in how the timing was managed in the AnKyou movie (and the fact that they DID announce the entire cast at the start, only promoted a few of the actors who had “relevant roles” in the movie(s), besides some key scenes... tell me, did the rest of the 28 students* -besides you-know-who- did something MORE useful than just a couple of scene of wonders or being shells of their original counterparts? because from all the cast that was announced in the Gintama one, THEY ALL DID SOMETHING) because at the end, they decided to tell a 21 volume manga story in 2 movies of 2 hours each. Heck, I liked Suda Masaki here as Shinpachi EVEN BETTER than his Karma.

To people who judged pre-release of the movie: I get it. The anime seiyuu cast is and always will be our beloved characters of this series. For some of you it has been a decade, almost a decade, five years, etc. You cannot hear them and seeing them act with another actor or voice in minds, but the actors DID a good job. No matter how they don’t look as “handsome” as their original manga/anime counterparts (which is one of the most... “what” complaints I saw here when I explored the series tag), they really became the essence of their respective characters. Oguri was a good Gintoki, and using the Suda example, while Sakaguchi Daisuke will always be Shinpachi in my mind and heart, he was also incredibly good at being and ACTING like Shinpachi.

Heck, even a couple of the voice actors reprised their roles in the movie? Takahashi Mikako was Sadaharu (I wasn’t that much bothered by the CGI... I mean, it’s Gintama, and I can pass it on...) and Yamadera Kouichi was Shouyo-sensei’s voice (with an actor stand-in). And I’m kinda certain that one of the initial amanto cameos is voiced by Sugita (anime!Gintoki)??? There isn’t too much “bad blood” even if it’s just an industry standard. (There were even seiyuu cameos in some charas BOTH in Aoi Honoo and Yuusha Yoshihiko, just saying).

While my expectations on the SaiPSI movie aren’t very high, I DO expect a pretty fun and decent movie. If Gintama proved to be something, based on my previous experiences, then there’ a high chance it will be fun. Again, both are directed by the same director. Trust me on that one. 

(Although there’s now 0 chances that that movie would be released here. Gintama may not be THAT mainstream AND there WAS a release of this, but Saiki???)

(*) In defense of the AnKyou movies, though, let’s be real here: Not many of them received decent development in the manga, either. BUT STILL. Some key elements were lost here??? I mean... adfsfsf.

[sparda3g]

Gintama Chapter 631 Review

To think you know how the war will go, it turns to a different approach, and I like it. War tends to be full of mystery with its outcome and this is no exception. As the arc enters the next phase of battle, it leaves with a new approach, battles, and the return to claim his rights for one last time.

The arc has gone back to the battle phase after series of comedy. Not that we do get any more of it, it's just the series is now entering the phase that gain closer to the end of the series. Based on the recent event, it certainly getting there, though still waiting on two characters and don't know when or how they will appear. The suspense is killing me.

An interesting turn is the Yato Group Master Son gives an ultimatum to the Liberation Army in order to live: stopping nanomachine or kill everyone before morning. Although they know the outcome seems unlikely, Son has another plan in mind and knocks Gengai like a scrub. They didn't turn good. Now they want to find a way to go and kill Enshou.

It's an interesting twist that takes a different turn from what I expected. I don't know if that would still apply that the people at Earth will still fight Yato, but the war escalated in an interesting direction. The Liberation Army has gone desperate to kill everyone in order to save themselves as the Yato is going to surprise and kill Enshou. The war now involves with three sides; or should I say four with Utsuro watching them with a smile. What a sneaky bastard.

As mentioned earlier, the comedy isn't going anywhere and it does lead to more action, which is actually funny. Prince Ba- excuse me, Hata actually try to blackmail Enshou to put down their weapon or his servant will kill them. Because you know, a future king doesn’t want to take blame whatsoever. Things never change. It's funny how their negotiations goes to complete non-sense, especially once they start talking about lunch money. To be fair, it is a huge crime.

Madao ends up being the chosen one to strike down the Army...by accident. I'm still giving him all the credit, dammit. His men follow as well, so he's like the top boss. If you want to credit him for kicking ass, technically, this is for you. If you want to blame him for dooming the world further, well, aim your sight at him.

The chapter starts to hype up the potential end phase with Katsura changing his attire to something that reminisces to Joui Four attire. I got to say, he looks freaking badass; here's hoping for him to go badass one last time. He's awesome when he gets serious. That also includes Elizabeth. I mean look at him; he’s about to go Rambo. It adds more when his speech reflects the battle to the death that segues with Gintoki and Sakamoto. The holy war has begun.

There's some tensed action going around and that means more brutality. Now the war has escalated to the survival of the fittest, it becomes more intense than ever, and it will only get worse. The problem is that Samurai are at disadvantage, but Gintoki has a feeling that there's someone out there that is willing to stop the destruction; unless it's by his own.

The way the chapter builds up for that character's appearance is great. Each passing tensed moment only draws closer to the reveal of the character. Even if you do know who the character is, it makes you amped up to see his arrival.

The chapter has a really good mix of visual between comedy and action. The reactions are always fun to watch as well as the action. The action does grow intensity and everything in space was looking really bad for heroes. The buildup was handled really well; each page draws closer to the character as the situation keeps getting hectic. It's like watching a hero about to make a dramatic entrance and that what exactly ends up.

The fleet arrives and strike at the mother ship, and one of them crashes towards it. The chapter just keeps on hyping and then we finally got a new challenger: Takasugi. To make matter cooler, he's in his old attire; all the merrier to make the final arc as epic as it can get. If only Gintoki would rock his old attire. It's fitting for him to aim for Enshou; only one man can destroy the world. Oh yeah, this arc is getting so good.

The chapter sets the Samurai back in action with more hype for a new detour, a funny skit to enjoy, and a grand entrance for Takasugi. Joui Four are back once more; it's only matter of time when they will return in one piece. The war is drawing near to the conclusion but it doesn't end the excitement.