Review of Gintama

Where to begin with this first season...A simple conclusion would be this a series of random humour. There is relatively little plot progression (at least until the final 52 episodes). But that would do a dis-service to the series. It is the best series for 4th wall breaking and originality. The former is blended in so seamlessly it feels natural which is a real skill. The latter is a testament to how many new and novel ideas are given in this series. The biggest negative...the inconsistency. Especially for the first 3/4 of the series the number of large scale arcs are few and far between.Instead there are a multitude of one shot or two shot episodes that can be hit or miss for the humour. The art, characters and sound are all good, but you can only do so many comedy episodes, however creative, without it wearing a little thin.

Nonetheless, towards the end it really comes together with a series of much better arcs. This may be the first anime which has made me laugh out loud and shed tears which is no mean feat. I do wonder how it managed to air at 6pm though and appear in Jump when most of the content would have at least a 15 plus slapped on it, but if I were a teen I'd think it awesome to be given an insight to the adult world.

Overall I'd recommend, although for newcomers perhaps the 51 episode recap in HD would be best, as later on the series improves and the old format style isn't the best. But definitely worth a watch.