Review of Gintama

The great thing about Gintama is that it is not limited by anything. It tells the story of a jack of all trades in a sci-fi setting, meaning that there are no boundaries as to where the story can go or what can happen to the characters. As pointed out by Gin-san himself, 'In this world it's never a strange thing to have your manhood crushed or switched out for a screwdriver'. The show may seem dull to begin with, but this is simply the downside to having such an open premise. As soon as all the main characters and their traits are established the qualityof the comedy improves. The depth of the main characters and perhaps the frequent basis on which the manga is serialised means that little effort is put into guest characters and their character development. The unfortunate result is the occasional extremely boring arcs with cliche villains and half-assed plot. Although these arcs are sometimes painful to watch, they have their moments and I think they were ploys by the author to buy enough time to come up with even funnier adventures for the main gang.

No other anime exploits the fact that it is an animation better than Gintama. Breaking the fourth wall is entertaining in anime no matter what, but Gintama takes this to the next level by integrating it into the plot. Similarly, the culture references are bravely used as hilarious plot twists, making the parody aspect of Gintama more than just fan service. Gintama is even able to use the limitations of a low budget to its advantage; some of my favourite scenes are voice acting over background only. Gintama also has its touching scenes, where the poetic cheese is great and wraps up an episode well. All these things combined with the brilliant voice acting makes Gintama a completely unique form of comedy and, in my opinion, the most watchable anime there is.