Review of Gintama Season 5

I have to say that this is my first time walking away from a Gintama season not completely blown away by it. In fact, I would say that this was the weakest Gintama season of them all. But, because its Gintama, even though it was weak for its own standard, it still made for an entertaining anime. To be honest, I was really kind of bored with the entire first half of the season. It felt like more of the same Hack-N-Slash, Deus Ex Machina fights that most anime presents. Normally, there is significantly high quality humor in thefirst portion of the series that mitigates that feeling in Gintama, but the humor was hit and miss and much lighter than an earlier seasons. The arc was meant to be much more serious following the amazing events of the previous season with Shigeshige, but it just felt kind of droll throughout the entire first half, as the heroes mowed through a number of forgettable opponents. They were really trying to play up the bond between Shoyo's students in the first half, but it just didn't really connect, because in my opinion, we've seen them fighting side-by-side for years now, including flashbacks. It just wasn't as special for me as they were trying to make it seem.

But, then we got to the portion of the anime with Kagura, Kamui and Umibozu, and Gintama raised the bar back to its usual level of quality. The reason why Gintama is so well received is because while its comedic chops usually place it far beyond other action-comedies, when its time to get serious, its dramatic episodes are also some of the best you'll find. That was the case with the tale of the Yatos. Excellent back story, excellent fights, pretty decent resolution...(SLIGHT SPOILER)...with the exception of a frickin' miracle survival, which was quite cheap and ridiculous even for Gintama. If you get chopped in half? Die.

Overall, however, this whole season was really just a set up for what I assume is the final season (for real this time) of Gintama. Based upon how its set up, it looks like the final season will be pretty epic. But, as such, it makes this season feel like the weakest season of them all.

I don't have to recommend whether or not you watch this. If you're this deep into Gintama at this point, you're already going to.

Story: 7
Art: 9
Sound: 10
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 7
Overall: 7