Gintama.

While others may argue that this season was a dip in quality I would say the very opposite. When we talk about Gintama we mostly talk about its gag part but what I like more are the story like arcs with humor and not all gag arc which seems like a filler. This season focused on that very aspect. This season of Gintama has a nice story line with each episode explaining many plot holes like why people call Katsura zura (No it is not some plain nickname, it has meaning behind it), why did Yoshida Shouyo suddenly become his beloved students enemy and italso tells us more about Kagura's family. This season has sense in it which I particularly liked. The story is well written and has been nicely executed. No complains about the art in Gintama (mainstream anime mostly have the budget for good animation too). I like both the songs along with the soundtracks used in battles and other scenes. You see a lot of character development in this season of Gintama. Overall it is a 9.5 for me. I would really appreciate your views on the same. Drop a comment on my wall if you feel like it. Thank you

Gintama is slowly coming to its end, sadly it isn't ending on a high note. With this season of Gintama the focus of the anime is moving towards ending its overarching story line which means each episode is more serious and focused on the action and backstory over what is in my opinion Gintama's biggest strength in the first place, Comedy. The way this season is structured is very similar to the likes of One piece. The combat is basically the 2 opponents constantly monologuing and then occasionally hitting each other. Then to make it feel more intense they always seem to hit each other evenlyso the battles are always drawn out, boring and unimmersive. Then when the combat is over the rest of the episodes is littered with backstory which is yet again drawn out just like One piece. Now you see where i'm getting at, Gintama is basically becoming what it was always joking about: A generic shounen anime with the only redeeming factor is the occasional comedy that is good as always. Sadly as a big Gintama fan i can't say i enjoy this season and for everyone that dislikes One Piece, Bleach and Dragon Ball it will probably be the same. Now i have to say that there is still a way to enjoy the end of Gintama, that is by reading the manga. The issues that are in the anime aren't really that apparent in the manga since the backstory and combat parts aren't dragged out way to long in there.

The fall of Gintama, by a fan of the series. Back in winter 2016, Gintama° was pulling out the two greatest arcs of the series. And, one of the best action-drama sequences ever seen in the shounen genre. The amateur studio BN Pictures was in a pinch with the production. Yet Sorachi's writing was shining at its brightest, pushing the series to a whole new level. After the end of the Farewell Shinsengumi arc, Sorachi had two options. He could keep pushing higher, to scale up the series' finale with the power of the previous arcs. Or he could go through the lazy writing route. Sadthing he did choose the latter. It is important to note that this is the same old Gintama, at least on a surface level. The comedy, now less frequent, is still on point. The basic plotline of the "story arcs" still the same. Lack of comedy might turn off some fans, but it's not a problem at all. What was not done right then? Why one of my favorite titles felt so mediocre in this particular season? Emotional stakes. Not the lack of them, but the distance of them from the plot stakes. Picture this: A beloved one of yours turns into a evil monster. He wants to end his own misery but he can't do it himself. Then he realises the only way he could do this is to destroy planet earth. And the way he finds to achieve his goal is to provoke a universal-scale war. Now you see yourself going to a foreign planet far from home to... Do you see the problem here? We are going too many places and too far away only to get to a single point: The clash between Gintoki and Utsuro. All these light-years made plot and emotional stakes too apart from each other. Now the story is involving a lot of people, parties, places and actions. And all these have little to nothing to do with the emotional conflict. Tying emotional and plot stakes together is no easy task. Creating big ass events to see the action roll and nothing else sounds far easier, right? Besides, the visuals looks the same from the last cour of Gintama°. Nothing impressive, as expected from a low-budget production. One of the most disappointing aspects though, is the lack of new OSTs. Sure, they added some new sound, but they for the most reused tracks from previous seasons. Almost every major arc from the 2015 season had their own OSTs, so what happened? Most fans of the series will still love to their hearts this season. Shounen genre addicts can still find a good deal of enjoyment here. But, if you are one of the few people that loved Gintama for the writing gems it pulled out (aside the comedy), for poetic arcs like Mitsuba or Red Spider, for heartbreaking drama from Shogun Assassination and Farewell Shinsengumi arcs... Better stop. The next arc, Silver Soul, is by far only a bigger fest of the same meals compared to Rakuyo arc. Stop here, and save yourself from watching the fall of Gintama.

When you think of Gintama, you think of its comedy and what it's known for. As like its previous season, Gintama has started to throw most of the comedy out the window in order to finish the story and thus its franchise as a whole. However, doing this is not a good thing, and in this season it is quite apparent. When you compare this to the previous one—while only being 12 episodes to 51—the dip in quality is really apparent. Would it have been better if it was more than 12 episodes? Yes, and maybe not. It would have had more time to bringin other elements it is currently missing or it could have just brought in the same old stuff that is already making it go downhill. The story has taken a bit of a dive. I don't feel the same emotion as I did in the two previous arcs: Shogun Assassination Arc & Farewell, Shinsengumi Arc. They managed to actually use comedy, action, and story pretty much perfectly to what Gintama is expected to do. It wasn't underwhelming and didn't feel bland to what this season gives. Story has never been a key factor in the Gintama series when you think of it in a bigger picture, but due to the previous season, we've been leading up to an actual plot that is pushing the series to an end. There was, however, some good story progress in terms of the past with Utsuro & even more so with Kagura's family, which was welcoming as we never had any real backstory to them. Here we find out the problems centered around the family as a whole and their reasoning for the path they’ve taken. Visuals haven’t changed a bit and are the same as it has been for a while now. Becoming hit and miss in terms of good production. I really loved the OPs art, especially during the scene of the color changes going from black and white to actual color—representing their old selves as they move forward as they once did in the past. Nothing special about the ED in terms of art since it was just stills basically of some art of the characters with the odd movement of nothing important. It is probably one of the worst visually speaking EDs of the series. As for its sound, you think of how well the studio is able to put sounds into the sound sfx, character tones throughout the series, and its OST and OP/ED. Same old, same old to be quite honest but it didn't put stuff out of place this season which was a huge plus for it. The OP was one of the better ones and had a catchy tune to it, and I said previously, the visuals of it were really well done when you look at it visually and with the music for it. However, due to the lack of subs from official translators, most people will not understand the actual lyrics and meaning behind, and so we are left in the dust to actually wonder if the song has a meaning or if it’s just there as a song. Some shows do this well, for example, while being a terribly written show, M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane had good songs for its OP/ED and it actually felt like the songs fit its dark theme. The ED, well, I don't have much of an opinion on it. It didn't sound amazing and the visuals were bland. There are two key factors you look at when you watch Gintama: Did it make you laugh? Did the story progress without hindering the actual comedy tone? In the end, I rated this season lower than the previous due to it being one of the weakest seasons out of the whole franchise because of the story progression hindering the rest of what the series is known for. As a fan of the franchise, it's kind of saddening that its focusing so much on action that there's no way to put in good comedy but I guess that is to be expected as what is even worse than barely any comedy is comedy that is terribly out of placed, which this season did do at times. While I may be disappointed about this season, I still look forward to more Gintama and hope it can somehow manage to bring back the elements that this season lacked in.

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