![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
on Gintama
Sooner or later there comes a time when a fangirl must just sit down and acknowledge that yes, as ridiculous as it might be, Gintama is one of their favorite animanga series of all time. Such as when you hear the anime has been renewed (again!!!) and shriek so loudly you terrify your cat. (As opposed to Gintoki's reaction (no spoilers))
So yup, the Gintama anime is rising from its final ending yet again. (Apparently now called Gintamać because crack.) I'm even more excited about this than I am about Durarara!!! being back (and I'm thrilled about that!) So many things I can't wait to see animated - the Rule 63 arc (for the entire cast!) Bodyswap! *censored* *censored*!!
And then last night I went and caught up with the manga and...ooooooooooooh boy.
I know just enough Meiji revolution history to have been wanting to see Kondou getting arrested all along. But...maybe not like this. Before this arc, I wouldn't have been worried. Gintama is a shounen, it's a comedy, it's not going to do anything too dark!
...ahahahah oh god. I thought the arc was ending, was winding down into the obligatory aftermath chapters. And yeah, Shigeshige was was deposed and replaced as shogun, that's going to shake things up, but it's over, and everyone made it out, and--
And then, in an arc that was all about saving Shigeshige - a character who has been pure comic relief since his introduction, and only really got a character in his last couple arcs - and saving him did not come cheap or easy; people died, one of the Oniwaban willingly let themselves be assassinated in his place to fake his death - after all that, Shigeshige is assassinated after all, is poisoned and dies in his little sister's arms.
And now the Shinsengumi have been disbanded, and Matsudaira and Kondou have been sentenced to decapitation - and Gintoki and Kondou had a really good, emotional scene together right before his arrest, and I love Kondou so much when he's being played serious, but...he can't really die, right? It's not getting that serious, right? RIGHT?
(really want the next chapter like yesterday, I want to see the Shinsengumi - ex-Shinsengumi - reacting to this - but aaaagh they have to make it right! Yorozuya to the rescue! RIGHT?!?!)
Also, finally getting the backstory with Shouyou-sensei, and how he died - oh man. I did not see that coming. No wonder Takasugi is so fucked up. And Katsura. And Gintoki...oh, oh, Gin-san. Is that the only time we've actually seen Gintoki cry? (Did Sorachi always have this planned? I kind of think he did, way back in the Benizakura arc Katsura says that Gintoki has more reason to hate the Bakufu than anyone. And if this happened at the end of the Joui war - I wasn't clear on timing? - it explains why Gintoki was in the state he was in when Otose found him in the graveyard...)
I love Gintama for its insane ability to switch from comedy to drama - I've never seen anything that goes from such extremes as Gintama can. There are a few things that come close. There are other manga like One Piece which are primarily action leavened with really silly comedy. Or there are comedies like Futurama, which is mostly wacky comedy that occasionally hit a genuinely dramatic chord, and it works in part because it's unexpected, because you're not ready to have your heart played like that. But Gintama is so ridiculous that when it does go dramatic-tragic, you're never prepared. Every single time it takes me off-guard.
Speaking of which - now to catch up with One Piece!
So yup, the Gintama anime is rising from its final ending yet again. (Apparently now called Gintamać because crack.) I'm even more excited about this than I am about Durarara!!! being back (and I'm thrilled about that!) So many things I can't wait to see animated - the Rule 63 arc (for the entire cast!) Bodyswap! *censored* *censored*!!
And then last night I went and caught up with the manga and...ooooooooooooh boy.
I know just enough Meiji revolution history to have been wanting to see Kondou getting arrested all along. But...maybe not like this. Before this arc, I wouldn't have been worried. Gintama is a shounen, it's a comedy, it's not going to do anything too dark!
...ahahahah oh god. I thought the arc was ending, was winding down into the obligatory aftermath chapters. And yeah, Shigeshige was was deposed and replaced as shogun, that's going to shake things up, but it's over, and everyone made it out, and--
And then, in an arc that was all about saving Shigeshige - a character who has been pure comic relief since his introduction, and only really got a character in his last couple arcs - and saving him did not come cheap or easy; people died, one of the Oniwaban willingly let themselves be assassinated in his place to fake his death - after all that, Shigeshige is assassinated after all, is poisoned and dies in his little sister's arms.
And now the Shinsengumi have been disbanded, and Matsudaira and Kondou have been sentenced to decapitation - and Gintoki and Kondou had a really good, emotional scene together right before his arrest, and I love Kondou so much when he's being played serious, but...he can't really die, right? It's not getting that serious, right? RIGHT?
(really want the next chapter like yesterday, I want to see the Shinsengumi - ex-Shinsengumi - reacting to this - but aaaagh they have to make it right! Yorozuya to the rescue! RIGHT?!?!)
Also, finally getting the backstory with Shouyou-sensei, and how he died - oh man. I did not see that coming. No wonder Takasugi is so fucked up. And Katsura. And Gintoki...oh, oh, Gin-san. Is that the only time we've actually seen Gintoki cry? (Did Sorachi always have this planned? I kind of think he did, way back in the Benizakura arc Katsura says that Gintoki has more reason to hate the Bakufu than anyone. And if this happened at the end of the Joui war - I wasn't clear on timing? - it explains why Gintoki was in the state he was in when Otose found him in the graveyard...)
I love Gintama for its insane ability to switch from comedy to drama - I've never seen anything that goes from such extremes as Gintama can. There are a few things that come close. There are other manga like One Piece which are primarily action leavened with really silly comedy. Or there are comedies like Futurama, which is mostly wacky comedy that occasionally hit a genuinely dramatic chord, and it works in part because it's unexpected, because you're not ready to have your heart played like that. But Gintama is so ridiculous that when it does go dramatic-tragic, you're never prepared. Every single time it takes me off-guard.
Speaking of which - now to catch up with One Piece!
no subject
Also, if you haven't seen the Gintama movie that came out last year, you owe it to yourself, WATCH IT. It is, I believe, the best movie based on an anime series I've ever seen - simply flawless, hysterically funny and heart-touching and pure fanservice in the best of ways, pretty much anything you'd want to see in a Gintama big-screen movie was there. I just rewatched it a couple weeks ago and it was even better than I remembered :D