X Never Marks the Spot

Only 14 episodes of Gintama left to watch! *soooob* (Speaking of which, anyone know if this twitter is at all official? The bio says it's informal, but the 4th entry from the bottom talks about recording the DVD omake, so it sounds like it might be more than just a fan...?)

The Character Poll arc - I have 3 words: MS PAINT OPENING. MS PAINT OPENING!!!!11!! XDXDXDXDXDXDXD x INFINITY.

The Okita episode duo was pretty awesome, too, in totally different ways. The ultimate S does have a samurai soul, too, and while of course we knew that already, it was still beautiful to see it. And he and Kagura make a brilliant team.

The bodyswap half-episode, otoh, gets filed in the Things Best Forgotten for All Our Sakes. Even if it did do things I've never seen done in bodyswap before - nor have ever wanted to see done. Gintoki swaps minds with the pet dog. And yes, of course, the show GOES THERE. And KEEPS GOING THERE, BECAUSE THIS IS GINTAMA. ...and then he wakes up and is Shinpachi's glasses OMGWTFLOL?!?!.

Also the Dentist episode, which is possibly the most traumatizing crack in the show. Yes, even compared to the Screwdrivers.

I have also been flipping through manga scans at random - waiting to sit down and read it until I have no show; 'til then I flip. Happened across an item of interest in the second volume - Shirokuro, a one-shot manga Sorachi-sensei did pre-Gintama, about a modern-day onmyouji girl with attitude who gets schooled in her part-time-job cursing ways by a cranky crow spirit. It's comedic but not straight comedy, but has a lot of the same themes as Gintama (combative but loving families of blood and choice, chars with injured left eyes, unusual gender roles) - and it has the spirit, who happens to have crazy silver hair and wears boots and a white yukata with decorative trim. He's got one eye and more motivation than Gintoki (of course, sticks of butter and shed snake skins also have more motivation than Gintoki...) but the char design was clearly borrowed for Gintama.

And the brother has been suspicious for a while now that Gintoki isn't human, what with the natural silver perm and red eyes and unholy endurance (even for a shounen hero, he comes back from the brink of death a lot, often to his surprise). The Shirokuro char is neither human nor demon; he's a guardian spirit. And considering that protection is Gintoki's sole serious purpose...yeah, I wonder...

...Fic is at 41K words. Not done yet. OMGWTFBBQ.

So tempted to change my default user icon to this one. (from the 13th ED, only it blinks by so fast I couldn't get a good look at it. So finally I 'capped it and AWWW:)


Holding on as tightly as you can indeed :D

Just finished the Virus arc (RPG parodies FTW!) which was way way silly ("Shintank!!") and chock-full of 8-bit sprite humor and also a teensy bit touching as well - everything I love about this show. Eeee. (And then next was the hair-loss half-ep. BWAHAHAHAHAH.)

Fic is at 30K words and counting. I am apparently writing a NaNo to warm up for NaNo, OH GOD SOMEBODY STOP ME.

A few random Gintama thoughts:

--Seiyuu games! So the amazing Sugita Tomokazu (who, judging by his performance as Gintoki, has about twenty different voices I swear) was Subaru in the X/1999 TV anime. And Subaru's twin sister Hokuto was played by Yukino Satsuki, who plays Otae in Gintama. Bwhahah.

ETA: And Kamui in X was Suzumura Kenichi, Gintama's Okita Sougo. He also was in Juuni Kokuki as Rakushun. Yeah, that one took me a bit to realize - talk about your characterization 180s...!

ETA2: Elizabeth's speaking voice (at least in ep 58) is listed in the credits as being played by "sono hen ni ita ossan" ["the old guy over there"]!?!?)

--Speaking of seiyuu, and how Gintama makes them work for their salary (because voices are cheaper than animation, doncha know) there's the oden stall ep with ( spoilers )

--The Otsuu Fanclub arc. ( more spoilers )

--Proving that the Gintama anime-makers love screwing with their fans as much as Sorachi-sensei himself does - the 2nd JumpFest OVA:

Shiroyasha Koutan (The Birth of the White Demon)



Or you can download a better copy here. To keep rewatching like I have. Especially the first part, which really must have blown their animation budget because it's gorgeous. So intense! Such action! And then...the screaming in hysterical laughter. Especially over "We Are!" kicking in at the end. And "Dondake!" which is so-familiar-but-not-quite to any DBZ fan ("Sparking!") And the widescreen cut-down. And Kondou's entirely predictable choice in outfits. And Elizabeth. And just about everything else past the 4:26 mark.

...My laughter does not stop me from WANTING THIS MOVIE LIKE BURNING DAMN IT. WHY SO CRUEL, ANIMATORS? WHY SO CRUEL?

Was flipping through some raw scans of Gintama manga, and at the end of v.26 there's the results of a poll (or somesuch; the scan's low-quality so it's hard to read) of favorite lines in Gintama - of which the number 1 line just happens to be the one I used in my new layout, Gintoki's "今も昔も 俺の護るもんは何一つ 変わっちゃいねエエ!" [Now or long ago, the one thing that I protect won't change!"] So yeah, apparently that line sounds as awesome to the Japanese fans as it does to me.

(The "one thing", of course, is his nakama, all the people close to him.)

--And Zura's "Zura ja nai; Katsura da!" is number 9. There's also Gintoki's "if you have time to die beautifully then why not live beautifully instead?" and "My country is what's in the reach of my sword," and some Shinsengumi lines I really need to look up. (Though it doesn't have the Benizakura arc line used in the movie previews - "宇宙一バカな侍だ、コノヤロー!!!” [”The stupidest samurai in the universe is here, you bastard!”] - you gotta love a hero who so introduces himself. (You also gotta love how these previews manage to make the series look so cool. The rocking DOES song helps, of course...))

(...and yeah, considering most of these lines are more about the awesome than the funny, I’m apparently not the only fan into this series for all the wrong reasons! XD)

10/10/10 means new Ben 10 and it was fun and awesome, I just love old-school superheroes and supervillains and space opera and it continues to deliver. Also Kevin/Gwen is still the cutest couple that has ever cuted, and ( a bit spoilery )

In other news, Gintama has in fact taken out a lease on my fangirl soul. I'm rather glad the Shinsengumi revolution arc cinched that, because some of the eps after it would've shaken my faith severely otherwise. Let us not speak of the Nausicaa parody. Or the arc with the alien abductions and the screwdrivers...if you have seen the show/manga, you know of what I speak. You may wish you did not; you may wish with all your heart and soul that you could unknow it, but you know.

But ahhh, that's part of its charm, that Gintama may be the single most unpredictable series I have ever seen. There is no way to guess where it's going to go, no way to imagine. Will it be stupid and highly inappropriate comedy? Will it be badass shounen drama? Will it be unexpected tragedy? Will it be so outright adorable it takes your breath away? (oh god, the Kagura umbrella story, so cute it's almost painful...!) There's no way to know! (The bro insists he cannot watch more than a few eps at a time for this reason, because he has no idea what to expect and it makes his head hurt ^^;) It gets increasingly less predictable as it goes along because the crack count is ever-rising, and so what sets out as idiotic comedy may take a dip into light romance, then swerve into a ditch of ORLY?, skid out into human drama, only to fishtail back into OMGWTFWRONG, and end up crashing headlong into sweet.

Plus it had the obligatory chain-smoking character run into trouble with anti-smoking laws, as I have never seen happen in an anime before (and LOLOLOLOL)...and then, being Gintama, it naturally devolved into an interstellar Dragon Ball Z parody, complete with the preview music. Which I of course immediately recognized. Uh-huh...

And I have totally fallen for Gintoki. Yes, of course I love the Shinsengumi (and I really adore Zura for being ABSOLUTELY NUCKING FUTS) and Shinpachi-kun and Kagura-chan, but Gin-chan is just...special. He's the most unmotivated shounen hero I've ever seen (really, I can't think of any other Jump heroes who don't have any goal whatsoever. Unless you consider quitting reading Jump, which doesn't so much count as a goal because he doesn't ever actually try to do that, he just thinks that he ought to...) But then if any of the people close to him have a dream, he'll ultimately do anything to help them reach it. ("close to him," in Gintoki's case, often enough means "are within close physical proximity of him"; he'll get attached to guys who were trying to kill him the day before if he sees something in them worth fighting for.) (The problem, fannishly speaking, with having Gintoki as my favorite is that I'm having trouble 'shipping him with anyone; the more the show goes along, the less I can see him having...sex at all, really, much less a relationship; it's just too much work! Though I'm sure I can get over that for the sake of pretty doujinshi. I can get over a lot for the sake of pretty doujinshi. XD)

(No new icons - stupid actually having to pay for a paid account! - but I do have a new layout in honor of it!)