Gintama is about Sakata Gintoki, who is a samurai in an age where samurai\'s have been deemed unnecessary by the aliens who have taken over. As far as I can tell, that\'s about as deep of a story this anime has. But you probably won\'t care, because this anime is downright hilarious. The characters are funny, the situations they get in are completely ridiculous, and all the references to other anime/manga they have make it all the more enjoyable.
--Story--
As I mentioned earlier, there really isn\'t too much of a story line. Most of the story arcs last about 1-2 episodes, and some are pretty strange. But all the random references and pure comedy make up for any shortcoming in the story.
--Art--
The animation is just what you\'d expect from a good comedy anime. The characters have their distinctive features, the backgrounds are pretty detailed, and you get all the classic elements that you\'d expect from a comedy anime (depression lines, expanding heads, etc.).
--Sound--
The openings and closings are really good. They\'re all catchy and make you actually want to listen to them. The voice acting is well done and really gives life to the characters.
--Character--
The characters really make this anime awesome. From the Jump reading samurai Gintoki to the machine-gun-umbrella toting Kagura to the oversized skull-biting dog Sadaharu, everyone is unique and hilarious in their own way. There are a lot of recurring characters, and each has his or her own traits that set them apart from the rest. Also, a lot of the characters resemble characters from other anime, but with a twist. For example, the main character Sakata Gintoki is very similar to Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, as both are very accomplished samurai; but while Kenshin is for the most part kind and quiet, Gintoki is very eccentric, somewhat rude at times, and seems to be overall very apathetic about everything. Things like this really make the characters familiar, yet unique, and overall very likeable.
--Enjoyment--
This anime makes me laugh out loud. Literally. There have been occasions where I nealy fell out of my chair of laughter. I\'m always a little sad when an episode ends, because I laughed so much during the episode.
--Overall--
If you like comedy and have watched your share of anime, then I highly recommend Gintama. If you aren\'t well versed in anime, you may miss a bunch of references, but that shouldn\'t really affect your enjoyment of this anime. Overall, this anime is one of my favorite.
