My opinion on this show:
Story: 9/10
I can't help it but admire the author's ingenious approach towards not only fiction, history and adventures the characters come by, as well as the daily life of Ooedo inhabitants and all their small problems (e.g. the ups and downs of having to buy a new fan or when a young girl wants her undergarments washed separately from her father's). In the Gintama world, there are hardly any linearities. Even an everyday story will make a twist or turn somewhere until the end of the 20-minute episode. And it is most likely that the aforementioned twist will make you shed tears from laughter.
The show is also overflowing with d*ck jokes, b*tt jokes and the likes... Not to mention famous shounen manga, famous actors, etc. Nevertheless, toilet humor is an inseparable part of Gintama.
Of course Gintama also has its seriousness, as you will notice when you stumble across the small "arcs", sometimes revealing dark secrets from the characters' pasts and adding for a more thrilling experiences. At those times, Gintama may turn its back on humor for a while, to unsheathe its blade, but that doesn't mean it's utterly forgotten.
The reason why I gave it 9 (although my overall score is 10) is that a really small part of the characters' pasts is revealed. Imo, that's a turf many things could be explored on.
Art: 10/10
The anime is very well drawn, with nicely balanced colors and fitting for the pseudo-historical Japan landscapes. The characters are also well drawn, each with unique features, more than enough to distinguish them. The motions are especially well made, though not too frantic or annoying for the viewer's eye. The camera angle is also great, at times even stunning as it adds for more laughter or sharpens the breath-taking moment, depends on the case. There's more to add about the character design, but I'll do that later, when I share my impression on the characters.
The reason why I gave it 10? I am particularly an appreciator of good art, especially the characters, and this is one of the few shounen titles from what I've seen that has such a good style; they are not deformed, annoying (most of them) or made with the same template.
Soundtrack: 10/10
Gintama hooked me on the first opening, if it hadn't already with its synopsis (more like, the lack of it) ...and I was shocked when I realized it's made by Tommyheavenly6. Then, I thought to myself, this anime means serious business. Before I used to weigh anime on their openings and endings and more or less that hasn't changed much (although now there are many more things I judge in an anime). After all, OPs and EDs made 1/10 of the screen time of an episode and the OP creates your first impression of that anime. So far for 252 episodes Gintama hasn't got a weak opening. And as a matter of fact a weak ending. And those openings usually catch perfectly the overall idea of the show. If you are keen on watching this series and want to know what it's about, one glimpse at the opening would be worth a thousand reviews read. The opening can tell you straight away who are the main characters, what other characters you are to expect, what are their occupation or preferences (oft times the right word is obsession), their affections, friends, bonds, where they live... and what the story is about, but that could be described with one word: mayhem.
Gintama has OPs and EDs in J-Rock style, usually with upbeat sound, funky at times, with lots of guitars. The rhythm is quite catchy, so listening to them at least twice is a must. The soundtrack of both seasons is composed by Audio Highs, also with lots of guitars for the pressure moments, piano for the sad moments and drums for the punch lines. Audio Highs' themes are styled in almost perfect synchronization with the emotion charges a scene in Gintama could carry.
Characters 11/10
Gintama's character design is unique and I'm not talking solely for the silver-haired "tennen-paama" protagonist, although he is surely unmistakable with his bokutou and the manner he wears his kimono. All the characters are drawn as befits their roles in the anime, more or less, with lots of imagination poured into each of them and a feature (usually more than one) to distinguish them from the others. Also all the characters' seyuu fit more than perfect, as they have a diapason large enough to make any situation even more comical or sh*t serious. There are no banal characters, for each has it's own story to tell and contributes on their own way for the story; and last but not least - there's no character that's out of place in Gintama. Although most of them complain they aren't given enough screen time and the show is as random as it gets, with more people appearing every episode, the secondary characters pop up just when you though they were forgotten.
The characters are probably the thing I enjoyed most at the anime. As ridiculous as it sounds, they are all unique, as each of them has it's own backstory, a manner of speaking, dressing, preferable meals and many more, but most importantly: bonds. All these small features make the character stand out, not like some shallow figures, that stand there to fill the plot; and make it truly a "person" to sympathize to.
Overall score: 10/10
I truly enjoyed every bit of this anime and this review is pretty much valid for both seasons. I only want to add that, as an anime based on manga, it boldly adds its own brush strokes, such as complaining about sponsors and producers, or making top 50 most popular characters show. Where some people would consider this fillers, it merges with the story so swiftly that not even once it annoyed me; on the contrary, it makes it more vivid and diverse than you would expect from an anime based on manga.
There are many other things I wanted to say, but I either forgot as I typed or just decided it was long enough the way it is.
Thank you for reading my review and hope it was convincing enough to make you watch Gintama!~
