Gintama

Edo is a city that was home to the vigor and ambition of samurai across the country. However, following feudal Japan's surrender to powerful aliens known as the "Amanto," those aspirations now seem unachievable. With the once-influential shogunate rebuilt as a puppet government, a new law is passed that promptly prohibits all swords in public.

Enter Gintoki Sakata, an eccentric silver-haired man who always carries around a wooden sword and maintains his stature as a samurai despite the ban. As the founder of Yorozuya, a small business for odd jobs, Gintoki often embarks on endeavors to help other people—though usually in rather strange and unforeseen ways.

Assisted by Shinpachi Shimura, a boy with glasses supposedly learning the way of the samurai; Kagura, a tomboyish girl with superhuman strength and an endless appetite; and Sadaharu, their giant pet dog who loves biting on people's heads, the Yorozuya encounter anything from alien royalty to scuffles with local gangs in the ever-changing world of Edo.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sakata, Gintoki Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Kagura Main

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Shimura, Shinpachi Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Katsura, Kotarou Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Hijikata, Toushirou Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Okita, Sougo Supporting

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Takasugi, Shinsuke Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Hasegawa, Taizou Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Tsukuyo Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Kamui Supporting

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Takamatsu, Shinji Co-Director, Director, Storyboard, Animation Director

Kobayashi, Noriko Producer

Mutou, Hiroshi Producer

Azuma, Fukashi Producer

Reviews

Sep 29, 2025

NiYorozuya

Recommended

No matter how many times I rewatch it, it’s never boring. It makes you laugh, cry, then laugh again with tears in your eyes from crying just now. You know it’s good when even the straight character is crazy compared to other anime’s crazy characters.
It’s one of those anime where if you haven’t watched it you don’t get why so many people like it so much, but after watching it it’s like that gif of Danny DeVito saying “I get it now.”

One of the best thing about Gintama is you think you know what’s gonna happen and something completely unexpected happens. And it’s not ... in a bad way either.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by NiYorozuya (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 28, 2024

raviwe

Mixed Feelings

Informative

Well-written

Gintama is the capstone of a generation of manga. The requirements to enjoy it are simple: Do you like gag and toilet humor? Are you familiar with the more popular manga and anime from the golden era up until the mid-2010s? If so, you'll most likely love this perfect blend of action, humor, and drama.

With that said, let’s dive into Gintama—its themes, structure, and how it compares to other works. We’ll also look at whether its beginning is misleading and how leverages the medium to deliver its themes.

So, what is this show about?

This show is set in Edo, the land of the samurai—a clear metaphor ... for Japan. The central thesis is that while the Amanto (foreigners, aliens) arrive and transform it into something entirely new, the core of what it means to be a samurai endures.

Gintama reimagines Bushido in a simpler, modern way that applies universally, regardless of one’s background. Giving an extensive focus on having something to protect and the strength in staying true to your values.

First things later, let’s talk art direction.

The character designs are remarkably recognizable, even the intentionally bland ones. The openings and soundtrack are memorable, too. Sure, there are moments when the lack of budget shows, but the series uses that to its advantage, turning it into a running joke that also pokes fun at the industry itself.

One thing worth mentioning is the voice acting. Some characters are brought to life with so much personality through the performances. Combined with Gintama's amazing filler content, it makes the show something truly special.

So, how does it start?

I quit Gintama after the first episode. Two years later, I dropped it again after the second episode. Finally, five years later, I tried the third episode—and now I’m hooked. I actually recommend skipping the first two episodes. They don’t add much and are so confusing and nonsensical that they become an unnecessary barrier to entry, where there’s already a lot to take in.

Beyond that, if you’ve seen any gag shows or sitcoms, you’ll find the beginning familiar. The early gags may only be mildly amusing at first, or even fly under the radar. After episode 3, it’s important not to skip any episodes, as the humor starts building momentum.

Comedy-centric shows often need to lean on other aspects as they go on. While the easy route would be romance, Gintama takes the battle shōnen approach. You can get a taste of this mix early on, though the execution improves by a lot over time.

What about the characters?

The characters don’t age and are tied to specific gags. Their introductions are usually semi-comedic, and they continue to reappear in gags that make you attached to their comedic side. But somewhere down the line, you start getting deeper, more meaningful explorations of their character. In other words, they’re gag characters with layers.

What about the story itself?

Imagine watching The Simpsons, and suddenly Lisa is fighting to the death with Bart in a three-episode arc that dives into a traumatic event from their childhood. That’s the kind of unpredictability Gintama offers. You never know whether the next scene will be comedic, gut-wrenching, or packed with action.

Every episode is a wild card. The characters might mess with the opening, the show might have a different title, and the tone can swing from somber to hilarious in seconds. Sometimes you’ll need to watch multiple episodes in one sitting, and other times just one will do. It’s worth looking up a list of arcs to get a feel for the flow.

It is also worth saying that there will be so many unexpected tie-ins. Characters and events that almost left your mind get brought back. Gintama fully utilizes its length to deliver both character arcs and interactions that cannot be as impactful were it streamlined of a lot shorter.

Then, what did I think of it as a whole?

Gintama is a beautifully crafted piece. Sure, there are episodes that fall flat, jokes that don’t land, or obscure parodies that miss the mark. The quality isn’t always consistent—sometimes the fillers are even better than the main episodes.

I can’t recommend it to everyone, though. As much as I love it and wish it were more popular, that would be misleading. There are a lot of crude jokes, mood swings, and references that make it hard to call Gintama a universally enjoyable experience. For its target audience, this is close to a masterpiece; for anyone else, it might just feel like a crude mess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by raviwe (45)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 22, 2025

watashiwared

Not Recommended

Gintama is the Japanese equivalent of Family Guy, a disgustingly long-running cartoon show held together with eighth-grade dick and fart jokes, paper-thin reference humor, contrived slapstick and people making loud, horrible noises, with the very occasional glimmer of something kind of resembling good content if you squint.

The show stars Gintoki "We Have Kenshin Himura at Home" Sakata, a manic homeless man who stops mugging for the camera long enough to do all the cool fight scenes everyone remembers and not a second longer. Joining him is Kagura, whose humor can best be described as "what if girl... but she beat people up?" and Shinpachi, who's ... humor can best be described as "what if we had somebody who just explained the joke at the top of his lungs, every time we told one?" Together, they work a job that deliberately lets them do whatever the writers want them to do, in a setting that facilitates whatever the writers want to happen.

I am going to attempt to be at least a little bit nice, in order to placate the people who put the "confusing" reaction on this review. The setting of Gintama works for what it is attempting to do. In an alternate universe feudal Japan, Edo has been taken over by alien invaders. Samurai rub shoulders with robots, skyscrapers sit next to traditional wooden houses, and in general the whole thing is a chaotic mish-mash of historical, science fiction and modern day that really does allow for anything to happen. This is useful for the show's primary genre of wacky woo-hoo action-comedy. The jokes are blistering in their delivery, and while at least half of them boil down to "we changed literally one letter in a recognizable character's name and that's the whole joke," the rest manage to at least reach such vaunted heights as "would probably have been really damn funny if I were thirteen" or "Oh, hey. I can see you did a joke there. That's neat."

The thing that separates Gintama from Family Guy, of course, is that occasionally Gintama will do a "serious" arc. These are almost universally the thing everyone wants to remember about the show, and to their credit they are pretty consistently above average. The problem is twofold. One, the original run of this show is over 200 episodes long, and the real serious arcs didn't start happening until maybe 100 episodes in, so you need to sit through a *lot* of mediocre slop just to get to something the writers and animators actually cared about. Two: every single "serious" arc is exactly the same. Almost beat for beat. Side Character is threatened by the emergence of New Villain, who has a Big Plan that will Destroy Edo/Kill Side Character's Friends/End in Side Character Getting Married to a Trans Man. Gintoki and company go to a place and do Big Fight. They beat New Villain. Somebody comes in from off-screen to explain that New Villain is actually Very Sad, and the reason why they're doing bad guy things is because "Squidward's father never hugged him as a child." Everybody looks forward to facing a New Tomorrow. Roll credits.

Strictly speaking, the "good" content IS better. Ask me if I want to watch crazy fight scenes or if I want to watch the writers try and make jokes about the Nintendo Wii despite obviously never having played a video game since the SNES, and... well, I'd probably watch the Wii episodes again, because they're so stupid I actually still remember them. The problem with this show is that, when the people behind it are inclined to care, it can be pretty decent. Dare I say, it can be good. However, the show is legacy television. It's a serial comedy shonen, squatting in a timeslot on mid-2000's network television, concerned first and foremost with meeting deadlines and keeping content going for money. You can tell when the writers are just phoning it in to pad their numbers, and when they're actually proud of the thing they're doing, and the moments they're proud of the thing they're doing tend to all be clumped at the end of a 201 episode show, in three to five episode chunks, with blatant filler in the middle.

In short, Gintama is Japanese Family Guy if Family Guy decided to make entire arcs centered around the "Peter Griffin fighting a Chicken Mascot" running joke. As a result, I give it a "Hey, Lois, do you remember that time aliens turned my penis into an allen wrench?" out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by watashiwared (17)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Comedy Gold

by Dechial

14 Entries · 2 Restacks

Anime You Must Watch Before You Die.

by Deylin

50 Entries · 1.6K Restacks

Gintama Anime Watch Guide (Story Arcs, Movies, Specials, OVAs etc)

by TheCoolGuy82

22 Entries · 73 Restacks

'Gintama: Yoshiwara Daienjou' Anime Movie Announced for 2026

The Gintama Maruchibasu Festival announced an anime movie adapting the Yoshiwara Enjou-hen (Yoshiwara In Flames arc) with new animations on Saturday. The official we...read more

Aug 16, 8:47 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (10 comments)

'Gintama' Spin-off Light Novel '3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei' Gets Anime

The Gintama Ato no Matsuri event announced an anime adaptation of Tomohito Oosaki's 3-nen Z-gumi Ginpachi-sensei (3-Z Class's Ginpachi-sensei) spin-off li...read more

Mar 19, 2023 8:58 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (33 comments)

	Poll: Gintama Episode 201 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) garfield15 - Mar 25, 2010	262 replies	by GT1Studios »» Yesterday, 7:48 PM
	Poll: Gintama Episode 28 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Beatnik - Mar 3, 2008	105 replies	by MrKuandohan »» Yesterday, 9:26 AM
	Poll: Gintama Episode 67 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) chibuki - Jul 18, 2008	107 replies	by Sinbadpcx »» Yesterday, 2:12 AM
	Poll: Gintama Episode 22 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Zerachroma - Jun 20, 2008	99 replies	by Brocc02 »» Yesterday, 12:36 AM
	Poll: Gintama Episode 39 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Faust721 - Oct 24, 2007	102 replies	by CDLC7 »» Nov 12, 11:23 PM

18 of the Funniest Anime Faces Ever

Some characters are funny because of all the crazy antics they get up to. But others just have the right kind of physiognomy, which make them prone to pulling off some funny anime faces - intentionally or unintentionally.

by MisterD98

857,801 views

CollectionFunny

Hilariously Creative Censorship Moments In Anime

Some anime take censorship to the next level, making an art form out of protecting our eyes from indecency. Here are some of the more creative moments in anime censorship.

by Littoface

110,093 views