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When you think of Gintama, you think of its comedy and what it's known for. As like its previous season, Gintama has started to throw most of the comedy out the window in order to finish the story and thus its franchise as a whole. However, doing this is not a good thing, and in this season it is quite apparent. When you compare this to the previous one—while only being 12 episodes to 51—the dip in quality is really apparent. Would it have been better if it was more than 12 episodes? Yes, and maybe not. It would have had more time to bring ... in other elements it is currently missing or it could have just brought in the same old stuff that is already making it go downhill.

The story has taken a bit of a dive. I don't feel the same emotion as I did in the two previous arcs: Shogun Assassination Arc & Farewell, Shinsengumi Arc. They managed to actually use comedy, action, and story pretty much perfectly to what Gintama is expected to do. It wasn't underwhelming and didn't feel bland to what this season gives. Story has never been a key factor in the Gintama series when you think of it in a bigger picture, but due to the previous season, we've been leading up to an actual plot that is pushing the series to an end. There was, however, some good story progress in terms of the past with Utsuro & even more so with Kagura's family, which was welcoming as we never had any real backstory to them. Here we find out the problems centered around the family as a whole and their reasoning for the path they’ve taken.

Visuals haven’t changed a bit and are the same as it has been for a while now. Becoming hit and miss in terms of good production. I really loved the OPs art, especially during the scene of the color changes going from black and white to actual color—representing their old selves as they move forward as they once did in the past. Nothing special about the ED in terms of art since it was just stills basically of some art of the characters with the odd movement of nothing important. It is probably one of the worst visually speaking EDs of the series.

As for its sound, you think of how well the studio is able to put sounds into the sound sfx, character tones throughout the series, and its OST and OP/ED. Same old, same old to be quite honest but it didn't put stuff out of place this season which was a huge plus for it. The OP was one of the better ones and had a catchy tune to it, and I said previously, the visuals of it were really well done when you look at it visually and with the music for it. However, due to the lack of subs from official translators, most people will not understand the actual lyrics and meaning behind, and so we are left in the dust to actually wonder if the song has a meaning or if it’s just there as a song. Some shows do this well, for example, while being a terribly written show, M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane had good songs for its OP/ED and it actually felt like the songs fit its dark theme. The ED, well, I don't have much of an opinion on it. It didn't sound amazing and the visuals were bland.

There are two key factors you look at when you watch Gintama: Did it make you laugh? Did the story progress without hindering the actual comedy tone? In the end, I rated this season lower than the previous due to it being one of the weakest seasons out of the whole franchise because of the story progression hindering the rest of what the series is known for. As a fan of the franchise, it's kind of saddening that its focusing so much on action that there's no way to put in good comedy but I guess that is to be expected as what is even worse than barely any comedy is comedy that is terribly out of placed, which this season did do at times. While I may be disappointed about this season, I still look forward to more Gintama and hope it can somehow manage to bring back the elements that this season lacked in.

Have you ever wanted to laugh so hard that it feels like you're dying? Well, then this season is no different from any of its predecessors. The season dives straight into its main focus which is comedy and gives us all sorts of parodies and laughs that viewers can relate to other shows, which is what makes it so great. However, this season is not all laughs. As with this season, the show moves into some of the more serious arcs—a must see for any fan of Gintama.

Besides starting out with heavy action, comedy is one of the best ways to make people continue watching ... a show. To hook the viewers into the first few episodes is what the producers try to do each season. If you don’t start off with something funny in a show that is so well-known for its way of doing parodies and comedy, then there’s no way the viewers are going to continue watching. I mean, who doesn’t like a good ol’ DBZ parody to start itself off? I know I do.

If there’s one thing I didn’t like about how the season went is the skipping of some of the smaller arcs. Gintama has always been faithful at adapting all its arcs, but this season was quite different. This may be due to pushing it for OVAs to sell, or maybe they just didn’t have the time slots available. That or something came up within the studio to make them adapt the bigger arcs earlier.

With that, I guess we should talk about the highly anticipated arcs that a lot of people have been waiting for since the announcement of the season. Without trying to spoil, these arcs provide a lot to the watchers as to what’s happening to some of the most known groups/people in the Gintama franchise. The first arc is the Shogun arc which obviously focuses on the Shogun himself but also his enemies. Compared to the other big arcs, I’d say this was a pretty good arc and rivaled some of the other ones from the past seasons. If you thought that was all for the big arcs, then think again! Not only do we get one major roller coaster arc this season, but two. The other being the Shinsengumi arc which focuses on the Police force of Edo and two other “prominent” groups—the Joui rebels and the Mimawarigumi. Unlike the previous arc, this arc is more about emotion than it is about action. While this arc does have action, I wouldn’t put it ahead of the arc before it in that sense. I still enjoyed this arc though because it shows us some backstory of some of the Shinsengumi, the Mimawarigumi, and even Gintoki. These two arcs go hand-in-hand as the former leads into the latter. Just what is in store for our beloved characters?

Visually speaking, it has been up and down here and there. Mostly a hit though. Like most shows, or at least ones that want to stand out in scenes, the visuals will go above and beyond then the usual to look when it needs to. The comedy arcs were also pretty good in terms of its animation, but there were times when the animation took a turn down and looked pretty bad. Expect the animation budget to be really good during the action arcs, especially for the final two arcs. Thankfully it wasn’t bad when it needed to be so there’s nothing major I would note down.

As for the soundtrack, it has been really good. The OST was done pretty well and matches the overall mood of what the scene is trying to portray to the viewer—whether its during comedy or action. The OP/ED songs I have mixed feelings for because I’m mainly a fan of catchy songs, but they sounded good and is no different from past season. I’ve been mainly a fan of Gintama’s OP, but this season there was a few EDs I quite enjoyed more so than its OP counterpart, so props to the singers for that.

And just like that another season of Gintama ends. The waiting once again begins as per regular tradition. If you haven’t enjoyed this season, then the season to come, which will most likely be the finale, is definitely not for you.

Gintama hasn’t changed one bit; it will continue being its same old self until it finally brings a closure to all the characters we love and find so hilarious.

With this movie, Gintama has reached even greater heights. Compared to the previous movie, Gintama: The Final Chapter - Be Forever Yorozuya isn't a retelling of an arc, but a story of Gin's past. Many fans throughout the Gintama franchise have always wanted an arc focusing about Gin's past during the Joui War, and now we get it. As a Gintama fan, you will definitely want to watch this movie about his past and how he tries to cope about what is to come of him.

The movie begins a bit slow at start and this is due to the "Movie Thief" character. While Odd ... Jobs are working in a theater for some money, the Movie Thief himself starts doing the obvious; filming illegally. As the long discussion goes with Gin and the Movie Thief about right and wrong, the producers decide to add in some jokes for the viewers to enjoy, by putting tons of laughs into it for the viewers. Is that all this Movie Thief is though? Is he just there to film illegally? Or maybe his role is more significant than we may think. But I thought this movie was about his past, not them working at a theater... Guess you'll just have to watch!

One would think that the way the producers would portray this movie is by showing his past... Well of course they're going to show his past, but the producers decide to use a theme we're all used to seeing now, and that is "Time-travel." To be honest, I was a bit surprised by seeing this, since I just recently watched the Steins;Gate movie and didn't think that Gintama would also use this type of theme. Though, as we all know, time-travel is a commonly seen thing in shows and that of movies. Some could say that the movie is pretty predictable, but that's for you to decide; I didn't think it was.

The one thing I could say that I was disappointed by was the fact that there was little to no development on the future selves. All we know is that the characters have grown in these past 5 years and that Shinpachi looks nowhere close to his younger self. And Kagura, well... She's grown in places that count to say the least. All that's known is that Odd Jobs is no longer a group of people, but split into two groups. Odd Jobs Fumiya and the other Odd Jobs Takamoku. Wait, what happened to Gin, the leader? Well... to be frank, he's missing.

Gintama has always been great for their soundtrack, and they even used some from the series. You can especially expect some great OST during the shounen type scenes later on in the movie. Though, that's all I can really say about the OST because there's nothing to really complain about and nothing to say vastly amazing about, but it still does the job at providing some great sounds for us, the viewers

The art has been vastly improved as expected for a movie. I wish it could be like this in the T.V series as well because the fights are animated better, clearer and more colorful to watch when seen in better quality. Character designs as I've talked a little about have been changed for a few as well. Shinsengumi is no longer the police force anymore really, but almost something like the Joui rebels themselves, though not necessarily identical. The producers decided to poke at some of the characters too, by making fun of them; Catherine mainly, who prioritizes in mainly making the viewer's think of her as the troll character of Gintama. Elizabeth's appearance changed drastically... One could say he's all muscle now.

The movie, Gintama: The Final Chapter - Be Forever Yorozuya is definitely something a fan of the T.V series should watch. As for myself, I'm always excited for more Gintama and still await the T.V series to return for me to enjoy some good laughs, action packed scenes and just overall enjoyment that is Gintama. Everyone who has watched the T.V series knows that all we've seen about Gin's past was little flashbacks during the war. So shouldn't we be seeing more of the war? Well no, if they did that the film would be shorter than a 3 episode long series. This was the best way to do things IMO, and the producers did it pretty damn good. Overall, the film gives tons of laughs throughout it, but kind of lacked in the action packed scenes. Though one could argue that Gintama isn't your typical shounen and that action isn't everything, which is correct because Gintama does what it does best and that is making you laugh.

Despite Gintama': Enchousen being shorter than its previous seasons, it still brings the action and comedy part of the show, never leaving, but always staying one step ahead. By doing this, the emotional impact the show brings into the series in some of the small and major arcs is shown in great detail, this leaves the viewers speechless at how perfectly it's put together.

Comedy isn't that strong in series as of late, even in most of the series airing the comedy was either pretty bad or they started out great, but than ended up as failures from becoming great. Knowing when to be funny in ... a show is essential to making a series great. If you just half-ass your way it won't become funny anymore, instead it will just be a generic show trying too hard. From the Fall and Winter seasons numerous shows tried doing this and they just burnt out near the end. Some recovered themselves near the end, barely.

However, Gintama is able to keep its comedy approach, knowing when to do it at the right time and not forcing itself too much. This gives the show a strong appeal to the fans that look for laughs.

We can't just talk about the comedy of Gintama though, the action and emotional part of the show is able to perform so well that its surprising. It makes you think, "How can a show be so funny, yet so great in so many vast amount of genres?" It really is speechless to say, at least from my standing and maybe you'll be able to question this yourself sometime too.

When it comes to Odd Jobs, also known as Yorozuya in its Romanized name, great hardships befall them. This ranges from running out of money due to the lack of jobs—to putting themselves into greater danger more so than the Shinsengumi, also known as the "Special Police Force." By going to such great acts of danger they're able to overcome and help the people they hold dear as friends.

Another great thing about Gintama is its characters. Gintoki, Shinpach, Kagura, and don't forget about Sadaharu, their pet dog; If it can even be classified as a "dog," have if not the best and unique characters in Anime. Despite Gintoki being the leader his personality takes a 180 turn from being serious, to trolling the viewers by picking his nose and always reading manga. Like Gintoki, Shinpachi and Kagura have pretty much the same type of personalities of Gin but show it in a different way.

The general theme of Gintama has no boundaries, right? Right. It's able to clash from fighting Aliens known as the Amanto that harm their beloved country to fighting corrupted Shoguns that only seek power. This also relates to its artwork by going into an Olden historical setting and even space.

In the soundtrack department, Audio Highs who's worked on all of the previous seasons and this one also shows how she/he is able to compose and arrange the music in the correct places throughout the series. While Amoyamo who played the first opening song, "Let's Go Out" of Gintama Enchousen and SPYAIR who performed the second opening song, "Sakura Mitsu Tsuki" as well as many other songs from the previous seasons is able to show a calm but catchy beat in all of their songs. The ending song is rather catchy as well, performed by PAGE - "Expect."

In the end Gintama lives up to being a great classic to the viewers. A show that can bring comedy, emotion, action and an historical type setting all into one, while keeping strong to its general based theme is Gintama. Odd Jobs will never be forgotten, they shall return one day and when that day comes, prepare yourself.