Gintama is a gag anime so they do spend a lot of time parodying other famous anime and making other popular culture references, sometimes I have never seen them and I don't really get it. If you are thinking you might not find it funny because of that, I highly doubt it. It is very funny. It's the kind of comedy that takes something a little bit funny and then keeps building and building on it until you are laughing out loud, its very easy to enjoy even if you don't get the references. Gintama has the occasional dud episode but I would say that by and large when you sit down to watch an episode of Gintama you are almost guaranteed to be in for a pretty good time, it stays consistently funny and awesome right up to the end at episode 260. It takes a couple episodes to get really started I would say so make sure you watch a few before deciding that I (and the rest of its huge fanbase) just have bad taste.
But its not just a comedy. One of the secrets to its longevity has got to be the interweaving of traditional shounen battle scenes and themes. Gin is the shonen hero for those of us who, like Gin, are a little too old to still be reading Jump (popular manga magazine for young boys). When he is lazy he is lazy but I have to admit, when he is cool he can be pretty damn cool. With too many awesome supporting characters to list this is a gag anime and a shounen but with more depth than the average of those genres.
So Gintama is long but you will not be happy when it ends. For me, watching Gintama was a special time that cheered me up almost no matter how bad I felt and I cannot wait until the next series starts in April this year. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't like it, unless you really don't understand Japanese comedy at all. Otherwise do yourself a favour and start watching!
