As a person who just started watching Gintama at exact one year ago, when this 2015 series started, I understand that you think "wait why is Gintama popular again?" or maybe now, "Why is it in the first ranking of MAL???" and unfortunately my friend, I can't answer that. Because I myself, don't know why either. To be honest, I started watching Gintama at the seventh season (this season) first episode and the next thing I knew, I was laughing hard.
What make Gintama interesting and why you should watch this? Well for me, the story pretty much unpredictable. You don't know what's coming and that make Gintama interesting. That is also why I rated the story 10/10. When people said that there all kinds of genre are packed in Gintama, it is true. At one moment you can laugh out loud without knowing when you will stop laughing, moments later you might be looking frantic for a tissue box because you were crying your eyes out or maybe, I don't know, sitting at the edge of your seat and praying for all went well during the last two serious arcs of this season? Well, it's a bit exaggerated but it's true. I experienced it.
The Gintama art and animation steadily improved from the first season, which was 10 years ago. It deserves some credits for the improvement. You could see the improvement and the difference of the art and animation of this series. In the beginning of Gintama series (the 2006 ones), their art was very sharp and shounen-ish but in the latest one, the art and the animation was more soft and somewhat relaxing to stare at.
Meanwhile, the OST fits perfectly with the moments, whether it was in comedy mode, action mode even sad mode. The OP/ED also fits perfectly. For example, Day by Day was filled with bright colors while Pride Kakumei was fill with more darker colors and gave us some seriousness vibe. After that, you got Beautiful Days with its upbeat and cheerfulness, giving us a hint that the comedy episodes has returned before turning it into an again, a dark and full of action opening. Lastly, Gintama closes its book with a gloomy, serious yet epic opening with Know, Know, Know by DOES.
The seiyuus are incredible as well. They delivered their best performances into this series in every single scene and sometimes I wondered how they managed to held back their laughter during the recording session.
The characters are the most interesting part. It's not a rare thing to see them breaking fourth wall, including mocking the very own protagonist, insulting their own mangaka, making fun of the producer and director of the shows in the previous six seasons. Every character have their perfections and their flaws and there are no characters in this series that was not insulted by the mangaka. The male characters are unique, you have the lazy protagonist, the stalker gorilla, the sadist, etc. Meanwhile, the female characters portrayed as a strong willed and independent individual, and yet the mangaka still made fun of them.
If you have watched the previous seasons of Gintama, you've seen how each of the characters grew and developed in the most awesome way. Or if you haven't, and you should do so by the way, you might've had this strong feelings toward secondary characters who has very small screen time yet relatable to you somehow.
Overall, it was a 9/10. If you are interested with an anime in their seventh season that was filled with other animes parodies, toilet and dirty jokes, comedy gags and sometimes could switch into more serious and touching mode, then Gintama is your choice. Gintama is also great to watch it if you feel bored or searching for an anime to binge watch. That's what I did and I didn't regret it. Oh and the reason I chose 9 not a 10 was because my disappointment of why didn't they adapt more of the comedy arcs or stories because I was hoping them to do so :(
But Gintama is still cool.
