Plot: (1/10)
The comedic episodes that take up 80% of the series is just there to flesh out the characters, the world and repeat the same jokes over again. It’s unnecessary padding that has no affect on the actual plot, hence why it’s filler. You can skip them, look up the serious arc episodes and watch those and you’d still be caught up with the story.
The serious arcs are short, overdramatic, have fake deaths, bland sword fights and are filled with the same overused shounen troupes like: nakama power bullshit or villains giving long cliche monologues. None of the arcs are even better than your average shounen arc, especially the overrated Shogun Assassination arc.
The whole structure is a mess. Some episodes are dedicated to the odd jobs, then the shinsengumi, one moment is serious then half way through it’s comedy. 3 episodes would be comedy, then the next 4 would be “mini serious arcs”, the plot’s all over the place!
Characters: (1/10)
The characters are over the top, unrealistic and have barely any development. Seriously, if you compare the Odd Jobs Trio from the first episodes to the latest episodes in the final season, you’ll see that they’re pretty much exactly the same characters.
The worst part is the comedy is terrible. It’s as if it was written for 12 yr old weebs. The constant abusive punches/kicks, repetitive gags, overused references to other shows, cheesy dialogue, childish parodies and poop jokes are shit. Also, there’s so many references to Japanese culture that even the average viewer wouldn’t get the humour.
Overall (1/10):
Seriously, if you want to watch a episodic comedy series then you might as well watch Spongebob instead because it at least doesn’t take 60+ episodes to “get good” like Gintama.
