I watched episodes 1 and 2 of Gintama at some point in my Mouretsu Pirates marathon. It was funny and I liked the characters and holy shit, was this scifi? How had I missed this was scifi? I made a note to watch more.
Then![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pseudo_tsuga linked me to a primer and an episode guide, because she knows an easy mark when she sees one. The primer says the first two episodes suck in comparison to the rest of the series, which I thought was strange - they were pretty good for a shonen show. So I watched another episode. And another, and - look, CrunchyRoll automatically loads the next episode, okay? If you're watching from the couch you have to get up to it stop and why do that when you could watch more Gintama instead?
Turns out the first two episodes do suck in comparison.
Gintama is magical. It's stupid and funny and gross and heartwarming and clever and meta and I love it to pieces. It's shot up as one of my favorite things and there are 200 more episodes to go (and counting!), can we maintain this kind of momentum?
( There is no answer, only picspam. OR Why you should watch this show! )
Gintama's not perfect - there are lots of ladies, but it doesn't pass the Bechdel test very often (though it's been getting better!). There's stalking played as a running gag. There's a kinky character that's played for laughs. There's an episode about trans* and genderqueer people that aims for a positive portrayal and gets about 80% there (trans*/genderqueer people are strong and to be respected, but they can't be attractive). There are no PoC who aren't Japanese (yet. I've seen screencaps with black characters from later episodes, so I'll report back). And in practical terms, you'll miss a lot if you're not familiar with Japanese history and pop-culture.
But on the whole, it's an excellent show. All of the characters are fantastic, the women get to be cool/gross/violent as often as the men, everyone gets character development. There's just enough drama to keep the comedy from getting stale and the drama is really good. It's meta as hell. It pokes fun at its genre. It constantly breaks the fourth wall. It has a canon high school AU. It has amazing voice acting. It has an infinite amount of heart (and dick jokes).
In conclusion:
Whew. Now that's out of the way, I can start spamming you with episode reactions.
Then
pseudo_tsuga linked me to a primer and an episode guide, because she knows an easy mark when she sees one. The primer says the first two episodes suck in comparison to the rest of the series, which I thought was strange - they were pretty good for a shonen show. So I watched another episode. And another, and - look, CrunchyRoll automatically loads the next episode, okay? If you're watching from the couch you have to get up to it stop and why do that when you could watch more Gintama instead?Turns out the first two episodes do suck in comparison.
Gintama is magical. It's stupid and funny and gross and heartwarming and clever and meta and I love it to pieces. It's shot up as one of my favorite things and there are 200 more episodes to go (and counting!), can we maintain this kind of momentum?
( There is no answer, only picspam. OR Why you should watch this show! )
Gintama's not perfect - there are lots of ladies, but it doesn't pass the Bechdel test very often (though it's been getting better!). There's stalking played as a running gag. There's a kinky character that's played for laughs. There's an episode about trans* and genderqueer people that aims for a positive portrayal and gets about 80% there (trans*/genderqueer people are strong and to be respected, but they can't be attractive). There are no PoC who aren't Japanese (yet. I've seen screencaps with black characters from later episodes, so I'll report back). And in practical terms, you'll miss a lot if you're not familiar with Japanese history and pop-culture.
But on the whole, it's an excellent show. All of the characters are fantastic, the women get to be cool/gross/violent as often as the men, everyone gets character development. There's just enough drama to keep the comedy from getting stale and the drama is really good. It's meta as hell. It pokes fun at its genre. It constantly breaks the fourth wall. It has a canon high school AU. It has amazing voice acting. It has an infinite amount of heart (and dick jokes).
In conclusion:
Whew. Now that's out of the way, I can start spamming you with episode reactions.
