THIS CONTAINS THE REVIEW OF THE WHOLE GINTAMA SERIES AND IT'S SPOILER FREE! This is the first time I'm writing a review, because as a masterpiece that changed my life, I felt the obligation to. This will be a really atypical and personal review. I'm going to start this review by saying that this series is really not for everyone, it targets a very unique group of people. (Of course it has extremely good comedy and killer fight scenes that everyone can enjoy at a surface level and still get a 8/10 great fun). That specific audience that Gintama targets are people between 20-30 years who arein a certain state of mind. I will explain why that is and even quote the man himself Sorachi-sensei to better explain this. When I first discovered Gintama, I was in a pretty dark place mentally, I was in such a melancholic and near depression state and it was only getting worse. My problems lied in the fact that even though I was doing good academically in University and overall healthwise, I felt like I was wasting my life, I didn't have any real friends who were more than just people I sometimes hang out with, was often misunderstood, my anxiety eating me alive. You probably know the popular sayings like: "Life is short" or "Don't miss any chances" "Battle and seize your chances" or "You need to make the most of your life while you still here", well something about this felt really pressuring to me and I started feeling like my life is just passing and I will become nobody. And Gintama literally was made for me (and people alike), Through a lazy main character Gintoki Sakata (A broke war veteran with no passion or desires in his late 20s). As the writer said: "Gintama is a story I wrote for people who have no particular path or direction in their lives, I wanted to show them that they can take it easy". Gintama did just that and much more, by having a main character like this who wastes his days doing nothing and living with no any goal in his life, almost emotionless. This is a common motive in the series, the show is trying to tell you who the watcher that life is not as short as it seems, and that you should enjoy little moments that seem unimportant in the grand scale of things, and most importantly it will get better, you just accept what you were given and cruise along on this big ocean we call LIFE. A very powerful message that eased my troubled heart and mind a lot. Now of course there are other characters in this show that bring a lot to the table, Gintama is the only series which I can comfortably say that has around 20 main characters, because there is so many characters written with such depth and unique yet relatable personalities. And most importantly there is huge variety of them, there are small children, teenage girls and boys, and of course adults whose life span is between 20 and 70! As insane as it sounds I'd compare the depth of Gintama characters to the characters from Dostoyevski's novels. In terms of just pure comedy Gintama has no competition, it's the only form of media ever to made me burst in actual tears from laughing. It has multiple forms of comedy: Parodying a lot (and I mean a lot) of other anime manga, parodying itself, character based comedy (this form is by far the funniest, but it takes time to really get to know characters, that's why many people say that comedy gets better later on, but in reality it's funnier because personalities of characters are better known) and also there is real life comedy, a lot of jokes about stuff happening in real life (Example: Writer's excuse for being sloppy with the releasing of chapters is that he was playing too much Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, and a lot of other references and parodies of games, tv shows, events etc...). And although the godlike comedy is the biggest part of the series, it isn't the most important, because almost every comedy episode has a deeper psychological underline to it, that goes over many peoples head, that's why many people are saying (including me) that show literally can make you laugh like an idiot, then few minutes after cry like a baby. Getting back to psychology, the episodes are structured in way to show real life struggles of many people and a lot of ugly and also beautiful stuff about our society as a whole. And it portrays these mundane daily life problems so well, that it hits way to close to home in some cases. By showing all these problems and how are our characters dealing with them, Gintama is showing us how unimportant and small these problems we get depressed over actually are if you look at your life as whole, and how some things that are stressful will be funny in few years (which I believe is something we all experienced through our childhood). The show is literally soul-healing (which is funny considering the name of the show Gin Tama - Silver Soul), it manages to show just how everyone's life is beautiful and worth living, and that it will always be better, because life is long and you don't need to rush things, eventually everything falls into it's place if you are true to yourself. Which for many sad, lonely, and depressed people like me opened our eyes and thought us what is worth treasuring. If you understand Gintama with your whole heart, it changes you, that's why people who watched the show are either saying that it's their favorite show ever with no close second, or it's boring/mediocre (Those people are either not able to grasp the message of the show because they haven't gone through that period of questioning yourselves and your life, or haven't really hit adulthood yet). This still isn't everything the show offers! The fighting/serious arcs of this show are actually insane and one of the best ever seen in anime history, the show takes this already deep and complicated characters, and makes a really good story with them, besides looking really cool and unique, the fights have so many meaning and weight behind them. The plot itself is not the best ever when compared to some other anime, but it's like 8 or 9 out of 10 which is still extremely good, it's just that the 9/10 action filled plot is overshadowed by comedy and mundane life activities, it goes to show just how impactful these moments actually are. In terms of anime production, animation goes from average to very good (There weren't any problems with it ever), Soundtrack and audio design are extremely good, it's not just the variety, but the quality of them, some OST's literally can change your mood the moment you play them. The series has 21 openings and 30 endings, plus 3 extra songs used in this last movie, and every single one of them is actually really good. The voice acting is in my opinion the best I ever seen, that confirms the fact that after watching Gintama, everyone is saying that they only hear Gintama characters in other shows... The art of the manga itself is also really good, I personally really like how real characters look, and as for the other parts, it isn't Berserk detail level of drawing, but it doesn't need to be, it captures the feelings and it portrays surrounding realistically.
CONCLUSION:
By being in the Gintama community I realized just how big this world is and though it seemed no one gets how I feel, I saw just how many people feel the exact way I do. And how much this show helped us, that's why so many of us Gintama don't even compare the show to others. So watch this show, I warn you, it will feel weird and very slow at first, but if you make past first 50-60 episodes it will definitely become one of your favorites, or if you feel like many of us Gitnama fans used to feel, it may just cure your mind and soul, the way it did ours.