Gintama

And this is what I chose for my first review. Yes it's the anime about the worst shounen jump hero ever created.

Meet Sakata Gintoki, our late with the rent, nose picking, good for nothing leader of the Yorozuya. Rule #1 throughout the show: don't trust anyone, even the staff

Gintama. Most of the people who fare in the sea of anime eventually come across this title. Gintama is about three main characters, The Yorozuya. They are a kind of jack of all trades, doing from petty daily thing to even obscure jobs, as long as they get paid.

The setting must be one of the most cleverly elaborated settings in the anime history. Instead of Japan opening their borders to the outside world, here we have them opening for aliens, so we get feudal japan with a futuristic touch, sometimes even space battles. It’s kind of weird to see in some episodes dirt roads with wooden houses and, in other, skyscrapers and spaceships (in the first episode they even jump from one to another in an instant which kind of serves as a shock therapy for the rest of the series) and how good they work together and give fluidity to the world.

Now the characters:

The Yorozuya:

Sakata Gintoki - The main hero. He´s shown as a good for nothing person, likes to drink, gamble, it's always late with rent and screws up most of the jobs. Deep inside he's a very loyal person willing to risk his life for the people he cares about.

Shinpachi Shimura - The first person to join the Yorozuya. He has the dream of rebuilding his family dojo along his sister. Wants to be a true samurai, and follows Gintoki for that reason.

Kagura - The ''heroine'' of the show. She has a humanoid form but she's actually a alien from the Yato planet, known as the strongest race on the universe. The characteristic of the Yato include inhuman strenght, their bloodlust and their weakness to the sunlight, the reason they always carry an umbrella. Kagura is a normal 14 year girl, childish, egoist but like the rest of the Yorozuya she's loyal and kindhearted. 

There are so many relevant characters in the Gintama anime it’s easy to lose count. Despite the enormous number of characters they stick to your memory and every one of them has a trait (Madao with his sunglasses), quirk (Hijikata and his love for mayo) or catchphrase (Katsura's ''It's not Zura, it's Katsura!) that easily gains your heart and when they appear, even if they didn't done anything yet, you start laughing just because they appeared on that moment. Most of them are based in historical figures or entities, like Hijikata Toshiro and the rest of the Shinsengumi, the bakufu and the Yagyu clan.

The plot starts slowly, being a comedy anime in overall. It's not an anime easy to get into, as the action and jokes are so fast paced you get thrown off so easily, also there are some references regarding japanese culture that are a little obscure. But it’s easy to laugh (and hard!) with the jokes and, if you have watched anime for some time, you start to get some of the references. You have to wait for a while for the even better part to start. The fight scenes.

It all starts when the first villain appears, Shinsuke Takasugi and the background of some characters are unveiled a bit. It’s revealed that there was a gigantic war against the aliens, and Gintoki was in it with Takasugi and Katsura, and eventually the monster skills that Gintoki has as a swordsman and a fighter are shown giving even more content to the show, showing at slow pace the past of the Gintoki and the amanto war companions.

If Gintoki's nickname Shiroyasha (White Demon) doesn't give you goosebumps you are watching the show wrong

The Great main villains appear a few times in the entire anime, but they leave such an impression that when they appear you know that shit is going down. Please have more air time!

Kamui (left) - "I've told you before. Weaklings like you, have no place with us."
Takasugi (right)- "I simply destroy, until the beast stops howling"

The fight scenes are usually epic, with a great soundtrack to accompany them. Normally a fight has some deep motive to start, as Gintoki doesn't easily pull out his Lake Toya Sword.

Lake Toya, Gintoki's wooden sword, bought in the TV Shop channel

Here's a battle from the ''Courtesan of a nation'' arc

The soundtrack is also great, variying from goofy moments, emotional ones and, of course, the battle themes. As expected from a TV Tokyo anime, and an adaptation from a Weekly Shounen Jump manga. And the openings (the most part from the band DOES) are beautiful.

In general it’s a must watch anime, it can combine the randomness and joke throwing (breaking the 4th wall is a regular thing) with action packed main shounen animes like Dragonball, One Piece and such.

So, now that you've read the review, go watch it!

Art - 5/5

Gintama has a unique style that is not seen in any other anime, and the animation is well done.

Soundtrack - 4/5

The soundtrack is great in the overall. There are a lot of tracks but a great part of them goes forgotten, still a great OST.

Plot - 5/5

Most of the episodes will be just jokes and one episode stories to make you laugh, but when you piece together the arcs with story it’s a great story with great mysteries behind.

Excitement - 4/5

When you get addicted to it, you can't stop. You watch episode after episode without getting bored. The reason why I don't give it 5 it’s because of the series with reruns which brake the pace. It’s a good marketing play but, for those watching it weekly, you get disappointed if it’s not new material.

Final Score - 18/20