Gin and the gang must defend Sa-chan as she recovers, but not until Gin gets his hemorrhoid medication…
What They Say:
Gintoki and crew continue to defend Sarutobi against the Lethal Punishers. But against such assassins as the Pillow Masa, T-shirt Tatsu, and the Chuubert Chu Brothers, will they win?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the previous episode focusing on Sa-chan pretty heavily with her glasses issue and having Gin and the gang trying to take care of business for a bit, we had a good spot of fun until she ended up so completely beaten up that she just had to be essentially put out of commission for a bit so she could heal. With Zenzo organizing Gin and the gang to protect her while she recovers, he ends up learning pretty quickly here that you can’t really trust them all that much. Kagura falls asleep while guarding Sa-chan, though she at least draws eyes on her eyelids so it looks like she’s awake even as she drifts off. Gin is a bit worse as he goes off looking for hemorrhoid medication for Zenzo and says so over the walkie talkies that they have. The gang doesn’t have to work hard to prove that they suck at this.
When the first attack happens, it’s a comedy of errors as the masked guy basically can’t get that far as everything he does bounces back against him in essence. Plant an explosive under Kagura’s head by swapping out the pillow? Sadly, her head weighs too much and he can’t pull the pillow out from under her in order to do it. It runs through a couple of similar gags like this, including some grief for Shinpachi over wearing a small sized shirt, that has some decent if mild comedic value. Naturally, the assassins that are going after Sa-chan aren’t exactly top tier and even when Gin and the others play things serious with dark looks on their faces, it’s tied to something completely silly actually looks pretty dirty when you get right down to it.
It can be fun when Gin gets serious since he’s got the presence and voice to pull it off, but after all that we’ve seen him do over the years, it’s not exactly backed up by experience. Still, when the show wants to go in that direction, it does it well because it’s usually pretty quickly that it has him revert to his usual self. One such attempt on Sa-chan has him and the others wrapped up in chains and he realizes just how bad his position is at this point and he’s practically begging to be freed. This storyline naturally does come to some conclusion here, and it does it in a very comical way as Sa-chan finds herself healed and powered up in one of the best transformation scenes that I’ve seen in a long time. She’s not exactly a favorite character of mine, but as she goes over the top here with powers and abilities, it’s a great deal of fun. And in the end, the last couple of minutes makes the whole episode worthwhile.
In Summary:
While this two part storyline has its fun throughout, it’s one that didn’t have me laughing quite as much as certain other episodes have. Gintama has easily found its stride again after being off the air for awhile and it shows in pretty much every episode since. Focusing on Sa-chan for a bit is definitely welcome since she’s a bit of a ditzy goof in a lot of ways and pairing that with the blasé approach that Gin and the gang have with life can lead to plenty of silly situations. The balance of serious and silly here works well, but it’s the kind of storyline that does feel like it drags a bit in the first half of this episode. It’s all made up for in the second half though with her transformation and battle sequence. Definitely the bright spot in this storyline.
Grade: B-
Simulcast By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
