It’s hard to think of a series being ten years old when I was just watching new episodes of it a few weeks ago. Gintama is a rare and highly appreciated case of a series adapting a long-running manga that goes for as long as there’s material to work with and then stops when there’s not, rather than making up its own material or dragging things out. This has the added benefit of dividing it up into small enough chunks for the staff to not fall so behind that the production values fall apart, and in fact it looks consistently great for its length. So it’s not something like Detective Conan, which started twenty years ago but has been such a constant that it doesn’t make sense to think of it as a twenty-year-old series as much as a permanent fixture on Japanese television. But indeed, Gintama did come back for a fourth season a year ago after its longest break yet, finishing up for the time being just before the tenth anniversary of the anime series as a whole.
Gintama is rare for another reason: it’s far better in anime form than as its original manga. Original creator Hideaki Sorachi’s comedy is on a level beyond anyone else in the industry, but his artwork isn’t always the strongest. The anime team hasn’t stayed the same throughout the hundreds of episodes spread across several seasons in this past decade, but it seems to always have exactly the right formula to give it the treatment that will bring out its full potential. Sunrise is a studio that can deliver very high-quality productions when the effort is put forth, and clearly it was decided that this was a property that deserved it, because even at its weakest, the Gintama anime looks quite strong.
Technically the latest season wasn’t even by Sunrise but by its new spinoff studio Bandai Namco Pictures, but in its year of new episodes there was no discernible dip in quality. Gintama has had three different series directors, but they’re the finest comedic directors in anime today. Shinji Takamatsu has also directed School Rumble and Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, and is now beginning the new 
series Sakamoto desu ga? Yoichi Fujita has also directed Binbougami ga! and Osomatsu-san, having just wrapped up the latter at the same time his protégé was wrapping up that fourth season of his former baby. Chizuru Miyawaki’s status as series director of the new season was worrying as she had never been in that position before, but clearly her extensive work on the prior installments of Gintama taught her everything she needed to know to take command without missing a beat. These directors nail the comic timing in a way that exceeds anything a manga would be capable of, as if the already excellent manga was always meant to be the first draft of storyboards and scripts for the masterpiece of the anime. As I mentioned, Gintama’s seasonal format results in less anime-original material than most of its contemporaries, but when the need does arise, the result is just as good as anything from the manga. A lot of that is thanks to the largely episodic structure that doesn’t require most stories to affect future storylines, but the anime writers understand Sorachi’s sense of humor so intuitively that the quality never suffers either. So even when there is anime-original material, it is never “filler.”
Gintama’s comedy is not quite like anything else, even among the other works of its directors. I have always considered it to be far and away the funniest anime ever, pushing the envelope in ways that never cease to amaze. Nothing is out of bounds for Gintama, as it plays in the depths of dark cynicism, gets as raunchy as possible, and satirizes a wide range of entertainment and real people so directly that it’s a wonder it can keep getting new seasons. This is all from a series that has never left Weekly Shounen Jump, mind you! It has ruffled some feathers at times, but far less than would be expected, and the repercussions weren’t nearly as severe as one would think. Osomatsu-san got into more trouble in its first episode than Gintama has in its decade of far more extreme parodies, and to my knowledge every episode is still readily available. I have no idea what kind of guardian angel Gintama managed to secure, but I couldn’t be happier that there has never been any indication of its edge dulling.
If Gintama was a pure comedy, it could still be one of the best anime ever. After all, being the best at something is impressive no matter what, and humor is a pretty important element. But perhaps what’s most 
amazing about Gintama is that it also becomes serious when it wants to, seamlessly bouncing between the two very different tones in a way that would feel incredibly jarring with any lesser execution, and handles that kind of material better than most series that focus on it primarily. Even while being episodic and comedic, there is often some emotional underpinning that creates a stronger connection with the characters and brings some levity to the usual (lovable) insanity. As the series goes on, it starts to introduce longer arcs that look a bit more like those found in conventional shounen series, but are never more than a few episodes long and are never without some of Gintama’s trademark comedy to ensure that they never get boring. In these short arcs Gintama can achieve greater drama, climactic battling, and well-earned pathos than many series attempt to in hundreds of episodes. And then it will brush it off with some gag that will make it all seem so remarkably effortless. Sometimes they’re predicated on a ridiculous joke that couldn’t sustain more than a minute in another series, and yet at some point they almost always manage to become sincere and powerful. The most notable event in Gintama’s anime history of late has been the last cour and a half, comprised entirely of two of these arcs back to back, each longer, more serious, and more important in terms of overall plot impact than any in the series prior. And yes, it still has plenty of comedy.
In this endless sea of unpredictable volatility and dynamism, the seiyuu cast is never without a massive challenge to overcome. Fortunately, the casting directors at the beginning of the series knew how important it was to have people who can handle it, and as a result it has become one of the most impressive casts in anime. The highest praise easily goes to the main trio of Tomokazu Sugita, Daisuke Sakaguchi, and Rie Kugimiya, but there’s not a member of the supporting cast who doesn’t display some of his or her best – and certainly most unique – work in this series, no matter how limited the role in the grand scheme. It’s a job that naturally breeds celebrities even when those behind the scenes tend to deserve the credit a bit more, but the work these actors are tasked with and the skill with which they pull it off without exception inspire a newfound level of respect for them.
Gintama is the prime example of beloved titles not always being the best-sellers. Its various installments account for half of the Top 10 Anime on MyAnimeList, including the #1 spot, and yet its only home release history in the US has been Sentai’s four barebones DVDs covering the first quarter of the first season and their experimental Blu-ray and DVD of the first movie, which is a compilation of an arc in the first season, which actually had a dub to gauge interest. Evidently sales were never what they needed to be, because there hasn’t been any word on physical Gintama releases in the US for four years now. Conversely, the series is a perennial home video success in Japan, as it would have to be to keep getting this many episodes with the production values it has. Considering how much the series makes Japanese puns and references to Japanese celebrities and culture, it’s not surprising that it wouldn’t have the same potential for broad appeal in an American market, but it’s still tragic.
Fortunately, Crunchyroll has been simulcasting the series since going fully legitimate at the beginning of 2009, and quickly added all of its back episodes. So it could be a lot worse; we can watch every episode of the series in its highest resolution at any time, immediately after airing in Japan when a new season is going on. This makes the only major installment to not have any legal method of viewing the second movie, which is 
a completely new story rather than something from the series. Perhaps one day Sentai will bless us with that missing piece, but after three years I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The dub of the first movie is one of the most bizarre things to ever happen to the franchise, and this is a franchise that prides itself on being as bizarre as possible. There are a lot of reasons the concept of a dub for Gintama is baffling to even think about. For it to be feasible it would require a drastic rewrite, which would be utterly painful to experience for anyone with any exposure to the original. This movie avoids the worst of it due to being a compilation of a more serious arc and not having as much time dedicated to playing with the Japanese language in a way that would make prospective ADR scriptwriters weep. However, it’s also 
an experiment to see if the inclusion of a dub would get enough more people to buy Gintama to warrant licensing more and dubbing it. This means that it was done on the cheap, and it shows all too well. Every line seems like the easiest approximation of the translation that would fit the flaps closely enough without regard to how it reads in the English language. The cast is made up of a few regulars who must’ve been at the studio at a particular moment and are reused as many different characters, particularly problematic due to the cameo by every recurring character at the time in the final scene. The performances are clearly rushed without much care put into matching the intent of the original, which is of such a high caliber of voice acting that it just makes the dub harder to take in comparison. So, if Sentai decided to license the rest of the series and dub it (they won’t), it would be an absolute necessity to start the casting from scratch and to have the writing and direction be at least remotely serviceable. Even in that impossible hypothetical world I probably wouldn’t watch the entire series dubbed because it would be such a different show and I can’t imagine the entire dub cast perfecting the performances on the level of the Japanese cast, but that’s obviously not something I need to worry about.
For most ten-year retrospectives, I’ll be thinking about – or at least writing about – a title for the first time in a while, but due to Gintama having never been absent for long, it’s been a constant for me to consume and discuss. Given its failure to sell in the US, the boundaries it crosses with its comedy, and the changes in the team adapting it, I always feel grateful to continue getting new seasons that maintain the high standard it has set for itself, especially since there’s really nothing else like it. The manga is reportedly ending soon, so there could very well only be one more season in the next couple of years, but it’s already provided so much more than I ever could’ve asked for, so here’s to the first amazing ten years. Now excuse me while I return to my beautiful fantasy world full of extravagant Blu-ray box sets of the entire series and 2013 movie.
Awesome stuff!