dreamer's void

So, given that I’ve spent the last year posting stills from every canonical episode of Gintama, I thought I would take the time to write about the arcs in Gintama and rank them. I thought that people might be interested in reading about my ranking since it seems like a lot of fans of Gintama prefer the comedy arcs over the major story arcs, and I’m the opposite. That being said, I do think that some of the top comedy arcs can be considered better than some of the major story arcs, I just think the major story is better overall.

Once I get to the major story arcs, I’ll mostly be talking about them in conjunction with why they’re rated the way they are in comparison to the other major story arcs. Something like, “I think XYZ Arc isn’t as good as ZYX Arc because of this,” or whatever.

Again, just to reiterate, I do think Gintama is absolutely groundbreaking in terms of comedy, and many of favorite moments in Gintama are from comedy episodes. My top comedy arc is just as good as my favorite major story arc, just for entirely different reasons; it’s just that, in an overall list, the major story arcs will always be my top twelve because the major story feels like the point and punctuation of Gintama. You can say that the major story isn’t the point of Gintama, which is fine. Hell, I think Gintama’s essence is an anime that can perfectly blend two entirely different genres together in a way that makes “Gintama” it’s own genre that can’t be rivaled in any other anime or medium. However, I don’t think you can have four back-to-back major story arcs to close out an anime and not consider the major story the ultimate story in Gintama. But, like I said, I kind of have two number one spots for both the comedy and major story arcs, so just keep that in mind while reading this post.

Also, it’s worth noting that, while these arcs are ranked, there are some arcs I find to be just as good as a handful of others. I just wanted to try and definitively rank them, even though I may rate them the same in quality and enjoyment if I were using a scale rather than making a list. Anyway, I guess I’ll get to it, so hopefully you enjoy reading.

P.S. - First of all, spoilers, obviously. Second of all, the quotes and pictures in this post will be pulled from my posts, so if you want to see them in full, you can either search for the arc name or “gintama stills” on my blog.

P.P.S. - Just know that Tumblr decided not save my rankings from 31-18, so my comments on them won’t be as good as they were originally. Thank you, hellsite.

#60 - HDZ48 Arc (337-339)

“Could you not get all jealous because nobody’s coming to your toilet?”

This is probably the only arc in Gintama that I 100% don’t like. Three episodes of this was torturous, if I’m honest. I just didn’t find it that funny, and I really don’t like Otsuu, so this arc wasn’t for me at all.

#59 - Kagura’s Boyfriend Arc (329-330)

“I used to think a grown-up’s job was to run in front while the kids follow behind. But when they eventually overtake us, it’s also our job to send them off with a smile, huh? Man, I can still keep running, though.”

I believe there are some people that say this arc is what hooked them on Gintama, which is really interesting to me. I did enjoy the sentimental moments that come with Umibouzu and Gintoki’s comments on Kagura, but the rest of this arc was boring to me. Maybe that’s because I don’t like Attack on Titan, I don’t know, but it felt like a weird watching experience.

#58 - Ryugujo Arc (115-118)

“Youth and beauty aren’t what’s important. It’s more difficult to walk straight and true if your back is bent to begin with. As they say… it’s better if you make your soul beautiful!”

I have honestly been waiting for a platform where I could flame this arc, and now’s my chance. No, I don’t hate it that much, but I had a difficult time getting through this arc. The emotion of the story didn’t hit me, and the punchline of Katsura and Gintoki turning into old men was lame. Still, Otae was awesome in this arc, and Zura and Gintoki getting to be badass like they were in the Joui War toward the end was mad cool.

#57 - Santa Arc (200-201)

“When we all love and support one another, everybody’s a Santa.”

Not to sound like the bitterest person on the planet, but I don’t really like Christmas-themed things. I mean, that’s not the only reason I didn’t like this arc; it was another one of those hard-to-get-through ones. The episodes of Gintama that pick a gag and run it dead for the entire episode aren’t ever interesting to me, and they feel really longwinded, which is what this arc was. Plus it beat the Christmas theme dead, so it didn’t score well with me.

#56 - Excalibur Arc (334-336)

“I don’t know or care how many blades you’ve eaten in your life. But I know that I’ve beaten many more than that!”

Are you getting the sense that the Slip Arc hadn’t been animated before because the arcs weren’t that great? Sorry, that was a bit mean; this arc wasn’t terrible. The Gintoki-getting-a-sword-stuck-up-his-ass thing felt unnecessarily vulgar—which is saying something for Gintama—but Sougo and Gintoki having beef was fun. So was Gintoki throwing shade at Hijikata and Kondo. It’s just that it felt like it was using vulgarity to force comedy rather than mixing the vulgarity into the humor to make the arc naturally funny like Gintama normally does. And on top of that, the actual story sucked.

#55 - Love Choriss Arc (228-229)

“Uh, wouldn’t the virgin god rank below the toilet god? Below a god covered in shit.”

First things first, the first episode in this arc was boring as hell. I do think the last half of second episode was funny, especially considering Sougo and the ending, but most of this arc was average. I didn’t like “vehicle for humor,” if you will, in this arc either, that being the virtual people the characters were dating. Funny at the end, otherwise, meh.

#54 - Diviner Arc (195-199)

“To the samurai who was taking shelter from the rain… Thank you.”

Five episodes of this was bit rough on me, not gonna lie. Gedoumaru is a really fun character, and I came around to the Pandemonium gag by the final arc, but the rest of this arc was either average or, dare I say, bad. I tried to get into Seimei-Douman story—and I like both of them as characters—but it just didn’t do it for me, and the fight surrounding it felt like it took forever. I will say, though, the “Thank you, Gintoki/Yorozuya” emotion that came out of this arc at the end was really nice. And I do love Gedoumaru.

#53 - Hardboiled Detective Arc (84-85)

“No wonder I could never capture you. You were… always watching over me.”

Listen, this arc is not as bad as everyone says it is. Everyone shits on this arc and says it’s the worst in Gintama, but it’s not. I know. I know this is basically at the bottom of my own list, but that’s because there’s so much stellar content in Gintama that the good stuff gets pushed back. I thought the five minutes of stylized hardboiled dialogue in the first episode was charming, and I thought Kozenigata’s story was lovely. And this is arc is funny. Yeah, I said it. Were the constant hardboiled comments super annoying after a while? Yes. But Kozenigata is a fun character, and a sweet one when he comes in the later arcs. This arc gets shit on too much, and I’m here to give it some love.

#52 - Mother Arc (54-55)

“No matter what happens, your mother will always be proud of you.”

Yeah, I mean, there isn’t much to say with this one. It wasn’t boring exactly; it just wasn’t super engaging. Kyoushirou is a good character, and his story made me a bit teary eyed, but the rest of the arc was standard. Which isn’t a bad thing; it just means that it’s basic Gintama, and basic Gintama is still good.

#51 - Owee Arc (98-99)

“It’s the end of the world when there are this many people who’d line up for a kid’s toy. The world is corrupt. I’m beginning to understand Zura’s feelings about wanting to destroy it.”

I didn’t realize this arc ended up so low on my list, but here we are. I do think it’s a pretty funny arc, and the Nintendo references are cool, I guess it’s just another one of those typical arcs for me. I feel the same way about this are as I do about the Mother Arc. Some parts of these episodes—like when Kondo and Shinpachi were playing a dating sim—were sort of dense, but other parts—like Gintoki and Hijikata ripping a game character in half—were really entertaining. So, it’s a mixed bag.

a double chocolate mocha and a book is all i need to ascend into eternal bliss

the big finding of the whole experiment was that both food and comfort are not just substantial, but required for healthy development. in the 50s the popular theory was that mothers should touch and hold their babies as little as possible to avoid “spoiling” them, especially right after birth (which explains uh. a lot about boomers as a generation).

Harlow conducted his experiment to investigate this idea, and he found that physical comfort nearly eclipsed the food as a need in the baby macaques. They would go to the wire mothers only when they were hungry, sometimes even trying to reach the milk bottles without letting go of the cloth mothers, because they so badly needed both. Harlow’s other experiments showed that being deprived of parental comfort and enrichment as babies dealt lasting psychological damage to the macaques. and today we know that human babies can just up and die without enough skin-to-skin contact.

Calvin Klein Collection SS26 RTW Look 9

A) There are a ton of fruits that get categorised as vegetables. Like this also applies to pumpkins, squashes and cucumbers.

Yes, we do have the right to make demands on public behavior. Of course we do. Have you never heard of laws and etiquette? I’m not allowed to grocery shop naked. You can’t rummage through my purse. I can’t have a work meeting in the middle of a movie theatre.

I remember when it was taboo simply to answer your cell phone in public. The person answering would apologize and try to go to a more private area. Then public calls were normalized. Then putting people on speaker. Then listening to music without headphones. Do you know how many times I have hiked up a mountain or driven to the beach, only to be met with someone blaring shitty top 40 music from their portable speaker, because Heaven forbid you go one hour without noise?

It was obnoxious when it was youtube.

It was obnoxious when it was music.

It was obnoxious when it was the radio. 

It was obnoxious when it was dudes wanting to talk to you instead of letting you just read your freaking book.

Do you want to be this guy? Because being obnoxious in shared spaces is how you become this guy. 

It's usually an extension of assumptions that people in the past were just less intelligent than in the contemporary, just being like "I know that the sun is a star millions of miles away that the earth orbits, but this ancient religion describes it as a chariot flying through the sky" and not really bothering to learn the context and just (consciously or subconsciously) settling on 'that's a crazy thing to think and was probably believed in because they were Stupid'.