[Anime] Gintama: Catching up on a classic

To be honest... I really got into manga/anime at relatively late in the game... only having picked up the JUMP big three (One Piece, Bleach and Naruto) maybe 5 years ago... (though I've dropped Naruto, Bleach and is finding the mermaid land arc of One Piece a bit boring at the moment...) Well recently I've been randomly looking for new anime/mangas to follow and to fall in love with~ and have been totally addicted to Gintama (銀魂) story of a silver headed samurai~ 

Plot/ Summary from Wikipedia:

The story of Gin Tama takes place in Edo (known today as Tokyo because of its name change in 1868), Japan, which was conquered by aliens called "Amanto" (天人^?, "Sky People") in the late Edo period. The samurai of Japan fought the aliens, but after their defeat the Amanto placed a ban on carrying swords in public. The plot is focused on an eccentric samurai, Gintoki Sakata who helps a teenager named Shinpachi Shimura save his sister Tae from a group of aliens who want to make her part of a brothel. Impressed with Gintoki, Shinpachi becomes his apprentice and works with him as a freelancer in order to pay the monthly rent where Gintoki lives, as well as to know more about him. The two of them rescue a teenage alien girl named Kagura from a group of Yakuza who wanted to use her superhuman strength to kill people. Kagura joins Shinpachi and Gintoki to work as freelancers and the three become known as "Yorozuya" (万屋^?, "Jack of All Trades"). While doing their job they encounter the police force Shinsengumi several times, who normally ally with Odd Jobs Gin in their work since they commonly involve dangerous criminals. They also come to meet Gintoki's former comrades during the Amanto's invasion, including the terrorist Kotaro Katsura who maintains a friendly relationship with them despite his ambitions to destroy the bakufu. On the other hand, Shinsuke Takasugi acts as a major antagonist throughout the series, as he wants to destroy the bakufu in a more violent way than Katsura does.

Okay... so you're probably thinking... "OMG!! you call yourself an Otaku and you didn't know about Gintama til now! D: (rage rage... skip to another blog)" well... in my defense... I was too lazy to catch up on another 200+ episode series anime or 40+ volume manga after being disappointed by Naruto and Bleach... (I loved Ichigo and Rukia when I was still following it!) Anyways, I started watching the anime recently after finding out that the voice actor of Gintama's main character Gintoki was also voiced the lead character Ruka from Tokimeki Girl's Side 3rd Story (an otome game subject for another entry) Tomokazu Sugita, I had to check it out! X3


To my surprise, Gintama was not "a trying to be the cool typical samurai" story... but was a slapstick, very random comedy that parodies a lot of other animes and shows~ which very much reminded me of the crazy randomness of Zan Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei (season 2). (loved it! also its awesome OP~ some reminiscing below~ X3) 

woops~ a bit off topic there~ (^^;) anyways... Gintama's first OP Pray by Tommy Heavenly6 was also very epic indeed! and I couldn't get it out of my head for a looong time... (well, until I got to the episode that they changed the OP...) 

I also really like the second ED song of Gintama~ Mr Raindrop by the band Amplified~ The song is so cute and happy~ having Elizabeth skipping along with an umbrella is just too hilarious~ Too bad that I couldn't find the karaoke/instrumental version to do a cover of it too~ (one less song ruined by my singing!)