What made you fall for Gintama?

[rainsometimes]

Question to any Gintama fans who happen to read this: looking back, what do you think made you fall for the series and stick by it? Was there any specific arc or episode/chapter or moment where you realized that "damn, I'm really into this now", or did it happen gradually? Did you start with the manga or the anime? Did you read/watch them in order or did you skip around?

Also - were your initial impressions of the main characters and prominent secondary characters similar to how you feel about them now, or did you change your mind a lot as you got to know them better?

Comments

[rainsometimes]

I guess I should give an answer, myself! I'd had a false start with Gintama years back when I tried the first volumes of the manga in the official English translation and it didn't click with me. In hindsight I think it was a combination of Sorachi's kinda-rough early art*, the so-so translation ("It's not Casserole, it's Katsura", good grief); and simply taking time to get used to the tone of Gintama. Later I heard people say the anime was easier to get into and very good, and I saw more and more enthusiastic recs of the canon, and funny gifs taken from it, in my fandom spaces. I also read entertaining threads in journal RP with Gintama characters interacting with characters I already knew from other canons. Finally naye very generously offered a guest pass on Crunchyroll on her blog for the purpose of checking out Gintama, right as I suddenly had more spare time and also kind of looking for a nice long canon to get into.

I skipped a number of early episodes at first since I still remembered the basic premise, using recs of particularly good episodes but watching those episodes in internal order. I soon found that I did indeed enjoy the early anime more than I had with the manga, and bit by bit I got more into the characters and the world and was more and more amused by the comedy. Episode 13 was an early hit that hinted at more good stuff to come, episode 25 (Nabe Shogun!) was funny as hell, and then the amnesia arc was genuinely moving and made me believe more fully in the bond between the three main characters. The Umibozu arc confirmed that bond more strongly still, and it was by then I knew I was in it for good. My favourite individual character is Katsura, but my favourite element in the show is the Odd Jobs Trio and the bond between those three. And then the arcs and the single episodes just kept getting better: funnier, more exciting, more absurd, more engaging, more angsty... So, yeah. I got it bad. :D

My first impressions of some of the Gintama characters came from Livejournal RP rather than canon, and initially they weren't too positive for Gintoki and Kagura, I'm afraid. Gintoki made me go, "who is this smug dude who thinks he can just break the fourth wall with everyone as if that makes him better than the rest?", while Kagura just seemed extremely obnoxious and bratty. Later osmosis started to give me a somewhat more faithful image of Gintoki and I did guess that as the protagonist he likely had hidden depths, but there were plenty of things that surprised me about him - in good ways - when I actually got into the anime, even in the early parts. And that's not even bringing up all the aspects of his character that have been revealed slowly over time during the length of the series. ♥

And changing my mind on Kagura from someone I was set to be unimpressed by to one of my absolute favourite characters has been one of the biggest joys of the series. She truly is wonderful. ♥ I had no idea.

Shinpachi I had no such prior exposure to, but when I first saw him in the manga I thought "well here is the obvious expository character who's meant to be the audience surrogate and be wowed by the charismatic hero, ho hum". I had no idea how sarcastic and funny and stalwart and just plain great he would turn out to be. Also I maintain that he's the best tsukkomi ever. ♥