Gintama. The Silver Soul of Jump.

I just finished reading Gintama. The Manga had officially ended during the summer of last year, but I never really caught up to the finale. I think, unconsciously, I didn’t Gintama to end, so I just decided not to read for a while. You know what they say, “if you never read it, it’s never going to finish.” Nevertheless, nearly a year later, I decided to push forward and read the finale. Hideaki Sorachi sensei, thank you for creating such an incredible journey.

I first started reading Gintama at the start of 2016. Although I hadn’t been a part of the journey since its beginning in 2003, I still felt very part of it. Unlike your typical Shounen Manga, which is full of action scenes, and fascinating adventures, Gintama is an absurd mix of everything that can exist under the sun and beyond. Fights? Check. Adventure? Check. Comedy? Check. Romance? Check. Mosaics and other perversions? Check! This list can go on! Whenever the story starts to become intense, and we can start to expect some “actual” plot progress, Gori-Sensei suddenly goes off on a tangent into a parody or some other gag sequence. Gintama has ripped off Dragonball, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and countless others. How is this Gorilla not getting sued?!?

Whenever, I felt down, reading Gintama always made me feel more pain. Pain from laughing so hard that my tummy and cheeks go sore! The level of stupidity and chaos the Yorozuya and the rest of the characters accomplish is just incomprehensible. But, it never failed to make me laugh my soul out like one of those foolish characters. The gags started in Chapter 1, and even the final chapter was safe from it.

Gintama isn’t all gags and comedy. Surprisingly, there is a well thought out, incredible, and a somewhat dark story that is interspersed through the Manga. You see very little of this story, but when you do, it makes you get goosebumps.

If I had to summarize my experience with reading Gintama in a sentence, it would be: “A roller-coaster ride that went traveled through multiple dimensions before circling back and hitting itself in the rear end. ” See? Can’t ask for a better journey than this, can you?
Ending on the above note, the following are some of my favorite scenes from the last few chapters of the series. (SPOILER ALERT).