Episode 6 – GINTAMA – Mr. Ginpachi’s Zany Class

I’ll admit I was a little concerned that last week’s return might have been a fluke, given how rough some of the previous episodes were, but it looks like the show is back on top…mostly. And the last episode was a very powerful example of how good GintamaHumor can be when it has room to breathe, this is an example Gintamaable to mix comedy with melodrama as it indulges in another of the most standard school-related plots: the threat of being forced to stay away from all your friends. The comedy’s results were a little inconsistent compared to last week’s high points, but what the episode occasionally lacked in laughs it made up for in sincerity.

One day, as Shinpachi is walking to school, he learns from Ohta that the two of them will have to transfer schools to live with a distant relative. He was very frustrated by this, and even more frustrated when his classmates’ reaction seemed to be complete indifference. While he got a few kind words and gifts from his teachers, everyone else was minding their own business, with a few exceptions. One is the cafeteria lady, who is mostly just happy that he likes her cooking, and the other is Tama, whose sadness over Shinpachi’s departure quickly becomes hilarious as she points out that this is the only time the two of them talk to each other all season.

despicable as Gintama Yes, it can wear its heart on its sleeve when it wants to. When Shinpachi’s last day at school ends with zero fanfare, everyone decides to start over and throw him a going away party (although before that, he does threaten to start the entire episode right from the opening credits, which really made me realize how out of the blue this joke was). This is where most of the comedy comes out of this episode, and where most of the jokes work. The feeling that every picture of Shinpachi is just his glasses never gets old when watching the slideshow, and I was particularly pleased with Kondo’s last performance of asking Ota out, only to be truly gutted when she couldn’t even be bothered to remember his name. I’m not a big fan of Okita offering Shinpachi some hooks to torture people, or Katsura’s horrible rapping attempts, which are largely annoying, but that’s probably the point. All these silly pranks push Shinpachi to the edge, only for him to learn that making him come back one last time is their way of giving him an emotional send-off.

It’s surprisingly heartwarming, and I was bracing myself for the inevitable gag of some outside force preventing him and Okuyasu from moving, but while that does happen, it plays out a lot sweeter than I expected. It turns out that the relative they’re moving in with is actually the lady from the cafeteria, and Shinpachi’s compliments on her cooking skills apparently gave her the courage to marry her boyfriend, who’s busy preparing for her honeymoon. How much to use Gintama Like having fun at Shinpachi’s expense, I was expecting meaner punchlines than this, but I’m happy to settle for a sweeter ending. This is a very cute example GintamaThis balance is what the cast of Goofballs can be like when they’re not busy being mean, and that balance is one of the things that keeps me coming back to this topic franchise.

grade:

Gintama – Mr. Ginpachi’s funny classroom Currently live broadcast
Crunchy roll.