Gintama Reviews Episode 96: If You’re A Man, Don’t Give Up

THE STORY THUS FAR: in a two-parter, hasegawa stood trial after accidentally assaulting a woman on a train platform

It took a few minutes for me to start getting any idea of what is going on in this episode. There was a movie-style opening credit sequence, followed by two people talking about some kind of alien attack on some planet, somewhere, either in a different aspect ratio, or the same aspect ratio just with black bars on the top and bottom to make it look widescreen. The random duo mentioned Kagura’s dad at some point, but that didn’t really help matters, and I still wasn’t sure if I was watching something actually happening, if it was an in-universe movie, or what.

Whatever else it may be, this episode is undoubtedly a mishmash of just about every post-apocalyptic scifi trope ever. It’s not bad, but it’s not Gintama, either. There have been other episodes with few jokes, or where Gin-san basically only made a cameo, but those still focused on established characters that the audience already knows and cares about. The only familiar character in this episode is Kagura’s Dad, and he’s only been in a single arc before this so he’s still mostly an unknown. It’s cool to watch him do his job, but there’s nothing else of interesting to latch on to here.

The other two named characters aren’t that interesting or likable, either. The Dude One has an annoying tendency to condescend to his commanding officer, and The Girl One stubbornly refuses to recognize a lost cause when she sees one, and seems to think agriculture is a simple as just planting some seeds and watering them, even though The Dude One already explained that the soil is infertile. A stubborn refusal to admit when they’ve lost is a trademark of shonen heroes but here is doesn’t work, mostly because the audience has no connection to these characters or any reason to care about their planet.

Of course then we get to the punchline of the episode and it makes it all worth it.

Next episode features Kagura acting like Gin-san and it looks like it’s going to be nigh-unbearably adorable. Till next time.

[ko-fi]