THE “REAL” ENDING OF GINTAMA

TONY T. - Managing Editor, 3rd Year, Economics and Data Science

"Quite often, for long running anime series, the second cinematic feature somehow seems to be the best."

The idea of Gintama ending was floated around so many times in the series as a joke that when it ultimately did reach its finale, it felt somewhat underwhelming. Frankly, the ending of Gintama, starting around the Rakuyou arc, always felt a bit lacking whether it be because the overall conclusion felt a bit too much like a retread of the series’ best hits or due to the comedy/drama balance being disrupted. Not helping were the changes in release format. Initially ending on chapter 698 in Weekly Shonen Jump, Gintama’s subsequent moves to Jump Giga and then its own app felt strange. These six following chapters were far longer than the series’ typical length too, and demonstrated the author’s inexperience with a format outside of Weekly Shonen Jump’s typical nineteen or so page count per chapter. Another factor was clearly the flip flops in continuity, as the series entertained multiple timeskips within its last arc alone, leaving the entire narrative feeling disconnected. All in all, the ending to Gintama was decent, albeit the strange circumstances around it clearly left a sour taste in some people’s mouths. While the anime adaptation fixed some of the issues in terms of release format, it still encountered the same setbacks narratively.

It’s odd, because Gintama’s prior “finale” in an anime format essentially accomplished the exact same things as the true finale, all while leaving the series open to future continuations which ultimately happened. While its name is somewhat ironic in retrospect, Gintama Movie 2: Be Forever Yorozuya fundamentally serves as an excellent ending to the franchise. Released after the third season, Gintama’ Enchousen, the second film essentially continues the relevant plot points up until that portion of the story. Delving further into Gintoki’s past, the second film’s narrative is admirable in how it seemingly encounters many obvious pitfalls in storytelling yet avoids feeling cheap. For instance, the film’s plot revolves around time travel, which isn’t exactly easy to write well. Be Forever Yorozuya avoids this by having the film primarily set in the future and showing how Gintoki’s actions in the main series have an impact on events far longer down the line. In a way, it mirrors how the Gintama anime often features flashbacks to Gintoki’s adolescence in efforts to show how his past in a war-torn era defined the goofball he ended up becoming as an adult. Furthermore, this is smoothed out with the film’s beginning, which, in typical Gintama fashion, begins a rather serious story via comedic fourth-wall breaks. By having the time travel initiated by a parody of anti-piracy messaging in the film’s beginning, which simultaneously mocks Kaze Tachinu and K-On!, it simultaneously hints that the time travel elements aren’t to be taken too seriously, and are more the framing for the actual story. The film’s villainous force is something obviously retconned into the narrative given how it was never present in prior material. The film is at least forgivable in tying its antagonists into the main themes and story, in addition to being conceivable as part of its world. Oddly enough, this heavily mirrors the overly convoluted “true” final villain of the Gintama series, though I would say the second film actually exceeds it tremendously in this regard.

With the film’s focus on the world five years after Gintama, it mostly follows a similar structure to the show. The television series often took a comedic concept and portrayed how each individual member of its large cast would react to it, in a way not unlike less dramatic series like Urusei Yatsura Be Forever Yorozuya mirrors this approach, spending much of its runtime showing the residents of Edo and how they have changed, whether it be in comedic or dramatic scenes. In doing this, the film’s conclusion, which essentially takes the “canceled Shonen Jump” manga approach of indicating that the world will continue and the characters will move onwards, is made more impactful. Humorously mirroring the series’ actual finale in many ways, the second film’s ending is more powerful in how it shows the world without Gintoki, demonstrating the vitality of his presence in the main cast. A slight problem arises in the finale, though. With the entire cast traveling back to Gintoki’s past and fighting the film’s villain, it makes for a bombastic finale that builds on the series’ main messages. Yet, the plot conceit of time travel, thus far being unintrusive, makes the finale a contradictory paradox. Still, with Be Forever Yorozuya effectively erasing itself from continuity, this is something that I can overlook. Not only are the time travel elements rather light, but the film’s existence as both a finale and a possible lead-in to future material make the wishy-washy nature of its plot understandable. In many ways, the film is admirable for walking that line of continuation or conclusion and functioning properly as both. As a whole, Be Forever Yorozuya is a film which exceeds the admittedly low standards of most battle shonen films and provides a self-contained conclusive story which still ties into the plot of Gintama. The series’ first film, a retelling of a pivotal arc, and its third feature, the canon finale, both have stronger ties to the main story. Yet its second film, completely skippable if one were to experience the full series, is arguably a better Gintama story than either one.