Warning this review may contain spoilers. First impressions in my life time I have gone through many challenges and trials Each more difficult than the last. But none could prepare me for this mighty challenge that took all my shounen nakama willpower to face And that is watch gintama a shounen I think is over hyped as fuck. Quick side note I going to talk about the series as a whole so It includes all ginmata 2014 and 2017 shit because I am pretty sure seen enough to see where it going. Story 6/10 In a world where 19th century Japan was visited by aliens and technology has jumped light years ahead of it time as a result. Join Gintoki Sakata a former rouge samurai war veteran who dose odd jobs in order that pay the rent on time which doesnt happen very often. If I where describe the story Of gintama as a whole I would probably conpare it to a calm in the storm. What I mean of this you ask? By calm I mean that 85 of the actual story are mostly focused on episodic comedy that manly relines on shounen manga and Japanese culture references for its jokes. Which for the most part I didnt find very funny. Like there few episodes that made to laugh For example the one with the turtle assassin and that ep where the one of the cop characters is looking for a place to smoke and my personal favorite so far was the one with the pen friend with the nerdy guy and the nerdy chick. I thought those episodes where pretty funny but other than those examples I was bored to tears and nearly wanting to punch my computer screen to try and end my boredom and suffering. The storm Which i was referring to earlier is what the other 15 of the story is focused on. Which in my opinion made this show more likable for me personality. Is the parts where there very serious and shit is going down. Which honestly blew me away. First for shounen standards these serious arcs are amazing like this took be back to my younger years when I used to watch Action movies a lot with hype and excitement. I mean this pretty much had the cream of the crop It had An interesting setting which breeds so much potential it has the back storys and character relations which helps to care when shit hits the fan badass fights which mixes samurai with aliens and massive space battle ships it has the tension and the drama. So what could possibly go wrong. Well there is the thing where it basically pisses away most of it story telling potential on episodic bull shit And for those asking yes I understand that all series not matter how serious it gets dose need a few cool moments every now and then especially in action shounen like this. But in all honesty it also whats really holding it back Like when It actually has a story and it being serious and what not. it actually very good. For example the Shinsengumi Crisis arc or the Yoshiwara in Flames arc Those arc showed me that when gintama really wants to it can tell a good story. If I am being Completely honest That is what makes me feel bad for the story in general because its not reaching its full potential It has all these ingredients and doesnt even use half of them to its full effect. Its a battle shounen when you strip it to its most basic components and it never wants to fully commit to that or build itself up like say for example yu yu hakasho. So in conclusion I think mostly the story is mostly bullshit with a few good arcs that more than makes up for the shit you have to sit through. Characters 6/10 The main character Gintoki I think is quite coolish I mean at lest he not another teenager protagonist. I would describe his personality like the story the calm before the storm Generally he very selfish prevcnted and pretty chill about everything. But when shits hits the fan you see more of his more intense nature. I like his back story I think its quite interesting and probably one of the few highlights of this show. Side characters They all have a sense of personality and they all there gimmicks. Some of them develop but its mostly the core cast. But The rest are kind of throw away most of them just stays to there gimmicks Like a fly on dog shit So all freshness dies pretty quickly. Also most of the time I forgot most of characters that actually existed. I had continue to reminding myself who these people are and what they do But that could be because of the big cast of characters and also the fact that most of these characters I dont give a fuck about. I think the character interactions where quite fun to watch. It almost like watching a big family interacting or some sort of gang with very close bonds to each over. So that quite nice because it give you a reason to care. Art 6/10 The animtion is fine it gets more detailed and shiney as the shows goes along. The fight scenes are quite nice there some very good sword battles. It has a usual style for most shounen Like for example naruto and dragon ball Z. It has that feel and look similar to those shows. The character design look interesting enough I really like the robot chick design because it reminds me of chobitts. Some of the alien design could be better though Like with some of these designs I thinking to myself that the person who made this was smoking some high quality shit. For example there this one race that looks exactly like Humans but the where duck costumes and eat old Nintendo games with rice. Sound 6/10 Sense this is a old running shounen it has a lot of op and ending Which for the most part I thought where ok. Nothing much really stands out for me much except for op 5 10 12 which I quite liked. The ost was fine as well. But nothing really got my interest. There is something here that are worth a quick listen. Ost was done by some random company which I didnt know about intill writing this review. Enjoyment 5/10 When it comes to enjoyment this was a very mixed bag for me. Because for the first 100 ep I was pretty much forcing myself to watch it Like I was just so bored. There where a few episodes which keeped me entertained like the examples I mentioned earlier. But when its actually serious its very good and I am very much entertained and even falling for some of the show charm. So I hate it lest than I thought I would. Overall 6/10 I would like to state that This show is way to over hyped. if your in your shounen phase then I guess I can recommend this to you But just word to the wise it not as good as the hype makes it out to be. If your out of your shounen phase then probably stay away unless you want to try watch a shounen again to change it up. so my advice watch the first 30 ep and if you dont like it then probably leave it alone.