Why Is Gintama So Hard to Get into for New Fans?

Summary:

• For an anime that takes up 32% of MAL’s Top 25 anime, Gintama is really hard to get into.
• The comedy requires you to have watched many other anime to properly understand it.
• It’s still enjoyable even if you don’t fully understand all the jokes.

If you’ve been watching anime for a while, you have probably heard of Gintama. For many, it’s one of the best shounen series of all time. On MyAnimeList, it holds 8 positions in Top 25, and, as such, many fans want to get to it because of its reputation.

However, newer fans might be confused if they try to get into the anime. It’s hard to understand its popularity, and at first, it might seem just a very weird comedy. It takes roughly 50 episodes to even get to the first serious arc, and even then, it’s not that easy to get into. So, when does it get better, and how to properly enjoy it if you’re a new fan?

Comedy Requires You to Understand the References

Gintama is really weird compared to most shounen anime. Just like many others, it mixes action and comedy, but the first few arcs are majorly comedy, and not the easily accessible kind either.

The more you watch anime, the better Gintama becomes — a lot of comedy comes from understanding Japanese humor, as well as hundreds of references to other anime and manga. In a sense, Gintama is a meta work — the characters seem to be aware that they are in anime, and the series often comments on Shounen Jump, where it was published.

The first two episodes don’t help, either. There’s a reason why Gintama fans tend to recommend skipping them. While they’re fairly funny, they also require you to know who the characters are, because there are a lot of gags that will not get introduced until much later.

It’s Still Good Even if the Comedy Is Weird

So, is the comedy in Gintama bad? Well, no, it’s not, but it’s also not the kind of comedy many people who haven’t seen a lot of anime might enjoy. It’s a series that actively gets better the more anime you watch.

To be fair, it references non-anime movies and other works as well, and, in general, can be funny even if you don’t understand the references. Of course, knowing about them enhances the experience, but it’s technically possible to enjoy the comedy — it just takes some time to get used to.

Also, the serious parts of Gintama are really good regardless of how much anime you watched. It’s a series which is roughly half comedy, half action — and many consider the latter to be the true nature of Gintama.

For a series that started as a gag comedy parodying many tropes, it gets surprisingly dark at times, and makes viewers emotional when they don’t expect it.