Today's acquisitions (31st Jan 2013)

I received a surprise today, in the form of MegaHouse's gorgeous G.E.M. Shiroyasha figure.

Shiroyasha is Sakata Gintoki's cool nickname from back when he fought in the Joui war in Gintama. This version only appears in flashbacks; the present day Gintoki looks quite different. The current anime arc gave us another brief glimpse and now I have this lovely model of him ready for today's episode!

Even though Shiroyasha is a relatively serious character, this is still a Gintama figure. He came with a comedy accessory accordingly - this time a small bust of mangaka Sorachi Hideaki. No matter where I put him, it looks as though he's a zombie rising up from the ground...

Streaming: Kintama episode 256

"Te~he~!" - Tokiko

Today will go down in anime history as the momentous day that Kintama ended. I won't spoil the final episode; check it out for yourself on Crunchyroll if you want to see what went down between our hero Kin-san and the pretender Gintoki.

It's always sad when a good series ends, especially when it had only been on the air for four episodes after an abrupt finish earlier in the year.

With the creators being the way they are, Kintama was soon followed by the a completely unrelated short-lived high school romance series Mantama. Mantama was more interesting than most examples of its genre, featuring more cuteness and innuendo in its brief ten minutes of existence than many romantic comedies manage across entire seasons. I think it may have set some new record for the sheer number of diverse parodies in its opening sequence as well. I was ready to throw all of my support behind this new show, but staff weren't finished toying with my heart.

Ultimately, I still have absolutely no idea what's going on this season. It looks as though things are back to 'normal' at last next week with Gintoki restored to his proper place in the opening and the Gintama' title back in place, but when this renewal was first announced there was mention of it airing a mixture of new episodes and reruns. Will next week be the first proper Gintama' episode of the new series, or will it be an old classic resurrected from the vaults to buy time for them to animate the next arc? Whichever the case, I'll be watching.

Streaming: Kintama episode 253

After enduring hours of amused chirping from Twitter following its initial airing today, I rushed home from work and settled down to watch the first episode of the new series of Gintama Kintama.

It's great to have Gin back with new episodes coming, and even better to be in sync with the Japanese airings! Gintama Kintama is a popular show among my demographic and its abrupt finish earlier this year was a blow. Nothing similar filled the hole it left.

In typical Gintama Kintama style, Gintoki frequently refers to the six month gap between episodes during the course of the episode, in between making funny faces and referencing every other possible Jump series he can cram in. He makes it sound as though the six month hiatus was deliberately planned, and during the time he was vaguely 'away', he's been mysteriously replaced by his mildly creepy doppelgänger, Kintoki. It's a fairly standard plot in science fiction shows, but it's probably going to end weirdly. This show always does.

Predictably, this episode is the first in a longer arc and it was more of an introduction than anything else. I can't judge yet whether this will end up as a very short story and is all tied up within a few episodes (as they usually are) or not - it's always hard to tell as the series flips between seriousness and absurdity too quickly to get bored.

When Sacchan (briefly) appeared, I suddenly put two and two together and realised that she is voiced by Kobayashi Yuu. I had always wondered about why I found her so annoying when she was in the manga version but oddly awesome when she started to talk; now it all makes sense. Oddly, Kintoki isn't voiced by Sugita Tomokazu. I guess that would be too much.

Looking forward to the next episode! The way that this series has been resumed with a bang has really got everyone talking - even Yahoo! News is interested.

Gintama is streaming as a simulcast through Crunchyroll, and it's available for viewers in the UK. Although it's a long-running series, its format as a comedy means there's no need to watch the whole thing in order - though if you want to, Crunchyroll has the older episodes available to viewers as well. Lots of people watching the streaming version improves the likelihood of a future subtitled home video release in America (for us to import)!

Gintama returns (again)

After Gintama' mysteriously ended with an apology episode a while ago, its presence in my life had been sorely missed. The series seems cursed, from the aborted English language release of the manga to Sentai's stony silence on more DVDs, and the actual anime has stopped and resumed in Japan more than once now with very little explanation. And that's even without mentioning the incident where airings were suspended due to defamation of an unnamed (but pretty obvious) political figure.

However, its popularity hasn't waned and suddenly Gintama is coming back once again in anime form (and with a movie in the near future to boot). It seems that the staff have not missed an opportunity for some of their usual mischief in the process.

The official television listings are all playing it straight but instead of Gintama, they're showing a listing (and logo) for Kintama. Furthermore, the synopsis published for tomorrow's episode casually replaces every instance of Gintoki and Gin-san with Kintoki and Kin-san. 

Even the official series homepage has removed our hero from existence and installed his dashing blonde replacement front and centre.

Before Gintama' was abruptly terminated, its last next episode preview (which was subsequently revealed in the actual final episode to be a lie) was for the adaptation of the infamous Kintoki arc, so it seems that they eventually came through for us. Since the manga was cancelled I have no idea how long this arc is actually going to be.

I'll be eagerly watching on Crunchyroll tomorrow to see what happens next in the melodramatic roller-coaster that is the Gintama TV series.