Gintama

Episode 353

Silver Soul wraps up its first cour with a no-holds-barred action extravaganza. With our heroes fighting their hearts out both planet-side and in space, nearly every major character is putting in their best effort as the clock runs down to Earth's destruction. Although the Yato unit led by the mysterious Elder Son succeeded in capturing Gengai, the crazy old tinkerer has no idea how to dispel the nanomachine virus and restore their comms. In response, Ensho decides to roll out the Flame of Kagutsuchi, a weapon capable of destroying a planet and reducing Earth to space dust. However, since the Altana Liberation Army still has a number of troops stationed on the blue planet, the prince issues his forces an ultimatum: if they don't wish to perish with the Earth, they must conquer it by sunrise. As Gin and company fight newly energized ALA troops in Edo, the Kaientai, Katsura's Joi patriots, and the Okokuian army launch an all-out assault on the Heavenly Bird, the Liberation Army's mother ship. However, shortly after their attack gets underway, the group is joined by yet another unlikely ally: Takasugi. Unbandaged and dressed in his old Joi War threads, the former villain proclaims that if anyone is going to destroy the Earth, it's going to be him.

With the majority of episode 353 devoted to setting the stage for the next phase of the battle, this week's installment is careful not to waste a second of screen time. Outside of the reliably hilarious comic interludes, the episode's primary purpose is to up the stakes and build toward a grand showdown with Ensho. Although nothing gets resolved this week, Takasugi's sudden reappearance is a decent enough narrative hook for the show to temporarily bow out on. All things considered, the previous episode may have made for a better season finale, as it provided the characters with a break while still making it clear that new threats were just around the corner. On the flipside, episode 353 essentially stops right in the middle of a big battle.

Despite the imminent destruction of the planet, the episode manages to cram in quite a few funny asides. Whenever the tone begins getting too serious, an outrageous new gag comes along to lighten things up. Of course, this being Gintama, many of these jokes feature an abundance of blood, feces, and vomit, particularly during the first few minutes. As a whole, this arc has done a much better job of balancing comedy and seriousness than the previous three endgame arcs, all of which began on a fairly humorous note before becoming considerably darker. It almost feels as if Hideaki Sorachi, realizing that his magnum opus is primarily an outlandish comedy, wants to go out on the craziest possible note.

While there isn't much time for character development this week, Nobunobu's interactions with Princess Soyo are touching and help illustrate how much Edo's current shogun has grown since his first appearance. Because of the deep-seated shame he feels over his role in Shigeshige's death, he's initially unable to speak to Soyo over the communicator, opting instead to let Sakamoto do the talking. Once he's able to summon the courage to speak with her, he displays heartfelt remorse for his actions and acknowledges that he's unfit to occupy Shigeshige's position. Touched by her former adversary's words, Soyo vows that she'll only forgive him if he returns to Earth alive. While this feels an awful lot like a death flag, it's become hard to dislike Nobunobu, a character who was once almost impossible to like. Now that he's found enough friendship and acceptance to start acting like a proper shogun, it would be a shame to see something happen to him at this stage in the game.

After all the build-up for Gintama's “final” arc, taking a break at this point deflates a lot of the excitement, even if the latest hiatus is in service of producing a better product. Still, the fact that there's a premiere date for the last half of Silver Soul is a positive sign, given this show's propensity for disappearing for long periods. After two cours of top-notch comedy and edge-of-your-seat action, it's almost impossible not to be pumped for what's to come.

Rating: A-

Gintama is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Amy is an author who has loved anime for over two decades.