Gintama Review: The Funniest Manga Ever Made, and Secretly One of the Most Moving

In an alternate-history Edo period Japan, aliens called the Amanto have arrived and conquered. The samurai are forbidden to carry swords. Gintoki Sakata — a former samurai called the "White Demon" — now runs a freelance odd-jobs business and eats too much sugar.

I'm Yu. There is an arc in Gintama where Gintoki carries someone on his back through a place that is burning around them. He's not a hero. He just can't leave someone behind. I have thought about that image many times since.

Quick Take

• Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama (銀魂) ran in Weekly Shonen Jump — 77 volumes, complete.
• VIZ Media published the complete 77-volume English edition.
• Rated T (Teen) — crude humor throughout; the serious arcs contain significant action violence and death.

Story Overview

Gintoki runs Yorozuya with two assistants: Shinpachi, the straight man with glasses; and Kagura, a girl from an alien warrior clan who eats too much and is stronger than almost anyone they'll ever fight.

Gintama has no fixed plot. Each arc might be a parody of another manga, a toilet humor story, a comedy of misunderstanding, or a devastating exploration of the characters' pasts and the cost of being a samurai who gave up his sword.

The series accumulates. By volume 30, you know these characters so well that when something finally threatens them, it threatens you. The serious arcs — when they arrive — hit harder than almost anything in the genre precisely because of everything silly that came before.

Characters

Gintoki Sakata — One of manga's greatest protagonists. Lazy, crude, addicted to sugar, deeply allergic to anything resembling effort. Also, when something he loves is at stake, one of the most fearsome fighters in the world. The gap between his daily uselessness and his absolute competence when it matters is the series' deepest joke and its deepest truth.

Kagura — The alien girl who eats too much and hits too hard. Her relationship with Gintoki — never stated explicitly but the series' most important bond — defines the emotional register of the serious arcs.

Shinpachi Shimura — Exists partly to be the butt of "glasses character" jokes and partly to ground increasingly insane situations in something recognizably human.

Hijikata and Okita (Shinsengumi) — Recurring deuteragonists whose own dynamic provides a secondary emotional through-line. Hijikata's arc is the series' single most moving standalone piece.

What I Love About It

The Yoshiwara arc. After many volumes of watching Gintoki be useless, funny, and deeply unheroic, someone important to him is in danger, and he goes to get them back. What follows is the moment Gintama revealed what it had been saving up.

The fight is spectacular. But the moment that stays with me is after — Gintoki, carrying someone on his back, moving through a place that is burning around them. He's not a hero. He just can't leave someone behind.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Hijikata's arc.

In a standalone arc that could be its own manga, Hijikata is separated from his sword and must face what he would be without it. The arc involves a strange boy, a specific sword, and a lesson about what we carry and what we put down.

It is not the series' longest arc. It is its most complete. It made me cry. I was not expecting to cry at Gintama.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• The funniest sustained comedy in manga — consistently, wildly inventive across 77 volumes.
• The serious arcs are among the best in the genre, all the more powerful for the comedy preceding them.
• Gintoki is one of the greatest characters in manga history.
• Complete with a satisfying, emotional ending.

Cons:

• 77 volumes is a serious time commitment.
• The comedy humor — especially manga/anime parody — lands better with broad otaku knowledge.
• The first 10 volumes are establishing the comedy register before the emotional content arrives.

Is Gintama Worth Reading?

Yes — if you have patience for the start. The first 10 volumes are deliberately establishing what the series is before it can subvert it. Most fans recommend watching the anime through the first major serious arc first. For readers who commit, the payoff is unlike anything else in manga.

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers who can handle absurdist, fourth-wall-breaking comedy.
• Anyone who wants a series that makes you laugh in every chapter and devastates you when it's time to be serious.
• Readers willing to invest in 77 volumes that reward patience.
• Manga readers with enough background to appreciate the parody layers.

Official English Translation Status

VIZ Media published the complete 77-volume English edition. Digital is strongly recommended for storage reasons.

Where to Buy

VIZ Media's complete 77-volume English edition.

Browse Gintama on Amazon →

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