"One of the best mangas you will ever find in mangaland." - Shintako Inari.

Alright, I'll be honest- I kind of. . . didn't like the anime, so I ditched it for the manga. I watched the first three episodes, then decided to skip a hundred episodes, then skip a hundred more, then decided to abandon it. . . . making a V-line for the manga adaptation, and now I have to say that was probably the smartest random thing I've ever decided to do. Besides the art which I gave a 9/10, everything else is all tens. . . which is rare. Extremely rare. What the hell, this is the only thing on MAL I almost gave all tens to.
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The story. . . well, it's pretty much a slice-of-life manga. To put it extremely, extremely, very, super duper, ohmahgod-a-whole-lot, unspecifically. Despite knowing this will result in a failed attempt, let me try to be more detailed-
Because the main characters, Gintoki & Co., are mostly missing a few screws, they have quite a. . . fun life. I don't remember exactly what Gintoki said, but it was along the lines of having a short, good life is better then having a long, boring one, which I must agree with, although I'm not doing anything to stop my life from being a long boring one. . . .
Anyway, before I get off topic-
The whole series so far is basically a whole bunch of separate arcs that are oddly connected in which either the main characters or supporting characters get into a bit of a tumble. Some of the stories can actually be sad (but that doesn't stop at least one of the characters from making a dirty joke) but most of them are outrageous. . . in an outrageously good way. How outrageously outrageous indeed. Outrageously outrageous oranges or outrageously outrageous orangutans? Or. . wait what. Uhh. . . . *scratches head*
Oh.
Anyway, most of them are like one big joke- you can take half of it and it would still be okay, but it wouldn't be as funny as if you read the whole thing. It's like how eating one chip is okay, but one piece of chip is nothing compared to the whole bag. Before I get off topic again, let's head start talking about the art.
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The art was great. Splendid. Perfect. Whatever teachers tell parents about their children. Hooowever. . . it wasn't my type of thing. While the art was detailed and the characters all looked nice, to be honest, at first, i got some of the characters mixed up. plis nuh haet. Anyway, the art was just fine as it is- i didn't even hate it. It just wasn't the type of art i liked the most.
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Now characters.
Weeeeellll. . . .
They're . . . unique, to be bland. To be more precise, I'd say they're probably my favorite sets of characters ever- even the supporting ones. The only reason you don't see any of the characters from Gintama on my favorite character list is because I can't fit all of them there, and sooner or later I'll start a mental conflict on which Gintama characters should be up there and I'd go insane.
I also love how, despite how seemingly goofy this manga is (not that i'm denying it) there are actually moments where the characters get serious and that is some serious character development as far as i can tell. In addition, in those moments when they do get serious, Sorachi Hideaki already has a uncommon but nonetheless superior and commendable setting placed.
Also, you can not disprove of every character in Gintama. You will at least find a handful that you feel you can not stay away from. If you refuse to agree with me, I refuse to believe your being honest.
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Enjoyment? Do you really need me to spell it out for you? Okay, fine then. Allow myself to bring a time machine and travel back to the past, allll the way to first grade. . . .
. . . .
"Alright children, how do we spell ten?"
"T-E-N! TEN!"
. . . .
*fast forwards back to the current time, whenever that is*
So basically, this manga is a ten out of ten. It doesn't matter if your starting on random volumes like I did (I went from vol. 15 to vol 6. to vol. 1. to 10 to 11, 12, 13, 24, 16, 15, 21, 22, 20. . . and etc. . .I do this alot.) you will STiLL find yourself loving Gintama. As it's a slice of life manga, you can pretty much read in whatever order you want to and it'll be fine, although you might get confused occasionally. *Looks away innocently and whistles*