Lumienarc Hanayuki here! And I'm going to complain and rant and stuff, so stick around if you are interested (lol)

First of all, IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO LIKES GINTAMA AND HAS WATCHED THE LIVE IN ACTION?! Right, right, pardon the capslock, but I am shouting, so it's a given. Gintama is one of the wackiest and self-loathing anime/manga in existence with hundreds of episodes and too many label-violating and censorships and technically staffs being salty as hell about their lives and stuffs (lol), and it is packed with action and heartfelt moments, too. You can't possibly recover from it once you get into it because it's really ruining your view on everything else that you might be a straight man right after you watch it because Shinpachi is suddenly a funny man (lol).

Certainly, as a fan, I went to the movies with high hopes (it didn't let me down, FYI, so don't worry, but I'll spoil many things, so you might want to stop reading if you haven't watched it yet). The cast is, simply put, close to perfection. Oguri Shun as Gin-san is honestly the first thing that I anticipated the most because he has been a joke material in the series for several times (Oguri Shunnosuke made an appearance in Kyuubei's birthday party and was slightly humiliated lol, and he was considered as a Gold Saint by Gin-san in Madame Yagami arc, that Gin-san forbid Shinpachi and Kagura from asking to join, yes, the irony!). He actually made the perfect Gin-san. It was almost unimaginable before how Gin-san would be without Sugita Tomokazu's voice, but Oguri Shun did a good job living up the expectations (as expected, Gold Saint!). The most worrying part about live in action is always how the actors do their part to bring the characters into life after years of solid performance by their respective voice actors. I, for one, am very sensitive about how the characters sound when they speak and it is a given since in anime, it's what they want to deliver. The funniest thing about this, for me particularly, is that the one playing Hijikata Toushirou, Yagira Yuuya-san, sounds more like Sougo than the one portrayed Sougo himself (lol).

All right, let's get down to the real rant (did you think that was the rant?! Tsk, tsk, tsk. You guys are too naive). This film was filled with Gintama's soul to the core. It includes the Shinpachi meeting Gin-san for the first time sequence, the beetle hunting episode shortened, and of course Benizakura arc. For the record, Benizakura arc is my least favourite arc in the whole series until now because simply, I have watched it too many times already before. All right, the film begin with the Shinpachi intro and then to the Wild Samurai sequence (that one where Gin-san made a mess in Shinpachi's former part-time place and went "Gyagyagya, shut the hell up. Are you tomcats in heat?) and proceeded to Oguri Shun's homemade opening sequence (trust me, you'll immediately turn into straight man louder than Shinpachi as soon as it comes up!) and what's more, it was interrupted and replaced with CG sequence from the character poll countdown corner! (The staffs were running out of time, huh? LOL) Then, we would see beetle hunting episode with less energetic Kagura. Then, we get to the Benizakura... again. The only relief I got from the whole thing was the appearance of Gengai and the whole fourth wall breaking. Goddamn it, they would have to send some boxes of pastries to Ghibli Studio and Disney, too! (lol)

Honestly, the actors might be the best cosplayers of Gintama characters I have ever seen in my life (God, they do look like their characters, except Kondou, he was supposed to be bulkier and taller, but close enough). I expected more from Kagura (Kana-chan), though. The thing that puts me off the most until now is the fact that Kagura was portrayed as slightly more mature girl, less interactions with Gin-san. I love Kagura for her tenacity and her dad-daughter-like relationship with Gin-san, so this troubled me. The actors were mostly standing and speaking to each other so it did feel like watching cosplay rather than an actual movie sometimes. Also, Sougo didn't try to kill Hijikata even once throughout the movie, which is disappointing. What can I do without random blast past Hijikata-san's shoulder from the Sadistic Price Okita? (lol)

The CG animation, to say crudely, was total crap, no kidding. But I understand completely why it turned out as ugly as that (even so, it still looked better than my country's CG animation for fantasy TV series! Seriously!) because there has been very little time and too many things to do for the animators. The film was made and released so quickly that I actually wondered if it were true, the release date, when I first read the official announcement about a year ago. Another technical problem, the subtitles . The thing I hate the most about subtitles is when they translate names. For example, the character said "Yorozuya" in the movie, but the subtitles said, "Gintoki". This is an utter failure because it violated the nature of relationship between the characters involved. Well, since I know and I can understand what they are saying, so this is no problem for me, but still, I have eyes and I read involuntarily, so it is still annoying. I really wished I could say to the company (it is a CGV cinema, FYI) that even I could do a better job transliterating it! Especially because the subtitles for my native language are seemingly directly translated from the English one, most of times the translator(s) failed to translate it in context! Oh, the rage!

Anyway, this film is a film I would want to watch more than once, but with many, many times speeding up through the lengthy suffocating scenes of Benizakura arc, of course (what else can I do? I'm bored with the arc!). Even though Yorozuya Gin-chan said, in the early part of the movie, that it might be the first and last live in action of Gintama, I wish there would be more. I would appreciate it if any Shinsengumi arcs were the ones chosen, or anything besides the Benizakura (and please not the Shogun assassination one because that would be too much for my heart because I loved Tokugawa Shigeshige!).

Ah, I have run out of things to rant about, just like Madao one summer when he accidentally went down the path of horror storyteller in the park and in dire need of new materials so he asked Yorozuya Gin-chan for input, but only to get calls from the copyright company (lol). Okay, I'll end it now because I have no more to say (write, I mean write, wait, is it type? Type is the correct one, right? No, no, write is okay because this is a writing activity). Oh! Wait, yes, the title! I mentioned this in the title, but I never said anything about it above. Yes, some brats who sat next to me in the theatre their phones during the show. The light was so painful for my eyes, I ended up shielding my eyes with a hand, just like a horse, so I could only see what was in front of me (the screen, of course!). Some girls also kept whispering, "Where's Hijikata?" and some boys would comment on some parts with no consideration at all (they were loud!). I kept chanting in my mind, "This is a test of patience, patience, patience, patience..." because if I lost it, it would turn out like episode 48. I have short temper (lol). Honestly, I don't know if I am more like Gin-san or Hijikata-san, but I swear to God I find mayonaise disguting (sorry, Hijikata-san!). I gobble up spicy stuff like Sougo's older sister, Mitsuba, though. Well, howsoever! That's it, the end!

I'm sorry for taking up your time, but it's your own choice to keep reading, so, yes, I shouldn't be sorry at all.

The one who has always wanted to throw tsukkomi, but never did outloud

Lumienarc Hanayuki