Welcome to my review of the highly acclaimed movie "gintama: the final" where I will be trying my best to give my thoughts and opinions on the movie and the series as a whole which sadly has to include spoilers to demonstrate my points.
The beginning of this movie starts with a summary of the main events that have occurred in this show over it's 15 years of existence in this medium with the use of a dragon ball Z parody. This was done in pure gintama fashion, even in a movie that was supposed to be serious and tie all the loose ends of the show, sorachi hideaki still managed to create humour even in the dark moments that were about to befall upon us which is a skill that only the truly elite have. Over the course of this movie and even early on we constantly see all of the cast of characters like gorilla, otae, kagura, shinpachi, kyuubei, the shinsengumi, sachan and tsukuyo helping the odd jobs fight their way through the terminal. This is one of the many strong points of gintama as a whole and this movie in general, no matter how great the trouble the odd jobs face, their friends always come to their aid which just enamours me to no end.
Sorachi strikes again, roughly 1/4 into the movie, sadaharu recovers to his original state and rescues Gintoki from falling to his death after falling of a ledge in the terminal. He then proceeded to eat him (gintama sticks to its roots very well) and after a while two old men with similar silver hair came out of sadaharu's "you know what okay". This scene in particular made me die inside so much, my parents must've had worrying thoughts hearing their 16 year old son laughing with no sign of stopping at a computer screen. I must say, I watched the trailer for this movie many times so when I finally saw those particular scenes in the movie, I was filled with emotion, waiting six months for this is the cruelest thing you can do to a human.
Gintoki stated that he would close up the odd jobs if both kagura and shinpachi found what they wanted to do in life and to that statement, both kagura and shinpachi said that they weren't a part of the yorozuya because they were bored but rather to stick with gintoki and the other's. In particular this scene just portrays too much wholesomeness in general, they didn't stick around because they were bored, didn't stick around because they wanted the money but instead they wanted to be a part of gintoki's adventure which conveys the silver light that gintoki permeates, even the shinsengumi and too much characters to name have fallen victim to gintoki's radiating light, and so have we.
I mean it when every character no matter how minor of a role they played appeared in this movie, at roughly 40 minutes into this movie, we finally got the appearance of baka ouji, a character who's existence is just too hilarious to me and his specific OST whenever he enters a scene is one that I will never forget for many reasons haha-
One thing I noticed was the silence during the fight between utsuro and gintoki instead of using battle OST's/songs to heighten our experience. I thought about it quite a lot and it was simple as to why they done that, Utsuro is an immortal being who's name translates to "emptiness" which is reasonable in the sense that he has lived for many centuries constantly suffering due to the greed of the tendoshou to learn about his immortality, all he wanted was to end his "solitary" life (as said by hitsugi having experienced the pain of being eternal which is a mere fraction of what utsuro had to face). Having lived a solitary life meant he was all alone being eternal while normal beings died like every other day to him which is evident in the way that there was silence during gintoki's fight against utsuro that only lasted roughly 10 minutes at most to us but to him, this silence was there everyday. It really raises the question of whether it is worth being immortal in real life to be honest, I wouldn't like being eternal, would you having known Utsuro's pain and suffering throughout his lifetime?
Another thing that I didn't understand completely was how takasugi shinsuke stabbed utsuro in appearance but in reality takasugi stabbed himself and that the body Utsuro saw lying on the ground was himself? I really didn't understand that specific scene but that didn't ruin my experience at all, straight after we were graced with the fated fight between utsuro and gintoki. In this fight every second frame we were brought back to the past where gintoki went head on against the likes of takasugi and shoyo in his childhood, it really just goes to show how much gintoki has evolved as a human. In my opinion, who gintoki killed was not utsuro but rather takasugi (but indeed killed utsuro after all, that's the thing that doesn't make sense to me at all) as portrayed by the reflection which mirrored takasugi's chilling expression that was smiling, did he do this as he knew that gintoki could not end his own teacher? I truly don't know, maybe I'm reading into this way too much but here's an image of takasugi's expression on the sword that was flinged into the sky:
Spoiler, click to view
We are then presented with one of the most darkest scenes gintama has created up to now and will ever do so, a dying takasugi being held in gintoki's arms, what ended my heart was how he said "the score was 246-247 to gintoki" and that it was their final duel, all these kids from shoyo's school wanted was to live a normal life, they only wanted to stay with their teacher, it was an innocent thought that just didn't last forever. Gintoki's clearly had a tearful face as his lifelong rival and childhood friend was about to pass away on his arms but takasugi requested that he wanted to see Gintoki's smile as the last thing he ever saw with left eye, takasugi then died in his arms. I will never forget the man that was takasugi shinsuke, man it was too emotional, way too emotional. The only other scene that I can remember that had such an impact on me was the final moments of the shogun assasination arc where sho-chan passed away (also) on her sister's lap.
We are then presented with the final scenes where tama is finally revived from her long sleep. She is given the memories that occurred when she was asleep so she would be informed as to what occurred when she was away, in these frames we still see the same yorozuya (and mostly same cast of characters) celebrating in otose's snack bar even if edo was transformed into a futuristic city, those moments are something that I will treasure for the rest of my life for sure. During the last scene, gintoki, shinpachi and kagura decide to run towards their "urgent job" just like running away from their rent every month from otose ;)) ending with the words "we're the odd jobs", that was the final straw for my heart which was already ravaged in pain knowing that this is the final ever movie (i mean until gintama 2 becomes a thing of course) haha-
the soundtrack from the beginning of this series to the end of this movie was simply phenomenal, the use of wadachi which i had listened to uncontrollably prior to this movie was a true pleasure to watch. The OST's in particular like madao's OST were phenomenal, I mean imagine telling your "sound director" to create a sad OST and then they create madao's OST, the man who created that song is man among men I tell you. The change in character animation style was amazing aswell, it was deemed necessary as it just comes with a movie in general, no problems with any of the above at all.
with the end of this movie, you think we may have ended our journey with the yorozuya but you are wrong, this is only the beginning, we will continue yorozuya's legacy for as long as we live. Nothing will ever be better than this for the rest of my life, I will forever come back to this show with great memories for as long as I live. The way how they can implement comedy elements within this supposedly serious movie that ties all the loose ends is a wonder to me, gintama is the only series that can do this and executes it phenomenally, laughed every moment of the way even shed tears along the way, people say this series is just a bunch of parodies and comedy but they're wrong, they neglect to see the true side of gintama that flourishes exceptionally and is the reason why we all as a family love gintama. I feel really empty as it truly is finished but rewatching every summer from now on (already did this summer) will heal me slowly.
the key word here is "we" and not "I" because no matter who you are the yorozuya will be there for you. this anime has changed my life forever and I can never thank sorachi the creator of gintama enough, to create something that every person is enamoured by along with the idea that the watcher/reader becomes a part of the journey along with the yorozuya is just unfair. I truly truly truly can only wish sorachi hideaki the best from here on out, he deserves the world for creating this. Everywhere I go all the comments when people finish this movie are filled with heartwarming comments that try their utmost best to portray their love for gintama, what you've created sorachi is something that binds us all together for the rest of our lives. I will miss watching this movie for the first time, rewatching it isn't the same but it'll have to suffice haha
(PS: Even after this and rewatching gintama once, I still don't know if gintoki has silver or light blue hair lol)
