It's honestly kind of hard reviewing a new entry in something you're already a big fan of. I can go into every new seasonal anime with a clean slate and form my opinions solely on the show at hand, for good or bad. But a new Gintama spinoff? When Gintama is the single greatest work of fiction I've ever experienced? There's no way I can give that a fair shake. I'm at equal risk of blindly glazing it because it's More of the Thing I Like(tm) or crankily complaining about every small difference. I've just got too many expectations of what Gintama is "supposed" to be, and any way this spinoff falls outside those expectations is going to bristle, whether it's actually a flaw or not. So if you're new to the story of Odd Jobs Gin-san and his merry band of dumbasses... well, don't start with this show, it's very much made for fans, lmao. Just go watch Gintama proper and experience Peak Fiction for 300+ episodes, then come back to this review and see if you agree with my bitching or not. Deal? Deal.

Now, for you non-fans who stuck around anyway and want to know what the deal is, here's a quick rundown: Ginpachi-sensei is a running gag in the main series that re-imagines the cast as a class of unruly students. It's really just a few sketches at the end of a handful of episodes, but as with all of Gintama's running gags, the sheer quality of the jokes themselves have pushed it into iconic status within the fandom. I guarantee you every Gintama fan has at least one Ginpachi-sensei sketch they can quite line for line. So the logic of this spinoff makes sense: just expand those sketches into a full AU and let us see the cast in new scenarios riffing on school anime tropes. Gintoki is the beleaguered put-upon teacher, most of the cast are his students, a few of the older characters are also fellow teachers at the school, series antagonist Takasugi and his crew are the delinquents who get into fights all the time, and so on. Though since this IS Gintama we're talking about, everyone is still fully aware of their time in the main series and constantly breaks the fourth wall about their new roles in spinoff land. Cause that's just how this show rolls.

Conceptually, I think that's a fine idea for a spinoff. Was it ever going to be as good as the main series? No, obviously not. But considering how deeply I adore these characters, I'm not gonna say no to another chance for them to hang out and show off their incredible chemistry. Gintama's cast is just magical, and at its best, Ginpachi-sensei hits the same kind of infectious, gleeful comedy that makes this franchise so special. There's a bit in episode 2 where perpetual straight-man Shinpachi tries playing the bokke instead of the tsukommi, and the way it escalates had me choking back tears by the end. You could've put that gag in the main series and it wouldn't be out of place at all. Ditto the deranged class reunion that closes out this show with some of the most densely layered recursive gags I've seen in a while. And if the entire show was at that caliber, I'd happily call Ginpachi-sensei an essential entry in the Gintama canon.

Unfortunately, most of the show isn't at that caliber. In fact, the longer Ginpachi-sensei went on, the more those moments of true Gintama brilliance started feeling like the exception rather than the rule.There's something off about this show, about its approach to the comedy and characters that define Gintama. Yes, maybe this is just my fanboyism talking, but there IS a new team working on this show, new staff that haven't been marinating in everything Gintama for the past two decades of production. And I can't shake the feeling these new guys don't really get the nuances that make Gintama a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. To an outsider, it might not be obvious, but to someone who lives and breathes Odd Jobs like me, the pieces out of place only got more noticeable as time went on. Think I'm over-reacting? Well, let me ask you the question I can't get out of my mind when I think about Ginpachi-sensei:

Why don't the female characters get to do anything?

Seriously! Why don't they do anything? Where's Tama's screentime? Or Sacchan? Or Catherine? Why is Otae only ever focused on when Kondo's creeping on her? Why is Kagura, the third most important character in the entire damn show, given fewer lines and less to do than fucking Yamazaki? Literally every single episodic plot focuses on the male characters, for comedy and drama alike; the women are lucky to even show up! And Gintama's female cast fucking rules! They're consistently the funniest, coolest, best-written ladies in all of shonen, and the show's constantly letting them kick as much ass and pull as much narrative weight as the boys! But they're so sidelined here it's easy to forget they even exist! Hell, they have the gall to put my gorgeous genderfluid queen Kyubei in the OP, and then they get like two lines in the whole damn show while their obnoxious creep of a master Tojo gets to force his stupid lotion jokes into every episode. That's just unforgivable.

And no, this isn't just about the sexism of paying so little respect to such an incredible female cast (though it is absolutely that as well). The fact is, Gintama is such a towering achievement because it takes nothing for granted. From its characters to its joke-crafting to its sweeping overall narrative, it's constantly making bold, thoughtful choices that feel like the writers considered every possible way to tell this story before settling on the best one. There is so much creativity and courage in any given episode it borders on lunacy, a result of Sorachi's generational skill as a writer and the insanely talented anime team refusing to settle for anything less than the best. And considering the viper's nest of sexism that is Shonen Jump, yes: giving the female cast so much agency and letting their stories matter is unquestionably part of that commitment to excellence. So seeing Ginpachi-sensei completely disregard that achievement and turn this sprawling egalitarian community into just another boy's club? That, to me, is damning proof this show doesn't understand what makes Gintama special.

And unfortunately, you can feel that lack of understanding permeating deep into the bones of this thing. As fantastic as the best jokes in Ginpachi-sensei are, too many of them feel like boring, basic hack stuff you'd get in the absolute worst episodes of the original show. The gross-out gags aren't iterated on to make their comedy more complex than "lol look at the bodily fluids." The comedic over-reactions stagnate instead of escalating to the insane heights they'd reach in something like the Magical Banana skit. And somehow, the few attempts at drama are even worse. Gintama could make me bawl my eyes out over a fucking umbrella, but the random NPC classmates this show trots out to build Serious Emotions around are so underwritten they don't even feel like first drafts. We're not giving enough time or context to care about anyone's problems; hell, sometimes it feels like they forget to properly express what those problems even are! So the solutions are all forced and unsatisfying and the whole thing feels like a giant waste of time. Gintama's sheer attention to detail and commitment to emotional/comedic complexity are what made it so consistently peak for fifteen years of upward momentum; here, it feels like the only consideration was keeping the IP fresh and profitable for a little longer.

What's especially wild, though, is the show kind of agrees with me! In fact, when Takasugi finally takes center stage in the final act, he basically calls out this show for what it is: a soulless cash-grab coasting on its reputation, stripping the story and characters of their meaning for the sake of continued marketability. And Gintoki agrees with him! Even as meta as Gintama has been in the past, I never expected this show to directly admit its own pointlessness and try to make peace with it (even calling out its own over-reliance on the male characters!) Not since The Woman Called Fujiko Mine have I seen an anime so thoroughly argue against its very existence like this. But much like Fujiko Mine, I can't help but feel like... I mean, you couldn't have given us a good show anyway? Was it too much to ask for your self-critical meta-commentary to not come at the expense of the product itself? This is fucking Gintama we're talking about, going meta for the sake of making itself better should be second nature at this point! And the fact Ginpachi-sensei struggles so much with something that the main show pulled off so effortlessly time and time again is a pretty clear sign to me this spinoff just doesn't have the juice.

But is that the worst thing in the world? At this point, Gintama's legacy is more than secure; now and always, it will be the absolute pinnacle that storytelling is capable of. One mediocre spinoff isn't going to tarnish that, especially when it still gets it right at least some of the time. All I ask is, if this does get the continuation it haggles for in the final scene? Try locking the fuck in a little bit. Because I know exactly what Gintama is capable of when it's firing on all cylinders, and with a little elbow grease, there's no reason Ginpachi-sensei can't live up to that example as well.

Or, you know, at least just let Otae and Kyubei smooch already. That alone would make this whole production worth it.