I never expected to like Gintama. In fact, it looked very bland and uninteresting to me from an outside perspective. But i quickly realised that i couldnt have been more wrong. I can now confidently say that its one of my favorite works of fiction that I wholeheartedly love.

The complexity of some of the characters truly caught me off guard. I didnt expect anything deep from this series, even though i knew there were "serious arcs". Gintoki and Takasugi are literally right up my alley of what i like in a character + their dynamic is truly fascinating

Female cast also deserves to be mentioned. Definitely one of the best in shonen, if not the best and Kagura is the first female character from a shonen to make it into my top 25 characters. The cast as a whole is amazing and i cant really name a single character that i dislike

What became abundantly clear to me is that Sorachi understands extremely well how to create a connection with the viewer/reader by managing to bring out a ton of different emotions in us. Imo thats the best way to create investment for a viewer, to awake emotions of various kind.

I believe that is a core component of what a good writer needs, an understanding of how create said connection and use it without cheapening the story. Gintama really excels at that. One of the most emotionally resonant works ive had the pleasure of consuming.

Ill finish this by saying that ill certainly revisit some of the serious arcs in the near future since i loved them so much and i cant wait for the final movie to drop.

Ill lob my character rankings here and arc rankings below. As a sidenote, Takasugi is now my favorite antag in animanga and Gintoki is top 3 on my favorite characters list.

Top 10 arcs

1. SSA
2. SA
3. FS
4. CoaN
5. Rakuyo
6. Okita Mitsuba
7. Red Spider
8. Baragaki
9. Shinigami
10. SS