It feels weird to think that there is no more Gintama, but I don't feel as empty as I thought I would. It might be because the manga already ended in 2019, but maybe the realization will hit me hard while listening to an opening again or seeing Gintama in a random place on the internet.
As much as I loved the whole series and some parts of this movie, I can't say that this was a perfect movie, nor a perfect conclusion, at least for how I wanted things to end.
The main problem of that can be summarized by The Semi-Final and the first 30-40 minutes of The Very Final. The entirety of season 2 of Silver Soul made me so hyped thinking about the way Gintama is going to end and seeing the last scene with Shinpachi and Gintoki on the bridge made me even more eager to see how everything would be continued in the movie. It didn't feel like it was getting dragged on because the whole story with Shoyo's heart and those two's journeys made sense and was very interesting.
But then came The Semi-Final, which I thought was just BNP adapting 2 comedy episodes or just a fake funny ending, but then the movie started and I slowly realized, after that somewhat funny Dragon Ball recap, that everything in The Semi-Final was actually canon and that was so disappointing. I couldn't wait to see the continuation of the bridge scene, how Gintoki will join Takasugi and Katsura to end Utsuro all by themselves, or how they will take down the enemy's base in the space, which was this massive invisible thing, but it seems like the gorillas scene was canon and that's how they managed to somehow take down this very hard to find base. Everything that I loved in the last episodes of Silver Soul had a very bad continuation.
Now the other big problem was that the first 40 minutes of the movie were just not that interesting. Despite The Semi-Final, at least the movie started with the 3 prodigies of Shoka Sonjuku going in alone and fighting everyone until they get too Shoyo, which was nice and had a very nice dialogue, especially when talking about what to do when they will meet Shoyo, but that lasted for a very short amount of time until a very uninteresting fight broke out which was bound to happen, but they focused SO MUCH on that for no reason. I don't understand why Gin looked at Kagura and Shinpachi for that long when he already saw them, back in The Semi-Final. And then came a very boring part. I knew the reunion of the Odd Jobs will happen and I wanted it to happen, but this just wasn't it. The comedy was bad and random and it just didn't feel nearly as emotional as I was hoping for it to be. The fight between Hitsugi and Katsura was just all right but at least the ending was nice with Hitsugi revealing why he's doing all that.
NOW that the bad parts are finally out of the way, it's like after these 40 minutes the movie actually started, because what followed was by far the best part of it. The whole scene with Takasugi getting to met Shoyo was so emotional you could really feel all the emotions he held inside him ever since Shoyo died. Not only that, but the sudden reveal of Utsuro was also nice.
And then came the best part of this movie, the scene that had me on the edge of my seat and then ended up making me cry my eyes out. Everything was amazing, from the animation, to the insanity in Utsuro, the fight making me think that Gintoki is actually going to die, only to make the big reveal even better. The silence after Utsuro understood what happened, the past fights going back to even the Shoka Sonjuku times were so good. I wish they had an amazing OST to go with it, but nevertheless, it was good. That look in Gintoki's eyes, knowing that killing Utsuro is going to kill Takasugi as well, was such an amazing detail. This scene had a lot of small details that just made everyhing amazing, but I do wish there was an OST playing in the background.
And then Takasugi's death was the most touching moment in this movie. It has to be the saddest one in Gintama when despite the lack of a really sad OST, it still managed to make me cry hard. I do really wish they chose a more emotional OST, especially when we've had really good ones in the past, but they went with an OST that didn't really make the scene better.
As much as I wanted this to be much different, Shoyo's 2nd death was still a nice moment. The way Gin told him about his new family... you could really feel how much he wanted Shoyo to know how he is now. I do wish Katsura and Takasugi were there instead, alongside Gin, but at least Shoyo did call Katsura "the prodigy of Shoka Sonjuku", so those 2 still saw each other.
I also did not like at all how much focus was given to Otae who was honestly one of the least important characters in this movie but then you have Nobume who had so much potential here but did nothing. I was looking forward to her talking to Shoyo or fighting Utsuro or even fighting Hitsugi, given that both were in the same group.
And then another part which I didn't really like about the movie was the amount of time given to this comedic end. 30 minutes of Tama just listening to stories was all right, but it really could have fit in 5 minutes and it would have felt better.
I will say the letter from Sakamoto was really nice, but I don't know how to feel about baby Takasugi. By logic, not only Oboro, but also Utsuro should be in there and it just makes no sense that he would be reborned. But at the same time he's not dead so I should feel happy.
The ending just didn't feel like an end to Gintama which is maybe why I don't feel as empty inside after finishing it, but I still would have wanted a more emotional ending.
And of course we had to have the last episode of Ginpachi-Sensei which was funny and honestly had a lot of good questions which sadly got the answers I was hoping would not be true. I really thought Gintoki's origins would be a big arc and a very important plot reveal. It feels a bit like Sorachi wanted to do more things but couldn't.
Overall, I was hoping for a more emotional movie and ending, with a lot more focus given to the Shoka Sonjuku trio and their past with Shoyo and even Oboro, but it was still a good ending and the best moments of the movie were still amazing.
On a side note, Spyair's song was just amazing, as always. Even if I listened to it before the movie was translated, I still loved hearing it in here. It did help a lot to make you feel that this really is the end of it all.
Despite this not being that much of an emotional ending, I'll still miss Gintama and its characters. |