Gintama's Popularity

Someone explain this series to me. I watched a few episodes and think it's okay. I get the feeling that I'd find it a whole lot funnier if I was Japanese and got all the cultural references. Or do later seasons take it in a different direction?

I've wondered about that, actually. Why do normalfags seem to love this show when at least half the references go will go over their head?

>got all the cultural references
Most are anime/game/live show references, if you watched nip media for more than a year you'd get them.

Obviously there will people weebs who are so determined to be Japananese that they'll pretend to get all the references but enough for every incarnation of Gintama to be on the MAL's top 10? There's gotta be something I'm missing.

Skip the first 21 or so episodes. I thought like you once, that it's merely ok, and stopped watching at ep 7. Then some user told me to skip 20 eps ahead and the rest of the story is that I maratjoned the other 200 and something eps back then.

That reminds me of Hunter x Hunter. I wanted to see what the big deal was, so I started it and thought it was another kids show/formulaic shounen for a lot of the first arc.

you don't need to understand jap culture to get all the poop/penis jokes

The serious arcs in Gintama are way better than ANY battle shonen. Some really deep stuff and the story is really fun to watch.

Gintama is not about funny japanese references.

Thanks. I guess I'll keep watching then.

>shit comedy
>big bad appears
>shit comedy
>screaming while fighting faceless mooks with umbrellas
>big bad loses against a half dead main cast
>rinse and repeat 400times
Gintama is Sup Forums-tier trash

>cultural references
yeah how could gaijin like us ever understand those wacky one piss references

Gintama isnt a big dealin the west. Even in Sup Forums. Praise it, no one cares. Shit it, no one cares. Gintama is more or less popular here just because of MAL

But it still hanging well in Japan. I went to Japan last month, and it's still pretty popular and rated high (not as popular as OP and Boku, and not highly rated as Steins:Gate). Also the active fandom are females. I went to the latest event, and literally the sumo dome are overpopulated by females. The male population of gintama fandom is either shonenfag or just some bf or husband of the female species. This is why even in west, gintama is nonexistent to Sup Forums and redditfags, which are male-dominated species.

is this why all the doujins are Gintoki x Mr. Mayo?

>I watched a few episodes and think it's okay.
There's your problem. It's a quite late-blooming series, that does grow on you. Don't worry about missing jokes.

I actually just recently started watching the show, finishing the last episode + released OVAs & films just as the latest season was starting, and it was helluva ride! No idea if I'd bothered to sit through the first season when it aired, but being able to marathon it all did make it easy to digest.

Few tips:
1) You should SKIP the first 2 episodes. Those are literally filler, as you prolly already noticed. Ep3 is the first REAL episode of the show.

2) The first 20-25 episodes or so are literally dedicated for introductions and mild foreshadowing. While not exactly terrible, that section is easily the worst the show has to offer. It starts picking up the pace after that, with the first ""recap"" episode being a lovely change of pace and example of the show's better humor. You get a first decent "serious" mini-arc around ep 40, which can be seen as an appetizer of things to come.

However, the show REALLY starts to kick up the pace and style after the first year, with the second season packing tons of cool, memorable chapters and way better production values to boot. The legendary "Benizakura" arc is pretty much the show's counterpart to Bleach's "Soul Society" arc, as in the part where everyone agrees shit really hits the fan and gets interesting. It will pretty much set the overall style of the show for the entire series afterwards, with small ups and downs between the arcs.

The arcs of Gintama are notably shorter than in typical Shounen series, which I think helps keeping them well paced and easier to watch too. Some are humorous, some more serious & action-packed, some half-half.

tl;dr: Skip first 2eps, give the show minimum of 25eps, preferably full 50 before you pass judgement. 1st season is merely "OK" for most part, but still VERY required to get into the series' cast and lore.

Deconstruction of the comedy genre.

>but enough for every incarnation of Gintama to be on the MAL's top 10? There's gotta be something I'm missing.
You need to watch a certain percentage of the episodes for your rating to count on MAL. Gintama "season 1" has a ton of EPs. So most people who don't like it won't watch enough EPs for their vote to count.
And the fanbase is mostly female so after that it's "10/10 Sugita had sex with my ear for hours and I couldn't stop cumming."

One thing good in Gintama is that if there is an arc/episode you are like, meh, decent, mediocre, you can proceed next episode or few to a better one, something long arc shounen like DBZ,HxH,OP cannot easily escape.

If your finding more comedy, wait till 25's
For action, it is quite longer to wait, maybe 50's (Benizakura) or 70's (Yagu) made Gintama action quite high quality.

And don't feel sad to drop or quit Gintama. It is not for everybody. Tons of Japanese references, extreme fourth wall destruction, lack of female fanservice, poop and dick jokes,obnoxious premise for some arcs, typical Gintoki saved the day during first few episodes... Many viewers did that at some point.

Do you know why there are many Gintamatards you cant understantd? or that ranking in MAL? Because it pays off very well throghout. Pretty consistent in getting better and in animation inconsistency lol. Has lows here and there but still mantain its pace and redeem itself to the point the quality drop is barely negligible.

normalfags just watch it because "lol I got that reference" It's an okay show with shitload of references, shitty jokes (literally and figuratively) and "serious" arcs that are shit most of the time but well animated.

A shame it didn't take a page from Sket Dance and ended when it had to.

don't fucking skip, just power through - it won't kill you, and they are fine - it gives you appreciation for the next episodes.

Great, i watch a girls cartoons.

It's personally one of my favorites. Do what said.

that's what i don't get, how a show that is full of not subtle toilet humor can be so popular with females.
It has entire arcs dedicated to one gag about pissing and shitting on grave.

I would say that the more shonen mangas you read/watch, the funnier it gets. Although is right about the viewing order.