Gintama

Episode 273

To say that Gintoki Sakata and Toshiro "Toshi" Hijikata don't get along would be an egregious understatement. Sparks are sure to fly whenever the silver-haired Odd Jobs proprietor and the mayonnaise-obsessed vice captain of the Shinsengumi are paired up. Sure, circumstances sometimes require them to begrudgingly join forces, but there's never any love lost between these guys. (Gintoki makes for a great comedic pair with any secondary character, but the mutual hatred between these two is particularly volatile.) In an episode that's part buddy comedy gone wrong, part twisted morality tale, these two easily-angered samurai embark on one of their most entertaining capers yet.

Stubbornly self-righteous Hijikata considers himself above gambling, but when the owner of his favorite cigarette stand convinces him to take possession of a lottery ticket that another customer left behind, it doesn't take long for him to start dreaming of the mountains of mayonnaise 300 million yen could buy. When that ticket turns out to be the jackpot winner, it changes the way he sees the world—literally. The usually colorful Edo scenery transforms into a Hokuto no Ken-inspired wasteland, and every person standing between him and the bank (the place to cash in a winning lotto ticket in this world) morphs into a mohawked thug out to steal his newfound riches. Luckily for the citizens of Edo, Gintoki is there to stop one of the city's top cops from inflicting bodily harm on innocent bystanders. He also happens to have misplaced one of the lottery tickets he bought from the aforementioned cigarette stand.

Desperate to keep his secret from Gintoki and constantly conflating reality with his paranoid delusion, Hijikata stumbles upon an actual gang of Mohawked bank robbers, landing both himself and Gintoki in hot water. After being taken hostage with the rest of the bank's patrons and staff, Hijikata and Gintoki's war to one-up each other leads to one outlandish situation after the next. Needless to say, Gintoki is none too pleased to discover that Hijikata has come into possession of his winning lotto ticket. However, despite their mutual disdain, neither character fully commits to throwing the other under the bus.

Because the action isn't contained to Snack Otose this week, we get to see a lot more of the show's revisionist history version of Edo. (Also, as is the case with many latter day episodes, there wasn't a single Amanto to be found walking the streets.) With few notable exceptions, the artwork in this series is consistent and pleasant to look at—perhaps even incongruous with its slapstick-heavy nature, since it looks more like a typical shonen action series than a gag anime. This week's installment is easily the most fluidly animated and aesthetically pleasing of the latest batch of episodes. It's always nice to see the writing and animation come together perfectly to showcase an array of both visual gags and dialogue-centric jokes.

There isn't a single joke in this episode that doesn't hit its mark. Nor is there a single bodily function joke—unless you count Gintoki's perpetual nose picking. (While gross-out humor is a staple of the show and oftentimes funny, some episodes can take it to stomach-churning extremes.) The series' penchant for playing around with viewers' expectations comes to the forefront again, with a tightly-plotted story that ends in a wholly unexpected fashion. By the time the credits roll, Gintoki and Hijikata have finally found something they can agree on: "Mo' money, mo' problems."

Rating: A+

Gintama is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Amy is a YA fantasy author who has loved anime for two decades.