GINTAMA - Mr. Ginpachi's Zany Class

Episode 7

After getting two solid episodes in a row, it seemed like Mr. Ginpachi was starting to hit its stride, but I suppose it was too good to last. This one pretty much relies on the same bag of tricks as some of the earlier episodes in that it's a bit too reliant on character gimmicks and less so on more elaborate jokes, which feels like a bit of a step back. It's not completely devoid of laughs, but after seeing the show pick back up, it's immensely disappointing.

The school-related scenario this week revolves around Mr. Ginpachi's class being put in charge of cleaning around the building. While he does attempt to bribe his students with rumors about there being buried treasure somewhere on campus, they seem to be surprisingly enthusiastic about cleaning, which should have made it hilarious when they all end up being so bad at it. In practice, what we get from this are either more instances of characters acting out their main gimmicks in ridiculous ways, like Tojo covering the classroom floors in lotion instead of wax, or gags that feel a bit too random, like the Shinsengumi boys dueling each other with buckets. None of these jokes feels particularly well thought out, and most of them come and go a bit too quickly to draw out any real laughs.

The episode gets a little better when Mr. Ginpachi, Shinpachi, and Kagura think that Sadaharu has dug up some treasure, only to discover that he might have unearthed an unexploded bombshell. Seeing them running for the hills while Sadaharu treats the bomb like a bone and chases after them was one of the two jokes in this episode I laughed at, and it gave me hope that the rest would be funny enough to make up for how dull the first half of it was. Sadly, those hopes got dashed when the school hired a bomb squad to take care of the explosive, and we're introduced to a pair of “experts" named Heiji and Haji. I'll fully admit that I had to pull up a Wikipedia page to remember who these two were supposed to be in Gintama, but within the context of this spin-off, neither leaves a great impression. Haji doesn't do much but try and assure everyone that her boss knows what he's doing, and Heiji's entire bit is acting like a hard-boiled cop, which is a gag that probably works better in mainline Gintama, where he seems to actually be a detective, but doesn't quite land here as it mostly just makes him come off as obnoxious.

Even the episode's brief attempt at mixing melodrama falls short, as the bomb is ultimately revealed to be a time capsule containing a love letter that a boy was never able to give to the girl he likes. Not only is this twist a bit too predictable, but it's immediately undercut when it's revealed that the boy in question was the principal, and watching all of the characters snark at this discovery just makes the moment feel like a waste of time. Still, I'll at least give this scene credit for setting up the actual punchline where Sadaharu digs up a second time capsule that actually does turn out to be a bomb that catches everyone in a hilariously realistically looking explosion. While that was probably the best joke we got out of this, some of the punch is taken away when we immediately learn that everyone survived. I know this franchise loves its continuity, but it would have been even funnier if this took a page from a Tom and Jerry short, and let them get killed off in order to be resurrected next week with zero explanation. All of that is to say that this episode didn't do it for me. While it's probably not the least funny one that the show has dished out so far, it's far from its best material either. I'll trust that this is just a random dud rather than the show falling into a rut. I hope that there are better jokes next week.

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GINTAMA - Mr. Ginpachi's Zany Class is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.