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Gintama
Episode 298

by Amy McNulty,

How would you rate episode 298 of
Gintama (TV 4/2015) ?
Community score: 4.2

It's been a while since we've seen Gintoki don his mangaka mentor hat and glasses, and this week's episode treats us to not one but two instances of his ego messing things up for a prisoner acquaintance with artistic talent. Lest there be any lingering doubt, these stories confirm that Gintoki has no business editing manga. Sure, he managed to turn Gintaman's (this world's equivalent of Gintama, which is penned by an honest-to-goodness gorilla) fortunes around, but the narrative and aesthetic tips he offers incarcerated mangaka "Shachi the Killer" are consistently terrible. Despite Gintoki ruining his chances at a Weekly Shonen Jump serialization a while back, Shachi still (inexplicably) values his advice. (Granted, Shachi also thinks Katsura is a well of insightful knowledge, so this should tell you something about his judgment.) This week's Gintama revisits the dual-segment format, showcasing two stories centered around Akurogi Musai (Gintoki and Shachi's dual pen name and a reference to Ashirogi Mutou from Bakuman).

Entitled "One Editor is Enough," the first segment reveals that Shachi has fallen in love with the prison's cute bespectacled doctor, who's taken a shine to his manga and encourages his creative efforts. After becoming aware of his friend's infatuation, Gintoki suggests that Shachi try to convey his feelings through manga. Acting on Gintoki's advice, Shachi crafts a story that revolves around a teenage boy falling in love with a school nurse who bears a striking resemblance to the real-life object of Shachi's affections. After the male lead confesses his love to the nurse, the latter's word balloon is left blank. Per Gintoki's plan, Shachi must "innocently" ask his crush what she thinks the next line should be, thus ascertaining her feelings for him. However, the doctor isn't about to indulge these dorks, and her bizarre dialog choices and plot suggestions send a seemingly harmless rom-com manga down a truly twisted road. In the end, it's revealed that the doctor was fully aware of Shachi's intentions; she just didn't want to hurt his feelings by revealing she was married.

In "The G Pen is Capricious, and the Maru Pen is Stubborn," Akurogi Musai finally has a chance to make their Jump debut, thanks to Gintaman taking the week off and freeing up a slot. However, there's a huge catch: In order to make the deadline, Shachi must turn a 19-page storyboard into a polished manuscript overnight. In yet another bungled attempt to help out, Gintoki recruits the Akurogi Gang, a group of Shachi's fellow inmates, to assist with inking, screen tone, and background art. Although each of these prisoners looks truly fearsome, it turns out they're all Doing Time for stealing panties. As such, they're disturbingly eager to incorporate panty-related elements into Shachi's manga at every turn. To make matters worse, one of the prisoners is bound in a straitjacket and can only draw with his mouth, while another one's Freddy Krueger-esque gloves rip every page he picks up to shreds. Although the manuscript is successfully submitted, the finished product contains a multitude of glaring mistakes.

Gintoki's superego is on full display throughout the entirety of this week's episode. Even though he has a proven track record of giving horrible advice, he still has complete confidence in every god-awful idea that pops into his twisted head. At times, it's hard to tell if Gintoki is actively trolling people or he really is that stupid. Toward the end of the second segment, he gives the Akurogi Gang a long-winded lecture about how "easy" it is to ink pencil drawings, proclaiming that any "idiot" who spills ink will be immediately fired. Several seconds later, Gintoki smears ink all over the title page and makes things worse by applying whiteout and attempting to replicate the considerably more talented Shachi's original illustration. (He could truly give the elderly woman who attempted to "fix" that Jesus painting in Spain a run for her money.) Gintoki's attempts to cover all of the team's blunders with awkwardly-placed speech bubbles shows that he's absolutely aware of how badly he's messed up. However, true to character, he goes to great lengths to avoid owning up to his mistake. As always, he's a terrible role model but a fun character to watch.

If there's anything negative to say about episode 298, it's that the pacing feels a bit rushed. To be fair, neither of these stories is strong enough to carry an entire episode, but it feels like the first segment could have benefited from a few additional scenes. For example, instead of actually seeing Shachi interact with the prison doctor, most of their exchanges are relayed to the audience through "Sensei and Me," Shachi's ill-fated manga. The comedy doesn't really suffer as a result, but parts of the narrative feel muddled and unclear.

This week's Gintama, particularly the second segment, expertly utilizes the series' knack for making delicate situations progressively worse. On more than one occasion, I felt myself cringing at Gintoki's latest screw-up. If episode 298 proves to be Shachi's curtain call, I'm glad we got to check in with everyone's favorite sleeve-hating manga wiz one last time.

Rating: B+

Gintama is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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


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