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Last updated: 10 November 2026

Quick Answer

Gintama is a 367 episode comedy action series made by Sunrise and later Bandai Namco Pictures, first aired in Japan in 2006 and finished on television in 2018. In an Edo ruled by aliens, former samurai Gintoki Sakata runs the Odd Jobs shop with Shinpachi and Kagura, taking any work that pays the rent. People watch it for the funniest ensemble comedy in anime and for serious arcs that arrive without warning and land like a truck. The story concludes in the 2021 film Gintama: The Very Final.

About Gintama

In an Edo conquered by aliens, where swords are banned and samurai are obsolete, Gintoki Sakata runs the Odd Jobs shop with teenager Shinpachi Shimura and Kagura, a super strong alien girl from the Yato clan. They take any job that pays: finding lost cats, bodyguarding, saving the world, roughly in that order of frequency. Gintama is a 367 episode comedy famous for parody, toilet humour and total chaos, and equally famous for the serious action arcs that arrive a few times a year and remind everyone these idiots are war veterans.

Gintama is a TV anime from 2006, first released in Spring 2006. It belongs to the Comedy and Action and Sci-Fi genres and is listed as a completed series. The summary above is written by the AnimeYug team in our own words.

Story & Plot

Twenty years before the story opens, aliens called the Amanto descended on Edo, won the war against the samurai and banned the carrying of swords. The shogunate became a puppet government, spaceships share the sky with wooden townhouses, and a generation of swordsmen had to find new work. Gintoki Sakata, once feared in the war as the White Demon, found the least respectable work available: Yorozuya, Odd Jobs, a shop that will do anything legal, and several things that are not, for anyone who can pay.

His staff are Shinpachi Shimura, a polite teenager whose family dojo is failing and who serves as the voice of reason nobody listens to, and Kagura, a sweet looking alien girl from the Yato clan, the strongest warrior race in the universe, with an appetite like a natural disaster. Their landlord is a former bar hostess, their neighbour is an unemployed middle aged man, their giant dog Sadaharu eats everything, and their clients include the Shinsengumi, the shogunate's police, who are somehow more chaotic than the criminals.

Most episodes are self contained comedy: haunted inns, video game worlds, elections for the best character, entire episodes spent standing in the snow arguing. Then, every so often, the past walks in. Old comrades from the war, the Shinsengumi's internal rot, Kagura's family, and finally the immortal enemy Utsuro turn the gag show into a war story it has secretly been telling all along. The final television arc, Silver Soul, and the film The Very Final pay off twelve years of jokes as if they were foreshadowing, because in Gintama, they usually were.

Story Arcs & Episode Guide

The Gintama anime is split into story sagas. Here is every saga in order, with its episodes and years.

ArcEpisodesYearsAbout
Benizakura ArcEpisodes 58 to 612007The first fully serious arc: a cursed sword, an old comrade of Gintoki's turning terrorist, and the show revealing what it can do when it stops joking.
Shinsengumi Crisis ArcEpisodes 101 to 1052008A plot inside the Shinsengumi splits Hijikata from Kondo, and the police force's comedy act turns into a proper drama about loyalty.
Yoshiwara in Flames ArcEpisodes 139 to 1462009Odd Jobs descends into the underground pleasure district of Yoshiwara to free it from the Night King Housen, with the Yato clan's family wounds on full display.
Farewell, Shinsengumi ArcEpisodes 308 to 3162016The bakufu falls, the Shinsengumi are branded traitors, and old enemies stand back to back. Widely called the series' finest stretch.
Silver Soul ArcEpisodes 342 to 3672018The final television arc: war for Earth and Edo against Utsuro, with every thread from a decade of comedy and drama pulled in.

Why Watch Gintama

  • The best straight man and idiot ensemble in anime comedy, honed over 367 episodes.
  • Serious arcs (Benizakura, Shinsengumi Crisis, Farewell Shinsengumi, Silver Soul) hit as hard as any battle shonen.
  • Parodies everything: Dragon Ball, One Piece, its own network, its own author, its own budget.
  • Tomokazu Sugita's Gintoki is a career defining voice performance.
  • A complete story: the manga ended in 2019 and the anime finished it in a 2021 film.

Who Is It For?

Gintama is rated for older teens in most releases. Expect crude and toilet humour, innuendo, comic violence and, in the serious arcs, real blood and death. The comedy is the gateway; the drama is why people stay for 367 episodes.

Main Characters

View all characters →

Voice Actors

The Japanese voices behind the main characters of Gintama.

  • Gintoki SakataFounder of Odd Jobs, former samurai of the Joi war
    Japanese voiceTomokazu Sugita
  • Shinpachi ShimuraOdd Jobs employee and resident straight man
    Japanese voiceDaisuke Sakaguchi
  • KaguraOdd Jobs employee, Yato clan girl
    Japanese voiceRie Kugimiya
  • Toshiro HijikataVice captain of the Shinsengumi
    Japanese voiceKazuya Nakai
  • Sougo OkitaShinsengumi first division captain
    Japanese voiceKenichi Suzumura
  • Kotaro KatsuraJoi rebel leader, Gintoki's old comrade
    Japanese voiceAkira Ishida

Staff & Production

Original Creator
Hideaki Sorachi
Animation Studio
Sunrise (episodes 1 to 265), Bandai Namco Pictures (from episode 266)
Director
Shinji Takamatsu (episodes 1 to 105), Yoichi Fujita, Chizuru Miyawaki (from episode 266)
Series Composition
Akatsuki Yamatoya
Music
Audio Highs

Manga & Source Material

Gintama comes from Hideaki Sorachi's manga, a Weekly Shonen Jump fixture for fifteen years that ended as one of the magazine's defining comedies.

  • Written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi, serialised mainly in Weekly Shonen Jump from December 2003, ending in June 2019 after moves to Jump GIGA and the Gintama app
  • 77 collected volumes; Viz Media published 23 of them in English
  • Sorachi has said the setting grew from an interest in the Shinsengumi, before the aliens and the comedy took over
  • The anime staff and Sorachi built a famously loose relationship with the source: the show parodies its own adaptation, its sponsors and its author on screen
  • The final manga chapters (699 to 704) were adapted only in the 2021 film, because the last television season ended before the manga did

Music

Audio Highs provides the series' background music, swinging between gag cues and full battle scoring without changing bands. The theme songs rotate constantly across 367 episodes; the first opening and ending set the tone for everything after.

Opening Themes

  • “Pray”by Tommy heavenly6The first opening theme (episodes 1 to 24), a pop rock track that became the sound of early Gintama
  • “Sakura Mitsutsuki”by SPYAIROpening 13 (2013), a fan favourite from the later Sunrise run

Ending Themes

  • “Mr. Raindrop”by amplifiedAn early ending theme, sung in English by the Hong Kong band amplified, remembered fondly by long time fans

Series Timeline

  1. 2003 to 2019

    Hideaki Sorachi's Gintama manga runs in Weekly Shonen Jump and then Jump GIGA and the Gintama app, ending at 77 volumes.

  2. 2006 to 2010

    Sunrise's first television run airs 201 episodes on TV Tokyo.

  3. 2010 and 2013

    Gintama: The Movie retells the Benizakura arc; Be Forever Yorozuya tells an original story with a script involving Sorachi.

  4. 2011 to 2018

    Sequel seasons Gintama' (64 episodes), Gintama° (51, now by Bandai Namco Pictures) and Gintama. (51) complete the television run at 367 episodes.

  5. 2021

    Gintama: The Very Final adapts the manga's last chapters and closes the anime.

  6. 2025

    The spin off 3-Z Ginpachi-sensei, a school comedy with the same cast, airs as part of the franchise's 20th anniversary projects.

Release Schedule

Premiere
4 April 2006 on TV Tokyo (Japan)
Broadcast
TV Tokyo: 2006 to 2010 (201 episodes), 2011 to 2013 (64), 2015 to 2016 (51), 2017 to 2018 (51)
Streaming
Crunchyroll in many regions; Hulu in the US for season 1
Episodes
367 television episodes, plus 3 films

Streaming availability changes by country and over time. Details as of 10 November 2026.

Quick Answers

Is Gintama finished?

Yes. Gintama has finished airing, so you can watch the complete story from start to end without waiting for new episodes.

What genre is Gintama?

Gintama is a Comedy and Action and Sci-Fi anime. You can browse more titles like it on our Comedy anime page.

When did Gintama release?

Gintama first released in Spring 2006. It is a TV series.

Where can I watch Gintama?

Crunchyroll carries the television series in many regions, including the Gintama° seasons with an English dub for episodes 266 to 316. Hulu in the US carries the first season with its own newer English dub. Availability of the later seasons and films varies by country, so check both catalogues.

How many episodes does Gintama have, and is it finished?

367 television episodes in total, aired between 2006 and 2018 across the original series and its sequels Gintama', Gintama° and Gintama.. The story then finishes in the film Gintama: The Very Final (2021). It is complete.

What is the Gintama watch order?

Watch the television series in broadcast order from episode 1: the episode numbers run continuously to 367 across the sequel seasons. Add the films where they belong: Gintama: The Movie (2010) retells the Benizakura arc, Be Forever Yorozuya (2013) is an original story for after the TV run up to that point, and The Very Final (2021) goes last, after episode 367.

Is there a Gintama sequel or remake?

The main story is finished: the manga ended in 2019 and The Very Final (2021) completed the anime. The franchise still produces side projects, including the school comedy spin off anime 3-Z Ginpachi-sensei (2025) and new theatrical edits of classic arcs, but Gintoki's main story is closed.

Who voices Gintoki Sakata?

Gintoki is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita in Japanese, one of the most praised comedy performances in anime. English dubs cover only part of the series: Michael Daingerfield voices Gintoki in the Crunchyroll dub of episodes 266 to 316 and in The Very Final, while Roly Gutierrez voices him in the Hulu dub of season 1.

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