The game, as mentioned earlier, features almost the full cast from Weekly Shonen Jump ranging from Naruto, Bleach, One Piece to Gintama and Dragonball Z. Each various series has a cast of characters that can be chosen to be played as either actual combatants, helpers (who come in, do something, leave), or as a form of a passive buff to one character or all. These characters are referenced as koma and come in those three types (battle koma (actual combatants), help koma (helpers), and support koma (passive buff).

These “koma” are laid out on a board and are arranged like pages of a manga. These are considered a “deck” or “panel”. You can choose different kinds or for some missions the game has a pre-set one already made for you. The fight plays out very Super Smash Bros. Melee like with you battling, using helpers, switching characters, and doing other things with the characters from Shonen Jump.

The game is completely awesome. For instance, you can be Goku. Fighting your enemies, you summon Light Yagami from Death Note. He writes their names down in his Death Note and they die 10 seconds later (we assume 45 in the game). Then, you switch Gintama. You hop on your scooter and dash into 3 enemies pushing 2 of them off the cliff. These enemies of course are Naruto, Luffy, and Vegeta.

This kind of gameplay is just amazing. For the DS that is. Each match usually lasts no more then 3 minutes so you can play, put down, pick up, play some more, put down. You don’t need to know much Japanese (but I urge an FAQ for assembling decks do you know what you’re doing). Doing Kenshin’s ultimate attack, followed by Goku’s Spirit Bomb, followed by some good ‘ol Death Note action is amazing.

If you can import and are even a remote fan of Shounen Jump I’d pick this up. If you don’t like Shounen Jump then I can understand skipping it. If you’re netural I would still say get it for the fun the fighting game presents however it’s way more enjoyable if you know a few of the characters (like Naruto and One Piece).

Upgrading your characters, unlocking new stages, and just battling will consume a ton of time. I think I’ve put about 5 hours into it and am at the second stage of worlds. Although I’m doing a lot of collecting and mission completing. There is just a lot to do.

It’s kinda expensive, ranging between 30 and 50 bucks imported. It’s also only for the Nintendo DS and not everyone has one of those (shame on you). You should get it though.

If I had a solid rating system, I’d say 5 out of 5 or 9 out of 10. It’s just a really solid game. Only thing lacking, of course, is the music. Totally not gar enough.

Gintama Episode 21 by Shinsen Subs was pretty decent. It wasn’t the best episode ever, but the comedy was constant and entertaining. The rest of it was, I don’t know, mediocre.

Not much to say, I give it a B.

Like I said, they won’t be anything super special, but they shouldn’t look like TOTAL garbage. You can view em right over here at this Internet webpage.

Final Score: 7 out of 10 (Enjoyable anime, not for diehard anime fans)

Gintama is a series about well, a samurai named Gin. It takes place during Edo Japan (during its Fuedal era). The differnce between your normal Edo Japan (Kenshin) and Gintama’s Edo Japan is, well, without a doubt aliens. That’s right, aliens!

Story goes that aliens (the Amanto) attacked Edo Japan and the noble Samurai were able to resist for years until the shogun sort of gave over Japan to them. From there they took over Japan and made it one of their lovely tourist/trade destinations. They took away all of the samurai’s swords except the Shinsingumi’s.

Gin, the hero of the story is your calm going Shounen hero and has two friends who work with him at his “do anything” business there is a lot more to ramble on about, but it’s pretty much an anime that involves Gin, his friends, and his enemies in random hilarious exploits.

The appeal to Gintama, is without a doubt, it being yet another fine Shounen Jump series. Shounen Jump series generally range in quality based on taste. For instance, someone could find One Piece to be one of the best anime ever and hate Bleach, even though they have nearly the same premise (differnt settings and character of course).

As far as the episodes go, it’s something like a mixture of Excel Saga and the various Shounen Jump archtypes. Gin is kind of your Luffy’s pure of heart, Zoro’s swordsmanship, Ichigo’s justice, and Goku’s badassery. He’s a swordsman with a wooden sword, full plot armor (you know, hero, immortality, etc.), the Shounen Jump philosphy of no one dieing, and a mysterious background.

Through the first seventeen episodes a lot of plot is shown. Even if it’s like Excel Saga (random episodes that don’t link with each other that much) it’s still got a good story going along with it.

Overall, I’d give these first episodes 7 out 10 (random Internet hilarious thing for stars). It probably should be lower, but it was very entertaining. Not a show for your diehard anime fan but it’s VERY enjoyable to watch.

There is currently almost forty episodes out in Japan. Shinsen has the first 17 (as of right now), at their website.