Gintama

Gin Tama (Japanese: 銀魂 Hepburn: Gintama^?, lit. "Silver Soul"), also styled as Gintama, is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi and serialized, beginning on December 8, 2003, in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump. Set in Edo which has been conquered by aliens named Amanto, the plot follows life from the point of view of samurai Gintoki Sakata, who works as a freelancer alongside his friends Shinpachi Shimura and Kagura in order to pay the monthly rent. Sorachi added the science fiction setting to develop characters to his liking after his editor suggested doing a historical series.
The series has been adapted into an original video animation (OVA) by Sunrise and was featured at Jump Festa 2006 Anime Tour in 2005. This was followed by a full anime series, which debuted on April 4, 2006 in TV Tokyo and finished on March 25, 2010. A sequel titled Gintama‍ '​ first premiered in Japan on April 4, 2011 and ended on March 26, 2012, before returning once again for a brief run from October 4, 2012 to March 28, 2013. Continuation of the TV anime series titled Gintama° began airing on April 8, 2015. Two animated films have also been produced. Besides the anime series, there have been various light novels and video games based on Gin Tama.
The manga has been licensed by Viz Media in North America. In addition to publishing the individual volumes of the series, Viz serialized its first chapters in their Shonen Jump manga anthology. It debuted in the January 2007 issue, and was serialized at a rate of one chapter a month. The website Crunchyroll purchased the anime's streaming rights, while Sentai Filmworks licensed the series, with distribution from Section23 Films on DVDs.
In Japan, the Gin Tama manga has been popular, selling over 46 million copies. The anime and its DVDs have been featured, at various time, in Top Ten of their respective media, while TV Tokyo has announced that the first Gin Tama anime was responsible for high sales overseas along with the anime adaptation from Naruto. Publications for manga, anime and others have commented on the Gin Tama manga. Positive response have focused on the comedy and characters from the series, while negative responses concern the manga's artwork.

Plot

See also: List of Gin Tama characters

The story is set in the late Edo period. Humanity is attacked by aliens called "Amanto" (天人^?, "Sky People"). The samurai of Japan join the battle against the aliens, but when the Shogun realizes the power of aliens, he betrays the samurai and surrenders to the aliens. The Shogun writes an unequal contract with aliens which allows the aliens to enter the country and places a ban on carrying swords in public. The swords of samurai are taken away so they can no longer resist the aliens. After that the Shogunate becomes a puppet government.
The plot is focused on an eccentric samurai, Gintoki Sakata (aka Odd Jobs Gin) who helps a teenager named Shinpachi Shimura save his sister Tae from a group of aliens who want to make her part of a brothel. Impressed with Gintoki, Shinpachi becomes his apprentice and works with him as a freelance odd-jobs man in order to pay the monthly rent on Gintoki's combination home and office, as well as to know more about him.
The two of them rescue a teenage alien girl named Kagura from a group of Yakuza who wanted to use her superhuman strength to kill people. Kagura joins Shinpachi and Gintoki to work as freelancers and the three become known as "Yorozuya" (万事屋^?, "We do everything" or literally "The Anything Store").
While doing their job, they encounter the police force Shinsengumi several times, who normally ally with Odd Jobs Gin in their work since the jobs commonly involve dangerous criminals. They eventually meet some of Gintoki's former comrades from the fight against the Amanto's invasion, including the revolutionary Kotaro Katsura who maintains a friendly relationship with them despite his terrorist activities against the bakufu. On the other hand, Shinsuke Takasugi acts as a major antagonist throughout the series, as he wants to destroy the bakufu and sees his former comrades as enemies.

Although the series' story is commonly episodic, there are also a few story arcs which are developed through several chapters.^[1] Across several story arcs Takasugi starts gaining allies including Kagura's brother, Kamui, and the elite unit Mimawarigumi to prepare for his large scale coup d'état.