Life Lessons: The Gintama Manga Cast

Welcome to our new mini podcast entitled “Jumpin’ Ahead“, where Colton jumps ahead of where Life Lessons is in the manga to discuss significant story arcs that aren’t officially translated by Viz with Jon (LeitungVG), who has just seen these arcs for the first time!

On this episode though, instead of an arc from the series, we discuss the 2nd Gintama movie from 2013, Be Forever Yorozuya, also known as the “Final Chapter” of the Gintama anime. We discuss not only our general thoughts on the movie, but also discuss the difference between watching it nowadays after more anime has obviously been produced since then as opposed to when it was actually relevant at the time of release. Is Be Forever Yorozuya really a good Gintama movie, or does it fall flat due to certain limitations even with contribution from Hideaki Sorachi himself!? Be sure to listen and find out! Enoy!

Welcome to our new mini podcast entitled “Jumpin’ Ahead“, where Colton jumps ahead of where Life Lessons is in the manga to discuss significant story arcs that aren’t officially translated by Viz with Jon (LeitungVG), who has just seen these arcs for the first time!

On this episode, we discuss Episodes 257 to 261 of the anime (Chapters 386 to 399), aka the Courtesan of a Nation arc. This is the most dense arc we discuss yet! We discuss different aspects such as how grand of a scale the events of this arc compare to arcs before it, how much info dump there can be at times, and Colton’s arguement for “White Knight” and why he thinks it works as a contextual localization of Gin’s war alias. Enjoy!

Spoiler warning for listeners who only follow the manga through Life Lessons!!

Welcome to our new mini podcast entitled “Jumpin’ Ahead“, where Colton jumps ahead of where Life Lessons is in the manga to discuss significant story arcs that aren’t officially translated by Viz with Jon (LeitungVG), who has just seen these arcs for the first time!

On this episode, we discuss Episodes 253 to 256 of the anime (Chapters 372 to 380), aka the Kintama arc. We discuss everything from the exploration of Gintoki as a character using Kintoki as a device as such, to Colton’s attachment to this arc in particular. Enjoy!

Spoiler warning for listeners who only follow the manga through Life Lessons!!

Welcome to our new mini podcast entitled “Jumpin’ Ahead“, where Colton jumps ahead of where Life Lessons is in the manga to discuss significant story arcs that aren’t officially translated by Viz with Jon (LeitungVG), who has just seen these arcs for the first time! On this episode, we discuss Episodes 244 to 247 of the anime (Chapters 365 to 370), otherwise known as the Thorny arc (or Baragaki). We discuss what Jon thinks of this arc in general, including some of the new characters introduced, Gin’s role in the arc, and his thoughts on Hijikata as a character up to this point. Enjoy!

Spoiler warning for listeners who are only as far into the series as Life Lessons is!!

On this episode of Life Lessons, we celebrate our (late) 4th anniversary with special guest, Josh Dunham, from Senpai Coast to Coast and Wave Motion Cannon, as we start off the show with a lot of small talk, including the results of our first podcast survey and even an email from a listener (guess who). Afterwards, we discuss Chapters 85 and 86 during our double manga recap, in which we recount a romantic tale of Shinpachi’s encounter with a lovely cat-eared girl on the train ride home. We also discuss Lessons 85 and 86 during our Life Lessons segment, followed by an Anime/Manga Comparison of Episodes 34 and 35 of the anime. Topics of discussion for this episode include the urban legend of the Densha Otoko (Train Man) of which this arc parodies, critique of both the humor what direction this story could or should have went in, and more of Josh and Colton’s terrible in-jokes.

Special thanks to all of our listeners and recurring contributors for making 4 years of this podcast possible! Only one more year until our 5th anniversary!!

0:00:00 Introduction/Small talk
0:13:24 About Densha Otoko

On this episode of Life Lessons, we are joined by returning special guest Japanese history enthusiast and professional Canadian, Niente de Nada, along with brand new special guest Jonathan, aka LeitungVG on Twitter. After Jonathan discusses some thoughts on his first watch of Gintama, we hop into the Manga Recaps of both Chapters 83 and 84, in which the Odd Jobs trio run into the Shinsengumi once again, this time while hunting for beetles!! Afterwards, we discuss both chapter titles during the Life Lessons segment, followed by an Anime/Manga Comparison segment discussing Episode 65 of the anime. Topics of discussion for this episode include topical sumo wrestling politics circa 2005, beetle collecting as it relates to Japanese culture, and the ever popular arcade and trading card game franchise known as Mushiking!!

Tune in next episode when we'll be having special guest, Josh Dunham, founder of Wave Motion Cannon, to discuss the Train Samurai arc for our 4th anniversary of the podcast!

0:00:00 Introduction/Jon's thoughts on Gintama thus far

0:25:19 Manga Recap: Chapter 83

1:02:53 Manga Recap: Chapter 84

1:46:55 Life Lessons 83 & 84

2:05:28 Anime/Manga Comparison: Episode 65

2:34:44 The End

Please take our Life Lessons podcast survey to help improve the show however possible, and look forward to hearing the results this April during our 4th anniversary!!

0:00:00 Introduction/Thoughts on Dub
0:09:35 Manga Recap: Chapter 82
1:02:07 Life Lesson 82
1:07:53 Anime/Manga Comparison: Episode 68
1:26:14 The End
1:34:50 Outtakes