Gintama: Love Incense Arc

This short OVA series is an adaptation of some manga arc which decided not to fit into the main story line, which honestly makes sense, not only is it a self-contained story, in terms of quality it feels more like the late season 1 rather than season 3 (4?) material. The arc has virtually no value as a story, and it can be easily skipped, take it from someone who despises skippers in pretty much any anime. The antagonist was introduced in this arc and will most likely never be seen again. And even unlike other "useless" arcs such as the Renho arc, it doesn't evenbring the little but still somewhat useful addition to the greater narrative. This arc's main draw is definitely in its events unfolding. I don't think I'm spoiling anything if I say the Love Incense arc is about... an incense which make people fall in love. Not only does this create some very entertaining situtions but it's also fairly unique (as far as unique goes in Gintama) because it breaks apart the relationships that grew over the episodes. The rest is fairly Gintama so if you're into that, enjoy.

Probably this review won't make justice to the love I have for Gintama, but there are only two OVAs that go straight to the point so it's easier for me to write about this than write another parts of the anime. The moment I found out there was a "love potion" arc in this show that never fails to make me laugh out loud, I wanted to check it out immediately. It's another stupid Gintama arc somehow, but it's simply marvelous (it sustains my theory that Gintama shines the most when it's stupidity gets overbearing). Basically this is Sorachi subverting the "love potion" trope thatwe have already seen a thousand times in eastern and western shows, and taking that trope to the most ridiculous posibilities it can offer. Even the law that you "fall in love with the first person you see" after consuming the potion is rebuted and taken to the extreme, with very stupid sexual fetishes and testicle jokes in the best possible Gintama-fashion. Tsukki is one of my favorite female characters of Gintama, and GinTsuki is my favorite ship of all the series, so this was literally the best meal that the show could serve me. It's ridiculous how much I can relate with Tsukki's enamoured stupidity and how Gintama takes her crush and tsundere behaviour to absurd limits, I just simply laugh way too much. The dynamic of these two is explored in it's most absurd limits and it shows great results. There are still a few problems with these OVAs. Narrative wise, it is true that the villain is not amazing, I liked what Tsukki said to her but her motivation its quite meh, and her story it's not great. Compared to the comedy, which is sublime, this falls a little bit short. And the other problem (the biggest one, though this isn't the chapter's nor Sorachi's fault) is that it's impossible to watch this in good quality. It's not uploaded to Crunchyroll nor is in good quality in piracy servers or torrents, I got this in 480p in a page full of ads and I watched it not only because is canon, also because the concept got my attention. But it's very possible that people will skip this for those reasons, and if you're into Gintama this is not a waste of your time at all. Well, this one is great, idk if it gets to the comedy peak that the arcs of the scandal, popularity poll, owee and the genderbending one reach, but it doesn't have much to envy of them. Gintama forever! HONEEEEY!! DARLIIING!!