🎉 8.7.2026 Happy Birthday to our local sadist, Okita Sougo! 🍰
Sougo is one of my most favourite characters of all time. His character is super unique and his story is very well-written. Sougo, among other characters, remains one of the most memorable voice acting roles ever, thanks to the incredibly talented Suzuken.
This year I made Sougo nendoll his ceremonial haori as a present. I also got the cake to celebrate! Even if the story is already over, you'll forever remain one of the most impressive fictional characters ever created.
Romani has been specially invited to the party for the express purpose of cleaning up the cake. Happy to report that he's very enthusiastic.
🔥 Gintama the Movie : Yoshiwara in Flames 🔥 — Milking it for what it's worth : 8/10
I went to see this thing today at my local cinema. It still earned a solid 8 out of 10 from me despite it being mostly a repetition of the TV anime with a sprinkle of fresh scenes. I think the fact that I didn't watch the TV version of this arc in its entirety contributed heavily to this high scoring. Spoilers ahead, before I forget.
I'll start with what I don't like : the plot. This heisei kitsch is getting very redundant and outdated when it's being rerun in this day and age. I've already criticized Sorachi's weakness of repeating the same plot from start to finish elsewhere, and this arc made his insistence truly distasteful. Sorachi's sole (and unredeemably repetitive) plot posits that there're no true villains in Gintama, and when someone does a bad deed, they're only doing it to mask their good intentions. Everyone is a hero in their own way. ...That got a big NOPE from me. Especially in Yoshiwara arc whose main theme is prostitution and abuse of power. One simply can't justify Hosen's abuse of Hinowa (making her his personal sex slave for at least 8 years, maiming her until she's permanently handicapped, bereaving her of her foster child etc.) by the fact that she sympathized with him first when she was a child and still did after everything he had done to her. No. Hosen was simply evil and what he did was unforgivable. Hinowa is plainly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Having to watch the whole rerun of Sorachi's no true evil agenda today was very absurd. I was literally scratching my head towards the end of the film.
I liked what they did with the comedy though. What's not to love about the Shinsengumi in drags? Yamazaki and his jelly nails. Sougo and his idea of 'cute girls'. I had already known this going in because I saw some spoiler, but I still find it hilarious. They should have shown more of this scene. Plus, they really sold me on this Kondo and Zura romance. Trust me, I tried to resist, but it was very funny. I think these two really carried the show. The scenes with the kunais were also ok. It felt like they were trying a bit too hard at times, but overall they still turned out comedic.
Kudos on the voice acting work went to Hino Satoshi's Kamui. My first impression was that Kamui started out as Rengoku before slowing melting into his own character. Hino did equally great on both blood thirsty Kamui and giggly Kamui. I really like him in this arc. He's very sexy. Kugimiya Rie also did a stellar job on Kagura, especially when she's lost it. (I'm not sold on PachiKagu though. Nah thanks.) It really gave me the feeling that this is what really distinguishes pro-VAs from the others. I also appreciated Ootsuka Houchu's Abuto a lot. I first noticed him in Kamen Rider Den-O. His acting here demonstrated again what veterans were truly capable of. Oh and Suzu, you asked? He said like three lines max. I wasn't even listening to Sougo when I was focusing on trying to figure out who voiced the Gorilla amanto (it's Yamaguchi Kappei).
Overall, it was quite enjoyable. There's no denying that the franchise is milking Gintama for what it's worth, but as long as it continues to be enjoyable, there's no reason not to indulge a bit, right? One trip to the cinema was enough for me though, since Yoshiwara is not one of my favourite arcs.
And what do you mean, they didn't deign to make a cut out of Sougo? Ok fine, he didn't show up that much, but maybe remove Hijikata too and replace him with Kondo? Man practically ran the whole show alright.
A most defining moment in my career as a Seiyuu otaku!
I won this autographed Shikishi signed by Sugita Tomokazu, Kugimiya Rie and Sakaguchi Daisuke in a campaign run by my local cinema (Major Group)! They had invited people to write a Facebook review of the movie and I pretty much gave them an abridged version of the post above.
I'm overjoyed!!! This has become my first family heirloom to pass down 😂. Sougo was mildly amused. I dutifully went to pick up the prize in my makeshift Shinsengumi cosplay. 🫡
🔥 Gintama the Movie : Yoshiwara in Flames 🔥 — Milking it for what it's worth : 8/10
I went to see this thing today at my local cinema. It still earned a solid 8 out of 10 from me despite it being mostly a repetition of the TV anime with a sprinkle of fresh scenes. I think the fact that I didn't watch the TV version of this arc in its entirety contributed heavily to this high scoring. Spoilers ahead, before I forget.
I'll start with what I don't like : the plot. This heisei kitsch is getting very redundant and outdated when it's being rerun in this day and age. I've already criticized Sorachi's weakness of repeating the same plot from start to finish elsewhere, and this arc made his insistence truly distasteful. Sorachi's sole (and unredeemably repetitive) plot posits that there're no true villains in Gintama, and when someone does a bad deed, they're only doing it to mask their good intentions. Everyone is a hero in their own way. ...That got a big NOPE from me. Especially in Yoshiwara arc whose main theme is prostitution and abuse of power. One simply can't justify Hosen's abuse of Hinowa (making her his personal sex slave for at least 8 years, maiming her until she's permanently handicapped, bereaving her of her foster child etc.) by the fact that she sympathized with him first when she was a child and still did after everything he had done to her. No. Hosen was simply evil and what he did was unforgivable. Hinowa is plainly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Having to watch the whole rerun of Sorachi's no true evil agenda today was very absurd. I was literally scratching my head towards the end of the film.
I liked what they did with the comedy though. What's not to love about the Shinsengumi in drags? Yamazaki and his jelly nails. Sougo and his idea of 'cute girls'. I had already known this going in because I saw some spoiler, but I still find it hilarious. They should have shown more of this scene. Plus, they really sold me on this Kondo and Zura romance. Trust me, I tried to resist, but it was very funny. I think these two really carried the show. The scenes with the kunais were also ok. It felt like they were trying a bit too hard at times, but overall they still turned out comedic.
Kudos on the voice acting work went to Hino Satoshi's Kamui. My first impression was that Kamui started out as Rengoku before slowing melting into his own character. Hino did equally great on both blood thirsty Kamui and giggly Kamui. I really like him in this arc. He's very sexy. Kugimiya Rie also did a stellar job on Kagura, especially when she's lost it. (I'm not sold on PachiKagu though. Nah thanks.) It really gave me the feeling that this is what really distinguishes pro-VAs from the others. I also appreciated Ootsuka Houchu's Abuto a lot. I first noticed him in Kamen Rider Den-O. His acting here demonstrated again what veterans were truly capable of. Oh and Suzu, you asked? He said like three lines max. I wasn't even listening to Sougo when I was focusing on trying to figure out who voiced the Gorilla amanto (it's Yamaguchi Kappei).
Overall, it was quite enjoyable. There's no denying that the franchise is milking Gintama for what it's worth, but as long as it continues to be enjoyable, there's no reason not to indulge a bit, right? One trip to the cinema was enough for me though, since Yoshiwara is not one of my favourite arcs.
And what do you mean, they didn't deign to make a cut out of Sougo? Ok fine, he didn't show up that much, but maybe remove Hijikata too and replace him with Kondo? Man practically ran the whole show alright.
As a Seiyuu fan (specifically Suzuken), I have a lot to say about this whole Szmr-Skr divorce. Have had since the whole scandal broke out in 2021-2022(?). But most of them are pure conjectures and making my (very strong) opinions public is very distasteful to me... so I think I'll just keep them to myself.
Sandalphon (GBF) is my current/latest hyperfixation and I love this character to bits even without playing the game (never planned to either, to date). However, it's ironic how Sandalphon's duty becoming too heavy to bear and his subsequent silence is in a way parallel to what's going on in real life. Sandalphon's silence is very loud to me and it's painful for me to go back to recent materials, because I can't continue to ship lucisan in good conscience at this point...
It feels like skr's removal (or lack thereof?) and reinstatement in other shows got under spotlight a lot, but nobody (at least outside of the Japanese speaking world) ever talked about his role in gbf. In my personal opinion (purely conjectures), Sandalphon must be one of the hardest roles for sz to continue voicing along with skr (even if they probably record separately most of the time)...
Everyday I send my thoughts to sz and hope he finds the strength to come back whenever he's ready.
As a Seiyuu fan (specifically Suzuken), I have a lot to say about this whole Szmr-Skr divorce. Have had since the whole scandal broke out in 2021-2022(?). But most of them are pure conjectures and making my (very strong) opinions public is very distasteful to me... so I think I'll just keep them to myself.
Sandalphon (GBF) is my current/latest hyperfixation and I love this character to bits even without playing the game (never planned to either, to date). However, it's ironic how Sandalphon's duty becoming too heavy to bear and his subsequent silence is in a way parallel to what's going on in real life. Sandalphon's silence is very loud to me and it's painful for me to go back to recent materials, because I can't continue to ship lucisan in good conscience at this point...
It feels like skr's removal (or lack thereof?) and reinstatement in other shows got under spotlight a lot, but nobody (at least outside of the Japanese speaking world) ever talked about his role in gbf. In my personal opinion (purely conjectures), Sandalphon must be one of the hardest roles for sz to continue voicing along with skr (even if they probably record separately most of the time)...
Everyday I send my thoughts to sz and hope he finds the strength to come back whenever he's ready.
🌈UTAPRI ALL STAR STAGE HAPPY CELEBRATION in bangkok🌈
22.03.2026
So I just got back from the venue. What I initially thought was them showing the recording in the cinema turned out to be... a Live Viewing session. That was unexpected. I showed up 3 minutes late from a pit stop because I had thought they would be showing the trailers first, which was not the case 😞.
The event being a live stream, there was apparently no subtitles. I was quite lost. I'm not very familiar with other utapri media besides the anime and the select few drama cds, so I didn't recognize most of the newer songs they performed. Regardless, this was the first utapri event I ever attended, and everyone in the cinema was pretty hyped!
I was there just for the masato song. Admittedly it was the first time I ever heard this one (I don't even know the title...) To be honest, for me this kind of virtual concert was just a substitue for the real ones (with seiyuu appearance). I can't say I totally get it. I wish not for the first time that I could travel back in time and go to those legendary stages back before COVID... It had great vibes still. 10/10 would attend the next one circumstances permitting.
My local cinemas are showing 'Kara no Kyoukai' (Garden of Sinners), so I went. I've already watched the whole thing once online and I read the unofficial translation of the novels, so I'm pretty familiar with the IP.
Still I must say the show was very impressive, especially the voice acting work! This thing dated back to 2007-2008, and Suzuken already did a great job back then. Truly amazing. The part where Mikiya was humming a tune and Shiki found herself enchanted... I mean I would have been too! And the part where he was running away from Shiki who was on a murdering spree and was panicking... Honestly I knew how the story would turn out but still couldn't help feeling stressed along with Mikiya.
Considering that 2007-2008 was the period where Suzuken just went through the whole sh*tshow that was Gundam Seed Destiny, I can clearly see how these films marked a turning point in his career (and personal life). A truly commendable work. I wish my local cinemas would go on and show the rest of the installments...
