‘Gintama’ Shares New Key Visual For Final Arc

Gintama fans took a hit earlier this year when the series had gone on hiatus just after it began adapting the manga’s final arc, Silver Soul. After promising a return for the series in July, there hasn’t been much information revealed since.

But now fans have been given something special as the series revealed a new key visual hyping up its big return this Summer.

Preparing for the release of the second season of the Silver Soul arc, the new key visual features a twist on the previous image for the season. Although it features the same famous pose of its characters (even in the same setting), the fact that it’s set during the day shows off just how much the series packed into one image.

Along with finding neat little character bits in this key visual, fans should also be excited to know the opening and ending themes for the anime’s return will be handled by SPYAIR and CHiCO with Honeyworks.

If you haven’t seen the first season yet, the “Silver Soul” arc is the 64th and final arc of series creator Hideaki Sorachi’s manga. The longest running arc in the series to date, “Silver Soul” begins when Utsuro – whose immortality has forced him to find a way to truly die – reveals his final plan: to start a war that’ll encompass the entire universe and lead to the destruction of the Earth. Gintoki then must team with old allies and make friends with older enemies in order to stop the rising army of space aliens – the Amanto – from wreaking havoc.

The series has seen different forms since its initial anime run from 2006 to 2010, with a second series airing from 2011 to 2013 with sporadic hiatuses in-between, a third series running from 2015 to 2016, two feature-length animated films, a few OVAs, and even a live action film releasing in Japan last July.

Gintama Season 4 began airing with the “Porori” arc last October before it went on hiatus in March, and you can currently find subbed episodes on Crunchyroll. The “Silver Soul” arc, which will serve as the series’ final story, began airing January 7 and is expected to continue when the series returns in July.

The live-action Gintama sequel, currently titled Gintama 2 (Working Title), previously announced that leads Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, and Kanna Hashimoto are returning for the sequel as characters Gintoki Sakata, Shinpachi Shimura, and Kagura, respectively along with Jiro Sato.

Film distributor Azoland Pictures partnered with Well Go USA and screened the live-action Gintama film in theaters in both the United States and Canada January 19. Well Go USA has also recently released the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD in North America on March 6. The Gintama live-action film opened in Japan on July 14 and earned about $8.9 million USD in its first four days of release.