I realized I haven't stated this: I watch anime with subtitles. Most dubbing ruins a series for me. I tried the dub for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and it genuinely pissed me off that the characters seemed so different. Moreover, the dubbed lines are different than the subtitles and can impact your understanding of what is going on. I always recommend hearing the voices originally cast for a show.
Gintama: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gin_Tama
It's the late Edo period in Japan and aliens show up. The samurai fight and lose. Swords are outlawed. Alien technology spreads across Japan. 20 years later, one of the surviving samurai starts a handyman agency.
The setting mixes classic samurai elements with utterly modern technology and magic and aliens. It is both ridiculously humorous and, in story arcs, serious. To quote Wikipedia: "Although the series' story is commonly episodic, there are also a few story arcs which are developed through several chapters." So you sometimes get a multi-episode arc about a gang feud taking over the town and you sometimes get a single episode about eating dinner, or working at a sushi restaurant, or about working as a barber the day the undercover shogun sees how the common people get their hair cut.
The worst episodes of this series are entertaining. The best have me laughing out loud. With over 200 episodes and a new season starting in a couple months, you won't get bored anytime soon.
I post because I care.
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"Feel free to flame me. I don't like Legends of Korra or Gravity, either."