Gintama Episode 217 and 218 Review

And some water, while you're at it.

Yay! I'm not dead! I know what you're thinking, my few readers, "Another unannounced hiatus?!" I have a good explanation for that...I have a DELL. And it's charger broke down again, so I had to wait for God knows how long for it to arrive in the mail. No, I did not get distracted with playing Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World or finishing up the summer homework I ignored for the past two months...Okay, on to the review!
Episode 217:
Since it's summer now, Gintama takes this opportunity to do a pool episode. Hasegawa gets a new job as a lifeguard, but makes the mistake of asking Gin to help him out. Kids are traumatized, Tsukuyo exhibits how much of a cool big sis she can be, we find out that Kyubei is actually more developed then Otae (despite being a reverse trap), Katsura continues to be Katsura, and the stalker trio show up. Things go incredibly wrong from there.

Fabulous~

Poor guy never catches a break. On a side note, how did he catch fish in a pool?! You know what, never mind...

This won't end well.

The usual insanity ensues and then the shogun shows up and he's made into a butt monkey all over again. Matsudaira, sadly, only gets a brief appearance as well. For one, he doesn't have any trunks, so he ends up swimming in his briefs. His dirty briefs.There are some attempts at fanservice, but this show doesn't even take stuff like that seriously. In the end, we're treated to butt shots of the male cast. But on the bright side, the shogun actually enjoyed himself and leaves the pool feeling satisfied. This was by all means a funny episode, just not the funniest out there. I know that toilet jokes are pretty common in this show, but seriously? I think we had enough of those dirty brief jokes from the Hot Springs Arc. I'm not all that surprised that the Shogun ended up naked again, but expandable briefs? Where does Sorachi get this stuff?!

Hey! It's Taka-tin! Hey, hey! Taka-tin!

The highlights of this episode was seeing Tsukuyo in cool big sis mode around Seita (who was also a welcome sight since he hasn't been in the show for a while). Katsura's random surfacing to the water moments were also downright hilarious. But, seriously, they have to at least give us a break on those toilet jokes.
This episode gets:

Ah, the great fourth wall has been broken once gain.

Episode 218:
This episode's entire plot revolve around eating a crab. No, seriously. Feeling generous for once, Otose decides to share some leftover crab with the Yorozuya trio. Sadly, she only gives them one to share. And then, it's every man for himself in the battle for crab meat (or whatever that white stuff is). This isn't the first time the show has pulled off this type of episode. Previous episodes had the group fight over hot pots, nabe, and meat. But those previous episodes had a larger cast, and were just plain funnier...

Leave it to Gin to casually jack up history.

So then, Kondou's the culprit?

Now, don't get me wrong. This episode was still pretty funny, just not fall over your chair funny. In fact, I started spacing out in some of the battle-esque dream sequences. Those battle allusions were an interesting idea, and the logic being used in this entire episode was also pretty funny in its own right. But the ending was predictable, with Kagura one-upping Gin and Shinpachi again because they ignored her thinking that she was just a harmless kid. This stunt was pulled in the previous food-centered episodes, so you'd think the two of them would have prevented making this mistake again.

No comment.

I thought Daigoro was that kid from the factory episode...

The inner monologues between Gin and Shinpachi were one of the few highlights in the episode, but nothing new. I would have liked to hear Kagura's thoughts as well, but the fact that she lacked her own inner monologues and was omitted from the battle scenes practically screamed: SHE'S GONNA WIN AGAIN!!!
The ending was actually unexpected, though. The crab paste princess sacrifices herself to save the trio's friendship and in the end, the three of them decide that crab chips taste better than the real deal.

They get extra points for another Castle in the Sky reference.

This episode gets: