Gintama 248

For yet to be revealed reason Hasegawa finds himself as a contestant on the gameshow Who Wants to Be a Madaonaire competing to win ten million yen, drawing upon knowledge from his past to answer the questions.

Starting back in his apparent childhood playing baseball and losing the game for his team before the purpose of the show itself is explained, in a gameshow that is totally not rigged, good for nothing old men who have failed at life, or Madao are offered a chance to redeem themselves. With todays contestant, Hasegawa continuing that he had found out about the show when he woke up in a dump seeing the show as his last chance. However even the first question seems lost on him, what the Shogun who introduced the Kyoho reforms later became known as, but somehow he’s brought back to when he was being taught it in school and the cute girl who sat next to him, pointed out the answer.

But in an unexpected twist the boy in the classroom is revealed not to be him at all, and instead he’s revealed to be the creepy old guy who was trying to stretch himself outside, yet once again he employs this method for the second question. The name of the general who betrayed the Western Army during the Battle of Sekigahara leading the Eastern Army’s victory. With Hasegawa being revealed to have been taken in by the class as a pet after the same girl saved him, being compared to this general. After which he continues to look into his past where the same girl has saved him once again, explaining that she has a soft spot for Madao as her father too is also one, that she wishes she could enter Who Wants to Be a Madanaire so that she could pay back his debts and that he could come home again. And when that day comes she’ll be counting on him to be her lifeline. Following which her mother fell ill and now lost, she came to live with him, however in the present as Hasegawa continues his resolve, confidence, and physical strength starts to waver.

Remembering the nights he spent sleeping under the stars in cardboard boxes with that girl and struggling to make ends meet, eventually growing quite attached to her as she came to see him and started referring to him as her father, but just before she can admit that she was finally able to meet him again she falls ill with the same illness that struck her mother. Following which Hasegawa meets her actual father who pointlessly further resolves to get a job and pay back his debts as well as his family’s hospital fees, however empowered by those times he spent with that girl he tells her father that his debts or lack of a job mean nothing so long as a family has each other. Leading to Hasegawa taking up their debt and reaching his current position, and now without doubt he continues. And fearing that he might just win, the producers throw an impossible question at him only to have him use his lifeline, using it to wish the girl well and at the same time correctly answer the question. However just before Hasegawa can confidently walk away, the debt collectors reveal that the prize was only enough to cover half the debt.

Next Episode:

And Gedomaru is back, this should be good.

Thoughts:

Just coming out of a fairly serious arc I didn’t think that I would enjoy this episode as much as I did, usually I still have fun watching these sorts of episodes but there’s still some adjustment issues. Regardless though it looks as if Sorachi got around to watching Slumdog Millionaire when he thought this plot up.

First off initially after watching this episode I must admit that I thought that there was some wasted potential to it, even as a more comedy focused episode it would have provided a great opportunity to detail Hasegawa’s past. Showing how he grew up in the slums and eventually managed to claw his way up to getting the job that he had at the very start of the series, and perhaps even up until the point where he decided to throw it all away. We may also have been able to see how he met his wife as well and learn more about her, though given that she’s presented as one of those distant barely seen characters who’s eyes we never we it wouldn’t have been likely anyway. However it would have made for an interesting story none the less.

That said the twist that came out of this wasted potential was also great, I was actually a little surprised when the episode essentially pointed out that the kid who looks like a younger Hasegawa isn’t Hasegawa, afterall Hasegawa is just outside trying to grow taller. Let alone that the flashbacks that at first seemed to supposedly be coming from many years back in his childhood, were revealed to be from only a few weeks ago at the latest. As a simple not so serious twist I liked it, it was an interesting spin to see thrown on this aspect of the story, managing to surprise me while providing a slightly comical twist to it all as well.

Finally the girl Chiharu, was also interesting as well and managed to provide a nice plot for this episode and lead Hasegawa to a somewhat hypocritical but also rather nice conclusion, that even if he’s a Madao a man shouldn’t have to leave his family to shamefully go job hunting and live on the streets. That while it may be rather shameful for them, they’re not exactly thinking about their family when they make that choice. Alongside that, starting she first seemed to be his future wife, and following that for a good part of the episode Chiharu seemed as if she could have actually been Hasegawa’s daughter. She missed her father who was in a similar situation and sought him out above all else when her world came tumbling apart. However while it would have been interesting if that were the case and would have given him a bit of development, I’m still not that disappointed by what we actually got. As I’ve already mentioned, it managed to give the episode a nice heartwarming story on the side.