The season 8 for "Gintama" anime series titled "Gintama Shinsaku" has finally gotten a premiere date. The new season installment is scheduled to be released on Jan. 8. However, the time slot was shifted from 6 p.m. to 1:35 a.m. so the series will technically start on the morning of Jan. 9.
In a previous report, it was announced that "Gintama" season 8 will air in winter 2017. TV-Tokyo, the network behind the "Gintama" series, has yet to reveal specific details on the upcoming series. Yet in an issue of the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, it was said that "Gintama Shinsaku" will feature the final arc of Sorachi Hideaki's manga, marking the end of one of the longest running action-comedy anime series.
"Gintama" is set in an alternate Japan during the late Edo period where the earth was attacked by aliens. The samurai tried to defend Japan against the alien invaders but the Shogun realized how powerful the aliens were and betrayed the samurais. The Shogun had an agreement with the aliens to let them enter the country and the Shogunate became a puppet government. The samurais were also banned from using swords in public.
The story follows a strange samurai, Gintoki Sakata, who formed a group called "Yorozuya" (literal meaning: "The Anything Store"), which does odd jobs from clients. He was joined by Shinpachi Shimura, a teenager who became Gin's apprentice and Kagura, an alien girl they saved from a Yakuza group.
The manga started serializing in 2003 while the first anime series premiered in 2006. The latest season composed of 51 episodes aired from April 2015 to March 2016. It was also adapted into two anime films and a live-action movie will be released in 2017. The final arc of the "Gintama" manga began on July and will presumably finish in 2017, in time for the season 8, "Gintama Shinsaku."
