The Uncanny 100% Sync Rate!? Gintama's "Congratulations" Third-Year Finale Was Too On-the-Nose

The anime "Gintama" is famous for its often-risqué parodies. Episode 150 featured a scene structured almost identically to the "Congratulations Ending" of a mega-hit sci-fi anime where boys and girls pilot giant humanoid decisive battle weapons, leaving many viewers utterly astonished.

In Episode 150, the finale of "Gintama (Year 3)," a sudden, fierce battle erupts, depicting a serious development where Gintoki Sakata (CV: Tomokazu Sugita) is defeated. With the other members also fallen and lifeless, Shinpachi Shimura (CV: Daisuke Sakaguchi) is left alone, cradling Gintoki and screaming.

The screen then goes pure white, transitioning to an image of Shinpachi rendered in a rough-sketch style floating in this void. As Shinpachi's monologue plays—"This isn't the ending I wished for. I just wanted to revive the dojo, inheriting my father's will"—the background changes to red, and flashback scenes play behind the semi-transparent image of Shinpachi. In the following sequence, Kagura (CV: Rie Kugimiya), Kotaro Katsura (CV: Akira Ishida), and "Madao" Taizō Hasegawa (CV: Fumihiko Tachiki), among others, speak to Shinpachi, who is in a mental landscape.

After much agonizing, Shinpachi finally gives his answer, and the aforementioned characters appear all at once. Shinpachi finds himself in a location that seems to be high above a city, and the surrounding people, backed by a blue sky, applaud and say, "Omedetō (Congratulations)." As the screen darkens and text appears, reading things like "Thank you to Otsū," and "Goodbye to Gintoki," Shinpachi delivers a fierce tsukkomi (comedic retort), exclaiming, "This is a complete rip-off!"

The moment where the characters applaud and say "Omedetō" is nearly identical in composition and dialogue to the final scene of the popular anime about a protagonist piloting a giant humanoid weapon. Several of Shinpachi's memorable cuts are also dead ringers for scenes that appeared in that work's finale. Furthermore, the voice actors for Katsura, Akira Ishida, and Madao, Fumihiko Tachiki, both appeared in the original work being parodied.

This "100% sync rate" parody continues to draw laughter from viewers even now in the Reiwa era, with comments like, "The level of reproduction is too high, lol," "The fact that the VAs are the same slowly gets to you," and "I laugh every time I watch that finale parody."

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