I'm beginning to think that one must possess more than the standard amount of fingers on two hands in order to count how many times the Gintama anime has either ended, resumed, went on hiatus, canceled, or even renewed again. And I'm not even talking about Hideaki Sorachi's own scheduling hijinks when it comes to his beloved manga series, nor am I even referencing the pair of highly-successful live action movies. The year is 2019, and the Gintama anime is once again scheduled to continue... probably.

A new video clip was revealed amidst all of the festivities at the “Gintama Shirogane Matsuri 2019” event, where members of the cast and musical artists who have contributed to the series put on a special show for fans. Check out the clip below, which keeps the announcement in line with the usual Gintama way of going about disclosing things.

After an intense buildup featuring Gintoki slowly approaching his adversaries, the text comes off with a to-be-expected level of flippancy: “Production on a brand-new Gintama anime has been green-lit... probably. I mean, the source material hasn't even ended yet... but we'll probably do it. Yah, most likely. Anyways, get ready!” Love how the font used to display the news got progressively more lazy and smaller.

So, considering that the anime has already ventured into what is considered the final arc of the manga, the “Silver Soul Arc,” just what could this new anime (possibly, mind you) cover? There must be room for something, as Sorachi himself doesn't seem content to end the story. I remember going on a frantic hunt to stock up on the issue of Weekly Shonen Jump that would supposedly contain the very last bits of the story, but I suppose I needn't have been so concerned. Gintama continued in Jump Giga, and after a three-issue run, it was recently announced that the story would continue in an official app. For how long Sorachi plans to keep this up, however, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Just to be clear though: myself and other fans are in no rush!