Gintama Season 1 Episode 144 Episode 144 - Don't Trust Bedtime Stories

The episode opens with Kagura holding a book with a twisted version of a popular fairy tale where the princess actually eats her prince charming to keep her beauty intact. The story suffices to creep out Shinpachi and put him to sleep, leaving Kagura and Gintoki to go about their business.

The next day, Kagura is seen having a chummy conversation with an adorable little girl. Touched by the girl's sweetness, Kagura agrees to check a book out for her from the local library. The book titled 'Fantasy Time' is a collection of bedtime stories tailor-made for infants or young children.

As she sits down with the girl to read the book, Kagura notices something off about the stories. The portrayal of the characters, the ambiguous endings and the quality of writing are all sub-par compared to what she was used to. We later find out that the book was written by a cabal of hack writers that employed a program to randomly generate stories with the goal of making a quick buck.

Kagura's disgust for the shoddy book prompts her to take up the challenge to come up with a better set of bedtime stories. She ropes in Shinpachi and starts cobbling a story together.

Their story is set in a fantasy world that mirrors the one in 'Fantasy Time', and features all the same characters, including a prince, a princess and a witch. But in a marked departure from the original, their story has exceptional writing: a rollercoaster of emotions, a flesh and blood villain, a deeply convoluted plot and a delightful ending.

When the story is finished, Kagura sets out to read it to the little girl she had made the agreement with at the start of the episode. The girl is elated and glued to the story but soon falls asleep before the story finishes. The following day, Kagura learns that the little girl is part of a syndicate of other toddlers who are all into stories. They ask Kagura to write them a story every night.

For the next few nights, Kagura finds herself at the mercy of the story-telling syndicate who shamelessly critic every story she comes up with. Her reputation is at stake, and nothing seems to work.

Meanwhile, Gintoki is dealing with his own problems. He is knee-deep in an underground catfighting circuit that has become a source of siphoning the dojo's coffers. Things take a turn for the worse when he bumps into a friend he thought was dead.

The friend has fallen on hard times and has resorted to underground fighting to make ends meet. Gintoki, who would do anything to help his friend, takes his friend under his wing and shows him the ropes of the fighting circuit.

As the episode winds to a close, Kagura is shown with her head buried in countless books and scripts trying to come up with a story good enough to please the toddlers' syndicate, and Gintoki is neck-deep in the catfighting circuit.

The episode is a testament to the show's versatility in telling different stories across multiple genres. It showcases the comedic genius of the writing team and the voice actors who breathe life into their characters. Overall, Episode 144 is a fulfilling part of the series that is bound to amuse and entertain viewers.