Gintama's back, and it walked into a high school classroom instead of a convenience store. Ginpachi's dead-fish stare watching a mayo-addicted delinquent and an idol otaku destroy Class 3-Z is the only premise this show needs. The jokes land hardest if you've lived in Gintama's universe before, so new viewers should expect to miss half the references, but franchise fans already know exactly what they signed up for.

Sakata Ginpachi is the most un-teacher-like teacher at Gintama High School, with messy silver curls, dead-fish eyes and a lab coat worn any old way. He runs Class 3-Z, a room packed with troublemakers: idol otaku, stalkers, mayo lovers, sadists, delinquents and plenty more. These students struggle with their studies, and the class keeps clashing with a demanding principal and with its feared delinquents, who are back from a suspension. Ginpachi shrugs off teaching and deals with each new mess without breaking a sweat, and his students never do pull together as one. Still, he comes through when it matters, and the class holds him in real respect. A spin-off of Gintama adapted from its light novels, this school comedy mixes laughs with the odd tear as 3-Z keeps getting pulled away from lessons and keeps its school days lively anyway.