Five Years Forward. note
"Gin-chan, Shinpachi, Sadaharu. Let me get a good look at you. There's no guarantee that we'll work as the Yorozuya in the future. So this might be the end. I want to get a good look at you three."
— Future!Kagura
Gintama: The Movie: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya' (劇場版 銀魂 完結篇: 万事屋よ永遠なれ, Gekijōban Gintama Kanketsu-hen: Yorozuya yo Eien Nare) is the second Gintama Theatrical Film It was directed by Yoichi Fujita, written by Akatsuki Yamatoya, and produced by Hiroyuki Ban, Hiromitsu Higuchi and Susumu Hieda. It was released on July 6, 2013
During a job, Gintoki is thrown five years into the future by an android time machine, where a deadly virus has ravaged the planet and Edo is in ruins. As he tries to find a way home, he is forced to solve the mystery of both the virus' origins and his future self's mysterious disappearance. He must also contend with the effects both have wrought on some of the Gintama cast.
Be Forever Yorozuya provides examples of:
- Back-to-Back Badasses: The final battle sees all of the Yorozuya and their allies fighting side by side, many of them pulling this trope, whether it be Kondo covering Hijikata and Okita's rear, Sacchan and Tsukuyo tag-teaming, or even Otae covering Gintoki's flank when he's nearly caught from behind.
- Bad Future: The planet is in a state of decay due to a quarter of the population dying and another third fleeing.
- Call-Back: When Gintoki first enters the main series, he says "Gyaa gyaa gyaa gyaa. I can't hear with all of your squawking. What are you, in mating season?" in response to the Amanto harassing Shinpachi. Here, the future version of Shinpachi says the same thing to the thugs trying to pick a fight with Gintoki.
- Canon Character All Along: The Time Thief and Enmi initially seem to be movie-exclusive characters connected solely to the plot, but both are actually canon-characters. The Time Thief is actually Tama, modified by Gengai at Gintoki's request to bring his present self into the Bad Future should something happen to his future self. The Enmi meanwhile is said future version of Gintoki, made into an unwilling agent in spreading the White Plague.
- Chuunibyou: While Shinpachi's future self may seem to be more mature and broody, he's regularly called out as just putting on airs like an eighth grader, and perpetually slips back into his Straight Man routine before stopping himself so he can play the part of the "brooding bad boy".
- He's All Grown Up: Gintoki is rather shocked when he sees how Shinpachi and Kagura look after only five years, with Shinpachi looking like a bishounen badass, and Kagura becoming a genuine Ms. Fanservice. Even when they switch to their pre-timeskip outfits later, their physical aging is still noticeable, with both retaining their Tsurime Eyes, Shinpachi retaining his slightly longer hair, and Kagura maintaining her more developed figure.
- Non-Serial Movie: The events of the movie are ultimately divorced from that of the main narrative, as while the movie is frequently joked about like everything else in Gintama, it's solely from a metatextual level rather than from a narrative level. It helps that the only characters from the main series to appear in any significant capacity not hailing from the Bad Future are Gintoki and Tama, with the Bad Future being erased once it's prevented, and the movies' versions of Gintoki and Tama being erased too due to their existence now being a paradox.
- The Plague: It kills people in a month, with no known origins and no cure; its name "White Plague" is from the virus turning its victims hair white. Those who can afford it quickly flee the planet, leaving behind the poor, the infected, the opportunists, and the hardy.
- Putting the Band Back Together: After Gintoki is sent forward five years into the future, he finds a changed Edo and a disbanded Yorozuya. He eventually reunites with Shinpachi, Kagura and Sadaharu, but can't reveal he who he is due to the Gintoki they knew being missing for those five years, and being disguised as "Chin Po", but, still wanting to get the Yorozuya back up and running again, he pretends to be a "friend" of Gintoki's and convinces them to help him find out about what caused the White Plague.
- Ret-Gone: Gintoki's original attempt to eliminate the White Plague would have resulted in him being erased from existence, which nearly happened as Shinpachi and Kagura were horrified to discover when their Bad Future suddenly became brighter, but nobody aside from them remembered Gintoki. Fortunately, Tama backed up everyone's memories and sent them back to help Gintoki and stop him from erasing himself. Doing so however causes a time paradox that erases the future versions from existence, Gintoki included, so that events can remain a Non-Serial Movie.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The overall plot centers around Gintoki being sent five years into the future by a mysterious "Time Thief"/Tama, one ravaged by a nanomachine virus and where he's gone missing. He later learns that his main enemy was that timeline's future version of himself, an unwilling carrier of the virus first infected back during the Joi war, and tries to go to the past to fix things, but succeeding would come at the cost of his existence. The future versions of his loved ones however, not wanting to lose him, are sent back with Tama to help him, the Badass Army managing to change things while fighting alongside the past versions of the Joi veterans, without needing to sacrifice Gintoki, before they're all sent back to their own timelines... except Shinpachi, who gets left behind while only his glasses go back.
- Timeskip: Gintoki is suddenly transported to five years into the future thanks to the Time Thief, and the world is on the verge of extinction. Despite a considerably dramatic movie, tropes are still parodied, such as Gintoki freaking out over how much Shinpachi and Kagura have physically grown and changed and Okita becoming a Kenshin expy. Aside from them, most of the cast have barely changed in five years sans Otae, who contracted the White Plague, and Elizabeth, who is now an extremely muscular human with his face on a human head.
- Toilet Humor: Since Gintoki in the Bad Future has been missing for five years, Gintoki has to take on a disguise while interacting with the others, his name and physical appearance amounting to a massive dick joke, albeit one Lost in Translation. Physically, his disguises' veiny neck, hairstyle, and lack of a discernible chin, all make him resemble a penis. His name meanwhile, "Chin Po", is derived from the word "Chinpo", meaning "dick".Otose: So you are just a d*ck?
- Tomato in the Mirror: The Enmi is Future!Gintoki, having been infected with the virus all the way back during the Joi war and turned into an unwilling agent.
