General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Gintama 2: Rules Are Made to Be Broken

Gintama 2: Rules Are Made to Be Broken (Gintama 2: Okite wa Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru, 銀魂2 掟は破るためにこそある) is a 2018 Japanese live-action comedy-action film directed and written by Yuichi Fukuda, the second live-action adaptation of Hideaki Sorachi's manga Gintama and a sequel to the 2017 film Gintama.¹ It was released in Japan on August 17, 2018 by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan, runs 134 to 135 minutes, and stars Shun Oguri as the samurai handyman Gintoki Sakata.¹^•² The film became one of the highest-grossing Japanese live-action releases of 2018, earning over 3.5 billion yen in Japan.³

Key fact	Detail
Japanese title	銀魂2 掟は破るためにこそある (Gintama 2: Okite wa Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru)¹
Release	August 17, 2018 (Japan); distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan¹
Director and writer	Yuichi Fukuda (screenplay and direction); original story by Hideaki Sorachi¹
Source material	Fusion of the manga's "Shinsengumi Douran" and "Shogun Reception" story arcs²
Lead cast	Shun Oguri (Gintoki Sakata), Masaki Suda (Shinpachi Shimura), Kanna Hashimoto (Kagura)¹
Japan box office	Opening day 279,910,100 yen, 215,903 admissions; over 3.5 billion yen and 2.69 million admissions by October 1, 2018⁴^•³
Worldwide gross	$30,896,653, essentially all from Japan⁵
Theme song	"Daifuseikai" (大不正解) by back number⁶

Spoilers

Story and source material

The film is set in an alternate Edo period in which Japan has been conquered by aliens called the Amanto, forcing the samurai to lay down their swords.⁷ Gintoki Sakata, a former samurai once feared as the "White Demon," runs the Yorozuya odd-jobs business with Shinpachi Shimura and the superstrong alien girl Kagura.⁷^•⁸

The plot combines two arcs from the manga. In the comedic first half, the broke Yorozuya trio takes part-time jobs at a hostess club and a barbershop, but keeps running into the shogun, Tokugawa Shigeshige, traveling incognito, and must entertain him at risk of decapitation.⁹ In the second half, the special police force Shinsengumi falls into internal crisis: an assassination plot against commander Kondo Isao is planned, and vice-commander Toshiro Hijikata is taken over by a second personality, the wimpy otaku "Tosshi," and expelled from the force.⁹ Hijikata turns to his rival Gintoki for help, while the Kiheitai band led by Takasugi Shinsaku plots to assassinate the shogun and overthrow the shogunate.⁹

Director Fukuda said he conceived the hybrid after reading audience reactions to the first film and realizing that Gintama was expected to be funny, cool, and moving at once, which led him to merge the shogun-reception story with the Shinsengumi Douran arc.¹⁰ Producer Shinzo Matsuhashi said fan posts calling for a live-action version of the Shinsengumi arc helped push the sequel forward.¹¹

Cast and production

Shun Oguri, Masaki Suda, and Kanna Hashimoto reprised their roles as Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura from the first film, with Fukuda returning as director and screenwriter.¹ The supporting cast includes Yuya Yagira as Hijikata, Haruma Miura as the scheming staff officer Ito Kamotaro, Masataka Kubota as the swordsman Kamo Kawakami (Kawakami Bansai), Ryo Yoshizawa as Okita Sougo, Ryo Katsuji as the shogun Tokugawa Shigeshige, Masami Nagasawa as Tae Shimura, Masaki Okada as Katsura Kotaro, Tsuyoshi Domoto as Takasugi, Shinichi Tsutsumi as Matsudaira Katakuriko, and Kankuro Nakamura as Kondo.¹²^•¹³

Filming took place in February and March 2018, about a year after the first film's release.¹⁴ Fukuda said the sequel allowed the production to invest more in large sets and art detail than the first film.¹⁴ The manga the film adapts had sold over 55 million copies in print at the time.¹

Box office

The film opened on 346 screens (470 screens total) across Japan on August 17, 2018.¹⁰ Its opening-day gross of 279,910,100 yen on 215,903 admissions was 159 percent of the first film's opening day.⁴ It took first place in the weekend ranking of August 18 to 19 with 528 million yen from 385,000 admissions, and its first three days brought 807 million yen, breaking the first film's three-day record.⁴ It stayed in the top five for five consecutive weekends, and by September 4 had passed 2.5 billion yen.³^•¹⁰

By October 1, 2018 the cumulative total stood at 3,506,345,800 yen from 2,692,281 admissions, making it the third-highest-grossing Japanese live-action film of 2018, behind Code Blue the Movie and Shoplifters.³ It ranked 13th among all films released in Japan in 2018 by admissions, with 2,813,688 tickets sold.¹⁵ Box Office Mojo records a worldwide total of $30,896,653, with Japan accounting for $30,735,376 and small releases in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Australia.⁵

Reception

The South China Morning Post gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a movie of two halves": a joke-heavy first half in which the trio provides hilariously incompetent services to the shogun, and a second half that is an engaging, surprisingly sombre drama about a coup within the special police force. The review singled out parody gags sending up Neon Genesis Evangelion and My Neighbor Totoro as exceptionally good.¹⁶ A Fantasia Festival review found the film more restrained than its predecessor, with the Shinsengumi storyline sidelining the ostensible leads, but still recognizably a sequel with similar humor and look.⁸ On the Japanese review site Eiga.com the film holds a user score of 3.8 out of 5 from 376 reviews.²

Home media and related releases

A companion dTV original drama series, Gintama 2: Yo ni mo Kimyou na Gintama-chan, began streaming on August 18, 2018, adapting three gag episodes from the manga with the film's cast.¹⁷ The film's Blu-ray and DVD editions were released on December 18, 2018, with digital distribution beginning November 21, 2018; the premium edition includes a making-of, unreleased footage and outtakes, event footage, and a special video for the theme song "Daifuseikai" by back number.¹⁸^•⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026