Demonic Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi, Toushirou Hijikata, acquires a cursed sword—one which completely rewrites his personality, morphing him from a hard-boiled, no-nonsense cop into a hopeless otaku. As he struggles to break the curse, an ambitious new member of the police force, Itou Kamotarou, seizes the opportunity to depose Hijikata in his bid for power within the organization. However, Itou's scheme is revealed to be more devious than anyone imagined, and the very existence of the Shinsengumi is thrown into peril. In another time and place, the Yorozuya squad is suddenly greeted by a potential new recruit. Before them is a mysterious young woman named Pirako Doromizu who hides a penchant for extreme violence behind her smiling, enthusiastic exterior. However, unbeknownst to Gintoki and the others, Pirako has strong ties to one of the ruling figures of the Kabuki district of Edo, and her arrival sets off a chain reaction that throws the inhabitants of the district into a civil war.

Tokyo is currently experiencing rain showers that seem to disrupt the usual pace of everyone living there to no end. Amidst this seemingly eternal downpour arrives the runaway high school student Hodaka Morishima, who struggles to financially support himself—ending up with a job at a small-time publisher. At the same time, the orphaned Hina Amano also strives to find work to sustain herself and her younger brother. Both fates intertwine when Hodaka attempts to rescue Hina from shady men, deciding to run away together. Subsequently, Hodaka discovers that Hina has a strange yet astounding power: the ability to call out the sun whenever she prays for it. With Tokyo's unusual weather in mind, Hodaka sees the potential of this ability. He suggests that Hina should become a "sunshine girl"—someone who will clear the sky for people when they need it the most. Things begin looking up for them at first. However, it is common knowledge that power always comes with a hefty price... [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Maquia is a member of a special race called the Iorph—mystical beings who can live for hundreds of years and remain separate from the lives and daily troubles of mankind. However, Maquia has always felt lonely despite being surrounded by her people, as she was orphaned from a young age. She daydreams about the outside world, but dares not travel from her home due to the warnings of the clan's chief.

One day however, the outside world finds her, as the power-hungry kingdom of Mezarte invades her homeland. They already have what is left of the giant dragons, the Renato, under their control, and now their king wishes to add the immortality of the Iorph to his bloodline.

The humans and their Renato ravage the Iorph homeland and kill most of its inhabitants. Caught in the midst of the attack, Maquia is carried off by one of the Renato that has gone berserk. It soon dies, and she is left deserted in a forest far from home, now truly alone save for the cries of a single baby off in the distance. Maquia finds the baby in a destroyed village and decides to raise him as her own, naming him Ariel. Although she knows nothing of the human world, how to raise a child that ages much faster than her, or how to live with the smoldering loneliness inside, she is determined to make it all work somehow.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

As World War II reaches its conclusion in 1945, Japan faces widespread destruction in the form of American bombings, devastating city after city. Hotaru no Haka, also known as Grave of the Fireflies, is the story of Seita and his sister Setsuko, two Japanese children whose lives are ravaged by the brutal war. They have lost their mother, their father, their home, and the prospect of a bright future—all tragic consequences of the war. Now orphaned and homeless, Seita and Setsuko have no choice but to drift across the countryside, beset by starvation and disease. Met with the apathy of adults along the way, they find that desperate circumstances can turn even the kindest of people cruel yet their youthful hope shines brightly in the face of unrelenting hardship, preventing the siblings from swiftly succumbing to an inevitable fate. [Written by MAL Rewrite]