Crunchyroll would stream English-subtitled episodes for free one week after they had aired in Japan. Paying subscribers can watch new episodes an hour after they air in Japan. On January 8, 2009, Crunchyroll uploaded their first episode (episode 129) to the service. Alongside new episodes each week, Crunchyroll also uploads episodes from the beginning of the series. The anime is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks, with distribution from Section23 Films. Section23 Films' Chris Oarr commented that only the first two seasons were licensed, with an option on the rest. The first collection containing thirteen English-subtitled episodes was released on DVD, April 27, 2010. Only 49 episodes were released before the releases stalled. However, shortly after licensing the "Gin Tama" film, Sentai Filmworks announced that based on the film's performance, they would consider releasing more of the series in North America, possibly with an English dub. An English subtitled version of the series began airing on Shorts HD on July 12, 2015. On July 1, 2016, Crunchyroll announced that they will re-release the series on Blu-ray and DVD with an English dub. On November 23, 2019, it was announced that Hulu would add an English Dub for the first season to their service beginning December 1, 2019. On April 5, 2010, TV Tokyo stations began airing high-definition reruns of older episodes of "Gintama" under the title , the title being a parody of the "best of" reruns of the anime "Sazae-san". In addition to being broadcast in HD, new opening and ending animations and themes have been made. The opening and ending for episodes 1–9 are Does's and . Starting with episode 10 and going to 26, the opening was changed to Joe Inoue's  and the ending was changed to Vijandeux's "WAVE". Starting with episode 27, the opening changed to Chiaki Kuriyama's and the ending changed to Azu's "IN MY LIFE". Starting with episode 40, the opening changed to FLiP's and the ending changed to Piko's . In March 2010, Yoichi Fujita hinted the anime would continue once the staff get enough material to work on it. Shinji Takamatsu claimed the TV series "is absolutely not over. It hasn't even begun yet! It will definitely return." In December 2010, Shueisha stated that the "Gintama" anime would resume in April 2011. , the sequel to the original "Gintama" anime, premiered in Japan on April 4, 2011.