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[goldenkamuyhunting]

Hi thankyou for writing very informative analysis on GK!my first encounter with your posts is looking up their heights and then the army rankings in order of our beloved characters. While I try to avoid spoilers, I have already heard from a friend that the manga ending is rushed..

if you are following the anime to s4 is Asirpa's feeling for sugimoto as obvious in the anime compared to the manga? [I'm so far an anime only and will start s3 soon. I also am reading the manga up to Sapporo hotel arc]

Do you know how it's profitable for publishers to rush their artists when obviously it's fans are still willing to buy more of their comics.. like extend their contracts perhaps.. I felt quite sad for how some animes turned out and would hate for GK to go that route

Lol is it possible for Noda to draw Canon extras on his blog of GK despite the end of the manga? Or is he also present in the anime direction? I heard that if he was given more chapters to write, he would be able to elaborate on the character's choices in the ending so hopefully hes got a say in the anime.

Lastly, do you think S5 is the season finale based on the pace? I love to bingewatch shows.

Thankyou

Welcome in the GK world!

If possible the anime (especially in the first 2 series) made Asirpa's feelings for Sugimoto even more obvious than they were in the manga, people who were strongly against the idea of an eventual Sugi/Ripa endgame complained about it more than once.

For start it cut completely Umeko's role (in the manga Umeko was declared in the early chapters as the woman Sugimoto loved) and started giving Sugimoto and Asirpa more space, from ep 16 in which Sugimoto picks up Asirpa in his arms to take her away from Hijikata to an huge expansion of the scene in which they hid in deer skins in Ep 17 to the ending theme of the second series with Asirpa with her hand on Sugimoto's heart, to the finale itself in which Asirpa, who normally doesn't believe in dreams, dreams Sugimoto and believes it's a dream sent to her by the gods and in her dreams Sugimoto tells her the things he wanted to tell her as if they were having a mental connection, a scene that's not in the manga.

Part of the criticism though didn't steem just by people hating the Sugi/Ripa but also by how the second season cut a lot of scenes from the manga to then add this sort of scenes which weren't in the manga and seemed to promore the Sugi/Ripa agenda.

Season 3 and 4 were closer to the manga so didn't got as much criticism.

It's unknown if Noda was rushed by his editor or not. It might be he was bored or got worned out by GK. Or it might be he didn't even realize his work felt rushed, maybe he only wanted to make it fast paced and... well, it didn't quite work.

Of he just did wrong his math, he wanted to end the story at Vol 31 (due to one of the possible reading for 31 being Saichi, Sugimoto's name) but created too many sideplots he had to solve so he had to rush.

This is actually a concrete possibility as the last volumes are REALLY big because they also contain more chapters than usual when he could have instead just put in them less chapters and made one more volume.

Since GK was a successfull manga I honestly find hard to believe Noda was pressured to end it unless there was some problem I know nothing about.

Anime are a different matter as in the last years their main source of income are often the dvd so they're often kept short (12 episodes) in order to sell the dvd quickly and efficently.

I doubt Noda will have time to draw canon extras on his blog, as he's working on another manga. The most he might do is drawing extra illustrations.

Who knows, maybe extra might be drawn if he were to take part to some other GK project.

I don't really know how much involved he is in the anime I've heard he was consulted for some things but, as a mangaka, Noda is already pretty busy on his own so I don't know if he would have the time to get involved more... and I've my doubts on him wanting to expant the anime ending. It's of course not impossible but I'm not sure he would be interested in it.

Currently the anime covers till half of Vol 25. This would mean 6 volumes and a half are missing... but we could also say 7 volumes since as I said the last volumes are bigger than the others.

The remaining arcs are losely 3, the Hokkaido one, the Fort Goryokaku one and the train ride one.

If the anime has 12 episodes, it means 4 episodes for each arc, if they increase the episode number (season 4 has 13 episodes so 12 isn't a given) and let's say go at 15, it would make 5 episodes for each arc.

It's possible to fit everything in, though if we fit everything well or in a rushed manner is up to the authors. Brain's base to me looked better than Geno studio so they could make it... because splitting those 3 arcs in 2 series seems too long to me.

Of course an even better solution could be put 2 arcs in the anime and the final arc in a movie... but I think they're more likely to keep everything in one anime.

Due to Geno Studio's anime poor quality as far as I know the GK anime isn't super popular and it would be hard for a movie to attrack enough audience so it's likely the next series is the final one.

Still, that's just me and I might be wrong so take this with a grain of salt.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Rank your handsomest voices in GK. 😃

Sorry, I don't really have a awesome voice rank list.

I'm partial to some voice actiors because they were also the voices of characters I loved or worked in series I loved, like Ogata's and, especially Boutaro's voice actors worked in my fave series "Joker Game" Seki Tomokazu being the one who gave his voice to my fave chara in it, while Nikaido's voice actor was my fave character in "X/1999" (but he sounded so different in it!) while Wakayama's voice actor was the bad guy in another fave series of mine "Seijushi Bismark" (LOL I didn't love the character he did in it but sure it was fun to hear him again!), young Doi Shinzō's voice actor, who was Ushiromiya Battler in "Umineko"... but it's not really an handsomest voice list more a "OH MY! IT'S X CHARACTER'S VOICE! SO HAPPY TO HEAR IT AGAIN! IT'S LIKE HEARING X CHARACTER AGAIN!"

(Seki Tomokazu I'm really looking at you when I think so, please play Sakuma again, I want a "Joker Game" 2!)

[goldenkamuyhunting]

What does Ogata brushing his hair mannerism mean? Sometimes I see it as him patting himself on the head when no one does it..

As far as I know we've no canon answer about it...

but still I think you might want to read my old post about it... I hope it'll be of some help! Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Besides artistic design reasons, why does Sugimoto keep wearing his uniform? he's long past being in the army, and the title he's well known "Immortal Sugimoto" has that gotten him in trouble than help him. Wouldn't make sense to wear something that blends more with the people he's with, e.i, the ainu fit? like Tanigaki for example... What was the author's reason behind this?

Well...

...if you want a canon reply there are none.

We can assume he kept the hat for sentimental reasons since it was gifted to him by Kikuta and that the fact he keeps wearing PART of the uniform is due to it being warm or, possibly, due to him not having other clothes. He's keeping the boots (which weren't part of his uniform but that he stole from an officer) because they're good shoes, much better than others can be (soldiers' shoes were of a much lower quality). Kiroranke too wore his uniform pants so I guess we can assume they're just that warm.

But the author's real reason behind it is that "Golden Kamuy" uses the 'limited wardrobe' trope.

All the characters, unless plot reasons demand it, keep wearing the same clothes through all the story, never changing themselves.

This makes them distinctive and easy to recognize and deliver us some info about them, for example, in Sugimoto's case, it let the reader know he's a war veteran but that he's no more in the army, in short it's functional for us readers.

Not dressing Sugimoto differently is also ergonomic for the mangaka as he doesn't have to come up with different clothes for him

However, if your concern is bleeding... the clothes are probably the last of Sugimoto's problems. Other Japanese veterans might have kept wearing parts of their uniforms so he's not dressed in such a distinctive way time wise... but his scar is another matter. Sugimoto's scar is on his face and with a shape that's easy to recognize so if Tsurumi or someone else and wanted to track him down they could have used just that.

Of course though, no one does because the author doesn't want anyone suceed but well, this sort of things are the sort of things for which in manga/anime is normal to ask for your suspension of disbelief.

So, sorry if I couldn't really offer you a canon reply but this is the best I could come up with. Thanks for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

how tall is Botarou the pirate??

As far as I know...

...there are no canon info about it.

One of the downsides of the fanbook is it was released before the story was ended so there are little or no information over the characters that were introduced at the end.

This is the page of the official fanbook about him.

It only says:

Birthplace: Hokkaido (Asahikawa suburbs)

Birthday: 13 August

Likes: river fish

Hates: mouses

At the end of the story he'll have an important influence over the characters.

As you can see it's not much.

Not that the fanbook ever gave exact heights but at least it would say if a character was taller or shorter than another.

For exact heights one needs the anime settei which provided them... but I couldn't find them for the 4th season so I can't really help you here.

My impression watching the manga is he's slightly taller than Ushiyama

...but it might be just me.

Before Boutarou Ushiyama was the tallest character and according to the settei he's 188 cm so Boutarou would be above that height.

I hope it helps. Thank you for your ask.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

hi ! i just finished golden kamuy and loved it so much , im not sure if youve written or spoken about this already but, i noticed that ogatas whole backstory and overall story arch has a lot of elements of nature vs nurture. i just thought it was really interesting and would love to hear your input

Welcome in the GK World!

I did wrote about it in the past, as I used to share your idea, Ogata is the way he is because his life took a certain turn. In short he's a man shaped by his own experiences, same as Tsukishima, same as Sugimoto, same as Koito, same as Asirpa.

And in Ogata's case it would have been even more interesting because Ogata's life could have taken a completely different course if his father hadn't abandoned his mother and had raised him with love the way he had with Yuusaku.

However... this might not have been Noda's intention.

When Noda tosses at us Usami's past, he seems to want to toss at us a man who's the way he is not due to his experiences or Tsurumi's manipulation but simply because he was born that way.

And with all the talking about Ogata being capable to feel guilt because his parents loved each other for a fleeting moment (which actually has no basis in reality) and him merely doing what he did out of a mistaken belief and not out of the way he was raised Noda muddled things making hard to understand which was his point.

I do prefer to think characters are the way they are due to nurture, because especially in a litteral work for me there's little interest if it's all nature and nurture didn't cause them to evolve in a certain way.

I want the story, the part of the story that's their own personal story, to impact of them and cause their own evolution or involution.

I think it's possible to see Ogata has the result of this, as the sum of his own (very negative) experiences, and this is something that makes him interesting. However at this point I'm not 100% sure anymore this was Noda's intention, he might have gone for a person who had flawled beliefs and made flawled choices regardless of his own experiences so that, even if his circumstances were to be different, nothing would really change.

Hard to say and with how I found the ending of GK in general and Ogata in particular overall unsatisfying I've to admit, to my shame, I've lost most of my interest into trying to dig into it.

Thank you for your ask and sorry if my reply will seem unsatisfying to you. While in the past I used to talk a lot about this topic... now I'm not really sure anymore what the author intend and so I prefer to let everyone free to chose their answer.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Golden Kamuy Headcanon #1 - Vasily’s birthday

Thanks to a Japanese twitter post I’ve just found, I learned that the year Death of the Wildcat was painted (1940) was also the year Simo Häyhä, the famous Finnish sniper nicknamed “The White Death”, got his mouth injury.

Here’s a list of the things concerning real life snipers Vasily referenced:

Simo Häyhä

Almost fatal mouth injury

The year of said injury

Vasily Zaitsev

First name

Birthplace

Lyudmila Pavlichenko

Last name

Wanting each sniper to have equal number of references attributed to them, I’ve decided to give Lyudmila Pavlichenko's birthday to Vasily, meaning he was born on July 12th.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Golden Kamuy Headcanon #2 – What kind of Geisha was Ogata Tome?

The only thing we know of Ogata Tome’s time as a geisha is that she worked at Asakusa. It was speculated by @goldenkamuyhunting that Ogata was born in 1882 (1, 2, 3). At that time, Asakusa had three kinds of geishas:  

Hirokoji Geishas (広小路芸者) who worked in the areas of Asakusa Hirokoji (浅草広小路), currently Kaminarimon-dori Street (雷門通り), for the dengaku-chayas (田楽茶屋: teahouses selling tofu dengaku (豆腐田楽)) located there, hence the affectionate nickname Dengaku Geisha (田楽芸者). 

Saruwaka-cho Geishas (猿若町芸者) who worked for the shibai-jayas (芝居茶屋: teahouses working for theaters, serving spectators before a play or during the entr’acte) of the three kabuki theaters of Saruwaka-cho (猿若町), currently 6-chome Asakusa: Ichimura-za, Morita-za and Nakamura-za. The theaters had a cubic ornamental structure displaying their respective crests called yagura (櫓: watchtower, turret), positioned above the entrances, and since the activities of shibai-jayas took place under the latter, the geishas working there were also called Yagurashita Geishas (櫓下芸者).  

(From left to right: Ichimura-za, Morita-za and Nakamura-za)

Sanyabori no Geishas (山谷堀の芸者), commonly called Hori no Geishas (堀の芸者), who worked for the hikite-jayas (引手茶屋: teahouses serving the patrons of red-light districts before their appointments with brothels) of Sanyabori (山谷堀), the (no longer usable) canal leading customers to Yoshiwara by funayados (船宿: houseboats) which they also used to entertain the latter. Because they work close to Saruwaka-cho, they were sometimes placed in the same category. 

(reference: JP / EN) 

Coincidentally, I found out about the existence of a kabuki actor named Sawamura Hyakunosuke (澤村 百之助) (1857 – 1899) who used to perform for one of the kabuki theaters of Saruwaka-cho (1, 2). 

Also, while I was watching the OVA of the Battle in Barato Arc (chapter 56 – 59), I heard Hijikata call Ogata “Yagura ni iru Yatsu”, the “man in the [watch]tower”.  

So, while Noda may not have implied on purpose, I like to believe that Ogata Tome used to be a Saruwaka-cho / Yagurashita Geisha.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Sugimoto is wearing a green hanten under his jacket, right? I’m like 90% sure its a hanten, but it looks a bit off. Maybe it’s just because its under his jacket.

Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not Japanese clothes expert...

...but honestly no, I don't think this is a Hanten

It's longer (it reaches Sugimoto's knees and Sugimoto is tall) and tied differently from this (it's closed with a belt with the left side overlapping the right one while here it's tied thanks to two strips of cloth that pull both sides closed losely)...

...and also worn differently, as it remains slightly open where Sugimoto fully closes his own.

To me it feels more like a short Kimono. The manga gave him one when he was younger...

...though I can't tell for sure if that's one due to this part.

Kimono usually don't remain slightly pulled up but form a straight line (see Nagakura's for example).

There's to say though Asirpa's kimono too doesn't close in a straight line so maybe it's just a way to wear them closing them more tightly due to the cold or due to the fact they're knee lenght.

We also have Kimetsu no Yaiba's Nezuko wearing a kimono this way so I guess wearing it like that is just an option that gives the wearer better leg mobility.

On a positive side though, I can tell you the sash Sugimoto uses to tie his sleeves should be a tasuki (襷/たすき) a fashion accessory used for holding up the long sleeves of a kimono. It is a sash made from either cloth or cord that loops over each shoulder and crosses over the wearer's back. The bottom of the kimono sleeves can then be tucked into the loop, holding them back for convenience and functionality. This allowed the kimono wearer to work without large sleeves getting in the way of the job, and without risking damage to the garment's sleeves.

Sorry, I fear I can't help you more with what Sugimoto is wearing, still thank you for the ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Don't know if you do these types of questions but do you believe ogata was purposefully written to be/appear as aroace (asexual and aromantic)? His seemingly lack of attraction might have been just used as way to showcase how he couldn't be bothered by anything other than his father/brother/guilt tunnel vision or to further imply he was a "psychopath who felt no love/couldnt understand it (at least specifically romantic love)" but the author also clearly isn't shy about sexuality representation.

Honestly...

I think Anton Chekhov’s advice: "If it’s not essential, don’t include it in the story" is what moves consciusly or unconsciously many authors.

For many characters in "Golden Kamuy" to decide about their sexuality and romantic orientations has no narrative purpose (there are of course exceptions, for example Wakayama, who was clearly interested in males and this was plot relevant, or Sakamoto and O-gin, who in addition to being physically attracted to each other were their own brand of romantic, Anehata who was sexually attracted by animals and vegetals and Henmi who was turned on by the idea of being killed by a male so you might even view him into some kind of kink, while originally Ushiyama was represented so sexually driven by females he would be willing to rape them to get laid... something that later was kind of retconned...).

Characters in this sense are often in a blank slate, the author doesn't bother to think/plan if they have sexual/romantic attractions or not and of which kind unless it's plot relevant. If, through the story, it becomes plot relevant, they'll paint them on the characters, if it will not... it's everyone's speculation.

In Ogata, if he was capable or not to have sexual and romantic attraction is not really plot relevant.

You can explain some scenes with him being asexual and aromantic (and I know others explained them with him being homosexual), but narratively it has more sense if he reacts in a certain way exactly because he has a tunnel vision and all he can think about is his father... and clearly not in an incestual way, since around this, and not around romance or lack thereof circles the whole of Ogata's character.

Of course we could argue that if in addition to his tunnel vision he was also asexual, we could say this might have made easier for him to reach in a certain way but it's a psychological analysis that Noda might not have needed to do.

He already had an explanation, it worked with the story, he didn't need to dig into it any further. He might have, of course, but if that's the case I don't know if we'll ever learn about it.

So I'll go for the answer I'll always go with this sort of things.

I don't think the author planned it but, if to you it fits his character, by all means go with this headcanon. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong and Noda actually considered it because sometimes, even if it's not plot relevant, authors do make up details for their characters anyway.

Of course whose are my two cents, I'm not Noda, I don't really know what he was thinking when writing GK so don't mistake them for THE TRUTH.

Thanks for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Just curious, not sure if you answered it somewhere, why aren’t you interested in Nodas next work?

Did you read about it here?

I think nobody asked previously but the truth is pretty simple.

Since the last ten or so volumes of "Golden Kamuy" or, if you prefer, its final arc, disappointed me so much, I'm not going to invest time and money in Noda's next work, even though I apprecciate greatly his dedication to improving the volumes and his art style because, well, in the end, the story for me came first.

As you might have read in the post I linked above there were too many plot points, plot point in which I was invested and for which I wanted to see a resolution, that were dropped or wasted away or handwaved and that wasn't even all I had problems with.

Something that often get lost in fandom is we aren't just readers, we're also customers. I bought the volumes, the gadgets, supported the story were I could and, as any customer, if the one selling me a certain product disappoint me because he hands me a product I judge not worth it, then I won't buy from him again.

Of course that's my personal opinion, there's people who adoured the ending of the story and how things were handled but, as for me, I have no wish to tackle another tale and see it go for "Golden Kamuy" same route.

So well, yes, I wish him good luck since I know he really wanted his new work (which is actually his old work which he was forced to stop before "Golden Kamuy") do well and I hope for him it'll be better than "Golden Kamuy", but I'm not going to get into Noda's new story as I've lost my faith in him as a writer.

Again, that's just me, I'm sure he has plenty of devoted fans so that he doesn't need me to support his story and who knows, this new work might turn out much better than "Golden Kamuy", so better that, once is finished, the overwhelming number of positive reviews will persuade me to give it a chance.

For now though, I'm not going to invest in it but I encourage everyone who instead enjoyed "Golden Kamuy" to give it a chance and support an author they liked.

Thanks for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

I found your post mentioning the possibility of Ogata working as a geisha if he had been born female (…com/post/176037618768/). As a result, I couldn't help but wonder how much her life would differ from his. (I’m surprise nobody had made fan content about such scenario before.) What do you think?

I had to go check the post because I couldn't remember it...

and here it is:

"A geisha wouldn’t permanently stop working because she had a baby. Ogata isn’t a little girl who can become a geisha so it would be fine if his grandmother were to come take HIM away, but she doesn’t need to bring home his mom as well."

Honestly I wasn't wondering what would be if Ogata were a female, it was more an observation on the fate of geisha's daughters... and, in truth, it would have been possible for Ogata to remain with Tome even as a boy.

In fact for example geisha's kimono are so tight that they requires a male helper, to help the geisha put them on and tightly knot the fabric in the back... so Geisha's sons could remain there and become helpers who do this and other jobs that were more fitting for a male, though this wasn't as likely as it was for daughters, so it would have made sense for Tome to send Ogata away.

If Tome had a daughter instead than Ogata, of course her life would have been seriously different from his own as back then expectations on boys and girls were pretty different.

Honestly it would probably make her a character completely different, not just genetically but also character-wise due to a radically different upbringing, resulting her into being another, completely different, character, if done realistically.

So I guess it probably doesn't get explored much because she would basically be an OOC.

Now, I don't know why people do something or not but, as a general line, fans rarely have interest in OOC characters so this might be why people don't explore this venue.

As for how the life of Tome's daughter would be... well, it would be the same as the one of a geisha's daughter, in short the same as her mother with the plus she was born in the okiya so she'll adapt to it a lot more easily and would view the people in it as her family a lor more easily.

She would clearly have zero expectations on Hanazawa as she would know it was foolish from her mother to expect more of him and that he would surely not come from her or his daughter.

Hanazawa might have been interested in his male firstborn but a daughter... that's something that would likely not interest him at all.

No one would consider giving her a rifle and letting her try shooting at ducks.

At 15 she would have started as Maiko (geisha's apprendice) and would become a 'full-fledged Geisha' around the ages of 20 to 22.

If you're curious for more I would recommend reading something about geisha in that time period. It's interesting... but they lead a life that's very, very different from the one a boy would lead both in education and expectation so really, Tome's daughter would have likely not have anything in common with Ogata beyond the birth parents.

Sorry, I fear this wasn't the answer you were hoping for and I guess people can think differently from me so just take this for what it is, my two cents. Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Europe, Ebay and VAT

So this is a message for fellow Europeans. You might have noticed that now, when ebay charges you, they also collect the VAT from countries outside Europe.

So far so good, I hated to be charged for them when I were to receive my package, I much prefer to pay them in advance instead than at the postman.

If you add to this that we don't pay custom duties unless we export something whose price is above 150 € it means I can comfortably let someone wait for my package without having to leave money behind because EVERYTHING IS ALREADY PAID.

Problem is... not all the sellers know that:

For shipments arriving at EU Customs where eBay has already collected VAT, we want to ensure that buyers do not get charged with additional VAT by customs.

To avoid additional VAT at the border, sellers must provide eBay’s IOSS # number on the electronic customs declaration. Putting the IOSS # on the label is not enough.

To help our developers with this new challenge we are doing the following actions to help share our eBay IOSS # when we have collected EU VAT on an import.

eBay’s EU IOSS Number is IM2760000742

Those in Italic are information from ebay, not something I wrote on my own.

The result? They don't provide the IOSS when sending the package and you're charged with taxes again.

So beware.

When you buy something from outside Europe you should notice ebay adds to the price the VAT. You can find it in the invoice of the order. You can't be charged of taxes again, at most you can be charged of custom duties if the object you bought was over 150 €.

Because really, arguing with a seller that insists that, despite having been provided documentation you just had to do it, you can't pay taxes twices and that he didn't have to do anything is rather annoying, never mentioning the extra you'll have to pay.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

i noticed a great thing that left me a little bit shocked, during toni anji's attack when they got their abandoned hideout, ogata was following them alone,then sugimoto and asirpa saw him from a distance and slowley approached him but to my surprise ogata didnt even turn to look at them he knew who were they without looking and told them the situation very calmly. normal reactions would be oagta being on high alert for every step in this pitch-black night. im aware of his unhuman hearing skill

Undoubtedly...

Ogata's senses are the ones of a cat, it's a recurring theme/joke in the story so better eyesight at night and incresed hearing and sense of smell.

Though this might not be all there is.

The pitch-black night is ending, dawn is likely starting and, while it's not completely clear yet, it's more clear than before, which allows Ogata to see things better and kill off one of the blind bandits and cause Toni Anji and his men to worry as they realize it's starting getting light out...

...Ogata also gets almost close to kill Toni Anji, even though he still complain to the not optimal visibility... still a shoot so close wouldn't have been possible without at least some visibility...

You can also notice how the images are slightly clearer compared to before, implying the place is getting better lighted.

That's why the blind bandits hide in the house which is pitch black, to turn tables again, as the visibility outside is getting too good and places them at disadvantage... in fact now Ogata can point to Sugimoto correctly how many of them hid in the house, meaning he could see them running in.

Did he not turn to see who was approaching from Sugimoto's direction?

He might have and the manga simply decided not to show it to save time... or he might have heard Asirpa's lighter and smaller footsteps and figured they were the one of a child so if the one coming there was either her or Chikapasi, the adult with them would be an ally and not a threat.

I guess we'll never know.

I wouldn't say Asirpa and Sugimoto are approaching slowly though, to me the visual seems to suggest they're running but it might be just me.

Anyway yes, Ogata is meant to be very cool and controlled in this chapter and very aware of his surroundings despite the difficulty of the situation. While Tanigaki and Kiro don't accomplish much, both Ogata and Sugimoto are clearly a cut above the whole cast, each of them with his own impressive abilities.

So yes, we should definitely be impressed by Ogata or, at least, that's what I think and what I believe the author wanted us to think. Though, as usual, it's just me.

Thanks for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Is Yuusaku's ghost a product of Ogata's imagination, or his hallucinations, or he's really some kind of ghostly presence near him (the last one is all up to Noda if he wants to play with supernaturality of course) because to my sense he's a manifestation of Ogata's subconscious therefore closest to being a product of Ogata's imagination/mind.

My theory is that Yuusaku's ghost is a manifestation of, or representation of Ogata's conflicts in mind (his moral conflicts, especially his repression of guilt vs what he thinks and persuade himself to think he feels) and I see this fitting with Yuusaku being a flag bearer (and therefore an icon) like he's there to represent something, to stand up for something.

So we all know Ogata's mind enormously repressing his feeling of guilt by persuading his own self into thinking he has none and it's normal as a coping mechanism and then here's the hauntings of dead Yuusaku who was the exact opposite of him with thinking and morality and the existence of guilt, as if appearing in manifest of Ogata's own inner conflicts in his subconscious. Because Ogata knows he feels guilt and it is real, just can't release it out. Basically what he's thinking represents what he's saying to himself, and dead Yuusaku is what he's saying against himself someplace in the back of his mind › the inner conflict

I just loved this as a concept, that's all, and wanted to share it with you to see how you'd react because I love your way of thinking, wording and observations. Thanks for taking your time for reading <3

Canon never quite said.

The closest we have to canon implying what Yuusaku is can be found here when Ogata says there's something he always refused to face... and then we're given the answer with this visual of Ogata facing Yuusaku...

...so you can see Yuusaku as the personification of his guilt.

I personally do prefer this implication but this doesn't exclude the fact Yuusaku can also be an akuryō (悪霊 “evil spirit”) as Ogata calls it or a variation of some sort as in Japan there's the belief things and feelings can take a life of their own and become spirits.

So having Ogata's sense of guilt... take a life of its own would make sense for them... even though not so much for us as we, instead, view ghosts solely as the spirits of DECEASED PEOPLE, not as spirits of objects, feelings or whatever.

So yeah, I'm on your same page with Yuusaku being the personification of Ogata's sense of guilt from that far chap 164 in which he started to see him in place of Asirpa.

I find it more interesting if it's all psychological and there's no supernatural involved... but for Japanese people it can very well be that both are at play.

As I'm mostly out of the fandom I'm not sure if Noda even revealed something else about the scene so I fear I can't help with it.

Thank you for sharing with me your theory, which matches quite close with how I also prefer to interpret the scene and sorry if I couldn't be of more help.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

now that I'm paying attention a lot more to the details i noticed a mystery about sugimoto's past. in the first chapter the drunk old man wonders why sugimoto wasn't rewarded for his service, and sugimoto told him "if i hadn't nearly killed an officer that pissed me off, id have the order of the golden kite..." i'm not sure if we know about this, who was that officer ? and why he pissed sugimoto off.

It's something many wondered...

...and something Noda never addressed same as how Sugimoto managed to keep that official's boots.

Q4: You mentioned in a previous Q&A that the fur Asirpa wears belonged to Retar’s parent despite you being unable to find a place for it in the story. Are there any other details that couldn’t make it? Noda: The boots Sugimoto is wearing while in Hokkaido were stripped off the officer he beat half to death. [Q&A section from the Golden Kamuy fanbook - Translation courtesy of @piduai]

I mean, if he was punished for his actions, why letting him keep the boots? Wouldn't the officer want them back?

The whole thing ended up on being an excuse to explain why Sugimoto, despite being such an exceptional soldier, wasn't rewarded for it.

It's a pity because instead it could have made for an interesting backstory. Instead Noda preferred to tell us how Sugimoto got his military cap. -_-

But well, I guess this gives free reign to fanfic writers to imagine whatever backstory they want.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Would Tsurumi's character arc changed to a grand extent if the fate of Olga and Fina was different? In a way they lived and Tsurumi had less to no trauma about his family. Is his arc really lowkey turns around what happened to his family, kind of? What changed do you think it would make for his role in GK if that event went different in which they lived?

It's an interesting question!

Possibly it would have, as he might have decided to remain in Russia with them, maybe even switch loyalties between Russia and Japan, or he would take them back to Japan with him and not harbour any other ambition than be with them or, at least, wouldn't have harboured such a great grudge toward Wilk and might have remained a more human person or, at least, a less ambitious one.

There's to say though, in the last third of the manga his family drama is underused, basically it merely became an excuse to guilt trip Sofia into talking and into letting Tsurumi kill her. Tsurumi insists it's not his family drama what's moving him, and even though it's made clear he hates Wilk because he blames him for his loss and transferres this hate to Asirpa... well, all this hate just exists and goes nowhere.

It's not a motive, it's not an obstacle to overcome, it's not something that causes him to make mistakes (unless we want to consider the fact his brain started leaking like crazy in Vol 21 when he talks with Asirpa and never again [by the way this wasn't in the magazine version so if you're reading the mangazine version you might not know what I'm talking about]).

So... who knows?

The story wanted to say that loss was the thing that turned him into the Tsurumi we know so, without it, we wouldn't have Tsurumi therefore theoretically Fina and Olga's survival would have been a big change for him... but again, with how underused the whole thing was, we can't really tell what exactly it would have changed.

That's a question, I guess, only Noda knows the answer of.

Still thank you for your ask!