#Kenmochi Toraji

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 314 “Grand finale”

Last chapter and WARNING again.

If you only want to hear praises for “Golden Kamuy”, the ban button for either the tag ‘Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories’ or myself (I’ll suggest the latter) is the right choice to make my posts disappear from your dashboard.

With a fair warning given, let’s move on.

I guess I should focus on the color cover which shows Sugimoto and Asirpa together. No Shiraishi this time. The cover is in soothing shades of blue (which fits since it’s the last chapter and everything is calm and contrast with the cover of Weekly Young Jump in which there’s just the face of Sugimoto smiling on a red background) on a white background, with Asirpa linked to Sugimoto’s arm. I wonder if Asirpa extending her fist is meant to be an invitation for the reader to bump it. It’s a nice color cover.

So, after chap 313 ended in a cliffhanger with a seriously wounded Sugimoto who was also pinned on the locomotive ended in the bay, we’ve reached the final chapter…

…which is temporally placed 6 MONTHS LATER, in Tokyo and that opens with Asirpa, apparently alone, buying dried persimmons.

The next page a woman informs us a terrifying looking man is standing in front of Umeko’s store and asks her if she should go call Umeko’s husband… so yeah, Umeko ultimately married that widower.

And who can be the terrifying looking man if not Sugimoto? And of course it’s him, complete with a new scar on his cheek and smell of blood and death, only this time Umeko isn’t fooled because she has already gotten her eye surgery and she can see it’s him.

How did Sugimoto survive the cliffhanger of the previous chapter? Evidently it wasn’t important enough to show it because it won’t be explained through all the final chapter. We had our hints Shiraishi might have fished him (and the cap Sugimoto lost when he ended up in the water) up. Of course he had plenty of fatal wounds (a stab in his intestine, a sword through his lugs which needed to be pulled out to unpin him from the locomotive which would have done further damage (not considering the one Sugimoto did to himself when he threw Asirpa), a consistent loss of blood and plenty of water that should have ended in his lugs when he apparently lost consciousness as he fell into the water. But it’s Sugimoto, the immortal, he survived to a bullet in his head! Yeah, but that time he was saved by Ienaga, a master class surgeon with experience.

But whatever, I’ll assume this time they’ll met with Meiji era Tenma Kenzo (Tenma is the genius surgeon with a heart of gold from the manga “Monster”) who packed up Sugimoto for free and didn’t report him to the army/police whatever nor tried to eat him up for immortality.

And it’s possible, really but… it’s deflating. When a chapter ends with a cliffhanger and you worry for a week you want the solution to it to be worth your worry, not to handwave them by completely ignoring how the situation managed to be resolved as if the final chapter has just been cut and we jumped straight to the epilogue.

Someone has suggested me that opening this chapter in this way was meant to lull the readers into the idea Sugimoto died and then surprise the reader with how he survived which… is not a bad idea per se… only the ‘suspense’ lasts for a single page… so it’s not really something you have the time to worry and then feel sad about.

When I saw Asirpa I merely thought Sugimoto was around and her somber expression was because she feared he would remain in Tokyo and they would part ways, I actually expected Sugimoto to be in the next page and join her, I didn’t really have the time to realize that she was wandering alone in those two panels and worry about where’s Sugimoto and when the following page basically let me figure Sugimoto wasn’t with her because he was with Umeko, well, this killed any chance I had to worry about Sugimoto’s survival.

Sure, although this chapter is longer than usual (22 vs the usual 18 plus the color page and a special page with Noda’s last words), it’s still not 60 pages like the first chapter was. So there clearly was no time to put in how Sugimoto survives, nor to keep the suspense of his survival for long so Noda had to do with what he had.

Will this chapter be expanded in the volume version, either by playing longer on how Sugimoto died or by explaining how he was saved?

At this point I’ve no idea.

Vol 30 & 31 (Noda made clear he wants to end the story at Vol 31) need to contain 24 chapters. They could split them evenly so it’s 12 each which is more than usual as usual they contain 10… and through the chapters I noticed plenty of things that would have been better to expand.

So chances he can expand everything are running short and, very likely, he’ll have to choose between plenty of things and, at this point, I don’t feel like guessing what he might judge important to expand and what not. I’ll just wait for the volumes.

Anyway, back to the story.

So, who follows me by a long time knows that among my long standing predictions/expectations for the end there was Sugimoto going back to his hometown and meeting Umeko again so yes, I’m satisfied this is happening. The fact that Umeko ALREADY got her eyes fixed and even remarried could have been an interesting point to ponder because it proves Sugimoto didn’t need to go through all that because what he did was of no use to her.

Sugimoto’s motive to take part to that bloody gold hunt was to repay Toraji by taking care of his wife by providing her the means to cure her eyes… and to have a second chance with Umeko.

Only, once the gold hunt is over it turns out Umeko has another husband and doesn’t need his gold because she already got eye surgery.

In short the gold hunt was a bad idea, he could have either come back home sooner and try to get her and support her or just go on with his life as someone else was there taking care of Umeko.

The wounds, the pain he suffered, the kills, were unnecessary, Umeko didn’t need his gold, she needed someone to be there for her and this one wasn’t him.

This would be interesting to ponder over but… nope. We’ll dig on this in a moment so for now let’s leave it as that.

So Sugimoto just hands Umeko the gold because that was what Toraji told him to do, tells Toratarou, Toraji’s son who finally, FINALLY got a name, that his father was a real hero and then leaves. He doesn’t ask Umeko how she is, he doesn’t reconnect with her and she doesn’t reconnect with him either, she doesn’t ask how he has been nor she does try to stop him because why should she? He just came to drop something and then left.

It overall feels very perfunctory on both sides.

Somehow Umeko stopped mattering for Sugi and he stopped mattering for her. They might still call each other ‘Saichi-chan’ and ‘Ume-chan’ but they’re little more than strangers and don’t try to go back to being friends. They just let go of each other without really inquiring.

Sure is, when Umeko got to see all that gold… well, she should have gone to him, if only to thank him in a bit more heartfelt manner. I mean, it’s not everyday someone gives you a bag filled with gold dust and Sugimoto clearly didn’t look like he would manage to appear in Forbes' annual list of the world's billionaires so getting all that gold should have cost him and giving up on it should have cost on him as well. I mean his coat even look worse for wear than usual and he’s been wearing those same clothes for years by now so it’s clear he’s not an eccentric billionaire effortlessly giving out bags of gold to his old friend’s wife.

I think he’ll deserve a more heartfelt thank you and an ‘are you sure?’ and ‘do you have a place to stay tonight? You might tell me about Toraji a little as well…’ but… no.

Umeko’s role in the story ends with her watching the gold. If she considered chasing after him to thank him… well, that’s something up to everyone’s speculation, the story won’t tell.

So… the long awaited meeting between Umeko and Sugimoto doesn’t really feel that meaningful in the end, he just hands her the gold and leaves with no regrets. As for Umeko, I guess we’re meant to assume she has moved on long ago… and I’m glad she did, really… but this way she seems not just someone who moved on but someone who’s way too cold with a guy who was your childhood friend, went to war and came home with a bag of gold for you. Whatever, maybe it’s just lack of space and lack of readers’ interest in Umeko. The anime even cut her out completely so maybe Noda felt it would benefit the story to further erase her. I don’t know.

Sugimoto, all happy, joins back with Asirpa… and Shiraishi, as he’s there too.

Shiraishi points out how sneaky it was from Sugimoto to fill his pockets with gold, taking his share in advance without telling anyone… but this isn’t presented like something bad, no, Shiraishi praises him because thanks to that Sugimoto could concentrate on Asirpa and the land deed back in Hakodate.

“Golden Kamuy” isn’t a manga about teaching you to keep a moral behavior and Sugimoto still helped Asirpa with the land deed even though he got what he wanted… but I guess I’m still hung up on how chap 302 tried to present Sugimoto as noble because he was helping Asirpa even if that meant giving up on the gold (something on which chap 311 played as well) to then reveal he filled his pockets with it already to then say ‘ah but that wasn’t bad because it helped him to focus’.

I mean, I get the gold was meant to be a surprise so Noda couldn’t have him reveal he took it secretly but Hijikata could have just praised him for being willing TO RISK HIS LIFE for Asirpa, not his share of gold. That’s noble and praiseworthy enough, why focusing on the gold instead?

Whatever, maybe it’s just me.

We move to Asirpa who insists the answer she arrived at is that the ‘golden kamuy’ isn’t needed to protect the Ainu and since she has been chosen as the ruler of all the Ainu she got to decide that.

Ops, no she wasn’t and I never liked how no one, not even Kirawus or Ariko, pointed out Asirpa had no right to decide for all the Ainu what to do with the gold that belonged to them all and not just to her.

I mean, Kirawus joined the gold hunt because his village was suffering as they had not enough food (due to locusts eating their food) so he needed money and he had to work first as a seasonal worker and then for Hijikata instead than pursuing an Ainu lifestyle and other people from his village and from other villages might be in the same situation. One would expect he would point out how gold, distributed equally in all the villages, could help them overcome such problems… or buy medicines or things like that because sadly this world requires you to have money but… nope.

The most we get is that Sugimoto tells her he’s fine with her thinking so but, to him, the ‘golden kamuy’ isn’t necessarily bad but changes purpose according to who is using it so he believes the ‘golden kamuy’ will be good for Umeko and ‘Toraji’s son’. Then points out how it was actually part of the ‘golden kamuy’ what was used to buy the land deed. And yeah, he’s right.

Among other things, Asirpa could have used it to buy more land or benefits or things that were of use to the Ainu or even bribe officials in the government so as to smooth things over and get more benefits for the Ainu. But no, she has decided the Ainu don’t need the ‘golden kamuy’ and so they don’t get it nor they get a say about her decision because at her young age and with her newfound knowledge of minority problems she has been ignoring up until then, she’s the right person to decide FOR ALL THE AINU.

Sure, Asirpa is an Ainu so it’s better if she’s the one who decides for them than, let’s say, Hijikata or Tsurumi or Sugimoto but still, she’s a child who has barely started tackling adult problems and this chapter will prove her view of the gold expressed in chap 311 was completely wrong. She claimed if Sugimoto and Shiraishi were to get a huge sum of gold the killing would continue and they would be unhappy. Sugimoto gets his share of gold and is happy and, spoiler, Shiraishi will get all the rest and, supposedly, will be happy as well. Because they’re the right people to use it apparently and wouldn’t be hit by the curse but the Ainu? Nope, according to Asirpa they aren’t the right people to manage all that gold.

Whatever.

The discussion though is cut short because a flashback start, showing us that one month earlier Asirpa and Co were already in Tokyo to met Enomoto Takeaki. They used Hijikata’s sword, which apparently Shiraishi fished up as well as Sugimoto and Sugimoto’s cap as a way to persuade him to meet them.

If you’re wondering why Asirpa doesn’t have her headband on, it’s explained in chap 87 how Ainu are supposed to remove it when visiting people (yeah, she really didn’t do it often in the story but maybe it depends by how important is the people hosting them?).

Anyway Enomoto is super supportive of their cause and volunteers to help them and recommend them to people who’ll help them so, great.

We move to Sugimoto eating a dried persimmon, apparently for the first time, even though we just learnt they were in Tokyo by a month. But who knows, maybe season of dried persimmons just started and those were the first ones available.

Asirpa, despite having matured so much, seeing him eat them still think they’ll change him radically and asks him if he feels different now.

Sugimoto says nope but he believes it’s fine if he doesn’t change because he gave his all to fulfill his duty so he’s pretty satisfied with himself as he is. Evidently he believes doing his duty by giving Umeko the gold she didn’t need any more, cured his PTSD and his guilt for killing people and doesn’t worry anymore about having VIP seats for hell.

I mean, the whole point of the discussion Sugimoto had with Asirpa in chap 100 was about how Sugimoto had maladaptive coping methods to deal with his guilt for having killed people on the battleground, how he rebuilt himself to survive and how he couldn’t go back to being his old self.

And the whole speech he had with Asirpa in chap 206 reinforced the idea killing people pushes you in a psychological hell.

And then we had in chap 310 Ogata who, once his maladaptive coping methods break, couldn’t face his own feelings of guilt and killed himself so as to remark how terrible all this can get.

It was pretty heavy issues that the golden hunt wasn’t meant to solve as Sugimoto murdered plenty of people during it and this should have made him even worse and it was making him even worse as he was getting much more prone than he started at killing people to the point he wanted Ogata to come back solely to kill him and attempted to murder Boutarou when the latter surrendered and could have revealed info about Asirpa’s survival, which was what Sugimoto himself predicted would happen in chap 123, he would risk stopping being able to make distinctions between good guys and bad guys and just kill and relish on it without justice on his side and to make matter worse, once he got the gold for which he shed so much blood and was hurt so badly and risked dying so many times, it turned out Umeko didn’t need it.

It was all for nothing.

But no, Sugimoto is satisfied with how he fulfilled his duty so it’s all solved.

I’m… glad for him but this feels more like a magical hand wave of his problems than as a resolution.

Asirpa looks at him with an expression that’s a bit troubled so Shiraishi goes straight to the core of the problem and asks Sugimoto if he’s going to remain in Tokyo.

Asirpa immediately worries because we know she has a HUGE crush on Sugimoto and doesn’t want to part from him and even considered not solving the code so he would remain with her and she would be his human shield so he would be dependent on her.

Sugimoto goes and mention how the fried shrimp he hate at the imperial hotel was tasty and this sadden Asirpa as she doesn’t know that thing is WELL ABOVE Sugimoto’s financial possibilities. Sugimoto informs her of the matter and says all the food he ate with her was equally tasty… he doesn’t say how it was also cheap since Asirpa provided it for free. but since he directly compares it not with the dried persimmons which he could afford but with the expensive fried shrimp of the imperial hotel this feels implied, which cheapens the fact he says he finally has found a place in which he can be happy.

I mean, I’m pretty sure this is meant to be funny or cute or something but it makes it sound it as if he found a place in which he could be happy just because he has found a place in which he can eat good food for free. He could have said it better if he had said the company made the food taste great, but whatever, maybe we’re meant to assume he’s being shy or something.

Asirpa is touched and blushes and shed tears because this means her love interest will remain with her and Sugimoto confirms this by telling her ‘let’s go back home, Asirpa’ clearly implying they’re going to cohabit in Hokkaido.

Asirpa is overjoyed but then they realize they lost sight of Shiraishi.

Asirpa, who always had a poor opinion of him, thinks he’s pooping in the streets of Tokyo but, in truth, Shiraishi has left without telling them because he doesn’t like tearful goodbyes and, clearly, doesn’t feel part of their own little family… which, as I had remarked many times, has never fully included him.

We move to a summary of what happened to the minor characters.

Kantarou managed to fulfill his dream to become a ranch owner even without the gold.

Nagakura went back to his life and to dream of Hijikata, whose body was never found like in real life history.

Tanigaki went back to Ani and had 15 children with Inkarmat and that’s how Tanigaki’s arc ended.

I mean, it was supposed to be a big deal for him to go back to Ani, since he couldn’t do it for most of the time, he just couldn’t confront with his father and brother and admit he was wrong when he left and tell them the truth about his sister’s death but no, he got a wife and just did it and whatever problem he previously had before about being too ashamed to go back home was hand waved. Maybe if he had married sooner he would have managed to avoid the whole thing.

Kadokura, Kirawus and Mansur went to America 10 years later and starred in a western that became a cult classic. Kadokura never got a backstory or his full name revealed in the story but whatever. Kirawus had no problems leaving the Ainu into Asirpa’s care while Mansur, who was basically a non-character as all we knew about him was he had great aim when using a cannon and was Sofia’s man, decided his days as a revolutionary/partisan were over.

I… don’t know how to feel about all this. I’m glad they’re all alive but… somehow it feels random?

We also learn that Vasily Pavlichenko became a famous Russian artist who refused to part with a painting of a dead lynx near train tracks until he died.

So yeah, another character who was really underdeveloped survived and met a great ending as, although he deserted to kill Ogata and couldn’t do it, he ultimately wasn’t killed and managed to fulfill his dream of becoming an artist. The lynx near the train tracks seem to imply he found Ogata’s body, confirming, in case someone assumed Ogata could survive after blasting his brain off, that Ogata was really dead. That or Vasily finished him off for good.

Again, this leaves me pretty cold. As Vasily wasn’t developed he moved from a character I saw potential in and was really curious about to a character I had 0 investment on because it was more a mob character than anything else and the whole painting of a dead lynx didn’t really impress me much.

@sandflow suggested he might just be a stand in for the readers. A part of them obsessed on wanting Ogata dead, a part of them obsessed drawing fanart of him, a part of them just obsessed on him. Considering how he’s not developed it can be. I’ll leave up to others to speculate if this was a good or a poor representation of the fans.

Either way for me this poor guy ended up on being a non-character so I’ve hard time caring for him and his ending, whatever he was meant to represent.

Meanwhile in Hakodate bay Tsukishima is desperately searching for Tsurumi’s body because he went into this believing Tsurumi would make good use of the land deed and the gold and doesn’t know what to do of his life without him.

People talk about Tsukishima’s redemption but, truth is, Tsukishima hasn’t changed in the slightest. He doesn’t regret murdering his father over nothing nor he regret what he did under Tsurumi, just that it didn’t work and that if Tsurumi is dead he won’t be able to continue working (=murdering) for Tsurumi’s goal. The only thing that’s different in Tsukishima is that now he also has a codependent relationship with Koito along with the codependent relationship he had with Tsurumi.

As for Koito… he didn’t redeem himself either. Even when he realized Tsurumi was using them he continued following him, claiming he would have issues with him solely if Tsurumi’s plan were to fail. He let the soldiers be slaughtered in Goryokaku and on the train, and worried solely about saving Tsukishima at the price of risking to sacrifice Tsurumi and his plan (Tsurumi had the land deed).

Neither Koito nor Tsukishima truly confronted with Tsurumi or denied him and his methods.

Ultimately all they got was salvation and absolution, as they survived and, afterward, thrived, not redemption. I was super invested in their arcs but this resolution… doesn’t quite feel as earned.

Anyway Koito remarks that it is their duty as soldiers to defend their nation even without the Ainu land deed and the gold even if Tsurumi isn’t there and… ah, yeah, Tsurumi in chap 270 painted their rebellion as a noble act for the protection of Japan, I forgot.

We moved from chap 31 which had him wanting to create a military government in which his soldier won’t waste their lives as a pencil-pushing officers sitting meaningless at their desk but stand tall as his elite guard and offer salvation to their relatives and to the people of Hokkaido in form of jobs in his weapon factory (and opium fields) to chap 270 in which he claimed his goal is for JAPAN to flourish by protecting it from Russia’s southward advancement… by taking personal possession of Hokkaido, developing it and then conquering the whole Manchuria (inner and outer) so that Vladivostok too would become Japanese.

Tsurumi’s oh so noble goal to conquer other nations for Japan’s benefit was stopped before he could start on the conquering part  so Tsukishima and Koito has to CONTINUE DEFENDING THE NATION.

Hopefully this won’t mean they believe Japan has to go in full imperialistic mode and… and who am I kidding WW2 is not that far from this point in history.

Koito goes on claiming they will be tried as rebels by the government so they have the important duty to defend all those poor men who stuck with Tsurumi… not for the elite guard job, no that was retconned, they did it for the noble protection of Japan. Tsukishima wonders if they have a chance at winning, to which Koito remarks in order to do so, it’s essential he has someone exceptional as Tsukishima acting like his right-hand man.

Should they be punished? Hell, yeah, they were rebels, they acted independently from Central, wasted lives, bombed a prisons murdering inmates and guards, killed officers who weren’t agreeing with Tsurumi (Hanazawa, Wada) or blackmailed them (Yodogawa), or manipulated them into helping him (Koito senior), took personal possession of military weapons, cannoned Goryokaku and the land near Hakodate, used military fund to secretly buy weapons from Mister Thomas and planned to take possession of Hokkaido and start a war of invasion to take possession of Manchuria, just to give you a short overview of their best actions.

Their actions weren’t even moved by an attempt to criticize Central’s way to use soldiers as cannon fodder since that’s exactly what they had used the men attacking Goryokaku for or how they carried a war of aggression in the Russo Japanese war since they also want to carry a war of aggression. Their complain to Central is not on what he does, it’s that it’s not good enough at what it does so he couldn’t get reparation from Russia.

Japan should have just stripped them of their ranks and, in Koito’s case, of their titles and sent some of them to jail so that order would be reestablished. This would have served as an example to the Kwantung Army who would have maybe thought twice before going against Central, carrying out the assassination of the Manchurian Wardlord Zhang Zuolin, the Mukden incident and the subsequent invasion of Manchuria.

But since we know that those facts have to happen and that the insubordination of the Kwantung Army was rewarded rather than punished, it comes as no surprise that this won’t happen.

Actually Koito, like the classic elite rich boy he is, won’t even lose his rank and will rise to become the final commander of the 7th division. Not like Tsurumi who had his promotion stunted because, allegedly, his horse kicked a kid that got too close to it, killing him.

Tsukishima, Tsurumi’s right hand and Wada’s murderer (among other things) will continue serving Koito as his devoted (and codependent) right-hand man.

There’s no mention of the soldiers’ fate but, I bet, they faced no repercussion either even though when Japan rewarded the Kwantung Army it was because the latter took possession of Manchukuo. It’s not like the 7th accomplished anything beyond wasting men and resources. They didn’t even manage to retrieve the land deed.

We’ve no info about survivors among Sofia’s men besides Mansur. Evidently the 7th slaughtered them all. Because they’re good, patriotic boys and it was all Sofia’s men’s fault.

Back to Asirpa we go and to how she decided SHE will keep their culture from vanishing by passing it down to the new Ainu and, in order to do so she’ll go back to Karafuto and meet other minority ethnic groups beyond Karafuto. Because she won’t have her hands full with just saving Ainu culture and because travelling back then didn’t take months.

But okay, I appreciate her efforts and her dedication to her goal, I just wish she wasn’t just ‘I’ll do it’ but tried to work with other Ainu on this. Instead we’re told she’s the one who spent her whole life continuing to negotiate with the government. Ariko didn’t come back to help her in this as he’s not even mentioned in the epilogue and we know Kirawus went in America.

Overall, in a way, the Ainu as a whole are one of the big absents from a story about their gold and their cultural salvation. Everything is entrusted to Asirpa, there’s no mention of other Ainu helping her or deciding on their lives along her. Kirawus, as far as we know, is the only Ainu who had a small role in the fight at Goryokaku. To ensure the Ainu could use that land deed we saw plenty of Wajin and Russians die, but Ainu hardly had a role in all that.

Sure, this is a story about Wajin for Wajin and it wouldn’t have looked good if the 7th has slaughtered not Russians but Ainu but still it’s kind of sad.

Anyway supposedly part of the land covered in the land deed (not even all!) was converted in national or quasi-national parks so this allowed the Kamuy to survive so it’s all well what ends well… so it’s kind of sad to think that same land was converted in national or quasi-national parks even in our world without the land deed. I mean, I get Noda might have tried to return the story to the real trails of history but when you know the truth, it means having the land deed basically changed nothing for the Ainu. With it or without it, they got EXACTLY THE SAME RESULT. And this is sad.

The story moves to three years later.

Asirpa has grown up and is still with Sugimoto as she wanted. There’s no mention of Sugimoto having gotten a wife for himself or Asirpa liking someone else that’s not Sugimoto. They has captured squirrels and they’re going to bring them to Huci, so they supposedly live together with her and Sakamoto and O-gin’s kid who never got a name (same as Osoma’s mother).

Huci’s prediction she would never see Asirpa again didn’t come to pass but who cares, no one probably remembers it, even Asirpa has stopped worrying about it post Abashiri.

Osoma informs them that a letter came for them and it turns out it’s from Shiraishi. The letter is completely blank  but inside the envelope there’s a gold coin depicting king Shiraishi Yoshitake I. We’re told Shiraishi basically stole all the gold and used it to fulfill what was Boutarou’s dream. From the Burmese writing on the coin we can assume Shiraishi is now the king of an island in Burma.

And hey, I’m delighted for Shiraishi, he’s one of my absolutely fave but… but that was the Ainu gold. Okay, Asirpa, a kid, said they didn’t need it but again, Asirpa wasn’t the exclusive owner and she was a kid at the time. What if growing up she were to realize that wasn’t such a bright idea?

But the story doesn’t criticize at all the fact Shiraishi didn’t consider this and just accepted Asirpa gave up on the ownership of the gold, no, we’re meant to assume Asirpa did the right choice giving up on all the gold so that Shiraishi could use it for himself, same as Sugimoto used the one he took for Umeko. Because the ‘golden kamuy’ is bad only depending on who is using it and what is his purpose.

So for the Ainu to want to use it is bad.

When they wanted to buy weapons the ship sunk. When they buy the land deed, the people they bought it from lost the war so they apparently couldn’t claim their prize nor tried to do so later and one of them did. When Wilk’s group also considered using it to form their own nation they slaughtered each other. Because for them to use it to try to free their land was bad and, as far as Asirpa is involved, it would never be good to them so better not to use it.

But for Shiraishi to use it to buy his own kingdom or for Sugimoto to use it to repay his debt to Toraji and make Umeko rich… well, that’s all right.

I really, really love Shiraishi, I’m very happy he got his kingdom and his place and his family and I’m glad Sugimoto could repay his debt and I’m happy Asirpa lived doing what she believed in (sort of, she also believed killing was wrong but then changed her mind but then never managed to kill someone because the only one person she tried to kill killed himself off) and I get this is a story about Wajin for Wajin (at the end of the book Noda says this is Sugimoto’s story, cutting Asirpa from the equation) but still…

Whatever.

So that’s the end and the other great absent from this story is Central, which had been looming into the distance as some sort of ‘big bad’ but never quite joined the actions and of which we only got some glimpses (Okuda, the fact both Kikuta and Ogata worked for it and that it should supposedly have come in Hokkaido after Kikuta’s death or that it should have supposedly punished the 7th but, probably didn’t and anyway Koito and Tsukishima faced no repercussions).

Not that I really cared about having Central in the story but… it still felt a waste to just have it loom in the distance but NEVER do anything. But whatever.

In the end this chapter, more than a final chapter, feels like an epilogue, giving us information about what happened after the end of the story.

It tried to end the story on a happy/hopeful mood while bringing it back into real history, with the surviving characters all getting what they wanted, hand waving whatever plagued them through the story and things going back to how they were in real history but that’s mostly all that there is to it.

There are no deep points to ponder or strong emotional bits, it relies on how we’ll be emotional on our own because it’s time to say goodbye to the characters, which is always sad and emotional per se.

That is unless you consider the part in which Asirpa learn Sugimoto now believed the place in which he can be happy, his home is with Asirpa. But since this strongly and suspiciously smells like a SugiRipa ending (although it’s vague enough you can tell yourself it’s not) and I think everyone knows I feared and LOATHED the idea the story could end up with a SugiRipa ending, the whole bit just didn’t work for me… but maybe it’s just me and I’ve probably annoyed you enough with my grievance about “Golden Kamuy”.

Thank you to everyone who remained with me till now and enjoyed my ramblings and theories, put up with my complains and contributed in making my experience in the fandom good.

Thank you also to all the people I didn’t indirectly interact with but that still contributed to the fandom and to my enjoyment of the story by making translations, scanlations, subs, sharing material and so on.

It was a long travel with plenty of great parts and I’m sad I couldn’t enjoy it all at its fullest till the end but I hope you had and that your experience was greater than mine.

Said all this, I’ll still be around for a while, probably make a post about my GK experience as a whole and then still be around to see how the volumes and the anime series will turn out but likely won’t be as active as I were in the past. I’ve some unfinished meta also but I don’t know if I’ll ever go about finishing them so I’m not promising anything.

So yeah, if you’re bugged by me, I remember banning this blog is the right solution as it’ll keep on existing for still a while longer.

Anyway, still thank you to you all for the great experience.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Hi, I hope this is okay to ask / I’m not sure if your taking any questions now or if this was answered, but what do you think Sugimoto was doing between the time he burned his house down and left the village, to the time he was recruited ? I know he’s been described as a vagrant, but I still wonder..

If he was concerned with being carrying a virus and making other people sick, it leads me to believe for a good while maybe he was on his own off the grid—But also he ends up in Tokyo eventually so…I guess I don’t know what that blank space between could have looked like?

Hi!

Asking is always okay, although nowadays I’ve not much to say about GK.

The volume version actually gives us 4 extra panels dealing with how Sugimoto spent those two years in chap 275 (he left his village in 1899 and came back in 1901).

The panels show that Sugimoto moved from Kanagawa to Kyoto, implying he begged for money to survive.

There he ate the sparrow Yakitori he mentioned in chap 228 with a kind person who apparently gifted him with the coat Sugimoto wears when he shows up back in his village, just to see Umeko has just married.

He took 2 years to come back because he assumed if by 2 years he would show no syntoms, it would mean he didn’t got ill) and chap 175 has him also saying he avoided places that were densely populated.

We can speculate people wouldn’t get close to a beggar beyond what was recuired for them to toss a coin in his direction.

It’s unclear why he allows that man to get close to him, maybe by then the 2 years were almost gone by with him being always fine so he assumed it was safe enough to let him get close.

As you can see, always from chap 275, it’s only after he came back to his village he decided to go to Tokyo (sure he wasn’t infected since he’s been fine for 2 years).

Tokyo isn’t that far from Kanagawa (Kanagawa is currently a Yokohama district)...

...so it’s possible it didn’t take him much to reach it (we also know when he arrived in Tokyo it was still 1901, the year in which he came back to his village).

Along the way he might have continued begging or maybe Toraji did him at least the kindness of lending him some money.

We know he was starved when he got there because he was willing to eat from Kikuta’s bowl while being restrained by the officer candidates and, afterward, he depended on Kikuta economically, so I’ll say he didn’t manage to collect much money during the trip and, ultimately, decided to join the army to escape being poor and starved DESPITE BEING INFORMED A WAR WAS ABOUT TO START AND THEREFORE THAT HE RISKED BEING SENT ON THE FRONT LINES.

Likely he spent the remaining 3 years before the Russo-Japanese war (1904) being first trained as a soldier and then being in the Army at a stand-by.

So Sugimoto’s 2 years before joining the army were probably pretty bad as he spent them begging for money and keeping at distance.

The image in which he was begging shows him with a dog near, but since the dog doesn’t follow him to his village and dogs are meant to live more than 2 years, either it was a random dog or something happened to it during the travel.

So either he had a dog for a short while and then lost it, or he was always alone.

It’s hard to say what else happened to him, the guy he met to Kyoto seems really nice with him so maybe he spent some nice time in his care but it’s hard to guess more than this.

Still I hope it helps!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Just because it has to be asked, what are your thoughts on the volume 31 adds?

First of all, sorry for the late reply.

As for your question...

I posted a bit of what I thought into my Quick outline of the changes in Golden Kamuy Vol 31 but for a less image filled and more though detailed reply...

Visually, as usual, the volume is a lot better than the magazine, Noda redrew lot of parts so the visual quality rose quite a bit.

A different matter is, however the quality of the plot changes/additions.

Mind you, not always Noda makes relevant plot changes/additions in the volume version but, since the ‘train to hell’ arc was for a good part of the fandom, a particularly disappointing ones many hoped in them.

I’ve honestly didn’t really keep my hopes up because there just was too much that didn’t win me over and that too much was clearly strongly tied to the development Noda wanted the story to have... and in fact there’s really little that got changed/expanded/added and, it’s often not really relevant.

Still Noda managed to do some good things so let’s go through all the changes and see which ones to me felt good and which ones didn’t win me over and let’s skip all that it didn’t change and that, instead, could ave benefitted from changes.

I apprecciated the tiny addition explaining how Hijikata couldn’t dodge, which was why he was foced to block Koito’s sword even though one shouldn’t do it.

While Sugimoto worrying for Asirpa wasn’t a bad addition, quite the contrary, since it was all he did, felt repetitive when he does it again after the second explosion. Plus seeing the 7th wounding him further wasn’t really welcomed since I found Noda wounded him already way too much in the magazine yet let him fight Tsurumi as if he were just fine. Increasing the number of wounds really was unneeded since, in the end, they don’t matter to the plot and make it only more unbelievable.

I apprecciated how Noda showed Tsukishima broke his arm but I’m still not fond of how the grenade is tossed by accident and not by purpose so as to keep Tsukishima’s hands clean by the fact he targeted a child and killed a beloved character (this was done also when Tsuishima tried to kill Ariko but Ariko survived effortlessly because his father’s knife stopped the bullet).

I also apprecciate the idea of having Ushiyama trying to grab the bomb... but the bomb was drawn too close to the ground before Ushiyama tossed himself. It killed the suspance the fact Ushiyama din’t have a sporting chance to grab it because he would have never made in time. If the bomb had to be so low then it was more dramatic to have Ushiyama get in between it and Asirpa to save her then trying to tell me Ushiyama tried but missed.

Ushiyama’s wound on the left side of his face also partially hid his serene expression which wasn’t something I apprecciated much.

The expansion of Tsurumi’s attempt at getting Tsukishima on the roof while Tsukishima was shown too weak to follow, with Koito trying to stop him was something I liked... but I’m not sure it drived home the point Noda wanted to drive home. I mean, in it Tsurumi looks like a jerk who wants to force a seriously wounded Tsukishima to fight and support him further for Tsurumi’s interest and, by contrast, Koito comes out as someone who cares about Tsukishima. However I get the feeling Noda didn’t want Tsurumi to look like a jerk so... I don’t know. I found the scene better but what passed might not have been what Noda wanted to transmit so...

Sugimoto stabbing the bear to persuade it to let go of Shiraishi was a good addition (even though even better would have been to cut the whole biting Shiraishi scene).

Changing Tsurumi’s line so that now he only warn Ogata that Sugimoto is coming wasn’t bad.

I’ve mixed feelings on the scene of Sugimoto telling Asirpa to stay behind so she won’t get a VIP seat for hell. I might have mistranslated it, of course but the wording implies Sugimoto is aware Asirpa might kill someone and wants to try to stop her from doing so when supposedly he believed Asirpa decided long ago she wouldn’t do it... and because Noda let the scene in which Sugimoto changed his mind and told Asirpa to kill Ogata. So... it’s not it’s bad, it’s just it leaves me a little puzzled.

I’m sure there’s plenty of people who found it fun and I’m glad we’ve an explanation for why the bear decided to go on the roof but I really don’t like the idea Tsurumi’s gaze can scare a bear and persuade it to climb on a roof.

I might have mistranslated it but I saw no need for Tsurumi to talk as if he was speaking to someone else when he explained his plans.

I’m not really fond of the pat of Sugimoto punching Ogata. This is part because I’m not really that into brutality scenes (so yeah, others might love them and this is just me) but also because it feels as if Noda want to make it funny because Ogata’s fake eye just remains open and I’m not really into making fun of a man beating another. Again it might be just me. Mostly though because Noda will often forget to correct all the following images of Ogata giving him the additional bruises he gained. Also I’m not into the Sugimoto/Ogata pairing so them rolling around in a suggestive manner doesn’t tell me much but I know there’s plenty of people who ship them so I believe this will be a beloved change.

Noda definitely improved a lot the scene in which Ogata was shoot. I said it also when listing the changes but the way the volume version went at it was beyond dumb so the new page is really a great change... though the problem with Hiikata katana remains. Sugimoto attempted to grab it previously but the volume cut Ogata stepping on it to stop him and, I guess, the idea is that he didn’t because Ogata aimed at him but then he does again but... he will conveniently somehow let it go so that Ogata can use it to try to pull out the arrow tip. So yeah, lot of kudos for the improvement but the scene needed more work.

Kudos also for cutting Ogata’s sentence about something troubling him and making him not say out loud he can’t die but just think it. The first line didn’t work well and felt obscure since the problem should have been solved long ago and the fact Ogata thought he couldn’t die made it more dramatic thn saying it out loud.

Chap 310 remains a mess but Yuusaku’s apparition was much better drawn and the same goes for Ogata’s fall. Pity Noda hadn’t included an explanation for why Ogata let go of the sword (eyond that the plot needed it on the train) but kept the rifle as he fall but whatever.

Good is the addition of Tsurumi seeing Ogata falling, though I don’t get why Noda decided to obscure his face.

Interesting also how Tsurumi decided he has to go alone.

Good how Asirpa now look behind to where Ogata fell off and seems to feel guilty, even though it’s still tiny.

I’m not sure how to feel about Sugimoto’s inner speech about realizing he never watched at Asirpa as a partner and now realized she would go with him to hell. While foreshadowing Sugimoto’s decision to remain with Asirpa was ENORMOUSLY important, it takes away from Asirpa’s grief placing the focus on Sugimot and, somehow the whole idea behind the scene still didn’t sit well with me. Of course it can be that I didn’t translate the scene well and that I hate the SugiRipa so others might love it.

I loved Asirpa attempting to hit Tsurumi. I hated how previously she went along but just... aimed and never shoot even though, after what happened with Ogata, now she was supposedly capable to shoot a man.

The addition of Kikuta’s image as Sugimoto remembered him was nice and also nice was to draw Shiraishi’s eyes instead of keeping them shadowed.

The whole thing with Asirpa about to fall of the train was unclear and I’m not really fond of it, except for the part in which Asirpa tries to warn Sugimoto about Tsurumi being behind him. That one was cool.

In an effort to make the situation even more dramatic it looks as if the locomotive is the one pushing futher down in the water Sugimoto and Tsurumi... and hey, it makes it really dramatic and cool... but since it isn’t explained how THE BOTH OF THEM SURVIVED to it and to their respective potentially fatal wounds (Sugimoto has a sword through his lug and got stabbed in his stomach but at least we can hope Shiraishi fished him up, Tsurumi got a bullet through his lug but no one, as far as we know, was there to fishhim up and bring him to a doctor asap), it makes the survival even more unbelievable.

Umeko being pregnant seemed an afterthough to further push forwad his idea that Sugimoto collecting gold Umeko didn’t need was still useful because Toraji’s son won’t accept his stepfather’s inheritance should he get a stepbrother so he would need the gold to live. I mean, maybe it’s a matter of Japanese culture so for me it’s hard to connect the dots but the idea I’m expected to predict Toratarou’s actions in the future when he was hardly a character in the story feels like a stretch even if now Noda hinted he could get a stepbrother.

On the other side Umeko’s emotional reaction to hearing Sugimoto’s words was a nice addition.

The omake at the end basically making Tsurumi a noble patriot who manipulated MacArthur into stopping the Soviet Union from taking Hokkaido was something I could do without. Through GK, although Tsurumi claimed to act for the benefit of others we saw him acting mostly for his own self interest and not really merely out of patriotism. He didn’t care about others, he used them dry and we even saw it in this volume with Tsukishima. And now weìve to believe out of the blue he decided to do something nice for Japan selflessly? Why? What produced such change? Sure, since years are gone by Tsurumi could have changed into everything, really, but if Tsurumi became a new man offscreen I’m not interested. I wanted to see him becoming a new man offscreen. I’m fine with learning he lived but not with seeing him being painted as a noble patriot after he got close to cause a civil war. But whatever, Noda retconned Tsurumi’s goals through the story so yeah, maybe I’m just biased because I can’t let go the previous canon.

Plus, according to Soviet officers the reason why Hokkaido wasn’t invaded lies in the Battle of Shumshu, whcih was the only battle between the Soviets and Japanese in August–September 1945 in which Soviet casualties exceeded those of the Japanese. The Soviets suffered 1,567 casualties – 516 killed or missing and another 1,051 wounded – and the loss of five landing ships, while Japanese casualties totaled 1,018 – 256 killed and another 762 wounded.

The operation demonstrated the difficulty of amphibious invasions of enemy territory and Soviet shortfalls and inexperience in amphibious warfare.

The idea that MacArthur went against Soviet interests despite them being allied in favour of Japan doesn’t keep into consideration how the Soviet Union and the USA had poor relations despite their allegiance and the USA would definitely prefer not to help them. I mean, the Korea war takes place in 1950, when the cold war was already started, is it really surprising MacArthur would be okay stopping an eventual Soviet Union advance, especially since the USA has worked into turning Japan into an ally?

But okay, this is an alternate history but still this great mystery feels something that’s constructed solely for people who don’t know about the Battle of Shumshu and the Cold War to try to give Tsurumi a better portray after the manga has ended... which is way too late.

If Noda wanted to make Tsurumi someone noble he should have worked on it earlier, at least that’s how I feel about it.

Anyway overall most of the changes/additions were good and definitely improved the reading experience so who enjoyed the magazine version will love even more the volume one.

For me though the changes weren’t enough to make me love this arc.

They softened the blow, sure, but didn’t save the story, especially because other parts for which I would have apprecciated some changes were left as they were. But hey, that’s just me.

So, really, forthose who loved the magazine version the volume will come out as even more amazing and still kudos to Noda for improving his work. It’s really a pity I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I did in the past but... well, it happens.

And well, that’s all.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

re: your other anon's ask about sugimoto and umeko, i agree with you about the conclusion feeling rushed :/ also sugimoto and asirpa living together and still being codependent(?) put a bad taste in my mouth. on that note, i understand that GK is not some sort of shounen that places ideals above pragmatism and reality at all costs, but personally i would've liked to see umeko rebel a bit against her mother's wishes by choosing not to marry whatever rich guy can fix all her problems :( i recognize that living as a widowed and disabled mother is extremely difficult for a woman of any time and place, and even more so for a woman in meiji era japan, but i felt that this kind of "willpower" was one of umeko's charms (and part of the reason why both toraji and sugimoto were so fond of her) so i felt a bit betrayed...maybe i'm just being a naive idealist though, especially because we didn't really have much more of an umeko POV past chapter 200 to even see what her thought process was

Well...

First of all, WARNING to all the readers.

As you can guess by the ask this reply isn’t one that’s going to shower Noda in praises for how he handled things. If you can’t handle seeing his work criticized, I recommend you to hit the back button and forget this post.

Now back to the ask.

You touch one of the topics I wanted totalk about in my previous answer but in the end did not because I feared I would go out of topic.

The story didn’t really need to place ideals above pragmatism, Umeko didn’t need to wait for Sugimoto, nor to have her eyes cured thanks to someone else’s money.

She could have just found someone nice whom she loved and who would accept her even if she was disabled so that she didn’t have to be strong for her own sake and the one of her kid but she could just be happy with the person she loves.

I know there’s who headcanon she fell for the guy whom she marry but this is never so much as hinted in the story or in the interview.

The story gives us this, how a wealthy over 40 man heard of her and now wants to marry her so that he can have kids with her. (chap 35)

Yes, Umeko’s mother calls him ‘good’ also, but, since it’s clear Umeko doesn’t know the guy nor he knows her (he’d heard of her) it might be she’s just trying to persuade Umeko (besides, back then, if you were rich, you were considered ‘good’ just for doing so much as paying attention to someone poor).

The story goes further by making a point of how everyone has to survive.

Love is not involved here... but maybe she could have fallen in love with him?

This is how Noda comments the whole thing.

From her own perspective as a character, Umeko is also not just someone waiting for the hero to save her, but a strong woman who chose to remarry early for the sake of both herself and her son. (translation courtesy of @piduai)

In short she didn’t marry for love but ‘to save herself and her son’.

This is how Umeko was strong, she didn’t wait for Sugimoto to save her but just ‘sold herself as a bride’ to a rich guy.

Is it really a choice? She had no idea Sugimoto would do so much as to come back and Sugimoto too was worried she might end up prostituting herself, which made him in a rush to find the gold. (chap 15)

So the implication would be that things might turn sour for Umeko if she remained ummarried for long.

Toraji implied he wasn’t rich so, with his death, the family doesn’t have an income. Maybe the state passed them some money because Toraji died as a soldier, but it might very well be not much.

At this point, between whoring herself and marrying someone rich, there’s not even a choice to make. It’s clear one would chose option B.

Noda tries to paint it as okay because ‘she’s being strong’ and this let Sugimoto free to pursue the path he wanted to pursue since, apparently, he wanted to marry Umeko solely because Toraji asked him

The reason for that is Toraji told Sugimoto to get together with Umeko before dying, and he is not the kind of guy who could have ignored that and return to Hokkaido with Asirpa. (translation courtesy of @piduai​)

Overall though, I can’t help but see Umeko not as strong but as unfortunate.

She’s a victim of circumstances in which she has little or no voice in the matter and her misfortune is used to trigger the plot.

Ultimately in the last chapters Noda sees her more of a plot device (she needs to be the motive for Sugimoto to go to the gold hunt but she can’t hold him back once he’s done) than a character.

Her thoughts aren’t developed nor given any relevance since Sugimoto doesn’t bother to ask how things are going.

We could have been told she has fallen in love for her husband but no, she had to be strong.

Now... GK is a seinen, so not paying great attention to female characters is a staple of the genre and I already have a post about how, despite this, Noda at least tried to have many female characters who were different among them...

...but when I think at how he handled Umeko in the last chapter I can’t help but think this too was narrated in a poor way. But well, that’s just me.

Other people might be happy that Umeko was just quickly kicked out of the plot and Sugimoto’s life so that he could move in Hokkaido with Asirpa.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 312 “Share”

So new chapter and, I guess, I’ll remind everyone of the WARNING.

If you only want to hear praises for the chapter, the ban button for either the tag or myself might be an option you’ll want to consider.

With a fair warning given, let’s move on.

Sugimoto shoots at Tsurumi and, predictably, misses him, then tells him the train is headed for hell and there are VIP seats on it. Tsurumi hears it and… remembers of how Kikuta called Sugimoto the Vagrant boy when they were escaping with Asirpa… and connects it to Kikuta’s prediction that the Vagrant boy is going to take him down.

We see two flashbacks, one of Kikuta saying ‘you’re the vagrant boy!?’ as he sees Sugimoto and the other about Kikuta telling Tsurumi ‘the Vagrant boy is gonna take him down’.

The visual seems to imply those two flashbacks are Tsurumi’s memories and that in that moment Tsurumi connected the dots and grew upset (he’s covered by a swirling shading and his eyes are completely black) as he mentions that Kikuta’s last words about a vagrant boy might refer to Sugimoto.

Now, okay, I get it’s possible Tsurumi overheard Kikuta and Sugimoto’s discussion despite the noise of the car’s engine and the wind blowing their voice away, but I think it’s a bit odd if he overheard that discussion that he connected the dots only now.

I would have preferred if the idea was he never heard Kikuta calling Sugimoto Vagrant boy on the car and that he connected the dots merely due to how Kikuta, after mentioning the Vagrant boy, talked about VIP seats same as Sugimoto.

I mean, if Tsurumi could overheard Kikuta and Sugimoto talking back then, he should have overheard Sugimoto calling Kikuta ‘Kikuta-san’, figured the two knew each other and connected the dots much sooner. He could have even assumed Sugimoto too was a man of Central!

But whatever, it’s not big and maybe Noda will improve it in the volume version.

Back to Sugimoto, he seems surprised, then, as Tsurumi comments about how ‘that miserable little spy said that the vagrant boy would take him down’, he grows angry, apparently on Kikuta’s behalf.

Okay, it’s no secret I love Kikuta, so of course I’m glad Sugimoto is upset on his behalf but… chap 279 had Sugimoto saying he wouldn’t hold back against Kikuta, as he apparently hadn’t realized the latter has tried to save his ass by pushing him off the car… and we know how Sugimoto feels against traitors, so he should be upset at Kikuta for being a spy…

Though it’s also worth to mention Sugimoto has never been 100% constant on this.

I mean, he didn’t hold against Tanigaki the fact he left the army and didn’t tattle them out to Tsurumi… but he kept on yammering about Ogata being untrustworthy because he left Tsurumi’s army and has an ambivalent relation with Hijikata (because the latter betrayed him at Abashiri), then tried to kill Boutarou because Boutarou too betrayed him but apologized to his corpse when he caused his corpse to fly out of the car… so okay, since Kikuta didn’t betray him and Sugimoto was fond of him, he probably was more than willing to forgive him for betraying his enemy, Tsurumi, and feel angry on his behalf for what Tsurumi did to him.

Anyway Sugimoto gets upset, Asirpa tells him to calm down but we’ll never know if Asirpa’s words calmed him down somehow or, in case they didn’t, if Sugimoto being angry was a problem.

In fact Sugimoto immediately throws himself at Tsurumi… which seems to hint he didn’t calm down however… there are no real negative consequences.

I mean, Tsurumi tries to shoot at him but, since he is clearly not as good as a sniper as Ogata, despite being close only hits Sugimoto’s arm and then the two engage in battle… or should I call it rifle-fight as they exchange blows using the rifles as if they were clubs?

Whatever, the battle starts and we aren’t asked anymore to care or notice if Sugimoto is angry or not as the two exchanges blow.

Tsurumi’s blow causes Sugimoto to lose his footing and almost slips off the locomotive, which gives Tsurumi a chance to kick away his rifle, and try to shoot him again. Too late though, because with impressive speed Sugimoto is already up and close enough he can grab Tsurumi’s rifle.

Tsurumi bites one of the limbs of Sugimoto’s cut cheek because Tsurumi showed us, right from when he chopped away Captain Wada’s finger, he likes to bite.

Sugimoto punches and kicks him away but Tsurumi, same as how Ogata did in chap 4, managed to remove the bolt of the rifle before Sugimoto could try to use it to shoot at him.

I should probably mention this chapter likes drawing parallels but… I’m not sure I find the one between Tsurumi and Ogata an interesting one.

Sure, Tsurumi maybe groomed Ogata, and I’m saying ‘maybe’ because, although there were hints he might have done it, this part of the story was never cleared up so we don’t know when Tsurumi and Ogata met and how Tsurumi influenced him beyond some vague parallels but… that’s all. Are we meant to assume Tsurumi taught Ogata this little trick?

Who knows?

The manga doesn’t tell and it could be a coincidence.

The reference to me feels merely like trying to capitalize on the memory of a character who was already killed off and, considering how it was killed off, I would have preferred if Tsurumi has merely managed to kick the rifle off Sugimoto’s hands without any reminder of how Ogata was prone to remove bolts from the rifles.

Anyway, with the rifle out of service, Sugimoto tosses it away and grabs Hijikata’s sword.

The scene however switches to Kantarou and Nagakura, the latter taking away Hijikata. Kantarou asks him what about the land deed and if he isn’t going to try to get revenge. Nagakura though couldn’t care less about the land deed. He was fighting there to protect Hijikata as he chased his dream, now that Hijikata is dead, he doesn’t care any longer and doesn’t want others to find his corpse and see him dead.

So maybe Nagakura wasn’t searching death on a battleground as Tsurumi suggested, just to return Hijikata’s favour, as Hijikata saved his life long ago by causing him to leave the battleground.

Honestly I won’t blame anyone who thinks Nagakura and Hijikata were more than friends, but whatever.

Kantarou notices the train is stopping and that’s due to Shiraishi turning the brakes and then running after the locomotive the same way he did on Karafuto when he run after Asirpa, Kiro and Ogata.

This is a parallel I appreciate more as it fits with Shiraishi, his growth and the fact he doesn’t want to leave his friends. Of course he probably wouldn’t reach them by foot but there’s no problem because, conveniently, Tanigaki survived and is coming to reach them riding on a horse.

No, really, Tsurumi’s aim sucks so bad. He was pretty close when he shoot a completely unaware Tanigaki in the back and didn’t manage to hit his spine? It actually seems he only grazed his side so he didn’t even hit his intestines! Honestly I hope I’m wrong, not because I want Tanigaki dead, but because Tsurumi’s lack of aim in this case seems ridicule.

Whatever.

I wonder if it’s worth to mention that the soldiers of the 7th which survived to the bear, not only don’t go check in the 1st car what’s going on, but don’t even bother to go to the 3rd car to check what’s going on so that Nagakura and Kantarou aren’t bothered by anyone.

I expect no one to care about Koito and Tsukishima either so those two will manage to survive till the end. Whatever, I didn’t expect them to die.

Back to Sugimoto and Tsurumi, while Sugimoto stands with his sword pulled out in front of Tsurumi (I wonder if Noda pictured describing this scene could feel as if readers were describing something more dirty than what is actually is), Tsurumi rhetorically asks if the gold was in Goryokaku.

Tsurumi points out if this weren’t the case it would mean Wilk made those gold coins to deceive the Ainu pretending they had military funds that actually didn’t exist so that he could push them to start an uprising. Asirpa sweats, Sugimoto’s gaze darken as he remembers the gold falling in his hands.

Tsurumi starts his patriotic speech. Japan lacks resources, to defend it they’ve to expand to Manchuria, Central would only hold them back so they need to use the land deed to keep Central at bay and yadda yadda and Sugimoto too fought Russia for Japan’s sake, didn’t he?

I wonder if this is meant to echo the first time Tsurumi and Sugimoto talked. Back then Tsurumi tried to win Sugimoto over by telling him Japan did nothing for him and he should help them to take over Hokkaido as a payback for how Japan used him. Now… he’s trying to tell him by helping him he would protect Japan?

How in the world Tsurumi came to believe Sugimoto might have something as vague as patriotic spirit? This is ‘great judge of characters and master manipulator Tsurumi’? I wonder if he managed to gain such a reputation merely because he used his Tsurumisexuality on young boys and traumatized soldiers and, in truth, he wasn’t such a big deal. I mean, I get he messed up during his first meeting with Sugimoto but that could be explained with him hardly knowing Sugimoto and expecting him to think the same as his soldiers but now, when Sugimoto has made clear more than once he just wanted the gold and protect Asirpa and has not a single ounce of patriotic bone in his body?

In fact Sugimoto points out he worked for the army because they fed him, which is a reference to the reason why Sugimoto enlisted, something we learnt in chap 278. I wonder if that flashback was always in the plans or it was created later but whatever, it’s not big deal.

Tsurumi changes method and tells Sugimoto to jump off the train. Tsurumi will forget about the gold (why bringing it up then?... Tsurumi you’re being a poor liar) because Central is pursuing him so he wouldn’t have time to bring it with himself (so Tsurumi has no more men to back him up? Where’s Central anyway? How would Sugimoto know this is the truth?) so the gold belongs to Sugimoto (who’ll only have to fight off the soldiers Tsurumi left at Goryokaku to get it… unless the few that tailed after Tsurumi and Koito were the only ones alive? This is pretty confusing, really but still Tsurumi controls Yodogawa so he can get reinforcements from Abashiri).

Tsurumi doesn’t bother talking about the land deed which he clearly doesn’t plan to return and Sugimoto and Asirpa don’t ask for it.

He gets a deep gaze from Sugimoto and Asirpa then Asirpa refuses Tsurumi’s proposition aiming at him and Sugimoto decides they’ll end it right there and now, preparing to strike him with the sword.

I guess after her first taste at attempted murder Asirpa has grown bloodthirsty since she’s again not trying to negotiate. I mean, I wouldn’t trust Tsurumi as far as I can toss Ushiyama so I get not trusting him over such unreliable words as the ones he said but… I get Sugimoto but Asirpa looks way too comfortable with this but, at the same time, this makes weird she waited so long before tossing her arrow at Tsurumi.

Well, no, actually not because I bet this is another attempt to keep Asirpa’s hands clean so she threaten Tsurumi and shows she’s ready to kill him but who’ll get to do the dirty work is Sugimoto. She’s not going to shoot him down and end the story.

Tsurumi smiles but he actually has hidden a gun in a spot near to the one in which he is and is trying to reach for it because he knew they would get to that situation and has hidden a gun in a strategic spot.

Actually the scene reminds me of a scene of “Andy and Norman”, the Italian transposition of “The Star-Spangled Girl” comedy written by Neil Simon but I’m pretty sure it’s just me.

But this surprising development is meant to face another surprising development.

Sugimoto claims such a deal mean nothing to him… because when the gold fell on him and filled his hands… he stuck said gold dust filled hands into his pockets, moving the gold into them so he already got his share and doesn’t need to go back to Goryokaku.

So, when in chap 302 Hijikata was under the impression Sugimoto forgot about his share of gold he was actually mistaken as Sugimoto has already taken it. And Asirpa clearly had no idea about it because in chap 311 she volunteered to work to get Sugimoto his share if he were to give up on the gold.

To sum it up, no, Sugimoto wasn’t as noble and selfless as those chapters painted him to be.

And this is great, this fits Sugimoto’s character because it brings him back to being a grey character, a human character, instead than a pure, noble white one with 0 self interest and plenty of sacrificial spirit… though it feels as if he acted quite like a jerk by filling his own pockets without even saying it to Asirpa, the legitimate owner of the gold.

I mean, I was pretty sure Sugimoto had gold on himself but I was thinking it had ended up in his pockets by accident, when it fell on him, not that he had collected it on purpose.

Whatever, it’s not a big deal… I prefer Sugimoto being a grey character, as I said it makes him more human.

However in a scene that mimics the one in chap 135 (I wonder in the volume version this pace will become a spread as well) we see Sugimoto having his hand filled with gold dust the way Hijikata filled his own hand with his own blood in the fight with Inudou. Then, as Tsurumi tries to use the gun against Sugimoto, Sugimoto tosses the gold dust in Tsurumi’s eyes before using his sword against Tsurumi.

We don’t see if Sugimoto hit something as the gold dust covers Tsurumi.

Now… I get the idea is this scene should be seen with a HUGE SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, a suspension of disbelief which actually should be used for all the duel.

I mean Sugimoto and Tsurumi act like they weren’t on a train running madly because it’s unsupervised and isn’t pulling anymore any car. Not only they can sand on it without holding onto anything and fight with an overall perfect balance despite the shaking and the air running at them, not only their hair remain perfectly combed and Sugimoto’s cap doesn’t fly away (but Sugimoto’s cap never flies away no matter what unless it flying away is plot related so whatever) but, although Sugimoto is tossing the gold dust downwind, the wind didn’t push back it back in Sugimoto’s eyes but it managed to reach Tsurumi’s before the latter could shoot because Tsurumi is also slow at shooting.

Now, of course, we can speculate if the trick is due to the weight of the gold dust or the speed or whatever, but I think the real idea is we’re just supposed to shrug off if the whole thing is possible or not and suspend our disbelief in favor of applying the rule of cool.

And yeah, it’s cool and symbolic to have the gold blind Tsurumi so as to lead him to his death while Asirpa manages to continue to kill no one.

Personally I would find it interesting if the gold were to manage to blind Sugimoto as well but with his ‘heroic’ sacrifice of using the gold he ‘picked up without telling anyone’ (read: stole… and yeah, I know Asirpa would have given it to him had he asked but that’s the point, he didn’t ask) I guess Sugimoto redeemed himself (sort of, he still has another pocked filled with gold dust, unless it’s going to throw it too or his pocket has a hole) so he won’t get blinded by gold.

In a narration that clearly doesn’t care about realism but just with surprising its readers it works well.

(If we go back to Hijikata’s scene that too used the rule of cool in abundance as, if Hijikata had been losing enough blood he could collect so much in the palm of his hand in such a short time, he would have probably died of blood loss short later)

I’m not saying this as a complaint or as a praise, “Golden Kamuy” has been relying on rule of cool a lot right from the start so I’m not surprised it goes back on relying on it, personally I much prefer it because, at least, it means we’re not on ‘easy mode’ anymore and as I hated the easy mode, this is definitely an improvement.

In fact we have Sugimoto having to come up with a plan to defeat Tsurumi and implement it, it wasn’t just a bug that conveniently ended in Tsurumi’s eyes temporally blinding him so that Sugimoto could strike him with ease.

The fact we’ve dropped out of easy mode is a good thing, regardless of people loving or hating the rule of cool and I honestly think many of us would have less problems with the scene if it didn’t come after a series of disappointing chapters, though, of course, maybe it’s just me.

On the other side, sure, the fact that Sugimoto already has his pockets filled with gold makes his choice easier (Sugimoto didn’t really have to choose if to remain on the train and lose the gold or if to get the gold and leave the train) as the note at the bottom of the last page remarks so we aren’t in really hard mode for what regard character’s choice but whatever, at least we’re not in easy mode for the fight so I’ll take it as an improvement. Too bad it came SO LATE.

On another note… yes, I caught up on how “Golden Kamuy” wants to establish a parallel between Sugimoto and Hijikata… but I’m not really sure why, beyond that Hijikata was cool and rumored to have eaten mermaid meat which gave him longevity/immortality (it depends from the myth).

I mean, sure they could be both awesome warriors who wouldn’t hesitate to use underhand tricks but… Hijikata was in this mess because he was a patriot and believed this dream of his would help Japan, Sugimoto is in this mess because he wants to help the people he cares for (Umeko and Asirpa). I doubt there will be a big reveal in which we’ll discover Sugimoto is Hijikata’s grandchild/nephew, and while I get Hijikata is popular… well, it feels weird to me that the story seems to want to point to Sugimoto as the new Hijikata, not only by having Hijikata saying they both fight following the Bushidou but with scenes like the one in which Hijikata, before dying, sees himself in Sugimoto, in how Sugimoto is now carrying Hijikata’s sword and in how the visual is careful to draw a parallel between the Hijikata/Inudou fight and the Sugimoto/Tsurumi one.

Sugimoto is a character who’s cool enough even without him becoming the Hijikata of the new era. If this scene is meant to be similar to the ones in “Saint Seiya”, “Sailor Moon” or “Dragon Ball” in which the spirit of friends appear near to the hero in the final confrontation… I don’t know, I didn’t really feel the need for it because it’s not like Hijikata and Sugimoto had that deep emotional bond of friendship the over mentioned anime instead involved.

Tsurumi was just a common enemy but so was for Ogata, Kikuta, Wilk and so on.

So… I’m a bit confuse because even though the scene is cool… same as the Ogata parallel it feels more like an attempt to capitalize on another beloved, now dead, character, Hijikata than something with plot relevance. But maybe it’s just me.

Still two more chapters to the end.

Sugimoto and Asirpa will probably leave the train on Tanigaki’s horse.

Tsurumi, I think, will live a little longer, maybe Sugimoto’s blow only cut away the thing protecting his forehead giving us a full Tsurumi’s face reveal… or wounded him.

Yeah, it could have been fatal as well but I would expect Noda to dedicate a bit more time to Tsurumi’s death.

We’ll see, but I expect him to still be in the next chapter, even if wounded.

On another note... will the story even address Tsurumi’s grievance against Wilk and how HE coped with his own guilt for his wife and daughter’s death? Will he also shoot himself? Or will he continue to blame Wilk? Or we’ll skip this entirely? We’ll see...

[goldenkamuyhunting]

(1) This is more a confession than an ask, (i don't know anyone who reads GK and i NEED to speak about it, i'm sorry lol). Sometimes i feel a little sad about what will happen to Ogata, i mean, i know that maybe he'll survive due to the "Survival Road" theory, but IDK... There's so many things that i want to see, and also, being alive is the best thing that can happen to him? I still want to see him not feeling guilty anymore, i want to see him "free" and without his ghosts...

Hum...

the situation with Ogata is complicate. He's on the survival road so he should survive unless Noda drastically changed his plans.

Noda said: "I don’t intend to write Golden Kamuy as a manga that’s mainly about solving the gold mystery. I write it thinking of it as a story of each person searching for their role in life. Because I write it like a drama with multi-protagonists, I feel that I have to write each character with some depth, or else the work would end up half-baked." [Noda Satoru from Yukimura Makoto x Noda Satoru Interview: Part 2]

So I think that the idea isn't that 'staying alive' is the best that can happen to Ogata but more like 'finding his role, his place'.

Premise: we still miss a piece in Ogata's story, which might be relevant.

Noda provided us with this information:

Q50: Tsukishima’s life was hinged on learning Russian. How did he do it? I’m curious about whether he went to classes or used study materials available in Japan, or had to learn on site. Noda: Russian knowledge was used merely as a pretext for the army so it’s not that he needed to learn it immediately. He started learning after getting out of prison, from Tsurumi and on site. Ogata was studying together with him, but he wasn’t as diligent about it as Tsukishima. [Q&A section from the Golden Kamuy fanbook translation courtesy of @piduai]

This means, in 1897, Ogata was with Tsurumi and Tsukishima in Vladivostok. Ogata was born 22nd of January, 1882, meaning he was 15 at the time, yet they chose him, who didn't even know Russian like Tsukishima, to take part to such a mission. Why? Who found him or recommended him?

We aren't even sure he was already part of the army back then.

Did Hanazawa himself do it deluding him into the idea his father might hold some interest in him? If it was Hanazawa who pushed him into becoming a sniper this would make an interesting contrast with how, instead, he wanted Yuusaku to remain innocent... but truth is we've no idea. It could have been Tsurumi who picked him up.

In 1901, at 19, we see he's a second class private under Tsurumi, meaning he has recently joined the army (second class private is the first rank you get and it was kind of a 'training' rank, which is why everyone who took part to the war was already a first class private) yet Central came to chose him as a spy for Tsurumi despite him being so young back then anda relative newby in the army.

There's likely a story we don't know yet about Ogata being chosen while being so young. Maybe the trip in Vladivostok could have been just because he was an amazing sniper already (but still, how they came to know him?) but for Central to come to believe they could use him against Tsurumi... well, this is kind of big.

Why this premise?

Because as I don't know his backstory my understanding of him might be flawed.

Anyway, from what I could observe, Ogata has lived, up till now, tied to his personal disgrace and his toxic copying mechanisms to deal with it.

Almost everything he does or comes to believe is tied to his father in a way or another.

He kills his mother so that his father will come back.

He pities the kidnapped Koito because he believes him to be discharged by his father same as him.

He kills Yuusaku because he believes this will bring Hanazawa to get interested in him.

He accepts to kill Hanazawa because this will give him a chance to talk with Hanazawa himself.

He believes he lacks something fundamental because his father didn't love him and his mother.

He saves Shinpei from his father likely because he saw himself in the way the man rejected his son.

When he tells Asirpa about 'his last talk with Sugimoto' he basically has 'Sugimoto' says all he wanted Hanazawa to say, including mentioning his mother's name and Hanazawa's favourite food.

He interprets Wilk's intentions toward Asirpa as matching Hanazawa's intentions toward Yuusaku, assuming Wilk too wanted to make an icon out of her and that's why she had to remain 'innocent'.

And, as if to drive home better the message Ogata is still tied to his father we got this:

iOf all the disguises he could chose for Ogata, Noda put him in a disguise that remarks a father/son bond.

So I like to think that part of Ogata's arc will include him dealing with his relationship with his father.

The other part needs to probably include facing his unresolved feelings of guilt. Ogata and Yuusaku's dynamic raised the question of 'does guit for killing people exist?'

Ogata claims it doesn't, yet he's haunted by what he did to Yuusaku (and, possibly, to his mother) and it gets worse when he deals with Asirpa. That's because he comes to see Yuusaku in her... but considering the many parallels between Asirpa and his mother, because he also sees his mother in Asirpa.

Meanwhile Asirpa has her own problems..

Not only she has been entrusted with basically carrying out to complexion her father's plan and from the start of the story her involvement in it was tied to Wilk (first she wanted to avenge him, then to see if he was Nopperabou, then to understand why he betrayed the Ainu and why he was killed, currently she has to fulfil his dream as well as dealing with the grudge Tsurumi had against him), making her a person who's also acting due to the strong ties she has with her father... but the thing is further complicated by how she too decided she could kill (especially if this is to protect Sugimoto)... but when she was about to do it to save her own life, it's a flashback of Ogata falling after her arrow hit him what stills her hand.

Asirpa didn't want to kill Ogata on the ice field, she threw that arrow by mistake, due to Sugimoto startling her. Up until the moment she discovered Ogata lied to her, she was determinate into considering him a friend and had invested a lot into their relation. Her feelings for him due to the betrayal were, of course, complicate but what was clear and yet she tried to bury it because she too, like Ogata, uses as copying mechanism to hide her own problems, was she felt guilty for almost killing him, yet she never actively faced it but this messed her up.

So their arcs might overlap because they're dealing with similar issues (ties with their fathers and guilt) and copying mechanisms (attempting to bury problems deep inside themselves instead than facing them).

Said so, I don't know if their arcs will overlap because they will intersect or merely because they will narratively mirror each other.

Sekiya's arc overlaps the one of Tsurumi's past but the two never met, Sekiya's arc is merely used as a stool to better drive home the message for the Tsurumi's past arc.

We'll see.

Now, I don't know how Ogata's arc will go beyond that I expect him to survive, if his failure to deal with his issues will become the motivation for Asirpa to instead manage to deal with her own or if they'll both suceed.

Ogata had more than one moment of 'save the cat' (also known as 'pet the dog' trope, it's a moment in which a villain does something nice with no gain, or that even brings disadvantage to him, these being making sure Huci was spared, saving Shinpei, rubbing Koito's back and, although it was only mentioned in a Q&A, repaying the old man who helped him in Karafuto with a cod fish) which are typical of redemption arcs. I doubt Noda wants to go for a redemption arc in a traditional way but it could be he's aiming to a growing arc, in which Ogata grows out of his problems.

On another note chap 296 reminded us Hijikata is needed so as to bring the land deed to Enomoto. If Hijikata were to die in this arc though, this would become impossible. Ogata has been sent there by central likely to retrieve the land deed. If it'll be possible to use the land deed maybe he'll be the one who actually could bring it to Enomoto (it's speculated his grandfather too might have fought on the Shogun's side so it's possible his recommendations into involving him in Army work came from there).

Either way they'll better hurry as Enomoto canonically died on 26 October 1908 and in GK we're in 2008 already, spring being in chap 241 so I'm not sure if we're still in spring or we've moved to Autumn already.

So anyway I think Ogata's arc will definitely go somewhere in form of personal improvement, possibly also in form of moral improvement but I'm not so sure about it because really, there's a long way to go.

Would it be better for him to die instead than just survive and psychologically improve?

The real key here is not that people in the story were presented as 'better off dead' but that, before dying or through dying they got what they longed for.

Nikaidou saw again his brother, Toni could repay Hijikata, Usami heard from Tsurumi the words he wanted to hear, the overmentioned Sekiya rediscovered the existance of God and so on.

For others, like Kikuta or Koito senior, death didn't really provide anything but they still died with hope because, before it, they got what they wanted, Kikuta believed Sugimoto would cause Tsurumi's downfall, Koito senior managed to destroy the cannon, Toraji managed to save Sugimoto by managing to throw him away for the first time.

None of those people was saved by death, it's not like death is presented like their way out to the pain, it's either the realization of something before dying or the accomplishment of something before dying that gave them 'salvation'.

Now... I don't know what Noda is planning for Ogata and if his plans were forced to change due to some reason but, since Ogata was introduced back in chap 4 (before Tsurumi and, possibly, at the same time as Hijikata as I think Kasahara is referring to him) as a major player, Noda should have had plans for him, his arc and its conclusion.

I don't know if I'll be satisfied with them, or if the fandom at large will be satisfied because surely with Ogata he's playing a complicate game, but I want to hope the plan will be more than him just 'living'. There would be no point to having kept him alive for so long otherwise, Noda could have just killed him on the ice field.

Though well, this is just me. We can only wait and see how his arc will develop.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Suicide by arson, or, basically, let’s talk about Nikaidō Kōhei

No, don’t worry, I’m not trying to guess which will be Nikaidō’s future…

But let’s go in order and start with…

A PREMISE

This is another of my analysis about how Tsurumi used a ‘perverted version of love’ which is Dante Alighieri’s way to refer to the capital vices, to manipulate men to serve him and kill for him, the first one dealing with Tsukishima Hajime and his main vice, Acedia.

In the premise for that one you might find a more detailed explanation on how I came to wonder ‘can it be to depict how Tsurumi used love to manipulate his men, Noda also took inspiration by the capital vices?’ if you’re curious about it.

So, here ends the, this time very short premise and back to Nikaidō we go, and to the vice that caused his downfall, a vice that can be compared to a consuming fire, Ira.

What’s Ira, some of you might wonder?

Well, many of you probably know it by the name of ‘wrath’ and yes, you would be, more or less, spot on.

IRA

The etymology is dubious, but Ira is fundamentally a state of uncontrolled anger, rage, and even hatred, which manifests itself in violent actions, in the wish to seek vengeance and which may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. So yeah, you can translate it as ‘wrath’ as the meaning is more or less the same.

Now, before we start we’ve to remember that there’s a huge difference between getting angry and indulging in the vice of Ira.

Sometimes we need to get angry, sometimes it’s even the right thing to do, we should get angry at certain things… but we shouldn’t let the anger take control of us, until it’s all we can feel.

And we should remember that what turns anger into the vice of Ira isn’t if it’s justified or not, it’s if we lose control of it or not, if we overindulge in it or not.

This point is often missed but it’s valid for all the capital vices.

Being proud, not spending money easily, feeling physical attraction, loving a special food, getting angry, thinking someone is unfairly favoured or deciding to not care about something, isn’t necessarily ALWAYS a despicable capital vice.

Those are all things one actually needs to do, things that are part of being humans, things that, if we don’t do, might produce more harm than good, but in moderate, controlled amounts, otherwise, if we lose control of it, if that’s all we can think and rules our actions… well, that’s us indulging in a capital vice and letting it consume us, and Ira is maybe the most consuming one of them all, it’s a killing thing that turns people into a beast, blind them and devours them, burns them alive and consumes everything until it’s too late.

But to better get things into perspective let’s dig into Nikaidō Kōhei, the ‘Fukushū no futago kataware’ (復讐の双子片割れ “Twin bent on revenge”) and how amazing Noda’s portray of him was.

“All I care about is killing that fucker Sugimoto Saichi as soon as humanly possible!” [Chap 45]

Whoa, calm down, let’s slow down and start from the beginning, okay?

PART 1 INTRODUCTION: THE TWIN MINIONS

The first time we see Nikaidō is in chap 15.

He’s a character who’s with us by long time, and he too, like Tsukishima, at first seems to start like a nameless minion, a mob character inserted in the story to do Tsurumi’s bidding, but with a peculiarity Tsukishima didn’t have, there’s two of him.

Nikaidō, the Nikaidō I will be talking about, is the older of a pair of twins, his name is Kōhei and his younger brother is named Yōhei, their names divided just by a kanji… but, since at the beginning the two siblings are seen as a single unit, I will talk a bit about them both.

Physically they look EXACTLY the same and, since they’re both wearing a military uniform, this makes even harder to distinguish them.

To a fan who asked how to recognize who is who among them Noda replied.

Q37: Please tell me how to distinguish between the Nikaidō twins.

Noda: At the cram school I went to there were two twin brothers as well and I couldn’t distinguish between them so I’d just ask, “hey, which one are you?”. Nikaidō twins got the same treatment by Tsurumi and Co. [Q&A section from the Golden Kamuy fanbook]

So basically, not even the people in the 7th could recognize them… which… is not nice really. After all each twin is a single person in his own rights, with his own identity, tastes and experiences. Those were other times though and maybe the twins had grown so used to be considered a single unit they didn’t even realize they’re two different people.

As long as Yōhei is alive, Noda usually will depict them together, often in the same panel, often making them also physically close, their expressions more or less mirroring each other.

They are two but, to a casual reader, they seem to be a single unit, a single body with two heads like a military version of a Dōmo-kōmo (どうもこうも), a two-headed Japanese creature with gray skin which originally was the ghost of two doctors fused together, something for which we can also blame the fact that Noda tends to depict one of the two lowered and the head of the other above him.

Yet, they’re not the same and, if we pay attention to their story we can find out a small difference in their look as they don’t dress in EXACTLY the same manner. One wears puttees (Yōhei), the other wears gaiters (Kōhei).

Which yes, at first isn’t exactly helpful because whoever look at their feet to try to recognize who’s who, especially since Noda mostly shows us their faces, not their feet, but it’s still a difference between them, something that tells us ‘hey, actually they aren’t the same person, they exist as different people even in a setting that would put on them an uniform that would make them look the same’.

This too is, in a way, a hint they are more than just mob characters and, in fact, they’ll stop being as such soon enough, Noda setting the shift from nameless minions to characters rather early in the story.

PART 2 WHEN A VILLAIN IS THE HERO IN HIS OWN STORY: KŌHEI AND YŌHEI

We are at chapter 17 and, one of the first things we’ve to notice is that, differently from many other characters, the Nikaidō brothers aren’t introduced by their surname first and only later we’ll learn their name… but we’ll learn their name first and only much later we’ll learn their surname.

Kōhei (浩平) and Yōhei (洋平).

As said before, their names differ only in a kanji, which makes sense as in Japan it seems it’s pretty common to give twins similar names.

According to Golden Kamuy Central their names ironically mean:

Kōhei (浩平): 浩 “Large, generous”, 平 “Peace, flat”

Yōhei (洋平): 洋 “Large ocean”, 平 “Peace, flat”

The twins though, are pretty far from being peaceful.

As soon as we know their names their identities become visible because it immediately turns out Yōhei is the one who hit Sugimoto’s face, so this means our Kōhei is the one who wanted to kill him right then right now.

So, if we go back and rewatch the scene with this knowledge in mind, we discover they’re also slightly different in character.

The first time they face Sugimoto, Kōhei is the first to stand after being sent on the ground, and the one who basically traps Sugimoto. What he’d like to do is just to shoot him and get it done… but he tells Sugimoto to bend down because if he’ll shoot him while standing the bullet might go through Sugimoto’s head and kill other people.

It’s a cold, yet murderous and practical type of violence, aimed SOLELY at who attacked them though. Kōhei didn’t mean to make unnecessary victims, nor cause Sugimoto unnecessary pain. What he wants to do is just to kill him and be done with him.

I think for the rest of his life Kōhei will regret not shooting Sugimoto in that moment.

Yōhei instead feels the need to vent on Sugimoto as soon as the latter is helpless. Where Kōhei would just shoot him and be done with him, Yōhei first hits Sugimoto’s legs, causing him to fall, then with the butt of his rifle hits Sugimoto’s face over and over. Where Kōhei’s anger is cold, Yōhei is burning hot. He doesn’t just want Sugimoto dead like Kōhei, he wants him to suffer first.

Overall the twins have in common the fact that, although in different ways, they’re both violent and prone to vengeance.

These traits will remain.

When they go see Sugimoto after he had been captured, Yōhei suggests cutting his guts to see if he would be healed the day after (ironic since he’ll be the one who’ll get his guts cut out) and then plans to cut his fingers to force him to talk. When they go into the room again, Yōhei is the one who wants to do the job of finishing off a tied Sugimoto. Yōhei is the younger, but he clearly wants to be the one to do those sorts of things.

Between the two he’s the most violent, the one who longs for violence.

Kōhei instead remains dismissive, colder and more rational. He doesn’t believe Sugimoto is ‘Sugimoto the immortal’, he tells his brother they can’t kill him or they won’t get info from him, and when they decide to kill him Kōhei is the one who realize they can’t use a gun or they’ll do too much noise… and have Yōhei hand him the gun because he likely doesn’t believe Yōhei would manage to control himself and not use it.

Kōhei had no idea that in this way he would let Yōhei defenceless against Sugimoto (since Sugimoto managed to steal Yōhei’s bayonet as they were talking) and this is probably another thing Kōhei will never forgive himself for.

It’s worth to note that, until now, we weren’t given a backstory for Nikaidō, we only have a bunch of extra info, like how he come from Shizuoka and how he was part of Ogata’s rebel group... and likely his brother was part of it as well.

We don’t know if they were always so violent or if war changed them the same way it changed so many soldiers.

What we know is Noda chose one of them to pose Sugimoto a question during the flashback in which Sugimoto pulls off the sledge Toraji and offers it for Tsukishima.

“Are you sure?”

I like to think the one asking it is Kōhei, who, prior to Yōhei’s death, proved not liking causing unnecessary deaths and who knows that Sugimoto’s actions mean the other soldier will die if they take his sledge.

So, overall, I don’t think Noda wanted to depict them as heartless from the start… but honestly I’m not sure we’ll get a backstory because it can be that this is all that is to Kōhei.

He was a soldier who has grown not to think too much of killing people but still didn’t relish in killing and hurting, a soldier who deeply cared for his little brother and then… he lost said little brother and his world shattered. And he changed.

So it can be there’s no flashback because we don’t need it. War might have damaged him, but Kōhei’s breaking point was Yōhei’s death, not something happening in his past. What will cause him to sink into the vice of Ira is just this. He lost his brother and went mad with grief and anger as a result. He changed and became another man, no more Kōhei but Nikaidō, a mix of himself and his brother.

But we’ll get there later.

For now let’s look at something else.

There’s something else worth mentioning in the introduction of Nikaidō and that Noda sets up well.

As soon as the twins appear on the door of the soba shop in which Sugimoto is in, asking where’s the guy looking for tattoos, Sugimoto attacks them, hitting them as hard as he can.

Both twins will get a bloody nose out of that attack.

Sugimoto will then proceed to attack another soldier, sending him on the ground and then slamming his foot on his face.

At a first glance this, for a reader, is no big deal since we were still in the mind setting they’re nameless minions of a bad guy and Sugimoto is the hero.

We’re supposed to cheer for Sugimoto and those are random minions, who cares if he maims them a little? In tales minions exist just for the hero to knock them down, it’s hard readers will stop thinking Sugimoto is doing something bad hitting them when they’re merely doing their job, after all the 7th division had previously attacked him, so why should he restrain himself?

And that’s the moment in which the Nikaidō twins start to slowly stop being minions and become characters.

Not only because, as said before, they start to show their differences in characters but also because they return what Sugimoto did to them and their companion by beating up his face in retaliation.

Normally, even when nameless minions get the upper hand for plot reasons, they don’t go for retaliation. No, that’s something characters do, because characters have characterizations, minions only have roles.

Those two retaliate and retaliate as hard as they got if not worse, setting violence as their main character trait.

They’re among the most violence prone characters of GK, longing to maim/kill their opponents.

What’s more, if we acknowledge them as characters, it’s Sugimoto who wronged them FIRST, who attacked them first (which really wasn’t a good move as it made him even more suspicious in Tsurumi’s eyes) when they merely asked where he was.

Many in the fandom normally see Nikaidō as a ‘villain’ but if “Every villain is the hero of his own story” this fist meeting set up as villain of Nikaidō’s story Sugimoto.

And what a villain Sugimoto will be for him, a villain way more terrible than Ogata for Vasily.

Noda really outdid himself in this one, escalating things so that his relationship with Sugimoto will keep on worsening till the breaking point.

In fact later, the twins will be in Tsurumi’s office, hearing Tsurumi speaking with Sugimoto. Again, they still seem nameless minions… but there’s a third man in the office and yet we don’t see his face and the characters don’t interact with him… but the same can’t be said for the twins.

They aren’t just shown laughing as Tsurumi cheerfully will confirm he’s missing a part of his brain, they will interact again with Sugimoto… and guess what? Sugimoto will remark his role as villain in their story.

Now, to Sugimoto’s credit, he has the tendency to act aggressive and confident when he’s cornered, so as not to look as such therefore he’s not really doing it for the evolz or pure sadism.

So, when Tsurumi recognizes him for ‘Sugimoto the immortal’, the one who caused Ogata to end up in a hospital and the twins stop him from leaving, punting at him their rifles and telling him to sit down again, Sugimoto attacks them verbally.

He complains about having been hit by them (completely overlooking he hit them first) and blaming them for looking the same he demands they put a mark on their forehead so he can recognize who’s who, shifting on them the blame of how people can’t recognize them.

It’s worth to mention Sugimoto didn’t say ‘assholes’ that’s added in the translation to better drive in Sugimoto’s tone. His ‘omae-ra’ is just a not polite but neither offensive “you” (plural).

‘Omae-ra sokkurida na? Jū de ore o nagutta no wa dotchida? Shirushi o tsuke toke yo o deko toka ni’

おまえらそっくりだな？銃で俺を殴ったのはどっちだ？印をつけとけよおでことかに

Lit: “You look exactly the same, right? Which one hit me with a gun? Make a mark on your forehead.”

Regardless, this is said to anger them, and it works as a charm as they swear to kill him again.

‘Koroshitayoru’

殺したよる

“I’ll kill you.”

If they didn’t like Sugimoto first, now they like him even less and from here it will only go worse. As they’re violent and vengeful, they make Sugimoto a visit as he’s held prisoner with the aim to hurt/kill him to get him to talk.

Of course, part of the visit might be because they’re in the rebel group. Maybe, like Tamai, they wanted information from him BEFORE Tsurumi would get them… and later decided it would be more convenient for their rebel group to kill him off. Maybe.

People often wonder why and how Ogata joined the rebel group but the truth is we don’t know the details about the Nikaidō brothers either, and often we don’t worry about them, so focused as we are on the main characters.

Anyway Sugimoto will manage to turn tables on them and break Yōhei’s tooth, making them now physically different and, obviously, also making them even more vengeful toward him. Honestly Sugimoto here acted in self defence, but prisoners at the time had no right to defend themselves and Sugimoto also taunt them, worsening things.

In the end Sugimoto will survive the meeting but, at this point Tsurumi himself will understand the twins must not be let near Sugimoto. Tsurumi can see where this is heading, it had gotten too personal with them, someone is going to get killed.

Can you notice the crescendo in the Ira, how they’re already showing the signs they’re into this vice?

Sugimoto hurt them, they retaliated beating him and wanting to kill him.

Sugimoto made fun of them, they went in his prison to hurt him even if their boss wouldn’t like it.

Sugimoto broke Yōhei’s tooth and made fun of them and they decide they’ll kill him even if Tsurumi forbids it.

Kōhei was, at the start, a bit colder than Yōhei, but it was Ira all along for both.

And Ira is what signs their downfall as, when attempting to murder Sugimoto, Yōhei get killed, while Kōhei is right out of the room, so close and yet unaware of what was going on until it was too late.

It’s the third thing Nikaidō probably can’t forgive himself and what, in his mind broken by the death of his brother, ultimately will cause him to see Sugimoto as THE GREATEST VILLAIN OF ALL.

Yōhei will die, Kōhei will survive and will later become the Nikaidō we know.

Of the two, we can say Yōhei had the better fate.

Still, the Nikaidō we know didn’t exactly have birth immediately after Kōhei’s death. Short after it we’ll see he’s still in Tsurumi’s army and, apparently, his mind works well enough as he faces Ushiyama.

People tend to think little of Nikaidō because he’s often used as a comic relief (it’s a bit like when people judge Shiraishi dumb when he can be rather smart) but it’s Nikaidō who manages to shoot Ushiyama’s shoulder and we’ll see this will incapacitate Ushiyama for a while.

But he’s still ‘just Kōhei’ to us, and we might not have realized Noda has set him up for more than just being a minion.

PART 3 WHAT REMAINS OF THE TWINS: PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NIKAIDŌ

We learn Kōhei’s surname, the name with whom we’ll learn to call him regularly, when Tsurumi, after having been told Ogata has disappeared from hospital, is informed that Private First Class Nikaidō Kōhei has been missing by quite a bunch of days (by the way, that flashback tells us that Kōhei, in his first apparition, was the one on top of his brother).

And then we see him, Nikaidō, with Ogata in Huci’s house. And maybe it’s Noda who forgot about it or maybe it’s deliberate, but, during the chase we’ll discover this time Nikaidō isn’t wearing anymore gaiters. He’s wearing puttees like his brother used to do.

I like to think it’s deliberate and it’s our first hint that Kōhei is somehow merging with Yōhei in his mind but honestly, I’ve no idea if that’s the case.

So let’s talk a bit about this Nikaidō.

He’s with Ogata, who’s a superior private and therefore higher in rank than him, and it’s clear Ogata is in charge and Nikaidō is taking orders from him.

We don’t know if it was Ogata’s idea for Nikaidō to give Huci a backrub, maybe, maybe not, we probably will never learn the truth.

Anyway the fact they belong to a rebel group start to take shape, that maybe it was just Ira what moved the twins actions toward Sugimoto, but maybe there was also something more.

It’s the second time Ogata leaves the division without permission, and we were told Nikaidō, who’s with him, did just the same for a bunch of days before. Although Tanigaki is clearly afraid they’re there for Sugimoto (and maybe they were), as soon as they see him their interest focus on Tamai, Noma and Okada and what had been of them. They both don’t think Tanigaki could have been saved by Sugimoto and both mistake his nervousness for him being responsible for Tamai and Co’s death and trying to cover it up.

The whole of the Ogata/Nikaidō cooperation serves to establish their characters through the contrast between their actions and reactions, as well as the reactions they get from Tanigaki despite their apparent common goal.

Tanigaki is overall submissive with Ogata, a superior officer, but doesn’t let himself be put down by Nikaidō.

Tanigaki and Nikaidō know each other, they’re of the same rank, but they clearly don’t seem to be on friendly terms.

Nikaidō shows, same as Ogata, he is capable to catch the problems in Tanigaki’s answers and don’t swallow them blindly.

Tanigaki should have delivered a message to explain the situation, the fact he didn’t do was suspicious. While Ogata acts calm and in control, Nikaidō’s remark is vaguely insulting, aimed at getting a reaction and, in a way, it gets one.

It’s also worth to note that, differently from the anime, Ogata is represented as serious though the initial part of the questioning, where Nikaidō is the one who is smiling.

Anyway Tanigaki feels danger is approaching and tells Osoma to bring Huci away, which makes things even more suspicious.

Maybe Ogata would have waited some more, seen if he could get more info from Tanigaki without compromising himself, but Nikaidō has already drawn his conclusions and he’s ready to act.

The panel shows him slipping in anger, in his vice of Ira, as he grabs painfully Huci’s shoulders and asks darkly ‘Corporal Tamai told you, didn’t he?’

Tanigaki won’t immediately connect the dots, he’ll just get angry because Nikaidō seems to be hurting Huci for no apparent reason.

Ogata takes back control, outright demanding if Tanigaki killed the others… but, differently from Nikaidō, without giving away WHY Tanigaki could have done that.

Nikaidō is set up to be smart enough to understand Tanigaki is hiding something, but Ogata is set up to be smarter than him and much more in control.

Of all the cast of Golden Kamuy, Ogata is the one who’s less prone to fall into the vice of Ira, remaining cold and collected, so it’s an interesting choice to pair him up with Nikaidō, because it generates contrast.

As Tanigaki looks at his rifle, Nikaidō aims his gun at Huci, taking advantage of his position behind her, basically threatening Tanigaki to use violence if he tries something… which is exactly what Nikaidō wants to do. In what is a call back to when he wanted to kill Sugimoto there and now in their first meeting, he’ll reveal, in some more panels, he would have liked to kill Tanigaki right there right now and not waste his time trying to do it later.

Nikaidō is changed though.

Previously Nikaidō worried not to involve others when he would shoot Sugimoto, now he doesn’t care if Huci and Osoma, an old woman and a little child, get involved.

It’s not because they’re Ainu, Nikaidō could be respectful with Inkarmat. It’s just that they’re in the way and this new Nikaidō doesn’t care about involving bystanders anymore.

After all, if he hadn’t worried and had immediately shot Sugimoto when he had met him, his brother would have still be alive.

Back to the plot, Ogata doesn’t bother aiming his rifle. He differentiates from Nikaidō as he doesn’t want to use violence right there, nor threaten Tanigaki into compliance. He has turned Tanigaki’s rifle useless by removing the stopper and wants to question Tanigaki further without compromising himself.

Although Tanigaki shows that he wants to protect Huci and Osoma by begging him not to hurt them, he doesn’t use them against him to extort information, no, he decides they’ll leave and take Nikaidō away, but first asks Tanigaki about Sugimoto. That’s ironically the only thing on which Tanigaki was ready to lie about, so, this time, he manages to do so.

When Ogata tells him to leave with him, Nikaidō obeys but it turns out from a discussion taking place short later, this wasn’t what Nikaidō wanted.

Nikaidō doesn’t care anymore about not killing innocents, like in the past he tells Ogata they should have just killed Tanigaki and be done with it, but this time didn’t care they would end up involving and having to kill Osoma and Huci.

Ogata decided against killing Tanigaki there exactly to spare them, setting up Nikaidō as someone who now is more murder prone and violent than Ogata is and that Kōhei was when they met Sugimoto.

Yes, this is the start of Nikaidō spiralling downward.

We saw Tanigaki looking down at Nikaidō, it’s possible Tanigaki never liked him or that he just didn’t like him due to the situation they were in, it’s hard to say. What we know is that Tanigaki thinks that even if he were to kill Ogata, Nikaidō wouldn’t escape.

Nikaidō is fearless. And stubborn. Two dangerous traits.

We discover also Nikaidō is in the rebel group with Ogata… but now his interest in the rebellion is fraying away. Now all he wants is to kill Sugimoto… or, in alternative, to go back home. He can’t stand Hokkaido any longer.

And even though he sounds angry as he says so, it’s clear his anger, which already was present in him, has also turned into a maladaptive copying mechanism to deal with his loss. He’s pushing all the blame for Yōhei’s death on Sugimoto. He’s probably thinking if he kills him he’ll feel better… he won’t feel guilty, he won’t feel that crushing pain for the missing Yōhei.

Killing Sugimoto is slowly becoming all he cares about.

Not the gold, not his companions.

Killing Sugimoto.

He’s still not completely lost though.

It’s Tsurumi who gives him the final push.

When Tsurumi captures him after he had been attacked by a bear, Nikaidō does not flinch as the latter cut his ear off, nor he falters as Tsurumi promises him torture.

No, what wins him over is Tsurumi’s promise he’ll be allowed to indulge in his vice of Ira and avenge his brother.

“How about I let you kill Sugimoto?”

This is all it takes to win Nikaidō’s loyalty. He immediately gives Tsurumi a name, Komiya, and goes back on being loyal to him.

Sugimoto Saichi’s death is all he wants, all he cares, it’s his obsession, his way to soothe the pain, to fill the void Yōhei’s death has caused.

As far as we know he doesn’t resent Tsurumi for what he did TO HIM or, if he does, as of now, he never tried to take revenge. No, all he cares is killing Sugimoto who murdered HIS BROTHER.

However all this also lead him into an unhealthy mindset.

Nikaidō will become more and more unhinged, carrying around the ear Tsurumi cut, claiming it’s Yōhei, talking to it as if the ear were Yōhei himself, for example saying to it he agrees that Ogata is an exceptional yet dangerous soldier but they never really liked him [Chap 58].

Later, he notices ‘Yōhei’s’ ear looks like Tsurumi’s so he asks Tsurumi to give him his ear, asking him if he doesn’t feel sorry for how Yōhei was left stuck with only one ear, causing Tsurumi to promise him he could have his ear once Tsurumi is dead (although unlikely I wonder if this originally was planned to foreshadow it).

Nikaidō is serious about this, about finding another ear for his brother, we can see him searching for one in Edogai’s house as well, although he’ll conclude only Tsurumi’s ear could match. Later Edogai will somehow sympathize with him enough he’ll make him an headgear in which Nikaidō can insert Yōhei’s ear right against his kin so that he can comfortably speak with it.

Nikaidō continues to think that killing people is the easiest way to deal with problems, in fact he suggests killing Edogai and search his house instead than just talk to him... but what’s really worth to point out though that, despite the previous betrayal and how Nikaidō now is unhinged, Tsurumi continues to use him.

However it’s not Noda involves Nikaidō in the plot just because he’s a face familiar to readers or to show Tsurumi is keeping him under control.

Nikaidō is good at close combat, in Yubari we’ll see him putting Hijikata in troubles (even though Hijikata is still more awesome than him) and in Abashiri we’ll see him putting up an impressive fight with Sugimoto, even though the latter will manage to prevail. He also cool headed enough he can direct the assault at Edogai’s house.

Nikaidō is more than a comic relief, he’s a seriously dangerous fighter with a stubborn streak.

But Nikaidō’s whole being is possessed by his wish of revenge, by the Ira he feels for Sugimoto.

We see it in chap 82, the chapter named ‘Nikaidō’ like he is.

Nikaidō was leading well that mission and, although Hijikata is amazing, Nikaidō was still managing to hold his ground, pushing him on the ground and getting above him even though Hijikata, despite being older, is somewhat stronger than him.

However, as soon as Nikaidō ears Sugimoto’s voice calling Hijikata, he loses it. Even the visual seems to represent him burning, his Ira and wish of revenge possessing him as he completely forget Hijikata and attempts to stand to go fight with Sugimoto.

And Noda shows us immediately what a huge mistake this is as it gives Hijikata the chance to attack from behind, cutting Nikaidō’s leg.

In a way it’s a cold shower for Nikaidō as this, despite the loss of his leg, allows him to focus back on Hijikata and hide before the latter could deal the finishing blow. Hijikata will be forced to retreat with Sugimoto and Ogata due to the place burning… and Nikaidō too will have to escape, leaving his leg behind.

The new mutilation harms Nikaidō’s psychological state.

Chap 94 delves in this and, although it does in a humorous way, Nikaidō’s situation is clearly serious. He begins to talk more with Yōhei’s ear and laments how YŌHEI’s leg got burned in Edogai’s house so he can’t go after Sugimoto and kill him with his leg missing.

We can see here that Nikaidō is starting to consider his own body as ‘Yōhei’s body’. He started with his own ear, which became Yōhei’s and now he’s moving to his own leg as well... but we can also see another side of Nikaidō’s Ira.

His Ira as well as his wish for revenge are copying devices to face the pain of his loss.

When he thinks he can’t kill Sugimoto anymore, is Ira turns against him. He begins to steal morphine and inject himself secretly, likely more than to cope with the physical pain, to cope with the pain of his loss.

There are bags under his eyes, a clear sign he’s not well, possibly that he has troubles sleeping.

He ‘recovers’ only when Arisaka brings him a prosthetic leg which can also shoot two bullets, giving him the idea he has again a decent chance against Sugimoto.

We see Nikaidō is again back into action in the Lighting Bandit arc, where he seems back to normal, calm, in control and ready to act (despite the slipper stairs)…

...only to lose it again in Abashiri, for the same reason as before, he hears Sugimoto’s voice. Tsukishima has to physically restrain him to stop him from going to fight Sugimoto, Nikaidō protesting that he was promised to kill him. And Nikaidō won’t let go.

As Tsurumi’s men will be attacked by the convicts Kadokura freed, Nikaidō ignores his companions and still searches for Sugimoto. He finds the passage the latter has used to escape and chases Sugimoto. Alone.

Nikaidō’s poor luck allows Sugimoto to realize he’s behind him before Nikaidō could kill him, so they fight again. Sugimoto manages to send him on the ground but Nikaidō thinks he’ll use his prosthetic leg to turn tables around. Out of sheer good luck, Sugimoto, who didn’t know the prosthetic hid weapons, moves Nikaidō’s leg away.

Nikaidō’s leg fires anyway, hitting Sugimoto’s leg, which causes Sugimoto to fall. Nikaidō rises and tries to use his leg to shoot at Sugimoto’s face but, before doing so, wastes time telling Yōhei how Sugimoto is on his way to join him.

Sugimoto catches his chance to turn Nikaidō’s leg against him, so that when it fires it blows away Nikaidō’s right hand. He then rips the prosthetic leg away and uses it to beat Nikaidō into unconsciousness.

Again, Nikaidō’s blind Ira toward Sugimoto caused him to lose a body part. The past time it was his right leg, now it’s his right hand.

PART 4 CONCLUSION: DAMNATION OR SALVATION?

At this point, Noda makes something interesting.

He has Tsurumi tell Nikaidō that Sugimoto died at Abashiri. Would, knowing Yōhei’s murderer is dead, heal Nikaidō? Would, knowing the target of his Ira doesn’t exist anymore, help him to go back live a normal life? Or would Nikaidō find another target on which to vent his Ira?

Neither.

Chap 148 shows us that, after he got the news, Nikaidō turned into an empty shell of himself who remains under the blanket and doesn’t eat anything, deep into depression and apathy.

It’s worse than before, when he lost his leg as, back then, he was at least trying to steal morphine to cope with the pain. Now he’s not even doing that, he has no purpose, he’s a void.

In order to persuade him to eat, Tsurumi tries to tempt him with morphine.

Although this get some vague attention from Nikaidō, ultimately the plan fails, as Nikaidō now is also mourning the loss of his right hand and he needs said hand to eat. Or, in Nikaidō’s mind, was it Yōhei’s hand?

This time Nikaidō doesn’t let us know to whom that hand belonged.

And all this remarks even more how Nikaidō was indulging in the vice of Ira because his Ira is what allows him to get through the day. Without it, the pain of his loss is so big he’s a shell of himself.

Still, Tsurumi has uses for him, he doesn’t want to just let him die of starvation. Again, he ropes in Arisaka, who’ll give Nikaidō a prosthetic hand.

Later we’ll find out Nikaidō is then sent with Usami at Noboribetsu to heal.

In Noboribetsu he seems more healthy than when he was in the hospital in Asahikawa and he’s still willing to be faithful to Tsurumi as he gives no info to Kikuta (though we don’t know if Nikaidō knew both Ogata and Kikuta worked for Central). He shows some interest in Inkarmat and Ienaga’s fate though, but it’s unclear if it’s out of curiosity or because they might have been connected with Ogata.

However Nikaidō’s better state is actually illusory.

In chap 223 it turns out that Arisaka has been experimenting the methamphetamine his friend Nagai invented on Nikaidō, who prior to take it was lacking in energy.

So that’s what Nikaidō has turned into when he doesn’t indulge in his vice of Ira. He copes with his pain through drugs, which is a rather modern take in a way.

Ira is a vice, but it’s also what allows Nikaidō to go on without drugs. Without it, left on his own, he’s an empty shell and to go on he needs drugs. And that’s a rather interesting message.

Like Tsukishima, Nikaidō indulges in his vice to cope with what life threw to him… but differently from Tsukishima, if he drops his vice, he just can’t march forward without the aid of drugs.

Nikaidō is trapped, with no one on his side, turned into a weapon and a guinea pig Tsurumi and Arisaka can use.

Koito doesn’t realize it’s the drugs that cause him to act in a certain way and makes fun of him by HIDING HIS PROSTHETIC HAND and then placing in it Yōkan in place of the chopsticks.

Nikaidō, differently from Tsukishima, is not a popular and beloved character, beyond loving his brother to the point of madness and being a dangerous foe he hadn’t shown characteristics that made him likable… and so fans of GK, like everyone else in the story, turn their gazes away from him.

He’s left alone, like many people who fall victims of addition and is used by others who take advantage of his addition.

It’s extremely unlikely Nikaidō could even be saved, could even drop his vice and return living like a normal person.

We see how he lapses back into his maddening Ira when he sees Sugimoto, to the point he understands nothing, that he would have even hit Asirpa, everything to kill him as killing Sugimoto is his only goal, he gets to the point not only he can’t listen to reason but Tsukishima has to restrain him.

Again Nikaidō won’t manage to carry out his revenge though, at least, this time he won’t lose any limb.

The discovery though, doesn’t help him to part ways with Tsurumi. He hands him Asirpa, though he complain he was lied at but ultimately let it slide because what Tsurumi says is true, it’s better if Sugimoto is alive for Nikaidō, the thought he might get a chance to kill him helps him to carry on.

So Nikaidō remains stuck.

Nothing can save him. Even if he were to kill Sugimoto he won’t manage to free himself from Tsurumi and the hold of drug.

His vices, Ira and drugs, are basically his extremely maladaptive copying methods, are doing nothing to solve the real problem he has to face and is refusing to deal with: his grief for his brother’s death, likely combined with his sense of guilt for not managing to protect Yōhei.

Nikaidō’s mind is, in a way, gone, desperate to keep Yōhei alive by mistaking his own body for Yōhei’s.

Being killed so that he could join again with his brother would probably feel like an act of mercy to him… and it’s terrible that Nikaidō’s destruction can yes, blamed to his vices… but also to how he lost a person he loved, wasn’t able to cope with it and ended up being used by others.

Sure, his fate has dealt to Nikaidō’s terrible cards, cards that will likely only lead him to his own self destruction.

On another note… I do wonder if Noda remembers how Nikaidō was interested in Tsurumi’s ear. There’s to wonder if, before the end of the story, Nikaidō might feel like taking it on his own. We’ll see.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 276 “Fried shrimp”

New chapter before the break in which we get to meet…

…yeah, Hanazawa’s sacrificial sheep, Yuusaku. The poor guy seems to believe he shares his father’s beliefs on how he (Yuusaku, sadly not Hanazawa) has to die for the well being of the country… as if he were the antichrist or something like that.

So we’ve left Sugimoto showing, in his hurry to eat the fried shrimp, that he has not the slightest idea how to use western cutlery, realizing he has messed up and thinking, in panic, he’ll have to signal to Kikuta already about his failure.

I mean, Sugimoto, if you’ve no idea what to do just let Kaeko start eating first and then copy what she does.

Anyway, luckily for him, Kaeko thinks she’s making a joke and Sugimoto takes advantage of it, saying he did it to lighten the tension.

She then observes he’s still wearing his cap, asking him if that too is due to him being tense. Sugimoto removes it, then claims at the academy they eat in Japanese style so he’s not used to this.

Kaeko notices there’s a difference between him and the photo but she’s pleased by his look anyway and continues not to suspect anything.

Anyway Kaeko gives him tips on how to eat the food, which, as usual, pleases Sugimoto greatly. He asks her if she comes there often and it turns out she does, as well as visiting other expensive places. Sugimoto thinks at how he, instead, after his father died, was in such a poor situation he resorted to steal the food that was given to cats.

We get a one page image with Sugimoto, in his dark uniform seated in this white and luxurious place, as if he were a dark spot clearly out of place in all that white luxury, his gaze downcast as he looks at the food in front of himself and is forced to take conscience of the huge divide between his world and Kaeko’s.

Later he’s with Kikuta again and claims since he kept silent, he should have felt like a boring guy, which should have displeased Kaeko. Kikuta is predictably happy and tells him since marriage interviews involve more than one meeting he’ll be counting on Sugimoto again.

Sadly for him, Sugimoto is seriously mistaken in regard to Kaeko’s reaction to his behaviour.

In fact Kaeko is delighted with ‘Yuusaku’, thinking he was just a quiet man, who kept on nodding at whatever she said without disagreeing with her and who had an awesome look.

In a way this is interesting because it’s clear Sugimoto thinks to impress a girl he should be vivacious and talkative, strong and assuring, when this isn’t necessarily what girls search in men.

Toraji never beat Sugimoto and was even prone to cry and yet Umeko loved him because he would do everything for her.

Tanigaki is quiet and grumpy as a bear yet Inkarmat ended up liking him because he was actually gentle with her.

Shinpei is a coward, yet Chiyoko wants him because, again, he is willing to leave his life for her.

Girls aren’t all made with the same mould, Sugi, they are different one from the other. Not everyone likes the loud type and it’s kind of relevant how, ultimately, the girl in GK ultimately chose men who just cared for them.

Kaeko assumed Yuusaku did her the kindness to let her speak without him disagreeing, that he tried to make her relax with a joke, in short that he was kind with her, though clearly Sugimoto’s look also played a part in this.

Anyway Kaeko’s maid warns her about how she cares too much for the look of men, which is why she lost many chances to get married so yes, Sugimoto’s good looks played a huge part in why Kaeko liked him.

Back to Sugimoto he complains he can’t believe how someone would marry someone else only after meeting them a few times. Kikuta explains him that’s how it works among the upper classes and Sugimoto ends up on talking with him about Toraji and Umeko… and this is relevant because instead he kept for a really long time the matter for himself when with Asirpa and Shiraishi and was reluctant to talk about it.

Sugimoto concludes his tale pointing out how Toraji told him he was still Umeko’s number one yet she married Toraji so he wonders if this sort of things happen as well.

Kikuta gets angry, asking him if he’s wondering if Umeko is happy after marrying Toraji and what does he understand about women.

Kikuta views his words as arrogance, as Sugimoto thinking he’ll always stay number one in her heart, she always pining after him and never being happy with Toraji… and yes, this is what in a way Sugimoto hopes, because he’s unhappy without her and thinks it’s not fair how Toraji took her from him and a side of him probably would like to hope she’ll jump Toraji for him in the future.

Kikuta points out how this is rude toward Umeko and Toraji, how women are capable to move on from a failed love story and start another, without remaining dependant on the man they had lost and how Sugimoto should apologize to them both.

Sugimoto doesn’t get why Kikuta got so mad and wonders if he’s just being pathetic because he can’t let go of things. Kikuta’s mood changes radically and he assures him it’s absolutely normal for men to be pitiful creatures who can’t let go of the woman they love.

I wonder if part of Kikuta’s reaction is due to him living an experience similar to Sugimoto. Did he too pined for a woman who ultimately chose another? Or was he the replacement for such a man?

Anyway Kikuta tells him that, as a man, he should understand Toraji and leave the whole thing behind himself, firmly and completely. So hum, yes, I tend to think Kikuta lived through something similar as Sugimoto.

Anyway Kikuta’s support brightens Sugimoto up, who smiles and agrees to do so.

I think Sugimoto is starting to see Kikuta as some sort of father figure, who feeds him and scolds him and accept him. He’s a replacement family in a way.

I wonder if it’s due to his discussion with Kikuta that Sugimoto became reserved on the topic, for fear to look pathetic… or it’s just due to Toraji’s death. He feels guilty because deep inside himself he had hoped for Toraji to get out of the picture and when it happened in such way, it broke him.

Anyway Kaeko’s maid is giving her tips on how to seduce ‘Yuusaku’, get him into the right mood and then wrap her legs around him. Kaeko is determined to get ‘Yuusaku’ and her maid is very encouraging about this.

Kaeko comments that since men who chose brides from her school do so for her pedigree and looks, there’s no problems if she does the same. ‘Yuusaku’ is good looking and of a high social ranking so he’s perfect for her.

As she thinks so she realizes her cousin might chide her for focusing too much on appearance but he also picked up a country girl with curly unruly hair merely due to her look and now he seems to be really happy… and so now we know what had happened to Igogusa/Harumi Chiyo.

She really left her hometown because she married the son of a manager from Mitsubishi, which is to say Kaeko’s cousin. Well, in a way it’s a relief. I’m glad to know she’s alive and I hope she’s also happy.

In short Tsurumi was honest the first time, when he said how a man from Mitsubishi wanted her as a wife for his son, and Tsurumi only tricked Tsukishima with the story Tsukishima was told in Mudken, in which he made Tsukishima first believe she was killed by his father, then that Tsurumi merely made things look like that, so he could make Tsukishima feel indebted to him even more.

Also this means Tsukishima really killed his father over nothing, as the man might have many faults but didn’t cause Chiyo to die.

Kikuta and Sugimoto are out eating in a poor restaurant, Sugimoto thinking at the fried shrimps and feeling angry and jealous at how upper class people can eat them. Kikuta reminds him that’s how it works in Tokyo.

Sugimoto then wonders if Yuusaku wants to be a flag bearer. Kikuta says his job is only to protect Yuusaku’s virginity and have the lady rejected as gently as possible. Sugimoto insists Yuusaku might want to eat fried shrimp instead than joining the army. I mean Sugi, in the past chapter you considered joining the army so as to get food… I get your situation is desperate because you were literally starving but food serves little when you’re sent out to fight and die in a war… and you realize this only when you think Yuusaku, instead than dying in a war, might want to eat fried shrimp?

Kikuta insists Sugimoto shouldn’t worry about Yuusaku… but those are wasted words.

Sugimoto dresses up  in Kikuta’s uniform and goes to meet Yuusaku, telling him he’d heard his father wants him to become the regimental flag bearer. Yuusaku is confused but points out this will be only if he gets chosen for the position…

...which makes him pretty naïve because of course his father can hugely influence the choice if he’s already set on having him in that role.

Have I mentioned in this ramblings how Hanazawa senior is a jerk? No, I think I haven’t yet so here it is, Hanazawa senior is a jerk.

Sugimoto asks him why his father would want such a role for him, wondering if it’s maybe Hanazawa thinks there won’t be a war.

Yuusaku ‘reassures’ him it’s quite the opposite, his father believes there will be a war soon and what a better chance than to make use of his son for his honour by putting him in the riskiest position with the highest death rate? Because what’s a son if not cannon fodder meant to be used for his father’s honour?

Hanazawa is a disgusting person.

Sugimoto asks Yuusaku if he wants to be a flag bearer and Yuusaku… circles around the subject, saying if he’s chosen he’ll feel pride. Yeah, because who doesn’t want to die as a sacrificial lamb for his father’s social standing?

Sugimoto asks him if he’s merely trying to met his father’s expectations.

Yuusaku sweats and denies it, asking him what does he wants.

Sugimoto says he just wants to know how he feels.

Yuusaku explains Hanazawa (at this point, as Alessandro Manzoni would have said “I have not the hear to call that guy ‘his father’”) told him about how his life can be used for the good of Japan so Yuusaku believes using his life for the good of Japan is the right thing to do.

Dear God, this man really viewed his sons as pawns to use and dispose when they weren’t useful anymore. Is he ever human? Or there’s only duty and honour running in his veins?

Sugimoto, who has no idea Yuusaku is the kind who’s stubborn as hell and would have refused anyway, thinks Yuusaku’s problem is merely he thinks he only have one path open, but wouldn’t think so if he were to know there’s another path, one they’re hiding from him.

No Sugimoto, the problem is actually Hanazawa completely brainwashed his son, to turn him into a noble and righteous icon without even knowing well why except that daddy thinks that’s the best way for him to live his life.

Hanazawa is a jerk.

On a sidenote I hate this situation even more exactly because Yuusaku is basically brainwashed. Each time he has to explains his position he uses as argument what his father told him, yes, he says he came to believe it too, but it doesn’t seem like it’s something he came up on his own, or something he gave deep thought about, but something that was merely put into his mind by all of Hanazawa’s talk.

Maybe it’s just me but Yuusaku always feel more like not thinking for himself but merely reporting what his father told him to think. Whatever, let’s go on.

Meanwhile Yuusaku proves he can be observant, as he notices Sugimoto is wearing Kikuta’s cap due to it being stitched in a little area due to a hole made when Kikuta has been nearly killed by an officer candidate during shooting training. Sugimoto tries to cover up the thing by claiming he got the hat from Kikuta, but this is even more suspicious as that cap belonged to Kikuta’s little brother who died of illness during the war with China.

This is probably why Kikuta is adopting young men… but at the same time, although he should know Yuusaku since Yuusaku knows him so well, he has little to no sympathy for his fate and will show complete disinterest for Koito as well. I do wonder if Kikuta has issues with people from the upper classes.

He trains officer candidates but this might have exposed him even more to the differences between classes and made him think low of them. We’ll see.

On another side I wonder if Yuusaku will do something out of this information there’s someone wearing Kikuta’s cap and who’s asking him if he’s okay with being the flag bearer.

This little exchange proved Yuusaku can be observant and connect the dots so now if only he were to think a little more he could prove himself to be more than just his father’s puppet.

Anyway as Sugimoto walks for the city, holding his cap in his hands he gets careless and slams against someone… this someone turns out to be the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse…

...pardon, I mean Tsukishima, who’s with Usami, Ogata and Tsurumi (please notice how the light shines on them as if they were some sort of saviours or angels from above), the four of them all enjoying a trip to Tokyo prior to the start of the apocalypse… Tsurumi’s plan, I mean… because really, it would feel to absurd to have those 4 in Tokyo just for a touristic trip, so they had to be there to pursue Tsurumi’s plan.

Okay, I know, maybe the apocalypse was safer than what Tsurumi’s plan will turn out.

Anyway, some random observations on them.

From the 27 on Ogata and Usami’s shoulders we can see they’re already in the 7th division.

From the stripe on Ogata’s sleeve we can see he’s a second class superior private, meaning he has just enrolled in the army since, second class privates should have been automatically promoted to first class after 6 months (at least from the info I have who’re dated past GK so it might be things were different that early on). It’s 1901 so he should be 19. It means he enrolled in the army earlier as although one could join the army from when he was 17, the norm was they would be examined for fitness at 20 and, if judged fit then they would join the army for a 2 years period of training.

Considering Noda said Ogata studied Russian with Tsukishima and Tsukishima went in Russia with Tsurumi much earlier on, it seems that Tsurumi recruited Ogata prior to him being able to enrol in the army.

Usami should be a year older, so he’s still pretty young. Did they join together or Usami also joined much earlier than planned? We’ll see.

Anyway the 4 of them are having a trip to Tokyo… and I can’t help but think if Tsurumi went in Tokyo with 3 of his soldiers whom he has twisted with ‘love’, things are likely going to turn troublesome.

LOL, now let’s only hope Sugimoto won’t introduce himself as Yuusaku… though if he were it could be that Tsurumi would spot the lie immediately and that’s why Ogata knows passing for an officer is a dumb plan.

On another side... this might be the moment in which Yuusaku and Ogata first met. I’m honestly scared.

Oh well, we’ll see.

Overall this chapter provided us some info and was nice but not that emotionally compelling, it merely seemed to plan to set up things for the next developments.

Anyway next week there’s a break so we’re in for a long wait.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 275 “Tokyo Love Story”

So we’ve a new chapter and I’ve discovered…

Yeah, the fake Yuusaku theory turned out right and wrong at the same time as we’ve someone posing as Yuusaku… but it’s definitely not how I was expecting things to be.

But whatever, let’s start.

We’re in Kanagawa, in 1901. The scene is placed after the one in chap 35, when Toraji and Sugimoto fight the night of Toraji’s marriage, because Toraji is afraid Sugimoto came back to snatch Umeko away from him.

Since Sugimoto’s father died in 1899 according to the official timeline, this confirms Sugimoto waited 2 years before coming back to his village.

Evidently the two have calmed down because they aren’t fighting anymore and Toraji is asking Sugimoto where will he do now. Sugimoto informs him his father told him to search for a place he can be happy. You might not remember this bit being included in chap 236 because it was a volume addition.

Sugimoto says he wants to go to Tokyo, since up until now he was in places with few people, which makes sense since he feared he was infected with tuberculosis.

In the Q&A section from the Golden Kamuy fan book it was said:

Q8: What did Sugimoto do in the 2 years between leaving the village after burning his house and coming back to Ume’s wedding? Noda: He travelled to places such as Tokyo and Kyoto. [translation here]

But it’s likely Noda means Sugimoto didn’t stay in the big cities, but in the areas around them.

So okay, we move to Tokyo and after getting a glimpse of Sugimoto moving overly excited through the city playing ‘singing in the rain’...

...we see him being involved in a fight with more than 10 candidate officers.

Kikuta is called in to stop the fight. Evidently they forced him to interrupt his meal as he is still holding chopsticks and a bowl of rice.

We learn from the info box that Kikuta, full name Kikuta Mokutarou, was at the time a Sergeant in the 1st division (which tells us in his future he was promoted and transferred in another division, the 7th in fact in 1902 he’s working for Tsurumi during the Koito kidnapping), in charge of instructing and providing guidance to the officer candidate students enrolled at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy.

He’s also keeping his hair short and there’s no facial hair on his face, giving him a much more proper appearance than the one he’ll have later on, although he keeps his uniform unbuttoned, which is less proper.

As Kikuta tells at the rather bruised officer candidate students to stop fighting as it’s disgraceful for them, they protest they can’t let Sugimoto go as he’s dangerous while Sugimoto, completely restrained by their weight, seems to bark and growl like a wild dog. Kikuta offers him his bowl of rice and this gets Sugimoto to calm down as he starts eating the rice.

LOL, Noda couldn’t have made more obvious with this scene that Ogata and Sugimoto fight like cat and dog because THEY ARE A STRAY CAT AND A STRAY DOG.

Kikuta comments that by how it took such a huge number of students to stop him, he expected Sugimoto to be some sort of monster… but now he thinks Sugi can be of some use for him, so he tells the students he’ll take him and tells Sugimoto to follow him as he’ll get him something to eat.

As they eat Sugimoto confesses he got into the fight because the students glared at him, revealing quite a horrible temper. Kikuta points out how his was a stupid reason to start a fight, asking him if he’s a STRAY DOG (ノラ犬 ‘nora inu’). This leads him to nickname Sugimoto “vagrant boy" (ノラ坊 ‘nora bou’), warning him Sugimoto was lucky Kikuta got in between the fight, because otherwise, if the students had managed to take him away, Sugimoto would have been in deep troubles.

As Sugimoto asks why he’s called in such a way, Kikuta explains it’s due to the norabou vegetables that grow in his area. Kikuta then proceeds to explain that there’s an officer candidate in the army named Hanazawa Yuusaku, son of the commander of the 7th division.

Kikuta wants Sugimoto to take his place. So okay, it’s a chapter in which we’ve a fake Yuusaku… only he’s not the one I was expecting.

Kikuta then proceeds to explain how Hanazawa ‘I’m the worst father of the century’ Koujirou, wants his son to become the regimental flag bearer because whoever cares about the high death rate of flag bearer when he can gain more honour through Yuusaku?

Yuusaku’s mom, Hanazawa Hiro, from whom Yuusaku got his nose and, probably, his eyes, doesn’t like the idea of her son being used as cannon fodder for her husband’s glory,

but know better than to say it out loud and also know it would be a crime to murder her husband so she did the next best thing, she plotted against him, secretly contacting a “marriage agency” in Tokyo so as to find a girl desperate enough to get a husband she would be willing to steal Yuusaku’s virginity (you might remember virginity is a fundamental requisite for a flag bearer), Kaneko Kaeko, daughter of an executive in the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu.

If the name Mitsubishi feels familiar to you yet it doesn’t make you think of a car, it’s probably because we already had to deal with someone from the Mitsubishi in the Igogusa/Harumi Chiyo story.

In GK it seems people from Mitsubishi are always desperate to get married... it makes you wonder if Tsurumi had a hand in this mess as well or it’s just a coincidence...

Sugimoto, who’s poor, doesn’t get why a rich girl would be desperate to find a man, so Kikuta explains him her potential partners wouldn’t care about her being rich as they’re rich as well.

Overall Sugimoto ends up on showing again how he’s not very good at placing himself in the shoes of people of upper classes.

Turns out though Hanazawa figured out how his wife his plotting behind his back and tried to plot behind her back as well, asking the help of the commander of the 1st division, whom he trusts, who passed the job to Kikuta (I guess Kikuta might still be loyal to his former commander, which might be he’s okay with plotting against Tsurumi... or was he sent there specifically to do so? We’ll see...).

Anyway Sugimoto, who’s so NOT FAMOUS for sitting around a table and having a honest discussion with people, asks why they didn’t just do that. Really, Sugimoto, if you know talking can solve problems why don’t you try implementing it?

Kikuta replies the things had gotten too far and they’re afraid this could cause an incident that will affect the morale of the division, and, more importantly, could put Hanazawa’s wife patriotism into discussion and this would SURELY reflect bad on Hanazawa who was already willing to sacrifice his son on the altar of his own honour.

To all those who’re reading my meta for the first time, in case you’re wondering no, I don’t like Hanazawa. Not one single bit. Sorry for being biased against him.

Anyway Sugimoto gets a haircut and then Kikuta has him wear an uniform with some stars on the collar so as to make him look like a candidate officer.

Sugimoto wonders why Kikuta picked him and isn’t just using another candidate officer. I don’t know if this is relevant but Kikuta seems thoughtfull when Sugimoto says so, his hat slightly shadowing his face.

Hopefully this doesn’t mean this deception is going to put Sugimoto in serious troubles.

He then explains Sugimoto if they were to use someone from the army they would risk bad rumours about the Hanazawa to spread around.

Kikuta then comments that Sugimoto, wearing the full uniform, looks good as there’s a touch of elegance on his face that can help him impersonate Hanazawa Yuusaku, son of a high-class general. I wonder if this is meant to foreshadow Sugimoto is actually more than the commoner we believe him to be or if it’s just another way to inform us Sugimoto is good looking, in case we’ve missed it.

Sugimoto wonders if, by joining the army, he wouldn’t have to worry about food anymore and I facepalm here because really, if this is what pushed him to join, he really made a poor decision, but his expression as he talks makes me wonder if he’s just being so very naive I kind of feel bad for him... did he really have no idea what joining the army could include?

His words cause Kikuta to remember his younger brother, apparently sick, telling him to take the army cap back with him.

I guess Kikuta is kind of adopting all those young men, Ariko, Sugimoto, maybe even Nikaidou and Ogata, because he lost his younger brother.

It’s interesting how Noda shadows his face here...

Anyway Kikuta proceeds to educate Sugimoto, as he’ll have to be capable to eat great food at a fancy restaurant. So, once Kikuta thinks Sugimoto is ready as he mastered enough good table manners, a nervous Sugimoto can take part to the marriage interview… where Kikuta discovers with horror they served western cuisine… with Sugimoto being completely ignorant about western etiquette and trying to eat the shrimps using two forks… and Kikuta, who’s pecking through the window while being seated on a tree, panics, thinking he’ll be discovered immediately.

Well, that’s all for this chapter.

It was undoubtedly a fun flashback chapter that reveals that the fake Yuusaku theory wasn’t completely baseless… but definitely not what I expected it to turn out as I would have never guessed Sugimoto impersonated Yuusaku.

On another note this give me additional fun when I think at this scene.

Sugimoto should have been thinking at the time he played the high ranking officer, here... though I guess the idea is that Kaeko didn’t immediately recognize him because she’s not in the army? Didn’t they gave her a photo of Yuusaku? Sugimoto’s nose and probably his eyebrows too are different.

We’ll see.

I don’t dare to think Kaneko is also a fake sent, this time, by Tsurumi, to steal Yuusaku’s virginity because Tsurumi doesn’t want Yuusaku among them.

This would just be too crazy.

On more serious topics we can assume now that Kikuta saying Sugimoto to forget about Yuusaku in the previous chapter is due to the interview failing and Yuusaku now being forced to become a flag bearer, high mortality rate and all and the whole fake Yuusaku thing having to remain a secret between the two of them so likely Sugimoto doesn’t know anything dark about Yuusaku… beyond the fact his father wanted to use him as cannon fodder to increase his own prestige but whatever, I hardly think someone could have missed it.

I find rather fun how Noda isn’t really fond of drawing Hanazawa, he’s just using the same image of him over and over… and how instead he had no problems showing us Yuusaku’s mom, name and all, but we still have to see Yuusaku’s face. Really, I can’t wait for the big reveal.

Oh well, we can only wait and see.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

I really hope we get an arc where Umeko is an active character in the story. What we now know about her is only an idealized version and, in my opinion, makes her character really weak. So far we have seen her only thought Sugimoto’s eyes, but his perception of Umeko is deeply influenced by his feelings, therefore not good representation of Umeko’s true personality. I guess what I really want is for her to have agency in the story and not be reduced to the silent love interest, waiting for her brave lover to come back... Noda is far above this kind of tropes, his female character have always been great, but, as things are now, he is risking a lot by not showing us what Umeko thinks of the situation with Sugimoto.

If I’ve to be honest...

I would love to get more about Umeko but I’m not really hopeful about it. She’s a nearly blind woman living rather far from Hokkaido busy taking care of her son.

I don’t really see her as the silent love interest waiting for Sugimoto to come back, I think that’s more Sugimoto’s hope, I see her more as a woman dealing with concrete life problems like carrying on with her life in a society that has little regard for women and for people lacking sight in their eyes now that she has lost her husband.

After all Umeko didn’t wait for Sugimoto to come back the first time, honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s not waiting for him now either.

Sure, maybe carrying on with her life might not seem as exciting as taking part to a gold hunt but back then it was still hard.

I’ll also say she has agency. When Sugimoto was living in her village she refused to give up on him even if everyone told her to just do so, she even rushed to his house when it started burning and volunteered to go with him. When he left without her, instead than waiting for Sugimoto passively, ultimately she married Toraji, when Toraji asked her if she would escape with Sugimoto she said she wouldn’t and if he were to force her she would escape from him and when her mother tried to pressure her to get remarried she said ‘no, thanks’.

Sure, it’s nothing spectacular, but Umeko represents more an ordinary person, not someone like, let’s say Inkarmat, with her gift for foretelling or O-gin who had no problems killing people or Sofia who leads a group of revolutionaries.

Sugimoto paints her a lot like a damsel in distress because he dreams to be her knight in a shining armour, which is a legittimate dream because Umeko isn’t in an easy situation but, if you ask me, Umeko still seemed a strong woman who doesn’t wait for a man to save the day, but tries doing what she can.

Maybe it’s just me, though.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Let me introduce you...

Let me introduce you to some characters...

Actually you should know them already but not by their name or full name so, since Noda Sensei was so kind to share them on the fanbook (which I recommend you to buy!) let’s meet them again.

So, in order of apparition...

The old man without whom Sugimoto would have never been involved in this mess. Previously known as just Gotō, his full name is actually Gotō Takechiyo (後藤 竹千代). He wasn’t a good person and we don’t really miss him but we’re grateful for introducing Sugi to the gold hunt otherwise we wouldn’t have this story.

But let’s talk about better people one of whom is really missed by a certain main character.

Meet Kenmochi Toraji (剣持 寅次) and his lovely wife Kenmochi Umeko (剣持 梅子) (Maiden name: Kakizaki Umeko (柿崎 梅子)) with their kid.

And now let’s talk of a guy who was called “Prisoner number 1″ by the fandom because his name was a mystery. Well, now he isn’t anymore Prisoner number 1. Say hi to Kasahara Kanjirō (笠原 勘次郎)!

N o, I’m obviously not talking of Tsurumi but of owner of the tattooed skin he was wearing previously known merely as Tsuyama.

His full name was Tsuyama Mutsuo (津山 睦雄)... and I fear no one in the GK fandom will miss him as we never met him (and from the stories about him he probably wasn’t a very nice person).

And now we’re going to talk...

...of the infamous bear trio! Ogata’s rebel buddies.

Previously we just knew their surnames but now we can tell they are:

Corporal Tamai Hōzō (玉井 芳蔵)

Noma Naoaki (野間 直明) and

Okada Fumio (岡田文夫). RIP, bear trio, I really want to know more about you!

And now for someone else we’ve know really for a long time without knowing which was her name.

Huci, Ainu name Susupo (ススポ).

And we continue with the 7th division so let’s met someone else we previously only knew by surname...

Captain Wada Kōji (和田 光示). Please let me know more about you too.

Mishima Kennosuke (三島 剣之助)

Komiya Ikutarō (小宮 幾太郎).

But let’s stop talking about the 7th, what about the baby of Hijikata’s team?

Please meet Okuyama Kantarō (奥山 夏太郎)!

And then we have...

...no, not Ogata, just the owner of the skin on his head, Takara Tetsuo (宝井 哲夫).

And he’s not alone as we also have...

...no, not Edogai but the owner of the tattoed skin with whom his dress his made.

Meet Funabashi Sōroku (船橋 荘六) and wonders if the face we see was his own. And okay, back to the 7th we go and to...

Maeyama Kazuo (前山一夫).

We continue with an unlucky lady...

Ogata Tome (尾形 トメ), better known for being Ogata’s mom. As I was among the ones betting on her to be Tome I’m glad my guess turned out right.

We continue with the luckiest man alive of whom before we knew only the surname...

Kadokura Toshiyuki (門倉 利運). He’s great and deserves a lot of love. And we move to another nice person...

Enonoka’s grandfather, Ainu name Yōyanke (ヨ一ヤンケ).

And we continue with another beloved lady about whom we’d like to know more.

Harumi Chiyo (春見ちよ), previously known just as Igogusa (or Egogusa if you’re Tsurumi).

Last but not least a very favourite of mine.

the awesome Central spy Kikuta Mokutarō (菊田 杢太郎)!

And that’s all for now as I didn’t seem to see any other name that was previously missing but if I were to spot it I would probably update this list.

Hopefully I translitterated all the names correctly so that now everyone can call them with their full names!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

UNIFORMS DATA HUNTING: Japanese enlisted soldiers' uniforms in the Russo-Japanese War

As the cast of Golden Kamuy count plenty of soldiers (or veterans) one of the most common type of clothes visible in the story are soldier uniforms.

Golden Kamuy though, takes place in a particular time period in which soldier uniforms were shifting in shape and colour moving from the dark blue uniform to a kaki one. As if this wasn’t enough there were different uniforms for officers and for enlisted soldiers, with the result we see quite a bit of different uniforms.

In this post I’ll focus on the most frequently seen uniform, the one for enlisted soldiers.

Military Cap (軍帽 Gunbō): Dark blue ‘pillbox’ style M1886 cap with a black leather peak and a chin strap, a yellow band for line infantry soldiers (imperial guard infantry had it red) and a crown seam piping. On the frontal part of the yellow band there’s a star badge (星章 Seishō).

Star Badge (Cap Badge) (星章（帽章）Seishō (bōshō)): A brass five-point star badge placed on the front of the headband of the military cap.

Military Coat (軍衣 Gun'i): It’s a short single-breasted coat (上衣 Uwagi) dark blue in colour, short and made either of cotton or wool with 5 brass front buttons (釦 Botan), a standing collar (立襟 Tachieri) and red shoulder boards (肩章 Kenshō).

Standing Collar (立襟 Tachieri): Red collar which is fastened with buttons.

Shoulder board (肩章 Kenshō): They’re red and on them is written the unit number (隊号tai-gō), which was the number of the regiment (連隊番号Rentai bangō) or of the battalion (大隊番号 daitai bangō) at which the soldier belonged.

Rank Insignia (階級章 Kaikyūshō): We can see that the Military rank Insignia were placed on the sleeves in form of sleeve stripes (袖線 sode-sen).

Trousers (袴 Hakama): Dark blue pants closed by buttons with 2 frontal pockets and a red stripe about an inch wide down the outseam on the sides. They were worn with the lower part either wrapped by puttees or tucked into gaiters or boots.

Puttees (腳絆 Kyahan): Bandage covering the lower part of the leg from the ankle to the knee. It consists of a long narrow piece of cloth wound tightly and spirally round the leg, and serving to provide both support and protection. It was the first issued leg protection for enlisted soldiers.

In GK the ones wearing puttees are: Sugimoto Saichi (he wears them and gaiters during the war and once he’ll leave the army he’ll wear boots), Toraji, Tamai, Noma, Okada, Tanigaki Genjirou, Nikaidou Youhei, Nikaidou Kouhei (after his brother’s death), Aoyama Kenkichi, Ariko Rikimatsu, Usami (in Noboribetsu... we don’t know what he wore prior to it but the anime draw him wearing boots... In Karafuto he wears gaiters), Ogata Hyakunosuke (after he returns from Karafuto).

Gaiters/leggings (スパッツ Spats): In alternative to puttees soldiers also use white cloth gaiters, garments worn over the shoe and lower pants leg, and used primarily as personal protective equipment. The gaiters reached below the knee and buttoned up the outside, with a buckled leather strap fastening at the top and another passing under the shoe.

In GK the ones favouring gaiters are: Sugimoto Saichi (he wears them and puttees during the war and once he’ll leave the army he’ll wear boots), Ogata Hyakunosuke (although when he returns to Hokkaido from Karafuto he wears puttees), Nikaidou Kouhei (prior to his brother’s death), Mishima, Kiroranke, Maeyama, Usami (in Karafuto... we don’t know what he wore prior to it but the anime draw him wearing boots... In Noboribetsu he wears puttees), Kikuta (when taking part to Koito’s kidnapping), Tsukishima Hajime (when taking part to Koito’s kidnapping and when meeting Tsurumi in Karafuto).

Shoes (靴 Kutsu): Exactly as the tin say leathered brown hobnailed shoes, which were worn greased rather than polished.

Boots (長靴 Nagagutsu): Exactly the tin says, stiff leather boots, also worn by some soldiers in place of shoes and puttees/gaiters. It’s worth to note that at the time boots were a more expensive footwear, which was part of the officers’ uniform and that many peasant soldiers found uncomfortable to wear them.

In GK the ones favouring boots are: Sugimoto Saichi (after he left the army, during the war he wore alternatively puttees and gaiters), Tsukishima Hajime, Usami (in the anime, in Noboribetsu he wears puttees, in Karafuto gaiters), Kikuta (in Karafuto).

Clothing worn under the uniform:

(Very likely these are exactly the same as the ones worn by people not under the army)

Undershirt (襦袢 Juban): Collarless, in wool or cotton, white, grey or light green undershirt.

Loincloth (褌 Fundoshi): Traditional Japanese undergarment (g-string codpiece) for adult males.

Military Socks (軍足 Gun ashi): Heelless and made of wool or cotton.

(the one in the pic is actually Shiraishi’s sock but as Sugimoto exchanged it for his own I guess they aren’t that different)

In addition to all this soldiers also wore their equipment which consists of:

Leather belt (帯革 Obikawa): Fastened above the coat was used to tie at it the ammunition poaches and the bayonet.

Ammunition Pouch (弾薬盒 Dan'yakugō or 弾盒 Dangō): Small pouches for carrying rifle ammunitions made of brown hard leather. They were 3, 2 front pouches (前盒zengō) and a rear pouch (後盒Kōgō) all attached to a leather belt (帯革 Obikawa). The pouch was divided in two parts by a divider to fit with the shape of the ammunition paper box. Usually one carried 6 clips in each frontal pouch and 12 in the rear pouch for a total of 120 bullets. The rear pouch also contained 2 screwdrivers (転螺器 Utate nishi-ki) and a small can of oil (油缶 aburakan or油壺 aburatsubo) which contained maintenance oil (手入れ油 Teire-yu) was also attached to it.

Scabbard of the type 30 bayonet (三十年式銃剣の鞘 Sanjūnen-shiki jūken no saya): It was attached to the left side of the leather belt at which were also attached the ammunition pouches.

Type 30 bayonet (三十年式銃剣 Sanjūnen-shiki jūken): It was a bayonet designed for the Imperial Japanese Army to be used with the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle and was later used on the Type 38 and Type 99 rifles. It remained in front-line use from the Russo-Japanese War to the end of World War II. All Japanese infantrymen were issued with the Type 30, whether they were armed with a rifle or pistol, or even if they were unarmed. For more info see my Weapons data hunting (Part 1: Rifles, carbines and shotguns) page.

Type 30 rifle (三十年式歩兵銃 Sanjū-nen-shiki hoheijū “Year 30 type infantry firearm”): A box-fed bolt-action repeating rifle that was the standard infantry rifle of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 (the 30th year of the Meiji period, hence “Type 30”) to 1905. Later they’ll switch to the Type 38 rifle (三八式歩兵銃 Sanjūhachi-shiki hoheijū). For more info see my Weapons data hunting (Part 1: Rifles, carbines and shotguns) page.

Back pack (背嚢 Hainō): A knapsack of unshaved hide stretched over a wooden framework and slung by brown leather straps, carried on one's back. The pack contained 3 days rations 30 rounds of spare ammunitions, two pairs of socks, a set of underwear, a cleaning kit for the rifle, bandages, grease for protecting the shoes, sewing kit, comb, scissors. The overcoat was folded and rolled up to be carried around it while a red wool blanket and a waterproof canvas tent were rolled on top of the coat and attached at the knapsack by straps. A spare pair of shoes was strapped to either side of the pack and a metal mess tin fastened to the back of it.

Water bottle (水筒 Suitō): A black or brown-laquered metal water bottle that soldiers would carry slung over the left shoulder on a brown leather strap.

Soldiers also had extra clothes to cover themselves up in the cold weather of Russia which go from the heavy military coats we see the guys used during the battle of Mukden and in Karafuto, to Tanigaki’s leather jacket or Ogata’s overcoat.

(Pictures might or might not be added later)

It’s worth to note Sugimoto keeps wearing part of his army uniform (pants, hat) even though he had left the army.

Ogata, despite being a deserter, wears his army clothes through almost all the manga.

Tanigaki, although talking of having left the army, will keep on wearing them below Ainu clothes.

Though Kiroranke usually wears his Ainu clothes he will wear his army pants to fight in the stenka.

A big help in finding out all those info was the book The Russo-Japanese War 1904-05 by Philip Jowett and Alexei Ivanov which I recommend. I also have to thank the various anon who shared with me links about where to find info. Thank you, guys!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

hello, I love your blog! i'm rather new to the story (i catch up late) but there is something i'm curious about: iS Ume, Toraji's widow, still relevant at all or is she just there to show how Sugimoto is not really motivated by gold anymore?

It’s an interesting question.

Well, to be honest Sugimoto was motivated by Umeko right from the start. In fact Sugimoto’s adventure in Hokkaido starts with him panning for gold claiming he wants money, HE NEEDS MONEY...

...and then shows us why.

It was his friend Toraji who got the idea to pan for gold, because he needed gold to allow his child to study and his wife’s eyes to be cured and, supposedly, when he died, he entrusted the task to find the money to Sugimoto.

However a scene later on hints at how it wasn’t so much for Toraji but for Umeko that Sugimoto got involved in this.

Not only when thinking at his own reasons he switches from ‘his childhood friend’ to ‘his comrade in arms’ but we see an image of Umeko that calls him ‘Saichi-chan’ while he calls her ‘Ume-chan’, hinting at how Umeko wasn’t just Toraji’s wife but someone Sugimoto is close to.

Following chapters will reveal how Sugimoto LOVED Umeko...

...and how he was loved back but, due to his family dying of illness, he entrusted her to Toraji who ironically was marrying her on that same day in which Sugimoto came back to his hometown.

Ultimately Toraji said Umeko chose him... but Toraji died in the war.

Sugimoto though, once back from war, didn’t dare to face Umeko, feeling he was a changed man due to the people he killed. So he tossed himself in searching the gold FOR HER.

Note that he never makes any mention of finding the gold also to allow Toraji and Umeko’s child to study. It’s just Umeko.

Sure, when Sugimoto got involved in the gold hunt he hoped also to get not only the money for Umeko but to become rich as well.

Asirpa made clear she had no interest in the gold, meaning originally it would go all to Sugimoto... then she would split it between him and Sugimoto.

Sugimoto’s interest for the gold is likely not solely motivated by just greed.

Sugimoto has no job and he’s clearly still in love with Umeko. Much money would allow him to marry her and live with her well so becoming rich would be very good for him.

He was meant to be rewarded for how he fought after all, but he ruined everything by almost killing a superior officer.

It’s when Kiro joins the group Kiro demands for the gold to be returned to the Ainu, while Asirpa doesn’t really discuss things because she’s now afraid the one stealing it could have been her father.

By then though the amount of gold had revealed to be unbelievably big and Kiro acknowledged Sugimoto and Shiraishi would still deserve a reward for recovering it so this is not so much of a problem.

As the story goes on Sugimoto is always on the page of getting the gold for Umeko... even if he doesn’t quite wants to put it verbally.

With Asirpa and Shiraishi he prefers to say he’s doing it for Toraji... but as he speaks he doesn’t look at Asirpa and thinks at Umeko dressed as a bride, a hint he hopes to marry her.

And it’s still at Umeko he thinks as he asks Tsurumi for 200 yens.

Once it’s out in the open Sugimoto never denies Umeko is the one she fell in love with and a big part of why he wants the gold.

But will Umeko come into play or she’ll remain just part of Sugimoto’s motive?

That’s hard to say.

Long ago there was an interesting theory from @midnight-in-town suggesting that Tsurumi was the windower who had asked Umeko to marry him.

At the time the idea Tsurumi went so far to keep Sugimoto under control at such an early point in the story (the mention of a windower wanting Umeko was in chap 35 vol 4 when Sugimoto had only collected 3 skins and it seemed unlikely Tsurumi would consider him so much of a threat, not mentioning Tsurumi makes no mention of Umeko when he has Sugimoto in Abashiri) seemed unlikely.

Now that we know that Noda keeps track even of the smallest details... who knows.

Anyway it can be that Umeko will show up in Hokkaido to either turn down Tsurumi or accept to marry him... or think he has Sugimoto who needs to be helped by her... or for her own reasons.

But even if she doesn’t, she’s still moving Sugimoto. I mean, it would be pretty terrible if Sugimoto were to find the gold and then say ‘Umeko? Who cares about Umeko?’.

I want to think Sugimoto didn’t forget her, and won’t forget her unless he gets hits in the head and this causes him amnesia.

Of course it’s up to speculation if Sugimoto will manage to go back to her and marry her as he hoped or will do something completely different (also we don’t know if he’ll manage to get some of the gold)... but I think Umeko, and in a way Toraji too, are part of the plot, of who Sugimoto is and of why he’s doing what he does.

So I expect them to come up again in future.

They’re, after all, something he has, at least, to face, if he wants to move on after this gold hunt. Still, for now we can only wait and see what Noda is preparing for us.

Thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Boutarou saying 'i want tons of kids' caught me completely off guard, even as part of a childish dream. 99,9% of the characters are dudes, and yeah they are mostly criminals/soldiers/etc looking for the gold, but none of them as ever said anything remotely similar, not even as a joke. Some are already dads (kirokanke, asirpa's uncle), or have dadness thurst upon them (tanigaki, shinpei), but none of want to achieve dadness (Tsurumi doesn't count because he uses his dad powers for evil) (1/?)

You raise an interesting point!

Yes, Boutarou's positive outlook and wish for a family is pretty unique in the story.

Even when a character wishes for something that would make him happy or a family they have something very vague in mind, like Sugimoto’s idea he’ll get the money to cure Umeko (which was Toraji’s idea).

Boutarou sees having children as something positive, something he wants, not something that just happens and he wants them to be happy with them, not to entrust them the honour of the family or some great goal of liberation.

Koito senior undoubtedly loves his children... but he also had expectatives on them, they aren’t born just because he wanted to be a dad.

As for Tanigaki, although it’s clear he lvoes his daughter, it’s also clear he never planned to be a father, it just happened. Probably he expected one day he would become a father but it wasn’t something he wanted to pursue.

Kiro loved his children but didn’t hesitate to leave them behind, although it’s clear he believed his noble goal would benefit them as well.

Wilk wanted Asirpa to be basically in charge of his dream. Sure, he was sure it would be a good dream for her as well but his happiness was in the fulfillment of his wish through her, not in just being with her.

Sugimoto longs to go back with Umeko but, although I’m pretty sure he would adopt Toraji’s child without the slightest hesitation, that’s not part of his dream, his dream is just to cure Umeko and be back to her.

Tsurumi should have loved his child but, without realizing, ended up sacrificing it to his work. He did a poor job in sending away Fina and put her and his daughter in danger.

Hanazawa... I tend to wave him off as a jerk, sure, maybe we lack info but what we know about him right now doesn’t promise good. He used Yuusaku as a symbol and left behind Ogata.

Boutarou is the only one who wants fatherhood and wants to live his life with his children, because they would be part of his happiness. Well, maybe Sakamoto and O-gin too felt something symilar although O-gin and Sakamoto felt much more tied to themselves to the point that when Sakamoto dies O-gin doesn’t think she can live with her baby, or tries to save him but decides that the three of them have to die together.

I wonder if Boutarou had a very loving and unite family which managed to pass him the right values about how a family has to be so that yes, he’s ready to sacrifice other people, because other people sacrificed his family, but not who’s part of his family.

I definitely hope we will see more of Boutarou, hopefully Vasily won’t snipe him when he’ll reach again the group thinking he’s an enemy.

He can bring a different outlook to the group, making them finally look at the future, at planning it, not just at going on hoping it’ll be all for the best.

Honestly I’ll love it if he joins the cast!

So really, thank you for your ask!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 228 “Shima-Enaga”

And so we dig into this chapter, which is all about Sugimoto and survival.

Yeah, survival.

And since I know Sugimoto’s mind setting for it, I should have figured things would have gone bad but, naïve soul that I am, I still didn’t dare to conceive they could go THAT bad.

The chapter starts tame enough, with the fog arising while Vasily, Asirpa, Shiraishi and Sugimoto are at Sorachi river, one of the rivers Heita signed has having the same type of gold as the one Wilk had.

The fog, which we hardly encounter in previous chapters, is likely due to them being in a river valley as those can be foggy.

Anyway here I’ve my first observation.

The group is now moving as follow, Vasily and Asirpa on a horse, Sugimoto and Shiraishi by feet with Vasily ahead of the group and Sugimoto in the rear line. Asirpa is in the middle with Shiraishi holding the reins of her horse.

Now, placing Vasily ahead might be due to Sugi being injured. As his arm is wounded placing him at the head of the line might not be a good idea as, if they were attacked suddenly, he would have troubles defending himself. Still I’m perplexed on assigning the horses to Vasily and Asirpa and not to Sugi.

I’m okay with him not riding alone as the broken arm might give him troubles in controlling the horse but in the beginning of their travel Asirpa and Sugi shared the horse. Is the horse carrying something so heavy it can’t carry Sugi as well? Especially since it’s foggy and it would be troublesome if Sugi were to slip somewhere and fall.

Of course Shiraishi could have gone on Vasily’s horse as well, so that they would all travel comfortably instead than holding Asirpa’s reins when Asirpa in the past showed she knows how to ride but whatever, I get Shiraishi might not feel so comfortable on a horse with Vasily unless it’s a life or death situation.

Anyway Asirpa notices the fog and suggests to go back to the nearby Ainu village as it’s dangerous to travel in such way, especially for Sugimoto who has a broken arm, with Shiraishi pointing out how it would be bad if Sugi were to fall and break his bone, who was just starting to heal, again.

Sugimoto claims he’s fine and they don’t need to worry about him (keep this in mind)...

...but then he’s distracted by a chirping sound and notices an extremely cute small bird with a broken wing.

It’s a Shima-enaga or, if you prefer, a Aegithalos caudatus japonicas, a type of long-tailed tit which only lives in Hokkaido.

In short Noda picked up one of the cutest little birds ever, a fluffy snowball, with round eyes and a tiny black beak that just seems to be made to make you cry ‘how cute!’. Personally I find it even cuter in photos than how Noda drew him but maybe it’s just me.

(Come on, isn’t he adorable?)

And since Sugimoto has a weakness for cute, little animals of course he forgets he’s supposed to walk close Asirpa and Shiraishi and, without warning them, he stops and bent down to chat with the birdie, who, poor thing, has a broken wing and that’s why he’s on the ground.

If you’re wondering why the font changes in the scanlations it’s because it changes in the raw as well, to be replaced with a cuter and rounder one that hints to Sugimoto using what I call his ‘cute tone’.

The bird is unafraid as Sugimoto pick it up in his hand and Sugimoto connects with him by pointing out how he broke his arm as well

...before commenting how cute the little birdie’s eyes are.

Keep this in mind as it will be relevant later on.

He then goes and claims Asirpa calls this type of birds Upas cir (ウパｼチﾘ), which means “bird of snow” [雪の鳥] (Upas= snow, cir=bird) then asks confirmation to Asirpa but Asirpa is nowhere to be seen. He calls her and she hears him, telling him they’re there, but she can’t see him as well. Sugimoto, who evidently can’t remember in which way Asirpa was going and couldn’t figure out from where her voice came, takes the wrong turn, goes into a bamboo grove and slips straight down a slope.

Meanwhile Asirpa and Shiraishi try to find him by calling him and following his tracks, Asirpa jumping off the horse to better do it.

As for Sugimoto, luckily for him he’s unarmed but the slope is very steep so he realizes it would be hard for him to climb up (actually I did climb up such a slope as a child and me and my friends had a GREAT TIME sliding down of it like Sugi did but Sugimoto has a broken arm and he’s carrying a backpack and a rifle which makes things more complicate) so he decides not to. He checks the bird which he was still holding in his hand when he slid, asking him if he’s okay, the bird chirping in reply and looking fine.

Sugimoto then tries calling Asirpa (you could also try calling Shiraishi, the poor guy is also trying to help searching you, Sugimoto) but he gets no reply as Asirpa likely didn’t hear him.

Sugimoto then thinks to try to go back from where he comes, taking another way.

Honestly, while I praise his attempt at doing something it’s A Really Bad Idea.

FIRST of all, he got already sort of lost when he was above the slope which is why he ended up sliding off it in the first place, so he might end up taking the wrong turn AGAIN and it’s not like he knows exactly where the slope started. He could end up farther away from the group instead than close and might not even be capable to go back from where he came.

SECOND he’s not leaving signals behind himself. Asirpa tries to track him back by following his steps. He walked on a bamboo grass causing steps to disappear but Asirpa could notice the tracks of him falling down the slope and try to follow them or to find a way to reach him. If Sugimoto moves and doesn’t make sure she can easily follow him, he only makes more troubles for her to reach him… but I guess he’s not familiar with ‘Le Petit Poucet’ by Charles Perrault and therefore doesn’t think to use stones or something like that to mark his way.

THIRD he has a rifle. He could have shoot it in the air to signal his position, or attempted to light a fire below the slope so as to signal it before moving more and risking distancing himself from his group further.

I guess all this is part of him wanting to prove he can handle the situation alone as not much before he told Asirpa and Shiraishi they shouldn’t worry about him but he’s really not correctly analyzing the situation and only making matters worse for everyone. When you’re working in a team you’ve to think to ‘team solutions’. You can’t just rely on yourself nor solely on your mates. You’ve to find an option that’s beneficial for both. Sugimoto moves thinking he can handle it, but he’s not thinking that the others are likely trying to track him down. In the best option they might have ended running in circles, with him trying to reach them and them trying to reach him.

Meanwhile although Asirpa and Shiraishi search for him they can’t find him due to him, as said before, having walked on the bamboo leaves and therefore not having left tracks.

On the other side, as expected, Sugimoto gets completely lost in the mist and, as many do when they’re lost, he thinks it’s better not to move anymore and wait for himself to be rescued.

Basically he had tried to handle things on his own, failed and his failure did what it does to many people, it subconsciously scared them into passivity and hoping for others to get them out of troubles. In short, after first trying to rely solely on himself to save himself, now he tries to rely solely on Asirpa and Shiraishi to save him without thinking at how to help them in doing so… which is extremely human but again, it’s the wrong attitude. You’ve to think at this as group work, you’ve to try and help your rescues to save you. But we’ll talk about this further later on.

Anyway Sugimoto isn’t thrilled at the idea of spending the night there all alone but the bird chirps as he says so and Sugimoto corrects himself, apologizing and admitting he’s not alone as the bird is with him.

Sugimoto then, following Asirpa’s teaching, finds a good place in which they can stay, below a fallen tree leaning against a rock (if he lights a fire there, the heat will reflect on the rocks and the place will remain warmer).

From this moment on Sugimoto will try following Asirpa’s teaching to survive, explaining all his actions to the bird (and, indirectly to us readers as well), starting from which kind of wood they need to burn, how he can get it and so on.

Among other things we learn Sugimoto’s bayonet is kept sharp enough it can cut fingers (normally bayonets are used for stabbing so their blade isn’t sharp) so I wonder if this will come up again in the plot.

We’ll see.

He also shares with the bird the problems he faces, like how there’s no river nearby so he they don’t have sand and the bird seems to react with worry at his words...

...before Sugimoto claims there’s a solution for it.

Although Sugimoto seems cheerful I wonder if his constant talking with the bird is a way to keep away fear and loneliness. Sugimoto didn’t want to remain stranded there, alone in the fog through all the night. It’s not just fear of being out there in the wilderness, Sugimoto is a social person who doesn’t want to be alone and who had suffered quite a bit when he had been forced to be alone (when he left his village, when he came to Hokkaido on his own to search gold, when he left Asirpa, when Asirpa and Shiraishi were taken from him).

Long story short Sugimoto can stay there alone but the point is HE DOESN’T WANT TO and he’s only putting up a tough façade to psychologically reassure himself.

His talking with the bird, explaining to him in details what he’s doing is likely a way to persuade himself he’s not alone. We normally don’t hear Sugimoto talking that much but now he’s doing it a lot, likely to keep his spirit up, to delude himself everything is okay.

Sure, as said before, Sugimoto’s explanations serve also to let us readers know what he’s doing which is an interesting plot device as otherwise this chapter would be completely silent and, at best, filled with info boxes which can get boring after a while and it helps us as well to bond with the bird and see it as if it were a human, not just a bird so it also has a Doylist purpose but I think it also has a purpose in-universe, a purpose tied to Sugimoto’s mental state.

Anyway, when Sugimoto can light a fire inside his hideout and sit there safe and relatively warm he comments on how all he did came from Asirpa’s teaching and that he could survive this long thanks to her and that they’ll be all right for now.

Then, as the bird chirps again, Sugimoto wonders if the bird is now feeling hunger because they’re safe. Likely this is Sugimoto’s feeling, as he’s in a place he judges warm and safe, so he can allow himself to feel hunger. The bird, poor thing, likely can’t really understand what Sugimoto has been telling him and they’re safer there, at most he can feel warmer.

In the same way as Sugimoto has empathized with the bird due to him having a broken wing same as Sugimoto have a broken arm, now Sugimoto is transferring on the bird his feelings.

In a way this reminds me a bit of the movie ‘Cast away’ in which the main character, Chuck Noland, remain stranded on a desert island and, after drawing on it a face, begins to talk with a volley ball, naming it Wilson.

So Sugimoto prepares some food with the emergency supplies Asirpa gave him, always explaining the bird what he’s doing and gives a share of his food to the bird. Then Sugimoto goes to sleep, saying that the day after, if the fog were to clear up Asirpa would find him and wishing good night to the bird, whom he now calls Upashy–chan (ウパシちゃん “Little snow”)  due to how the Ainu called him ‘Upas-cir’ [“Snow bird” or “Bird of the snow”].

[Since Sugimoto wanted to name the bird with an Ainu word the correct name should have been ‘Upas-chan’ not ‘Upashy-chan’. However the Ainu word ‘Upas’ is written with a small ‘shi’ (ｼ) which means just ‘s’. Sugimoto though, being Japanese, instead than the small ‘shi’ uses the normal one, same as he doesn’t use the small ‘ri’ (ㇼ) in Asirpa’s name. In fact in the translations this can’t be noticed but Sugimoto actually calls Asirpa ‘AsiRIpa-san’ same as all the Japanese characters, while the Ainu correctly calls her ‘Asirpa’ with the small ‘ri’ which means just ‘r’.]

The day after though is still foggy.

Sugimoto is awakened by some noise and comes out from his hideout calling Asirpa’s name only to see bear tracks rather close to where he was hiding. This clearly scares him.

Although Sugimoto has bravely faced many bears the truth is bears have always scared him right from day one and the fact one came close clearly put more pressure on him. So, while preparing his rifle to fire just in case the bear is still around, Sugimoto, thanks to all the info Asirpa gave him, tries to figure out which kind of bear that is and if it can be dangerous.

Meanwhile the bird has somehow ended up on his hat.

It’s noteworthy among the info Sugimoto gives us there’s the fact he says bears have started leaving their den in the time of the year they’re in so they aren’t anymore Matakarip (bears who have missed hibernation) but normal bears and this also means spring is coming and more than a year has gone by from when Sugimoto and Asirpa met (they met when bears were hibernating). As bears in Hokkaido come out of hibernation in April we’re already around April (btw they go in hibernation around September or October).

Sugimoto fears it could be a young male bear because young male bears, like young human guys are curious, unafraid, full of themselves, like to fight and won’t hesitate to attack even if they aren’t hungry. As Sugimoto is a young human guy this tells us a lot about how he sees himself and the people around his age.

Sugimoto hopes it’s an old bear because old bears, like old men, won’t try to pointlessly fight and would slip away if they sense a person even if they’re very strong.

This leads him to think if they had sent to war old men instead than youths (like him) as old men won’t fight even if ordered to and just laze around.

Evidently Sugimoto has forgotten about Hijikata and Nagakura who’re old men but still fearsome but well, I’ll admit they aren’t exactly common… but what’s more noteworthy is Sugimoto doesn’t seem to realize avoiding a pointless fight actually is the clever thing to do and that old or young, no one would have been allowed to avoid fighting on the battleground.

Sure, maybe Sugimoto’s opinion is formed on the fact that many old men on the battleground were high officers who would likely remain in the sideline while younger, lower ranking men would charge the enemy, and this could have caused him to develop a negative view of old people as he would see himself being sent out to face danger while they remain safe.

But then, as he fed the bird, Sugimoto goes on about how it’s a waste if young people with futures (like him) die…

...and while yes, it’s a waste, it wouldn’t make things better if old people were the one to die. The main problem of a war is that IT IS A WASTE OF HUMAN LIVES, no matter if the people fighting in it are young or old, causing people to die is wrong and it wouldn’t make things better to sacrifice old people but Sugimoto isn’t really thinking at that, sure that old people would conveniently find a way out of fights.

I guess in a way this again show how deeply human Sugimoto is. His thinking is flawed, based on his experience telling him old (high ranking) guys weren’t fighting on the front lines and subconsciously selfish as he sees the loss of young people like him as very wrong but this is how human works.

Sugimoto goes on to point how it’s such a waste guys that have young wives and… small child, dies.

The sentence is ‘Wakai okusan to... chīsai kodomo ga iru yōna yatsu wa shinja dameda yo’ [若い奥さんと...小さい子供がいるような奴は死んじゃ駄目だよ “It’s wrong if a man with a young wife and... a small child die”] with the dots between “young wife and…” [若い奥さんと... ‘Wakai okusan to...’] and “young child” [小さい子供 ‘chīsai kodomo’].

Yes, the small child is added as if it was an afterthought or something Sugimoto forced himself to say and, as he talks, we see the photo of Toraji, Umeko and their child in which what I assume is blood, sort of cut the picture in two, dividing Umeko from Toraji.

Sugimoto’s thoughts has moved them but it’s clear his main focus is how UMEKO has been left alone in fact he continues talking on how bad is for men to die and leave behind such a good-natured wife… which is true but what about leaving behind children? Children like Toraji’s son but also like Asirpa or Kiro’s kids who are left behind, carrying within themselves the pain of their father’s loss. Sugimoto isn’t really worrying about them, not because he doesn’t care about kids but because he cares too much about Umeko. The one he’s focusing on, the one who shouldn’t be left alone is Umeko. Sugimoto’s general talk about ‘young men’ was actually a very personal talk… and although he clearly wants to think at Toraji, who left alone a wife and a child, the truth is deep down he thinks at Umeko. Toraji has left her behind and he can’t go get her due to how war has changed Sugimoto to the point he’s afraid to face her. This whole gold hunt is Sugimoto’s excuse to try and find a reason to go back to her.

Sugimoto trails of as he thinks at how Umeko is now alone and tells himself wandering around in the fog would be dangerous with a bear around because he can’t fight with a broken arm so he wants to just wait for the fog to lift and for Asirpa to rescue him.

And, although this might seem a good idea in short terms, in truth it’s a HORRIBLE PLAN or lack thereof.

Sugimoto acknowledge he’s someone Asirpa (and Shiraishi but Sugimoto never seems to count on Shiraishi even if Shiraishi has started showing he’s much more reliable than Sugimoto credits him for) should worry about as he isn’t fine as he said at the beginning of this chapter but… he just decides to entrust the whole burden of saving him entirely on her.

He’ll wait PASSIVELY, without attempting on coming up with a plan to make himself being saved by her any easier. He’s clearly scared by the bear being around and by his weakened state but, in a page that parodies ‘Doraemon’, we’ll see he just sit there day after day waiting for the fog to clear up

(it was also transposed in an anime episode visible in Italian language here).

The parody isn’t just for fun.

The character to whom Sugi is compared is Nobi Nobita (野比 のび太) who, in the Japanese fandom is well known for being a kid who is lazy (he’s nicknamed the ‘lazy king’), dimwitted, weak, frail, childish and whose running gag is to go crying and asking for Doraemon to save/help him with his gadgets. The gag is so popular the comparison with Nobita is recurring in other manga each time a character just does nothing to save himself except go crying to another character for help.

Long story short it’s not a comparison that’s flattering and clearly hints to a negative behavior that leads to nothing good. We normally don’t think at Sugimoto in such terms because Sugimoto normally is strong and doesn’t cry but I wonder if Noda is trying to tell us that what we normally see is a façade, the image Sugimoto built around himself. He too wanted like Toraji to go cry to Umeko and be comforted and rescued by her but his pride stopped him. He was strong, after all, he always won, he had no reason to show weakness in fact when Sugi cries he always tries not to show it to others (when he escaped from Umeko, when Asirpa’s words about eating persimmons made him cry).

Noda might be trying to tell us the REAL Sugimoto is not as strong as he tries to look on the outside, he’s just a scared human who wants to be saved and in a way Sugimoto shows it, we can see many times that when he’s scared to tries to act cocky and confident to hide it, his whole mentality of killing before getting killed hinges on this, on attacking before others can find his weakness and strike him down.

In a way Noda is deconstructing Sugimoto, showing us who he really is beyond his awesome strength and his apparent immortality. Sugimoto is human, like all of us, he’s not some sort of demigod like a Japanese version of Hercules. He’s a full human with weakness and strong points. That’s why his weakness is so important, because it connects him to us and why I so dislike when people, and especially the anime, try to make him perfect and therefore not human.

Humans have weakness and bad sides and overcoming them is what makes them great.

“Without fear there cannot be courage” (quote by Christopher Paolini) and the same is true for everything else. It’s in overcoming our bad sides we claim our good sides.

If Sugimoto were never scared to begin with, he wouldn’t be brave, he would just be unable to reads the situation correctly or, worse, he would be unable to care for his well being and be apathetic. Sugimoto being scared and wanting to be saved IS IMPORTANT.

Sadly though, Sugimoto didn’t chose the right way to cope with this very human feeling.

In fact, as a week is gone and the bird has either turned fatter (Sugimoto overfed him with food that’s not for birds but the bird didn’t move to consume the calories he gained) or has started to puff-up his feathers because he’s also suffering of that condition (puffed up feathers are a sign of sickness in birds and since we’ll learn after a while Sugimoto ended his food it can be there was none for the bird to feed either, leading the bird’s conditions to worsen as well) Sugimoto starts worrying it’s going to stay foggy forever (and therefore won’t be saved).

A whole week is long and Sugimoto, through it, has done nothing to help Asirpa locate him, he has just waited for her to walk around searching for him and calling his name so that he could hear her and answer. While his fear and his wish to be saved are human, his whole passivity and dependence on her aren’t a good choice… and Sugimoto realizes as well. Sort of.

He talks again with the bird, placing in the bird’s mouth the scolding he knew he deserved for his poor, lazy choice. He has the bird tell him ‘they should have left the place when they still have that dango left’ in short when they had food to give them energy and could survive the dangers more easily.

Note the shift.

Sugimoto at the beginning first decided to rely solely on himself to get back to Asirpa… then decided to solely rely on Asirpa to find him… then, when she apparently fails and he starts to get scared she won’t come, he goes back to tell himself he should have relied on himself.

He doesn’t consider what he could have done to help Asirpa locate him, for him it was either ‘I’ll save myself’ or ‘she’ll save me’ not ‘we’ll cooperate to get out of this mess’.

Anyway the words Sugi have the bird say to him are clearly Sugimoto’s thoughts, not the bird… and Sugimoto’s reply reveals a bit of his dark side as he doesn’t just say ‘yes, we should have’ but gets angry and scolds the bird claiming ‘he too was happy to gobble up that dango’ and this tells us that Sugimoto is again projecting on the bird his feelings.

He was the one who was happy to eat the dango there, in a safe place, waiting for help to come without having to worry for doing something and now he’s angry at himself because things didn’t turn out as he wanted but, instead he vents it on the bird, saying he’ll pluck his feathers and eat him.

(Ironically in this image Sugi’s eyes due to his now very lowered eyelids, resemble the ones of Ogata... or of a cat as Ogata’s eyes are meant to resemble the ones of a cat)

This is Sugimoto’s ugly side, of which we saw glimpses, a side that pushes him to get angry with others when things don’t go well and discharge on them responsibilities that are his own (the most notable thing of all is when he mistreated the fake Nopperabo when the poor guy did nothing wrong but he also said some mean spirited words to Hime and hit him).

Then Sugimoto’s kind side kicks in again and, as he realizes he has scared the poor bird (who can’t understand human language) apologizes to it.

In a way it’s subtle but there’s again a parallel with Usami and how he denounced Tomoharu’s wrongdoing with a creepy voice and then with another said he would forgive him.

Sugimoto also is sort of split and torn between contrasting emotions although the scene is drawn in a visually more pleasing way (Sugimoto doesn’t have two heads, his splitting emotions are placed in two opposing panels).

Sugimoto is scared, hungry and angry but he likes the bird and didn’t want to scare him. Sugimoto is a normal person who wants to be good and tries really hard to be as such. He wanted to help the bird, he tells himself they’ll manage to make out of it, that Asirpa will fix Upashy-chan’s wing as his stomach grumbles in hunger loudly.

He tries to persuade himself remaining to wait there passively is not a good plan, that even if there’s a scary bear out there in the fog and he’s hungry and without supplies and he can’t move well they have to leave, that he’ll drew out all his remaining energies because ‘he’s Sugimoto the immortal’.

After he screams his catchphrase with his irises completely white he seems to calm down, his expression getting… flat somehow as he says ‘…yeah’ as he likely realizes the situation is desperate and he might not make it, he might die because he’s not immortal for real, he might die...

...unless he embraces the mentality that had kept him alive through the war again.

Before I summarized it as a ‘kill before you get killed’ or if you prefer ‘the strongest survive and the weakest dies’ but people tend to expect this to apply in a fight since Sugi says ‘you don’t let anybody/anything kill you’. But with such mentality this isn’t necessarily the case and just to show whoever wanted to give Sugimoto a pass for it, thinking it was just ‘because Sugimoto was attacked and had to defend himself’ Noda shows us the ugly side of such way of thinking.

In the next page we see Sugimoto killed the bird with the purpose to eat it before starvation and weakness would kill him.

Sugimoto’s mentality is actually based on PRIORITIZING HIS SURVIVAL at the expenses of everyone else even when they don’t pose a direct threat to him.

When he decides, in the first chapter, to take part to the gold hunt, the plan he originally decided to follow was to murder convicts to get the gold, convicts who can be murdering psycho but can also be guys like Shiraishi, who never killed a single soul and whose only guilt is to be lazy, waste money and escape from a prison after the other… or guys who were unfairly accused of something like Nopperabou… or a guy who acted in self defence like Youchirou… or a guy who got imprisoned merely due to having been on the losing side like Hijikata… or a guy with a mental illness like Heita… or a guy with a family out there, like Nihei.

The convicts weren’t going after him, they didn’t pose a direct threat against him as long as he kept away from them, it’s him who goes after them, posing a direct threat to them.

It’s Asirpa who insists on them not killing everyone...

...Sugimoto wanted to go in this with the firm belief he would kill everyone and even resisted to the idea of not killing the convicts… but this not because he’s inherently evil or something.

He just prioritized himself and wrapped himself in a narrative in which they were the bad guys, like how he told himself the Russian soldiers, who were nothing else but poor guys like him forced to fight, were soulless evil beings to excuse his actions.

That’s why he said he didn’t want Ogata to have good reasons to hunt the gold, because it would clash with the narrative he constructed for himself and that made rightful to murder Ogata.

Sugimoto is a normal person who wants to be a good person, to do the right thing but doing the right thing is hard, it’s not easy like in fairy tales and sometimes the wrong option seems better because the right option seems impossible to pursue or asks too much out of us.

Sugimoto didn’t think he could survive out there if he didn’t eat something. It wasn’t like he WANTED to kill Upashy-chan, it was just he believed he would die if he didn’t.

His expression as he plucks Upashy-chan’s feathers is ugly, maybe not as much as Usami after he killed Tomoharu but clearly ugly enough.

His eyes are open wide (like Usami) his irises white although their shape seems distorted. His teeth are clenched and he’s sweating a lot as he repeats he’s sorry. The visual might not have shown him with two heads as Usami but in this image it’s clear Sugimoto is torn between the need to survive and the pain for what he had done.

And, in a way, this scene isn’t comparable to just what Usami did to Tomoharu but also to what Sugimoto did to himself.

Sugimoto identified himself with the bird, with how they both had a broken arm/wing, he transferred on him his emotions, his fears.

If we want we can see the bird as representing ‘Saichi’, the Sugimoto that he was before the war, the kind, nice Sugimoto who cared for his friends and wanted to be saved and never killed a soul… and who’s ‘killed’, ‘eaten alive’ by what I call ‘Sugimoto the soldier’ as in the person Sugimoto became during the war, but maybe a more fitting name for this Sugimoto would be ‘the immortal’ the guy who understood he has to kill others to insure his survival.

In order to survive the war, Sugimoto killed his own innocence and kind feelings, he became a person who’s capable to kill others with ease to survive. Noda has hinted many times to how Sugimoto is split in two, the person he was before the war and the person in which he rebuilt himself.

This chapter plays on this dualism with the bird representing how ‘the immortal Sugimoto’, whom Sugi declared to be just before committing the deed, sacrificed ‘Saichi’/the bird on the altar of his own survival.

And ‘Immortal Sugimoto’ goes on talking, trying to normalize his own actions, linking them to the sparrow he ate when he went in Kyoto (interesting info by the way as Sugimoto is from Tokyo… can it be when he escaped from his home village he went to Kyoto?) but as he does cook it in such a way the thing becomes even more terrible, the images showing the poor bird Noda worked so hard to make us readers grow fond with having a skewer going through his eyes, those eyes Sugimoto called so cute, to hold his head steady and then we see the skewer also being through his poor wings, his breast cut open as Sugi cooks him on the fire… and if this is meant to parallel how ‘Saichi’ feels it’s terrible, his chest ripen open in pain, his arms held still to point to his helpless and his eyes blinded.

(and yes, I wanted to show you a picture of the bird, and especially of the skewer going through his eyes here but it felt too much for me as well to stomach... sorry about it...)

Meanwhile ‘Immortal Sugimoto’ says he’ll make the organs into citatap and eat absolutely everything as if he’ll completely consume ‘Saichi’ in order to survive.

Asirpa, when Sugimoto had troubles killing the deer because he saw himself in the deer...

...has taught him the deer’s death has given him life, it has warmed him, it has given him meat and so something would live on and the deer’s life had a meaning.

Asirpa’s words were true but she couldn’t grasp the trauma of a war veteran who came back from war and was afraid to kill a deer because he identified himself in it, someone helpless, hurt and hunted by others that has to fight his all to survive. Asirpa saw the deer only as food and couldn’t understand his idea that the deer was him, she probably saw his hesitation as useless sentimentalism not as a sign of trauma and unknowingly ended up validating ‘Sugimoto the immortal’.

It was okay to kill the deer to survive. It was okay to kill ‘Saichi’ to survive, it will be okay to kill others to survive.

That’s not what Asirpa meant but it’s likely what Sugimoto ended up feeling… and now that feeling is refreshed anew and this time Sugimoto had no hesitation in killing the bird in which he saw himself.

However we can see his eyes which clearly looked disturbed before now are turning completely black. Sugimoto is not psychologically well. Sometimes if you keep your body alive by killing yourself you might have done to yourself more harm than good. Sugimoto’s eyes are completely black as he bites or attempts to bite the bird (I’m not sure he managed to bite it) and hears Asirpa, now finally close to him, calling him, the fog clearing up as if all that had been some sort of hallucination or dream, in a way that seems to mimic the ending of the movie ‘The mist’.

Sugimoto screams and Asirpa turns happily as she recognizes his voice.

She likely has never stopped searching for him, fog or not, calling him and trying to find his tracks through all this time, aware he didn’t have a lot of food with himself and if only Sugimoto has waited a little more Upashy-chan would have been still alive.

The cruel irony of this seems to make fun of Sugimoto’s poor sense of timing. If he had come back sooner Umeko wouldn’t have married Toraji. Likely this was also at play when he argued with the bird/with himself on how he should have left the hideout sooner, when they still have food. But now Asirpa finally finding him proves that if he had waited a little longer he could have been saved without having to sacrifice Upashy-chan.

The key, I think, it’s not in the timing but in the way Sugimoto handled the whole situation.

With Umeko he disappeared from her life. He didn’t try to contact her, nor asked her to wait for him. The result was she decided to marry another man and it’s ‘right’ he arrives too late to stop her.

With Upashy-chan he did nothing to save himself until it was almost too late and when he decided to act it was solely because he lost faith in Asirpa finding and saving him. So Karma had Asirpa arrive only after he decided to act and sacrifice Upashy-chan. Both outcomes are the result of Sugimoto’s mistakes (and bad luck, of course but we’re helpless against bad luck, what can we do is try not to make mistakes).

It’s cruel, it’s terrible but sadly in real life we often pay a price for our mistakes and in manga this becomes a given as they become cautionary tales against them.

We can only hope Sugimoto will learn from this cruel lesson and improve and that this won’t break him further instead.

Going back to Upashy-chan and Sugi, in addition to the parallels with Usami and Tomoharu and ‘Sugimoto the immortal’ and ‘Saichi’ there’s also the possibility Noda wanted to parallel them with Sugimoto and Toraji.

They were together in the war and Sugimoto was likely sure they would go back home together. Toraji died instead, and his wounds were likely caused by either a shell, like how it happened for Tsurumi and Tsukishima or by a Russian grenade (his words very similar to the ones Kenkichi reported). However Toraji was still alive when Sugimoto pulled him off the sledges. I genuinely think Toraji would die even if carried to the hospital… but I don’t think he really said he wanted Tsukishima to use his sledge so that whose who could be saved could survive.

If what reduced him that way was a grenade it’s possible his eardrums has shattered like Kenkichi and Sugimoto covers his eyes. Toraji doesn’t know what’s going on even though he’s still breathing. We know that in the flashback in chap 167 Noda retconned Toraji’s words. They weren’t anymore ‘I can’t go home’ but ‘I want to go home’. It might very well be that Toraji wouldn’t want to accept he couldn’t survive. It might be he wanted to fight till the end, that what he said to Sugi wasn’t ‘give the sledge to them’ but ‘I want to go home’. By deciding that it was pointless to try and save him as he clearly couldn’t be saved Sugimoto might feel he has ‘killed him’ same as how he killed Upashy-chan who would have died out of starvation anyway but that Sugimoto murdered prior to it to insure his own survival.

We’ll see but it would be great if Noda were to dig further in this, in Sugimoto’s trauma and in his past with Toraji.

I would love for Sugi to finally face it and overcome it.

Now... many readers (myself included) are afraid this can also end up paralleling Sugi and Asirpa, with Sugimoto sacrificing Asirpa for his own survival.

Of course it’s possible (in "The last supper” parody Sugimoto was in Peter’s place and Peter is notable for denying knowing Jesus trice which can be interpreted with Sugi ‘betraying’ Asirpa)...

...Asirpa is cute and little like Upashy-chan though she’s also fundamental for Sugimoto’s mind stability. Sugimoto tie Asirpa’s presence in this world to his salvation...

...sees in Asirpa himself, or better the himself of prior the war, ‘Saichi’ in short.

For Sugimoto trying to kill Asirpa would be worse than killing the bird as she’s not just tied to ‘Saichi’ but also to his salvation.

It would lead him to a madness way worse than Usami’s and so he would need much bigger reasons to do so than when he killed Upashy-chan.

It’s possible, I think if Umeko was threatened Sugimoto would find very hard to chose between her and Asirpa... but I’m not sure he would give in if HE would be personally threatened because Asirpa is such a big part of what makes his life worth living.

So, I don’t know. It could happen but it would be TERRIBLE and I’m honestly afraid of it. We’ll see.

Something else I’d like to say is I hope this chapter will help Sugimoto to face another thing.

Through this whole adventure he has often if not always complained when Asirpa were to kill a cute animal for them to eat to the point Asirpa made fun of him in chap 224 for this. Sugimoto afterward ate said animals, enjoying the food, but he didn’t seem to be capable to wrap his head around how they needed to kill them to get the food that would keep them alive.

In a way this too was a fracture in Sugimoto. He didn’t connect the delicious food he ate to the way in which they would get it, which he would criticize. I wonder if this adventure will push him to think things through and evolve.

Last but not least, even if this chapter was traumatic for me, it’s not because Sugimoto killed an animal and ate it to survive. Asirpa did it tons of times and I never questioned her because YES, they have to survive. Sugimoto though has humanized Upashy-chan and turned him into a pet, a friend, himself. And this has made the scene terrible because it felt as if he was killing a friend after promising him they would survive together.

Asirpa tried to warn him not to get attached long ago, when they discussed about the bear cub with whom Sugimoto wanted to play and that Asirpa kept at distance because she was aware they would have to kill it. Sugimoto naively didn’t want to listen, didn’t think he would reach the point in which he would see Upashy-chan as food and kill him. And he got horribly burned. While my heart feel very sorry for him, rationally I know he dug his own grave all by himself and I expected things to go wrong… only not so wrong.

It’s the reason I often get angry with him, for his mistakes, not because I hate him but because then they will be hell to pay. So I really, really hope from this he’ll manage to learn some sort of lesson that’ll help him not to make further mistakes and finally psychologically heal a little. Let’s hope we’ll be lucky.

Ah, just in case this chapter hadn’t traumatized you enough, have the final blow.

See you in the next chap!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Hi! Huge fan of your blog, thanks for all the fantastic posts! Since we're reaching the endgame of the story I'm wondering if you have any predictions on which, if any, of the main cast are going to get killed off by the end? Any interesting moments throughout the manga that you think could be foreshadowing a death? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks :)

Thank you for enjoying my blog and sorry for the late reply!

Well, I don’t really have many predictions for the  future beyond the ones I mentioned in my answer in a past ask.

To sum it up I think this page foreshadowed that since Hijikata and Nagakura aren’t walking through the “survival road” they’ll die too like Kiro and Ienaga.

(Shiraishi is, as usual, escaping, so I like to think he’ll survive).

As for the rest I don’t really know.

If it’s true that who kills a tiger has to face a life of misfortune and we can consider ‘tigers’ also who’s named as such, Koito, Tsukishima and Tanigaki are all responsible for Kiro’s death (Kiro’s name, Yulbars, means ‘tiger’)… and it’s possible that, if Sugimoto had an involvement in Toraji’s death (it’s suspected he mercy killed him) the same fate will befall on him as well (Toraji was nicknamed ‘Tora-chan’ and ‘tora’ means “tiger”).

This doesn’t mean they’ll die, just that they’ll live an unlucky life.

Personally, more than having Tsurumi die for his rebellion, I would prefer for him to end up jailed. I think Tsurumi would prefer death though.

I’m not sure Nikaidou and Vasily will manage to survive as they both have made their goal to either defeat a strong adversary (Sugimoto and Ogata) or die trying.

As for Usami he’s so consumed by his obsession for Tsurumi that it might drive him insane... and if this were to happen he might even end up killing himself if it were to discover he’s deluding himself. But I honestly don’t know.

As for the rest... I don’t know.

As of now it’s probably too early to predict who’ll live and who’ll die.

We’ll have to wait.

Sorry if this doesn’t really tell you much but I fear we’ve still too few elements currently.