#golden kamuy meta

[here-lies-golden-kamuy]

after seeing some of your Ogata meta, I wanted to share an idea I had.

it starts with Yuusaku, and Ogata's paradoxical hatred/envy of him. in my mind, Ogata hates Yuusaku because he represents a privileged existence. one that their father granted to Yuusaku, while neglecting Ogata. they're like light and shadow. Yuusaku's purity has and will always frame him as an exception to the compromises that other people have to make... and it's not just in relation to Ogata. normal men compromise their morals during war, but Yuusaku is treated as though he's above everyone.

Ogata's position is that this isn't fair. but then, what should be the method of leveling the playing field? Yuusaku would rather bring Ogata into the light, and Ogata would rather drag Yuusaku into the dark. these are their attempts to become relatable to each other, but they'd have to fundamentally alter each other if they were ever going to see eye to eye.

when Ogata asks "was a blessed life ever possible for me?" he does tip his hand a bit. it sounds like he actually wants to have those blessings. meanwhile, Yuusaku was never enticed by the darkness. Ogata failed to prove that his way of thinking is inherently tempting... and when Ogata shoots Yuusaku, that 100% cements his ideological loss. Yuusaku's death ended his potential to change, and immortalized his purity forever. and Yuusaku left Ogata with a curse of his own: "nobody should be able to kill without feeling guilt."

Yuusaku died, and made it so. and with this background knowledge, here is what I'm really getting at.

at the end of their journey together, we see Ogata draw a clear parallel between Asirpa and Yuusaku. both are people who have an empathetic, sentimental urge to care about the lives of others... and they expect to try and maintain that moral framework, even in the midst of a conflict that seems to necessitate violence and death. in some ways, their dedication to these morals can come off as judgmental towards people who have ended up dirtying their hands already. early in their relationship, Asirpa and Sugimoto grappled with that.

I believe that, if Asirpa and Yuusaku are comparable, then Sugimoto and Ogata are contrastable in the same role... they've responded in opposite ways to the same offer. both consider themselves to be cursed, and they think of killing as sometimes necessary, but Sugimoto feels guilt fully and readily. and when Asirpa reaches out to him, Sugimoto is more readily willing to change.

once you start thinking of the two as foils, there's no going back. Asirpa reminds Sugimoto of how he lived before the war, and Sugimoto devotes himself to Asirpa... Yuusaku reminds Ogata of how he lived before the war, and Ogata kills Yuusaku. one accepts the aid of someone who can help him heal, while the other rejects it.

this all culminates in Ogata murdering Wilk, and shooting Sugimoto. at that point, Sugimoto is basically what Ogata could've been if he'd embraced the connection that was offered to him. and I think it's symbolically meaningful that Ogata tries to kill this symbolic healthier version of himself. with this one decision, he ensures that Asirpa will never be able to think well of him... not if she ever learns the whole truth. whether Ogata knows it or not, he's essentially been watching as, once again, another person lives a more blessed and prosperous existence that he cannot partake in. he's always on the outside looking in, and when he shoots Sugimoto, he closes off one more important avenue.

I absolutely love the scene where Asirpa shoots Ogata in the eye. first of all, Asirpa and Sugimoto are beginning to swap their views on killing. Asirpa's morals have been tested, and she's starting to come to Sugimoto's early conclusion that killing isn't something she wants to do, but sometimes it can't be avoided if you want to survive. meanwhile, Sugimoto has picked up Asirpa's philosophy of being as non-lethal as possible. war isn't the proper tool for preserving a culture... Sugimoto already knows it isn't the proper tool for preserving a person. he went to war, and it nearly destroyed him. but now, everything he values about himself exists because, from the beginning, Asirpa had the correct tools to let him rebuild himself.

and so, when the arrow hits Ogata in the eye, Sugimoto saves Ogata's life, regardless of his rage. Ogata failed to kill Sugimoto, and Asirpa succeeded in healing him. as a result, when Asirpa is in danger of being pulled into the dark, she has someone there to help her.

and Ogata has still failed to corrupt anyone. he can't figure out how to bring someone down to his level so that he can relate to them. he's still alone. he never quite figures out what's good for him until after he's already ruined it.

Hey, anon! <33 When I first read this, I was totally blown away /gen And honestly, you deserve your own meta post about Ogata for real ‼️‼️‼️ I'd totally lose my mind again like I did the first time I read this /pos

Let me give you my thoughts in chunks! :-D I'll put it under the cut because holy shit it's so long

"it starts with Yuusaku, and Ogata's paradoxical hatred/envy of him. in my mind, Ogata hates Yuusaku because he represents a privileged existence. one that their father granted to Yuusaku, while neglecting Ogata. they're like light and shadow. Yuusaku's purity has and will always frame him as an exception to the compromises that other people have to make... and it's not just in relation to Ogata. normal men compromise their morals during war, but Yuusaku is treated as though he's above everyone."

My god, the thematic light and dark analogy is so on point. I agree: Yuusaku is the embodiment of light whilst his older half-brother is the dark entity. I always found it interesting that Yuusaku was pushed to a position of veneration (chapter 165, page 12). By keeping himself pure, he will be an "icon" for other men to look at and relieve themselves from the guilt of killing another person. What's interesting about it is that he's following the interpretation of their father about the superstition surrounding the flagbearer role. I argue that Yuusaku, to some degree, is forced to be light. He was forced to play a role that dictated that his life should radiate purity. His position as flagbearer and the mysticism behind the role wasn't his idea (and to some extent, wasn't his choice - he just followed what his father wanted); but because he's a willing participant of this superstitious belief, he, therefore, transforms himself from mere man to a purity akin to divinity.

Because he's so pure, to the point of veneration, I feel like that was part and parcel of why Ogata killed him: to prove to himself that even the gods and their blessed children bleed and die at the hands of men like him.

Ogata's position is that this isn't fair. but then, what should be the method of leveling the playing field? Yuusaku would rather bring Ogata into the light, and Ogata would rather drag Yuusaku into the dark. these are their attempts to become relatable to each other, but they'd have to fundamentally alter each other if they were ever going to see eye to eye.

when Ogata asks "was a blessed life ever possible for me?" he does tip his hand a bit. it sounds like he actually wants to have those blessings. meanwhile, Yuusaku was never enticed by the darkness. Ogata failed to prove that his way of thinking is inherently tempting... and when Ogata shoots Yuusaku, that 100% cements his ideological loss. Yuusaku's death ended his potential to change, and immortalized his purity forever. and Yuusaku left Ogata with a curse of his own: "nobody should be able to kill without feeling guilt."

YES YES YES!!!! Exactly! I love your idea of them trying to bring the other to their "ideological side" as a form of relating to one another. I feel like Yuusaku wanted to "save" his brother from the darkness that he feels had enshrouded him his entire life. Ogata, on the other hand, wanted to prove that a person who was beloved by his parents and who had it all can still be someone like him: "normal". This comes from the idea that Ogata thought that it was normal for everyone not to feel guilt when killing people (chapter 165, page 13); who knows what else he thought was normal?

I think there's a part of Ogata that really wanted to be a blessed child, underneath all his layers. There's a Tumblr post that tries to pull out the intricacies and nuances in Ogata's confrontation with Hanazawa Senior in chapter 103. I think it really showed Ogata's vulnerability, the inner child in him that continued to be ignored and hurt.

I think Ogata's hand in Yuusaku's death does immortalize his purity forever! Because Ogata finally gave up on their game: Yuusaku won their ideological battle by offering Ogata true love and acceptance (it's completely familial please) - something he's never received from anyone in the past. Though, I don't fully agree with how Yuusaku's death ended Ogata's potential to change: rather, for me, it symbolizes that Ogata's life ideology is flawed, and he ran away from it rather than confronting it. I argue that his potential to change died in your later observation of him shooting Sugimoto and/or when he pointed a gun at Asirpa and got shot in the eye by accident.

I love your idea of Ogata having his own curse as a result of Yuusaku's death: "nobody should be able to kill without feeling guilt". Because that's the backbone of his relationship with Asirpa, the one who reminds him of Yuusaku and someone who also tried to love him.

at the end of their journey together, we see Ogata draw a clear parallel between Asirpa and Yuusaku. both are people who have an empathetic, sentimental urge to care about the lives of others... and they expect to try and maintain that moral framework, even in the midst of a conflict that seems to necessitate violence and death. in some ways, their dedication to these morals can come off as judgmental towards people who have ended up dirtying their hands already. early in their relationship, Asirpa and Sugimoto grappled with that.

I believe that, if Asirpa and Yuusaku are comparable, then Sugimoto and Ogata are contrastable in the same role... they've responded in opposite ways to the same offer. both consider themselves to be cursed, and they think of killing as sometimes necessary, but Sugimoto feels guilt fully and readily. and when Asirpa reaches out to him, Sugimoto is more readily willing to change.

once you start thinking of the two as foils, there's no going back. Asirpa reminds Sugimoto of how he lived before the war, and Sugimoto devotes himself to Asirpa... Yuusaku reminds Ogata of how he lived before the war, and Ogata kills Yuusaku. one accepts the aid of someone who can help him heal, while the other rejects it.

this all culminates in Ogata murdering Wilk, and shooting Sugimoto. at that point, Sugimoto is basically what Ogata could've been if he'd embraced the connection that was offered to him. and I think it's symbolically meaningful that Ogata tries to kill this symbolic healthier version of himself. with this one decision, he ensures that Asirpa will never be able to think well of him... not if she ever learns the whole truth. whether Ogata knows it or not, he's essentially been watching as, once again, another person lives a more blessed and prosperous existence that he cannot partake in. he's always on the outside looking in, and when he shoots Sugimoto, he closes off one more important avenue.

[With so many emotions] fuck. 🥹🥹 I love your assessment of both Asirpa and Yuusaku being so firm in their own beliefs that they can come off as judgemental or even condescending to those that fail to meet their standards. Well in the case of Asirpa, she eventually learns that the world isn't as white and black as she used to think, so she too grows in her own ideological perspective.

Sugimoto and Ogata are foils, you're so right, and you pointed out the main reason why I strongly believe that. It boils down to their respective relationships with Asirpa, who is characterized as a "chosen one" in the sense that she's a) given a huge moral task of protecting the Ainu (and later on even the other ethnic minorities in Karafuto and Russia), and b) she's - for the most part of the story - depicted as someone who's is pure (and is firm in staying pure) in a world of bloodshed and greed.

I like your idea on how Sugimoto and Ogata had their respective person who represented light in their lives. And you're right: they differ in their response to being "saved". I wholeheartedly agree with how Asirpa reminds Sugimoto about his past (unmarred) life. But for me, I think rather than being reminded of his past, unmarred life, Yuusaku represents a "what if" in Ogata. He represents a blessed life that Ogata himself could have lived; to go even further, even perhaps the lost life he could've had, should Yuusaku hadn't been born.

I think that Ogata truly did close himself to the possibility of a blessed life. Hence, I love the metaphor of him having his own path in the snow versus the lynx (meko oyasi) and the rest of the group in chapter 169. Like a lynx that lives a solitary life, he was forced to live life alone because of the childhood neglect he experienced (I talked about that in my first meta for Ogata and Love). But because he killed Yuusaku and therefore gained his "curse", he further alienates himself from others, trapping himself in his own twisted worldview by clinging onto it. He forced himself to be isolated - hence he's walking on his own path, which hints on his independence as a character on the surface but shows his loneliness on a deeper level.

I absolutely love the scene where Asirpa shoots Ogata in the eye. first of all, Asirpa and Sugimoto are beginning to swap their views on killing. Asirpa's morals have been tested, and she's starting to come to Sugimoto's early conclusion that killing isn't something she wants to do, but sometimes it can't be avoided if you want to survive. meanwhile, Sugimoto has picked up Asirpa's philosophy of being as non-lethal as possible. war isn't the proper tool for preserving a culture... Sugimoto already knows it isn't the proper tool for preserving a person. he went to war, and it nearly destroyed him. but now, everything he values about himself exists because, from the beginning, Asirpa had the correct tools to let him rebuild himself.

and so, when the arrow hits Ogata in the eye, Sugimoto saves Ogata's life, regardless of his rage. Ogata failed to kill Sugimoto, and Asirpa succeeded in healing him. as a result, when Asirpa is in danger of being pulled into the dark, she has someone there to help her.

and Ogata has still failed to corrupt anyone. he can't figure out how to bring someone down to his level so that he can relate to them. he's still alone. he never quite figures out what's good for him until after he's already ruined it.

I love this so much that I'm just nodding my head to everything you said. Hey, you dropped this crown, your majesty 👑 I love how you looked into how Sugimoto and Asirpa grew throughout the series, especially in the Karafuto Arc for the latter. And how despite Asirpa dipping her toes into the moral dark, she has an anchor in Sugimoto. She's not like pure Yuusaku, but she's not also as dark as Ogata: she now exists in a lighter moral grey.

"He's still alone. He never quite figures out what's good for him until after he's already ruined it." I love love LOVE this one. Because you're right: Ogata damns himself in pits of the darkness of his own volition. He curses himself never to escape its traps by killing (or attempting to kill) those that try to pierce through his gloomy veil.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this, anon. I loved every moment of reading and analyzing Ogata more <3

[eyedelater]

post of various tsurumi thoughts

it's interesting, through all the various flashbacks, to piece together the transformation of tsurumi from a moderately normal person to a miserable, deranged monster. and it's not because of his head injury.

the more i reread, the more every character grows on me. i even really enjoy tsurumi now. like when he's looking at youhei's posthumously adjusted belt with his stern and drippy face and narrating everything to himself. it's like, tsurumi does things in an extra creepy way, but you can tell that because he has lost some kind of control/sensibility, the way he acts is normal to him now? like he's only doing what makes sense to him, even if something's not quite right about it. and it's not the head injury. well, i think it plays a minor role. i think tsurumi was a weird dude to begin with, and then losing his wife and daughter made him much weirder/sadder/worse, and his experience on the battlefield had Some Kind of Effect, and then the head injury just tore down one more mental barrier between his internal proclivity for weirdness and his actual behavior. so he'll sniff things unabashedly, for example. he'll wear a man's skin as a shirt underneath his regular shirt (you could've at least put it on TOP of your shirt). in chapter 34, when he opens that dead guy's shirt and sees that he doesn't have a tattoo, he rubs the corpse's chest absentmindedly (while straddling). how conscious is tsurumi of the fact that he looks and acts super creepy, like, a lot of the time? some of it has to be on purpose (like miming chomping the candle of sugimoto's life) for the sake of intimidation, but he is also conscious of his own charisma and uses it just as often (like batting his eyelashes at edogai-kun). how easy or hard is it for him to flip the switch between scary and admirable, and how easy it for that switch to flip itself to scary by accident? and how much of it is up to the beholder?

much of his talent for manipulation is dependent on his self-control, which seems to be eroded at this point in his life. the volume version of the scene in chapter 211 (where tsurumi meets asirpa) is very important to tsurumi's character because he actually loses his composure to a higher degree than in any other scene. (in the magazine version, he does not lose his composure. it's a very significant change.) i mean, in other scenes, he "loses it" in a scary way, but always in pursuit of whatever he's doing or trying to do. like he bites off wada's finger as his first instance of "losing it," but he was going to kill wada anyway because he was in his way, so it didn't matter. and he went off the rails a little when he was gnashing his teeth at sugimoto and calling himself a shinigami, but i think a lot of that was for the sake of intimidation. when he meets asirpa, it's different. there is no underlying purpose. in fact, he loses it in a way that undermines his purpose. in that scene, he just can't stop laughing and laughing and dripping CSF and the scene grinds to a halt because he's the main guy and he's not doing what he's supposed to do and everyone's like "uhhhh this never happened before..?!" and that gives asirpa the opening to escape. he just couldn't contain himself when he saw her eyes that looked just like wilk's...

another thing about tsurumi. we know that he knew koito and tsukishima were listening when he was talking to asirpa and sofia in the church, so it's likely that he made sure to say what they wanted to hear about how his true goal was to fight for the sake of japan. the reader must then puzzle out how much of that was what he really believes and how much of his motives are based on avenging his wife and daughter. i think that in the end, tsurumi himself lost sight of which he was really fighting for. i think that when we see tsurumi's sad and painful face after he loses their finger bones on the train tracks, what he's feeling right then is like, "wait, without them, what am i doing this for?" right before he drops their bones, he makes the decision to reach for the land deed instead, and then he instantly regrets it, because no matter what he told himself or others, a very large part of what he cared about this whole time was based on them and not on the future of japan at all. and then tsurumi dies without fully sorting those feelings out, which is an appropriate end.

(i mean, we don't see him die, just like how we don't see sugimoto die, and then sugimoto turns up alive, so i guess it is possible that tsurumi didn't die and just went off into hiding somewhere. EDIT: actually an omake was added to volume 31 that shows that tsurumi survived his trip into hakodate bay. someone pointed out in the notes of this post that you can see aged tsurumi in the last panel of that omake. i didn't notice him there when i first read the omake even though i thought i looked at everyone really hard. but what matters in the end is that the story ended without him and he never interferes in tsukishima's or koito's lives ever again.)

when tsurumi starts leaking CSF, it's like punctuation. it changes the color of whatever is being done or said and additional meaning becomes apparent.

when tsurumi doesn't have his headplate on AND doesn't have a bandage covering it, he looks kind of pathetic. that's why he ordered the headplate even though it makes him look kinda scary. it's better to be feared than pitied. he can embrace the weirdness of having a big piece of equipment strapped to his face. he can't embrace the piteousness of having a big delicate injury on his face.

if wilk, kiroranke, and sofia hadn't been with hasegawa (tsurumi) when the secret police came to capture him, he most likely would have been captured and probably tortured and maybe killed. they had figured out that he was a spy, after all. if fina hadn't come back, she and olga would have survived, but they still wouldn't have been able to reunite as a family unless hasegawa managed to escape imprisonment the russian government, and then what? how could he live happily with them as a fugitive spy? he didn't know it at the time, but from the moment the secret police started heading toward his house, hasegawa's life was almost certainly on a downward trajectory, regardless of who else was there. yet he vehemently blames wilk and the others. does tsurumi think that it would have been better if he had been captured (and maybe killed) as long as his wife and daughter could survive? maybe. that casts something of a shadow on his patriotism, though, doesn't it? if he thinks he can personally do sooo much for japan, but he would have sacrificed himself for his wife and daughter... i dunno.

in the volume version of chapter 225, when tsurumi is talking to his judo master in niigata (part of the flashback of usami's history), they're speaking in what seems to be the echigo dialect of niigata. it wasn't like that in the magazine version; noda-sensei went back and changed basically all of the dialogue in that flashback into dialect. that means usami and everyone around him is also speaking it. (and unlike the change he made to koito's satsuma dialect, where he basically strengthened/corrected the lines from sorta-dialect into proper dialect, in this scene, everyone was speaking standard japanese in the old version.) example: tsurumi said to his master, "I was able to see something interesting, Master…" magazine (standard japanese) : "omoshiroi mono ga miremashita yo sensei…" volume (echigo dialect) : "omoshire- mon wo mikkoto ga dekimashita te sensei…" the meaning didn't change at all. echigo-ben is not hard to understand like satsuma-ben. ok it's a little hard to understand. and it seems to be very similar to tsukishima's sado dialect, since they're both in niigata, but there was hardly any sado dialect actually written in dialogue in the manga for comparison. anyway we can add tsurumi to our list of golden kamuy dialect speakers who suppressed it and learned how to speak standard japanese for their military job. and of course this is a big thing he has in common with usami now.

the people around tsurumi really see in him what they want to see. a lot of the time, tsurumi has finagled it so that what they want to see in him is also what he wants them to see in him, and the effect is that they love him. those who look up to him ignore the scary parts even when they see them. probably everyone who was nearby when he lost his cool after meeting asirpa has blocked that scene from their memory or found some way to write it off.

"He's doing something scary behind me… I just know he's doing something fucked up and scary behind me…"

[chibivesicle]

End of GK thoughts

I feel like I’m going back to the mindset I first had when I was reading GK and writing meta and going more with my gut. 

So, what did I think of the end of GK?

It was disappointing to say the least. 

Okay, I said it - moving on to other things . . . or you can read more reasons why it was disappointing to me.

What got me to lose interest as a reader (besides all sorts of IRL stuff) was that the last story arc was sloppy.  It had a vibe of it being far to rushed with too many loose threads and plot points that never got resolved. First off - the endings for the characters.

1.) Sugimoto and Asirpa return to Hokkaido - this was the one ending that I absolutely did not want to have happen.  This is further emphasized that indeed, Umeko never needed Sugimoto’s help which makes his entire premise - just dumb.  She took care of herself buddy and you ran away from things, just like you ran away from your burnt down house.  The MC’s entire rationale for the entire story was - utterly pointless.  To think that @goldenkamuyhunting and I wrote lots of metas about how Sugimoto was making a huge assumption that he needed to do this and never spoke to her in the flashback. . . .

2.) Many character deaths fell short or felt meaningless (and not in the futility of life sort of way).  Ushiyama, Hijikata, Ogata, Sofia . . . they all just sort of pathetically happened with very OOC moments for everyone except for Hijikata but it was still - meh. 

3.) Shiraishi using the gold he got to live out Boutarou’s dream - which seems OOC for him as well seeing that he was good friends Kiro and understood what he was fighting for.  To instead side with a Japanese convict’s more selfish dream was just weird.  Dude, Shiraishi was the one who really took the time to mourn Kiro’s death and thought of him in his youth on the river in a canoe . . . he was your friend man and you had a better understanding of his rationale than Sugimoto ever did. 4.) Tanigaki returns to his home in Akita with Inkarmat and they have lots of kids.  What about his debt to Huci?  We never saw that resolved, instead he lives happily ever after with a family that is even more marginalized due to the Matagi-Ainu combo?

5.) What happened to the tiger curse?  Not only with Tanigaki but Koito and Tsukishima.  Instead, Koito goes on to get that leadership position he wanted with Tsukishima in the 7th until is will be dissolved due to the end of WWII. 6.) Anyone who had a strong political/social justice opinion died - specifically non-Japanese charas.  I’m looking at Kiro - the native who died fighting the system while Asirpa and Ariko take on the more integrated native way to survive.  I’m sure they had a great time dealing with discrimination, poverty and all that stuff.  Watch the Indie film Ainu Mosir to see what that looks like in present day Hokkaido. I’m also looking at Sofia who never got full potential as a character.  Or even Wilk - who I’d still nominate as the worst father of the year for many years.  He may have been misguided with his plans e.g. people don’t behave like he does but he was still working for something for the native peoples.  I continue to waffle back and forth if this is a case of a Japanese creator not wanting to capture them well and thus doesn’t try or that he’s using the excuse of not being of those groups so he can’t depict them. 7.) The ending was all about Japanese people fighting over the future of Hokkaido with no input from those who live there.  And that was what made this really disappointing for me.  Asirpa lost most of her agency, deferring to follow whatever Sugimoto did.  Ariko was absent having been heavily wounded previous in the plot.  Kirawus was just there with Kadokura in the background. 8.) No one cared about Vasily - honestly, really - he was useless to the overall plot.  Again, a foreigner who’s continued existence was just not doing much of anything.  It would have been better if he died when Ogata shot him at the Japanese-Russian border. Now that I got that off my chest, I can drop my second point in no particular order.

The last story arc was meandering, unfocused, and wasted potential.  What I mean by this is that before the final arc, the manga had much tighter pacing and control.  The plot moved forward in such a way that things tied in neatly and kept the readers guessing what would be important to remember and what might be foreshadowing.  It really lost me at a time when it was hard to put in the effort.  I’m not sure what Noda and his editor were thinking - or not thinking, but it showed.  I know we can get tired of things and it makes it hard to focus on them or give them the love they deserve.  If Noda were having creative burnout - something that could totally have been worse due to the pandemic - than he should have gone on hiatus and restructure things.  The elements of the story that I really enjoyed were lost in the last arc - the sociopolitical element and the nuanced approach to characters who became very disposable at the end. 

As story like this needed to breathe at the end and it never got a chance to come up for air.  It just got smothered in a murder/kill fest of violence souring things for me.  I had entertained the thought of writing about how bummed out I was at Ogata’s ending, but I’ve realized it isn’t even worth it.  Noda, if you wanted Ogata to die, you should have stuck to your original plan on the ice floe.  Thanks.

The Karafuto arc had me hooked to read each new chapter.  I loved it and how much it made me think about the historical and political context of things as a reader on something I knew very little of.  The last arc could not follow that up.  At. All. What this means is that if GK ended in a more cohesive manner - I’d rate it one of the best manga series that I’ve read.  However, it didn’t.  So, I’ll have to bump it down to a better than average manga that was good until the last arc.  Was this a terrible manga?  No, I still see it as better than most with themes and ideas that really started to make you think.  The problem is that it stopped doing that in the last arc and it shows.  Do I hate Noda?  Of course not.  He still put lots of effort into making the manga good for a long time.  I just expected him to do more and it didn’t work out that way.  Would I recommend this - sure, but I would do so with the caveat that the last arc falls in quality.

And I’m going to leave things here.

[vidjausers-fable]

I finally colored it. If I had the money I’d turn them into both a sticker and keychain. I wish I understood how to do preorders??

[grimzgrimz]

Art dump no.2

Some more

[pinkpabli]

We can talk on how Ogata is out of his mind and that he is rotten inside but let's not forget that everything started because he thought his mother wasn't loved by his father and by killing her he hoped to be wrong.

[hinnahinnaoripa]

I haven’t seen anyone discuss the trend of men in Asirpa’s life projecting onto her and reacting violently according to those projections

Their violent actions are inflicted upon others (Sugimoto, mostly for justifiable reasons) or upon her directly (Ogata and Tsurumi)

[dormiloncito]

one thing that makes me sad is the fact sugimoto was always beating himself up through the story, be it when his family passed due to illness and he couldn’t do anything, or due to the fact he feels killing people has tarnished and changed him forever (it did) and in his own eyes he is not a good person no matter what good deeds he does to others, no matter how kind he can still be.

a scene that always stays in my mind is that one time he cried himself to sleep when asirpa asked if he thought he’d go back to his old self once he ate his favorite dried persimmons and went back home (he would not, he knew he would never.) good lord. like that was his thing, thinking of himself as irredeemable but eventually learning he would have to live with the bad things he has done, and that did not meant he couldn’t grow and heal.

[teatitty]

Ogata loved his mother so much that he killed her and it drives me insane every single day. He loved her so much that he watched her suffer and smile and cook the same thing - monkfish stew - over and over and over again because she thought it would bring his father back to her. He watched her futile grief over a love that was never hers to begin with and he loved her monkfish stew but it was all she ever cooked and he went out and shot ducks in the vain hope it would help but it was still just the same stew over and over and over again

She saw straight through him. She smiled but it was empty and she never truly saw him and she got worse every day. She waited for Hanazawa, every single day, and either nobody helped or she was too far gone to accept it but Ogata loved her and so he put rat poison into her food and he watched her die because if he really loved you he’d come to the funeral and you’ll get to see him one last time and - that was love. That was love, that was love, that was love

[costulata]

The reason we don't get a backstory of the Nikaidou twins because well, their lives were pretty much normal compared to the others. Plus their trauma didn't started as kids. It was Youhei's death that triggered everything (happened in the current timeline) for Kouhei to become the deranged man he is now.

I headcanon their father works as a fisherman due to where they lived. They were not wealthy but what matters is they all loved each other. As they get older, one of them decided to join the army or the both of them got conscripted from the government and the twins goes along with it. Whichever depends.

Since they lived in a warm climate for almost their entire lifetime, Kouhei and Youhei were not used to the cold in Hokkaido. So they would always embraced each other to keep themselves warm.

I also headcanon their parents are still alive all this time. That's why Kouhei was desperate to go back home, to see his parents for so long but was blinded by his vengeance, he ends up losing parts of himself.

Imagine how devastated the parents were when they received news that their only remaining son has died...

[here-lies-golden-kamuy]

The Case of Ogata Hyakunosuke and Love

I’ve been rewatching GK for the past few days and I can’t help but think of Ogata, so for my first post, I’ll be listing my thoughts and headcanons on Ogata and love in general. 

MAJOR manga spoilers and a lot of thoughts under the cut! 

[Part 2]

Okay to start off…in canon, Ogata doesn’t believe in the word (and perhaps the concept) of “love” — in his words love is “as vague and uncertain an existence as the gods” (chapter 103, page 11). But I argue that while he doesn’t consciously believe it, he still seeks for it. 

It’s canon that Ogata (through aconite poisoning in chapter 310) later realizes that maybe he wasn’t born “defective” or “lacking” (chapter 310, 103), which means that he canonically does feel emotions and has desires that he thought he didn’t (the cognitive dissonance for this boy…no wonder he uh reacted that way in the end). One of these emotions and desires is love in itself. 

One of these days, I’ll probably talk about how Ogata’s experience of childhood neglect paved the way for his extreme disassociation with deeper and more complex emotions. But for now, I argue that Ogata can and has loved before, though very limited. In fact, here are who I think are the only three people he ever loved in his life: his mom (and by extension his grandparents), Yuusaku, and Asirpa. 

Yes, I hc that he loved both Yuusaku and Asirpa (I think his love for his mom is pretty obvious, though a little messed up…very Ogatacore if you ask me) in his own…. complicated way. But I think he loved them for one major reason — they loved and cared for him back. 

Which brings me to my major argument: Ogata craves love because of his less-than-savory upbringing but (1) doesn’t exactly realize that he does in the first place, and (2) does not exactly recognize nor react well when he is loved. This may arise from the fact that Ogata sees love as something that is obligatorily passed on from one source to another, rather than something that may evolve given time, effort, and patience. I personally think Ogata is attracted (not inherently romantic) to people who love and care for him first. 

It’ll be too long if I write all the points of the argument, so for this portion, I’ll just focus on the first point. 

First point: Ogata craves love, but he’s (for lack of a better term) shit at recognizing, receiving, and giving love. There’s no doubt that he craves for love — we’re privy to flashbacks of him wanting his mom to “look” at him as a child (chapter 304, page 6). He unconsciously wants to experience the things that a person would when given healthy love: validation, acceptance, protection, etc. And that desire is completely normal and valid! 

And yet, a big part of why he’s bad at love is that he wasn’t modeled a good and healthy concept of love. Like all children, Ogata’s first model of love was his parent. His mom was love incarnate for him. But love for him was a woman losing her grip on her own self-concept and reality because of longing and “love”. Love for him was being overlooked by someone else. So, because of this horrible representation of love, he learns to detest (but also become subconsciously obsessed with) love. 

And it’s very interesting for him to come into this “insight” that love is mainly something shared by parents and passed on to a child. His first encounter of love was a woman who didn’t see him (random note: I hc that for Ogata to feel loved, he first needs to be “seen” for who he is) for who he is, eyes steadfast on the man who left her. His first model of love was unequal and unfair: this imbalance caused him to think he wasn’t “given” the ability to love when he was born. 

Right now, I’m wondering why Ogata felt guilty for killing Yuusaku but not his mom, when they’re both beloved by him. I argue it’s because Ogata killed his mom out of love (yes, in a fucked-up way). He killed her so that the person she loves will finally come to her. In a very child-like manner, it’s quite…. “selfless” and “innocent” of Ogata to think of his mom’s love (his father) first and think of himself and her supposed love for him second (chapter 103, page 09). 

When Hanazawa senior challenges him that Ogata “felt disgusted” in seeing his mother’s “pitiful, deranged state” (chapter 103, page 11), I argue that Ogata still defends his mom when he replies that “children can’t choose their parents”. He didn’t choose a mom that had an apparent mental health problem. He didn’t choose to have his mom, but she was his mom and he loved her. He still craved her love. 

[eyedelater]

the past

(part 3 of a series of posts about tsukishima hajime. this is the last and longest one. see also parts 1 and 2.)

tsukishima's biggest hurdle in life is figuring out how to square away his troubled past while continuing to live. he feels like the only path he can follow is the one forged by tsurumi, a great man with big ideas who saved his life. he doesn't have any dreams or ambitions other than that because he doesn't value his own life at all. but it was tsurumi who made him that way in the first place.

when tsurumi asks tsukishima if he should have let igogusa know he was alive, tsukishima tells him that it's fine, but he only says that because he is on death row and has no reason to expect he will ever escape from it. he thinks that igogusa knowing he was a death row inmate would only shock and dismay her, so he would rather just die without her knowing the truth. (the line he says is, "iie… ima sara kanojo ni nanimo shiteageraremasen kara" "no… because there's nothing i can do for her at this point.") but that's based only on what he understands as his current situation at that time! if the order of things had been different, if tsukishima had first understood that he would be escaping with his life and living as a free man (albeit with a great debt to tsurumi), maybe his answer would have been very different! tsurumi intentionally timed his question so that tsukishima would give the wrong answer and then feel compelled to stand by it! tsurumi wants tsukishima to feel resigned to never seeing igogusa again, because then, he can focus solely on serving tsurumi's goals. now, because tsurumi made him say it was fine, changing his mind would be going back on his word and challenging the person who saved him from execution. he could not do it. his will was already mostly broken on that day.

isn't it a little cruel that we the readers have the dramatic irony of knowing that igogusa is alive and well when tsukishima never knows for sure in canon? apart from trusting that tsurumi told him the truth, that is. but tsurumi told him a mixed and tainted truth in the first place, and tsukishima realized that, so of course his trust is also tainted by painful doubt. he threw the hair away, but he hasn't forgotten her; he hits a low point and ends up asking inkarmat about her, and when he asks, he thinks of her face! for the first time in the story! it's such a meaningful reveal. and even if he later decides that doesn't want inkarmat's answer… does he really never want the answer? can he ever get closure? it's so sad… the line between "wanting to know" and "thinking you don't want to know" is painful to tread. i mean, on my part, i want him to let go of her so he can be with koito forever, joyful and unburdened... but maybe it would be finding out that she's fine without him that would really help him get closure and move on with his life… to then be with koito otonoshin forever… i mean, he and koito are canonically together forever either way, but i mean together in TRUE AND UNFETTERED ROMANTIC LOVE...! ahem.

in chapter 210, when tsukishima puts on his scariest face, he says, "あなたたちは救われたじゃないですか" "weren't you (plural) saved?" (polite form) (he keeps polite speech during his whole subsequent monologue, even though he gets a little emotional.) it took me a long time to understand this line, but maybe it's just dullness on my part. at first, i thought he was talking about koito and his father being "saved," but that's not right; the other party in the "you (plural)" must be ogata. then i was thinking that it was about ogata and koito not appreciating being "saved" by tsurumi, and tsukishima is upset that they're not just quietly cooperating like he does. like, "why can't you fools just go along with it? were you saved by him or not? if you were, just shut up and don't question it. like i do." but after thinking about it more, i've decided that he actually says it with a wry and pained irony: he was also "saved" by tsurumi and has mixed feelings about it, and that makes three. like, "you two were saved, weren't you? what, it doesn't feel that way? of course not... it's the same for me..." and that explains why he goes on to tell koito about how he himself was tricked. and the scary face is not that he's upset with koito or trying to scare him but rather a reflection of his own internal turmoil finally showing on his face for once.

the thing is, among ogata, tsukishima, usami, and koito, koito was the least "saved" out of all of them, because there was nothing for him to be "saved" from in the first place, and tsukishima knows that. koito was just kidnapped. by them. you could argue that he became closer with his father because of the incident, and that he was able to solve his problem of being shoehorned toward the navy despite being prone to seasickness, but that hardly amounts to "saving" from anything. koito was slated to live a bonbon life either way. so that's why tsukishima can't help but give his little sweet lies monologue to koito. because he knows that koito was wronged and not actually saved at all.

withering up

when tsukishima looks perfectly desolate after tsurumi revealed the depth of his farce with igogusa's fake bones (the moment tsukishima refers to as having "withered up completely" when explaining it to koito), i had a hard time discerning what he was feeling in that moment. he had just had his old wounds opened up, he got upset and punched and yelled at tsurumi, he tried to protect tsurumi from a shell, they both got grievously injured, and then tsurumi explained just how far he went for tsukishima's sake. so what exactly was it about that chain of events that made tsukishima wither up completely? i think i've realized that it was shame. what tsukishima felt in the withered-up panel was shame for having doubted tsurumi. it was deep self-disgust because he had lost control of himself enough to resort to violence, just like when he killed his father. not only that, but it was violence against the only person who valued him enough to save him! he hates himself in that moment. and that's exactly what tsurumi wanted, because the foil to miserable, self-hating tsukishima in that moment is tsurumi, his shining savior. everything about the interaction went exactly as tsurumi planned (apart from losing part of his skull).

as tsukishima explained to koito, it was only later that he slowly started to doubt tsurumi (after thinking about the logistics of meeting that sado resident in the field hospital); in that moment, he didn't doubt tsurumi whatsoever. he trusted him and respected him so deeply that that interaction is what led him to finally throw away igogusa's lock of hair after 9 years. tsurumi had finally broken him completely. the depth of his trust and respect for tsurumi was the depth of the shame and self-hatred that he felt, and that's how tsurumi was then able to pour in his affection and cement tsukishima as his most loyal pawn. he broke tsukishima's will and then touched him gently on the head. urgh! (gritting teeth! fists clenched!) a nicer person should touch tsukishima gently on the head…!

and then, when tsukishima slowly started to doubt what tsurumi told him, he didn't act on that doubt or tell anyone or do anything differently because he still didn't trust himself enough to feel like his feelings of doubt could actually be warranted. he just slowly let those feelings ferment, and it wasn't until koito confronted him about the kidnapping incident that he was able to actually bring those feelings to the surface and consult with someone about them. but even then, he did it in the habit of tsurumi's dirty work dog and finished his monologue by threatening to kill koito…

this whole character arc of being unable to decide whether to doubt himself or doubt tsurumi is extra painful because of the dramatic irony. he never gets closure about igogusa! he never knows for sure that she's alive, even though we, the readers, do! the question of whether tsurumi told the truth about her is integral to tsukishima's doubt or trust of tsurumi, and he never closes that door in canon.

the fact that igogusa is alive seems to indicate that what tsurumi did for tsukishima was real and that igogusa's parents really did orchestrate an island-wide lie about tsukishima's death so that they could marry her off to a rich family. when you first read the scene where tsurumi explains that to tsukishima, you must suspect that it is tsurumi's completely manufactured story to manipulate tsukishima, toeing the line of believability. but if tsurumi didn't lie and that's what really happened, then it's worth focusing on how that's a uniquely fucked up thing to happen to tsukishima. it's so sad and bizarre. and the pain tsukishima must have felt knowing that he killed his father not as revenge for igogusa's suicide but without any good reason at all, only as a consequence of losing his self-control because he failed to understand the ruse behind it all… he felt that hideous guilt at having lost his self-control, and then, 9 years later, tsurumi's charade provoked him and he lost his self-control AGAIN! and this time, it was tsurumi he punched! so when it became clear once again that tsurumi actually did help tsukishima and that igogusa was in fact alive, it was a new dose of the same hideous guilt, compounding it! and that's why tsukishima is so defeated. he loses ALL trust in his own judgment (at least for a period of time… of years) and bolsters only his self-control. he decides to not try to figure out things for himself anymore and instead surrender his free will to tsurumi, who is so kind to him and so clear and admirable, and as long as he holds onto his self-control while burying his own will, everything will work out… it's a win-win in his view! he knows he's being manipulated, but because he can't trust his own free will to guide him, he feels like being useful to tsurumi makes his life worthwhile! and of course tsurumi benefits from having created the perfect pawn! tsukishima turns off his free will and his heart, turns his self control to max, and follows instructions to a tee! that's why he's so good at dancing in the girl's group at the circus.

it took me a really long time to realize that the reason tsukishima had such an emotional reaction to the lighthouse parents not knowing the whereabouts of svetlana is that he can relate to it directly because he himself still doesn't know where igogusa is or whether she's alive (because he can't fully trust what tsurumi told him, even though we the readers know it's true). the pain of not even knowing whether someone important to you is alive or dead…

when tsukishima was chasing after tanigaki and inkarmat and koito came over and stopped him by saying it was an order from his superior officer… that was really brave and smart on koito's part. he understood that tsukishima is motivated by duty and commitment to tsurumi, but he couldn't have been 100% certain that tsukishima would obey his order and not kill him too. despite that, he was 100% confident in his authority to give that order, and tsukishima didn't expect that. tsukishima had been looking down on him to a degree (understandably), and that's why he was surprised that koito was willing to step up and use his authority like that despite being wounded and at a disadvantage. he called tsukishima's bluff (as a soldier, do you respect authority or not?), and tsukishima faltered. it was perfect because really nothing but an order from a superior officer (and fellow tsurumi loyalist) could have stopped him at that moment. (another note about that scene: i never noticed before but tsukishima is pointing a rifle at tanigaki and inkarmat, koito shows up, and tsukishima keeps his rifle pointing at those two while picking up a handgun with his other hand and pointing it at koito behind him. that's such a goofy maneuver!)

it seems very unlikely that tsukishima has talked in detail about his past ordeals to anyone but tsurumi (although i suspect others in the unit understand the general gist of things), and the two of them probably haven't talked about it since the battle of mukden. the reason is that tsurumi isn't actually interested in helping tsukishima heal, as that might diminish his capacity as a pawn. but koito would never think that way, and he would want to actually help tsukishima and make him happy. so i want to see koito and tsukishima talk to each other about his past and his pain so that tsukishima won't feel so alone in his internal struggles. i think i've become fixated on the idea of tsukishima achieving happiness… i just want it for him so bad… i need to go on ao3 or something. (i've only read 1 golden kamuy fanfic so far.)

[chibivesicle]

What do you think might be Ogata´s goal?...

This is an incredibly late reply to an ask from likely two years ago. Sorry original question person, I always wanted to answer this, but then didn't.

My rationale was pretty simple, I kept reading the manga and that I would have an 'Ah ha!' moment and then I'd have this awesome answer for you. I kept going and going and going and then life got busy/sucky/stressful/pandemic while at the same time I was finding it harder and harder to really enjoy GK. Now that the manga is done, I can confidently say it was at the end of the Karafuto arc.

At that point, when they returned to Hokkaido, the manga turned into what @goldenkamuyhunting refers to as 'easy mode'. And that is the best description I've heard for it. Lots of loose ends were left hanging, the parts and aspects I was really into about the manga were slowly dropped and it was hard to care about a series. I loved the global politics/rights of native peoples/industrialization cost/growing influence of Japan on the region aspect of the manga. And that part shined so well in the Karafuto arc. But now, having read it all, and reading the rather haphazardly written ending for Ogata . . . I'm just disappointed in a meh sort of way. I never 100% thought Ogata would survive to the end but reading this ending, I would have preferred he died on the ice floe in 188 - likely how Noda had originally wanted him to die. It makes so much sense to replace a sniper with another spy who loves firearms - Kikuta since he was paired with Ariko - the replacement for Kiro. I never figured out a decent narrative for Ogata's motive and the one we end up with is disappointing writing. All in all, Noda put too many inconsistencies and contradictions throughout the manga surrounding him. Right before he dies, he tries to shoot the bear in the head and the reminds himself their skulls are too thick. Ogata of other earlier chapters would have never made that mistake. He was consistently one of the most meticulous characters in the manga in times of stress or crisis. For me as a reader, his entire ending was OOC, but he was no Shen Qingqiu unlocking his OOC function. I do feel a bit like the passionate cucumber bro, I'd tie up a lot more loose threads.

For example:

I never learned when the cat alliance formed between Kiro and Ogata

I never learned if Kiro pulled Ogata out of the river

My personal opinion is that since Ogata did not die, Noda should have had him run off into the wilderness and then just do his own thing. It would have made for a better plot, it would have avoided all the contradictions around him. What really gets me is that the way he's drawn and the framing don't match was his final 'goal' was. We'll never know why he blushed on the ice floe - but I wasted a lot of brain cells on that one. And the fox farm scene. So many brain cells, burned much ATP for him to want to - lead the 7th? WTF?

Any reader could tell that Ogata suffered from mental illness - but to have Ogata feel that he was possessed by something and felt guilt and declares it was when Asirpa shot him in the eye and as associated with Yuusaku - well, that doesn't even make sense. Yuusaku appeared when he had the fever dream post chapter 164 so clearly the Yuusaku - Asirpa association could be triggered by something else. Again, @goldenkamuyhunting already did a great job of tying how him seeing Yuusaku might have a direct link to various examples of Japanese ghosts/spirits going after someone. Which is a fine concept but likely such thoughts originated from people likely suffering from mental illness in reality. Think of something like the Tale of Genji - people are getting attacking by spirits all the time that are causing symptoms that modern medicine would likely find to be a result of depression/anxiety/PTSD etc etc.

As this is my personal opinion, I wonder if having a spirit haunt him is just a an easy/relatable/cultural code for implying a character suffers from mental illness? We as non-Japanese readers wouldn't see it as such and to me it seems like a way to either minimize/deny/brush over the fact that Ogata needed a therapist.

Now, I'm just rambling - Ogata was a character who had great potential - but it was lost in easy mode.

[vidjausers-fable]

Ogata Hyakunosuke redraw

I had to do a little practice redraw with my favorite cat man from Golden Kamuy <3

Hey there, I wanted to make a post to link everyone to my commission information and prices for SFW commissions. If you are interested in commissioning me, check out the link. <3  

SFW: https://vidsfwcommissions.carrd.co/

NSFW: PLEASE ASK! (NO MINORS)

Slot 1: Slot 2: Slot 3: Slot 4: Slot 5:

Will do: Simple furry artwork

Nsfw (Please ask and I will send link)

Characters

Backgrounds

Will not do: Certain fetishes (Please ask)

Pedophilia

Complex furry characters (Please ask)

Androids

[ghosstkid]

why didn’t they let sugimoto say “it feels like i’ve been saved”?

So the new season of Golden Kamuy. I have a few things on my mind but most notably given that I wrote an entire essay with this line as the title, is the line change in the first episode of season 4. The original English translation struck me because it emphasises the trauma that Sugimoto experienced and the feeling that by being in Asirpa’s presence makes him feel human and worthy of love despite the violence he committed and endured in wartime. It is important that despite all that he did, he is still worthy of being saved, eating good food and being loved. In my essay, I argued that anti-war literature often does not punish low ranking soldiers for their actions during the war. A great example of this is All Quiet on the Western Front which follows twenty year old German soldier Paul during the last year of World War I. This novel does not punish Paul for his actions nor for what side he fought for because the novel emphasises his wasted youth as a fatality in a war created by old men who will never fight (Sugimoto expresses a very, very similar sentiment and anger in Chapter 228). Golden Kamuy also does not punish its low ranking soldiers, instead it explores and tries to convey understanding for their choices in the immediate aftermath of a horrible war. It too also despises military hierarchy just as All Quiet on the Western Front does. I’ll refer back to this example as it has a similar theme of lost purity as well as having cultural relevance with the new movie.

In the English translation of the manga Sugimoto says: 

When I think to myself that the world Asirpa is seeing has me in it, I feel like it is cleansing me, somehow. It feels like I’ve been saved.

Firstly, it’s important to consider who Sugimoto is speaking to. He knows that Vasily cannot understand him in a literal sense because of the language barrier but he does know that Vasily is a soldier like him too. They might have fought for opposing nations but the experience they share is very similar. That said, this is more of a fourth wall break than Sugimoto trying to communicate to Vasily and only the reader is supposed to know that Asirpa hears him. By breaking the fourth wall, Sugimoto is able to communicate to the reader his own perspective of his trauma and how he thinks he might heal. 

The first part of this sentence tells readers that Sugimoto struggled to see himself in the world after the war. Many soldiers express the feeling that they cannot return to civilian life after serving; how can you go back to who you were when that version of you no longer exists? What manga and graphic novels have over text is that we can visually see the difference between the young Sugimoto and the one after war; to an unknowing viewer they might think they are two different people. Sugimoto mourns not only Toraji but his child self as well. Since both Toraji and his child self were killed so abruptly, Sugimoto therefore struggles with knowing who he is and how he fits into this world after the war; he is not a soldier anymore yet he still dresses and acts like one as military rank, routine and ways of thinking can help define a person better than civilian ways of thinking. He clings to this because it is all he has. By thinking that Asirpa sees him in the same world she exists in, one that has never seen the horror of war, Sugimoto is able to start to find his footing again. If she were to experience war as he so fears, not only would her purity be at risk but so would Sugimoto’s place in the world. 

Next, Sugimoto says that it feels “like it is cleansing [him] somehow”. The important word here is “cleansing” which means to wash away impurities and make oneself feel clean. Sugimoto says this in a metaphorical sense; he cannot wash away the scars but the blood, the terror of war, the anger and the pain can be. The wound might still be there but at least it is clean now. Asirpa gives him a place to be in the world and by doing so, gives him the peace to begin to feel clean again. 

Finally, Sugimoto says that it “feels like [he’s] been saved somehow”. Again, this calls into question the idea of worthiness. Sugimoto is worthy of being saved from the past, from the war, from pain and violence. He is worthy of being redeemed from what brutal actions he had to do in conflict. He is no longer pure but he is still worthy of being saved. That is the important point Noda is trying to communicate here not to us but perhaps to Sugimoto by making him pause and reflect on this. Sugimoto constantly tries to defend purity and thinks he is not so; he is dirty and unworthy. And yet despite that, Sugimoto is worthy and should be saved. 

Now, let's break down the line change and why it rubs me the wrong way. In the anime, Sugimoto says: 

When I see Asirpa-san, it almost feels like the pure parts of me, the parts I know I had when I was child, are still there.

First, it is not Asirpa seeing Sugimoto but Sugimoto seeing Asirpa. This has the effect of infantilization and removing a level of stability that Asirpa holds over Sugimoto. Rather than thinking of her and how she sees him, it is instead him seeing her and how that makes him feel. Reversing who sees who is important here because it also ties into the trope of soldiers adopting children as I previously explored. I argued that Golden Kamuy reimagines the Victorian trope by posing the question of who adopts who, is it Sugimoto adopting Asirpa or Asirpa adopting Sugimoto? Arguably, it is the latter or a kind of equal adopting of the other as in order for the trope to be as successful as it is, there must be an emphasis on the reciprocity of love between adoptee and adopter. So by suggesting Asirpa is the adopter, Noda is giving her agency and it is therefore important that Sugimoto says that she is looking at him; he respects her autonomy. When it is reversed, it is him looking at her and taking away that agency, disrespecting her autonomy and boiling her down to nothing more than a pure, innocent child. We know this is a struggle for Sugimoto as he has an innate desire to protect and parent but he also is working to overcome that instinct and form it into something more beneficial for the both of them.

Finally, Sugimoto says “it almost feels like the pure parts of me, the parts I know I had as a child, are still there”. This sentence entirely rejects the notion that war is the destroyer of youth and suggests that Sugimoto can go back to how he was before the war as if it never happened. Of course we know that physically and mentally, that is impossible. This sentiment is not new. In 1928, Erich Maria Remarque in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, writes the following of young soldiers:

 “We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war” (67). 

This quote is perfectly reflected in Sugimoto’s original line in which he considers himself cut off from the world, no longer a part of it and without a cause nor future to ground him. To further this point, the young soldiers in All Quiet lament that all the older soldiers “will go back to their jobs because they had them already… But we never had any. How will we ever get used to one after this, here?” — he makes a gesture towards the front” (66). This sounds awfully similar to Sugimoto’s “hearts still on the battlefield” quote.

So to remove Sugimoto’s original meaning in favour of highlighting some forgotten childhood innocence feels hollow and completely disregards the person shaped by war that Sugimoto has become. It important that the story starts after the war; the readers never truly get to experience and understand who exactly Sugimoto was before the war and this doubly true in the anime which has completely neglected to give us any of his backstory at all. Sugimoto can’t wash off his scars or forget the immense grief of watching his best friend bleed out. Ultimately, this line ends up reading more like denial than acceptance which is present in the original translation. It also, most upsettingly, suggests he is only worth saving if he still has these parts. 

Adventure and gold plotline aside, Golden Kamuy is a manga about war. Majority of its characters are soldiers who served in a gruesome war that arguably saw the kinds of fighting that would shape subsequent conflicts. So when I read and watch this story, I am looking to see how it conveys meaning about not just the Russo-Japanese war specifically but War. So it might seem like I am reading into it too much but a simple line change like this from the main character can drastically change the overall message this story is trying to say about warfare, the experiences of soldiers and why it should matter to us now. I first heard of Golden Kamuy in one of the last history classes of my undergrad; Propaganda in Modern Japan. My professor brought it up as an example of literature that challenged conventional narratives of Japanese colonisation notably, but also militarism. It might be a silly story on its surface, but it is, when you read deeper, a very serious representation of war just like All Quiet on the Western Front, 1917, or perhaps more in the same genre of absurdity, Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut. It is important that Sugimoto reflects on his experience because it is not just about him, it is about all soldiers from this time period whose voices have been lost to time.

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Hello, I've been reading Golden Kamuy for three weeks now and yesterday I read the final chapter. Today I woke up and I started reading your blog and your metas, and it's been helping me mourn the great story that I believe didn't deserve such a wasteful ending. I feel like the characters' journey was for nothing. Just like you, I despise that the Sugiripa pairing is being implied to be canon, and I really wish Asirpa had never developed a crush on Sugimoto. In my opinion it seriously muddied the overall story and the consequent actions it would take. Ogata's death felt meaningless at this time of the plot. It's funny how one of the themes in the story is that each life has a purpose but it felt like most of the characters lost theirs in the final arc. I know I'm a bit late to the party, and the time I invested in the story was nothing compared to the people that had been following the manga for years, but I needed to get these words off my chest. I'll try to remember this series as the masterpiece it was for the first ~200 chapters.

Welcome in the world of GK and I'm sorry to also welcome you among the ones who didn't really enjoy much the final arc.

Now... should I warn everyone who's going to continue to read that this isn't a let's shower Noda with phraises feast? And that if you don't like it, the back button is your best friend? I hope not, but just in case, consider yourself warned. So...

In regard to the SugiRipa... I would have been fine if it had been handled as a phase, something Asirpa has to grow out of it.

I wouldn't have liked it much but I would have accepted it if the whole thing had been at least... postponed. Sugimoto leaves Asirpa, years go by, he comes back and, since he didn't see her in years and, since she's an adult now, he can look at her with different eyes.

Noda had seemed to imply that Asirpa was of such a young age because she wasn't meant to become a trophy for the hero to get at the end of his adventure (like it happens to way too many female characters in stories targeted to male audience), but if the SugiRipa ending was planned from the start... well, at this point Asirpa could have had just been made of the right age from the start.

Asirpa had a quite interesting motivator for her actions, which was the well being of her people, this isn't really such a recurring goal for heroines, but in the end the Ainu were sidelined because she makes clear her priority is Sugimoto (she claimed she would kill to protect him, not the Ainu and, ultimately, she shoots Ogata to protect Sugimoto) and the Ainu take a backseat in her heart.

I've nothing against characters moved by love... I like love stories... but since Asirpa has something more intriguing that could have lead her actions, prioritizing her crush for the hero felt like a downside.

Of course this is just me, I know there were people who had pushed for SugiRipa from the start and even the anime seemed fond of it (and completely erased Umeko as a love interest for Sugimoto).

As for Ogata, as far as I'm involved, it's not just that his death felt meaningless, his whole partecipation to the facts post Karafuto was of no consequence whatsoever for the story. He didn't affect the plot, neither with his life, nor with his death which is such a big clash with how, previously, whatever Ogata did seemed to spin the plot in a direction or in another.

So, as far as I'm involved, it would have worked a lot better if he had died in Karafuto. Even the whole thing with Koito, in which he shared info with him that lead Koito to figure out how Tsurumi manipulated him, was ultimately meaningless as Koito and Tsukishima still did Tsurumi's bidding till the end, and wouldn't have still be capable to follow Tsurumi due to their wounds, so the whole thing ended up being meaningless. Again, this is just me.

And I guess I could go on, actually I wanted to write a whole post on why for me the series finale was such a disappointment, but ultimately I doubt someone would be interested in it.

Who still wanders in the GK tag is likely there in search of positivity so a post of what didn't work for me is probably not what people would be interested in reading.

Again, I'm sorry to hear you also didn't enjoy the ending. It doesn't matter if you started reading a story long ago or just yesterday, it's always sad when something that you were enjoying reading stop being a source of fun and pleasure.

Please, keep enjoying the first 20 volumes as I and other people do and still welcome among the GK readers. Also, thank you for your ask!