#shiraishi cares about and for sugimoto

[circusbythesea]

shiraishi's nightmare

[ginkashino]

sketchbook pages and a new year's drawing (fireworks are so loud..)

[aeskairo]

Just some stuff I noticed:

In this scene they are carrying Ogata across the ice after Asirpa shot him. Shiraishi has Sugimoto's backpack. Ogata is passed out.

Ogata lost his hat while talking to Asirpa. It blew away and he did not retrieve it.

Ogata is also wearing gloves in this scene. Sugimoto was wearing mittens.

So....if you look at the aftermath here:

They tracked down his hat and put it back on him.

Sugimoto puts his mittens on Ogata.

Like...They are mad at this difficult guy, but they care enough about him to make sure he doesn't lose his fingers and ears to frostbite.

Awwwwwww

Like....Ogata likely has no idea that he can still snipe, because he still has fingers, because they made sure to put mittens on him.

[ramenrescue]

If it’s alright with you, can you talk a bit abt Asirpa and Ogata? I wanna know ur thoughts on them and their dynamic?

Yes!

Apologies in advance that this is just a looooong disorganized stream of consciousness. Also I don't own all the volumes and bingeread most of it during a "read everything for free" campaign, so please excuse any inaccuracies!

GK spoilers below

Firstly I find it so interesting that despite Shiraishi being part of the main squad with Sugimoto and Asirpa, that Ogata is the first person out of the main cast of people to come in contact with the protagonists. If he were the Sailor Scouts he'd be in the Sailor Mars position. I don't know how much Noda had planned when he first started serialization and I don't know how much I should read into this symbolism-wise, but still! cool!

I also really like how despite Sugimoto being there (who has a similar physical appearance to Yusaku enough to pass off as his double), Ogata fixates on Asirpa due to her pure soul giving off similar vibes as Yusaku. He draws parallels and projects his brother onto her (and arguably his own mom, too) which is very unhealthy and anyone aside from Ogata can see from a mile away this is not going to end well, but alas, this is how Ogata's brain works.

Ogata and Asirpa's interactions are interesting to analyze because there's a couple different interpretations for each one. I have my own biases but always love reading all the different ways others have interpreted them!

Ogata saying "citatap" or "hinna" and Asirpa being the ONLY one to hear it, and everyone elses' unimpressed faces -- I tend to interpret this as partially Ogata playing nice and partially him plotting to trick Asirpa into thinking he's a good guy -- mainly because at this point he kind of joined the squad by chance. Asirpa acting like a mom by feeding Ogata and treating him like a newborn who uttered his first word is honestly very heartwarming.

Ogata shooting Asirpa's father and Sugimoto -- I'm still not well-versed in the whole Kiroranke subplot but it seems like the plan only included Asirpa's father, correct? The fact that he also tried to kill Sugimoto is just so funny to me because it's just exhibit 724793274 of Ogata doing whatever he wants. There was no logical reason to kill Sugimoto, but the illogical, completely selfish reason to kill him is to isolate Asirpa from anything she loves and anything that loves her back. I'm like almost sure he went along with Kiroranke's plan to kill Asirpa's father mainly for the aforementioned reason and because he wanted to see Asirpa grow up without a father, like how HE grew up without a father and eventually got rid of him with his own hands.

Essentially, Ogata treats Asirpa as a fresh test subject for his whole nature vs. nurture experiment. Before, Ogata himself was the test subject: he was experimenting by killing the people around him. He killed his mom to test if his dad would care enough to come to the funeral; he killed Yusaku to test if his dad would start caring about him instead; he killed his dad to see if Tsurumi would start caring about him (I'm taking Usami's analysis of Ogata's character at face value here). Unfortunately, his experiments are all failures. He hypothesizes (the oddly optimistic) outcome that SOMEONE will start caring about him, and they ALL fail. His dad doesn't come to the funeral, his dad doesn't suddenly dote on him because Yusaku is dead, and Tsurumi's attention is divided amongst like 3~5 other dudes.

Ogata fixates on Yusaku and how different he is compared to him despite them sharing the same father, to the point that Ogata starts a side experiment in which he tries to test his hypothesis that "no one feels guilt when killing another human and this is true regardless of ones' upbringing or bloodline". He experiences a PROFOUND failure in that Yusaku not only refuses to kill the prisoner, he straight up tells Ogata he is wrong and that "there is no way a person does not feel guilt upon killing another person".

This failure is so profound (I'm almost certain he killed Yusaku as 90% because of this and 10% as trying to gain attention from his father) that trying to prove Yusaku wrong becomes his main experiment. For this he needs a new test subject - and this is where Asirpa comes in. Ogata is his own n=1 (success?). Yusaku was an n=2 (failure). Asirpa is his n=3. It's interesting that Ogata killing Sugimoto and Asirpa's father can also be a test to see if Asirpa would start caring about him, like he's trying to test his old hypothesis while setting Asirpa up for his nature vs. nurture experiment. How efficient of him. We love to see it.

The Karafuto confrontation(?) with Asirpa -- okay it lowkey broke my heart to see Ogata saying "I guess it can't be me after all" which is just him accepting yet another failure to manipulate someone into loving him by killing someone off. I feel like someone with Ogata's level of perception would be able to foresee (bad) outcome of his experiments, but he always ends up going for the pie in the sky?? and inevitably failing every time?? It's almost as if he's failed so many times he knows he's going to fail so he keeps going and self-sabotages by going for things that are impossible. Also it's poetic that the way he gave himself away is that his irrational side that yearns for love overtook his rational side and he inserted himself too much into his bullshitting about Sugimoto.

His final confrontation with Asirpa on the moving train -- Chapter 309/310 is so beautiful. I constantly have this part open on Bookwalker (app where I buy and store my manga) and give myself psychic damage every time I open the app. First of all, I love the way Asirpa's eyes turned PITCH BLACK when she shot Ogata. And the way Ogata LOOKED AT HER right after...with the sweat oozing out of his forehead and him being drawn with the outline of his pupil (rare)!? The way his mouth was contorted into a grimace AND a grin!? Stop everything right fucking there. I think that might've been the highlight of Ogata's life. His experiment worked! The n=3 has shown him that yes, even pure people like Asirpa, are capable of killing without remorse (or so he thinks). Now he can use Asirpa to prove that Yusaku was bullshit until he reappears and Ogatas from Christmas Past come out of the woodworks to tell himself "actually you were wrong, you DID feel guilt". The Hivemind of Ogatas defeat him by reaching some kind of state of acceptance, and it almost feels like they're honored that Asirpa is the one to kill him.

Who can blame him? Asirpa fed him, cared for him when he was ill, appreciated all the birds he hunted, appreciated all the reindeer he hunted. Asirpa is very special to Ogata. Going back to the "citatap" "hinna" moments, it makes me wonder if part of that was genuine. What's interesting and a little tragic is like, Ogata views Asirpa as a source of "light" but Asirpa isn't just a ray of sunshine to Ogata -- IIRC Sugimoto also refers to her his "light" as well -- and she manages to tease out a lightheartedness in the most hard-core dudes like "Dick-sensei" Ushiyama and "Grandpa" Hijitaka. Ogata's no exception.

And I think that's why I've analyzed most of their dynamic from a Ogata-centric perspective: Asirpa is very special to Ogata, but Ogata is not all that special to Asirpa. She's like Jesus and Ogata's just one of the disciples. Ogata (and other characters) arguably had a profound impact on Asirpa's life, but her defining influences are her father and Sugimoto. Even her motivation to kill Ogata is driven not because she was influenced by Ogata, nor is she trying to get revenge for her father's death, but because she is acting on her commitment as Sugimoto's partner. What is kind of ironic and beautiful is that in that moment that Asirpa shoots Ogata and contributes significantly to his death, he does, in fact, become special to her: by becoming the first person she intentionally killed.

The act of Ogata shooting himself is an interesting point of discussion because I can argue that "technically, Ogata killed himself" OR I can say "Asirpa's poisoned arrow would've killed him eventually so it doesn't matter whether or not Ogata fired that final shot: Asirpa killed Ogata." I actually think both are true!

It can be debated that Ogata shot himself because he would've rather died than accept that he was wrong this whole time. I do see that. I think it's also highly plausible that Ogata, who rapidly psychoanalyzed himself in the last moments of his life, had some kind of spiritual awakening to do a good deed for once in his life and try to take away Asirpa's impending guilt by killing himself. This is analogous to Sugimoto ripping out Ogata's poisoned eyeball in Karafuto and preventing Asirpa from getting her first kill. It seems like there are "many" rational Ogatas (plus Yusaku) arguing against the one sweaty, irrational Ogata, and the final action of the physical Ogata appeared to be very calm and rational -- I mean he was rational enough to balance his gun just right and carefully used a sword to pull the trigger -- so the one making decisions in the physical world could arguably have been the collective hivemind of rational Ogatas moving Ogata's physical body in one last action of empathy towards Asirpa.

What is interesting is that this act of supposed empathy did nothing to assuage Asirpa's discomfort with killing a human being. After she shoots the bear, Asirpa is seen squeezing her eyes shut and turning her head to look towards the direction that Ogata's body fell. There are a few characters in the story with completely darkened pupils and there are a few others like Sugimoto, Kiroranke, and Wilk who manage to keep the "glint" in their eyes despite having killed many -- so I truly do not know what makes them different, but I do know what Asirpa's mental strength far surpasses that of Ogata's (and possibly everyone in the story), and I think her eyes regaining their natural glow (catalyzed by Sugimoto reminding her that she has proved herself to be his partner by this intentional kill) is symbolic of her rapid acceptance of her own guilt.

TLDR: I think Oripa is a little fucked up, and it's great!

[mrs-bluemarine]

VASILY CONTENT!!

Ik I have a whole ass blog for this shit but I know it won't get any attention over there (lol) so I'm posting it here 🫶 minors dni please and thanks, content warning for guns and um. Um. (No sex just extremely suggestive) I like to imagine Vas gets very antsy when he's flustered. It's my new favorite thing. I love torturing men.

Oh yeah um normal text in speech is English, whereas italics is meant to signify Russian. Until friends come in, in which case normal text is Japanese. She's a multilingual queen ok. (And I hc Vasily knows very little English)

“Dobroye utro, Vasily.”

The man's head immediately snapped up upon hearing her kind voice. The blonde woman was making her way through the trees, smiling down pleasantly as the Russian man was settled on the ground, rifle in hand. Her deep blue eyes took notice of the gun. The butt rested on the snowy floor, the barrel pointing at the sky above, while Vasily tinkered with something on its side. Curious, the German woman joined him, watching and teasing him as he worked. “Playing with toys?”

The redhead huffed, ignoring her little comment which made her giggle. She leaned in closer. Her hand rested on his knee. “Why, it's certainly a pretty toy… I think I've seen it before, Mosin-Nagant, ja?”

Impressed by her knowledge, Vasily nodded. His silent praise only made her smile widen. “I'm not too familiar with weapons, but my father being the man he was, he was very interested in what was used in the war, he talked to me about some of it… ah, but I'm rambling. You barely understand a word I'm saying.”

Her eyes traveled lower down his rifle. What amused her was the position of it, settled between his legs the way it was… it reminded her of another weapon of his she had the pleasure of seeing just a couple nights ago. How lucky she was to have such a caring, giving man to keep her warm in that cave…

Vasily didn't seem to notice her darkened gaze as fire licked at her insides. Oh, she couldn't help herself. She was a needy woman. The snow around them, the silence of the early morning forest, it all did little to pull her out of her fantasies. She was painfully aware that it was just the two of them again. Shiraishi and Sugimoto were nowhere to be seen, probably still out searching for that precious “white”.

One of her soft hands touched his on the grip of the rifle. He wasn't wearing his mittens, so she got to feel the warm, rough skin of his fingers. These same fingers that were on her when they-

“Is it loaded?” She asked as a precaution. Brows furrowed, Vasily shook his head with a low grunt.

Her fingers drew apart from his, caressing the magazine and traveling up the forestock of the gun. “Pretty… Not as pretty as your other gun.” Her words confused him. However, the way her hand moved… it gave him a suggestion of what she was talking about. It was terribly… sultry. The idea of what she was hinting at made his heart flutter in an foreign, uncomfortable way.

Her mind searched and searched for something more she could whisper to him in that unfamiliar language. She cursed herself for getting lazy with her Russian, who knew that she'd need it for something as important as him.

She leaned in closer, resting on her palm, ignoring the frosty bite of the ice beneath it. Her hand started moving, slowly pumping up and down the stock of his gun with a ghostly touch, her deep blue eyes pinning him down. “You're a good shot, not just with a rifle, y'know.”

That slow, quiet voice of hers speaking in his tongue, it did things to him. His mind was spinning, eyes fighting between her hand and her beautiful face, and trying not to peek at the collar of her button-up from the new angle.

Vasily huffed, a cute splotch of color coming onto what of his face she could see peeking from underneath his hood. She wasn't sure he even noticed how his own thighs lifted, spreading slightly, giving her more access to his weapon. The blonde purred, stopping her hand where the wood of his gun became metal. She firmly grasped the barrel. He acted like he felt her touch, thighs abruptly clamping shut, eyes unable to look away from her hand now. Her thumb rubbed the smooth cold metal, making its way to his tip. “...I'm not a fan of getting shot by bullets, but I wouldn't mind if you shot me with something else.”

A little giggle left her mouth as she heard the redhead curse, sounding like a garbled mess due to cloth and his ruined jaw. While his eyes were occupied, her face leaned in closer to his neck. She could feel his heat, could practically hear the drumming of his heart.

“You should teach me how to shoot someday, ja? I'd like to get some more practice with you. I'd love to feel it in my own two hands.”

Her hand touched his gun with nothing but affection in every caress. Even as her index finger reached the bottom of the long muzzle, circling it with her fingertip. Her eyes didn't leave his, watching desire and embarrassment and excitement all swirl behind those beautiful bright irises of his. Vasily's finger felt the biting cold of metal burning into his finger, slowly getting oh, so close to losing his damn mind. She decided one last little tease is what she'd give him. Putting on a sickeningly sweet voice that feigned embarrassment. “I do have some practice, but not a lot… Can you show me around, sokrovishche?”

Then there was the sound of a soft, familiar click. Seemed like the sudden sound got Vasily to snap out of his daze, his eyes lowering and focusing on his finger wrapped tight around the trigger of his rifle that was hitting the inside of the guard. Getting to see him so flustered got a laugh out of the woman. She leaned in closer, resting her head against his shoulder. “What do you say, dear? Please? Oh, don't make a girl beg.”

“Franz! Hood! Where the hell are ya’?!”

Siraishi’s voice bounced off the fresh snow, defeat and irritation present in his tone while he and Sugimoto came back to Heita’s hut empty handed.

“Ah, there you two are.” Sugimoto chimed in, watching Vasily practically drag the German woman behind him over a hill, huffing and puffing, face nearly as red as his hair. “What the hell’s gotten into him?”

“I suggested he teach me how to shoot his rifle, and he got so excited!” Franziska beamed. “I guess he’s really eager to show me!”

“I’ll say.” Shiraishi eyed the Russian man pulling Franz away from the group. “Maybe we should go with you-” Sugimoto tried to suggest.

“Oh, that’s okay! Vasil tells me he’s a better teacher when it’s one-on-one” Franziska smiled, showing teeth and closing her eyes. She called out before getting too far– barely fighting the man pulling her away from the rest, “We shouldn’t be gone for too long, I’m sure we’ll be alright on our own!”

Sugimoto waved them off. “Okay, don’t go too far! Hey, and be on the lookout for any bears!”

“And bring back something to eat!”

The blackhead turned, noticing the new, devious look on his friend's face, “Something wrong, Shiraishi?”

“Hmph, just thinking. I think I know that look. Hah! Haha!” Shiraishi skittered away, laughing evilly to himself. “I'd know it all too well…”

“...Is there something happening that I should know?” Sugimoto questioned while following him.

“Heh.” Shiraishi scratched his nose. “Nothing you should worry about. I'm sure Franz and Riding Hood will be okay, and if I'm right, we won't be missing them for too long.”

[eyedelater]

golden kamuy lines that i wondered about so i went back and checked what they were in japanese

i checked these lines not because i thought the translations were wrong, but because i know that when translating japanese to english, a certain amount of rephrasing and smoothing over is necessary, so i was just curious about what they originally said. as such, my own translations included herein are not meant to be corrections.

✔️ chapter 1 - sugimoto's line about almost killing a superior officer (which is never touched on in the story again) - 気に入らない上官を半殺しにしなきゃ "If I hadn't half-killed a superior officer I didn't like" (rest of line omitted). ki ni iranai = dislike. hangoroshi is literally half-killing. so it really was just an officer he didn't like...

✔️ chapter 5, page 3 - the line EH scans translated as "It's for the woman I love" is actually 惚れた女のためだ "It's for the woman I fell for." it's a very subtle difference, but it makes sense looking back; using the verb "horeta" leaves room for doubt as to whether he's still in love with her right now.

✔️ chapter 15 - "Sutu are not to be used lightly." - ストゥの乱用は消して許されていない "Misuse of the sutu is absolutely not allowed."

✔️ chapter 22 - "Who cares?! / You walking Ainu dictionary!" - 知らねーよ / アイヌのうんちくぅ!" the translation is accurate. sugimoto adds an extra u for emphasis to "unchiku," meaning "great erudition, extensive knowledge, vast stock of knowledge"

✔️ chapter 27, page 4 - EH scans has tanigaki asking nihei tetzusou, "How's your daughter doing now?" but VIZ says it's "Wait, a daughter?" so which is correct? - what tanigaki says is 娘が? "Your daughter?" he's echoing back a clause that nihei used to start a sentence, as if he's only just now noticing that nihei mentioned having a daughter. that's why he paused in the panel before, because it took that long to process. so VIZ had the correct translation in this case. 😱 EH scans's translation would be correct if he was saying "musume ha?" instead of "ga" because that would be more like asking, "How's your daughter?" but that wouldn't quite make sense in this context anyway.

✔️ chapter 43, page 11 - when ogata tells nikaidou about how he loves his grandmother so he doesn't want to shoot huci — バアチャン子の俺にそんなことをさせるな - he says baachanko... he basically calls himself a grandma's boy. "Don't make a grandma's boy like me do something like that."

✔️ chapter 49, page 21 - about how the knife is smaller than shiraishi's dick - 白石のちんぽより小さい刃物じゃ「日露戦争帰り」は殺せねえぜ "[Veterans of the Russo-Japanese war] can't be killed by a knife that's smaller than Shiraishi's dick."

✔️ chapter 59 - when ogata offers to work for hijikata - 腕の立つ用心棒はいらねえかい EH scans's translation, "How would you like to hire a skilled bodyguard?" is just right.

✔️ chapter 68, page 16 - when sugimoto has the aconite paste on his tongue to test its potency and he starts making noises, EH scans and VIZ both translated it as just moaning and groaning. but what he really says is ほっ…ほっへ ("ho… hohhe") and then ほっへふへッ ("hohhehuhe") and then はやふほっへッ ("hayafuhohhe"). these are not mere groans; these are words that are garbled by not being able to put his lips together. based on the vowels alone, i think what he's saying in each line respectively has to be とっ…取って ("T-take it off") and then 取ってくれ ("Please take it off") and then 早く取って ("Take it off already!"). neither EH scans nor VIZ bothered to try to decipher these... but then i guess they'd have to misspell it in english too, which is kinda unpleasant. to be fair, the people around him didn't understand what he was saying either.

✔️ chapter 95, page 5 - ogata's line to suzukawa about getting more than 2k meters away from him - 二千メートル以上俺から逃げきれるか試してみるか？EH scans got it exactly and it sounds so cool: "Do you want to try and see if you can get more than 2,000 meters away from me?" VIZ pared it down for no reason: "Wanna see if you can get out of range?" hate it.

✔️ chapter 114 - when ogata says the model 38 rifle is too good for sugimoto, he literally uses the expression "pearls before swine," as in 豚に真珠 buta ni shinju. i didn't know they had that one in japanese too. (EDIT: i had forgotten that "pearls before swine" is a biblical phrase so of course it would have spread as far as the bible has spread.)

✔️ chapter 117 - kantarou tells hijikata and the others that kamezou is dead, and EH scans has ienaga saying "Kame…" and i interpreted that as like, repeating part of an unfamiliar name because she doesn't recognize it because he was such a minor character. but in the raws in fact she says, "Kame-kun…" as in, that must have been what she called him. of course ienaga would pay attention to an edible young chinpira like kamezou i guess

✔️ chapter 119, page 20 - the line about how they're used to being fed - すっかり餌付けされてる "They're totally used to being fed." i have to give you the verbatim jisho.org definition of 餌付け because it's too funny in this context: "artificial feeding (of wild animals); accustoming (a wild animal) to accepting food from humans​."

✔️ chapter 126, page 19 - koito's thoughts about usami getting his stick figures turned into tattoos - めちゃくちゃ気合入ってる...!! - "He's incredibly fired up...!!" or maybe "He's so into it...!!" or maybe "He's seriously motivated...!!"

✔️ chapter 138, page 20 - missing parts friends - tsurumi says, 脳みそが欠けた気分はどうだね? / 我々は「脳みそ欠け友達」だな…… "How does it feel to be missing brain tissue? / Looks like we're [missing brain tissue friends] now......" and then the narrative box says ふたりはカケトモ "The two of them are kaketomo." so basically "kaketomo" is short for "(noumiso) kake tomodachi" (missing brain tissue friends) and that's what EH scans translated as "missing parts friends." no great way to translate it, really.

✔️ chapter 139 - when ienaga yells about bringing back asirpa-san, the implication is that she ate some of sugimoto's brain while she was operating on him (and thus gained some of his qualities, namely concern for asirpa). what sugimoto says is ...おまえつまみ食いしただろ which EH scans translated it as, "…You took a few nibbles, didn't you?" which is accurate. viz translated it as "Did you eat part of my brain?" which has added meaning but only insofar as it explains what sugimoto actually means. つまみ食い tsumamigui refers to sneakily eating bits of food.

✔️ chapter 139 - koito's dad talking to sugimoto about a letter he got from hanazawa when he died - 花沢中将どんは切腹すっときオイへ手紙をくれもした / 息子の勇作どんが最前線で戦死して / 「愚かな父の面目を保ってくれた」と... "When Lieutenant General Hanazawa-don committed seppuku, he left me a letter. / It said that by dying on the front lines, his son Yuusaku-don / [preserved the honor of his foolish father]..." (the phrase "menboku wo tamotsu" means "saving face" or "preserving honor.") this letter must have been written by ogata hyakunosuke.

✔️ chapter 145, page 11 - tsukishima's line about sugimoto taking too many hits to the head in the stenka - 鯉登少尉殿これは「妙案」じゃありません // 「殴られ過ぎ」ですッ literally "Second Lieutenant Koito! This isn't [a brilliant plan]! // This is [got punched too much]!"

✔️ chapter 149 - tsukishima's moment of clarity - ふと我に返って思ったのは "I suddenly came to my senses and thought" (sentence is continued in next speech bubble, but this is the part i cared about.)

✔️ chapter 165 - ogata's conversation with yuusaku about killing and guilt - these are all my translations. yuusaku says なぜなら誰もが人を殺すことで罪悪感が生じるからだと...!! ("That's because the act of killing people produces feelings of guilt in everyone…!!"). then ogata says 罪悪感? / 殺した相手に対する罪悪感ですか? // そんなもの… みんなありませんよ // そう振る舞っているだけでは? // みんな俺と同じはずだ ("Feelings of guilt? / You mean feelings of guilt toward the ones they killed? // No one has... anything like that. // Aren't they all just acting that way? // I'm sure they're all like me." NEXT PAGE: yuusaku hugs him and says兄様はけしてそんな人じゃない / きっと分かる日が来ます // 人を殺して罪悪感を微塵も感じない人間がこの世にいて良いはずがないのです ("You're not that kind of person at all, brother. // I know you'll understand someday. // After all, it cannot be that there are humans in this world who don't feel even the slightest bit of guilt about killing people.") that last line is really hard to translate right, but this is the best i've got... anyway the important word in this conversation is zaiakukan 罪悪感 "feelings of guilt." (you can't translate it as just "guilt" because in english, "guilt" can also mean "the state of having actually done something wrong." and zaiakukan doesn't actually mean that you've done anything wrong. it's just a guilty feeling.)

✔️ chapter 169, page 5 - when koito says he hates ogata, he uses the word "daikirai" 大嫌い. kirai and daikirai both mean "hate" but if you know that "dai" means "big," then you know which word is stronger.

✔️ chapter 185, page 10 - when tsukishima yells at svetlana - 生きてることくらい伝えたらどうだ!! // どんな気持ちであんたを待ってるか… // どうしてそんな残酷なことが出来るんだ!! "Why don't you at least let them know you're alive?!! // Think of how they must feel waiting for you... // How can you do something so cruel?!!" this scene is important because it shows us that tsukishima still has a human heart, despite everything

✔️ chapter 204, page 3 - tanigaki's line about being famous for his big balls - 毎回あのネタ使うから / 樺太中のアイヌに俺の金玉がデカいと知れてしまったけどな "But because you use that line every time, / now Ainu all over Karafuto know that my balls are huge."

✔️ chapter 227, page 3 - tsurumi's line to usami (who just kicked that kid's neck in) that was weirdly translated by VIZ as "You always intended to do this to your friend." - that translation is just wrong. the line is (in dialect) 親友にこんげ真似をすっと分かっていたんだば... meaning, "Had I known you would do this to your best friend…" maybe because VIZ was going by the volume version, they got confused by the dialect? they must have misread the "sutto" (meaning approximately "that you would do") as "zutto" (meaning "always").

✔️ chapter 231, page 8 - koito says 私は鶴見中尉殿と月島軍曹を最後まで見届ける覚悟でいる "I am resolved to see Second Lieutenant Tsurumi and Sergeant Tsukishima through to the end."

✔️ chapter 263, page 8 - shiraishi's line about boutarou taking his bullets - お前ならあのまま俺を弾除けにするはずだ // らしくねえな "You of all people would have stayed where you were and used me as a shield. // That wasn't like you at all." approximately.

✔️ chapter 268 - tsurumi's outburst about the miserable end that awaited wilk and the others - そのカムイを守る戦いのためにウイルクたちはどんな悲惨な最後を遂げたのかこれから教えてあげよう "Now I will tell you about how Wilk and the others met their wretched end in their battle to protect those kamuy!" approximately. or maybe, "Now I will tell you about how Wilk and the others fighting to protect those kamuy met their wretched end!" the former is a little more literally accurate, but the latter sounds better...

✔️also chapter 268 - after past tsurumi hears that it's wilk, the line translated by EH scans as, "So he's become involved with my life again, after all." - やっぱりまた私の人生に関わってきたか EH scans got it exactly right. VIZ got it wrong and translated it as, "Yet again my life changes." not remotely close. you got the ONLY VERB IN THE SENTENCE wrong.

✔️ chapter 300 - when ogata sees vasily's binocular reflection and he's very pleased, he says 運命は俺に味方した / 世界が俺は正しいと言っている "Fate has taken my side. / The world is telling me I'm right."

✔️ ch306 - koito tells tsurumi to release tsukishima - もうこの男を解放してあげてください "Please set this man free already."

[darkyanderesworld]

Blood and gold 4

Part 1 part 2 part 3

Tw: Platonic yandere, injury, blood, clingy/overprotective behavior, reader having a panic attack.

I couldn't get much sleep as I had a painful headache, and I could hear thumping around the hotel. At first, I just assumed it was someone drunk, but I felt someone touch my face, and I opened one of my eyes a crack, and I saw the owner touching asirpa's face as well. But all of her focus was on her. I was too scared to move, but I didn't want this lady touching asirpa. I had enough as she tried to lick her eye. But I didn't have to do anything as sugimoto kicked the woman off us, though asirpa didn't wake up, I didn't until why. Maybe my headache had something to do with it. I tried to get up to help sugimoto, but I fell. Instead, my head was pounding. "What the hell were you doing to (y/n) and asirpa?" Sugimoto said, sounding very pissed off. "No, you have it all wrong!  I was just checking their health, (y/n) was acting odd, so I just wanted to make sure she was alright!" She begged, but I think sugimoto didn't care about what she was talking about. The loud banging on door further hurt my head, I heard shiraishi's voice on the other side. "Sugimoto! The owner is a tattooed prisoner! the one I told you about who was a doctor who experimented on his patients!" Hold on the woman is a man? I shivered, though I don't think it makes it more creepy.

I wanted to run, but my exit was blocked, but I couldn't run even if I tried. The doctor stood up and started to talk. "People are greedy creatures who want what they can't have. That's the human condition, and you know I'm right." Sugimoto seemed to not care about what the doctor said. "What you said is right, for example I'm going to skin you without a second thought." The doctor threw two needles in the air aiming at asirpa. I tried to catch them but got stabbed instead. "Shit...." I said in pain, but I quickly pulled them out. "Are you ok (y/n)?" Sugimoto asked, worried I was very annoyed. "Don't worry about me and get that bitch!" I yelled as I picked up asirpa and left the room looking for kiroranke, I eventually found him barely awake. But as i was trying to fully wake him up an explosion woke him up. I was visibly shaking in fear. "What the hell is happening?" He asked as dragged him toward an exit. "There is a prisoner here and he wanted to eat asirpa...." I didn't know how to explain it better before another explosion happened. kiroranke quickly rushed me down the stairs ware we met sugimoto and shiraishi ran up too us yelling about a bomb. Though he couldn't explain as the stars turned into a slide and we all slid down. But before we could get up a large flash of light engulfed us before a large blast destroyed the hotel.

We managed to stay unhurt, and asirpa woke up, though I don't know who could stay awake through that. I found the nearest hiding spot I could fined and curled up into a ball. I tried to calm myself down, but a few tears fell. The others didn't notice I was gone yet, which was for the best. It was about ten minutes until they started to call out for me, which was more than enough time to calm myself down. I quickly rejoined the group. "We need to make money to buy more explosives." Kiroranke stated. The others seemed very annoyed with shiraishi seeing the destruction it was understandable. "There is a kotan nearby, I have relatives there, so we can hunt to make money." I was uncomfortable with it, but i couldn't do anything as the others already agreed to the plan. So I watched as asirpa break the neck of an adorable for who was stuck in a trap. Foxes was my favorite animal, so it made the sight worse, but it needed to happen. Kiroranke patted the top of my head. I ordered to confort me. "None of this would've happened if you didn't waste the explosives shiraishi..." I said in an angry tone. Kiroranke decided to use this chance to piss me off more  "He also borrowed borrowed money from asirpa and then lost it by betting on races." This made me more mad, so I walked over to asirpa and stuck my hand out. "Stick." Asirpa quickly gave me the thick stick, I then looked at shiraishi for a few seconds before sprinting at him. And beating him with the stick, the others looked on with approval.

When we got back into the kotan, asirpa started to talk to an elder, but I didn't pay much attention. I really didn't care much, though it was mentioned in the conversation that another woman was visiting, and she claims she could the past and future. This caught my attention, maybe she could tell my future. I saw the woman approach us. She was unique in a good way. Before anyone could say anything, shiraishi tried to flirt with her. "I'm shiraishi. I'm single with no girlfriend." I cringed a little, but I'm glad the woman played it off and looked at shiraishi. "Tell me sir you came from otaru Did, you not?" I was surprised. "I can tell it plainly you're looking for someone or something." Shiraishi's mind was blown, but I wasn't too surprised this time. While the woman was explaining her fortune telling abilities, I wondered off wanting to explore a bit. And get some time to myself. Sugimoto and kiroranke were getting too clingy, even shiraishi started to try and get close to me. I don't understand. I was surprised that I got so far, but I wasn't complaining too much, I eventually found a town and started to walk around exploring a bit. Though there wasn't much to do but I caught a glimpse of someone familiar at first. I thought it was nothing, but as I got a second look, it was that sniper ogata who tried to kill Tanigaki.

I froze, but I could tell that he couldn't see me, so I quickly made my way out of town or at least tried. I wasn't looking where I was walking and bumped into a man wearing a green suit. "I'm really sorry, sir. I didn't mean to." I said rather quickly, not bothering to mask my fear. As I got a better look at him, he was an old man with long white hair. He looked a little annoyed but not angry. "Next time, watch ware you're walking and head home. You look too young to be around here." I quickly nodded. "Thank you..." I said before rushing off again. I headed back to the kotan, though by the time I got there, they were gone. I started to panic again, I fucked up big time I think they left me. Should I just start to go to abashiri prison and they'll be there? Or should I stop because they had enough of me? I'm going to be abandoned again! I didn't follow the rules, it's my fault can I fix this? I was over thinking but I couldn't calm myself down. I started to cry the first time I did so ever since I joined sugimoto's group. Calming down seemed Impossible so I cried for what felt like hours but it was probably a half an hour.

I was curled up in a ball when I heard yelling. At first, I couldn't tell who was yelling, but as they got closer, I wanted to hide, and I started to cry again. The person quickly noticed this, and they rushed over, and I covered my head in fear. "(Y/n)? Are you alright?" I looked up and saw kiroranke, I couldn't hide my tears. He rushed over and looked if I was injured when he couldn't find anything. He then hugged me tightly in a way to try and calm me down. Soon, he rocked me back and forth while humming something. Soon, I heard another voice coming over it was clear it was sugimoto, and he sounded angry. "Whare the hel-" He quickly shut up when he saw me crying. "We need to head back." He said in a quiet tone. I nodded as I got out of kiroranke's hug and wiped my remaining tears. Sugimoto gave me a light side hug as we walked to the kotan. "We are going to hibari. You need to stay with someone at all times." Sugimoto said seriously. I nodded, not wanting something like this to happen again. When we got to the kotan, asirpa ran up to me. "Why did you run off?" She asked a little irritated. "I was bored, so I thought I could look in the town nearby for any clues, but when I came back, you guys weren't here." I said, embarrassed by my actions.

Shiraishi tensed up a little. "Did you find anything?" He asked, sounding nervous. "Not really..." I debated telling the others about ogata and decided against it. Shiraishi relaxed, and we got ready to leave for hibari. While it was nice to travel again, I was worried about fighting again. We stopped to rest, shiraishi and kiroranke left and came back with salmon. It was nice to eat something fresh again instead of frozen or dried suff, but I couldn't really complain as I wasn't starving. Me and asirpa lay down early to get some rest, I didn't sleep on the way there. This time, I could actually sleep as I didn't have any nightmares, which I was happy about. I woke up when asirpa yelled at shiraishi for something again. I didn't pay attention to why, as I was too busy actually waking up, then we started to travel again. I was excited to see new places, though I was a little anxious to see what the future holds.

As we got into town, I stayed with shiraishi and sugimoto as the others questioned locals about the tattoos. They spotted a soldier running and decided to follow him they were fast, but I managed to keep up. I contemplated keeping a distance from them, but I decided against it. And a green house came into few, sugimoto and shiraishi entered first. I wait a little bit as before entering the entry room. I had a few taxidermy animals, and I didn't know if I should be impressed or creeped out. There was a man shot in head on the ground it didn't bother me as much now, though I didn't look at it more. I stayed with sugimoto as shiraishi left to explore the rest of the house, but he quickly came back. "I think the man here made fake skins, and the soldier that ran by stole them, we need to go after him now!" Shiraishi said, trying to rush me and sugimoto out to go after the soldier. Though, when I tried to stay behind the two of them, like before, shiraishi stopped me and pushed me in front of him. It was odd, but I couldn't do anything to stop it.

My lungs were burning as we arrived at a coal mine. I didn't like where this was going, but I couldn't go anywhere because sugimoto had to tight grip on my wrist. As we were talking about how to find the soldier, a cart flew by us, and it had a soldier and a man in a bear suit. "There!" Shiraishi yelled, and we got into another cart and chased after them. I could only get a glimpse of two people in front of us before I was shoved to the bottom of the cart. "Stay down (y/n)!" Shiraishi yelled as he pushed me down it hurt to be shoved into the wood, but I stayed down for a few seconds. I assumed that the other soldiers started to shoot at us because of the gunfire. so I took my chance, and when I heard the gunfire stop, I aimed at the soldier and took a few shots before hiding again, I missed, but it was worth the try. When we entered the mine, I stayed down, but something still hit me, rocks. I felt a little blood going down my face, though it didn't hurt much. I heard the squeal of wheels coming from their cart, and we quickly bumped into them. Sugimoto quickly tried to get out and grab what I assumed was the fake skins but was hit by the soldier's rifle.

Me and shiraishi then lunged to the other cart, though he avoided getting hit with the rifle. I was able to get a hold onto the bag briefly but was hit in the head by something, causing me to lose my grip and almost blacking out. I was pulled back into the cart by sugimoto and shiraishi, and the track split, so we lost sight of the other cart quickly. I couldn't move well as a weird smell filled the air, but we couldn't do anything before there was an explosion. I had enough with these explosions. Couldn't anything else happen?! I was flung back into the wall in a way to fully knock me out. I only woke up when I was outside and I was on the ground. I was covered in Bruises and cuts and hurt all over but alive. I sat up and looked around and saw people around me. I could hear talking but I couldn't focus, I felt eyes on me but I couldn't really move was I dying? Well, if I was thinking I wasn't dying, so I guess I'm alive.  I felt someone's hand on my chin, which caused me to panic. I didn't know who it was, so I bit the hand. The small scream of pain helped me recognize the person, shiraishi. But it also made me feel like I was shot in the head. It hurt so much. I lay back down and started to whimper.

I heard another voice which was full of worry. "Is she going to be ok?" It was asirpa's voice. "Just give her time. She hit her head pretty hard, so we need to wait for her to wake up fully." It took me about thirty minutes to be able to fully control myself, but I was sill weak. "Drink." Sugimoto handed me a cup of water, I grabbed it, but I was shaking a lot, so I couldn't drink. So sugimoto grabbed it back and held it for me, I was nice, but I couldn't drink much. I noticed the whole group was here but also there was the man from the hotel here too. They were talking about something, but I didn't listen, not caring much. Though they stopped talking and looked towards the mine again so I turned around and saw ogata walking towards us, I couldn't care at this point. "We'll take them with us." Fuck my life.

[madeleine-line]

Hello, I hope your having a good day! I was wondering if you could write about some angst of Sugimoto reacting to reader dying protecting him and after a loyal dog that always accompanied reader, now begins to follow and protect Sugimoto. Thank you for listening! Please take care! ❤

|‘Loyal Friend’ | Saichi Sugimoto x Reader|

Warnings: GN reader, angst, mention of death (reader), depictions of grief?, depictions of a dog attack, Sugi is a bit ooc it’s been awhile;

Thanks soo much for requesting, this was a really interesting idea, sorry if it’s not too good, I haven’t written in awhile so I’m rusty. Also sorry this took so long to get out hope u enjoy

•••

Saichi held back tears as he shook you almost violently.

“Please, please wake up.” He begged. “You’re all I have. I-I can’t lose you too.”

You had taken a bullet for him, although him and the others tried desperately to patch you up it was no use and soon you went limp in the arms of you lover.

Saichi held you close to him, letting a few stray tears fall down his cheeks. Your dog came up and licked your face, whining a little bit. Saichi scratched him behind the ear for some kind of comfort.

“Sugimoto… we-“ Asirpa started.

“I know. Just. Give me a few minutes.”

They had a makeshift funeral for Sugimotos sake and continued on their journey, your dog following close behind.

The dog had never been too fond of anybody but you, so it was surprising to everyone that it decided to stay close by.

“That dog… it’s trailing behind us.” Asirpa said.

“Yeah. I don’t mind, it’s comforting in a way.” Sugimoto wouldn’t get too close as the dog was never fond of him, even biting him at one point. But knowing how much the dog meant to you he was happy to keep it around.

Once it grew dark the group stopped and started a fire, the dog hesitant made its way over to Sugimoto, laying against his leg.

“Look at that!” Shiraishi smiled. “That things kinda cute when it’s not growling at everyone.”

Although he agreed Sugimoto remained silent. He placed a hand on the dogs head, giving him a gentle scratch. The dog looked up at him, a pitiful look in its eyes.

“You miss them too, don’t you bud?”

The dog whined. It licked at his hand and Sugimoto could help but let a single tear fall down his cheek. Despite him and the dog never really getting along, it was comforting in a way that they had each other to lean on.

Sugimoto was deep in thought when he heard a twig snap somewhere in the woods behind him.

“Sugimoto.” Asirpa whispered, “did you hear that?”

Sugimoto jumped up from his seat, the dog followed his lead and positioned itself in front of him. It let out a low growl, warning whatever was out there to back off. Sugimoto couldn’t help but smile, he knew whatever it was- he’d be able to handle it. But knowing your dog had his back brought him a sense of security he hadn’t had since you died.

A large figure slowly stepped out of the darkness and towards the group. A man dressed in all black held up a gun towards Sugimoto.

“You. Empty your pockets.” He demanded. Sugimoto reached for a weapon when without warning the dog lunged forward and bit the man’s leg. He cried out and called onto his back.

Sugimoto whistled and called the dog back. “Good boy.” He laughed softly.

“You asshole.” The man barked, struggling to get to his knees. “You are you’re dumb mutt will pay for that!” He pointed his gun at the dog, hand shaking slightly as he got ready to pull the trigger.

Sugimoto saw red and grabbed the man’s wrist tightly, he threw the man down on the ground and kicked his gun to Asirpa who picked it up for safe keeping.

“You’ve got 10 seconds to get out of here, before I change my mind and kill you.” He said coldly.

The man got back and limped away grumbling back to his own camp.

Sugimoto kneeled down and scratched the dog behind the ears “are you hurt, boy?” Asking as if it could respond.

“I didn’t expect him to attack that guy, what a beast!” Shiraishi laughed. He reached out the pet it but it growled and nipped his finger.

“I don’t think it likes you very much.” Sugimoto said. The dog crawled up into his lap. It curled up and quickly dozed off. The dog wasn’t small, it was a bit heavy and sat awkwardly but Sugimoto wasn’t about to complain. Besides it’s wasn’t so bad, he could get used to this.

[piduai]

Also your ship hate is so real. Keep your hater-head up queen. It's crazy how popular some of them are too (esp sugio n koitsuki) given the fact that it takes away from what made these characters interesting and unique in the first place entirely. Sugio is just your typical 700k-boyXboy-enemies-to-lovers but to make it work you have to completely obliterate both of these characters personalities/what they stand for (motive/writing wise) especially Ogata like c'mon now... His ass is NOT getting redeemed through the power of yaoiful sex. Poor Sugimoto, Shiraishi was right there too. At least this one had the 'EyeSuck' scene, but koitsuki? How would that even work without Tsurumi? Get real. I know the need arose from the fans wanting to give Tsukishima a ''happy end'' but honestly I would rather take years of dilf manupilation if it means I don't get to babysit a dumbass rich kid for the rest of my millitary life. Not that I hate Koito, I like him as a character but he definiatly had 'барчо́нок' mannerisms, like he deadass said Tsukishima was filthy and broke for not owning a handmirror... Sorry you're probably sick of reading about this way more than I am since you've been into GK much longer but I just had to say I'm with you on the GK pairs feeling fujoshibait/homophobic in nature and it's wild considering the content of the actual manga. You have people cvmming from getting their finger ate and yet... Then again I know this has more to do with the general anime/manga consumer mindset rather than GK itself so it is to be expected, I just care about this manga so goddamn much girl Satoru Noda messed up my brain in the best way fr. Sorry I got carried away but if you read it this far thank you again for your translations and I wish you the best!!

but i don't think any of them are fujoshibait/homophobic tho... the way noda wrote them (character dynamics) i mean, not the fujobait anime posters no self-respecting person cares about. like imo there's no need to grasp for straws and paint something you think is stupid and tasteless as problematic/bigoted/morally corrupt 🤷 just say you find it ugly and dumb and move on. none of the popular or unpopular fanon ships were written as romantic/sexual in canon anyway no matter what the coomers say, all that "tension" people keep yapping about is just complex human relationships or titillation/double entendre/play on classic tropes noda is super duper fond of but it all gets over girlies' heads because they lost the ability to see past fanfiction. sad! well nobody has time for this

otherwise i agree, all gk ships are stupid and have no substance but sugio/koitsuki are the dumbest because they're inescapable. with sugio it will NOT work out in any scenario (ever) unless one of them is wildly ooc and let's be honest sugimoto would never say or do that. there's a reason 98% of sugio shippers are ogatagirls, they compromise sugimoto's entire character to get that 700k boy x boy enemies to lovers hot and steamy yaoi because ogata as he is could never coexist with sugimoto as he is. so it just ends up being reductive and shallow and stripping both of them of what makes them interesting

with koitsuki i just don't understand it but it's mostly because i find tsukishima super boring so anything regarding him is a huge blind spot for me (since i simply do not look in his direction). i think koitsuki is one of the "safest" and most bland dynamics in gk (exact reason for which it's the most popular ship) but in fanon again both characters are stripped of their complexity and their canon relationship is severely modified to make it more yaoiful

which honestly i have no problem with... like if that's how people want to enjoy this series, sure. who cares, none of it is real.

i think there's like things to be said about how shipping culture and the popularization of fanfiction has gradually taken the shape of bile that poisons most attempts at interacting with other fans since all they know is sucking and fucking but honestly i'm a huge advocate for not engaging in unpleasant situations when you can. sure there's a lion share of people who can't see past the yaoi thus compromising everything else you and i love this series for but like... so what? i avoid those people, i don't befriend them, i don't read what they say. and i don't have a say in how strangers choose to engage with fiction... at the end of the day it all comes down to personal taste and what you seek from said fiction, if they're comfortable in this insufferable climate i'm happy for them and wish them the best. as for me i'll just stick to my peaceful yaoi-sparse corner

[fslurusami]

Important question. Who in golden kamuy is good at Just Dance and who it terrible

1ST of all ogata is 100% that guy who would just stand there and wave the wiimote around instead of actually dancing. and somehow manage to get rlly good scores tho. ive mentioned this in a convo w a friend once a while ago i had this part READY

shiraishi and sugimoto would both GO HARD on the dancing part but their scores would actually be mid as fuck </3 asripa would get good scores tho. tanigaki would start off mostly just waving it and dancing super awkwardly but he would loosen up and have fun after a song or 2 👍. vasily would also start off standing there but would be pressured into dancing by the others. mid scores but he would get like 1 good score on a song and everyone would be like holy shit WOO. it would be the best score in this group after asripas. but they would all have fun despite being really bad at it <3

idk what tsurumi would do, i think he would be like "haha ok well maybe ill just do 1 song" and kill it and get a perfect score. everyone is super impressed but he will only do ONE. koito would be too focused on dancing to get good scores sorry koito lol. and he would complain about how it should have recognized his skills and the xbox version is better cuz it has kinect blah blah blah. tsukishima would have to be pressured into it he doesnt want to play -_- even if you got him to play a song he would also just stand there waving it around like ogata, and get a decent enough score, and koito would get rlly mad at him for that lol

nikaidou would dance and wouldnt get a very good score but he wouldnt rlly care hes having fun lol ^_^. usami would dance for sure and get decent scores. idk what songs are on just dance but usami would choose the raunchy 1s. edogai would dance good and get good scores. idk what most of the other characters would do. hijikata would probably kill it at just dance for real tho

[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.

[ricomola]

Do you have any Sugimoto ships?

I ship him with peaceful characters who keep his stress levels low xD Shiraishi, Tanigaki and Vasily are cute options. BUT HEAR ME OUT: I haven't drawn about this yet but...Tsukishima and Sugimoto should be more popular.

Sugimoto is level-headed, empathetic and protective. He also tends to mirror feelings (hate if hated, love if loved).

Tsukishima is serious, loyal, service-oriented. Also, being able to keep his anger under control is a big deal for him.

Tsukishima survived his pelvic wound because of Sugimoto.

I have a headcanon of Tsukishima caring for ANYONE who spends too much time with him.

Both know what it is to loose a lover.

Both Sugimoto and Tsukishima seem to enjoy peace and calm so I can imagine them having regular, happy lives together.

Both could heal together.

Everything Sugimoto did was for Umeko and later on stays for Asirpa. Everything Tsukishima does is for Tsurumi, and then has a dilemma because Koito becomes important to him and as soon as Tsurumi is gone he leaves the Army to search for him but comes back when Koito asks him to stay with him. So yeah, both choose dangerous lives just for the sake of people they care about.

Idk, do we have something here?

[qissu]

Tanigaki x Chubby Female Reader “Loving you feels right”

:)

🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺

Requested by: @justmewoo

Word Count: 1k

SFW!, Fluff with plot

"Who's that over there, asirpa?" You were wearing a light brown fur coat made from deer skin tainted with blood at the ends, as Sugimoto pointed out. Your jet black hair came to an end at your chin, which they could see.

"That's Nocona, another ainu woman," 

From only glancing at your backside, shiraishi and tanigaki became more interested in you.

"She has to be a huntress like asirpa, and she has to be stunning!" Blood began to trickle from his nose.

"Because Nocona had never been given a name, the elders gave her one; her name means wanderer; she no longer lives in the village, but she always returns to pay her respects to the elders who looked after her."

They began to listen in on your conversation as they got closer to you and the elder. "Remember, Nocona, you've always had a home here."

You stroke the back of your head nervously. "I'd want to ask a favor...could you help tie my hair up for me?" I lost the last one while hunting, and you're always great at it.

The ainu elder motions for you to kneel down with a nod. She takes strands of your hair and uses them as a hair tie. "You have such lovely short hair, it gives you an advantage while hunting."

She pulls your hair back into a low ponytail, allowing strands to fall out and partially concealing your face.

“It appears you have company.” You swiftly turn around, startled by the group of strangers behind you as the words left her mouth.

asirpa is one of the members of the group. "Can I help you?"

asirpa took a step ahead. "My friends and shiraishi were wondering who you were. Did you come across anything interesting while you were out?" You knelt in front of her and drew a necklace made of bear teeth, one of which was bloodied.

"I made this; it won't last, but it will keep you safe at night if anything tries to attack."

Asirpa was shoved out of the way by shiraishi. "What a beauty!" I'm single! "Did I say I'm single?" When he saw you, he started fangirling.

Your gaze shifted away from him and landed on tanigaki. “He's awake,” you thought. You pondered the situation. You felt a tiny ache in your chest just by looking at him.

"I'll be off, but keep an eye out for a crazy with unusual tattoos loose in the forest; I let him go, but if I see him again, I'll put him down."

Sugimoto grabbed your arm out of nowhere. "Lead us to him,"  Between your arm and his face, you cast a glance.

"Sorry, it was a spur of the moment thing." He let go of you.

"I'm currently occupied, but I can show you the w-"

"It's fine, Nocona; I'll have the others gather the rest." The elder smiled at you, assuring you that she would take care of whatever you needed."

“It would be highly helpful to us.” Tanigaki took the initiative and spoke up.

“I'd also like to express my gratitude for your assistance in providing care for me along with the elders.” You turn around, your flushed cheeks hidden beneath your coat. "I- it was nothing, I will help you track him.

"Yes!" Shiraishi cheered. " The beautiful ainu huntress is coming! I must be dreaming, someone pinch me."

"I'll pinch you.". With a menacing look, Sugimoto stood behind him.

You led the group back into the forest after they had settled down, following the same path you had taken earlier. "Without any foot prints to help her, how could she remember her own path?" Shiraishi spoke quietly to asirpa.

"She's a skilled huntress, even better than me, because she considers the forest to be her home." "If you continue up the trail and turn left, you'll see a tree with lighter spots; once you pass that tree, you'll see him." You turn around and head back to the village.

Shiraishi remarked, "You said you'd help us."

"I said I'd assist you in tracking him down; the rest is up to you." You walked away without saying anything else.

As you returned to the village, you began to reflect about your previous experiences with tanigaki while he was unwell.

When you returned to the village to greet the elders, you discovered a stranger in a bad state resting peacefully. "Can you tell me who he is?"

Only a smile from the ainu elder, leaving you alone in the room with him. You took a step closer to him after standing still.

You were concerned about whether he was still breathing, so you put your palm over his mouth, sighing with relief when you felt air blow weakly on your hand.

You place your fingers on his forehead and take a temperature reading. "You're going to make it."

There was something about him that drew you in. "He has a strong heart and will not easily give up." As she walked back into the room, the elder spoke.

"Listen to his heartbeat."

Although the request was unexpected, you were intrigued to learn what she meant. You tucked one strand of hair behind your ear as you bent your head towards his chest, laying your hand on his chest as you lay against it.

His heart beat was strong, and you could feel the warmth from the vibrations. So interested were you that you closed your eyes and, without even realizing it, a smile began to form on your lips.

“You must be someone special...stranger.”

”If you keep doing what you're doing, you might fall in love with him.” The elder gave a kind smile. As you tried to disguise your humiliation, you moved your head aside.

“Nocona! "Watch Outl!" You turn around seeing a man tackling you to the ground, jolting you out of your reminiscence.

Your body was swiftly deprived of air, causing discomfort all throughout. You swiftly remove the knife from your side and slip out of your coat. “Get out of the way whore!” You t hrow the knife into his calf as he tries to flee, slowing him down.

When the group returned to you, they saw your leg was fractured, as it had become lodged in the snow during the fall. "It's only a scratch, follow the blood trails before they fade."

Except for Tanigaki, everyone in the group moves forward. He slings your arm around his shoulder without your permission, maintaining his hand on your stomach to keep you balanced. "I know you're capable, but the very least I can do is offer assistance."

You didn't say anything, only agreed with him as he walked towards the village.

"You're odd tanigaki." You gave a genuine smile without realizing it, your head and leg were both hurting, and it was difficult to control your own speech.

As he moved on, he merely nodded. Even though you were relieved to have him help you despite the discomfort, your cheeks began to flush as his grip on you tightened.

The elders tended to your leg once you were inside; you couldn't recall much since you passed out.

"Good morning."   You awoke to a cheerful shiraishi. When you looked down, you noticed that your clothes were changed.

"What the hell happened to my clothes?" You grip Shiraishi's neck and choke him out.

"Y- since you were sweating in them, the elders changed you into something more comfortable." As you struggle to stand, you let go of his shirt and push yourself up against the wall.

“I can he-”

“No.”

"But you sh-"  your hands trembled as you pressed the tip of your spear towards his throat before he could finish his sentence. You release it after standing your ground.

Maybe it was the embarrassment of wearing clothing that showed parts of your body you had always kept hidden or not seeing the face you hoped to see near you.

“Sorry, I'm not  tanigaki, but he asked me to keep an eye on you.” His choice of words forced your eyes to widen.

“Don't appear startled; it's rather easy to tell when a woman is into a man since your tone and face softened whenever you gazed in his direction.” As he spoke, he rubbed the back of his head.

"I swear I'm not going to say anything." Before leaving the room, he offered you a worrisome smile.

As you approached asirpa and her friends, Shiraishi stood by your side, doing his best to make you laugh.

"She's a formidable opponent." Sugimoto stated.

"I've always liked Nocona because she doesn't let a minor setback stop her." When asirpa saw you, she smiled.

Tanigaki gave you a fleeting glance before averting his gaze. “Isn't it amazing, tanigaki? Beauty and strength!” While speaking, Shiraishi raised his brows.

"Did you manage to locate him?" Between sugimoto and asirpa, you looked.

"We did, and thanks to you, he didn't get very far."

You walked past them as they conversed. They shouted, but you kept pushing forward; once you're out of the way, they can focus on their mission.

"So, tanigaki...isn't she incredible?" She'd make an incredible wife; just think of the stuff she cooks. I'd never pass up an opportunity like this."

As shiraishi continued to aggravate Tanigaki, he could only nod.

"It slipped my mind that it's her parents' death anniversary; I feel terrible. We go in the way of her preparing for it" Asirpa said.

"Wouldn't it be preferable if the elders assisted with the preparation?" shiraishi said.

He gets a slap across the face from Asirpa. "The preparation phase is more valuable; she wasn't able to do a lot of the things she wanted since she was assisting us."

It was becoming dark, and you were walking through the forest when you came to a halt in front of a certain tree. You knelt down and took down the old decorations, replacing them with new ones. "I apologize for being late; I was assisting a bunch of fools. When I get back, I'll thank the elders." You kept talking to the grave.

“I had a million reasons to leave the village, but no matter how far I traveled, I always found myself returning, and as I was about to leave again, I stumbled into him....the stranger.”

As you talk about tanigaki, you scoot closer to the grave, blushing. "He's like an enormous bear, but one that you don't kill and use for fur. I'm just rambling on about someone who probably doesn't like me; he has a strong beating heart and appears to be a thoughtful man." You talked at your parents' grave for another hour before departing.

As you return to the village, you come across Shiraishi speaking to Tanigaki, his speech slurred. You shook your head when you saw him, and you planned to leave before your name was called.

“Tanigaki, isn't Nocona a cutie? She's worth it.” Tanigaki grabs him by the shoulders.

“Ask her out if she's perfect; I don't care if she's the sharpest or strongest; I don't like her.”

You wish you hadn't heard those remarks, and all you could do as you walked away was struggle to hide how you felt. But before you could move away entirely, shiraishi notices you behind tanigaki. "If it isn't the cutie."  Shiraishi  waves at you, which made Tanigaki turn around.

Before walking away, you immediately deflect his gaze.

“Nocona!” He leaves shiraishi and follows you into the hut.

"What you heard isn't the truth."

You take your spear and place it against his neck. As you apply pressure, blood begins to flow down the blade. “Keep your distance from me.”

A battle raged within you; you'd already decided that he'd never fall for someone like you, but hearing the words come from his mouth made it much more difficult.

"Do it; I'm not leaving until you give me a chance to explain."

He clutches the blade's tip, blood running down his hand, but he doesn't flinch.

“Tell me, what do you think? How I'm a wonderful friend, but you prefer someone gentler? likeable? "I've had enough!"

“Yes.”

“You son of a b-"  He interrupts you.

"A nice, charming, attractive women can put up a fight." You are all of these things. Nocona... When I was in critical condition, I fell in love with you. With your head against my chest and the way you spoke to me, I felt at ease. I wanted to say anything, but I didn't want to frighten you away.”

He was awake the entire time you were caring for him, which only added fuel to the fire. With the spear, you pierced a hole through his hand, pushing him down on one knee as you stood above him. "It wouldn't be right to shiraishi if I had feelings for you."

“Shiraishi?” You stated it out, puzzled.

“He was often talking about you when we were out, bringing you up at unexpected times. Hearing him talk about you without him knowing I had feelings for you was difficult."

You snatched the spear from his hand. "None of that is me; go look for your women somewhere else." It didn't matter if he confessed to you or not. At that moment, all you wanted was to be alone.

He drew you into his embrace as you turned your back on him, his hand tightening around your waist. “Doesn't it matter that I confessed how I felt? "Didn't any of our encounters make an impression on you?"

You react with your hands by your sides. "You bring discomfort to my heart." At the sound of those words, his arms loosen around you.

"But it was a comfortable discomfort; I want to feel like that for the rest of my life, but I'm not worthy; I'm not like the other aniu women."

“I'm only interested in you.” As he drew you closer from behind, you could feel his chest against your back.

His heart was racing even faster, almost too fast. You turn around in his embrace and place your palm on his chest, feeling the pattern of his heart.

You lock eyes as you look up. "I'll leave you alone if you don't want me."

"That's not going to work because I want you." His eyes widen.

He lifts you up unexpectedly, putting your legs around his waist; it was something you'd have to get accustomed to.

“Uh...” He cleared his throat.

“Can I kiss you?” You surprised him with a brief kiss on the cheek as he turned away embarrassed. To his question, you nodded.

You intended to leave the village that day and never return, but you ended up staying with your soulmate.

The next year as you prepared for the winter during the fall. You were stalking a deer by itself from afar. You hear the snap of weak tree limbs behind you as you focused on aiming at a critical spot.

“Woah!” Before the spear could stab tanigaki he grabbed the spear. The dear had vanished by the time you turned around.

“I could have killed you; there's no way I can prepare the three of us for winter if you keep scaring them away.”

Tanigaki placed his palm over your stomach as you looked around for another deer. "Shouldn't you go rest for a while, it'll simply make things worse for you in this condition?"

"I just want to make sure the baby isn't cold, and deer skin is the greatest for cold weather." He doesn't pay attention to you, instead placing his ear near your tummy and smiling.

"Let's return home." He carries your spear and lifts you up in bridal style.

As the fall season comes to an end, winter arrived, bringing with it a healthy baby boy. You now have a family and a reason to keep going.

[marry-me-o-gin]

Golden Kamuy is an amazing manga and show and I dont understand the complaints about how it doesn't have good female characters or not enough female characters.

Firstly, as a woman I love all the female characters in GK. Secondly, the writer has the right to tell whatever story he wants whether that involve one or one hundred female characters. There shouldn't be a quota. The story also centres around the military over a hundred years ago so yeah, it's going to be very male centred.

Asirpa, Sugimoto, Shiraishi, Tanigaki etc are among some of the most human and genuine characters I have come across in a long time. I don't care whether they are male or female tbh. This story is amazing. Every chapter is awesome and I've never read anything so original when it comes to manga.

I just love it so much!! 🪙🪙🪙

[sandflow]

Sugimoto and Ogata’s Rivalmance - anime vs manga comparisons

Hello there.

So I just saw the last episode from he 3rd season of the Golden Kamuy anime series and it left me a little perplexed. I’ll be talking about how the anime handled their scenes compared to the manga.

I’ll be blunt, season 1 was average while season 2 turned out kind of bad. Season 1 is alright as an introduction to the series, even though the CG bear really turned off many people from liking the show. 

Season 2 skipped a lot of arcs and while some of them turned out to be animated as an OVA, there are arcs that even at present haven’t been adapted and as of which happen pre-Abashiri. (Ogin arc, Fake ainu arc).

Season 3 was alright though. The animation quality is way better and the pacing felt really fluid and relaxing for the most part of the season.

I will only be comparing the scenes that have changed, and won’t adress the ones that haven’t been adapted in the anime.

Here we go.

Season 2 Episode 3 (chapter 81) - Sugimoto saves Ogata in Edogai’s house

The manga - After Sugimoto says the infamous tsundere line to Ogata, Ogata spits blood and then the scene shifts to something else.

The anime - After Sugimoto’s line, we can see Ogata looking disgustingly at Sugimoto while he’s leaving the room, and then he spits blood.

I guess that the anime tried to make it look like Sugimoto hurt Ogata’s ego with that line. And Ogata didn’t like it at all. 

(Chapter 83) 

The manga - Ogata tries to hunt the birds by shooting them only to be denied by Asirpa. Sugimoto is all smirky because Ogata is being lectured.

The anime - They don’t show Sugimoto’s evil smirk reaction to Asirpa lecturing Ogata.

The manga -  Sugimoto being jelly of Ogata who caught more birds than Asirpa. When Sugimoto says that Ogata tried to hunt the birds just to prove Asirpa wrong, we can see Ogata’s sad reaction to that line.

The anime -  It’s pretty much the same scene but we don’t get Ogata’s reaction.

Season 2 Episode 5 (Chapter 99)

The manga - Sugimoto calls out Shiraishi’s betrayal. Shiraishi panicks thinking that he might kill him right there, but it ends up with Sugimoto showing him that he gave fake skins to Hijikata.

The anime - it’s the same scene except for when Sugimoto calls Shiraishi out, we can see Ogata’s expression while the conflict unfolds.

And then Sugimoto says that the skin that Shiraishi gave to Hijikata was a fake.

And we see Ogata again where he closes his eyes.

The Ogata reactions never existed in the manga.

I’m thinking that they added this so as to hint at his future betrayal in Abashiri.

(Chapter 100)

The manga - they kill some deer so as to hide in them and get rid of the 7th from pursuing them, Shiraishi becomes delirious and runs away. No one goes after him.

The anime - Shiraishi runs away delirious and Asirpa goes after him and tells Sugimoto to skin deers with Ogata until she comes back. Sugimoto decides to go after her and Ogata calls him to come back.

This entire scene did not exist in the manga.

OVA 3 (Chapter 104)

The manga - Shiraishi gets bitten by a snake. Sugimoto, for some reason, gets bitten too. 

And when both of their heads get inflated, Shiraishi asks Sugimoto what happened to his face.

The anime - Ogata is the one who asks Sugimoto about his face.

All I can say is thanks Geno for this addition.

OVA 4 (Chapter 111)

The manga - Asirpa asks Ogata to help Tanigaki escape from these ainu dudes who think he violated and killed wild animals.

In the manga, after Asirpa asks Ogata for help, Ogata follows it with the reasoning that Tanigaki may have killed his comrades from the betrayer group, to which Sugimoto and also Asirpa defend Tanigaki by saying that he wasn’t the one to do it.

After that, Sugimoto sort of taunts Ogata by saying that uwu Asirpa won’t cook for you anymore~

The anime - After Asirpa asks Ogata for his help, the whole reason he wouldn’t save him is skipped, and it jumps to just Sugimoto taunting him.

All what Ogata needed was a small tease reply from Sugimoto and he was totally down on risking his life saving Tanigaki. Comrades getting killed by Tanigaki? Naaaah.

Season 3 Episode 7 - (Chapter 169)  

The manga - The group starts talking about the legend of a mountain cat (lynx) and Koito thinks that they were probably refering to Ogata. And so the bullying begins.

Sugi when first hearing of this, he smirks in a way that says “Lol wut where did that come from”.

The anime - when Sugimoto first asks “What’s Ogata gotta do with it?” we don’t see his smirking face like in the manga. 

And when he says the line of “What a pathetic joke”, his face looks a bit more..dramatic and sad in a way?

Or when he looks all determined after Koito says that they should kill a cat when spotted.

This scene felt like he really does feel sorry for Ogata being bullied compared to the manga.

Season 3 Episode 11 - (Chapter 187)

Ogata lies about Sugimoto’s death to Asirpa so as to get the code out of her.

He sees that Asirpa isn’t cooperating with his pleas of sharing the code with him. So he uses the Sugimoto card.

The manga - he starts blushing the moment he mentions Sugimoto

The anime - the blush wasn’t shown in this scene

He starts talking about the fake flashback of hearing Sugimoto’s last words.

The manga - we get this simple panel of just Ogata calling out Sugimoto’s name.

The anime - we are serviced with the same scene but from a different angle which I appreciate because it looks shippier.

Another notable thing is that while this scene is happening, you can hear Sugimoto heavily breathing. To me it felt like the breathing sounds lasted a bit longer than I imagined when reading the manga... 

Sugimoto’s voice sounds very soft and gentle while begging for Ogata to take care of his buddy’s family.

The manga - blushy lying Ogata

The anime - blushy lying Ogata but the blush seems to be drawn lighter? You gotta squint to see it.

The manga

The anime

I don’t have an argument for these panels I just like how cute he looks while blushing.

when you imagine your arch nemesis’s last soft, gentle dying words you just can’t help but feeling flustered

The manga - Ogata leans in close to Sugimoto’s face. Sugimoto is looking directly into his eyes while trying to mutter Tome’s name. And Ogata seems to look sad.

The anime - the scene is shown from a different angle, and Sugimoto is probably looking at the sky or something. We can’t see Ogata’s expression anymore.

The manga - Ogata is still running on the ice floe while pretending to care about Sugimoto’s last wishes.

look.at.his.frowny.cute.staplebrows.

The anime - Ogata and Asirpa are...standing still, looking at one another, and being all sad about their boo-boo Sugi-chan's death wishes.

The manga - The projecting is now going off the charts.

Sugimoto grabs Ogata’s hand, holds it tightly,with Ogata also tighting the grip, tells him that he wants to go back to his hometown while also tearing up, all of this happening while they look in eachother’s eyes.

This is peak soft fanfiction I SWEAR-

The anime - Geno wasted all of their money in this episode and they didn’t have any other left to animate this panel, so they just use the same frame as before.

That sky must be very fascinating to look at.

The manga - Ogata being all pouty and sad that he has to bear Sugimoto’s burdens-

The anime - He seems not as pouty but the cute eyelashes are more visible. CUTE.

The manga - a beautiful ending for a fanfic  Ogata projects even MORE because I guess that everyone on this planet loves the same fish stew as he does.

The anime - it’s basically the same but Sugimoto’s voice is so dramatique and sad that it just brings tears to my eyes how Ogata is so good at writing fanfics.

(Chapter 188)

The manga - Sugimoto heard Ogata’s fanfic and was enraged because of how ooc he turned out, so he went to him and to show what sort of fanfics he’s into, he comes from behind, grabs Ogata by the hair, pulls it, and cuts his poisoned eye out.

The anime - He comes in from the front???? catches Ogata’s head in a very gentle way, and cuts his eye out. No hairpull.

Geno. I’m looking at you.

The manga - Sugimoto making very angry eye contact, sucking Ogata off and still pulling his hair.

The anime - Geno doesn’t like gore so they just animated one single suck panel. Ogata is sort of moving his eye a little there. Hm.

We also get some new frames that weren’t in the manga.

One in which he scolds Ogata for wanting to make small children kill people.

The other still looking angrily at his bandages face.

Ok Geno you’ll get a pass on this one.

Season 3 Episode 12 (Chapter 197)

The manga - Sugimoto tries very hard to convice everyone to save Ogata.

The anime - it’s the same thing except the very heterosexual tension orange glowy eyes, and the more obvious and wider drawn devilish smirk.

This is thirst depicted in one frame.

The manga - The doctor says that Ogata will most likely die and Asirpa is sad.  Sugimoto is looking at her thinking oh nooo she’s a killer now.

The anime - Asirpa is sad but Sugimoto isn’t looking at her but towards the doctor....

The manga - Sugimoto has white danger eyes with a tint of sadness/dissappointment in his expression.

The anime - Sugimoto looks SO ANGRY HOW DARE YOU DIE LIKE THIS? PATHETIC OF YOU. *spits* 

He’s just as thirsty here too.

I didn’t understand why they coloured his eyes like that. What was is supposed to mean????? He wants blood but he also wants to continue to hunt for it I guess???

This is, I think, the first time in the anime where they colour the pupils that bright.

The manga - Sugimoto is so shocked that Ogata is alive and ran away.

The anime - they added two new frames, basically empathising how Sugimoto is slowly processing the whole event.

God the adapted manga panel looks so funny he just goes super duper wide eyes as if no one would have predicted this outcome.............

(chapter 200)

The manga - wishing for his arch nemesis to come back to him. A very normal wish.

The anime - it’s the same. But now with sparkly eyes like in the volume.

And that’s it.

I think that Geno somewhat tried to promote their relationship to a certain extent by adding new scenes while trying to stay somewhat faithful to the source.

Sadly, they cut a lot of arcs. If you’d watch this series without checking out the OVA’s, you’ll definitely miss out on scenes where their bickering bond is being shown in all of its glory. They didn’t even animate the Fake Ainu arc even as of today, which has the best sugio bickering in the series.

[eyedelater]

tasks

(part 1 of a series of posts about tsukishima hajime)

tsurumi puts tsukishima up to the worst tasks. he does not shy away from having tsukishima do anything that needs to be done. tsukishima does his work skillfully and without complaint because his will has been broken. let's examine some of that dirty work.

thinking back to the first arc where tsukishima was important to the plot... when tsurumi was pursuing edogai (volume 8, chapter 71), tsukishima told nikaidou that tsurumi had him dig up a grave in yubari to see if the corpse had coded tattoos. it was only mentioned in passing, but that task sucks. i bet he had to do it in the dead of night and then neatly fill in the grave again afterward. (granted, it would have been worse if the coffin wasn't empty.) a little later, tsukishima was given the task of overseeing edogai as he made the counterfeit skins and ensuring that the skins made it safely to tsurumi. setting aside all of the strangeness of edogai's hobby that he had to kindly overlook as an extension of tsurumi's good will, the task became incredibly rough! his comrade maeyama was killed by ogata! ogata tried to kill him! super scary sugimoto the immortal tried to kill him! there was a gunfight in moving minecarts! two explosions! deadly suffocating gas! he watched poor edogai-kun die horribly! tsukishima came very, very close to dying! and his clothes got all dirty with coal :( sure, he survived thanks to his incredible toughness, and tsurumi praised him at the end, but praise for a job well done can only take you so far. tsukishima must have questioned on some level whether it was worth it. his loyalty to tsurumi is incredibly deep, but loyalty and enthusiasm are two different things. tsukishima is unique in that his loyalty dial is turned all the way up and his enthusiasm dial is turned almost all the way down. (koito's enthusiasm dial is turned all the way up.)

going further back in time (but forward in the story)... around chapter 200, we see that tsurumi had tsukishima play a central role in staging a violent kidnapping. tsukishima, ogata, and kikuta had to kidnap a child, take care of him for like 3 days while pretending to be russian, find some russian prisoners to act as stand-ins, sneak them out of prison, bring them to the appropriate places, dress them up, and kill them at the appropriate times— all as part of the tsurumi theater. it wasn't tsukishima alone this time, but that task really fucking sucks. for everyone involved except tsurumi. you really can't overstate it.

and was tsurumi the one who assigned tsukishima to be koito's sergeant advisor? if so, that was another difficult task, because it forced tsukishima to pretend that the two of them hadn't already met as kidnapper and victim. but maybe helping cover up his sweet lies is among the least offensive tasks tsurumi assigns. after all, all you have to do is lie more...

the only task tsukishima complains about is having to serve as koito's interpreter when talking to tsurumi, and he only complains about it inside his own head. he really is stoic.

when tsukishima and koito became inseparable (narratively), koito began to take part in tsukishima's unpleasant tasks as well. in volume 14, tsurumi brought the two of them to abashiri to help him achieve the explicit goal of leaving no surviving witnesses. that was a really fucked up, unpleasant, and morally abhorrent task. that's just a massacre. and they achieved that goal, more or less. a little later, sending tsukishima and koito to karafuto with sugimoto was also a rough assignment (traversing unfamiliar northern lands during the winter, chasing a moving target, pursuing a dangerous soldier and a dangerous partisan and shiraishi) that left both of them seriously injured (tsukishima's explosion injury to the neck, koito stabbed through the arm and the chest). but maybe that task in particular ended up being worthwhile for tsukishima and koito, because during their trip, they grew closer to each other and realized that much of the pain they had endured could be laid at tsurumi's feet. they were able to share in their growing doubts about tsurumi and get a clearer view of the whole situation.

another task that fell to tsukishima was bringing the peepee bottle to and from bedridden koito after sugimoto stabbed him. did everyone notice the peepee bottle? in volume 23, chapter 223, we see tsukishima holding the bottle that is specially made for peeing into. i'm pretty sure it reappears at least one other time. when i first saw it, i didn't understand what it was (i thought it might be like... some kind of feeding implement?), but now i have learned it is called a shibin 尿瓶 (尿 shi means pee, 瓶 bin means bottle) and it's a bottle for bedridden people to pee into. i would love to see the discussion that ended in tsukishima agreeing to do that. i mean, they're in a hospital. there are orderlies who could carry the pee bottle, right? anyone else could do it. but the one transporting the pee bottle is sergeant tsukishima. you have to wonder, would tsurumi really delegate that task to him? or the other question could be, would tsukishima do that without being asked to? does he think such a thing would just be expected of him? is his self-esteem so low that he wouldn't see such a task as below him? or... is it love 😳

an especially troublesome task that tsurumi seems to have assigned to tsukishima was guarding the pregnant hostage inkarmat, which came to a head around chapter 230. however, it's not clear exactly what tsurumi instructed him to do and what tsukishima may have come up with on his own. when you do dirty work for 10 years, maybe every task becomes a little dirtier in your mind, and you start leaning more toward violence as a default. would tsurumi really have explicitly told tsukishima that if tanigaki tries to rescue inkarmat, tsukishima should kill them both? or did tsurumi just make it clear that inkarmat was being held hostage without giving any further instructions, and it was tsukishima who decided how important it is to follow up on threats? i don't think it was ever spelled out clearly. in the end, that was the first dirty work task from which koito was able to save tsukishima (by using his authority to stop him) and the first time the two of them explicitly defied tsurumi together.

it is a testament to tsukishima's broken spirit that he remained loyal to tsurumi to the very end, despite all the dirty work he put him up to, even after tsurumi disappeared into hakodate bay. but tsukishima was saved by koito's own loyalty to him, and by the end of the story, it seems like happiness is within his reach.