Common Name: Golden Kamuy
Score: 7/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Mystery, Foodie, Military, Pseudohistory
Summary: On the northernmost island of Japan, known as Hokkaido, a great many events have come together to form the greatest treasure hunt the nation has ever seen. In 1904, a man named Sugimoto fought in the Russo-Japanese War and earned the nickname of "The Immortal Sugimoto" for his unwavering tenancy and ability to fight through any injury. Since then, this seemingly immortal soldier has left the army in search of a way to care for the wife of his fallen comrade. At the same time, a whole army division under the leadership of Lt. Tsurumi has splintered off in hopes of starting a coup to make Hokkaido a nation under their rule. Along similar lines, the presumed dead leader of the Shinsengumi, Hijikata Toshizou, has his plans for conquest. Regardless of their goals, large or small, all these men are on the hunt for a cache of gold stolen from the Ainu people by a renowned criminal. The only clue to this gold's location are pieces of a map tattooed to the bodies of those who shared a jail with this same criminal. Now, Sugimoto and an Ainu girl he's convinced to be his guide, Asirpa, must fight to stay alive as they battle crazed convicts, disgraced samurai, and the army itself as they search for the gold that will see their dreams realized.
Review: To put this as bluntly as I can, Golden Kamuy is an absolute mess of a show. Trying to pin down and categorize my feelings for it are just as difficult as trying to define the general tone, message, and goal of this series. On the one hand, the series, as a whole, is established as being a treasure hunting story along the lines of what you'd expect from an old pulp magazine. On the other hand, it seems so fascinated with that various facets of Ainu culture that it comes across as a kind of creative nonfiction documentary. On yet another hand, it often feels like a character comedy about primitive camping and hunting in Japan's frozen north. Once all is said and done, Golden Kamuy might as well be Hokkaido's Hindu deity given how many "other hands" it has to offer and consider when it's given any amount of scrutiny. At the same time, however, I can't say I dislike the confused and disjointed focus of this show. With anything else, I would have called it a detriment or something that would have entirely killed my interest. The characters and almost documentary-like aspects of this zany adventure kept me interested and engaged with what Golden Kamuy had to offer, though, to the point that it actually became one of my favorite shows of the season.
To be fair, though, a lot of the reason I love this show comes from
the dumbass expressions these dumbass characters make.
Focusing back in, Golden Kamuy is, at least on paper, something of a pulpy adventure with a plot that would fit perfectly alongside an Indiana Jones story. Looking for a way to care for the wife of a fallen comrade, a former solder of the Russo-Japanese war known as "The Immortal Sugimoto" shirks his duty to the army to search for a cache of hidden gold stolen from the Ainu, the native people of Japan. As if to make this search all the more ridiculous and campy, though, the man who stole said cache of gold supposedly tattooed a map of its location on the backs of several convicts who have, of course, been released from/broken out of prison. Finally, to complete the pulpy picture, as he sets out on his journey for the gold, he partners with and earns the respect of a young Ainu girl, Asirpa, who wishes to avenge her father's death at the hands of the gold thief. So, together, they set out to find this gold, fighting everything from the murderous tattooed convicts to a division made up entirely of insane soldiers and the forces of an old samurai looking to regain his old glory. Put plainly, this story is so absolutely insane that it defies reason and belief, yet it is still the main through line of this semi-episodic action-adventure story. Strange as this story might be, it somehow manages to function on the same level of believability as any Spaghetti Western, Bollywood film, or adventure story typical of Indiana Jones and Johnny Quest.
Yes, nothing says "classic adventure story" like a main character punching a CG bear in the face.
As I've said already, though, the glue that holds this nonsense story together is its cast of lovably weird characters. Everything, from their designs to the little quirks in their personality that bubble up from time to time, is so fun and meaningful that it's not hard to fall for them. Sugimoto, for example, is, all at once, an unrepentant killer and an all-around nice guy. Having suffered and survived a brutal and bloody war, albeit a short one, he's already content in the knowledge that he's going to Hell, so taking "just one more life" will mean nothing in the long run. Yet, at the same time, he doesn't actively wish to kill or harm others, making it clear he'd much rather live and let live whenever the option is reasonably available. His kind side, though, is best exemplified through is interactions with Asirpa. Acting as both a friend and guardian for her, Sugimoto goes out of his way to care for the girl. More than that, he even strives to keep an open mind as he sticks by her side, learning and adapting to the ways of the Ainu people as he interacts with them more and more. Yet, as soon as someone crosses him or he sees a convenient shortcut to achieve their goals, that darkness within Sugimoto seeps into his "good guy" persona as he objectively considers whether murder might just be the better option.
What a great role model for a young, impressionable Ainu girl.
Yet, on the same token, Asirpa is a fantastic character in her own right. Defining herself as a "modern Ainu woman," she stands as one of the strongest female characters I've ever seen in anime in spite of being a child. Though she's wise beyond her years, thanks to her learning to survive in the wild after the loss of her family, Asirpa manages to remain very childish at her core. She's stubborn, naive, and far too trusting of those she comes into contact with, unconsciously latching onto Sugimoto without any thought as to what trouble that might cause her in the future. It's not hard to see her as a strong and reliable adult too, though, given her survivalist skills and the level of cunning that can be seen as she and Sugimoto hunt for her people's gold. Yet, because of her skills, has suffered only more loss. Among her people, she's labeled as a kind of beloved misfit. She is a woman who is respected for her skills but is effectively unmarriable due to the Ainu's restrictive notions of what a woman can and cannot do. Rather than bemoaning her lot in life or abandoning her closed-minded, traditionalist people, though, Asirpa simply doubles down on her very adult self-sufficiency. She basically becomes a force for change among her people as she claims to be a symbol of what a modern Ainu woman can and should be, someone who is respectful of the old ways but is also unchained from their limitations.
Honestly, she just kinda the best character in any show ever.
Alongside these two fantastic leads are a vast array of characters that are nearly, if not equally, as strong as Sugimoto and Asirpa. Some, like "The Escape King" Shiraishi, join these two on their adventures but even the show's numerous villains are respectably fleshed out quirky enough to be memorable. Lieutenant Tsurumi, for example, in introduced initially as a murderous and unhinged leader of soldiers that are equally unhinged and murderous. Now, while that summary of the 7th Division and their leader might ring true throughout the series, there's also a story of loss on their part similar to Sugimoto's in that they left the war with more scars, both physical and mental, than they might care to admit. As for the show's other big player when it comes to the various teams working to claim the Ainu gold, the famed Hijikata Toshizou needs little introduction. As a figure ripped out of actual Japanese history, Golden Kamuy reimagines Hijikata as an elderly, disgraced samurai who was jailed alongside the other tattooed convicts after her failed to die in battle with his fellow Shinsengumi. While his intentions are still fairly vague by the end of the show, his story follows a similar line of thought to Asirpa when it comes to matters of tradition. In his case, this line of thought respects the traditions of the samurai code while he simultaneously uses every weapon and underhanded tactic available to him to see his dream realized.
Fun fact: On top of being an unparalleled swordsman, Hijikata Toshizou is also
a gunman so skilled that he'd give Butch Cassidy a run for his money.
To the show's credit, it does a fantastic job making the various threats that cross Sugimoto's path seem like real threats in spite of their cartoonishly evil portrayals from time-to-time. Yet, what makes that fact all the more amazing is that I've only begun to list all the different characters that take up this show's runtime. There are easily dozens of other villains, companions, and side characters that I could list off and ramble on about for paragraphs on end, all with varying levels of importance and characterization, but, in the interest of time, I'll leave them out of this review. To give you a good idea of what to expect from this show and its characters, though, I'll simply state that Golden Kamuy has a way of making its villain of the week format fun and memorable regardless of how long they remain a part of the story. This is due, in large part, to the simple fact that very few of this show's stories don't serve some kind of purpose. Whether it's getting to know the main cast better, learning more about the Ainu people, progressing the search for the gold, or the acceleration of one of the villains' plans, every episode has something to offer both in the moment and in the long term. In other words, on top of fantastic characters and character development, Golden Kamuy does a great job realizing and expressing everything that is and might be at stake for those who search for this bloody gold. On top of the ever-constant threat of Sugimoto or Asirpa getting harmed or killed, there's the understanding that the very future of Hokkaido depends on the actions of these characters. Yet, simultaneously, there's little way to predict how all this might end. Characters regularly switch sides. The villains move in unpredictable ways to obfuscate the true purpose of their actions. There are a great many unknowns for this show to unravel before its story can come close being done, the greatest of which being the truth behind Nopperabo, the man who murdered the Ainu for their gold and started this gruesome treasure hunt in the first place.
All that can be said for sure is that he is one evil bastard, given the plan
he put together and those he trusted to take part in it.
In the end, the real thing that makes Golden Kamuy stand out isn't so much the story itself--that's just a silly and effective tool to get things moving--it's the characters and everything they're putting on the line to see their dreams come true. Yet, it isn't the story that defines said characters, but their interactions with the world and those around them that flesh out those personalities and quirks that make each and every one of them unique. So, while the show itself might suffer from stutter-stop pacing and have little tonal consistency, all the little details and interactions that seem like distractions serve their purpose of endearing the audience to characters like Sugimoto, Asirpa, Tsurumi, and Hijitaka. And even though there are so many characters to keep track of, all of them are good in their own right and fantastic as they work in concert to really show off all the time and effort the story's author went to ensure everything was as accurate, realistic, and believable as reasonably possible. From what little I've read and seen, this show stands as a fantastic reference point to the truth of the Ainu people who have, for the most part, been forgotten in much the same way the various Native American peoples have been forgotten. Put bluntly, I adore this show and can't wait to see what zany, thrilling hijinx the second season has to offer.