Golden Kamuy is pretty unique and not like other anime out there. If you are looking for an adventure anime with drama, detailed setting, vibrant characters, and crazy action, then this is the anime that you should watch. Not only is Golden Kamuy a good historical fiction, but it has a nice balance of humor and great storytelling. There’s a great sense of danger and enough drama and suspense to keep you engaged and wanting more.

Summary

Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese war who is feared for his brutal fighting style and known as the “Immortal Sugimoto”, is searching for gold in order to take care of the widow of his childhood friend. When he hears a story about a hidden treasure of Ainu gold, the location of which is hidden in the tattoos of a group of convicts who escaped from prison, he decides to search for it. Along the way, he meets Asirpa, a young Ainu hunter, who saves his life and together they team up to look for the gold.

Background

Golden Kamuy is a historical seinen that was adapted by Geno Studio. Geno studio is a fairly new studio with their debut show being Kokkoku: Moment by Moment (2018). The Golden Kamuy manga is a very popular manga. It was written and illustrated by Satoru Noda and has even won the Manga Taisho award. So it was expected that it would eventually get an adaptation.

Hiroshi Nakagawa, a language linguist from Chiba University, supervises the Ainu language for accuracy.

The director Hitoshi Nanba, who also directed Gosick (2011), is a veteran in the industry. He is a very capable and competent director, who despite not being known for flashiness, was more than enough to tackle Golden Kamuy.

The art director Atsushi Morikawa, who works include Sword of the Stranger (2007) and Kumamiko (2016), is responsible for the background art. He specializes in forests and rural villages so this project was perfect for him.

The staff involved in Golden Kamuy are all solid and talented.

Golden Kamuy’s Setting

Golden Kamuy takes place during the Meiji era, during the 1900s.  The Meiji era is characterized by wild unrest and constant conflict, which sets the perfect backdrop for the plot. The official adoption of the gold standard in 1897 led to a gold rush, specifically in many unexplored northern territories. Furthermore, shortly after the Russo Japanese war, the Japanese people were very upset and expected payment and reparations for the many lives lost in the war.

This is why it’s very appropriate that Saichi Sugimoto, one of the main protagonist, is searching for gold in the northern Hokkaido. Most of the events take place in the northern snowy wilds of Hokkaido.

The setting takes a life on it’s own as characters have to deal with avoiding hypothermia, wild bears, and unsafe areas.

Golden Kamuy is a historical anime so the show is filled with unique cultural customs and terminology.

What is a Kamuy?

A kamuy, in Ainu mythology,  is a term that refers to a supernatural entity composed of or possessing spiritual energy. It is a spiritual or divine being. Essentially, it’s referring to God. 

The Ainu people treat everything that helps them or anything that’s beyond their control as gods. They usually have ceremonies of thanks to show this special relationship. Because the Ainu make their living hunting, they treat their animal kamuy as important gods. The most important god of them all is the Kimun Kamuy, which is the bear. It is considered a honor to raise a baby bear and have a ceremony called “iomante“. The bear plays a pivotal role in Golden Kamuy.

Who were the Ainu?

The Ainu are an indigenous ethnic group of people who live in Hokkaido as well as in Russia. In the 19th Century, Japanese people called the northern island of Hokkaido “Ezochi” which means “Land of the Ainu”. A special relationship exists between the Ainu people, it’s land, and the animals.

Killing, hunting, and the value of life is a main identity of Golden Kamuy, and it makes a nice distinction between those. The Ainu people hunt animals, but they pay their respects and believe the animal goes back to the nature of life and they revere them as gods.

Golden Kamuy presents a very detailed depiction of the Ainu people’s customs and traditions. For example, there is a scene where Asirpa lays an elaborate squirrel trap and then makes Chitatap, an Ainu dish. This is done by chopping the dead squirrel with a blade to make ground meat. The squirrel is first skinned and the pelt is removed. The contents of the organs are squeezed and then washed. The gall bladder is removed since it is bitter. The brain is the last part that can be added or eaten by itself.  Because the squirrel meat is so small, it can be easily chopped using a Tashiro knife. Chitatap means ‘something we do together’ in the Ainu language. Basically, it is an activity where the people involve take turns chopping and you must repeat Chitatap as you chop. When the meal is finished, you say “Hinna, Hinna”, a word of thanks to the food. Asirpa and Sugimoto engage in this custom which turns out to be a really great scene that highlights Ainu culture.

The Japanese have had a history of mistreating the Ainu people. Golden Kamuy makes note of this discrimination, as there is a scene where one of the prisoners mock Sugimoto about Aspira in which she says “I’m used to it”.  Sugimoto responds by saying “You shouldn’t have to be used to it”. Ainu culture being painted in a positive light is very significant.

Golden Kamuy’s Main Characters

Saichi Sugimoto (voiced by Chikahiro Kobayashi)  is one of the main protagonist of the story. He was a soldier who fought in the Russo-Japanese war in the 1st Division of the Imperial Japanese Army. He fought in the battle of 203 hill and was nicknamed the “immortal Sugimoto” due to his relentless spirit and his ability to constantly avoid death. During the war, he makes a promise to his childhood friend, Toraji, to help his ailing wife, Umeko find treatment for her  blindness. In order to do that Sugimoto starts panning for gold in the frozen wilds of Hokkaido, where a drunk old man tells him the story of the prisoners and the gold.

The old drunk man attempts to kill him after realizing he has said too much but Sugimoto manages to get the upper hand and the old man flees. When he discovers the man’s corpse has the tattoos, the story becomes more believable. The bear that killed the man is a matakirp,  a bear that was unable to hibernate. The mother bear then attacks Sugimoto first and he’s rescued by the arrow of a young Ainu girl named Asirpa.

Sugimoto is fierce on the battlefield but he is a kind and honorable man. He believes that he is not a murderer but if anyone attempts to kill him, he’ll kill them first without hesitation.

Asirpa (voiced by Haruka Shiraishi) is a young Ainu girl who saved Sugimoto from a wild bear. She is a smart hunter who is very resourceful and pragmatic. Asirpa’s name was given to her by her father and it translates to ‘The Future”. This is appropriate as Asirpa is different from the typical Ainu. She preferred to go hunting with her father in the mountains rather than stay home weaving like the typical Ainu woman.

Asirpa values human life. She is resolutely against killing anyone, to the point where she even spoils Sugimoto’s attempts to terrify the prisoners into talking. She does her best to persuade Sugimoto from killing most of his enemies. Asirpa often calls Sugimoto sisam, which is an Ainu term for the Japanese.

Both Asirpa and Sugimoto have electric personalities and their chemistry is one of the strongest aspects of this story.

Conclusion

How many episodes will Golden Kamuy have?

The first cour has 12 episodes and aired April 9, 2018. The second season aired October 8, 2018 and has 12 episodes.

Golden Kamuy is filled with great humor, social commentary and brutality. It is a great survival anime and one of the standout this year and definitely worth checking out.

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