Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In keeping with the spirit of the Underrated Arc I give you one of the animes I consider to be one of the most underrated, Golden Kamuy. Man, is this an underrated series. Golden Kamuy in my opinion is a series that perfectly encapsulates what makes a good anime. Excellent writing, fun characters you can relate to, and a story that keeps you interested in what’s going on. Yet, despite having three really good seasons the only thing that anyone ever remembers about this series is that goddamn bear from the first episode. The third season released in the year that shall not be named and was now under the production of Brain’s Base (Baccano and Spice and Wolf S2) where it was definitely one of the highlights of the year. With the fourth season set to come out this fall and in the middle of the Underrated Arc I can think of no better anime to review for my 500th review. Let’s return to Hokkaido in search of gold. This is Golden Kamuy S3.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Grey” by Fomare. Now out of all the openings in the series so far this is probably the weakest, but still a good opening. I like how it sets the mood of loss and confusion amongst the characters, but at the same time feels them with hope and tells them to keep pressing forward. I also have to give this opening credit for properly writing Russian words. That’s not an easy thing to do.
For the ending we see the return of The Sixth Lie with their song “Yusetsu”. A huge improvement over the second ending. While nothing will top the work they did in the first ending this song is still good and one that I enjoyed listening to. It’s so beautiful and atmospheric that it honestly delivers a better experience than Hibana. I also like how every episode transitions into the ending so naturally.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts with Sugimoto, Tanigaki, and Hajime arriving in Sakhalin (I have no idea how to pronounce that). Sakhalin is an island off the coast of Hokkaido. After the Russo-Japanese war, the island became co-owned by Japan (who took control of the south) and Russia (who took control of the north). In 1875 Russia gained complete control of the island from Japan in exchange for the Kuril Islands (which has its own little dispute going on, so look that up if you want). They land in the city of Odomari in the south where we see Chikapasi and the dog stowed away in the luggage and join the group on their investigation. They ask the locals where one of them tells the group that she saw an Ainu girl in the forest (scene here: https://youtu.be/otLCcfW8o2Q). Sugimoto and the others rush to the forest where they find an Ainu girl, but it’s not Asirpa (although there is a close resemblance. Cousins maybe?). The girl, named Enonoka, does say that she saw an Ainu girl from Hokkaido near her village. Before they head to the village the group gets attacked by a wolverine (motherfucker just took down a freakin’ bear like it was nothing). The group runs away from the wolverine (quick, find a sabertooth. They’re natural enemies) and escape thanks to the help of Enonoka’s grandpa (scene here: https://youtu.be/Gg_qNr0rFHU). Meanwhile, we see Hijikata is still alive and well (oh yeah, with everything that went on last season I forgot about him) where he meets back up with his associates and gets ready for his next move. We learn some more about the Ainu such as finding out that they’re split into three major groups: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Chishima. The Sakhalin made a living for themselves by fishing, so their villages were often close to the ocean. They also made two houses, a spring and winter house. Because Sakhalin was further up north than Hokkaido, the winters are extremely cold. Thus, they created a second home to adapt to the winter weather (wish I had a winter home where I could stay warmer when winter rolls around). Enonoka says that Asirpa and the others passed through here and were heading up north towards a Russian village. They all head to the Russian village via dog sledding where they go to a local tavern and Sugimoto knocks out a drunk (I’m surprised we didn’t get into a bar fight. Slightly disappointed). The Russians steal one of their dogs and demand that Sugimoto participates in the stenka (fight club). Apparently, the drunk, Sugimoto knocked out was a fighter for the stenka that the bartender bet a lot of money on, and now he wants Sugimoto to take his place. Just before Sugimoto and Koito can go on a rampage the bartender says he saw Asirpa and the others. They came to the village looking for a tattooed prisoner who fights in the stenka. The bartender says the prisoner only fights against strong opponents, so if they want to fight him, they’ll have to win the stenka. Sugimoto agrees to participate in the stenka and after the bartender insults the Japanese saying they could never beat Russians (hey, those are fighting words, сын) the others fight as well. It’s a decisive victory for the Japanese as they beat the Russians and gain the attention of the prisoner, Gansoku (scene here: https://youtu.be/Yh6unizWUqU).
In episode 2 Sugimoto and the others find out that they’ll be facing Gansoku in the next stenka and the bartender wants them to lose on purpose to make a lot of money (that’s low even for you, Russian). Sugimoto and the others finally have enough and just decide to take this guy out, get Gansoku, their dog and be on their way, but the bartender says he has information on Asirpa and the others (he’s lying, kill him). Sugimoto lets him go and agrees to take part in the stenka (he’s letting his emotions rule him. He wants to find and save Asirpa more than anything). They go to the stenka where Gansoku is waiting for them. To him the stenka is an expression of oneself (I get where he’s coming from. (Shizuku): Same. (Yin-Yang): Me too. (Seras): Understandable. (Neo): I agree with him). Despite his calm demeanor he was always a violent man who spent most of his life in prison and would rejoice whenever he fought, and people cheered for him (if only he became a boxer or MMA fighter). The stenka (where we get a Jojo reference) begins where Sugimoto and Gansoku beat the shit out of other (it’s the birth of strong style). Sugimoto gets the worst of it as he goes completely insane (too many unprotected headshots will do that to a person) and causes a brawl to break out after he gets himself disqualified (illegal use of legs. Scene here: https://youtu.be/VALnN8crtWA). Once Gansoku discovers that Sugimoto was only after his tattoos he runs away crying (Gansoku: I thought we had something special). The others go after him where they see he got attacked by the wolverine. They rescue him and hide from the vicious creature in a banya (Russian steam house). While all of this is going on Chikapasi and Enonoka (who have a little romance going on. Hope he doesn’t pop a chikapasi) rescue the sled dog and run into the crazed Sugimoto where Chikapasi gets attacked by the wolverine. Tanigaki arrives along with everyone else (naked, because fanservice) where he teaches Chikapasi how to properly use a gun and he kills the wolverine with a headshot (scene here: https://youtu.be/klxdWZRi3KY, that usually doesn’t work in the comics). Sugimoto and Gansoku resume their fight where Gansoku can sense Sugimoto’s rage (not against Gansoku of course, but himself. He failed to save his best friend. He can’t help his best friend’s wife. He let Asirpa’s dad die and he lost her to Kiroroanke. His life has just been a streak of failures one after the other) and tells the crazed Sugimoto to stop being so hard on himself. The others try to step in and stop the fight not knowing that they’re on a frozen lake and they break the ice (scene here: https://youtu.be/5y5s2UmPctI). They all fall into the lake which helps Sugimoto regain his sanity (or what little he has of it). They go back to the banya (what is up with their poses?) where Sugimoto says he doesn’t want to kill Gansoku (yeah, he’s way too fun to kill). Instead, they’ll make a copy of his tattoos and Gansoku can escape by heading west to Russia. Gansoku also tells them that he saw Asirpa and the others.
Episode 3 starts off with Asirpa’s group. We see that she and the others are in Karafuto which is where Nopperabo was born and raised (it’s a nice piece of land). Kiroroanke is hoping that the trip through Karafuto will make Asirpa join his cause as well as reveal the location of the gold. Kiroroanke knows that the key to finding the treasure lies with Asirpa, so even if everyone gets all the tattooed skins, without Asirpa there to decode them the gold will remain lost (the question now is what does Asirpa know that the others don’t?). After that, we see that Nikaidou is still alive and missing a hand (oh my God, let this man die or retire. I’m starting to feel bad for him). Ever since Tsurumi lied to him and said that Sugimoto is dead, he’s been depressed (he’s just mad he didn’t kill him first). Not even a new hand is enough to make him feel better (he’s going to become a cyborg by the end of this series). We then return to Sugimoto and the others where Gansoku says goodbye to them and Hajime warns Sugimoto that if he ever goes berserk on them like last time he’ll kill him (good luck with that, you’ll be like Nikaidou). For the rest of the episode we focus on Hajime’s past and how he became so loyal to Tsurumi. On his home island he was considered a bad boy and spent most of his time getting into fights with the islanders. It didn’t help that his family were outcasts as his dad murdered somebody in the past. The only person he cared for on the island was his girlfriend Egogusa who had hair that looked like seaweed (well at least she’ll be easy to spot in a crowd). In order to escape the island, he joined the military which at the time was going to war with China, but he vowed to return and elope with her. After the war was over and he returned to the island, where rumors of him dying circulated amongst the islanders (well they were greatly exaggerated) and supposedly Egogusa committed suicide at this information. Hajime searched frantically for her until it dawned on him that the person who started the rumors was responsible for all of this happening. Hajime quickly pinned the blame on his dad and unleashed years’ worth of rage and anger on him (scene here: https://youtu.be/QT7gipBXrbA). Hajime beat his father to death and was arrested shortly after where he was sentenced to death. During his time in prison he met Tsurumi who reveals that his girlfriend never died. Instead, she was married off to a wealthy businessman’s son. In order to make sure Hajime wouldn’t pursue her, they along with Hajime’s dad started the rumor of Hajime’s death to get her to move on which worked and she moved to Tokyo to get married. Tsurumi soon hired Hajime as his Russian interpreter after seeing he spoke good Russian (and with a war with Russia around the corner. You’ll need all the interpreters you can get). Cut to 9 years later where the Russo-Japanese war was in full swing and a soldier who lived close to Hajime’s island reveals that Egogusa was killed by his dad saying that her body was found under his dad’s house. Hajime attacks Tsurumi demanding answers where Tsurumi comes clean and tells him he lied in order to get him to keep on living. Just then, the two get struck by the blast from a bomb shell which nearly took Tsurumi’s face off as he protected Hajime. It was at that moment that Hajime declared loyalty to Tsurumi (where even I have to admit it’s hard to know what really happened to Egogusa. Was she really killed by Hajime’s dad? Is she still alive and married someone else believing Hajime died? Did she commit suicide? Or did Tsurumi make this all up in order to get Hajime to join his cause which we all know is something he would do? It’s a good mystery and leaves it up for us to interpret as we see fit).
We get a number of laughs in episode 4. Sugimoto and the others come across the Yamada Circus after one of their star performers tried to steal from them. Sugimoto gets the idea in his head that if he joins the circus and stands out his performance will reach Asirpa somewhere in Karafuto. So, Sugimoto and the others join the circus where like I said before we get a number of good laughs throughout the episode. First up is Koito being a natural-born acrobat which makes Sugimoto jealous because he stands out too much (he’s making everyone look bad). The second part is Tanigaki and Hajime being a part of the dance team which is all girls so, they already stick out like a sore thumb and Tanigaki feels awful that he can’t dance and is holding the team back (Hajime on the other hand is like honey badger and gives zero fucks). Sugimoto gets to perform the hara-kiri and learns the trick into how it works (scene here: https://youtu.be/XoFbhF_Wvag). On the day of the performance everyone performs quite well. We see Hajime try to sabotage Koito with a picture of Tsurumi, but that backfires poorly. Tanigaki performs the dance routine well even earning praise from the instructor (manly tears of joy). For Sugimoto’s hara-kiri, Koito believing Sugimoto tried to sabotage him replaced the fake sword with a real sword, so Sugimoto has no choice but to really cut himself in front of a live audience (the audience might just witness a suicide today). Just when Sugimoto goes for the grand finale which is cutting his stomach, three Russian men show up and point a gun at Sugimoto’s head (where were you on that circus security?). Sugimoto kills 2 of the Russians and knocks out the third one for questioning to close out the show and make it look like it was part of the performance (scene here: https://youtu.be/kbr8rM41KAk, and everyone just witnessed a murder). After interrogating the Russian, we find out that the ringmaster, Yamada, was a Japanese spy. He went to Russia long before the war and gathered intelligence on their military and dealings. However, the Russians discovered him, followed him back to Japan and attempted to kill him. The problem was they didn’t know what he looked like, so they mistook Sugimoto for Yamada because their intel was that Yamada was the guy who performed the hara-kiri (poor intel on the Russians and poor spy work on Yamada for getting discovered). In the end Sugimoto manages to make the paper for his performance and hopes that Asirpa will see it to let her know he’s still alive.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5, we focus on Asirpa’s group. We see the group is in Shizuka which isn’t that far away from the border that leads to the Russian part of the island. After Ogata kills a reindeer (if he had a red nose you ruined Christmas) we find out that it belonged to a group of native Japanese folks called the Uilta. Asirpa’s group apologizes for this mistake and help them round up more reindeer. This earns them favor with the Uilta and Kiroroanke asks them to help sneak them past the Russian border. Why doesn’t Kiroroanke want to cross the border normally? Well it’s because he’s wanted by the Russian government. We find out that when he was a teenager he was part of a group from Russia known as The People’s Will. Now this group didn’t do anything major except assassinate Emperor Alexander II of Russia along with other government officials (till this day the group is still being debated over. Some call them revolutionaries others call them terrorists). After the death of Alexander II, a majority of the group was captured and executed, but Kiroroanke escaped making him one of the sole survivors and Russia hasn’t forgotten what he did (and they never will). Tsurumi discovered Kiroroanke’s past and sent a message to Russia about Kiroroanke crossing the border (you snitch~). As Asirpa’s group crosses the border one of the Uilta’s gets shot by a Russian sniper. The group gets pinned down where Kiroroanke in a very badass moment stands up and goes out into the open to retrieve the body of the Uilta who got shot and the sniper didn’t shoot (because. . .BS). With the Russian sniper hesitating, Ogata is able to pinpoint their location and shoots the commanding officer in the stomach which allows the group to escape into the nearby forest. From there, it becomes a battle between the snipers as Ogata and the Russian sniper square off against each other (where we get a good point of view into the mental battle of snipers).
The start of episode 6 begins with the battle of the snipers which ends surprisingly quick (Isis: All you need is just one shot to win). Ogata manages to win but got sick from eating snow to hide his breathing (scenes here: https://youtu.be/PbG3IBgDtpw and https://youtu.be/2XScl7MuTQo). They take him back to the Uilta to rest and heal. During his healing we see his past into how he killed his brother, Yuusaku. Yuusaku was the flag bearer (which means he has a 90% or higher chance of dying than the other soldiers). He performed his job well, but Ogata was a little upset that he hasn’t killed anyone during this whole war. In Ogata eyes, everyone there is a cold heartless murderer who feels nothing in regards to the death of others. Yuusaku doesn’t believe that and knows that deep down Ogata feels sympathy for those he’s killed. The next day, Ogata tested that theory and killed his own brother (scene here: https://youtu.be/WMwkfyp6jM8, talk about friendly fire). In the B plot of the episode, we find out that Kiroroanke and Wilk are responsible for killing the emperor of Russia. Yoshitake tries to take Asirpa and escape Kiroroanke as traveling with him in Russian territory is dangerous (that and he really can’t be trusted). Asirpa refuses to run away as she wants to learn more about her father, why he did the things he did, and what his plan for her was (given his history I say he wanted you to become a warmonger). After Ogata finally heals, Asirpa and the others head out leaving Yoshitake behind. At first, he decides to head back to Hokkaido and suck up to Tsurumi, but he can’t forget his promise to Sugimoto to look after Asirpa. He runs after the group and rejoins them on their travels.
There’s not much to say about episode 7. We see Sugimoto’s group get caught in a blizzard where Sugimoto, Tanigaki and Chikapasi get separated from everyone else and become stranded (making this whole situation really scary especially in an environment this cold. Scene here: https://youtu.be/84_KitAUrPA). The others manage to reach a building owned by a Russian couple who give them shelter and even help them find Sugimoto and the others who are close to freezing to death. It turns out the homestead of the Russian couple used to be a lighthouse during the Russo-Japanese war before it was decommissioned. Thankfully, the lighthouse still works and they turn it on to signal Sugimoto and the others to their location. We learn a little bit about the old couple such as how they had a daughter named Svetlana but was kidnapped by a Russian deserter. Wanting to repay the kindness of the couple, Sugimoto takes the picture of Svetlana saying that he’ll look for her and bring her home (don’t make promises you can’t keep Sugimoto). We also get to see Asirpa’s team where they’re headed to Ako Prison in Ako to meet Sofia Goldhand, the leader of Kiroroanke and Wilk’s revolutionary group. Since she was such a close friend of Wilk, Asirpa wants to meet her. We also find Ogata’s spirit animal, bobcat.
In episode 8, we focus on Hijikata’s group (I was beginning to wonder where he’s been all this time). In the episode, Hijikata and his group are in Kushiro looking for one of the tattooed prisoners named Doi Shinzo who’s real name is Yoichiro the Manslayer (and let me tell you, he is no Battousai the Manslayer). In the past, he killed a number of important people during the last years of the shogunate. Hijikata faced him before, but he got away. We go to Nemuro where we see Yoichiro is now an old man who has dementia and approaching his final days. However, people still hold on to grudges and the families of the men he killed find him and want revenge. Now I have to admit out of all the episodes, this is the episode that has the best animation so far. Just when Yoichiro is about to be killed we see how he views the world through his eyes. His mind is still living in the past and as a result, he sees everyone as someone trying to kill him. The manslayer inside of him comes alive and he counters his attackers before Hijikata arrives to fight him where once again, Yoichiro sees Hijikata as a young samurai instead of an old man like himself. Hijikata can tell that Yoichiro is already gone and thus he gives Yoichiro a samurai’s honorable death by defeating him (scenes here: https://youtu.be/upd3PLWnJXg and https://youtu.be/T36kdrgDp44, if I am to die, let it be by the grace and beauty of the sword. Instead of the coldhearted and ugly bullet). The final minutes of the episode focus on Asirpa’s group where they are planning a prison break (hopefully it’ll be as good as the one from season 2).
Episodes 9-12
Not much happens in episode 9, but we do learn about the past of Kiroranke, Wilk and Sofia. After killing the emperor of Russia, they fled to Sakhalin where their plan was to flee to Japan. Unfortunately, their Japanese was terrible so they sought the aid of a photographer named Hasegawa who had a Russian wife named Fina and a child to teach them Japanese. Hasegawa was more than happy to do it and even developed a bit of a friendship with the three before catching on that they were hiding something from them. It’s also hinted that Sofia may be Russian royalty and choose to rebel against Russia because she and others felt that Russia was taking over their culture. Sofia as well as many other Ainu groups felt that Russia was trying to destroy their culture and replace it with their own culture which was worshipping the royal family as if they were the descendants of God. Hasegawa eventually found out that they were fugitives on the run and quickly got his wife and child out of the house for their safety just in time before the Russian police showed up. At first, you would think they’d be here for Wilk and the others but no, they’re actually here for Hasegawa (what the hell did he do?). It turns out Hasegawa had his own little secret as well, he’s a Japanese spy. He infiltrated Russia in the past, fell in love and got married. Not even his wife knows he’s a spy (he’s that good). The four fight off against the Russians, but Fina fearing for the safety of Hasegawa returned to her home where she got hit by a stray bullet courtesy of Sofia (scene here: https://youtu.be/F-ip6PYb8iU). The bullet went straight through Fina and the baby killing them both and leaving Hasegawa distraught over the death of his family. Wilk and the others leave and head further up north where they managed to make it to Japan by crossing over some ice except Sofia decided to stay behind. She feels guilty about killing Fina and the baby and decided that the only way she can atone for her crime is deny herself the happiness of a woman and continue the fight as a revolutionary. Returning to present time, Kiroranke explains that once they rescue Sofia, they’ll use the ice to make it over to Russia where they’ll meet up with Sofia’s revolutionaries and continue the fight for all Ainu. The episode ends on giving us the most shocking twist in the series so far. Hasegawa’s true identity is Tsurumi (https://youtu.be/WEtRoZ5FWNc. Holy shit, that is amazing. The whole perspective of this series has just changed with this bombshell. Just how complex of a character is Tsurumi? Scene here: https://youtu.be/cDD0_G9RNmE).
Things start off exciting in episode 10. We start with Asirpa’s group breaking out Sofia. Their plan is to destroy the walls of the prison in 4 areas using explosives at sunrise where they’ll use the fishermen as a cover to escape on the floating ice. The plan quickly goes wrong when only one explosive goes off and the others didn’t (probably should have checked those explosives first). Despite this setback, Sofia and her men make it to the hole where they come across their next obstacle, a guard tiger (that’s a huge upgrade from a guard dog). Sofia manages to tame the beast (scene here: https://youtu.be/fQCps7-tyUM) and escape where she meets up with Asirpa and the others and escapes across the ice. Just as they’re escaping, Sugimoto and the others are there as well and just missed them. However, they know they’re crossing the ice. As Asirpa’s group crosses the ice, Yoshitake gets separated from the group due to the ice breaking up. We learn a little more about Wilk’s past such as how he loved wolves (in fact, his name actually means wolf in Polish) and how his wife gave him his Ainu name, Horkew Oskoni. A name that he hasn’t shared with anyone other than Asirpa and that name might just be the main clue they need to find the gold. Back with Yoshitake, he finds himself about to fall into the freezing ocean until he gets saved by Sugimoto (scene here: https://youtu.be/sp4z03HFZu0, yesss~, we have one successful reunion. All that remains is Asirpa).
Oh man! This was a great episode. Okay, where do I begin? So the episode starts with a storm picking up so Asirpa’s group decides to stop and build a shelter to protect themselves from the freezing cold. While that’s going on, we see Hajime get separated from Tanigaki and Koito where he comes across Svetlana (this was unexpected). It turns out Svetlana wasn’t kidnapped at all, she willingly left with the deserter. She didn’t want to waste her life living in the lighthouse, so she fled with the deserter only for the two to run out of money and become bandits (what would your parents say?). Svetlana and the deserter got separated from each other and now she doesn’t have the guts to go back and face her parents (I imagine there will be a paddlin’ once she returns). Sugimoto and Yoshitake begin to make their way to Asirpa who went out to gather wood with Ogata. During this time Ogata tries to manipulate Asirpa to tell him where the gold is and he almost succeeds until he messed up naming Sugimoto’s last meal (the bobcat has been exposed). Asirpa points her bow and arrow at Ogata (https://youtu.be/71BA0QVx_vc) where he actually dares her to kill him as he believes nobody in this world is pure (and everybody is a bobcat just like him). He even gives her incentive to kill him saying that he’s the one who killed Wilk, but even that isn’t enough to get her to break her moral code. Asirpa lowers her bow and arrow and Ogata takes up his gun prepared to kill her, but Sugimoto arrives right behind him. A bark of a sea lion startles Asirpa and she accidently fires an arrow at Ogata (right in the eye. The perfect accident) and he goes down smiling knowing he just made Asirpa a killer. As Asirpa stands there stunned, Sugimoto quickly removes the arrow and performs first aid refusing to let him die and turn Asirpa into him. We finally get our reunion between Sugimoto and Asirpa (scene here: https://youtu.be/hnI2RGqRnnM) which is followed with a funny moment as Asirpa gets her eyelid stuck to Sugimoto’s metal button and Yoshitake has to piss on them in order to get her loose (it’s wrong, disgusting and funny at the same time). While all this was going on we see Tanigaki and Koito get attacked by escaped prisoners but easily beat them. When Koito goes back to find Hajime, Tanigaki and Kiroranke cross paths with each other and fight. They both injured each other badly with Kiroranke bashing Tanigaki with a block of ice and Tanigaki stabbing Kiroranke in the chest (with his own dagger no less). Despite this severe injury, Kiroranke gets away just as Koito and Hajime catch up to Tanigaki and check on him. Koito and Hajime soon go after Kiroranke where they fall into a trap set by him barely surviving. Hajime gets wounded badly leaving only Koito to fight Kiroranke where he finds him and the two begin to fight to end the episode.
The final episode starts with Kiroranke and Koito fighting against each other. Through a series of events offscreen, Kiroranke somehow gained the advantage and is now trying to pierce Koito’s heart with a knife. Just when the knife starts to break his skin, Koito gets saved by Tanigaki and Hajime who shoot him (how do you like it?). Before Koito can deliver the killing blow, Asirpa arrives with Sugimoto and Yoshitake where she stops them as she still has questions for him (that and he’s like a second father to her). Sadly, she never gets a real chance to ask him a serious question as he succumbs to his injuries and dies (we actually see the light leave his eyes). In a rather heartbreaking moment, we see Yoshitake give him a proper burial in the snow/ice and even Sofia let’s out a cry of despair by submerging her head in water so as not to get caught (that’s pretty badass). The group decides to head back to Ako to treat their injured, but before leaving Sugimoto and Asirpa spot Svetlana off in the distance and goes to see her where we get the return (let’s admit it, the best character this season) of Gansoku (he’s back~). He returns with them to Ako where the local Ainu help them. Hajime convinces Svetlana to write a letter to her folks to let them know she’s okay and then decides to travel to Russia with Gansoku (where they have their own little adventure, but that’s a story for another time). As for Sofia, she says her goodbyes to Kiroranke and leaves with her men (I don’t know where she’s going but Asirpa remains confident that she’ll see her again someday). They get a Russian doctor to look at Ogata where he says he needs to operate on him or he’ll die (good, he’s too dangerous to be kept alive). The doctor operates on Ogata but says he’s fading fast (he’s trying to die on purpose just to screw Asirpa up. You know he would do it just to prove a point). Sugimoto goes to inspect him only to find out that Ogata escaped. He knocked out the doctor, tricked the group into thinking he fled out the window, and then gets away via horse where despite Sugimoto having a clear shot he misses the horse on purpose allowing Ogata to escape because this gives him the excuse to kill him later (the man shot him in the head and tried to make Asirpa a murderer. I’d be pissed too and want the bastard dead. Scene here: https://youtu.be/h3cAqh_mTpE). The next day the group decides to cut their losses and head back to Hokkaido where Sugimoto tells Asirpa that they’re going to keep working with Tsurumi as he doesn’t fully trust Hijikata. Despite having reservations, Asirpa trusts Sugimoto’s decision and the group heads back to Hokkaido with Sugimoto determined to find the gold and free Asirpa from this war her father got her into.
Final Thoughts
Wow. Once again Golden Kamuy delivers a great season. I think out of all the seasons this might just be my favorite of them. I did like the story of the two groups throughout the season and how they expanded on some of the characters while introducing new characters as well. Sugimoto’s group gives us the laughs and action this season while Asirpa’s group gives us character development and lets us learn more about the Ainu culture and the various groups within them. Once again, the talks about the Ainu culture are never boring or phoned in. It’s all interesting stuff just like the previous seasons and makes you feel a hint of sadness that their culture kind of up and died with the passage of time and through the influence of different cultures. The new characters and character development are done excellently this season. Hajime’s past has a good mystery to it, I like learning more about Wilk’s past as this revolutionary, Asirpa possibly cracking his code on the where the gold is, Gansoku was my favorite new character, and learning the shocking truth about Tsurumi really caught me off guard and really does change the complexity of this series. Just how much does he know about Wilk, the gold, and does he possibly hold a grudge against Sofia and her group for what happened to his family. Speaking of Sofia, I’m curious to see what they’ll do with her in the next season or if we’ll see her again. I’m also glad that Ogata got away at the end because he’s such a good character and I’m looking forward to when Sugimoto and him have their confrontation. Kiroranke’s death was also quite sad as well. Despite turning on Sugimoto and possibly manipulating Asirpa this was a character we got to know and care for over the last 3 seasons. I’m not sure what happened between him and Wilk in the past, but you can tell he did care for Wilk, views Asirpa as his daughter and was only doing what he thought was right in order to protect his culture. His actions may have been bad but I like to believe that his intentions were good.
The animation is still not all that great. The only time it was able to shine this season was in Hijikata’s episode. Sadly, we return to a winter setting this season, but I did like the harsher climate the group faced this season as well as their interactions with the Russians as we see there are still tensions between both sides and they actually manage to speak some good Russian. The music was alright as well. Not that much different from the previous seasons. While there isn’t that much action this season they do have some good stand out moments. The first one is the stenka which gives us some good fist fighting and a look at Russian culture. The second was Ogata’s sniper battle with the Russian. While the battle was short you could feel the intensity and mental battle going on between the two snipers. One thing I skipped talking about in the previous seasons is just how funny this anime is. The comedic timing of this series is great and they always come from places and characters you wouldn’t expect. This season is once again packed with very funny moments and they always pop up in the most unexpected places throughout the episode.
Final Score
My final score for Golden Kamuy S3 is an 8/10. A fantastic season that delivered and showed us how story and characters are more important than animation. Do I wish the anime had better animation? Yes. But, despite not having great animation this anime still manages to pull you in with its story, characters, and themes and that’s all I really need to get into an anime. I’ll be looking forward to watching the next season and seeing what happens next. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.