Golden Kamuy

At the time of this review, the series has been greenlit for Season 2 this Fall, and I could not be more than happy for a continuation of the series! But what all the hoopla, what is this series actually about? Golden Kamuy (in Ainu language: Golden Gods) is more than just the typical action-adventure anime like so many others out there. It's fun, great and enjoyable for many reasons, to the point where it’s proof that we want at least a 2nd (to 3rd if possible) season to continue the series (if possible). The story goes of the 20th century Russo-Japanese war, centered in the cityof harsh-northern-filled-wilderness Hokkaido, where we got to know and learn the most fearsome yet determinant of the series: the male MC Saichi “Immortal” Sugimoto, a veteran soldier who has fought in the war and miraculously survived after the deadly ordeal. It was there that he is promised to upkeep with his now-dead comrade (Toraji) from a dubious story of a large chunk of hidden Ainu gold (that’s worth about 800 mil yen), and the main goal to steal it and finance his widow (Umeko) for years to come. The problem? It was stolen by a man called Nopperabo during transportation, and knowing his near-arrival death, so once captured and imprisoned, he carved out a map on 24 of the fellow imprisoned inmates on the location of the gold. And now, with that info, Immortal Sugimoto is set on the journey to find the gold. Alas, not everything is well as there are other groups and individuals who are eyeing on the same gold as Sugimoto does: The Imperial Japanese Army’s 7th Division, led by Lieutenant Tsurumi for use on military dictatorship to run an independent Hokkaido that’s separated from Japan; a group formed by former samurai Toshizou Hijikata, who escaped alongside the tattooed 24 inmates to steal the gold to fund Hokkaido and its loss from the Russo-Japanese war, and some others who are just stealing for themselves. In the wilderness, Sugimoto comes across the wild bears of the wilderness, and seeing that survival is in the eyes of the beholder, it looks as if he will be taken down by the bear. And so, enter Asirpa, an Ainu girl who knows the way of the Hokkaido wilderness, and her ulterior motive: to avenge her father’s death, because of his involvement of the transportation of Ainu gold that Nopperabo had successfully stolen in the first place (but not the main culprit who murdered her father). With that, with the intentions of Sugimoto and Asirpa, both set their journeys into a common place with different goals in mind. Fun fact: Lo and behold, as much as a native Ainu she is, she does have a Japanese name (Asuko Kochoube) that reveals the plot even further, and one step closer to knowing the real murderer and her roots. Will this be explained, let's hope for Season 2 to explain what's left! As much as the story setting and its storytelling is pretty much a perfect 1-to-1 adaptation from the manga source, I personally think that everything here is consistent, matches what the manga sprinkles on its historical context, and the icing on the cake is the native Ainu dialect (that’s exclusive to Hokkaido), supervised by the same guy who did the manga translation (Hiroshi Nakagawa), and it’s a great job learning and watching the show in its entirety. The characters here are also what made the series more enjoyable to tackle and journey with. On the good side, we have Immortal Sugimoto, the courageous yet unstoppable man of valor, Asirpa the lone Ainu girl, but is just as fearless and is able to interpret her surroundings well, the Escape King Yoshitake Shiraishi, who's able to escape from just about any level of danger, which forms the good team to get the gold for justice. However, the enemies are just as brutal, from the relentless Lieutenant Tsurumi, whom by his half-android-like face shows no qualms of authority, and his motto is to snatch the opportunity in whatever ways possible. Hijikata Toshizou is no brute either, whilst looking for the Ainu gold, he is manipulating behind the scenes in some forms and ways that like Tsurumi, is firm and no questions asked. The art and animation by Geno Studio is once again, great, inspirational and a visual treat. Their previous work (Kokkoku) is a testament to this anime, and the once-founded studio to take over the defunct Manglobe is now becoming a reality to look out for quality content. With that said, it wouldn't be true if the series was all good. The elephant in the series is with the CGI-laden wild bears, and it's quite apparent that it didn’t mesh well with the background visuals, not to mention that it's outrageously visible. Everything else on the side is truly well done, a big shout out to the people handling the facial expressions of the characters (during the characters’ meal times, shouting “hinna hinna!”), it's just so uncanny and comical, it always gives off much laughter each and every time. The music is phenomenal, and one of the best OSTs you could have this season. All reputable music artists in play with their new songs (MWAM’s “Winding Road” for the OP and THE SIXTH LIE’s “Hibana” for the ED), I still stand by my testimony from my prelim and say that in terms of musicality, it's one that’s worthy of listening to on it's own and evokes the emotions of the characters, and is the best representation of the series as a whole. In the end, you might be wondering, is the anime better or as well adapted as its acclaimed manga counterpart? From an overall standpoint, the anime adaptation replicates as much from the manga as possible, but due to it being a 1-cour, the historical context is downplayed significantly, and not to mention that the anime adaptation sometimes doesn’t give off the same vibes as how well the manga did. Had this been a 2-cour (24-26 episodes), we would have appreciated much more, but I'll give props for what was presented here generally, and I would say that both are even as much as manga adaptation goes. With that said, Golden Kamuy is definitely one of the better and premier shows of this season and it's comes recommended if you want a slice of history that’s not too heavy, and more so on the diversity of the culture behind it all.

Just because the setting isn't highschool doesn't make the anime automatically good. Golden Kamuy is a combination of a National Geographic/History channel program about the Ainu and rush for gold. Before the Spring2018 began, I had gone over the trailers of the shows to air this season. Golden Kamuy presented a nice cast of voice actors I like, an era around 1900, guns, wolves and rush for gold. Sounds like a pretty solid action anime. Now, I can't deny that Golden Kamuy had some sweet action, but unfortunately, both the action and the story took a backseat to the "Ainu culture". I don't know, after watching most of the show, peoplecame and said "The action wasn't the point of the show, but the point was to show the Ainu culture". Well, I can say for sure that the trailer made it look a lot better than it is in reality. If they showed the "Ainu culture" mostly in the trailer instead of the action and thrill, I doubt it would've attracted as many people. So, what exactly is shown that I found tedious and boring? For the first half of the show (and even a bit later), ~7 minutes every episode were about the Ainu Cooking. Take Shokugeki no Souma, remove the Ecchi, remove the competition, remove the Shounen aspects. We're left with 7 minutes out of ~20 every week of "Oh this broth is so good, the squirrel meat isn't heavy and the chopped bones make it crunchy" etc. etc. etc. Then also don't forget to put "Hinna Hinna" afterwards. Then, the hunting, and of course explanation how everything works. "This trap is a barrel with a few nails in it. The foxes come to lick the bottom of the barrel and then get stuck. We hit them with a stick to finish them off" "It is said that fox pelt is bad luck, [...] you can sell fox pelt for 1 yen, and these animals' pelts for 1 yen too, and this for 3 yen..." Sorry, but it was just not interesting. The real plot of the gold rush, along with a few groups all trying to get the big gold prize is.... pretty damn good. It features a few groups, some are military veterans from the Russo-Japanese war, some are even older but all of them... are interesting. And are voiced by great voice actors. It's a shame that the real plot kicks in only around episode 10, and even then it still has the "filler" stuff like before. For example all of episode 12 was about horse racing, and how the Ainu use fortune telling. We got only 3 minutes maximum of continuation for the clash between the groups after the gold. The art didn't do justice as well. The controversial "CGI Bears" as well as the "CGI fire" and other CGI stuff just didn't fit well. I understand the staff wanted to make it look special (If I remember correctly, what's what they said why they made CGI bears) but it just doesn't look good. If I wanted to commend to Golden Kamuy, it would've been the OP/ED. MAN WITH A MISSION and THE SIXTH SENSE did absolutely an amazing job. Overall, was Golden Kamuy good? So-so, it depends what you're expecting and what you want to watch. And also, a second season was announced so there's a chance it'll cover the failures or at least continue the story in S1, and not show us almost a full episode about kids playing with a stick. 6/10

Story: 10 The main story looks so promising for me. They were using the historical value as their basic to expand the adventurous vibes in a nice way. That was some brilliant moves, and i just love this kind of decision, and so far. The studio did a very nice way to keep the pacing intacted in the right direction, and i believed they were did a very well done adaptation so far. So, yeah, its more point for the show! The setting was simply amazing. I just can't believed this series had a nice setup on the past timeline. Its looked incredible and more importantly,the historical value that much happening in the Hokkaido past, especially with Ainu tribe that still exist on that era, just so nice to be watched. Its great, i just love how its explained more of Ainu tribe's culture, their language, their habit, and such, a nice additional score went by to that point. What a great lesson i had by watching this series. The story telling on these episode had me to highlight it too. Its just interesting, and the narrator did a great job explaining some line that really help building the vibe for the current arc. Its really help me a lot. The plot just another my favourite. Its so fluent with everything that happened. First, it might looks like an after war problem. But its ended up with a hunting theme, by taking a little adventurous. However its turned around again by learning a new knowledge for me, yes its Ainu tribe, by announcing the girl. And then, finally i got a big picture about what was goin on. Its not just your usual adventure and a normal hunting time. Its just more than that, with an eccentric characters as a great addition, and multiple variable of its plot to advancing. A lot od complexity, made me realized that these series just way bigger than i could anticipated. Its very appreciated. 10 points for this Introduction. Art, Animation in general: 8 I might be not so good to reviewing this kind of aspects. But i must be honest that the art and animation sometimes, were not so appealing. Sometimes its missed to be united in a good animation, while the others had a static animation. The crappy art style sometimes emerge to the surface created a big questions to me, while the direction at the end somehow used some weird cut. But its fine to me, otherwise, the transition over their ending theme song just well matched up. So, i should take it easy knewing the storyline was just so amazing. So, at general, its not so problem for me. Sometime its surely not went smoothly. I just take it as a comedy aspect for the show to advancing more eccentrism that began to be this series strength. Its real, how weird Asirpa looks when she comically referred miso as shit, but its turned to be a funny thing, and almost happening while Shiraishi or Sugimoto did a derp face for the sake of humour. Its suited well for me, and i can't take it as their mistake. Its just a designated art, and animation. Its just their style to posessed a relatable expression while its needed. So, i take it at as my personal satisfaction. So, no joke, its 8 for me. Sounds effect, soundtrack, OP ED theme sections: 9 The sounds effect felt nice, especially with the nature and animal sounds, its fine by me. The battle cry ambience of effect was their best, especially with their battle or action involved sounds, its greatThe VA did a great job too, while voicing all of that amazing character pretty fluent. I just love their OP and ED quite well done, and its so catchy on my hearing too. Overall, i just not taking such a long phrase on these one. Its great for me. So thats it all. Characterization: 10 I may be sounds too biased. Bcause its just my personal compliment. So, here i am took this section as short as possible. While sometimes Sugimoto might looks like your typical shounen MC show with its determination could get rid everything with his shouts only. The moment to built up his characters just amazing. Its started with something in generic, obviously. A war, that place him to be an immortal people. However, its not stopped into like that. Since his coincidence meeting with a chibi girl from Ainu tribe, his way of life suddenly changed. This is the beauty of his characterization, the relations between them held some good moments, and its just so soothing to be watched. At the end, its just served into a nice little connections that brought back more curiosity to see how they were finished the beautiful relations. Its not ended up with those two. The side character had so many perfect characterization. I even thought that the series span the side character more than the main twos. Lol. However, its just felt nice as the result. The main twos were not losing their shines, and its connected well with the plot story. How could i said a big complain when all of them just looks so great? From the hunter, the King of Escape, the leader of a military forces, the individual soldier of him, the old samurai man, the citizen, the villager of Ainu tribe, the prisoner, they had all the perfect characterization needed to be added on the long duration series. Golden Kamuy already showed to me how well it could handle such a thing. A great characterization with their own eccentricsm. Its lived, its made the series felt interesting and so entertaining. Enjoyment, plus my overall scores: 10. This is my personal enjoyment as an anime watcher only. 12 episodes were not enough to fully capacitating my own satisfaction. So, a 10 for this Introduction for the long series of their adventure felt so logic with their eccentricsm, a unique story, and so diversed characters with their rich in many personalities. Thats it for me.

Apart from the 3D CGI animals this anime is pretty well done they follow the manga and the facial expressions was pretty well done and the colours in this show was outstanding, I also have to give credit to the opening and ending but mainly the ending because the visuals during the ending was brilliant and the ending track was awesome as well 👌 I gotta say among the shows that was airing at the same time this seires was the most enjoyable to watch every week I did feel a bit sorry for the animals that they killed and ate tho R I.P butbesides that this series was awesome I can't wait for season 2, the Japanese voice actors for this series was good especially hijikata loved him everytime he spoke

Merchandise

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