#girel

Also, to better let you understand some scenes or from where they come out, in some scenes I replaced the Japanese test with either the scanlation test or an appropriate translation (most of them courtesy of Lusetoj). Remember that this is merely an informative post and you’re actually supposed to support Golden Kamuy and buy the volume, either in Japanese or in your country’s language and that no, I don’t know if I’ll do a similar post for vol 22.

This is just because they changed so many relevant things here I wanted people to be able to follow them as they might affect future chapters and our understanding of them.

So now let’s start.

We spend a moment on the cover, which sees the return of Tanigaki on it.

Tanigaki is kind of a surprise as in the past after a cover with Sugimoto we always had a cover with Asirpa.

Of course the first time we had a group of 8 volumes before we had a cover with Sugi again but the second time we had 9 so it’s possible the cover for Vol 19 with Kiro was a last minute change.

Maybe the Sugimoto cover was meant for vol 19, with Asirpa on 20 and, yes, Tani on 21. We’ll see if Tsurumi will be on 22. Otherwise it’s possible to specualte the cover order is purely coincidental.

It’s also worth to mention that the backcover this time have Cikapasi (in the past it has Nihei).

On a personal note I would have preferred if it was Cikapasi who was on the front cover as in this volume he’s more relevant than Tanigaki but whatever, overall Tanigaki in the whole story has more importance and more fans than Cikapasi so okay, I get why Noda preferred to have him on the back.

We then move to the colour page.

It’s the colour cover of chap 193. In Vol 20 I wondered if Noda would use it later. Well, now it’s later, I guess.

A colour cover that was in the chapters included in this volume and that instead go lost is the one of chap 203.

The one of chap 205 was included in vol 20 so it’s not lost.

It seems in this volume there’s no short summary.

Now something really noteworthy while in the past volumes included 10 chapters, this one includes 11, the last presenting heavvy changes... but we’ll get there later.

Other chapters too saw the addition of extra pages and panels to expand scenes that already were in  the magazine version so we can better understand what’s going on and of scenes that are redrawn, either to improve their quality, correct mistakes or add to the plot.

Note I’m not going to add them all but only those which are plot relevant (or that I particularly like).

Let’s start with chap 201.

Chap 201 is one of the most tame in terms of changes.

We can see that in the cover Ogata and Tanigaki now have their rifles and Koito his sword.

I was wondering if, now that vol 20 changed things so that Tsukishima was present when Ogata called Koito ‘barchonok’, hearing Koito asking about the word would ring a warning bell in his head but that’s not the case. The scene is as it was in the magazine.

The image of Vasily gets redraw so that some particulars are improved and his colours now matches with the ones he has in the other chapters.

The one relevant change in this chapter for me is in the final page. In the magazine Sugimoto had light in his eyes, now the light is no more.

Who has heard me or @chibivesicle​ ramble about the relevance of characters’ having light in their eyes know that we think when they have none is clearly a bad sign. Sugimoto is in full murder mode and Noda wanted us to see it (and he’s also holding the miso better but okay, this is not plot relevant).

The move to chap 202.

Not much is changed in this chap.

They only added some shading to Asirpa’s face in this scene in which Tani told her they couldn’t move because, if the sniper was Ogata, then the target was Asirpa, to imply how this affect her.

Poor Asirpa, a friend of her is under attack and she’s made aware it’s due to her this is happening. Noda did great to underline how this affected her.

We move to chap 203, which, as mentioned before lost its colour cover.

We’ve then a change, instead than a man in the sledge, the ones passing through the street are a man with his whole family all of them on a single horse, a dosanko, a particularly strong Hokkaido horse.

Sugimoto’s sentence as he spoke to Vasily was changed as well.

In the magazine he said something along the line of how ‘when I think to myself that the world Asirpa is seeing has me in it... I feel like I became clean somehow and can be saved.’

Now instead he says this:

The change fits more with what Asirpa will later say in chap 206 which in the magazine originally seemed merely Asirpa’s interpretation of Sugimoto’s words when now is a direct reference to them.

Noda added the Russian version of the sentences Tsukishima said to Vasily and to Sofia and Svetlana’s dialogue. Gansoku though still talk in Japanese and Sofia talk in Japanese to him as well.

Noda also added three small panels of Gansoku, fighting and showing his delight at being hit.

We continue with chap 204.

Chap 204 expands the Tanigaki/Cikapasi scene. Originally, when Cikapasi wondered if Inkarmat was well Tani said only he was sure she was and that they should go visit her when they were to get back. Now he talks about a telegram saying she’s well to which Cikapasi is delighted, with Tani now implying visiting her should be the first thing they’ll do once back.

When Tsukishima talks with Vasily they added the Russian version of his words.

Girel also looks slightly different.

There’s also some minor redrawing but, as you can see though, the changes aren’t really big.

So let’s move on chap 205.

There are some changes in what Sugimoto says to Tsukishima.

In the magazine Tsukishima urged Sugimoto to act because Tsurumi was about to come and Sugimoto replied although he’s sure hadn’t met Tsurumi yet he didn’t believe Asirpa would open up to a man like him. In the volume Tsukishima’s comment is cut and Sugimoto mentions Asirpa’s name when he says he’s sure she hadn’t met Tsurumi yet instead that when he says she wouldn’t open up to him.

Among the minor redrawing I found fun how ‘director Asirpa’ now also has a fitting hat.

Node decided to remove Asirpa calling the guys 3rd rate actors. She’s also not salivating anymore.

He also removed the ‘hey Inaba’ from this scene. I think the idea is to paint Asirpa as less of a rude director.

In place of Asirpa saying ‘We’ll do a story about the Kamuy’, Noda added a minor infobox about the tales of Pananpe and Penanpe.

For some weird reason Noda also redraw the scene in which Tanigaki hit the ground. It’s not relevant, I’m just sharing it because he changed Tani’s pose a lot... not really sure why as it doesn’t seem Tanigaki is making an effort to shield himself, unless it’s some sort of reference to another series.

And so to chap 206 we go.

It’s worth to note in this chap Girel is drawn same as in the magazine, in short he doesn’t wear anymore the glasses Noda geve him for the volume version.

Among the redraws I find worth to mention how not only Noda cut Shiraishi laughing at Tsukishima but changed the bit regarding Tanigaki, Cikapasi and Enonoka. It’s not just that the Tanigaki-bird flies more. In the following panel Tanigaki’s face is now visible but darkened. This remarks how Tanigaki is present in the panel, yet leaves the focus on Cikapasi and Enonoka. Tanigaki’s face is the focus of our attention in the following panel where, like in the magazine, he’s alone but his eyes are shining much more. Likely he too got emotionally involved watching that scene but those three panels are here to anticipate what will happen in chap 209, Cikapasi will choose to stay with Enonoka and leave Tanigaki.

We continue with new changes in the dialogues, specifically in what Sugimoto says to Asirpa.

While in the magazine Sugimoto gave his own interpretation of what Wilk told him ‘he said he raised you so you could fight in a war’, now he correctly reports Wilk’s words about wanting Asirpa to know how to hide and fight and that she would be the leader of the Ainu people.

He also corrected his words about Kiro. While in the magazine he just mentioned he took her to Karafuto and then died to as to push Asirpa into believing she had to think she had to fight, now he clarifies Kiro brought Asirpa to Karafuto to remind her how to break the code and died as a consequence of this (well, actually he died as a consequence of three men ganging up on him and they would have been four if Sugimoto could have a say in it). However this too, combined with what Wilk did, pushed Asirpa into thinking she had no other way but fight.

Another change is here. While before Sugimoto referred to “Stand at the head of the Ainu and die” and “Fight and kill people” as what they were telling her, now he calls all this as a curse casted upon her.

Next chap 207 & 208.

i couldn’t notice any relevant change in these chapters which is a pity as people might remember I pointed out how the skin count was wrong in them.

The same goes for chap 209.

Things start to change with chap 210.

We start tame with Koito now calling Hanazawa ‘former commander of the 7th division’ when in the magazine he called him just ‘commander of the 7th division’.

I mention this because now I wonder, who’s the commander of the division, the guy above Lieutenant colonel Yodagawa? Has such a commander be appointed? Is he in Tsurumi’s paycheck? Will he be relevant in the future?

Who knows?

Sugimoto and Asirpa’s talk is also different. Not only Shiraishi is present in the beginning and leaves after but Sugimoto replies to Asirpa’s question about what will happen to the Ainu.

Sadly Sugimoto’s idea they’ve an overwhelming advantage is a naive delusion... and maybe he too knows it and that’s why his eyes are completely black, without light. In his wish to save Asirpa he probably knows he’s sacrificing the Ainu.

This bit was also changed as in the original Tsuki didn’t mention Ogata.

This text is changed as well. In the magazine Koito said just ‘was because he wanted me to realize that we were being bade into pawns for first lieutenant Tsurumi, just like he and his father were!’

Now it mentions both Hanazawa and Ogata’s name and the sentence is visually split into two parts.

Then, although dialogues remained the same, Noda changed Tsuki’s expression in this scene. Tsuki now smiles when he says he was tricked too.

Tsuki also gets some new lines here as a flashback also expand the scene.

Noda changed a bit Tsuki here. Actually I wonder if he’s crying considering Noda added whiteness below his eyes.

Noda inverted Tsuki’s lines here as in the magazine he said:

“The first lieutenant is very skilled at saving people with “sweet lies.””

“So I don’t know what his true goal is.”

At the end of the scene Noda added Shiraishi spying them.

And so we reach chap 211... which is like a new chapter.

For start there are changes in the discussion between Sugimoto and Shiraishi here. In the magazine Shiraishi says Asirpa isn’t the Asirpa he knew anymore. In the volume he says she isn’t the Asirpa he first met.

... and here.

Koito’s expression is changed so as to show he’s not happy at all to see Tsurumi.

Now, when Tanigaki comments about how Tsurumi would let Asirpa see Huci she doesn’t say she’ll understand what kind of man Tsurumi is by looking at him. To make up for it Sugimoto says everything will go well and we get an exchange between Usami and Tsurumi showing what Tsurumi planned to do to Asirpa... clearly not even considering to listen to her demands.

As said before, the overwhelming advantage over Tsurumi, existed only in Sugimoto’s dreams.

Again Koito doesn’t look particualrly happy of being praised by Tsurumi contrary to the magazine version.

At this point the plot drastically diverges from the magazine to the point it’s no more an addition or a slight change but a real retcon and I’m not sure how Noda will deal with it in the future.

In the manga Asirpa and Tsurumi exchanged a glance, he was reminded of Wilk’s eyes and commented she had the same eyes as him. This words affect Asirpa (who previously has said she would get which sort of man Tsurumi is by looking at him, a scene removed from the volume) and, as Shiraishi throw up she prepare to toss her arrows.

In the volume instead things will go very differently... but let’s see them first.

All this is an important change as it shows Asirpa didn’t act merely due to her intuition or out of prejudice but because Tsurumi clearly acted in a manner that ended up creeping out even his own men, a manner that clearly implied he planned to part her from Sugi and keep her trapped (as he was doing with Inkarmat only in a much less friendlier environment) and that he had no friendly feelings for the Ainu and wouldn’t keep into consideration their wishes.

There’s actually much more to say about the changes but I’ll let it for a meta, if I’ll manage to write one.

Back to the changes, despite all he has heard from Tsurumi, Sugimoto now looks a lot less assertive and comfortable with Asirpa’s decision.

Tsurumi’s men are now better drawn and characterized, you can see Kikuta and Sugi now also informs them the arrows will kill them with just a scratch.

The last two pages are partially redrawn. but in them Asirpa also gets the chance to better clear up her position. Tsurumi also immeditely sends his men after her.

Anyway the volume ends here.

Enonoka do the thanks but her image is so tiny as Noda has used up all the pages he had hence the poor quality.

In fact we start with a colour cover of Tsurumi, curled up on a mountain of weapons (remember? Tsurumi wants the gold to buy more weapons and then he plans to open his own weapon factory).

Although Tsurumi is curled up, his position differs from Ogata’s almost foetal position when he was sleeping curled up while clinging to his rifle in chap 107.

The drawing is disturbing.

Tsurumi has no pupils or irises, his eyes completely white. It’s the first time we see this happening with him as far as I can remember but it usually happens when Sugimoto has completely lost it and his into berserk mode.

Although the background below the weapons is red (not a bloody red but it still makes me think of blood), no red or variations of pink are used on Tsurumi but they’re replaced by red’s complementary color, green, which us western associate to zombie representations. Tsurumi, the self defined Shinigami, comes out as an undead. It doesn’t help he’s showing his clenched teeth (another recurring symbol of the zombies’ hunger) or how the veins are very visible on his hands.

He seems a hungry undead, clinging to his weapons, pressing against them and burying himself in them (part of the weapons are above him), one arm also between his legs as if to try to grab the weapons that are there. Greed, hunger, those are the vibes I get from that picture and that reminds me of Tsukishima’s words about how Tsurumi (and Arisaka) have an addition to war (chap 94).

But now let’s move to the plot. Tsukishima and Sugimoto are plotting. Well, more than plotting they’re having a ‘secret’ meeting in which Tsukishima is reporting his and Tsurumi’s interpretation of what had happened to Asirpa. She was ‘kidnapped’ by Kiro because he hoped to awaken her memory so that she could remember the key to the code and he also wanted her her to meet with Sofia.

Tsukishima thinks that in the end Asirpa has remembered the code and this is why Ogata separated Asirpa from Kiro and why Asirpa mumbled something to Kiro that allowed him to feel relief before dying and entrust everything to her.

Long story short, Asirpa and Kiro had been careless.

Kiro had let his feelings come out when he had learnt his plan had worked, inadvertently ‘revealing’ with his body language what Asirpa has whispered to him… though I can’t really blame him much as the poor guy was dying and, in the end doesn’t fully seem to realize Asirpa can’t just leave and reach Sofia as he told her to do.

Asirpa, of course, can’t really be blamed as she’s a child but she has obviously revealed too much of what had happened (she didn’t need to say Ogata had parted her from Kiro deliberately, it was clear it would arise suspicions, she could have just told they got lost searching wood and then argued) and hadn’t been clever enough to hide behind a lie what she had told to Kiro (for example she could have said she would take care of his kids, of reporting he died fighting well, that she would do her best to remember the key even without him… whatever).

Of course, since Asirpa is a kid, it makes sense she was careless but really, I wonder how Wilk expected her to become the Ainu leader NOW.

Her actions clearly reveal she is still too naïve. She obviously didn’t tell Sugimoto the code and wants to hide she has remembered it but by partly revealing what had happened with Ogata and by not explaining what had happened with Kiro, she had given away the truth, she has remembered, Ogata knew about it which is why he has left the group with her and she has told Kiro the truth, which is why he found peace.

Tsukishima puts is sentence in shape of a question, just to check if Sugimoto knows if Asirpa has remembered or not, but his question is a retorical one. He’s sure she has, the real question is if she has told Sugimoto or not. I doubt Tsukishima trusts Sugimoto blindly, he’s studying him to see if he’ll give out he knows the code.

That’s why Tsukishima goes on and delivers the final blow, suggesting Ogata wanted to kill her because she told him about the code and therefore she became useless to him.

And this is interesting.

Of courseTsukishima is wrong in his assumption and I think he knows or getting the code would be even more urgent and he also wouldn’t have wanted Ogata to die as two people to question about which is the code are better than just one.

So why he’s suggesting this?

I wonder if Tsukishima’s speech was actually suggested by Tsurumi.

In fact by suggesting Asirpa opened her heart to Ogata and Kiro whom Sugimoto sees as bad guys, never mention he loathes Ogata, they’re likely trying to damage their bond. It would be a heavy blow for Sugimoto, who prizes himself as the person Asirpa trusts the most and views her as some sort of saviour, if Asirpa has chosen to open up with Kiro and Ogata but not with him.

By now Tsurumi had all the time to discover Sugimoto’s best friend married the woman Sugimoto loved while Sugimoto wasn’t there.

Suggesting Ogata got Asirpa’s faith while Sugimoto wasn’t there with her, and now Sugimoto can’t even win it back enough to have her open up with him too should feel similar of that situation only now the culprit wasn’t Sugimoto’s best friend but a person Sugimoto loathes and wants to kill.

It’s interesting how Sugimoto in the past scolded Koito for calling Ogata a ‘Yamaneko’, claiming it was a pathetic joke...

...but then, when asked why Ogata is searching the gold, goes and says ‘he’s just scratching around and playing’. Yes, the translation said ‘he’s just stirring up things for the fun of it’,

but the Japanese version uses ‘hikkaki mawashite asonderu’ (引っ掻き回して遊んでる “playing scratching around”, “playing clawing around”) which hints more to a cat behavior than to a human. In short he’s subtly agreeing with him being a ‘yamaneko’. It makes me think Sugimoto is trying to be a good person when criticizing the tasteless joke but, deep down, agrees to it.

I wonder why Sugimoto ALWAYS intensely disliked Ogata, right from the start.

His ‘spider sense’ is pretty bad, he couldn’t recognize Henmi or the fake Ainu as criminals and murders, nor he could realize Vasily is not Ogata so it’s not like his instinct is reliable.

Ogata isn’t the only person who left the 7th, Tanigaki did so as well yet Sugimoto harbours him no ill feelings and went along with Vasily, who shoot Shiraishi, just because Vasily is also hunting for Ogata.

Hijikata used Shiraishi to spy him, Shiraishi didn’t reveal he was also ‘working’ with Hijikata (well, he’d been blackmailed but...) Inkamart betrayed them all to Tsurumi but... Sugimoto is just obsessed with Ogata, with keeping him outside the group, putting him down, killing him. he can trust Kiro, he can trust Hijikata, he can’t trust Ogata.

I’ve always wondered if this was tied to the third feline in the story, Toraji, whose name meaning ‘next tiger’ (寅 “third sign of Chinese zodiac, which is the tiger” 次 “next”), If Ogata somehow managed to remind him of the negative sides of Toraji or of a negative experience tied to Toraji. We’ll see.

Anyway Sugimoto hurries to say there’s no way she would have told Ogata... as if Asirpa too should have loathed him, when actually Asirpa didn’t think ill of him at all.

Sugimoto’s gaze is lowered, he’s not looking at Tsukishima and his eyes are partially shadowed by his cap.

His words sound confident but his posture is not. He’s even frowning a tiny little.

He then goes on saying he’ll be the one to talk about it with Asirpa and Tsukishima doesn’t have to get in between them.

He’s still not looking at Tsukishima, who has however turned to look at him, and he’s looking glomy. I wonder if, despite his words, Sugimoto is afraid he won’t get Asirpa to open up to him.

But going back to the plot, it seems the guys believe they’re short on time as Tsurumi is about to come and, according to Sugimoto, although Asirpa hadn’t met Tsurumi yet, she wouldn’t open her heart to that type of man… implying that instead of course she would open up his heart to him.

Below the scene we see a creepy image of Tsurumi in which again his eyes are completely white and he’s showing his teeth and it seems as if, something is… well, rising out of him, like an evil energy or an aura, or maybe it’s just me.

I’m not sure if the idea is Sugimoto deep down finds Tsurumi creepy or think Asirpa would find him creepy or that Sugimoto is actually walking straight into Tsurumi’s trap.

Tsurumi is stalling them there and letting Sugimoto handle things the way he let Ogata handle his brother. Honestly I think nothing good will come out of this because Sugimoto thinks Asirpa will tell him the code and he’s not prepared for a ‘no’.

He’s aimed with good intentions as well as slightly selfish ones and he expects Asirpa to give in to his request… and doesn’t really seem to be considering Asirpa might say ‘no’, that she might decide not to give him the code.

Nor he’s really considering the Ainu cause, and how Tsurumi’s actions, should he get the gold, would reflect on them. Sugimoto is projected on the present, without really thinking at the future. He means well but lacks foreplanning. There’s no way he can win against a master at foreplanning like Tsurumi is… but the part that worries me the most is how he’ll try to get the code out of Asirpa.

Not only he doesn’t think she’ll say no but he had promised it to Tsurumi and she’s basically prisoner of the 7th. Tsukishima and Koito might play nice with her for now but wait for when Tsurumi will be there and will demand the code. What is Sugimoto going to do then?

Have her escape? Fight Tsurumi and his men? Honestly I fear we’ll end up into a very dark part of the story soon, hence that’s why the previous chapter and this one will contain such a light note.

It’s also interesting how Sugimoto is refusing to believe Asirpa might open up to Tsurumi. Evidently he doesn’t know yet how easily this guy can have a youth open up with just one sentence or two...

...and can even go so far as to present himself as a saviour...

...a best friend....

...someone who can help you shoot your mother leave the nest.

Honestly I don’t think right now Sugimoto will manage to get the code out of Asirpa but... I’m not sure if Asirpa would manage to resist Tsurumi.

I’ll say she would merely because the story has made a parallel with Tsurumi being the devil and Asirpa being Jesus and therefore she should resist temptation but I think Tsurumi, AT THE MOMENT, has way better means at his disposition to get Asirpa to talk than Sugimoto.

Anyway the story switches to the two cinematographers explaining Asirpa and the rest of the group about cinematographs, how cinematics of Japan had gotten trendy and how moving pictures work by showing them a projection FOR FREE, likely as a thank you for Asirpa’s help against the wolverine as normally they ask money for this.

They also introduce themselves as the cinematographer Girel and the director Inaba Katsutarou, showing how @osomanga guessed correctly the people on whom they were based.

Asirpa is impressed by the projection and asks if they have also filmed folk tales but she’s informed they didn’t as the machine can’t record sound.

I wish I could inform Asirpa there’s a way to record sounds as well as the gramophone existed from 1887 so she could technically record sounds as well and let them too survive, although parted from images… but well, I’m not in the GK cast.

Anyway Asirpa decides she wants to film an Ainu legends so as to leave it for future generations. Inaba is doubtful and suggests what I mentioned previously, to just use a phonograph to record the audio as Ainu don’t even have plays (he mentions he recorded a Kabuki play previously).

Asirpa thinks the meaning will get across better with a video though and that people who speak a different language would still get the meaning behind their stories if they were to see the images and I’m really sorry to tell her this but while images get across a meaning MORE than just audio, if you don’t understand the audio, part of the contest still remains very obscure unless you’re VERY GOOD at transmitting things with just the visual.

The idea she can do this with random people who aren’t professional actors is well, beyond optimistic.

Proofs are when not Japanese speaking people saw the raw of this chapter, while many could get the general gist of the story, at the same time they couldn’t really understand well what was going on in the myths she was narrating…. And how people need subs when an apisode of an anime is out to fully understand what’s going on.

Silent film still used to use silent cards as they acknowledged dialogues or explanations were necessary to understand the visual.

Long story short, silent stories exist and can be very good and deliver their message well but it’s not so easy to make them, especially if you’re narrating a story based on a different culture.

Sugimoto seems to be impressed by her determination...

...but the director isn’t really interested.

Now… I know some people will be amused by Sugimoto forcing the director to do what Asirpa asked him to do but I’m not really finding that funny.

He’s not just asking the guy to humour her because she saved his life, he grabbed the guy’s scarf and ordered him to comply with Asirpa’s request, his whole behavior threatening. Inaba and Girel aren’t touched by his words, they’re scared. You can even notice how the balloons and the font used for Sugimoto’s words in the original (and in the scanlations too)

imply this is not Sugimoto asking nicely, this is Sugimoto threatening them.

But those guys aren’t bad guys and Sugimoto isn’t asking them just five minutes of their time. Taking a film isn’t something that gets done for free, especially in those times. They had already repaid Asirpa by showing her and everyone else the movie FOR FREE. If Asirpa saved their life for a reward this would cheap Asirpa’s actions.

Long story short no, I don’t find this funny and whoever has a work and, all of sudden, is threatened by a stranger to do what he wants for free and against his will, likely will feel the same.

We can claim that Asirpa’s intentions are nice but this doesn’t mean people HAS TO humour her.

They should do it out of kindness, not out of Sugimoto threatening them and it should be their decision.

So, long story short, the guys are forced to do Asirpa’s or better Sugimoto’s bidding as they’re agreeing merely because threatened by him, not because interested in helping her.

The Karafuto expedition is also forced to help (though I think they were more willing to do it than Girel and Inaba), Vasily included, who gets to draw the scenery.

As Asirpa of course as favourites, Sugimoto gets the role of the lucky guy Pananpe, whose actions always make him rich, with Koito in the role of his ‘pretty wife’, while Shiraishi gets to do the role of the unlucky Penanpe who always ends up having his dick cut and dying a miserable death because he’s apparently scum and always fail to properly imitate Pananpe (why he’s scum is never explained and it’s not like Pananpe is a saint) while Tsukishima plays the role of Shiraishi’s ‘prosperous wife’.

Inaba hands them out the scripts he wrote according to what Asirpa told him. I wonder if he just passively wrote down what she said or also worked it so as to improve it.

Asirpa basically plays the part of the bossy movie director, wearing sunglasses, ordering people around, scolding them claiming they can be easily replaced (they can’t) and even demanding to destroy houses which are in the way.

Meanwhile Tsukishima tries again to plot with Sugimoto by reminding him that since they’ve no time (before Tsurumi will be there) they shouldn’t waste it like this... while Sugimoto insists Tsukishima shouldn’t get in his way as he’ll handle things…

...which somehow worries me as it seems he’s humouring Asirpa in this merely to further his purposes (I hope not, I love Sugimoto but I’ve been fearing the moment he would have to keep his promise to Tsurumi by a long while and I know it won’t be pleasant).

Koito misunderstands and thinks Tsukishima wants to just have more scenes for himself, because sadly Koito is still not thinking in the slightest at his mission.

As the filming goes on Asirpa realizes whose two silly stories won’t convey anything nor, likely, impress people enough to remain passed down, and torments herself.

Well, she’s not wrong, if there’s a moral in those stories, I missed it as well.

Sugimoto suggests her to try for a serious myth instead than just a silly story about dicks being used in weird ways and cut off.

Asirpa accepts, decides to do a Kamuy story and Cikapasi gets the main role of the new story… which is actually better as finally a real Ainu will portray in an Ainu story… not that anyone in Asirpa’s cast has any acting experience anyway but, theoretically Cikapasi should portray better how an Ainu is or feel as he should just act natural. Enonoka also gets a small role as the younger sister of three (the two other sisters being Koito and Tsukishima).

I’ll dig into the plot a little because this time it’s slightly relevant as Cikapasi plays the younger brother of three (the two other brothers being Tanigaki and Sugimoto... whom I guess is added to the cast only because he’s Asirpa’s favourite as he does nothing relevant... Shiraishi gets the role of the bad guy/shapechanging bear by the way). Due to a series of adventures Cikapasi gets to marry the younger sister and finally have a family of his own.

At this point it turns out the brother Tanigaki was playing wasn’t a human or Cikapasi’s real brother but a Kamuy who turned into a bird and left the little brother now that he finally have a family of his own (no idea what happened to the brother Sugimoto was playing, as I said Sugimoto was irrelevant to the story).

As Asirpa, in order to get Cikapasi to make a good expression, reminds him the brother Tanigaki was playing was the one who, in the story gave him protection, took him along, fought evil and grew him and that was now leaving him forever.

Cikapasi, basically emotionally recognizing his own story in the story they were playing, cries, showing Asirpa the expression she wanted.

Note that although Tanigaki should supposedly cry, he doesn’t. I wonder if this is a hint of how Tanigaki and Cikapasi feel very different about what had happened, for Cikapasi he had been ‘adopted’ by Tanigaki, but, for Tanigaki, Cikapasi just went along for the ride and so he’s not as emotionally involved as Cikapasi when ‘leaving him’.

Meanwhile the system that was helping Tanigaki to pretend it was a bird flying away rips and Tanigaki, now dressed only in his fundoshi, crashes down comically (as he makes no attempt to protect himself from his fall and just fall spread eagle).

Asirpa is satisfied.

I’m… not particularly impressed.

Of course I can’t see the whole play, just some still images with explanations about what’s going on but still, I’m not sure such an amateur product could work to transmit the story of a foreign culture behind it so well it would remain left behind.

Asirpa has just discovered what moving images are, she has no knowledge of plays or whatever. Sure, maybe the director is helping her (we don’t see it though, all we know is he wrote down the scripts according to WHAT SHE SAID) but since he was threatened into this he likely just wants to get the work done and be done with this. Also she seems to be left in charge, which means he’s not contributing much.

So, while I was all for her using movies to leave behind Ainu culture… somehow I’ve no trust in how such an amateurish product who basically left behind two funny tales and a myth without really explaining them could accomplish what Asirpa wish. Not only we saw how Koito distorted the Meko Oyasi myth, interpreting it as a suggestion to kill it first sight, even though he heard it being narrated... but really, it’s not so easy to accomplish what Asirpa wishes with just a movie, even when done by a professional.

When the narration is unclear and poor… what will remain behind?

It’s not enough to just film a story, the message has to be clear or it’ll end up being misunderstood.

But well, for now I’ll try to delude myself Asirpa and Co secretly had an impressive talent as director and actors so their production was actually impressively clear… or at least interesting enough people would research for the real myth and the explanation behind it.

We’ll see if the next chapter will confirm they made a masterpiece or will reveal it was just not worth the effort.

On a sidenote though, it’s entirely possible the manga will just wave away the problem giving Asirpa ‘genius filmmaker ability’. In short it doesn’t matter if she’s a child who has just discovered movies, she’s the new Mozart of the film world and her work came out as perfect. Honestly I think this is very likely what’s going to happen, her movie, instead than amateurish, will look very moving and intriguing worth winning multiple Oscars and being awarded the Golden Lion… but well, this is GOLDEN Kamuy after all.

Something else worth mentioning is how the whole myth seems to raise a flag about how Cikapasi and Tanigaki might end up parting ways, with Cikapasi remaining with Enonoka. That or the whole thing was meant to be a nice what if, and things will end up rather dark.

Honestly I hope the movie is just foretelling Tanigaki and Cikapasi parting ways, as I would prefer this to the other option.

Last but not least let me go back a little to talk about Sugimoto.

When Tsukishima had accused Asirpa of having remembered and shared the truth with Ogata and Kiro… Sugimoto hadn’t tried to deny it.

He could have, he could have lied and told he heard Asirpa saying something reassuring to Kiro, not that she had remembered but that she would care about the Ainu’s interests or something like that.

Asirpa might not have thought to disguise her actions as such but she’s a child, Sugimoto is a man and could cover up for her, in the same way as he could have told Tsukishima how Asirpa doesn’t know why Ogata wanted to kill her since she’s the key to the gold and wondering if he really wants it,

which are all clear hints she didn’t tell him the code and therefore Ogata’s actions aren’t tied to her having turned useless.

Sugimoto could have suggested everything else really, like how Ogata might have believed he wouldn’t have the time to get her to tell him a code she hadn’t remembered yet and therefore, instead than letting Sugimoto get her and learn the code from her, he wanted NOBODY to have the code. After all he told Asirpa he believed Ogata was in this just to play around, why not to use this with Tsukishima too?

Why Sugimoto should have done this?

Because regardless of Asirpa having remembered the code or not, it could be better for her if Tsurumi DOESN’T THINK she has remembered because Asirpa might not want to share that info with him or not truly not remembering it.

Sugimoto should remember how Tsurumi stuck sticks through his cheeks to get him to cooperate as well as he had him beaten up.

If Sugimoto doesn’t get her to talk or if Asirpa still doesn’t remember, Tsurumi might not necessarily feel he needs to be kind with her, that’s why it’s imperative Sugimoto makes sure he won’t think Asirpa has remembered. But the problem here lies in how Sugimoto is likely sure she would tell him the code, why shouldn’t she?

So there’s no reason to hide from Tsurumi she has remembered, because Sugimoto can hand to him the code on a silver plate… and maybe I’m just being pessimist but I fear this thing will backfire horribly.

I’ve been dreading the moment Sugimoto would have to keep his promise to Tsurumi from chap 139. We’re at chap 205 and that moment is coming close by the minute… and I’m honestly dreading it because I doubt it will be pretty.

The group has reached Toyohara.

In case you don’t remember it, this is where they met up with the circus during their previous stop to the city.

Tsukishima informs the group Tsurumi needs to finish some business at Noboribetsu hotsprings (remember? It’s the place where we met Kikuta and Ariko and where Toni Anji also was. Usami told Nikaido Tsurumi was heading there) then, two weeks after he’ll finish whatever job he’s handling, HE’LL MEET THEM IN ODOMARI, so they’ve to wait in Toyohara till then.

In case you don’t remember Odomari is in Karafuto as well, it’s the port town on which the guys landed when they came in Karafuto.

Now… this brings forward TWO important questions.

The first is, what Tsurumi has to do in Noboribetsu? Which reminds us, what was toni Anji doing in Noboribetsu? Usami and Nikaido showed up AFTER Toni and his men were there, and the guys weren’t there to check on Ariko and Kikuta as they wanted to erase them as well for being nuisances so what were they up to? Was Hijikata meant to join them? It’s a while we don’t hear from him… Noboribetsu is not that far from where the incident with the gold happened (Asirpa’s Kotan is in Otaru, as everyone knows, the bodies were found in Tomakomai and Nopperabou was caught in Lake Shikotsu).

You can see better Otaru, Tamokomai and Noboribetsu on this map (Lake Shikotsu is the big lake in between Otaru and Tokomai).

Their distance is 49,3 km which, according to google, one can cover by foot in 10 h 6 min.

So is the whole group investigating on that? Have they discovered another lead to the gold? Hard to say.

The second is, why Tsurumi wants them to remain on a standby away from them? Wouldn’t it be safer to keep them in Hokkaido in one of the 7th division’s headquarters?

A possible answer is that in Karafuto, Sugimoto, Asirpa and Shiraishi are mostly cut from whatever support they can receive from other people. Although there are some Japanese and some Ainu, most people talk Russian as well, so it’s harder for Sugimoto to blend in. Harder but not impossible though, as, as I said, there are some Japanese and also there are Ainu with whom Asirpa can talk. True, they aren’t relatives of her but they might still be willing to help her if she were to ask… so… I think chances are low.

Another possible answer is to keep them out of the gold hunt. As long as they’re in Karafuto, unless Hijikata were to go there as well, he can’t reach Asirpa, not Sugimoto can get his hands on other skins unless there are other convicts who escaped there. In short they’re really on a standby.

A third possible answer is Tsurumi can keep them under watch better as he might have spies there. Sugimoto might not feel under surveillance and therefore lower his guard but he might actually be.

A forth possibility is that he’s using Asirpa as a bait for either Ogata or Sofia, thinking they’ll believe it would be easier for them to get their hands on her if she were to be in Karafuto instead than in Hokkaido. I’m not really sure on that one though as Sofia is actually in Russia mainland and Ogata is recovering. Sure, since Tsurumi says he’ll reach them two weeks after he finished whatever business he’s taking care of, there’s more than enough time for Ogata to recover but really, unless Ogata secretly had allies of his own, kidnapping an unwilling Asirpa from a group of 4 amazing soldiers seems a bit above his chances.

A fifth possibility is he’s actually planning something that has to happen in Karafuto and that might include either getting rid of Sugimoto, either by attempting to kill him or by having him arrested and tossed in a jail in Karafuto (not only Sugimoto as a double edged sword as he can turn against Tsurumi but if Sugimoto were to set a foot alive in Hokkaido this would also probably ends up trigging Nikaido who’s under the belief Sugimoto died) or by faking Asirpa’s death there. Noda had fun comparing Asirpa to Jesus but Asirpa can’t really ‘resurrect’ if killed. However if her death was faked it can count as a resurrection. Matthew 21 is the chapter in which Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and starts his final ministry before the Passion. You might view Asirpa coming back to Japanese territory escorted by soldiers as a parallel to Jesus reaching Jerusalem… though actually, if GK parallels Matthew, this would mean we still have a lot to go as Jesus dies in Matthew 27 and we’re only at 21. Also, if Asirpa is assumed to be death, Sugimoto won’t come to her rescue and Hijikata won’t try to get her either.

A sixth possibility, but one in which I believe very little, is that he actually has reasons to keep Koito out of the way. While the idea to send Koito in Karafuto was officially Koito’s father’s, it’s clear it was Tsurumi who talked Koito Heiji into it when he asked the man to carry Sugimoto and Co to Karafuto. Maybe there’s something up Koito shouldn’t know or it could put his loyalty in question (like a plot to have Koito Heiji join his good friend Hanazawa). I doubt it though. Koito Heiji’s allegiance is an useful commodity and, as far as we know, it wasn’t put into question yet.

Back to the story Koito is overjoyed to stay in Toyohara, which is a big town with lots of comforts and sort of takes charge of the situation basically closing Tsukishima’s speech and telling everyone to pass their time as they please.

Long story short, not only Koito seems to have cheered up from the doubts Ogata planted in his mind, but he’s not worrying Sugimoto, now that he had Asirpa back, might consider dumping them.

As a small sidenote it’s worth to mention Shiraishi is still using crutches, which not only limit his mobility but also hints at how the wound he sustained from Vasily was a serious one. It’s interesting how he’s also depicted not close to Sugimoto or the rest. He might be the farther from the group.

The chapter then focuses on Tanigaki and Cikapasi, walking outside the city, possibly going to hunt, and meeting two Ainu. They question Cikapasi on who he is while Tanigaki seems about to swung his rifle off his shoulder.

Cikapasi explains they’re from Hokkaido and Tanigaki is his uncle with big balls, causing the man to laugh and leave them be.

Tanigaki claims since Cikapasi is around people aren’t putting up their guard around them so he thinks it’s a good thing they didn’t send him and Ryu away.

Cikapasi points out pretending they’re family worked well in Hokkaido as well. It’s worth to mention the idea originally had been Inkarmat’s. We didn’t really see it having benefits in Hokkaido but here it does. I wonder if Inkarmat also suggested it because that’s how she included in Wilk’s group when she was a child, because it would make Wilk look harmless. At the same time it hurts me because Cikapasi had already made clear he didn’t want his family to be just a fake one but a real one and yet Tanigaki doesn’t seem to catch the hint this kid doesn’t want just to be useful but to be part of his family.

Cikapasi asks then if Inkarmat is better, to which Tanigaki replies she has and that once they’re back they should go visit her (since Wilk is conveniently out of the picture and he can report to her how he successfully killed Kiro). I guess the idea Inkarmat is better comes from Tsurumi’s telegrams… though it was interesting how Usami and Nikaido instead had no idea how she was.

This means fundamentally we only have Tsurumi’s word she’s better. She might be. Inkarmat is a fortuneteller so she can effectively influence Ainu into supporting Tsurumi. On another side Tsurumi has never seemed to care about having the Ainu support and since Inkarmat is clever and might figure things out, she might discover about him things he might not want to be spread around.

Tsurumi lied to her, after all, claiming Nopperabou SURELY wasn’t Wilk when he actually believed the opposite, and setting her up against Kiro. While Kiro ultimately killed Wilk, Inkarmat might not appreciate having been lied on Wilk’s death or alive status. But, of course, this is if Inkarmat managed to connect the dots.

On the other side we know Ienaga is with her and Ienaga is always litterally hungry for good looking women so… Ienaga might have had her for dinner. We’ll see.

Anyway at that point Enonoka reaches Cikapasi and Tanigaki and asks him worried if he’s going to leave back for Hokkaido, as if she hadn’t been expecting this to happen.

It’s worth to point out Enonoka has been more inclusive of Cikapasi than Tanigaki had been, going so far as giving Cikapasi her father’s hohciri, as if he were part of her family.

She’s clearly an orphan raised by her grandfather and therefore she might have bonded easily with Cikapasi, another orphan who’s about her age… and might have hoped for Cikapasi to remain with her and become part of her family.

Personally I think this would be better for Cikapasi as well.

Tanigaki and Inkarmat are involved in dangerous things and have far too many personal issues to solve to be successful parents for him. I’m afraid though this might not happen and, if the ‘tiger’s curse’ will stuck Tanigaki, it will be through Cikapasi.

Basically, if something happened to Inkarmat while Tanigaki was away pursuing his revenge I don’t think this would serve him as a lesson. He got through it once already and didn’t learn. But if his pursuing revenge were to set Cikapasi on his same path (if something happened to Inkarmat Cikapasi might try to avenge her and fail) and he were to lose him, well this might teach him the mistake he did the first time wasn’t ‘pursuing a wrong revenge and failing’ (Kenkichi mercy killed Fumi and therefore was undeserving of his hate) but pursuing the path of revenge itself, leaving his beloved ones behind.

In chap 154 Cikapasi has talked about how he couldn’t forgive Kiroranke and how he wanted to do everything to track him down and Tanigaki hadn’t talked him out of it.

This means Cikapasi was set on a path of revenge as well, so he can end up doing this if something happened to Inkarmat.

My only problem with this theory is I ABSOLUTELY DON’T WANT SOMETHING TO HAPPEN TO THIS KID.

I like for Cikapasi to be a new hope for the Ainu, same as Asirpa, not being removed out of the picture so Tanigaki can feel miserable. But there’s a fine irony in Cikapasi being named as such, the same word Nihei liked to repeat. Nihei tried to send Tanigaki back to his family, Cikapasi tried to have Tanigaki form a family with him and Inkarmat. They’re respectively the past and the future. Tanigaki might end up failing both as he hadn’t learnt his lesson yet and remain stuck in a present he doesn’t like.

Going on we move to Sugimoto and Asirpa.

They’ve left Shiraishi in the city and are going in the wilderness around Toyohara, clearly hunting.

Asirpa urges Sugimoto to look at something and, resuming his old habits, Sugimoto asks her if it’s poop. They’re wolverine’s tracks instead and, while Sugimoto is worried about it because it’s more ferocious than a bear,

Asirpa decides to hunt for it so they can sample his brain.

Sugimoto complains all brains taste the same but it’s not like Asirpa is paying him any attention.

We see Asirpa starting a fire and praying in an Ainu ritual fashion with a long explanation on how this sort of things work.

Evidently she used to do it before as well, even if we never saw it as Sugimoto remarks that ‘although she’s a new Ainu woman, that kind of ritual is always important to her’.

The implied message is that Sugimoto sees the thing as useless. A modern woman should forsake such a ritual and just hunt, but Asirpa clings to it.

We’ve seen Sugimoto respecting Ainu culture, but his approach isn’t the one of a believer, more of a tourist who sees something folkloristic or that when in Rome does as the Roman do.

The only thing he seemed to have adopted is the ‘hinna, hinna’ sentence.

We know back in the past he has criticized Ainu customs as not something one should believe (see chap 12) and hint Asirpa shouldn’t believe in those as well.

Interesting enough it was in that chapter Asirpa explained us the meaning of her name.

Note that I don’t really hold his lack of belief against him. He comes from another culture and religion. Ainu customs are often tied to a religion he doesn’t believe in and, without belief, any religious ritual seems to be a useless leftover of the past, a waste of time in attempt to please gods that, to the not-believer, don’t exist.

What annoys me is that he’s sort of rubbing it on Asirpa as well.

The implication that a new Ainu woman shouldn’t give importance to an old ritual basically feels like an attempt to discourage her to practice her own beliefs as ‘they’re just old beliefs’.

I like Asirpa’s answer a lot.

She doesn’t just give an answer based on faith, the Gods want us to do this so we do this. She has rationalized the reason BEHIND the ritual. Almost each religious ritual has a rational reason behind it. The reason with time might become obsolete or not but they weren’t born without practical purpose.

Sugimoto saw it as merely a worshipping of gods in which he doesn’t believe but Asirpa points out how entering in the mountains is full of dangers so this ritual helps people staying on their toes.

It’s not a waste of time.

Performing it also remembered her how, due to the invention of matches, the tools for it are used only during this ritual. The tools are part of their traditions though and all of sudden she wonders what she should do to help those tools remain in the future.

Asirpa is realizing something important. The march of progress caused the Ainu traditional tools to become obsolete. Actually it caused EVERYONE’s traditional tools to become obsolete but most of us just walked with the progress and helped to create it. The progress is our child, it’s part of our culture, and we gladly traded fire strikers, bows and chariots with matches, rifles and cars.

Videotapes are a thing of the past as well as analog phones. Only nostalgic people worry  about how to keep those things alive.

Ainu though weren’t among the side of the ones giving birth to matches and such, but among the side who had to adopt them. Sure, they were an usable commodity, Asirpa basically it’s telling us they all use them, favouring them to their old tools, but at the same time they didn’t come from them, they aren’t part of their culture and, actually, are erasing it.

While for us adopting new inventions that come from us feel like the progress, feels as if we’re moving on a stairway toward the future, to her it should feel as if she had to discharge the Ainu stairways to move to another. It’s a broken path, it’s assimilation, it’s not her culture progressing, it’s her culture being erased and replaced by a foreign one abruptly. It must feel terrible, as if her culture were being slowly suffocated and killed out.

Kiroranke’s words about her culture’s life being at risk left their seed in her.

Now Asirpa sees the danger of everything she knows as Ainu being replaced by foreign inventions, of her culture being erased and wonders what she can do to help it remain in the future.

It’s an interesting question.

Kiro and Wilk’s answer was basically to fight away foreigners and create a country just for minorities were they could keep on devoting to their own culture without interferences, basically protecting their culture with frontier borders. It’s interesting though how they realized they would need the gold in order to do this, gold that they could use to buy foreign rifles, clearly not to make more bows and arrows.

In a way it’s as if they have accepted their culture can’t compete with foreign weapons, already accepting it on the losing side, in fact we see them wandering around with rifles, not bows. Asirpa always uses the bow and, despite seeing its shortcoming, she also sees its potential. We’ll see in this chapter how it’s her bow who put downs the wolverines, Sugimoto’s rifle hitting one but failing to kill it.

I think Asirpa is set up to find a very different answer to how to save her culture than the one Wilk and Kiro had thought.

Back to the story, Sugimoto is surprised by her wondering.

Sugimoto has never thought much to which would be the implications of all that was happening for the Ainu.

He thinks by ending the gold hunt he can let Asirpa go back to her lifestyle as if her lifestyle wasn’t already at risk and the wrong people getting the gold (Tsurumi) could put it even more at danger. He’s not really thinking at the future, he’s looking at the world as if trapped in a neverending present… which is also symbolized by how he doesn’t think people can change (who betrays once always betrays, who killed will forever remains a murderer…) and how he’s invested in Asirpa not changing by preserving her purity.

Meanwhile someone is keeping them under watch. It’s Tsukishima who clearly doesn’t trust Sugimoto as far as he can toss him… but he’s not alone. There’s also Vasily who, apparently, decided Ogata might be more interested in pursuing Sugimoto and Asirpa than Shiraishi and now is keeping watch on them.

Tsukishima tells him to go back to Russia, not that he’ll be listened.

I’m curious if Vasily has definitely changed into this ‘sniper burning with obsession for Ogata to finish the fight with him’ or he still has inside himself some of his ‘cold sniper’ persona. We’ll see.

Meanwhile Asirpa and Sugimoto are reached by two weird guys who, according to @osomanga‘s post might very well be Golden Kamuy’s version of Inabata Katsutaro and François-Constant Girel. The pair then inaugurated the cinema in Japan… but it’s worth to mention the real Girel remained in Japan only from 1897 to 1898 while Inabata dropped out of filmmaking and devoted to his business on dying military uniforms. In short, like many other characters, those two are only inspired to real historical figures but they aren’t the same people.

Anyway they reach Asirpa and ask her if she can show them all the ritual from beginning as they would like to film it. They don’t make in time to explain what it means that a wolverine attacks the Inabata look-alike.

While the Girel-lookalike keeps on filming because who cares if his companion is being eaten alive by a wolverine when there’s a chance to film an Ainu in action, Asirpa instruct Sugimoto to throw off the wolverine so she can shoot him with an arrow…

and really I love for Asirpa to have chances to look cool but why not to simply hold the wolverine still as she stabs him with an arrow?

Anyway Sugimoto tosses the wolverine away but another tries to reach them from behind Asirpa. Sugimoto warns her and she turns...

and hit that one. She then smoothly grabs another arrow to hit the one Sugimoto tossed and that’s running toward her...

when Sugimoto shoots the wolverine.

He’s really close so he manages to hit it… though not fatally at all as, as soon as the Inabata look-alike moves close the wolverine tries to attack him again. Asirpa shoots again,

always while the Girel-lookalike keeps on filming and the second wolverine is dead as well.

Well, this showed us Asirpa isn’t carrying any leftover trauma that stops her from using arrows and bows due to her almost killing a man with one of her arrows.

A side of me is glad for her another… is worried. Trauma that stops you from using a weapon also stops you from making the same mistake of shooting that weapons to a person again.

Of course it needs to be overcomes but we don’t see how Asirpa did it, just that she did. If the trauma isn’t overcome properly one can fall into the opposite risk of becoming too trigger-happy for his own good. Now, plot-wise, I like to think this WON’T BE Asirpa’s case but… I don’t know really.

I don’t know what’s inside her.

Sugimoto thinks he has saved her just because Ogata didn’t die but actually he’s again only focusing on the consequence, when it’s the reason behind people’s actions what really mattered in this case.

That’s why, for me, Ogata’s death or not, wouldn’t have made Asirpa less pure, because she never meant to kill him in the moment she shoot and only shoot by mistake.

But if she grows to feel to confident in her bow and arrows she can end up making the same mistake again and again. Ogata isn’t the first person at whom she has tossed her arrows. Next time there might be not an eye to remove.

But well… we’ll see.

Anyway Asirpa gets her wolverine brain to heat and we finally see her eating all cheered up.

ASIRPA isn’t shown saying ‘hinna’ but she asks Sugimoto if the brain is ‘hinna hinna’ so I think this counts something...

...though I just want to see her saying ‘hinna’.

The dynamics are now back on being VERY close to how they were before Karafuto, at least on the surface, though I don’t know if Asirpa is really so okay, or she’s putting up a brave front in consequence of what she heard Sugimoto saying and trying to be the ‘sin erasing person’ he needs her to be.

We know Asirpa wants for Sugimoto to get back to who he was before… so it’s possible by trying to resume what they used to do prior to Karafuto she’s trying to help him her own way… and maybe in the process she’s trying to help herself, to bring her mind away from all that’s weighting her down because there’s really too much weighting on her, and we only see her inner thoughts in very small glimpses so it’s hard to figure what’s in her mind.

If this is her moment of peace… well, I’m fine with it.

Sugimoto turns his attention to the filmmakers who explains they were following the hunt of the men Tanigaki and Cikapasi met but ended up being separated by them accidentally.

Asirpa asks if a film is different from photographs and gets an explanation on how a film work and how they’re recording Ainu culture, which seems to please her.

Back in the past I had a discussion in a chat on how Asirpa can ‘save’ the Ainu.

People criticize Wilk and Kiro’s method and I don’t side with them either but, back then, it was the law of the strongest what ruled. Wilk and Kiro didn’t know any other way to defend the Ainu if not to fight against who oppressed and tried to erase them.

We see that Wilk (and Kiro) acknowledge the system in which unnecessary sympathy has to be discharged in order to survive,

in which burdens has to be discharged to insure survival,

in which what isn’t useful to a pack has to be suppressed.

The fact they acknowledge this system as good basically means to acknowledge that Russia and Japan did a good thing when ‘crushed the Ainu villages in Karafuto’.

Russia and Japan cut away the unnecessary sympathy and freed themselves of burdens.

This means Wilk and Kiro doesn’t want for their people to be acknowledged the right to live and purse their culture because it’s a basilar human right but because they love their people and want it to stop being unnecessary. They don’t want to save the weak, since they too believe in survival of the fittest they want their people to be among the fittest.

This of course means fighting and murdering and doing all they did to show that their side wasn’t the weak one… and mind you, back then this was the only way to allow their side to survive.

But if we stop at this Asirpa’s only way is to pursue her father’s footsteps and become a guerrilla fighter or watch as her culture get erased and her people mistreated.

I wondered if there could be another way for her to pursue.

Now, mind you, I DON’T THINK A CHILD SHOULD BE PUT THROUGH IT, I DON’T THINK A CHILD SHOULD BE LEFT WITH THE DUTY TO SAVE HER OWN PEOPLE.

But that’s the story we’re reading, that’ the role that had been pushed on Asirpa’s character and Asirpa hadn’t signed out from it when Ogata suggested her to just go back to Huci and Osoma and leave Sofia and Kiro to deal with that mess.

It’s clear this hints ASIRPA WANTS TO DO SOMETHING, EVEN IF PUSHING THIS OBLIGATION ON HER ISN’T FAIR AND IT SHOULD BE THE ADULTS THE ONES TAKING CARE OF IT.

I see many people thinking they don’t want for Asirpa to do something because it’s not fair toward a child to have him/her save the day. They’re right. It’s not fair. It shouldn’t happen.

But if Asirpa was merely to be a bystander there was no reason to include her in the plot. Her role is unfair to her, granted, but it’s her role, a role that gets often forgotten.

She’s not in the story just to be a damsel in distress, or the all knowing kid who’s used to just to give info, she’s here to kick asses like the rest of the cast… her own way.

So what can she do? Something that wouldn’t have her fight and kill people?

I wondered if she could just ‘spread culture’.

Fights starts surely because A wants to steal something from B but they’re also supported by hate toward the other, toward who’s different, toward the unknown. We’ve often have little to no simpathy for people we don’t know, who feels different and scary.

After all it was Sugimoto’s way to support himself thinking his opponents were soulless monsters...

...but can you really tell youself that if you know that’s not the case? If you know them and empathize with their cause?

When Sugimoto reaches Asirpa’s village he’s wary of the Ainu and thinks they might be out to gang up against him. Look at how creepy they look to him.

He’s worried Makkanakkuru might try to be hostile to him...

when the man tries to save him from an Amappo. By knowing them he completely changes his view on them...

he warms up to them,

he even sided with them and didn’t want anyone to act disrespectful when they were in the fake Ainu village.

While Sugimoto didn’t embrace the Ainu culture, he warmed up to the Ainu and their ways.

We saw Hijikata planned to use a reporter and photos to spread info about his cause, to influence the public opinion. It’s the big change Ishikawa Takuboku talked about with Shiraishi. Now newspapers, also thanks to the photo, can influence public opinion enough to cause a war between Spain and America.

And now Asirpa is presented with filmmaking who can influence people’s opinion WAY MORE than newspapers.

I think the way Asirpa will decide to pursue will be to save their culture by spreading information about it. Knowledge of her culture spread toward people will stop it from being erased and completely disappear. It’s a different type of fight, compared to the one of his father, one against ignorance.

And I think it’s meaningful Sofia and the other revolutionaries are described as people of culture, who realized Russia’s system was actually damaging it but couldn’t influence the masses, poor and uneducated (one of the things from which Hasegawa understand Sofia is a upper class is she knows how to read and write). Their mistake though isn’t in turning to who wasn’t influenced by the orthodox church, but failing to educate the masses. They didn’t understand the masses couldn’t follow their reasoning and were too busy trying to survive day by day and washed away the matter as them being merely blindly influenced by the church.

In a way Sofia’s revolutionaries were too part of the problem by not fighting to change the situation from inside but by merely taking arms against it and thinking they could bring a change by using strength.

I wonder if the message that Golden Kamuy will push in the end is that education is what really matter, educate people in knowing different cultures, educate people in knowing their own culture and their own situation.

We see that Tsurumi has lot of power EXACTLY because he’s an intelligence officer with lot of information on the others. Tsurumi rules the 7th despite being a mere first lieutenant thanks to the power of the info he has about Lieutenant Colonel Yodogawa.

He’s not ruling the 7th by his physical strength, but thanks to his knowledge. And, as said before, Hijikata too thinks to use newspapers as a mean to win the war… while who has more knowledge on the hiding spot of the gold will find it.

It might be that, among those overly strong guys the message is that what really matters, what causes the world to go round is just this, knowledge. Though I guess it’s too early to say it for sure. We’ll see.

Last but not least, calm chapters like this one are usually the calm before the storm and point at future huge shifts.

The chapters spent at Asirpa’s Kotan (chap 12-14) ended with Sugimoto leaving Asirpa and being captured by Tsurumi, the whole thing ending with Shiraishi joining their group.

The bald eagle chapter (chap 32) was followed by Hijikata robbing a bank and Shiraishi setting himself up on the path that will force him to join hands with Hijikata.

The women season chapter (chap 73) was followed by the event in Yubari who also saw the allegiance between Sugimoto’s group and Hijikata’s group with a mixing of their various elements.

Chapter 108 is for a half calm, but then it signals the start of the whole Anehata arc and Tanigaki joining the group.

The chapter in which they capture the sea turtle (chap 114) is also the prelude to the storm in which Inkarmat and Kiro will be one against the other… and so on and on and on.

Noda gives us the time to catch our breath before tossing us again into the plot. Let’s catch our breath with this chapter then. The plot will likely thicken with the next.