#susupo

Anonymous said:

Greetings. I know this is a strange question, but seeing the way the last arc of this manga has developed.... Do you think the author is speeding up the ending to move on to something else? Or does he don't want the manga to end as an infinite series and is putting his foot on the accelerator, even if it means sacrificing the quality of the writing? It's not a justification, but it's something that started to haunt me after Ogata blew his head off in such a dramatic way.

I’ll start not with my opinion but with some official info.

Q1: Do you already know how you’re going to end the story?

Noda: I know how I want to end it, and there’s not that much left. I want the landing to be akin to one of a gymnastics gold medalist, but I refuse to rush through things and make it ugly just to reach the conclusion, out of both pride as a professional mangaka and responsibility towards my readers. [Q&A corner from the DVD bundle of the 15th volume of Golden Kamuy translation courtesy of @piduai​]

Of course since this is an old interview (Vol 15 came out on September 19, 2018) things might have changed so it’s not really fair to use it as proof that now that almost 4 years are gone he doesn’t want to rush things, however when he released the fanbook (November 19, 2020) he was still caring about the characters having endings that he hoped it would be satisfying for everyone.

Q: Please leave a message for the readers. Or maybe some advice for the troubled youth. Noda: I want people to say that everyone in Golden Kamuy had a satisfying ending, and I want that for everyone involved more than anything. As for advice for the troubled youth, there’s none. Life is survival of the fittest. The weak ones get eaten. [Interview with Noda Satoru from the Golden Kamuy fanbook translation courtesy of @piduai​]

Even in the recently released message about the end of the manga Noda confirmed he would add changes to the volume version and implied that he was working so that everyone would like it.

Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t get the vibe of a person who’s tired and want to rush into a conclusion because he has something else to do, but of a person who’s working hard for his work to be well received.

I might not like the past chapters but I’ve always admired Noda as a mangaka for how hard he works on his manga and I think he’s trying to work hard on it still. The result might not be of my liking but this doesn’t mean it’s because he stopped caring for this manga.

Sure, maybe I’m wrong and naïve but that’s overall how I feel.

I’ll add KamuyCentral’s observation that 314, the number of the final chapter, in Japanese might also be read as ‘Saichi’s death’ (though there’s also a more optimistic option suggested by a Japanese fan).

So what all this mean?

That Noda likely made for “Golden Kamuy” a draft, a script, a plan, something and that his plan was to follow it. This plan might have extended to picking up the final number of chapters beforehand.

So he’s not running?

It really depends on many factors.

Did he really set the story to end at 314?

Let’s assume he did.

So why people get a feeling he’s rushing?

I mean who feels the story is running can point out at the following things:

1) The convicts moved from 24 to 23, although it turned out Kadokura had a tattoo for a total of 24 tattooed beings. It’s possible this was planned beforehand for surprise value but it generates some plot holes in the early premise regarding the convicts (not that Noda cared much about that part as he mostly asked us to suspend our disbelief about it). Regardless, some perceived it as a shortening.

2) Three convicts were introduced one after the other and dealt with at a fast pace when, previously, the story would introduce one convict, deal with him, and move to the next. Again, it could have been done on purpose for a greater showdown in Sapporo (I remember that in robot series they liked to have the robot face 3 enemies at once either around the finale or in some important episode so the 3 convicts being tossed all together might be merely a Japanese trope, nothing more) but it might also have been done to shorten up things.

3) By the way, Jack the Ripper was a historical figure but the way he’s handled is a mess compared to how the manga handled historical figures.

4) Relevant retcon in the volumes clearly hinted to changes of plans in regard to the characters’ characterizations, which made people doubt if the characters’ arc were established before or if they were created as the story went.

5) The way the story was told changed. Before we had many groups which act independently, their actions crossing over and all relevant for the plot. However, although the cast was still divided in many small group, the story slowly started to prefer focusing on 2 groups overall becoming more streamlined and simple to follow, placing into the sidelines the other groups by giving them actions of little to no real relevance to the plot, until everyone converged in one group or the other. Again it can be a choice, but it’s a choice that who preferred the previous structure might not enjoy causing them to think groups are deliberately being neglected.

6) Vasily. While other characters might get neglected, Vasily doesn’t get developed at all to the point some wondered if Noda forgot to draw him here and there, he, basically, has 0 relevant impact on the plot and seems to be there to just get killed. For a mangaka who’s usually awesome at creating and developing characters this feels strange and, if it was a conscious choice, a peculiar one that a good part of the fandom doesn’t particularly appreciate.

7) Ogata. He moves from a character who actively influence the plot to one who’s just in the sideline, his motive felt unsatisfying to a good part of the fandom, a part of his actions feel all of sudden dumb, there’s plenty of things about him that remain unexplained and he took himself out of the plot while the main characters watched, again with basically little to 0 relevant impact to the plot. I’ll go back to him later so for now I’ll stop at this.

8) People had grievances for Vasily, Tanigaki, Sofia, Ushiyama and Hijikata’s deaths for different reasons, not so much because they died but how they died. Vasily died almost offscreen. Tanigaki dies in a blink (if he’s really dead). Sofia’s death was felt by many as unemotional, the reason why she hesitated and was killed by Tsurumi poorly constructed. Ushiyama died by a stroke of bad luck (if the grenade hadn’t, by accident, fallen near Asirpa he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself) and not by Tsukishima’s efforts. Hijikata’s battle is unclear but, again, his death seems to be another case of bad luck with his extremely cool getting up timed in a too convenient manner so that he wouldn’t hurt Koito. This can fall a bit in the ‘in the volume version all those scenes will be expanded but in a chapter of 18 pages it wasn’t possible to do so’ part, and a bit in the conscious effort to keep Koito and Tsukishima safe. Some still wonders if the characters with unclear deaths are actually alive and the unclear death was meant to hide it for surprise value.

9) Asirpa’s black eyes get solved easily and equally easily the characters seem to accept they’ll have to give up on the gold because Asirpa has said so. Sure, it might be this will be developed better later but… sure it’s easy.

10) As the cars are disconnected and only 3 chapters are missing people feel there will be no time to answer all the questions they had and Tsukishima and Koito’s arc will be cut abruptly… which we can’t tell yet for sure but sure the fear is around the net.

11) The story progressing in an overall ‘easy mode’ that uses luck/bad luck and deus ex machina to solve problems quickly instead than having the characters tackle and solve them.

12) Other reasons I completely forgot and for this I apologize to the people who shared them with me.

Sure is… quite a lot and I understand everyone’s concern.

Part of all this might be due to choices, choices which might not have been as appreciated by everyone as Noda hoped or by the page constraints of the magazine and will be fixed in the volumes.

Part of this can be due to miscalculating how many chapters he would need to finish it.

I mean, if you tie yourself to a certain number of chapters, you must plan them in an EXTREMELY CAREFUL manner because you might end up expanding too much a part (maybe to explain better something) and so, to remain in the scheduled number, you might be forced to cut something which Noda maybe thinks to add again in the volume version.

It’s hard to say.

Still this has going on by too long to assume something had abruptly ended and Noda decided to cut the manga short. We might say the Sapporo arc began with chap 224… which was released on December 19 2019. If we go back further to post Karafuto escape… well, we can genuinely say, for something ‘rushed’ Noda still spent years on “Golden Kamuy” instead than have Asirpa being forced to tell the code to Tsurumi in Karafuto and then escaping and meeting up with Hijikata with them realizing how to spot the fake one as well that they’ve enough skins to figure out the place is Goryokaku even if they don’t get Heita, Boutarou and Ostrog’s skins… or just claim Hijikata found and killed them off screen so as to get their skins too into the mix.

So… I don’t know.

Maybe Noda deliberately offered us a ‘summary’ version in the magazine so as to persuade us to buy the more detailed volume version. Maybe he believed a faster pace and a change in storytelling would be more liked. Maybe additions to the story forced him to also do some cuts. It’s really hard to tell.

An endgame is difficult, maybe the most difficult part of the story because readers will demand it to fulfill all the expectations the story has built in them, the longer and more complex the story the more the expectations.

It can be even Noda is aware of this and is using the magazine as a ‘test trial’. We’ll be able to fully judge his story only after the last volume release in July 19, 2022.

For now we can only postpone our judgment to that date.

@howtodestroyacharacter said:

Golden Kamuy will end with chapter 314. Could my doubt that some artistic choices were due to a hasty closure of the series be sadly true? It is possible that for such an editorial choice a story was sacrificed that was so beautiful by "killing" and eliminating some characters in a hasty way and taking them out of their character. I think I have only the fanfictions of good writers left to hope for a more "realistic" ending than what Noda is presenting to us.

Anonymous said:

Well, i actually liked those last chapters, but now with the news that we'll have only 3 chapters until the end i can oficially say that most of the questions that i still have about some characters will not be answered lol. I hope that Noda made at least 1 of those chapters a litte bit bigger than the others so it can fit more resolution for the end, but i really doubt that it will happen so... Anyway, damn, i'm really going to miss Golden Kamuy :(

Well, all that Noda has to ABSOLUTELY include is:

- how the story will deal with Tsurumi

- how the locomotive will be stopped

- what we can call a final chapter, which might tie up some loose ends by telling us which will be the fate of the surviving characters or share additional info and points to ponder or… leave the ending open because this too is a possibility.

Noda is not Toriyama or Arakawa, so the fight between Tsurumi and Sugimoto (and possibly Asirpa) is likely not going to take a lot of chapters even if Tsurumi is the final boss.

To give you a better idea, Kiroranke was killed in 2 chapters and a half, after all, Nikaidou in 1, Sofia… in few panels.

I dare to hope that the story won’t handle Tsurumi’s fate in ‘easy mode’ but that whatever fate will befall to the characters will be the result of their actions, not of good/bad luck (that is unless Kadokura shows up, as Kadokura ultimate weapon is his amazing good luck and we all know about it so, if he were to show up, is reasonable to assume Tsurumi would slip under a banana peel, fall off the train and against a pole on which he would stab himself and die while Kadokura laments his ‘misfortune’ that stopped him from taking part to the battle).

Still, it can be Noda will need only 1 more chapter to deal with Tsurumi… or that he’ll make the fight longer enough we’ll get some of it in each chapter (alongside with Asirpa’s attempts to stop the train).

Therefore yeah, for what Noda really need to do, 3 chapters are enough.

For closing up each loose thread… no, 3 chapters aren’t enough but, at this point, I don’t think he means to do so. He has told the story he wanted to say for all the rest he probably feels ‘But that is another story, to be told another time.’ (quote from “The Neverending story” which deliberately left subplots hanging very often to drive home the point that it is, as the title says, a ‘Neverending Story’).

Anonymous said:

I agree that Ogata should have died in Vol 19 instead of what happened to him in the end.  But I had a thought hit me, that it's possible that Ogata was kept alive for so long not only for plot reasons but also because he's a popular character.  Perhaps because he was so popular that Noda decided to wait to kill him off later (unfortunately in the most contrived way).  What do you think?

Again, I don’t really know if Ogata was really meant to die in Vol 19 and was kept alive till now merely due to popular demand or if the plan was ALWAYS what we saw, that he has to commit suicide in Vol 31.

While satisfy his readership is an author’s duty, it is generally not a good idea to do so blindly, keeping alive a character because readers said so without any plans for him.

Of course if the editor gets involved into said matter and impose the author certain things, the author can either comply or drop the series but… honestly, keeping Ogata alive at the time in which the chapters that will go in Vol 19 were released wasn’t such a huge deal that I think an editor would impose Noda to do so.

“Golden Kamuy” was going strong at the time, sure, part of the readership might have gotten disappointed and this might have seen a decrease in the selling… but it wouldn’t have been probably something so dramatic it would have caused the manga to be forced to end prematurely and, since they would have 12 volumes to recover, it might have even be a better way to deal with the problem (a manga that ends in a dissatisfying manner ends up not being recommended which causes sales to drop permanently as no new chapters will be released that can help readers to change their mind).

So I don’t think Noda went to his editor and said ‘hey, I think to kill Ogata in the next chapter’ and the guy answered him ‘NO WAY! DIDN’T YOU SEE HOW READERS LOVE HIM? HE’S TOO POPULAR! YOU MUST KEEP HIM ALIVE AT LEAST UNTIL THE LAST VOLUME OR ELSE!’

If Ogata was meant to be killed in Vol 19 and then he wasn’t, I want to think it’s because Noda had decided to do something different with him… and then his plan got aborted somehow and he went back on the original track.

We had seen with too many volume releases that differ from the manga version that Noda changes his plans, often for the better, so this might have been just this.

Again I might be wrong. I’m not Noda I’m not really with him as he takes his decisions.

Anyway the reason why I think it would have been better to kill Ogata in Vol 19 is the same due to which I think it would have been better not to have Vasily return. They’re kept in the story for basically doing nothing but going back to Vol 17 (Vasily) & Vol 19 (Ogata).

Vasily is shoot in Vol 17, doesn’t die, comes back in Vol 21 but none of his following actions impact the plot in a way that required Vasily to be there or we would have a drastically different story because some fundamental plot point couldn’t be reached without him.

I mean, if you remove Boutarou the gold coin can’t be recovered but if you remove Vasily you can just tweak a little with the story and it goes on the same way.

Ogata is almost the same. He only makes a really relevant contribution, which is to trigger Koito’s distrust of Tsurumi so that Koito and Tsukishima don’t follow Tsurumi and will probably survive to the train ride of hell (unless their wounds were so severe they’ll die off screen or Nagakura won’t kill them off).

Replacing him in that scene would have been a bit tricky because things in Koito’s kidnapping should have gone differently so that it would have been Tsukishima who would have to inadvertently tip him… or Usami (whom we have discovered likes to run his mouth and reveal things that aren’t probably meant to be revealed) would end up saying something to him out of his jealousy, same as he had done with Ogata.

So yeah, I guess Noda could have put Usami in the kidnapping trio instead than Ogata and Usami might have ended up telling him something… but, well with Ogata the scene worked better.

Then what of Ogata? He recover his sniping ability so he can kill Vasily off and then kills himself.

Sure, okay, he killed Usami but there was no specific need to kill Usami in such way in that precise moment. Usami’s role wasn’t that big that, if he had lived until the Goryokaku siege episode and it was Ushiyama that snapped his neck off the story would have taken a totally different course.

Ogata could just have had his epiphany and die in Vol 19 and we wouldn’t have noticed any big difference. Chap 311 showed Asirpa overcoming what had happened just fine. Actually if Ogata had died in Vol 19 his death would have served the plot better.

In chap 206 Sugimoto, in an attempt from dissuading Asirpa from killing, points out that the Ainu belief that people who kill end up in hell might refer to how the intense guilt stop them from returning to their old self. Although Asirpa knows Sugimoto has been changed from his experiences, she doesn’t know the previous Sugimoto and Sugimoto is still an overall sociable and happy guy for most of the time so Sugimoto’s words might not feel that terrible to her. If however she had seen a man kill himself in front of her out of it she would have had a better idea of what ‘who kills end in (psychological) hell’ means.

Asirpa is a bit of a peculiar character in “Golden Kamuy” as her arc is not plot driven but character driven (her arc is basically a ‘coming of age’ arc with her moving from her innocent self to someone aware of her people’s problem and willing to kill to protect what she loves) so this would have worked well.

But that’s just me. I’m not Noda, I don’t have access to his draft, I can’t see what it said and how many changes it suffered. It can even be that, although he was meant to kill him in Vol 19, Noda too loved Ogata and wanted to keep him until the end.

Not everyone is Conan Doyle and want to toss his characters off a cliff, after all.

And the fact I don’t like how Noda handled it, doesn’t mean everyone feels the same and Noda wrote that ending for him with ill intentions toward him.

I don’t really know, maybe we’ll never know why Noda chose such ending and if Ogata was meant to die in Vol 19 or not. Maybe it’ll be revealed in a Q&A or in an interview. Maybe it’ll remain a secret forever. We’ll see.

@xyamaneko said:

What do you think about the page where huci is singing the lullaby and the part with:

“I’m sure the gods are watching you so that you’ll grow up to be a fine man.”

Is shown while Ogata is sleeping? I mean it clearly meant something and I always thought this was to show that he would have some sort of redemption but in my opinion it was never shown?? Now he is dead while everybody hated him.

Any opinions on that?

The reason why Ogata is a controversial character is because his arc has conflicting points.

Some readers watch his arc, see points that are typical of the redemption arc and think ‘it has to be a redemption arc’.

Some readers watch his arc, see points that are typical of the story of the minor bad guy that get killed by the hero for his crimes and think ‘it has to be a justice arc’.

It’s not that one side is making up things, Ogata’s arc is rich of conflicting elements so that both sides, when deciding to write meta about their views, often have to work a lot to give a sense to all they see without slipping in the easy ‘let’s dismiss what doesn’t fit with my theory’.

Ultimately, what we got was neither the ‘redemption arc’ nor the ‘justice arc’ but just a ‘self destruct arc’ that, according to many, didn’t really answer fully to all the things observed about him.

The split in the fandom, with people still trying to fit this arc in their previous views, and the countless takes that are being created by fans as we speak to explain why we got to a ‘self destruction arc’ despite people thinking we would either get a redemption or a justice arc, can be a hint that something didn’t work the way it should have because the ‘solution’ we had to the mystery that Ogata was didn’t cause the fandom to come to an agreement but only split it further.

Maybe Noda originally was uncertain between the ‘redemption arc’ and the ‘justice arc’, hence elements of both were included in the story, then decided a ‘self destruct arc’ was a ‘fair’ compromise between the two sides.

Maybe things will be better cleared up in the volume version.

Or maybe we’re missing elements because we don’t belong to his target audience.

I don’t know.

The elements and tropes we, as readers, are bound to pick up are tied to our culture and our experiences. We aren’t his target audience therefore our readings can be as different as WE are different.

Surely, ultimately, the words “I’m sure the gods are watching you so that you’ll grow up to be a fine man” ended up not being foreshadowing, quite the opposite.

It can be that Noda wanted to create a conflict, to show that, differently from Sakamoto’s son, Ogata, who was a child who wasn’t born by parents who loved each other, wasn’t ‘watched by the gods and so he didn’t have the chance to grow up as a fine man’. After all the previous bit talked about how the kid’s parents were working hard to fed him, so more than a song about gods watching over you, is a song about your parents caring about you, which is something Ogata didn’t have. Ops, no, wait, chap 310 said maybe they did love each other for a short time… not that Ogata could benefit of it. But I’m digressing.

There’s probably some cultural aspect in that blessed thing and gods watching, but I’m not that knowledgeable of Japanese customs at the moment.

I could spend hours watching that double spread as it’s one of my favorite and make a deeper analysis of it but I get that’s not what you’re really asking.

I don’t really know what to say on that regard.

Although a part of the fandom loves the chapter in which Ogata dies, the other is disappointed, to put it mildly, each person for their own reasons. If it can be of some comfort, you’re not alone in being disappointed in how Ogata’s arc ended.

I’ll discuss your points one by one if it’s okay with you.

1) I love GK, but like most mangas, good female characters scarce.

“Golden Kamuy” has, comparatively, a much smaller female cast than a male one. However this is not because it’s a manga, it’s because “Golden Kamuy” is a seinen, a manga aimed at adult Japanese men between the ages of 18 and 40 and, sadly, it seems this kind of target audience has made clear they aren’t that interested in female characters, beyond the ones who are written to exist to support the male cast.

If you’re interested in manga with a bigger or a better female cast you might consider trying shōjo or josei manga, which are aimed at female readers.

Sadly in almost all the countries of us western readers, the manga that get more imported are shonen (aimed at young boys) so the general impression is that manga as a whole have a scarce female cast.

I’m not saying so to excuse shonen or seinen, this is just a characteristic of their genre and, since their target audience is often not interested in a better female cast, I fear things aren’t going to change.

2) Inkarmat and Sofia are the only two developed female characters; Asirpa's character is currently indistinguishable from the standard stock heroine.

Now... for a Seinen, “Golden Kamuy” has a decent female cast, with females that are different among them for age, race, interests and characteristics and who often try to be in control of their own lives.

Yes, they’re all females who, one way or the other, are tied to the male cast because the male cast is the real main character, as, as said before, this is a work that aims at male readers and male readers want to identify with male characters but, at least, female characters are different among them and, although way too many of them are minor characters, many of them are developed. Development isn’t necessarily measured in how much pages you’re given but in how much of you (your story, your character, your goals) is developed. Many female characters have this.

Let’s go through them starting from Asirpa:

ASIRPA: Main character along with Sugimoto. I wouldn’t say she’s the standard stock heroine more than Sugimoto is the standard stock hero. She has, of course, some character traits who’re mandatory for the action heroine, she’s intelligent, mature and capable well beyond what would be expected for someone her age. Her character arc is one of growing up, because she’s a child and this is the sort of character arc you usually give to a child, but she isn’t just ‘growing up’ as in ‘becoming more mature’ she’s growing up in the sense she becomes aware of the Ainu and the other minorities problems and how hard it is to solve them, she’s also growing by learning tragically what a war means, what it means to watch people you care about die all around you, what it means to have your life threatened, to have the lives of the people you care about threatened, if it’s easy or not to pull a trigger. Her non violent beliefs are challenged as she is asked more and more to decide if she wants to fight or to keep on not killing people. Men around her, starting from her own father, are also killed as a plot device for her grown.

KENMOCHI UMEKO: Sugimoto’s love interest and childhood friend. She challenged her family by still getting near Sugimoto despite his family situation and was willing to go with him when he considered escaping. We don’t know why ultimately she married Toraji, might be to forget Sugimoto, might be because he loved her more than Sugi, but when she did she was firm in her purpose and didn’t walk out of it or mourned her fate once Sugimoto came back. She made clear she would stay with Toraji. And she also doesn’t remarry despite social pressure and the fact she’s losing her sight.

SUSUPO: Asirpa’s grandmother. She’s caring and nurturing with everyone, Tanigaki included but she’s also strongly tied to old female roles. However, when Asirpa beats Sugimoto up, she doesn’t scold her and even though she believes Asirpa would be better married she doesn’t try to force her but let her free to live her life.

OSOMA: Asirpa’s very young cousin who knows how to speak Japanese. She’s friendly, gets a crush on Tanigaki and then grows out of it.

NIHEI’S FEMALE POPULATED FAMILY: Although we don’t really see them beyond Nihei’s first born daughter, we learn Nihei’s wife is tough and scary and that Nihei had to babysit his own daughter.

They survive, differently from Nihei only male son who dies... same as Nihei himself.

KIRORANKE’S WIFE: Although Kiro didn’t love her as much as Sofia it’s implied he loved her. She’s tough enough to manage even when Kiro is out and can count on the support of her siblings in case things are too hard.

HIDORO’S WIFE: Cruel, tough and clever, she’s the real boss in the family. She got ambitions, when she can’t get pregnant from her husband she’s not afraid to question HIS fertility instead than blaming herself, and even concedes herself a lover. She’s not a positive character but she’s basically the opposite of Huci.

CHIYOKO: She’s the damsel in distress of “Golden Kamuy” and the opposite to Hidoro’s wife. She looks kind and gentle. Lover to Hidoro Tamotsu, she however falls for Shinpei and gets pregnant from him. She’s willing to leave with him to make herself a new life.

INKARMAT: Strong willed, clever and manipulative, she’s not afraid to travell alone through Hokkaido or cooperate with Tsurumi, betraying the rest of the group. Yes, she can’t grow out of her childhood crush for Wilk, but, at least, she’s the one who’s in charge when she decides to spend the night with Tanigaki and, differently from Tanigaki, can plan things. She’s also generous and motherly with Cikapasi but she’s not afraid to attack Kiro when she believes he’s involved in Wilk’s death or to place herself in front of Tanigaki when Tsukishima threatens to kill him. She can read the mood and doesn’t reveal how Koito stole Nikaidou’s hand but use it to affirm her authority and get money from Koito.

EDOGAI’S MOTHER: Abusive and manipulative to the point she castrated her own son so that he wouldn’t become like his father, managed to traumatize Edogai so much that, when she dies of heart attack, he keeps her alive by turning her into a stuffed corpse.

TANIGAKI FUMI: She marries the one she loves and is beloved by her family. When she falls sick with smalllpox her actions are similar to the ones of Sugimoto’s father, she doesn’t want the village to be infected and wants her husband to leave her and find happiness.

TANIGAKI’S MOTHER: She falls into depression due to her daughter’s death and Tanigaki leaving the family and, ultimately, dies.

SISTER MIYAZAWA: Although she wasn’t a beauty to Kumagishi she was so lovely he kept her printed in his own memory. She’s tough enough to travel from male prison to male prison to offer her services as counselor.

MONOA AND THE OTHER AINU WOMEN: Although they ended up prisoners of the fake Ainu and forced to cooperate with them they tried challenging them by trying to ask for help to Sugimoto’s group and when they could they even fought the fake Ainu personally, killing some of them.

O-GIN: Deranged criminal, madly in love with Sakamoto, she’s not even afraid of Tsurumi.

OGATA TOME: Ogata’s mom, madly in love with Hanazawa. However, as her love isn’t returned she gets insane and lives in a delusion until her son poisons her. She’s kind of the opposite of O-gin.

OGATA’S GRANDMOTHER: As far as we know it’s her and not her husband the one who took back home Ogata and his mom and raised him. Ogata was so fond of her he couldn’t kill Huci because she reminded him of her.

ENONOKA: Karafuto Ainu kid. She’s the one who deal with Koito when he rents her grandfather’s sleds and dogs. She knows Japanese and she can count and handle business. She goes with Cikapasi when they’ve to retrieve the dog and cooperates with him to come up with a plan to retrieve it.

HARUMI CHIYO: She was willing to marry Tsukishima but disappeared short before he came back from war. Tsukishima believes she killed herself out of grief for his death, instead she merely accepted to marrying another man since she believed Tsukishima to be dead.

YOUICHIROU’S WIFE: Beloved by him, according to him helped him to become human again, giving him peace. She loved him back and gave him a bird beak so he would always remember Nemuro, even when far. They were living peacefully when a man took her hostage because he had a grudge on him. He killed the man and was arrested. When he escaped he came back to her because she had fallen ill and was about to die, remaining with her till she died and only then he left their kotan and clearly lost his will to live.

SOFIA: Although she’s a noble she’s also a revolutionarian who can fight on par with Gansoku, shoot and plan the murder of the emperor. Beloved by her men, for whoms he care and who doesn’t get behind, she has a motherly side. Kiro falls for her and will always love her but she falls for Wilk and will always love him... though she wanted to avenge Kiro when he was killed.

HASEGAWA FINA AND OLGA: Tsurumi’s beloved wife and daughter. While Olga is too young to do anything else but being loved, Fina loved Tsurumi and was loved back. Tsurumi spoke with her and, differently from him, she could pin why Sofia couldn’t learn Japanese. He believes she was smart enough to figure out he was a spy yet remained with him anyway, actually, when she believed he was in trouble she came back for him despite the danger and ended up killed with her daughter.

SVETLANA: Leaves her family because she wants to see Saint Petersburg, gets arrested, escapes, gets found by Tsukishima but decides she won’t go back home so she travels with Gansoku proving she know how to use a rifle.

KOITO YUKI: Not much is know except she’s a proper woman who worries a lot for her own son.

RIRATTE: Asirpa’s mom who died short after Asirpa’s birth. She gave Wilk his name and she was cheerful and bright, capable to make funny faces and be strong spirited. Wilk loved her a lot.

NORIKO: Assuming she was as Heita portraied her she likes to seduce/play with men and she’s easily bored.

HANAZAWA HIRO: Although she’s also a proper Japanese lady she’s not shy to try to plot behind her husband’s back to try to spare Yuusaku from becoming a flagbearer. In a way she’s the opposite of Koito Yuki who instead passively accepts for her sons to become soldiers.

KANEKO KAEKO: Upperclass girl in a rush to get married due to social pressure. She’s willing to sleep with ‘Yuusaku’ to force him to marry her. She likes good looking men but she’s so impressed by Sugimoto’s bravery that, despite understanding he’s a nobody, she would be willing to marry him instead than Yuusaku. She’s an excellent student, marries a big name in the world of finance and dedicates her energies nursing men who were back from war and helping their widows.

KANEKO’S MAID: She’s very supportive of Kaeko but also makes that beautiful speech you can read above so she gets a mention.

There’s more females, I know I’ve skipped a bunch because they were minor but the ones I mentioned, despite often being minor, still are all different one from the other, and, often, in charge of their own fate. Although they’re almost all tied to men, many of them are not subservient to them, but this doesn’t mean they all fall into the action girl trope.

It’s much, much more than what other male authors do with their female cast.

Is it a dream cast, the representation females wants? Hell no, but, at least, there’s an attempt at making them people. Yes, they’re often tied to the male cast or in service of it, but that’s also typical of this genre.

None of them is sexualized despite some of them being sexy or having sex. For each of them Noda though to a different character design. Noda tried to make them characters with their own wishes, histories and personalities.

Again, it’s far from perfect, but this’s not the story I would pick up for poor female representation.

3) When Inkarmat and Asirpa had that conversation on the lake, I was hoping they'd talk about anything other than... oh well they talked about Wilk, sigh.

It’s true that to pass the Bechdel test a story should have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something other than a man but the main topic of this story are men.

Everyone and their mom has talked with Asirpa about Wilk, we had Hijikata, Sugimoto, Ogata, Shiraishi, Tsurumi and so on doing it, because Wilk was a huge topic of interest. If the characters aren’t talking about Wilk, Sugimoto’s group is talking about Tsurumi, because he’s chasing them and he’s a rival in the gold hunt, and, if they’re not talking about Tsurumi, they’re talking about Hijikata or of another adversary/member of the group who, incidentally, is male.

It’s worth to mention though, that in their first discussion Asirpa and Inkarmat talked about Inkarmat’s predictions and how Asirpa didn’t believe in them.

Also, Inkarmat talked with Huci about Asirpa being in danger, Asirpa talked with the Ainu women in the fake Ainu village about the Osoma, Svetlana talked with Sofia about Saint Petersburg, Asirpa talked with Enonoka about the differences between minorities while Yuusaku’s mom told Kaeko her experience as a nurse.

It’s all minor because it’s often not really that relevant in the plot because this is a story about men, so they’re what’s relevant but still they can have conversations about something else.

4) Also that recurrent trope of killing off female characters as plot drivers for male characters is starting to grate. What do you think?

The first character killed as a plot driver is Toraji. Then we’ve Wilk (who’s first assumed dead and then dies for good) and who’s a plot driver for 3 female characters (Asirpa, Inkarmat, and Sofia) as well as male characters since his death affected them too... only not so emotionally, more on a practical side. We’re told Sugimoto’s father is the last to die in his family and this triggers him to leave his village (which ties in with the discussion Sugimoto and his father had in whcih his father encouraged Sugimoto to do so). Then we’ve Youhei. Then there’s the bear trio (sort of, they more tip Tsurumi on how he has a rebellion in his ranks and trigger some other events so more than plot drivers for male characters they’re just plot drivers). Then Nihei. Henmi’s maddness is caused by his brother’s death. And then many other men until, finally, Fumi gets killed.

Characters can be killed off in order to be plot drivers for other characters. This is what makes a story. The real problem comes not when a female met this end (females can die and it would be tragic if men were to remain unaffected by their death) but when ONLY females met this end or when the scale is tipped so that plenty of females die for this, while only 1 or 2 males do.

5) What do you think?

I think “Golden Kamuy” is a seinen and that if I want to read it I must be aware of the characteristics of this kind of manga which, among other things, are that it’s a story that panders to a male readership so the female cast will be scarce and aimed at supporting the male one.

I think that “Golden Kamuy” if viewed as a story targeted to general audience instead than just to males, is definitely not perfect, that due to this there’s no balance between female representation and male one, that often females are in the story merely because their story is connected to the male cast (they’re love interests, wives, daughters) and that the fact that we’ve plenty of male protagonists force them to focus on the males.

I think that sometimes Noda ends up including ties to males that aren’t really necessary, like Asirpa’s crush for Sugimoto or Osoma’s crush for Tanigaki, or how Sofia felt obliged to carry on Wilk and Kiro’s goal (instead than doing it to help Asirpa or to help her people) and ultimately felt guilty toward Tsurumi to the point she let him shoot her and needed him to absolve her.

I think sometimes he just ends up letting himself influence by popular tropes (like how everyone fall for the main character) and this caused him to make choices who weren’t really that needed by the plot but, since they’re part of the genre... he just included them.

So yeah, I’m not always happy with what happens in “Golden Kamuy”, as who read my meta knows, sometimes I protest loudly about things I don’t like (see, for example, Sofia’s death scene).

However I try to give it credits when it’s due.

This is just me though, everyone is entitled to see things the way they prefer.

in the manga the first person we hear calling Tanigaki “bear cub” was Ogata, but that was because Tanigaki ended up in a bear cub cage.

We’ve no idea if someone else did it before Ogata as there’s a time skip between the moment Tanigaki was free and the moment he ended up in the cage but later, when Tanigaki will be freed, we’ll hear Kirawus also calling Tanigaki ‘bear cub’ even though he wasn’t around to hear Ogata referring to him as such.

So it’s entirely possible Tanigaki was referred as such when he was put in the cage by someone who wasn’t necessarily Ogata or Kirawus, and they merely continued to refer to him as such.

Now... considering the circumstances in which the nickname is bestowed upon Tanigaki, I don’t think Ogata is using it in an endearing manner.

Since you don’t seem to know about this arc (which isn’t included in the anime but was partially recovered in an OAD, the 4th one) I get the feeling you might be an anime viewer only so I’ll summarize it a bit.

Ogata and Tanigaki’s previous meeting saw them fighting each other when Ogata assumed Tanigaki found out Tamai and Co were rebels and murdered them (the murderer was actually a bear... though the one who triggered the murder was actually Sugimoto).

During the fight Tanigaki managed to get a bear to attack Nikaidou. Ogata decided to save Nikaidou which meant to let Tanigaki know his position. In a scene that resembles the much more famous scene from “Per un pugno di dollari” (A fistful of dollars) although Tanigaki shoots Ogata straight to his heart, the latter comes out unhurt (he was protecting himself with the binoculars) and find out where Tanigaki is. However, as Tsurumi joins the fray, Ogata is forced to escape.

In their new meeting Ogata had all the intentions to murder Tanigaki after finding out if he was sent there by Tsurumi and what stalls him is merely the mention Tanigaki is there so as to try to help Huci, against which Ogata is weak as she reminds him of his own grandmother.

Anyway nothing is done as the Ainu get in between Ogata and Tanigaki. That’s because Tanigaki is suspected of having sexually abused and killed various animals (the culprit was actually a tattooed convict) and the Ainu wants to punish him for this so they capture him and put him on ‘trial’, Ogata just watching the whole thing. Sugimoto and Asirpa gets in between as well, promising they’ll capture the true culprit as they claim Tanigaki is innocent.

As a result the Ainu give them 3 days of time before they’ll punish Tanigaki. In the meantime, so as to hold him captive, they’ll put Tanigaki in a bear cub cage.

Asirpa asks Ogata to protect Tanigaki but Ogata isn’t interested, claiming Tanigaki killed his companions. Sugimoto will counter it wasn’t Tanigaki but a bear who did the deed.

Ultimately Ogata will agree to help and, when it’ll seem Sugimoto and Asirpa were late, will make Tanigaki escape. They’ll be chased by the Ainu and stumble into the true culprit busy sodomizing a bear.

Needless to say Tanigaki is discharged from all the accusations but he won’t be grateful to Ogata for the help and the two will never be in an amicable relation, although they’ll be forced to work together till Abashiri... but this isn’t really surprising as it seems they weren’t in friendly terms not even before the whole gold hunt started, though, since Ogata was higher in ranks, Tanigaki had to obey him.

So that’s the story.

We don’t know if it was Ogata who gave Tanigaki the nick but it was surely not meant to be endearing since it referred to Tanigaki being jailed in a bear cub cage.

Said all this, if you hadn’t done it already, I encourage you and everyone who’s just an anime viewer to read the manga as you’re missing out some really great stuff.

...the scene of his ‘resurrection’ was so underwelming it’s okay if you forgot it.

But, if it’s okay for you, I want to use this ask to catch the change to talk a little about Tanigaki.

Now... this is not a ‘let’s praise Noda’ post, so if the idea I might be displeased with how he handled Tanigaki bother you, I’ll recommend quitting reading here.

So, Tanigaki.

I’ve seen many complain about how Ogata’s arc was handled, about how Koito and Tsukishima’s arcs were handled, about how Hijikata’s arc was handled, about how Sugimoto and Asirpa’s arcs were handled... but few talk about Tanigaki.

People who use to hang around my blog know he has been one of my fave characters.

Why?

Because Noda in the beginning tied to him a lot of interesting themes and ideas.

Tanigaki is a man who decided to avenge his sister... and in the process he discovered his wish for revenge was misplaced and lost his mother as well. He was ashamed of his mistake and couldn’t find the guts to go back home, sohe let himself be persuaded by Tsurumi’s honey laced words to remain in Hokkaido and support him.

Tanigaki is persuaded to be very righteous and, as a result, looks down on others.

He looks down on Nihei (and his father) because he uses an old rifle, only to learn to admire him and his philosophy, he looks down to the rebel group for betraying Tsurumi... but he basically doesn’t want to go back to the 7th and, fundamentally deserts. He uses Asirpa as a human shield claiming she’s involved in the gold hunt and therefore can’t possibly be innocent... although, unknown to him she saved his life and will do it again. She believes to be righteous... but wanted to shoot Kenkichi in the back. He needed Cikapasi to persuade him to save Inkarmat when she was threatened by more than one man.

So Tanigaki has plenty of flaws... but exactly for this and because he doesn’t mean back, he had an enormous potential for growth.

As this wasn’t all he inherited Nihei’s phylosophy of the single shot, which might be applied in real life as well, ‘you don’t have a countless number of choices/options, so you’ll better act as if you don’t have countless chances but if you screw up things, you lose, weight carefully your options, decide and act with confidence in your choice on which you’ll bet everything you got.

It’s... a lot for a character who seemed to be a simple side character.

And Noda seemed to plan to capitalize on all this.

Tanigaki grows, he learns to look up at Nihei, he starts applying his phylosophy to his life. Although at first he’d only like to send Cikapasi back, he then starts caring about him, in order to not involve Inkarmat and Cikapasi in the Anehata mess he escapes alone and doesn’t try to attack the Ainu but tries to discuss things pacifically.

Although his quest to bring Asirpa back to Huci was also a way to stall going back home and facing his father, the fact he connected Huci to his mother seems to hint he now is more prone to face the fact it was also his actions who hurt her.

He prays for Nihei the way he wasn’t able to do for the Russian soldiers he killed.

I mean... you can smell growth, character arc, evolution, development.

The complicate relation with Inkarmat, that we know is using him and lying to him but is a complicate person herself who’s starting to grow feelings for him and for whom you can smell a character arc as well because she wants to get free of her Wilk-obsession and is starting to think her predictions aren’t fixed in stones, the fact that Kiroranke saves them both, which would put Tanigaki into the position of owning to Kiro... and then the mess that’s Abashiri, Inkarmat getting wounded and Tanigaki... leaving her in Tsurumi’s hands to chase after Asirpa because he wants to return her to Huci while Sugimoto’s first words are he’ll murder Kiro and Ogata...

There’s SO MUCH POTENTIAL!

And then... it ends.

Tanigaki attacks Kiroranke with the clear intention to avenge Inkarmat, whom Kiroranke stabbed by mistake (he threatened her with his knife yes, but she caused him to fall while holding such knife, ending up on stabbing her by mistake).

Tanigaki didn’t talk things over with him, in the same way as he didn’t want to talk things with Kenkichi, even though he owned his life to Kiroranke. And Sofia has tossed in, not many chapters before that who kills a tiger (Kiro’s real name means tiger) lives a life of misfortune.

Tanigaki has no regrets for being part of those who murdered Kiroranke.

At this point if te message of what happened to Kenkichi was that it was wrong to leave behind people to pursue revenge and people often only had one single shoot in life... well, I expected things would turn sour for Tanigaki.

Because he had done the same he did with Kenkichi, he left behind someone (Inkarmat) to pursue revenge against someone who wasn’t exactly a brutal murderer.

But... no, this wasn’t the case.

Cikapasi leaves his found family to form another of his own with Enonoka (at least this is the implication even though Cikapasi is around 9 and I didn’t really like the idea but I guess Noda was testing how people would react to SugiRipa with him) and Tanigaki leaves to him Nihei’s rifle, but it’s not really something that looks like a loss for Tanigaki.

As Cikapasi is out of the way Tsurumi can’t use him to blackmail Tanigaki who doesn’t even need Nihei’s rifle.

Noda said he even believes it’s better if Tanigaki and Cikapasi never met again without clearing up why.

Cikapasi is just left out of the story so Tanigaki can start a family with Inkarmat who, not only survived but was pregnant and her baby survived and she’s about to have Tanigaki’s baby.

We might think Tanigaki will now be called upon his behaviour toward the 7th, which he left and came back ot it at his own convenience and then plans to desert again under the ‘I’m a Matagi not a private first class’ excuse.

I mean, Tsurumi this time makes clear he can’t come and go as it pleases, threatening to hurt Inkarmat and his about to be born child if he doesn’t murder Sugimoto... but overall Tanigaki has it easy.

He doesn’t get brutally beaten up like Ariko was, nor he’s guarded by someone.He’s left free to wander ON HIS OWN.

Tanigaki claims he can’t kill someone in cold blood but, more importantly, that he doesn’t believe Sugimoto can be killed and if he were to do so (completely forgetting Sugimoto is another person who saved his life) Asirpa would be griefstriken and Hucimight not be happy at getting her back in such state... completely forgetting Huci won’t get her back, because Tsurumi has made clear, not much ago, he planned to trap Asirpa.

He considers pretend to search for Asirpa, but then decides he’ll try to go and see Inkarmat, and, since Inkarmat is smart, set up things so that he could find her. Then thanks to Ienaga’s sacrifice (forwhom Ienagawill get no thanks from Tanigaki), they escape from Tsukishima (whose attention Tanigaki attracted) and thanks to Koito who stops Tsukishima, neither him not Inkarmat or Huci or someone else gets killed.

Now, okay, Tanigaki too did something during the escape, but it was made clear without Ienaga and Koito they wouldn’t make it.

In short Tanigaki got his happy ending with Inkarmat and his baby more thanks to others than to himself. He didn’t get it for something he had learnt through his character arc, it’s a happy ending he didn’t deserve because it’s not like he learnt to avoid his past mistakes or repented for them. And all this works fine to keep him out of the main plot without affecting it in the slightest while what had happened ipreviously is never discussed.

Tanigaki has killed Kiroranke out of misplaced revenge and somehow this became a good thing. He never learn Kiro didn’t mean to harm Inkamart. All the theme about feeling guilt when you kill someone?

Never mind it, Ogata was right, if you believe you’ve a good reason for it, you won’t feel guilty at all.

But then Noda decides Tanigaki has to be part of the final chapter his role being ‘Asirpa-catcher’. In fact Noda makes sure Asirpa almost falls off a bridge so Tanigaki can catch her and then, after pushing him off the train so he won’t be involved in the action, at the end of the train ride, he has him came back as if nothing was wrong and has Sugimoto toss Asirpa to him so he can catch her again.

Oh, we might add his supposed death gave Asirpa further trauma but really, I think without it she would have had trauma enough.

And that’s all he does, a role cut for him so he can be around for the final arc.

We don’t see him retuning Asirpa to Huci, we don’t see him confronting with his father and telling him how Fumi died as Kenkichi asked him to do so long ago. We just learn he moved in Ani with Inkarmat and had15 kids but, differently from Nihei who had 1 male son and 14 girls, he had 14 boys and 1 girl.

And that’s it.

A character that started so promising because he carried forward so many interesting themes ends up not learning anything, not solving anything but just getting a happy ending because he’s lucky and Tsurumi didn’t shoot him down when he made clear he wanted to leave the 7th, he didn’t lose Inkarmat and his child when he left them behind, he was helped by Ienaga and Koito when Tsukishima tried killing him and ultimately Tsurumi even messed up in shooting him because it didn’t harm him at all.

It’s not that I wanted a sad ending for Tanigaki, he was one of my fave characters, I wanted a happy ending for him... but one he earned by learning or correcting his mistakes or by fighting for it. Not because everything went in his way despite his mistakes.

So for me it’s a bit more than Tanigaki’s supposed death than then wasn’t a death was unnecessary. His whole role (and Inkarmat’s) post Karafuto felt unnecessary, just a way to give him a happy ending, but not supported by themes or character growth.

If Tsurumi has killed Tanigaki in Karafuto and Inkarmat had died due to her wound nothing would have changed.

Tsukishima and Koito could have had their confrontation in another circumstance... or not at all, since in the end they’ll just follow Tsurumi and won’t go against him.

As for the Asirpa catching thing, Noda could have avoided having her fall the first time and, for the second, Shiraishi might have stolen Nagakura’s horse and caught Asirpa himself. No need for Tanigaki at all.

And instead I wanted us to need Tanigaki, the same way we needed him through the previous arcs. I wanted him to matter and I wanted him to go through his story be one with a happy or a sad ending, through his own power and actions.

But after Karafuto he became another of those characters that ended up feeling unnecessary to the story.

So well, sorry for the long rant, this is not what you were asking for, but it made me sad to see one of my beloved characters become useless to the plot, the themes tied to him forgotten.

But whatever, that’s the ending we got and, by now there’s nothing we can do about it.

A PREMISE

This is another of my analysis about how Tsurumi used a ‘perverted version of love’ which is Dante Alighieri’s way to refer to the capital vices, to manipulate men to serve him and kill for him, the first one dealing with Tsukishima Hajime and his main vice, Acedia.

In the premise for that one you might find a more detailed explanation on how I came to wonder ‘can it be to depict how Tsurumi used love to manipulate his men, Noda also took inspiration by the capital vices?’ if you’re curious about it.

So, here ends the, this time very short premise and back to Nikaidō we go, and to the vice that caused his downfall, a vice that can be compared to a consuming fire, Ira.

What’s Ira, some of you might wonder?

Well, many of you probably know it by the name of ‘wrath’ and yes, you would be, more or less, spot on.

IRA

The etymology is dubious, but Ira is fundamentally a state of uncontrolled anger, rage, and even hatred, which manifests itself in violent actions, in the wish to seek vengeance and which may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. So yeah, you can translate it as ‘wrath’ as the meaning is more or less the same.

Now, before we start we’ve to remember that there’s a huge difference between getting angry and indulging in the vice of Ira.

Sometimes we need to get angry, sometimes it’s even the right thing to do, we should get angry at certain things… but we shouldn’t let the anger take control of us, until it’s all we can feel.

And we should remember that what turns anger into the vice of Ira isn’t if it’s justified or not, it’s if we lose control of it or not, if we overindulge in it or not.

This point is often missed but it’s valid for all the capital vices.

Being proud, not spending money easily, feeling physical attraction, loving a special food, getting angry, thinking someone is unfairly favoured or deciding to not care about something, isn’t necessarily ALWAYS a despicable capital vice.

Those are all things one actually needs to do, things that are part of being humans, things that, if we don’t do, might produce more harm than good, but in moderate, controlled amounts, otherwise, if we lose control of it, if that’s all we can think and rules our actions… well, that’s us indulging in a capital vice and letting it consume us, and Ira is maybe the most consuming one of them all, it’s a killing thing that turns people into a beast, blind them and devours them, burns them alive and consumes everything until it’s too late.

But to better get things into perspective let’s dig into Nikaidō Kōhei, the ‘Fukushū no futago kataware’ (復讐の双子片割れ “Twin bent on revenge”) and how amazing Noda’s portray of him was.

“All I care about is killing that fucker Sugimoto Saichi as soon as humanly possible!” [Chap 45]

Whoa, calm down, let’s slow down and start from the beginning, okay?

PART 1 INTRODUCTION: THE TWIN MINIONS

The first time we see Nikaidō is in chap 15.

He’s a character who’s with us by long time, and he too, like Tsukishima, at first seems to start like a nameless minion, a mob character inserted in the story to do Tsurumi’s bidding, but with a peculiarity Tsukishima didn’t have, there’s two of him.

Nikaidō, the Nikaidō I will be talking about, is the older of a pair of twins, his name is Kōhei and his younger brother is named Yōhei, their names divided just by a kanji… but, since at the beginning the two siblings are seen as a single unit, I will talk a bit about them both.

Physically they look EXACTLY the same and, since they’re both wearing a military uniform, this makes even harder to distinguish them.

To a fan who asked how to recognize who is who among them Noda replied.

Q37: Please tell me how to distinguish between the Nikaidō twins.

Noda: At the cram school I went to there were two twin brothers as well and I couldn’t distinguish between them so I’d just ask, “hey, which one are you?”. Nikaidō twins got the same treatment by Tsurumi and Co. [Q&A section from the Golden Kamuy fanbook]

So basically, not even the people in the 7th could recognize them… which… is not nice really. After all each twin is a single person in his own rights, with his own identity, tastes and experiences. Those were other times though and maybe the twins had grown so used to be considered a single unit they didn’t even realize they’re two different people.

As long as Yōhei is alive, Noda usually will depict them together, often in the same panel, often making them also physically close, their expressions more or less mirroring each other.

They are two but, to a casual reader, they seem to be a single unit, a single body with two heads like a military version of a Dōmo-kōmo (どうもこうも), a two-headed Japanese creature with gray skin which originally was the ghost of two doctors fused together, something for which we can also blame the fact that Noda tends to depict one of the two lowered and the head of the other above him.

Yet, they’re not the same and, if we pay attention to their story we can find out a small difference in their look as they don’t dress in EXACTLY the same manner. One wears puttees (Yōhei), the other wears gaiters (Kōhei).

Which yes, at first isn’t exactly helpful because whoever look at their feet to try to recognize who’s who, especially since Noda mostly shows us their faces, not their feet, but it’s still a difference between them, something that tells us ‘hey, actually they aren’t the same person, they exist as different people even in a setting that would put on them an uniform that would make them look the same’.

This too is, in a way, a hint they are more than just mob characters and, in fact, they’ll stop being as such soon enough, Noda setting the shift from nameless minions to characters rather early in the story.

PART 2 WHEN A VILLAIN IS THE HERO IN HIS OWN STORY: KŌHEI AND YŌHEI

We are at chapter 17 and, one of the first things we’ve to notice is that, differently from many other characters, the Nikaidō brothers aren’t introduced by their surname first and only later we’ll learn their name… but we’ll learn their name first and only much later we’ll learn their surname.

Kōhei (浩平) and Yōhei (洋平).

As said before, their names differ only in a kanji, which makes sense as in Japan it seems it’s pretty common to give twins similar names.

According to Golden Kamuy Central their names ironically mean:

Kōhei (浩平): 浩 “Large, generous”, 平 “Peace, flat”

Yōhei (洋平): 洋 “Large ocean”, 平 “Peace, flat”

The twins though, are pretty far from being peaceful.

As soon as we know their names their identities become visible because it immediately turns out Yōhei is the one who hit Sugimoto’s face, so this means our Kōhei is the one who wanted to kill him right then right now.

So, if we go back and rewatch the scene with this knowledge in mind, we discover they’re also slightly different in character.

The first time they face Sugimoto, Kōhei is the first to stand after being sent on the ground, and the one who basically traps Sugimoto. What he’d like to do is just to shoot him and get it done… but he tells Sugimoto to bend down because if he’ll shoot him while standing the bullet might go through Sugimoto’s head and kill other people.

It’s a cold, yet murderous and practical type of violence, aimed SOLELY at who attacked them though. Kōhei didn’t mean to make unnecessary victims, nor cause Sugimoto unnecessary pain. What he wants to do is just to kill him and be done with him.

I think for the rest of his life Kōhei will regret not shooting Sugimoto in that moment.

Yōhei instead feels the need to vent on Sugimoto as soon as the latter is helpless. Where Kōhei would just shoot him and be done with him, Yōhei first hits Sugimoto’s legs, causing him to fall, then with the butt of his rifle hits Sugimoto’s face over and over. Where Kōhei’s anger is cold, Yōhei is burning hot. He doesn’t just want Sugimoto dead like Kōhei, he wants him to suffer first.

Overall the twins have in common the fact that, although in different ways, they’re both violent and prone to vengeance.

These traits will remain.

When they go see Sugimoto after he had been captured, Yōhei suggests cutting his guts to see if he would be healed the day after (ironic since he’ll be the one who’ll get his guts cut out) and then plans to cut his fingers to force him to talk. When they go into the room again, Yōhei is the one who wants to do the job of finishing off a tied Sugimoto. Yōhei is the younger, but he clearly wants to be the one to do those sorts of things.

Between the two he’s the most violent, the one who longs for violence.

Kōhei instead remains dismissive, colder and more rational. He doesn’t believe Sugimoto is ‘Sugimoto the immortal’, he tells his brother they can’t kill him or they won’t get info from him, and when they decide to kill him Kōhei is the one who realize they can’t use a gun or they’ll do too much noise… and have Yōhei hand him the gun because he likely doesn’t believe Yōhei would manage to control himself and not use it.

Kōhei had no idea that in this way he would let Yōhei defenceless against Sugimoto (since Sugimoto managed to steal Yōhei’s bayonet as they were talking) and this is probably another thing Kōhei will never forgive himself for.

It’s worth to note that, until now, we weren’t given a backstory for Nikaidō, we only have a bunch of extra info, like how he come from Shizuoka and how he was part of Ogata’s rebel group... and likely his brother was part of it as well.

We don’t know if they were always so violent or if war changed them the same way it changed so many soldiers.

What we know is Noda chose one of them to pose Sugimoto a question during the flashback in which Sugimoto pulls off the sledge Toraji and offers it for Tsukishima.

“Are you sure?”

I like to think the one asking it is Kōhei, who, prior to Yōhei’s death, proved not liking causing unnecessary deaths and who knows that Sugimoto’s actions mean the other soldier will die if they take his sledge.

So, overall, I don’t think Noda wanted to depict them as heartless from the start… but honestly I’m not sure we’ll get a backstory because it can be that this is all that is to Kōhei.

He was a soldier who has grown not to think too much of killing people but still didn’t relish in killing and hurting, a soldier who deeply cared for his little brother and then… he lost said little brother and his world shattered. And he changed.

So it can be there’s no flashback because we don’t need it. War might have damaged him, but Kōhei’s breaking point was Yōhei’s death, not something happening in his past. What will cause him to sink into the vice of Ira is just this. He lost his brother and went mad with grief and anger as a result. He changed and became another man, no more Kōhei but Nikaidō, a mix of himself and his brother.

But we’ll get there later.

For now let’s look at something else.

There’s something else worth mentioning in the introduction of Nikaidō and that Noda sets up well.

As soon as the twins appear on the door of the soba shop in which Sugimoto is in, asking where’s the guy looking for tattoos, Sugimoto attacks them, hitting them as hard as he can.

Both twins will get a bloody nose out of that attack.

Sugimoto will then proceed to attack another soldier, sending him on the ground and then slamming his foot on his face.

At a first glance this, for a reader, is no big deal since we were still in the mind setting they’re nameless minions of a bad guy and Sugimoto is the hero.

We’re supposed to cheer for Sugimoto and those are random minions, who cares if he maims them a little? In tales minions exist just for the hero to knock them down, it’s hard readers will stop thinking Sugimoto is doing something bad hitting them when they’re merely doing their job, after all the 7th division had previously attacked him, so why should he restrain himself?

And that’s the moment in which the Nikaidō twins start to slowly stop being minions and become characters.

Not only because, as said before, they start to show their differences in characters but also because they return what Sugimoto did to them and their companion by beating up his face in retaliation.

Normally, even when nameless minions get the upper hand for plot reasons, they don’t go for retaliation. No, that’s something characters do, because characters have characterizations, minions only have roles.

Those two retaliate and retaliate as hard as they got if not worse, setting violence as their main character trait.

They’re among the most violence prone characters of GK, longing to maim/kill their opponents.

What’s more, if we acknowledge them as characters, it’s Sugimoto who wronged them FIRST, who attacked them first (which really wasn’t a good move as it made him even more suspicious in Tsurumi’s eyes) when they merely asked where he was.

Many in the fandom normally see Nikaidō as a ‘villain’ but if “Every villain is the hero of his own story” this fist meeting set up as villain of Nikaidō’s story Sugimoto.

And what a villain Sugimoto will be for him, a villain way more terrible than Ogata for Vasily.

Noda really outdid himself in this one, escalating things so that his relationship with Sugimoto will keep on worsening till the breaking point.

In fact later, the twins will be in Tsurumi’s office, hearing Tsurumi speaking with Sugimoto. Again, they still seem nameless minions… but there’s a third man in the office and yet we don’t see his face and the characters don’t interact with him… but the same can’t be said for the twins.

They aren’t just shown laughing as Tsurumi cheerfully will confirm he’s missing a part of his brain, they will interact again with Sugimoto… and guess what? Sugimoto will remark his role as villain in their story.

Now, to Sugimoto’s credit, he has the tendency to act aggressive and confident when he’s cornered, so as not to look as such therefore he’s not really doing it for the evolz or pure sadism.

So, when Tsurumi recognizes him for ‘Sugimoto the immortal’, the one who caused Ogata to end up in a hospital and the twins stop him from leaving, punting at him their rifles and telling him to sit down again, Sugimoto attacks them verbally.

He complains about having been hit by them (completely overlooking he hit them first) and blaming them for looking the same he demands they put a mark on their forehead so he can recognize who’s who, shifting on them the blame of how people can’t recognize them.

It’s worth to mention Sugimoto didn’t say ‘assholes’ that’s added in the translation to better drive in Sugimoto’s tone. His ‘omae-ra’ is just a not polite but neither offensive “you” (plural).

‘Omae-ra sokkurida na? Jū de ore o nagutta no wa dotchida? Shirushi o tsuke toke yo o deko toka ni’

おまえらそっくりだな？銃で俺を殴ったのはどっちだ？印をつけとけよおでことかに

Lit: “You look exactly the same, right? Which one hit me with a gun? Make a mark on your forehead.”

Regardless, this is said to anger them, and it works as a charm as they swear to kill him again.

‘Koroshitayoru’

殺したよる

“I’ll kill you.”

If they didn’t like Sugimoto first, now they like him even less and from here it will only go worse. As they’re violent and vengeful, they make Sugimoto a visit as he’s held prisoner with the aim to hurt/kill him to get him to talk.

Of course, part of the visit might be because they’re in the rebel group. Maybe, like Tamai, they wanted information from him BEFORE Tsurumi would get them… and later decided it would be more convenient for their rebel group to kill him off. Maybe.

People often wonder why and how Ogata joined the rebel group but the truth is we don’t know the details about the Nikaidō brothers either, and often we don’t worry about them, so focused as we are on the main characters.

Anyway Sugimoto will manage to turn tables on them and break Yōhei’s tooth, making them now physically different and, obviously, also making them even more vengeful toward him. Honestly Sugimoto here acted in self defence, but prisoners at the time had no right to defend themselves and Sugimoto also taunt them, worsening things.

In the end Sugimoto will survive the meeting but, at this point Tsurumi himself will understand the twins must not be let near Sugimoto. Tsurumi can see where this is heading, it had gotten too personal with them, someone is going to get killed.

Can you notice the crescendo in the Ira, how they’re already showing the signs they’re into this vice?

Sugimoto hurt them, they retaliated beating him and wanting to kill him.

Sugimoto made fun of them, they went in his prison to hurt him even if their boss wouldn’t like it.

Sugimoto broke Yōhei’s tooth and made fun of them and they decide they’ll kill him even if Tsurumi forbids it.

Kōhei was, at the start, a bit colder than Yōhei, but it was Ira all along for both.

And Ira is what signs their downfall as, when attempting to murder Sugimoto, Yōhei get killed, while Kōhei is right out of the room, so close and yet unaware of what was going on until it was too late.

It’s the third thing Nikaidō probably can’t forgive himself and what, in his mind broken by the death of his brother, ultimately will cause him to see Sugimoto as THE GREATEST VILLAIN OF ALL.

Yōhei will die, Kōhei will survive and will later become the Nikaidō we know.

Of the two, we can say Yōhei had the better fate.

Still, the Nikaidō we know didn’t exactly have birth immediately after Kōhei’s death. Short after it we’ll see he’s still in Tsurumi’s army and, apparently, his mind works well enough as he faces Ushiyama.

People tend to think little of Nikaidō because he’s often used as a comic relief (it’s a bit like when people judge Shiraishi dumb when he can be rather smart) but it’s Nikaidō who manages to shoot Ushiyama’s shoulder and we’ll see this will incapacitate Ushiyama for a while.

But he’s still ‘just Kōhei’ to us, and we might not have realized Noda has set him up for more than just being a minion.

PART 3 WHAT REMAINS OF THE TWINS: PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NIKAIDŌ

We learn Kōhei’s surname, the name with whom we’ll learn to call him regularly, when Tsurumi, after having been told Ogata has disappeared from hospital, is informed that Private First Class Nikaidō Kōhei has been missing by quite a bunch of days (by the way, that flashback tells us that Kōhei, in his first apparition, was the one on top of his brother).

And then we see him, Nikaidō, with Ogata in Huci’s house. And maybe it’s Noda who forgot about it or maybe it’s deliberate, but, during the chase we’ll discover this time Nikaidō isn’t wearing anymore gaiters. He’s wearing puttees like his brother used to do.

I like to think it’s deliberate and it’s our first hint that Kōhei is somehow merging with Yōhei in his mind but honestly, I’ve no idea if that’s the case.

So let’s talk a bit about this Nikaidō.

He’s with Ogata, who’s a superior private and therefore higher in rank than him, and it’s clear Ogata is in charge and Nikaidō is taking orders from him.

We don’t know if it was Ogata’s idea for Nikaidō to give Huci a backrub, maybe, maybe not, we probably will never learn the truth.

Anyway the fact they belong to a rebel group start to take shape, that maybe it was just Ira what moved the twins actions toward Sugimoto, but maybe there was also something more.

It’s the second time Ogata leaves the division without permission, and we were told Nikaidō, who’s with him, did just the same for a bunch of days before. Although Tanigaki is clearly afraid they’re there for Sugimoto (and maybe they were), as soon as they see him their interest focus on Tamai, Noma and Okada and what had been of them. They both don’t think Tanigaki could have been saved by Sugimoto and both mistake his nervousness for him being responsible for Tamai and Co’s death and trying to cover it up.

The whole of the Ogata/Nikaidō cooperation serves to establish their characters through the contrast between their actions and reactions, as well as the reactions they get from Tanigaki despite their apparent common goal.

Tanigaki is overall submissive with Ogata, a superior officer, but doesn’t let himself be put down by Nikaidō.

Tanigaki and Nikaidō know each other, they’re of the same rank, but they clearly don’t seem to be on friendly terms.

Nikaidō shows, same as Ogata, he is capable to catch the problems in Tanigaki’s answers and don’t swallow them blindly.

Tanigaki should have delivered a message to explain the situation, the fact he didn’t do was suspicious. While Ogata acts calm and in control, Nikaidō’s remark is vaguely insulting, aimed at getting a reaction and, in a way, it gets one.

It’s also worth to note that, differently from the anime, Ogata is represented as serious though the initial part of the questioning, where Nikaidō is the one who is smiling.

Anyway Tanigaki feels danger is approaching and tells Osoma to bring Huci away, which makes things even more suspicious.

Maybe Ogata would have waited some more, seen if he could get more info from Tanigaki without compromising himself, but Nikaidō has already drawn his conclusions and he’s ready to act.

The panel shows him slipping in anger, in his vice of Ira, as he grabs painfully Huci’s shoulders and asks darkly ‘Corporal Tamai told you, didn’t he?’

Tanigaki won’t immediately connect the dots, he’ll just get angry because Nikaidō seems to be hurting Huci for no apparent reason.

Ogata takes back control, outright demanding if Tanigaki killed the others… but, differently from Nikaidō, without giving away WHY Tanigaki could have done that.

Nikaidō is set up to be smart enough to understand Tanigaki is hiding something, but Ogata is set up to be smarter than him and much more in control.

Of all the cast of Golden Kamuy, Ogata is the one who’s less prone to fall into the vice of Ira, remaining cold and collected, so it’s an interesting choice to pair him up with Nikaidō, because it generates contrast.

As Tanigaki looks at his rifle, Nikaidō aims his gun at Huci, taking advantage of his position behind her, basically threatening Tanigaki to use violence if he tries something… which is exactly what Nikaidō wants to do. In what is a call back to when he wanted to kill Sugimoto there and now in their first meeting, he’ll reveal, in some more panels, he would have liked to kill Tanigaki right there right now and not waste his time trying to do it later.

Nikaidō is changed though.

Previously Nikaidō worried not to involve others when he would shoot Sugimoto, now he doesn’t care if Huci and Osoma, an old woman and a little child, get involved.

It’s not because they’re Ainu, Nikaidō could be respectful with Inkarmat. It’s just that they’re in the way and this new Nikaidō doesn’t care about involving bystanders anymore.

After all, if he hadn’t worried and had immediately shot Sugimoto when he had met him, his brother would have still be alive.

Back to the plot, Ogata doesn’t bother aiming his rifle. He differentiates from Nikaidō as he doesn’t want to use violence right there, nor threaten Tanigaki into compliance. He has turned Tanigaki’s rifle useless by removing the stopper and wants to question Tanigaki further without compromising himself.

Although Tanigaki shows that he wants to protect Huci and Osoma by begging him not to hurt them, he doesn’t use them against him to extort information, no, he decides they’ll leave and take Nikaidō away, but first asks Tanigaki about Sugimoto. That’s ironically the only thing on which Tanigaki was ready to lie about, so, this time, he manages to do so.

When Ogata tells him to leave with him, Nikaidō obeys but it turns out from a discussion taking place short later, this wasn’t what Nikaidō wanted.

Nikaidō doesn’t care anymore about not killing innocents, like in the past he tells Ogata they should have just killed Tanigaki and be done with it, but this time didn’t care they would end up involving and having to kill Osoma and Huci.

Ogata decided against killing Tanigaki there exactly to spare them, setting up Nikaidō as someone who now is more murder prone and violent than Ogata is and that Kōhei was when they met Sugimoto.

Yes, this is the start of Nikaidō spiralling downward.

We saw Tanigaki looking down at Nikaidō, it’s possible Tanigaki never liked him or that he just didn’t like him due to the situation they were in, it’s hard to say. What we know is that Tanigaki thinks that even if he were to kill Ogata, Nikaidō wouldn’t escape.

Nikaidō is fearless. And stubborn. Two dangerous traits.

We discover also Nikaidō is in the rebel group with Ogata… but now his interest in the rebellion is fraying away. Now all he wants is to kill Sugimoto… or, in alternative, to go back home. He can’t stand Hokkaido any longer.

And even though he sounds angry as he says so, it’s clear his anger, which already was present in him, has also turned into a maladaptive copying mechanism to deal with his loss. He’s pushing all the blame for Yōhei’s death on Sugimoto. He’s probably thinking if he kills him he’ll feel better… he won’t feel guilty, he won’t feel that crushing pain for the missing Yōhei.

Killing Sugimoto is slowly becoming all he cares about.

Not the gold, not his companions.

Killing Sugimoto.

He’s still not completely lost though.

It’s Tsurumi who gives him the final push.

When Tsurumi captures him after he had been attacked by a bear, Nikaidō does not flinch as the latter cut his ear off, nor he falters as Tsurumi promises him torture.

No, what wins him over is Tsurumi’s promise he’ll be allowed to indulge in his vice of Ira and avenge his brother.

“How about I let you kill Sugimoto?”

This is all it takes to win Nikaidō’s loyalty. He immediately gives Tsurumi a name, Komiya, and goes back on being loyal to him.

Sugimoto Saichi’s death is all he wants, all he cares, it’s his obsession, his way to soothe the pain, to fill the void Yōhei’s death has caused.

As far as we know he doesn’t resent Tsurumi for what he did TO HIM or, if he does, as of now, he never tried to take revenge. No, all he cares is killing Sugimoto who murdered HIS BROTHER.

However all this also lead him into an unhealthy mindset.

Nikaidō will become more and more unhinged, carrying around the ear Tsurumi cut, claiming it’s Yōhei, talking to it as if the ear were Yōhei himself, for example saying to it he agrees that Ogata is an exceptional yet dangerous soldier but they never really liked him [Chap 58].

Later, he notices ‘Yōhei’s’ ear looks like Tsurumi’s so he asks Tsurumi to give him his ear, asking him if he doesn’t feel sorry for how Yōhei was left stuck with only one ear, causing Tsurumi to promise him he could have his ear once Tsurumi is dead (although unlikely I wonder if this originally was planned to foreshadow it).

Nikaidō is serious about this, about finding another ear for his brother, we can see him searching for one in Edogai’s house as well, although he’ll conclude only Tsurumi’s ear could match. Later Edogai will somehow sympathize with him enough he’ll make him an headgear in which Nikaidō can insert Yōhei’s ear right against his kin so that he can comfortably speak with it.

Nikaidō continues to think that killing people is the easiest way to deal with problems, in fact he suggests killing Edogai and search his house instead than just talk to him... but what’s really worth to point out though that, despite the previous betrayal and how Nikaidō now is unhinged, Tsurumi continues to use him.

However it’s not Noda involves Nikaidō in the plot just because he’s a face familiar to readers or to show Tsurumi is keeping him under control.

Nikaidō is good at close combat, in Yubari we’ll see him putting Hijikata in troubles (even though Hijikata is still more awesome than him) and in Abashiri we’ll see him putting up an impressive fight with Sugimoto, even though the latter will manage to prevail. He also cool headed enough he can direct the assault at Edogai’s house.

Nikaidō is more than a comic relief, he’s a seriously dangerous fighter with a stubborn streak.

But Nikaidō’s whole being is possessed by his wish of revenge, by the Ira he feels for Sugimoto.

We see it in chap 82, the chapter named ‘Nikaidō’ like he is.

Nikaidō was leading well that mission and, although Hijikata is amazing, Nikaidō was still managing to hold his ground, pushing him on the ground and getting above him even though Hijikata, despite being older, is somewhat stronger than him.

However, as soon as Nikaidō ears Sugimoto’s voice calling Hijikata, he loses it. Even the visual seems to represent him burning, his Ira and wish of revenge possessing him as he completely forget Hijikata and attempts to stand to go fight with Sugimoto.

And Noda shows us immediately what a huge mistake this is as it gives Hijikata the chance to attack from behind, cutting Nikaidō’s leg.

In a way it’s a cold shower for Nikaidō as this, despite the loss of his leg, allows him to focus back on Hijikata and hide before the latter could deal the finishing blow. Hijikata will be forced to retreat with Sugimoto and Ogata due to the place burning… and Nikaidō too will have to escape, leaving his leg behind.

The new mutilation harms Nikaidō’s psychological state.

Chap 94 delves in this and, although it does in a humorous way, Nikaidō’s situation is clearly serious. He begins to talk more with Yōhei’s ear and laments how YŌHEI’s leg got burned in Edogai’s house so he can’t go after Sugimoto and kill him with his leg missing.

We can see here that Nikaidō is starting to consider his own body as ‘Yōhei’s body’. He started with his own ear, which became Yōhei’s and now he’s moving to his own leg as well... but we can also see another side of Nikaidō’s Ira.

His Ira as well as his wish for revenge are copying devices to face the pain of his loss.

When he thinks he can’t kill Sugimoto anymore, is Ira turns against him. He begins to steal morphine and inject himself secretly, likely more than to cope with the physical pain, to cope with the pain of his loss.

There are bags under his eyes, a clear sign he’s not well, possibly that he has troubles sleeping.

He ‘recovers’ only when Arisaka brings him a prosthetic leg which can also shoot two bullets, giving him the idea he has again a decent chance against Sugimoto.

We see Nikaidō is again back into action in the Lighting Bandit arc, where he seems back to normal, calm, in control and ready to act (despite the slipper stairs)…

...only to lose it again in Abashiri, for the same reason as before, he hears Sugimoto’s voice. Tsukishima has to physically restrain him to stop him from going to fight Sugimoto, Nikaidō protesting that he was promised to kill him. And Nikaidō won’t let go.

As Tsurumi’s men will be attacked by the convicts Kadokura freed, Nikaidō ignores his companions and still searches for Sugimoto. He finds the passage the latter has used to escape and chases Sugimoto. Alone.

Nikaidō’s poor luck allows Sugimoto to realize he’s behind him before Nikaidō could kill him, so they fight again. Sugimoto manages to send him on the ground but Nikaidō thinks he’ll use his prosthetic leg to turn tables around. Out of sheer good luck, Sugimoto, who didn’t know the prosthetic hid weapons, moves Nikaidō’s leg away.

Nikaidō’s leg fires anyway, hitting Sugimoto’s leg, which causes Sugimoto to fall. Nikaidō rises and tries to use his leg to shoot at Sugimoto’s face but, before doing so, wastes time telling Yōhei how Sugimoto is on his way to join him.

Sugimoto catches his chance to turn Nikaidō’s leg against him, so that when it fires it blows away Nikaidō’s right hand. He then rips the prosthetic leg away and uses it to beat Nikaidō into unconsciousness.

Again, Nikaidō’s blind Ira toward Sugimoto caused him to lose a body part. The past time it was his right leg, now it’s his right hand.

PART 4 CONCLUSION: DAMNATION OR SALVATION?

At this point, Noda makes something interesting.

He has Tsurumi tell Nikaidō that Sugimoto died at Abashiri. Would, knowing Yōhei’s murderer is dead, heal Nikaidō? Would, knowing the target of his Ira doesn’t exist anymore, help him to go back live a normal life? Or would Nikaidō find another target on which to vent his Ira?

Neither.

Chap 148 shows us that, after he got the news, Nikaidō turned into an empty shell of himself who remains under the blanket and doesn’t eat anything, deep into depression and apathy.

It’s worse than before, when he lost his leg as, back then, he was at least trying to steal morphine to cope with the pain. Now he’s not even doing that, he has no purpose, he’s a void.

In order to persuade him to eat, Tsurumi tries to tempt him with morphine.

Although this get some vague attention from Nikaidō, ultimately the plan fails, as Nikaidō now is also mourning the loss of his right hand and he needs said hand to eat. Or, in Nikaidō’s mind, was it Yōhei’s hand?

This time Nikaidō doesn’t let us know to whom that hand belonged.

And all this remarks even more how Nikaidō was indulging in the vice of Ira because his Ira is what allows him to get through the day. Without it, the pain of his loss is so big he’s a shell of himself.

Still, Tsurumi has uses for him, he doesn’t want to just let him die of starvation. Again, he ropes in Arisaka, who’ll give Nikaidō a prosthetic hand.

Later we’ll find out Nikaidō is then sent with Usami at Noboribetsu to heal.

In Noboribetsu he seems more healthy than when he was in the hospital in Asahikawa and he’s still willing to be faithful to Tsurumi as he gives no info to Kikuta (though we don’t know if Nikaidō knew both Ogata and Kikuta worked for Central). He shows some interest in Inkarmat and Ienaga’s fate though, but it’s unclear if it’s out of curiosity or because they might have been connected with Ogata.

However Nikaidō’s better state is actually illusory.

In chap 223 it turns out that Arisaka has been experimenting the methamphetamine his friend Nagai invented on Nikaidō, who prior to take it was lacking in energy.

So that’s what Nikaidō has turned into when he doesn’t indulge in his vice of Ira. He copes with his pain through drugs, which is a rather modern take in a way.

Ira is a vice, but it’s also what allows Nikaidō to go on without drugs. Without it, left on his own, he’s an empty shell and to go on he needs drugs. And that’s a rather interesting message.

Like Tsukishima, Nikaidō indulges in his vice to cope with what life threw to him… but differently from Tsukishima, if he drops his vice, he just can’t march forward without the aid of drugs.

Nikaidō is trapped, with no one on his side, turned into a weapon and a guinea pig Tsurumi and Arisaka can use.

Koito doesn’t realize it’s the drugs that cause him to act in a certain way and makes fun of him by HIDING HIS PROSTHETIC HAND and then placing in it Yōkan in place of the chopsticks.

Nikaidō, differently from Tsukishima, is not a popular and beloved character, beyond loving his brother to the point of madness and being a dangerous foe he hadn’t shown characteristics that made him likable… and so fans of GK, like everyone else in the story, turn their gazes away from him.

He’s left alone, like many people who fall victims of addition and is used by others who take advantage of his addition.

It’s extremely unlikely Nikaidō could even be saved, could even drop his vice and return living like a normal person.

We see how he lapses back into his maddening Ira when he sees Sugimoto, to the point he understands nothing, that he would have even hit Asirpa, everything to kill him as killing Sugimoto is his only goal, he gets to the point not only he can’t listen to reason but Tsukishima has to restrain him.

Again Nikaidō won’t manage to carry out his revenge though, at least, this time he won’t lose any limb.

The discovery though, doesn’t help him to part ways with Tsurumi. He hands him Asirpa, though he complain he was lied at but ultimately let it slide because what Tsurumi says is true, it’s better if Sugimoto is alive for Nikaidō, the thought he might get a chance to kill him helps him to carry on.

So Nikaidō remains stuck.

Nothing can save him. Even if he were to kill Sugimoto he won’t manage to free himself from Tsurumi and the hold of drug.

His vices, Ira and drugs, are basically his extremely maladaptive copying methods, are doing nothing to solve the real problem he has to face and is refusing to deal with: his grief for his brother’s death, likely combined with his sense of guilt for not managing to protect Yōhei.

Nikaidō’s mind is, in a way, gone, desperate to keep Yōhei alive by mistaking his own body for Yōhei’s.

Being killed so that he could join again with his brother would probably feel like an act of mercy to him… and it’s terrible that Nikaidō’s destruction can yes, blamed to his vices… but also to how he lost a person he loved, wasn’t able to cope with it and ended up being used by others.

Sure, his fate has dealt to Nikaidō’s terrible cards, cards that will likely only lead him to his own self destruction.

On another note… I do wonder if Noda remembers how Nikaidō was interested in Tsurumi’s ear. There’s to wonder if, before the end of the story, Nikaidō might feel like taking it on his own. We’ll see.

I’m in the internet by quite a lot of time.

One of the things one learns if he hangs around fandoms long enough is that there are no characters that can’t be paired together by someone else and reasons for shipping something varies from person to person sometimes being utterly unpredictable.

Back to Sugimoto and Asirpa yes, Asirpa has a crush on Sugimoto.

Psychologically speaking we can theorize that she’s subconsciously trying to replace her father.

She’s in that delicate age in which a girl is leaving childhood behind but it’s nowhere near close to an adult when she meets up with Sugimoto and notices he presents some similarities with her father and also he becomes her companion.

Asirpa was mostly living alone up in the mountains and, according to her uncle Makanakkuru she had almost stopped smiling before meeting up with Sugimoto.

In her culture she’s very close to being of marriageable age and all this mixed together causing her to grow infatuated with Sugimoto.

Huci likely notices and that’s why she suggests for Sugimoto to marry her (when she reaches the marriageable age).

Asirpa flushes as her grandmother suggests this and doesn’t dare to rely it to Sugimoto, lowering her head bashfully.

This might have caused her to become aware of her infatuation, as Huci pushed her to see Sugimoto as husband material.

Spending time with Sugimoto only worsened her crush.

When Inkarmat praises Sugimoto’s look Asirpa tries to get her to be disgusted by him...

...and will keep on disliking her until she finds out Inkarmat has feelings for Tanigaki.

We get Kiro gently implying Asirpa likes Sugimoto for his good looks.

Asirpa proposes she should just follow Sugimoto back home to eat with him his favourite food. It might seem naive and childish but it’ll turn out this dialogue has a huge importance for Asirpa.

And then we get to this scene in which Asirpa discovers Sugimoto has another person he likes and diverts the attention, her behaviour causing Ogata to realize Asirpa has a crush on Sugi.

When Inkarmat will talk about her crush for Wilk, Asirpa won’t be able to avoid thinking it parallels her relation with Sugimoto as well as her fear to be viewed as just a child by him.

Asirpa’s crush for Sugimoto plays a huge part in Ogata’s attempt to get the code from her. Ogata tries to use her feelings for Sugimoto but it backfires when he’s unable to tell her Sugimoto’s last words were about her. Eating dried persimmons was a promise they shared together, that’s why Asirpa asked about it.

Asirpa’s crush starts to turn on the toxic side. She decides she’ll be an human shield for Sugimoto... and that she’s willing to go to hell with him (= kill people to protect him).

Meanwhile Boutarou joins the group. As he investigates on the Sugimoto/Asirpa relationship we see Asirpa flushing at the idea Sugimoto acted as if she were very important.

He correctly guesses Asirpa was anxious to share stergeon brains with Sugimoto because she likes him.

And then the story goes further exploring her crush...

...and how it’s becoming more and more toxic. Asirpa doesn’t just want to become a human shield for Sugimoto, she also would like to keep him chained to her by never allowing for the gold to be found so that he wouldn’t be able to go back to the woman he loves.

When Sugimoto will answer her, she will be unsatisfed. Learning about Umeko wasn’t the answer she truly wanted to hear, what she wanted to hear was him telling her he would remain with her forever.

Boutarou will dig on her feelings for Sugimoto again.

Ultimately, same as Ogata did, he will try to use Asirpa’s feelings for Sugimoto to get the code.

Asirpa will manage to resist Boutarou’s offering but that’s because if she were to give up the gold she feared she would love the village with whom she would have to go back with Sugimoto.

It’s a no win situation for her... but well, her crush for Sugimoto exists and it mostly gives her troubles.

It’s worth to mention Asirpa’s crush is completely unrequited, with Sugimoto loving Umeko and possibly not even being aware of Asirpa’s feelings... but what’s worse is that Asirpa’s crush makes her take wrong choices like deciding to become a human shield or considering killing people to protect Sugimoto when she was so against it at the start of the story or basically deceive him not letting him find the gold... and it’s (unsuccesfully) exploited by others to get her to do their bidding.

Asirpa’s crush is toxic and based mostly on her young age and circumstances so at the moment it’s really not a good thing for her and I really, truly hope she’ll just move on.

That’s up on Noda to decide though.

It can entirely be that he’ll just wait for Asirpa to grow up to adult age and then have her win Sugimoto, or Sugi will finally go back to Umeko and Asirpa will be forced to either remain on her own or find someone else.

Maybe she’ll continue chosing people who’s much older than her because what she searches is a replacement for her father figure, maybe she’ll overgrow the trauma of losing her father and find someone closer to her age.

We don’t know, maybe Noda won’t even tell us how it’ll end for her.

We’ll see.

Anyway yes, Asirpa has feelings for Sugimoto, it’s true.

WARNING: I hadn’t had the chance to check dialogues yet. I’ll probably do it during Christmas holidays. If there are changes in them that are relevant I’ll update this post as soon as I can.

We spend a moment on the cover, which, like the previous, shows us a character who has never appeared on a cover before and who’s also one of my fave, our charming Roger... I mean Kikuta Mokutarou.

It’s an action scene in which he’s making good use of his beloved Nagant while wearing Toni’s scarf... and he’s not alone on this cover.

Ariko is also with him, ready to fire at his opponent. The background is Sapporo as we can recognize the building as appearing in chap 232 when the characters are in Sapporo.

Really, I love this cover and I was hoping so bad to have a Kikuta cover...

Anyway this is our updated list of covers.

Noda please, give us a Boutarou cover as well!

We then move to the colour page.

It’s the image with Tsukishima and Koito that was used as a cover for chap 251. It’s a fitting image considering this volume starts with the chapter in which the cooperation between Tsukishima and Koito began.

A colour cover that was in the chapters included in this volume and that instead isn’t shown is the one of chap 234.

Maybe Noda will use it later.

No summaries for this volume. Pity.

This volume counts 9 chapters only and changes are pretty tame but, as usual there are additions 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). Also no scanlations this time as the changes aren’t so characterization or plot relevant you’ll need to read a scanlation to get what’s going on. I’ll add a dialogue explanation though. Keep in mind I might be wrong.

Let’s start with chap 232.

We start with a new opening page for the chapter in which the box says we’re at Asirpa’s grandmother’s house near Otaru and we’re shown that Tanigaki is next to Inkarmat.

As many already know Noda has enlarged Tanigaki’s neck as he watched Osoma and changed a little his expression so, although I know Sensei pays a lot of attention in improving Tanigaki, I won’t show you that.

A line is added to Tsukishima’s dialogue. Now in addition to saying that it might be that Tsurumi doesn’t have a true goal he adds that it might be a lie that Tsurumi is acting for the sake of the dead comrades and for the prosperity of Japan.

Tsukishima’s memory of Tsurumi having finger bones now is enlarged and that shows clearly Tsurumi’s naked feet.

Naked feet had been used to foreshadow the death of a character so is this meant to hint at how Tsurumi too will die?

As everyone knows I’m partial for Ogata I’ll show him adjusting his bandages. I wonder, does he have the glass eye already and he’s trying to get adjusted to it?

Asirpa and Boutarou’ hair had been redrawn, which makes them better but it’s nothing big.

We move to chap 233.

After Ueji manages to disappear noda added more dialogue between Sugimoto, Shiraishi and Asirpa.

Sugimoto asks for confirmation that the boss they met was called Wakayama and Shiraishi asks Asirpa if she’s certain that guy said they would never be able to find the gold. Asirpa says that’s what it sounded like and Shiraishi asks what they will do now, wondering if they should go after the candy seller or continue to pursue the pirate. Sugimoto thinks he should have stripped the candy seller and Asirpa wonders if maybe she heard wrong.

Noda also expanded the scene with Boutarou and the old Ainu. Now Boutarou is no more heavily shaded at the start and his men are more active.

Pirate Boutarou’s main henchman (子分 ‘Kobun’) now has a name, Gontō Kōjirō (權堂 公二郎は) and he’s better drawn. 

The old Ainu says Boutarou won’t find the gold because his sons also went looking for it but it wasn’t anywhere.

Those are very good improvements, if you ask me.

Chap 234...

...continues the tradition of better drawing Boutarou’s hair (which are also often drawn longer than previously) and also gives him a better pose.

The postman also has a name now he is Nozawa Niheiji (野沢 仁平治).

Shiraishi is definitely more worried when he meets Boutarou.

...but Boutarou looks even happier to meet him, while his reaction catches the captain’s attention.

The sailors are better drawn and there’s even a new small panel of a sailor trying to catch Sugimoto’s rifle.

Sugimoto gets an extra page in which he’s shown throwing the sailor off the boat...

...and then some more panels as he fights the other sailor as well.

Really Noda is so good at drawing fighting scenes...

He also expanded the scene of Boutarou talking to Shiraishi about Sugimoto.

...and redrew Gontou with the other henchmen, who’re shown wet because they too had previously ended up in the water.

Really, a lot of additions for this chapter and I love how Noda tried giving the henchmen some characterization now, despite them being merely plot devices.

We continue with chap 235.

I’ll say in the cover Noda better drew the water. It’s not terribly relevant though, so I’m not showing it, i just love the man for the care in this details.

Better image of best boy Shiraishi...

...but there are also a lot of images that are better drawn.

The order of the panels is switched a little as in the magazine the bandits would knock at the door, then we would see Shiraishi praying the boat would hurry then we’ll go back to Asirpa and the postman.

In the volume first we see Shiraishi and Sugimoto praying the boat would hurry then we go to the bandits knocking and then to Asirpa and the postman, with the scene mostly redrawn.

Noda actually put a lot of care in redrawing the postman who now to me look even more like Clint Eastwood.

The shooting fight also gets better drawn and so the boat crashing against it. But my fave redrawn is the one of Boutarou and Shiraishi cheering, which now shows a much more happier Shiraishi and a childishly cheering Boutarou. I love those two!

Noda then proceeds to show how Boutarou is very angry at the idea 3 of his men were shoot... which better explains why he took an anchor and attacked without regard for the people. Similarly to Sugimoto, when he’s furious he’s dangerous... and it’s possible he grew so angry because he was fond of those men.

We then see Boutarou take matters (and an anchor) in his hands...

Another redrawn is in the Boutarou/Sugimoto confrontation.

And with this to chap 236 we go.

Again, some scenes or expressions are drawn better here.

Plus we get some redrawing when Boutarou explains things.

We’ve a new panel of Sugimoto turning down Boutarou’s idea.

Then we get more interaction between Boutarou and Sugimoto as Sugimoto’s reveal of his past now involves more Shiraishi and Asirpa.

And we better dig into Boutarou’s connection with Sugi.

Sugimoto’s expression after he pet the cat is much more dramatic...

...his eyes losing their light.

Chap 237 continues expanding things.

We get a flashback in which Boutarou remembers the cigarette case was Heita’s.

The volume shows us the gold is a lot more than the one we see in the magazine version.

The scene about Botarou trying to kill Sugimoto and Shiraishi is expanded.

Boutarou seems genuinely shocked when Gontou is hit by the spinning wheel, stretching is hand as if he were wishing to bring him aid.

Differently from teh magazine he won’t be smiling when he tries to drwon Sugimoto...

...and the two will fight a lot more. Sugimoto tries to kick Boutarou a lot and Boutarou uses his long hair to tie Sugimoto’s foot and pull him down.

It’s beautiful and definitely worth buying the manga.

We are at Chap 238.

A small panel about Asirpa explaining Sugimoto about Heita.

We’ve then more interaction between Boutarou and Asirpa.

I find interesting how again we’re show Sugimoto saying hinna but not Asirpa.

And so we reach chap 239.

Jack/Ostrog’s face is still kept in the dark at first, but his clothes are much more visible. The battle between him and Usami is expanded and sorry, no, I’m not going to show it. Still Noda is more comfortable showing him, his face partially visible (and Kikuta too as his eyes were back in the magazine).

And it’s when Kikuta see him we’ve the big reveal and it makes A LOT MORE SENSE having it here than as late as it happened in the manga. And honestly that lateness feels it was due to Noda not having chosen yet how to characterize him.

We can also see that on his genitals there’s a birthmark... which explains why Kikuta comments on getting a look on his face and member, because now he can recognize him either by looking at his face or by looking at... something else.

So yeah, Ostrog/Jack stops being a dark silouette.

Noda let us hear his thoughts after he killed those two women.

We’ve a flashback from Kikuta, showing Jack/Ostrog’s face and how he had a birthmark in a... peculiar area, which is why Kikuta remarked it was relevant he saw it.

And now we move to the last chap of the volume chap 240.

Ostrog is now clearly visible where before he was just a dark shadow.

A new panel showing how Kirawus... well, he didn’t quite disguise himself, albeith he did something, he tried to sell fireworks.

Another new panel showing how Kadokura in his disguise, can’t pick up coins.

When Ishikawa explains about Jack the Ripper Noda added people walking in the image of the city he drew and also showed a nespaper talking of Jack. The writing on the newspaper explains how in Japan the case became a hot topic in 1888 and how in 1900 they started to call the killer ‘Kirisaki Jack' (切り裂きジャック “Jack the ripper”).

We’ve another image of Ostrog/Jack when Ishikawa talks about him.

And we finish with the last page which shows the faces of Ostrog and Ueji.

And that’s all.

Well, actually no. The one thanking the editor is...  I’ll let you see for yourself.

And that’s all for this volume. While there’s nothing drastic in terms of new content, it better flashed out the relationship between Boutarou and his underlings, giving a name to the main one of them, better showed how Boutarou fought underwater and handled Ostrog/Jack WAAAYYY better than the magazine version where it seems Noda remained undecided on his character design for a much longer time and that’s why he obscured his face, making the reveal pretty anticlimatic as nothing big justifying it happened.