To paraphrase something we used to say on a certain concert circuit, “There is nothing like a Golden Kamuy episode”.

Still fighting the bug from hell, but after a rather pleasant brush with socialized medicine Japanese style, I’m going to give this a shot.  I mean, an episode like that deserves way better than the drug and fever-crazed Nikaidou-like rantings I’m going to throw at it but I’ll tell you what – it’s not a bad show to watch when you’re tripping balls on the pride of the Japanese drug industry.  The only problem is there are times when it’s hard to tell whether you’re actually seeing and hearing what you think you are (hint: with this series you always are), or it’s the visions.

While this episode did slow down in terms of the body count, the black comedy was off the charts – and somehow or another Noda-sensei actually managed to shoehorn a couple more larger-than-life eccentrics into the cast.  The spine of the episode is the capture of Shiraishi – which Hijikata witnesses, but deems the group of 7th Division soldiers too large to take on single-handedly with a katana.  With the group still split up after the Hakodate debacle, Hijikata and Kiroanke head off to try a makeshift rescue at a notoriously cursed bridge crossing on the way to Asahikawa and the 7th HQ.

As Kiroanke spins tales of the Ipatam, a cursed katana which devours men (Hijikata clearly identifies with this story) things are afoot (but not two) at HQ, where Nikaidou is recovering from his latest mutilation injury.  This entire sequence is one long freakshow – Nikaidou is a hardcore nutjob anyway but now he’s stealing morphine – and that’s before Lt. Gen. Arisaka (the irreplaceable Shimada Bin) shows up.  He’s a genius weapons designer, mostly deaf because of it, and frankly seems more than a little nuts himself.  Naturally he and Tsurumi are thick as thieves, since the latter seems totally at home with lunatics of all stripes.

The whole Arisaka sequence is hilarious, especially when he shows up to give Nikaidou a present (a prosthetic leg than can fire three rounds of buckshot) – what the hell was the thing that came in first!?  But in typical fashion Golden Kamuy slips in some extremely dark subtext, as the full depth of Tsurumi’s evil plans for the gold becomes clear.  Tsurumi has emerged as almost likeable – he has so much fun doing his job it’s infectious – but this is a bad man.  He intends to use the gold partly as seed money to turn Hokkaido into an opium producing power, then make sure there’s enough war to increase demand for it (and the weapons he’ll be producing of course).

Meanwhile, the rescue attempt at the bridge has failed – because in the moment, Shiraishi decided he’d rather take his chances with the 7th than Sugimoto.  That leaves the Hijikata group on the horns of a dilemma, and there’s serious debate over saving Shiraishi is worth the time and effort – but Sugimoto insists that it be done.  Hijikata’s plan is to sneak into the Asahikawa base with the help of former fellow-prisoner Kiyohiro Suzukawa (Kusonoki Taiten).  Kiyohito is tattooed as well, a master disguiser, and he’s another powerful screen presence with a powerful voice behind him.  Eventually he decides he’ll sneak in by impersonating Inudou, the warden from Abashiri prison.

There’s a lot going on in the scene at Kiyohiro’s hut, where Hijikata seems very much like a grandfather as he cradles the sleeping Asirpa on his lap.  But that triggers something in Sugimoto, who finally places Hijikata as the old man from the herring hut – and thus connects the dots back to Shiraishi.  It’s a good reminder that Sugimoto is still a man of considerable mystery, especially when he says “those who betray you will betray you again”.  But he doesn’t scuttle the rescue mission – I suppose the real question will be what he does if and when it’s successful.