It was another stellar episode of Golden Kamuy this week, but unfortunately that’s not the headline.  An announcement came out this afternoon that the remaining episodes of the season (7-12) would be indefinitely delayed due to the death of an “indispensable staff member” on November 1st.  The identity of the person in question was not revealed, nor was there any indication of when the season might be expected to continue.  That’s a pretty tragic and unexpected development any way you slice it.

Boy, there’s a lot to unpack here.  First and foremost it’s a tragedy, and Brain’s Base should take as much time as they need to get past it.  It’s a terrible blow for anime, too, as Golden Kamuy was well into a pitched battle with Mob Psycho 100 for top honors this season, blowing everything else out of the water.  But then there’s the elephant in the room – when something like this happens, it’s impossible not to wonder if this is a MAPPA situation (I certainly hope not).  It sucks that the mind goes there when tragedy strikes, but that’s something the anime industry (and the production committee system which controls it) have brought on themselves.

This certainly isn’t normal – I can never remember a series being delayed for this reason.  It’s odd that the identity of the staffer has not been revealed (pending legal action or police investigations would explain it, though many more innocent possibilities also exist).  In most scenarios you would expect a studio to forge ahead, given the amount of money on the line.  Aside from the director, there aren’t that many team members one imagines would be so vital that a halt in production was necessary – perhaps the chief animation director or main writer – unless there were other reasons.  It’s all speculation at this point, so it really comes down to waiting for more details to trickle out.

As such, this episode may be the last Golden Kamuy we get for a while, which in itself is a pretty sad prospect.  And it was another banger, one of the best episodes of any series this season, as if to remind us of what we’ll be missing.  The first big shocker is that Anji Toni wasn’t dead after all – the Ainu soldier Ariko Rikimatsu found him alive under that avalanche.  Everything that’s happened since has been part of a cat and mouse between the two colossuses of this struggle, Hijikata and Tsurumi.  Ariko has his reasons for grudging against the army, which Hijikata exploits to his advantage,  But he sends Ariko back to the onsen with a dummy skin, knowing it will tip off Tsurumi that something is afoot.

As things stand, Ariko is theoretically a double agent for Tsurumi working in the Hijikata camp, except that Hijikata knows this and is effectively using him as a triple agent.  The respective aims of the two leaders as regards the Ainu are a crucial part of this episode and the larger story.  They both need the Ainu now (especially Asirpa) and both will need them after they find the gold, too.  But as what – a labor force?  An army?  Hijikata and (especially) Tsurumi are sweet talkers, but I see no reason to take either of them at their word as far as having the Ainu’s long-term interests at heart.

Meanwhile, Lt. Koito has put the pieces together and figured out that Tsurumi was behind his “kidnapping” all along.  He confronts Tsukishima – another soldier who knows a little something about being manipulated by Tsurumi.  Ogata in fact told Koito to ask Tsurumi about the South Manchurian Railway – the chief means of Japan’s expansion into and exploitation of Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War.  This ties into the murder of a Japanese general named Hanazawa who opposed the project, which Tsurumi may or may not have been responsible for.  It says something about the preternatural genius of Tsurumi’s manipulation that even when confronted with the truth, both Tsukishima and Koito are happy to overlook it.  Everyone wants to back a winner, and Tsurumi always carries himself like the biggest winner there is.

As foreshadowed by “Kesorap” last week, the time has finally come for Cikapasi to leave Tanigaki’s side.  When the Sugimoto group reaches Enonoka’s village, the first decision they make is to leave Ryu behind for a better life as a lead dog.  It’s not a big leap from there to think Cikapasi might stay, too.  This is what he was searching for, theoretically – a family.  That this represents a better life for boy as well as dog is hard to argue, but it’s a bitter pill for he and Tanigaki just the same – their bond was real and profound, especially as Tanigaki was searching for a family just as much as Cikapasi in his own way.

Finally, we have a heated confrontation between a drunk (as usual) Shiraishi and Sugimoto on the eve of their meeting with Tsurumi.  The thing about this is, Shiraishi is basically right in everything he says.  Sugimoto is deciding everything for Asirpa here, good intentions or no, and has given her little opportunity to exert her own will where her future is concerned.  Even the decision to throw in with Tsurumi stems from Sugimoto’s belief that his plan offers Asirpa a safer path than Hijikata’s.  But Sugimoto isn’t nearly as concerned about the fate of the Ainu as a whole as he is with Asirpa herself, and this places the two of them on an inevitable collision course (maybe soon).

Needless to say, I’ll return to coverage of Golden Kamuy at the earliest possible moment.  And I hope that’s soon, because this is a truly great series and its absence is going to be sorely felt.  This is a heartbreaking turn of events in every sense, and all we can do is wait for more information regarding the details of what happened, and what the path forward is.  My thoughts are with Brain’s Base and the Golden Kamuy team, and hopefully they’ll be able to move forward and continue sharing this remarkable series with the world sooner rather than later.