I don’t think there’s been another anime season where I’ve used that title line as often as I have this spring.  Since that means many of the shows I care enough about to cover are getting sequels, that’s undeniably a good thing.  Golden Kamuy was never one I was worried about too much, though.  Though it surprises me, this series has proved quite the commercial powerhouse.  I never expected GK to be a hit, but it kind of is.  It was really only a question of when we’d get the next (and presumably final) season, not if.  And the confirmation coming with this finale seems to imply it’s going to be sooner rather than later.

It’s been a strange odyssey too, this fourth season.  There’s still been no clear explanation for that mysterious six-month delay beyond the death of a key staff member, but it’s more than odd that they’ve never been identified.  It always seemed like fate to me that Golden Kamuy would air alongside Vinland Saga someday, and indeed they did – on the same night, with the same episode number to boot.  But I’m rather glad the next season won’t follow suit, because Vinland is such a behemoth that it kind of overshadows Golden Kamuy.  And it deserves to be the show pony whenever it airs.

I’m not sure where the  thread with Tsurumi’s outfit is headed, to be honest.  Usami has definitely emerged as the most twisted and venal among that very strange bunch, and between his serial fapping and the revelations about his role in Ogata’s fratricide I just wanted to wash the stink of him off.  We know Kikuta is no ally to Tsurumi – he’s under orders to kill him once the gold is found.  Ogata has already turned on Tsurumi, though I’m certainly he’ll turn on Hijikata too when the moment calls for it.  I feel as if Usami is so around the bend that he could cause a serious rift in the ranks with his paranoia and jealous rage.  There’s a bit if a last days of Rome feel to Team Tsurumi at the moment, though that could just be me.

Asirpa is the key to everything – quite literally, it seems.  That’s kind of been telegraphed all along, but it’s never been clearer than it is now.  Boutarou is absolutely nobody’s fool, and he’s put the pieces together with Asirpa and Wilk.  He openly grills Shiraishi about why he’s staying with Sugimoto and Asirpa, but it’s clear by now that something more than the gold is holding those three together.  Asirpa hasn’t chosen to share with Shiraishi what she has with Sugimoto (which we’ve suspected for a while) – she believes she’s figured out how to find the gold, without the need for any more skins.

This is about the most insight we’ve ever gotten into Asirpa’s mindset.  It’s only natural that she wants Sugimoto to stay with her, and that she fears he won’t once the gold has been found.  What do you call that, if not love?  There are many kinds of love, of course, and the relationship as depicted between these two has always skirted the matter of defining theirs.  She finally confronts him about his intentions, but it’s just as we’re given a literal crash course in the Hokkaido method of felling trees.  The pair of them are trapped (this seems to have been completely accidental).

Sugimoto’s answer (they have plenty of time to discuss it now) is enigmatic.  “Not exactly the answer I wanted”, Asirpa laments – but it is a very Sugimoto one.  He’ll keep his commitment to Ume, but what then?  In any event Asirpa has no choice but to put her faith in Sugimoto, because that’s what’s gotten her this far.  What’s more she has to put her faith in Wilk too – in her conviction that his intentions for the gold (and the Ainu) were altruistic.  And finally, in Shiraishi – that this is about more to him than gold now.  And he is the one that finds them under the trees, after all.

As for Boutarou, that’s another question.  He’s a definite wild card at this point, but this is Golden Kamuy – the deck is full of them.  Sofia has arrived in Sapporo, and already reconnoitred Tsurumi’s team.  There are not one but two serial killers on the loose. and Hijikata and Tsurumi’s team are practically tripping over each other.  This being a historical series like Vinland Saga, we likewise have some idea of what will and won’t happen based on what’s in the history books.  Not the details perhaps, but the outline.  The personal story is what will drive the ending in any case.

As compelling as this season of Golden Kamuy was, it did suffer a bit from that extended break in the middle.  And I’d still rank the 3rd Season as the strongest on the whole – it flowed from first to last in a way this season doesn’t always do, thematically and narratively consistent.  That’s an awfully high bar, though, and this was still pretty great stuff.  12-13 episodes should be about right to adapt the remainder of the manga without needing to rush, so we should get to see Noda Satoru’s vision brought to the screen in the way he would want.  It’s been a weird and memorable ride, and I can’t wait to see what the utterly fearless and relentless inventive Noda comes up with to bring Golden Kamuy to a close.

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