“Kogane no Kanata (黄金の彼方)” by Awich × ALI

I’ll say this – if the whole season of Saishuushou is like this, I’m not going to be able to take it. This is Golden Kamuy at its most adrenaline – and testosterone – filled. And exhausting. I continue to marvel that five seasons and 51 episodes is, this series somehow manages to keep getting crazier. You do get the feeling that Noda has just cut the brake lines and tapped in the nitrous at this point. Whether that’s a good thing or not I don’t know…

Where we are right now is pretty much every nutjob and badass in Asia is at the Sapporo Beer factory except Tsurumi (and he’ll be there shortly). As always with GK, it’s a heady mix of re-imagined historical figures and Noda originals who all act like they’re the main character. It comes naturally to Hijikata – he starts issuing orders and even Sugimoto doesn’t try and put up a fight. His plan – split up into groups of three. One to pose as a streetwalker, one to be “her” bodyguard, and one to set off a signal firework once the murderer has been spotted. One might logically think Asirpa should be one of the first group, but I guess that’s deemed too dangerous and she’s placed in the third.

In most shows, the actual Jack the Ripper being on-site would be the headline. In Golden Kamuy it’s on page 37, just above the classifieds. I’m not sure this is the real guy, but apparently it’s Michael Ostrog – a Russian émigré who was in fact a real Ripper suspect, though he was in prison in France at the time of the Whitechapel murders and thus ruled out. But he was at Abashiri and that makes him relevant whether he’s the real Jack or a copycat. Dealing with him is certainly a challenge in itself, but in addition to both snipers the 7th is arriving in force, led by Usami and his right hand.

I can’t really do justice to everything that comes (pun intended) after that by writing about it. It’s just a blur, really. One of my favorite parts was the return of the beloved asshole inspector Kadokura, who draws prostitute duty in Hijikata’s lineup card. Usami immediately recognizes him and won’t leave him alone for the rest of the episode, treating us to a feast of Kadokura’s running (literally) commentary. Then we have Sugimoto, Koito, and the crazy twin who hates Sugimoto (hey, you can’t expect me to remember or look up all these names- oh hey, it’s Nikaidou) swept away in a flood of beer unleashed by Ushiyama and getting completely blitzed.

Then we have Kikuta (remember him – another badass with a Godly seiyuu) capturing Asirpa, only to be counterattacked with a poisoned (or so she says) arrow. He tries to seduce Asirpa with the fact that he knows the true story of what happened with Nopperabo and the seven Ainu (that sounds like the grimmest fairy tale ever), and that Tsurumi knows even more. You get that Asirpa senses that Kikuta, while he obviously can’t be trusted, probably isn’t lying. But she declares that she’ll choose the future for the Ainu Aca entrusted to her over clearing his name. That, and of course Sugimoto. Asirpa can always be relied on for a moral compass no matter how jacked things get around her – she knows what she knows and believes what she believes.

It all adds up to a remarkable confusion as only Golden Kamuy can deliver it. And concludes with Michael Ostrog – Jack or not, seemingly the killer of the moment for sure – spotting Asirpa as he hides nursing the wounds he sustained in a firefight (and knife fight) with Hijikata and Kirawus. Let us also note, the OP and ED are pretty off the hook too – and the ED can’t be described, only experienced. It’s one of the weirdest and most inexplicable I’ve seen in a long time, which means that it fits in perfectly.

“The Ballad” by Ken Yokoyama