Apropos of- well, everything, Noda Satoru has to be one weird dude. I mean, doesn’t he? What kind of a mind comes up with this stuff? Even something like Dogsred calls it home. To mine that much insanity out of schoolboy hockey is almost equally remarkable to the demented head trip that is Golden Kamuy. It’s a one-off and so is he, and I guess we should thank our lucky stars that his mad genius was steered into manga creation. But yeah – he’s gotta be one weird dude.

Just to recap, we have two full-blown nutjob serial killers on-hand at the Sapporo Beer factory, acting out their catastrophic behavioral disorders, and they’re like mid-tier for crazy among the attendees. Ostrog is indeed Jack the Ripper in this mythology apparently (RL alibi be damned), and he’s the one who starts the fire that consumes most the factory and episode. But while escaping Hijikata is his initial motivation, he’s laid eyes on Asirpa. And in his twisted psyche, she’s living proof that his deranged moral fantasies are true. Why? Because of an Ainu legend (knowing Noda I assume a real one) that on an island of Ainu women, they can turn their butt to the wind and get pregnant.

I gotta say, Sugimoto’s dispatch of Jack the Ripper was one of the foulest things I’ve seen in anime, even this one. Frankly it was over the top and I don’t think it does Sugimoto’s character any favors, even if Ostrog had it coming. A lack of restraint is usually a key to success for GK but there rare occasions when I wish it had a bit, and this was one. In any event Ripper is dispatched in most emphatic terms, and it’s the Hijikatagumi who take possession of his skin. But by no means is that the climax to the events at the factory.

Of course any time we’re talking about climaxes Usami must be close at-hand (no pun- fuck it, pun intended). First he does quite a job on Kadokura, who’s one of the keepers of Hijikata’s skin collection. Then Ogata shows up, and two of the series’ genuine freaks – though they could hardly be more different – face off. I vibed right from the start that one of them wasn’t getting out of this alive, and hesitated but only for a moment in deciding which one it would likely be. Expungement of prominent characters seems likely to be a common occurrence over this last stretch – some of these guys just aren’t going to make it to the end.

I’m not sorry to see Usami go, especially – he’s pretty gross and unpleasant. But he does at least make it to his beloved Lt. Tsurumi before he checks out, and Noda gives us one more disgusting moment with Usami at its heart. It’s at that about this time that Ueji Keiji arrives on the scene, and commandeers one of the fire brigade’s ladders to climb to the top of the smokestack, strip naked, and start speechifying about the folly of lusting for gold. The irony of this moment is quite delicious, but the practical import is that it confirms that the code can be determined without all 24 skins, though the exact number needed isn’t made clear. Therefore Ueji’s skin is non-critical and he can die without if affecting the plot much. Which he does, at long last, to the relief of young boys across Hokkaido.

So we find ourselves three freaks lighter as things come to a head. Sugimoto and Asirpa are still inside the burning factory, desperately searching for an exit, when they run into Kadokura. There they discover that he, in fact. has a tattoo on his back – a kind of bonus number from Nopperabo. It’s the 24th and final one in fact, seemingly giving Team Hijikata the clear advantage now. But not if he burns with Sugimoto and Asirpa inside the factory, which seems very possible until Boutarou (let’s not forget what he’s legendary for) declares that he’ll enter the conflagration and bring the trio out. And just for good measure, Ogata and Kikuta run into each other, and without a second glance pass like two ships in the night.

At this point I’m not even going to try and guess where Noda takes the story from here. I mean, one might reasonably conclude that with Sugimoto’s group having two more critical skins and fleeing the scene, we might see a step back in the manic pacing that’s started the season. But with only so many episodes left to cram in more insanity, I can’t imagine Noda is going to let any of them pass by in anything like measured fashion. More likely it’s an uninterrupted sprint to the finish line, even if we don’t eject three characters every week.