Golden Kamuy: Why it Should be Your Next Read (or Watch)
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story and art by satoru noda
As an anime fan you probably grew up watching or reading Dragon Ball (Akira Toriyama) and the ‘big three’. Maybe you started with one of the greatest of all time, Fullmetal Alchemist (Hiromu Arakawa). Whatever the case, now you’re looking to move from the shonen genre for young teens to seinen, the genre for young and mature adults, and you don’t know where to start. Lucky for you, I know a great one to get you started.
Action. Mystery. Revenge. Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda is an underrated gem of a historical seinen manga with an anime that’s just as exceptional. It may not be as popular as other titans such as Berserk (Kentaro Miura), Vagabond (Takehiko Inoue), or Vinland Saga (Makoto Yukimura), it’s nevertheless an incredible story with unforgettable characters.
Golden Kamuy follows Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran soldier from the Russo-Japanese war, and young Asirpa, an Ainu girl (the indigenous people of Japan), as they traverse the wild landscape of Meiji era Hokkaido to unravel the mystery of stolen Ainu gold.
From the first chapter of the manga and the first episode of the anime, Golden Kamuy lets you know that you’re in for an unforgettable ride. Both begin on the battlefield of 203 metre hill, a brutal battle fought during the siege of Port Arthur between Japan and Russia in 1904. The manga and anime showcase the violence of war and the human will to survive through the eyes of Sugimoto.
After the war, Sugimoto heads to Hokkaido in hopes of finding gold and striking it rich quick. He’s unsuccessful, not even finding a single flake. All hope seemed lost until a drunk old man tells him an interesting story about Ainu gold and the man who stole it from them after he murdered the men guarding it.
The thief managed to hide the 20 kan of gold (an old Japanese unit of measurement equal to 75 kilograms that was worth 80,000 yen in 1904, but 800 million yen in modern terms, or 7.3 million Canadian dollars) before he was caught and thrown in Abashiri prison, a real prison that still stands today.
While there, the thief tattooed the location of the gold on other prisoners’ bodies. He he told them to break out and he’d split the gold with anyone who escaped. Later, all the prisoners were transported by the government to another location as they hoped to find the gold for themselves, but all of the convicts escaped along the way.
Intrigued, Sugimoto pressed the old man for more details, only for him to fall asleep. At first Sugimoto doubted the legitimacy of the story, but when the old man tried to kill him, he knew the story was true. Sugimoto soon discovered the old man was one of the tattooed prisoners after a bear attacked and killed him. Shortly after that, he met Asirpa, a native Ainu girl, and told her the story of the gold.
anime produced by geno studio
To his surprise, she’s the daughter of one of the men murdered by the gold thief. From that moment on, they both agreed to work together to find the gold and get revenge for her father.
Golden Kamuy is one of the most historically intriguing manga I’ve read to date. The attention to detail in the culture and way of life of the Ainu people isn’t something I’ve seen before in a historical manga.
The history isn’t the only thing I love about it; unlike Berserk, it isn’t as gruesome or violent. Yes it has its moments of blood and gore, but it isn’t excessive. It uses those moments to drive home a point or showcase the brutality of some of the characters. Every drop of blood is shed with a purpose.
Another aspect of Golden Kamuy I enjoyed is its comedy. Though the story can become dark and depressing, with moments where some of the characters experience post traumatic stress, it never fails to make me laugh. The humour can be goofy and over-the-top, but it adds to the charm! It doesn’t take itself as seriously as Vinland Saga and that unseriousness makes it fun.
If you’re looking for something exciting, with real historical events and culture, action, adventure, mystery, revenge, a cast of unforgettable characters, beautiful art or superb voice-acting, then Golden Kamuy is the manga or anime for you. I won’t tell you whether the anime or manga is better; that’s best left up for you to decide, dear reader.
Jessica Eyre lives with her family and three cats in Ottawa. She spends her time writing, drawing, reading, watching anime and movies, playing video games, and generally avoiding people. She prefers to spend her time cuddling with her cats while writing her next story or getting lost in another book. With ten years of writing as a hobby under her belt and being on the Dean’s List two semesters in a row in Professional Writing from Algonquin College, she has plenty of experience in the writing world. She’s no stranger to words. They’re her first love and greatest passion – aside from cats of course.
