STOP SLEEPING On This HIDDEN TREASURE Of An Anime! - Golden Kamuy Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Hey guys! Today we're reviewing the Golden Kamuy anime, which is now on its fourth season! I talk about all the good and bad things about it to help you decide if it's something you want to watch. Enjoy!
Timestamps:
Intro - 00:00
Story - 01:04
Characters - 02:19
Action, Comedy, Cooking - 03:42
Setting - 05:22
Sound - 05:42
Art & Animation - 06:21
Pros/Cons & Final Rating - 07:09
Outro - 07:34 - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Excellent review; couldn’t agree more!
The anime totally works by itself; but the manga indeed has even much more background details (a lot of stuff was unfortunately cut for the anime). I watched the anime first and started reading the manga later. Absolutely worth it!
Thanks for making this Considering the insane lack of attention the show gets on TH-cam I was glad to see someone showing love for me it came as a complete surprise how good the show is for me 9/10 the characters are all amazing and as someone who's only watched toriko as far as foodie animes go I surprisingly got really into that aspect
So glad you got some value out of it! You should try Food Wars too if you like the food parts
I've heard decent things about food wars but for me it wasn't so much the food in Kamuy but how much culture they were able to convey with those moments .I'm a huge fan of the show and I don't get the lack of attention here on TH-cam
Totally agree. Part of why I wanted to make the video was cause nobody’s talking about it and I was really curious about it with the fourth season airing
I've watched the show and I absolutely love it! I think one of my favorite things about the show is how food is used to create thematic cohesion across the narrative, by indicating a person's place and context.
for example, in the first scene of the first episode of Golden Kamuy, Sugimoto is shown in the trenches. he eats an ant, then spits it out, commenting that it tastes sour. he's hungry... starving even. but he claims that he'll take a bite out of an enemy soldier before he lets himself die here. his place and context are simply: war.
this is why Sugimoto conceptualizes himself as someone damned in the early parts of the show... he compares himself to the wenkamuy when Asirpa describes how animals become evil when they kill and eat humans. he says he never wanted to kill the way he did, but he can't deny how war seeped into every facet of him, and warped his persona into something unrecognizable to himself... and yet, this "evil" part of him was something functional, that managed to keep him alive. what could he have been, if not that?
to me, it feels like all of the soldiers in Golden Kamuy are different people in the context of war vs. civilian life... I would describe it as their civilian identities getting cast aside during the war, because war has no use for them as people. they go out on the battlefield along with so many others, all identical in their utility, none worth defining in any other way. to do so would be to hope that they'd come back. if you have an animal that you intend to slaughter... the last thing you'd want to do is name it.
and what happens when they do come back? it's almost as though they weren't really supposed to. for a lot of them, they look to some earlier point in their life, back when making connections with other people seemed attainable and valuable to them. what did they used to do, back when they behaved like they were human?
when Asirpa and Sugimoto begin cooking together, Asirpa isn't just feeding his physical body... she's feeding him a new sense of place and context. her culture isn't familiar to him, so she has a perfect excuse to teach him how to live as a civilian again, on even the most basic levels, from the foundation on up. this is the exact kind of gentle re-integration Sugimoto needs... it's what all the soldiers are searching for on some level. Asirpa steps up to fill the void where support for these men should ideally be...
but so does Tsurumi. and while Asirpa focuses on using food and culture to allow these men to begin healing from the way war contextualized them... Tsurumi focuses on their unique traumas. he admires their trauma, emphasizes and elevates it, and simultaneously convinces them that there's no other way for them to exist. they _should_ exist this way. nobody else could accept them as they are... nobody but him. he traps them there, and convinces them that he's the only one who understands. he replaces the idea of community in their mind, with this cult-like fanaticism that only he will continue to perpetuate.
it is then significant to remember his conversation with Arisaka, about how if Arisaka is successful in his arms dealing, then Tsurumi will likely be successful at the production of narcotic drugs, such as morphine and opium, if he can get his poppies to grow. after which he and Arisaka go to visit Nikaido in the hospital, who is now massively addicted to morphine. once again, we have a consumption based indicator of place and context.
this is how the show sets up Asirpa and Tsurumi as foils... they still haven't even met in the anime yet, but you can feel how completely opposite they are in the same role.
I also love the way that Asirpa and Sugimoto's animal affiliations come into play in terms of this... wherein Sugimoto is a deer, and Asirpa is a wolf. to me, Sugimoto seems like if you took the instincts of a prey animal (to lash out defensively for the sake of his self preservation) and used them viciously by necessity. and Asirpa is like if you took the instincts of a predator (to live within the ecosystem by hunting and providing for her pack/community) and used them constructively by choice. and Asirpa has problems killing people because she sees them as thinking, feeling, intellectual equals, while Sugimoto has problems killing animals because they've done nothing wrong, and can't even be applied to the concept of deserving it. I find it interesting that Asirpa is able to mend Sugimoto's fear of being hunted by instilling in him the sense of safety that comes from being a valued part of her community.
looking at a few other specific food examples... it's notable that, in Tanigaki's backstory, the beginning point of his tale is defined by the kane mochi he uses to save himself and his friend. and after embarking on his whole revenge quest... after leaving for the war, grieving his sister, losing his mother, and trying to live for violence... it all comes back to the kane mochi, and the specific element of care that only Tanigaki adds, which makes him identifiable, more than anything else. it doesn't matter what he's done... this is still what defines him. sharing kane mochi is contextualized by care. it's literally the last thing you have to give, and is meant to act as a lifeline, and it doesn't matter that Tanigaki is in the midst of war... his kane mochi is still why his friend knows who he is.
meanwhile, for Ogata... his mother making monkfish stew over and over again means that her mind is far from him. if she were paying attention, she'd know that he hates this, and she'd see his efforts to change it. but her place and context are not with him. she may physically be there, but she hasn't truly shown him care in a long, long time. by the time he kills her, I'm pretty sure he knew, in no uncertain terms, that she was already gone, and was never coming back.
food is literally such an important theme that helps weave the tapestry of interconnected influences in this show. each use of it says a new and interesting thing about the place and context of each character.
also, I just love Ogata. he's such a total shithead, but his character is _fascinating._ I think my favorite thing about him is that he's great at his specific area of expertise, but he's really bad at people. and it makes sense, given his hangups.
basically, in terms of Ogata's psychology... Ogata believes that other people secretly all think just like him deep down. and if anyone is acting like a pure, innocent, or good person, they must be lying. the funny thing is... "pure" characters like Asirpa and Yuusaku behave like good people with such predictable consistency, that Ogata has no choice but to raise his gun to each of them, respectively, when he fails to corrupt them. his ideology isn't tempting to them. meanwhile, Ogata claims to feel no guilt over anything he's done... and yet, he keeps hallucinating Yuusaku bleeding from the head, which suggests otherwise. it feels more like Ogata is the one trying to repress his guilt, and it still won't go away. so if anyone is lying to themselves about the true nature of their own feelings, it's Ogata.
so, given the backwards way Ogata sees other people's perspectives, as well as his own, it makes total sense that he's bad a manipulating people. he's good at lying... he's been lying to himself for a long time now. but he's really really bad at anticipating what actually motivates people, or what they really want to hear. he's fine as long as he's like, 100 yards away and can detach himself, but the instant you put him up close and personal with other people, and ask him to function socially, he's completely out of his element.
and I also think its significant that, as he watches Asirpa, he sees someone who parallels Yuusaku. and when Asirpa reaches out to Sugimoto, Sugimoto wholeheartedly accepts. Sugimoto feels better the longer he spends with Asirpa because she reminds him of who he used to be. the thing is... Yuusaku also reminded Ogata of how he lived before he became a soldier. and it only made him more bitter, angry, spiteful, and likely to reject Yuusaku, because of the exact same kindness. so when Ogata watches Asirpa and Sugimoto, he's basically seeing what he could've had. if he had actually accepted Yuusaku... if he hadn't shot his brother. the brother who never got corrupted... who Ogata couldn't prove was impure. and I believe that played a part in Ogata's urge to destroy what he saw in Asirpa. if what Asirpa is doing actually works, then Ogata must've been wrong this whole time. and also, how dare someone have these blessings, and leave him on the outside looking in, all over again.
it is legitimately fascinating the way this man's psychology works. and it's also amazing how all these parallel and foil relationships track across the entire story. I was particularly fond of the part at the very end of season 2, after the finale, where Heiji Koito says that he's sending his son on a journey where he knows he may die, because Heiji Koito is a leader of men. parents send their children to die under his command all the time... if he held his own child back, how could he possibly call that fair? he uses this as a way to explain why Wilk might've been training Asirpa to be someone who could lead a cultural revolution... and why that might've been a sympathetic thing to do. but really... neither Heiji nor Wilk deserve to lose their children either. nobody does. in actuality, it kind of begs the question... isn't it just kind of a horrible practice, to send people, en masse, into something this damaging, over and over again? it really gets to the core question plaguing Asirpa. is war and violence the correct tool for the preservation and restoration of a culture? because it certainly isn't the correct tool for the preservation and restoration of individual people. Sugimoto, and the other veterans in this show, have exemplified that, and it's part of the divide in Asirpa and Tsurumi's diametrically opposed mentalities.
I think one of my favorite things about Golden Kamuy is that the absurdity all pulls double duty and serves a story function. a lot of these men behave in goofy, juvenile ways because they set their identities in a kind of stasis while they were at war. they're trying to go back to living as civilians, but they haven't done the proper social growing and maturing in all the time that elapsed. they're literally stunted. or like, that whole hilarious scene with Tsurumi and Arisaka visiting Nikaido in the hospital? it's absolute batshit insanity, but it also sets up the whole metaphor between Tsurumi, and the addictive substance that is morphine. or, put another way, Tsurumi is synonymous with the cycle of war, trauma, and an addictive balm for the damages sustained during that time, which keeps the cycle repeating. or the otter meat scene? at that point in time, Inkarmat and Asirpa are on a boat talking about who in the group might not be trustworthy, and Inkarmat names Kiroranke as a potential bad actor. and where is Kiroranke? why, he's with the rest of their unsuspecting party members! regardless of whatever ridiculous shit is going on at the same time... that's still a problem!
literally, it feels like this show can meander as much as it wants. I'm all in. I know that shit is gonna come back and be relevant somehow.
as for what I'd rate the anime... for me and my particular tastes, it's a 10/10 but I literally can't be objective about this one because I'm just way too attached, so I'm not even going to bother trying. I will also say that the pacing is really subjective, because a lot of the friends I've showed the anime to have had the main overall reaction of "SO MUCH HAPPENED IN THAT EPISODE" like, over half the time. literally the halfway point title card is sometimes jarring because a half episode can feel like a full episode if it goes hard enough. I think if this anime didn't slow down at the points that it does, it'd overwhelm way too easily... especially given how much information its trying to give a lot of the time.
as for anime vs. manga, I'd say that the manga is a better individual experience, but nothing beats the anime for a group viewing. show a group of friends this anime. its very fun.
I swear to God, I think I have to collect all of your comments and pile all of it into an essay. I love reading your comments as I stumbled on every Golden Kamuy explained video. I took my time reading them all even though I know you're talking on the same topic every time, it's a long text yet simple for my kindergarten mind
@@hanikazuha thank you so much!! that's actually amazing, that you went and found all of them! I've also been in the comments of Semblance of Sanity's reaction series to Golden Kamuy, in case you were looking for more episode-by-episode stuff... I haven't posted long form analysis on every part, but I try to get something in there on the significant episodes. like, I think I wrote something specific on Tsukishima's backstory, a bit more in depth stuff on Ogata's episodes... stuff like that. they just got to Usami's backstory, and I find him uniquely interesting too.
anyway, I'm hugely flattered that you liked reading what I wrote! thank you! ^_^
@@hanikazuha and also, if you ever want to copy and save anything I wrote, that's fine with me!
I love how the group compilations always change and often characters work together because they have the same goal at one point, but then later they’re enemies again. It just makes it really interesting to watch because you never know who is a friend or a foe.
I just wished that sometimes there were less naked man haha
1:36 small little critique, Ainu are native to Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. For the rest of japan, Japanese people are the native people
Good to know! I knew they were from Hokkaido, but didn’t really know where that was. I just assumed it was part of Japan
Love from the bulgarian naruto community!
What I love is that GK starts off as a comedy action series but becomes a full blown politicial thriller by the time S3 without losing the over the top comedy and insane action.
I watched this last year, I just wanna praise it for its comedy and how they deliver it, also it's full of interesting characters.
I recently visited Sapporo for the Snow Festival, and Golden Kamuy represented in full force. Also, the small town of Otaru retains the nostalgic feel of the early 20th century that the manga and anime depict. I'll start watching the show this week.
Ah that picture you used of the manga author is actually his editor! We don't know what Noda looks like
Oh dang really? My bad haha
YESSSSSS Such an amazing show/manga! It has a very interesting backdrop for a story (Russo-Japanese War is often overlooked). The story is so fun, yet so interesting. I feel like the humor was written specifically for me, too, as I don't think I've ever laughed so hard watching anime or reading manga. It's an absolute delight, and hope more people give it a chance! (yes the CGI bear is very bad, but who cares if the story/characters are this great!?!?)
I've always been a fan of Meiji stories since watching Zatoichi when I was a kid.
I can't get enough of Golden Kamuy. I hope they get to finish the entire series
I started rewatching it again. And I think it's slept on because it's not a Shonen anime. 2 more slept on anime are To Your Eternity and Appare Ranman. To Your Eternity takes place during medieval times on a fictional earth. And is about an orb that can transform into various things that a God like being creates and sends to earth as an experiment to see how it'll evolve and adapt. Appare Ranman is set in a steam punk version of earth. And is about a japanese boy genius who mistakenly ends up on a ship headed to America. He ends up entering into a race across the country in order to use the prize money to get back home. Both are good, but I highly recommend To Your Eternity.
this anime needs more audience, but for me its a 10/10
Of course the 1st season OP is Man With a Mission, all of their songs slaps hard
The anime is at it's best in season 3. Seasons 1 and 2 are fine but I get why so many people drop the anime.
Season 4 is meh for me, it's like a quick break before the final arc (which is really good)
Overall I would give it a 9/10, mostly because of the story and characters.
As of this comment, Netflix has made a live action of the anime into a Movie. Don’t know why make it a move instead of a series, they didn’t cover the whole story.
RESPECT THE CITATAP!
Thanks to Golden Kamuy I gave a chance to eating brains 😊
Anime good but the manga is something else
I’ll have to check it out sometime
@@journeythrufire it just completed couple months ago. the art is so much better, more details about ainu are explained, anime also cut out some manga scenes. probably a 8.5-9/10
@@Killerqueen2000 Wow really? That sounds great. I’ll probably buy the physical copies sometime cause of those sick covers. They’d make a great addition, especially if they’re better than the anime
@@journeythrufire yess worth buying just for covers alone.
The hunting and cooking is an big piece of story telling. It's a J-culture thing, yakuniku, hot pot and the like. Hina, hina! Hokkaido is very separate from Honshu in more ways than one both culture and politics. Hokkaido can be a separate Ainu nation. It feels like it every time I go there.
I remember starting this in highschool. But it seemed either too slow paced, or too cinematic/foodie shit. I prefer the action and lore behind the map itself. But its something to watch if you have nothing else or are waiting on new eps of latest anime like bleach or sumn
Yeah the cooking scenes do really slow it down quite a bit
@@journeythrufire the cooking, and weird bathhouse things for fan service. I feel the fan service is directed towards females tbh.
@@journeythrufire I usually dont mind it, but in this show it stops all immersion in the story. Hopefully ill get back into it now that i see theres mores seasons. I stopped at 2.
I just kinda looked at that stuff as something silly that is meant to make you laugh
@@JEMA333 these are not meant to be fan services. It's just something the author wanted to incorporate into the story, but that turned out to be also great for the fans