Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Golden Kamuy - Season Two (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Anime on Blu-ray Disc Review) (2018)

“Golden Kamuy” is turning out to be a fantastic, action-packed anime series that is less about its action but more about character relationships, Ainu culture and the race to find the hidden gold. I highly recommend this anime series! And I hope there are plans for a third season!

TITLE: Golden Kamuy Season Two

DURATION: Episodes 13-24 (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16×9), English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Funimation

RATED: 17+

Release Date: October 15, 2019

Originally created by Noda Satoru

Directed by Nanba Hitoshi

Screenplay: Takagi Noboru

Character Design by Ohnuki Kenichi

Music by Suehiro Kenichiro

Art Director: Morikawa Atsushi

Anime Production: Geno Studio

Featuring the following voice talent:

Kobayashi Chikahiro/Ian Sinclair as Saichi Sugimoto

Shiraishi Haruka.Monica Rial as Asirpa

Ito Kentaro/Ben Phillips as Yoshitake Shiraishi

Nomura Kenji/Christopher R. Sabat as Tatsuma Ushiyama

Hosoya Yoshimasa/David Matranga as Genjirou Tanigaki

Ohtsuka Houchu/David Wald as First Lt. Tsurumi

Nakata Jouji/Greg Dulcie as Toshizou Hijikata

Ohtsuka Akio/Jarrod Greene as Tetsuzō Nihei

Sugo Takayuki/Kent Williams as Shinpachi Nagakura

Tsuda Kenjiro/Orion Pitts as Hyakunosuke Ogata

Sugita Tomokazu/Stephen Fu as Youhei Nikaido

Sugita Tomokazu/Stephen Sanders as Kouhei Nikaido

Sugimoto, Asirpa, and Shiraishi gain some surprising allies on their way to Abashiri Prison. There’s just one problem. A traitor is in their midst! With enemies attacking from every direction, all roads lead to the man behind an Ainu massacre, and only Asirpa will know if he’s her father.

From Satoru Noda comes his award winning manga series “Golden Kamuy”.

Written and illustrated by Noda Satoru, the mangaka also worked with Nakagawa Yu in ensuring the authenticity of the Ainu language for the manga series

The manga series won the 9th Manga Taisho award and with 19 volumes currently printed in Japan, a 24-episode anime series adaptation aired on Japanese television from April-December 2018. And now, the second season featuring episodes 13-24 are now available on Blu-ray courtesy of Funimation.

The series revolves around a soldier named Saichi Sugimoto who fought in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and survived with savagery and toughness. And because of his braveness, he is known as “Immortal Sugimoto”.

Because his best friend asked him before his death on the battlefield for Sugimoto to take care of his wife and children, Sugimoto hears of a story about hidden Ainu gold (the Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan). One man killed the Ainu hiding the gold and stole around Y80,000 and buried the gold somewhere in Hokkaido.

While the man was caught and thrown into Abashiri prison, he was sentenced to death and the map of where the gold was hidden was tattooed on the backs of 24 prisoners.

This was told to Sugimoto by a drunken man. When Sugimoto finds the man killed by a bear, he notices that he had a tattoo all over his back and that the story must be true.

But when the bear goes for an attack on Sugimoto, he is saved by an Ainu girl named Asirpa, a daughter of one of the Ainu men who was killed by those hunting for Ainu gold.

But as Sugimoto and Asirpa team up to find the gold, many dangerous hunters including the deadly 7th Division of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Lt. Tsurumi.

With season two of “Golden Kamuy”, the search for the tattooed skins continues. Tsurumi encounters a creepy taxidermist who creates clothing from human skin and tasks him of creating counterfeits.

Meanwhile, Sugimoto, Asirpa, Shiraishi,Tanigaki, Inkarmat, Kiroranke along with Ogata, Kiroranke, Ushiyama and Hijikata form an alliance to find the tattooed skin.

VIDEO:

“Golden Kamuy” is presented in 1080p High Definition (16×9 HD Native). The animation looks good with slight softness but it works, as most of the conditions that the anime series takes place is in the snow. For the most part, a lot of the backgrounds are snow and trees but for the most part, the anime series looks very great in HD!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

“Golden Kamuy” features a wonderful soundtrack on Blu-ray. The series is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (English) and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (Japanese). With the action-packed scenes throughout the film, great use of the lossless audio!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Golden Kamuy Season Two” comes with the following special features:

Episode 15 Commentary
“Golden Travelogue Theater: Animated Shorts
Promotional Video & Commercial Collection
Textless Opening and Closing Songs

EXTRAS:

“Golden Kamuy Season 2” comes with a special chipboard slipcase, an 50-page artbook with information on Ainu culture. Also, the Blu-ray comes with both the Blu-ray, DVD and a Funimation Digital Code for the series.

A soldier and an Ainu girl in search of gold stolen from the Ainu people. The story is about a man named Saichi Sugimoto, a kind hearted man who was turned into a soldier known as “Immortal Sugimoto” during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.

With a friend’s final dying wish for Sugimoto to take care of his wife and children, that would require money which Sugimoto doesn’t have. But when he hears about gold that was hidden in Hokkaido, gold stolen from the Ainu people, he teams up with a Ainu girl, who knows how to hunt and also use the wild to heal people, but also her father was killed because of the gold.

Sugimoto is not interested in 50/50, just a small share and wants to give most of it to Asirpa but also to help her get revenge on the people who killed her father.

But immediately, other hunters looking for the gold, are now also hunting for Sugimoto and Asirpa . Can these two survive? And what will the two learn as they must take on other hunters and soldiers who are also looking for the gold?

While the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army are on the hunt for Sugimoto and Asirpa. What happens when Asirpa takes Sugimoto to her Ainu village and what will he learn more about Ainu culture?

The anime does a good job of bringing the manga to life and with the second volume, the focus is on the race to find the tattooed skins, as Sugimoto, Asirpa, Shiraishi and others must join forces to find the tattooed skins before Tsurumi and soldiers of the Seventh Divison.

But with many people having their own personal ambitions for obtaining the skins to find the gold, who will betray whom?

As for the authenticity of ainu portrayal, for the original manga series, Noda Satoru consulted with Nakagawa Yu in regards to Ainu language and culture. For those not familiar with Ainu in Japan, they have a similar unfair treatment in society (as Native Americans in the United States) and prejudice runs rampant in various parts of Japan towards the indigenous Ainu people. So, it takes great care of making sure to capture the culture and they did a great job of doing that, but also promoting Ainu culture positively in “Golden Kamuy”.

It’s important to note that this series is for mature viewers as there are a few adult jokes and also bloody violence, so it’s not a series to have little children watching. For season two, there is a storyline which involves a man who makes human taxidermy and also likes to make clothes using human skin. And as they tried to make this humorous and funny, it is kind of gross and creepy.

Overall, “Golden Kamuy” is turning out to be a fantastic, action-packed anime series that is less about its action but more about character relationships, Ainu culture and the race to find the hidden gold.

I highly recommend this anime series! And I hope there are plans for a third season!