The Tsurumi theater is on display here. One of the best things this series does with Tsurumi that shows how he is a great villain is manipulate both his allies and targets. In the case of Wilk, he knew of his past and used it perfectly against him. The funny part is that it is true that Wilk originally sought the gold to help out his allies in Russia. Of course Wilk changed as Kiro has mentioned. But that shouldn’t have stopped Tsurumi from using that.
The insane decision to fake his death, where he literally rips the skin off his face. Of course, Wilk faking his death and heading to Abashiri Prison, you would understand Kiro hoping the old Wilk is back. The interesting part from Kiro’s position is that he had a family just like Wilk, but even then he didn’t believe what Wilk wanted to do now was right. He felt Wilk got weak, and killing him, as viewed as the head of the Wolfpack barely keeping, was a sign of respect that Kiro had for Wilk.
It’s interesting that the marriage with Tsurumi & Fina where she knew he was keeping secrets. Though his love for her was real, Wilk killing the woman he loved and his child must have hurt a lot. In many ways this feels like the closest we got to Tsurumi’s personal side. Still, if it was just out of revenge, he could have killed Wilk a long time ago. As he prioritized Japan and getting the gold to aid the military.
As Tsurumi mentions, there are issues in what both Kiro & Wilk wanted. I could easily fall into Russia’s hands if they aren’t careful. In the case of the Ezo Republic that both Wilk & Hijikata are for, they will need to bring immigrants. Now, can you count that it will be for Japan? It is hard to say it is a better idea than what Kiro wanted. There are still issues. Tsurumi does make a great argument that the Japanese should come together first. As the other two options have notable issues.
The title drop of mentioning the Gold has its own Kamuy. It does bring a great thing in showing, as we learned about Ainu culture; we learned about various Kamuy. We have also seen the discussion of the gold and how the greed of it corrupts so many people. As it is the cause of many deaths. As if the Ainu never needed to rely on gold in the past, why do they need to now? It will be very curious to see how Asirpa responds to this next episode.
This episode adapted chapters 268-271.
- One thing to note is it didn’t fully adapt chapter 271. Makes sense because this finished covering the prescreening content from the 2 movies. Plus the ending of chapter 271 would be a cruel way to end a prescreening.
- Overall, very well done with this season.
- Now we have 42 chapters left in the manga. At first I figured by episode 7 we would adapt Tokyo Bride Story, but that doesn’t start until chapter 274.
- My guess is we will bridge from the end of this arc to the final, and they will push Tokyo Bride Story as an OVA.