This episode provided a very interesting conversation between Asirpa & Inkarmat. One thing that is very curious is that she states that Asirpa’s father, Wilk, was taught about the Ainu through her when she was younger. When Asirpa states it was her mother who taught him the Ainu, you see a tear from Inkarmat. It is clear that he forgot about her. It is clear that this was a one-sided love, and one could assume it could draw potential parallels to Asirpa for Sugimoto.
She mentions Wilk wasn’t the type of man that would kill the other Ainu for the gold. She mentions he was so kind, which is much like Asirpa as we know her. We learn that Wilk came from Karafuto and his father was Polish. Which is where Asirpa gets her blue eyes from. It seemed he worked with other ethnic minorities, where you can tell he is a fighter. According to her, Wilk isn’t Noppera-bou.
Still, the assertion that Kiroranke killed Wilk is a very interesting claim. As we know, he is a friend of Wilk. Leave it to Asirpa to ask Kiroranke if he killed her father. As the fingerprints are from the incident when the Ainu were killed by Noppera-bou. Of course, Kiroranke’s point then is, who is the Noppera-bou in Abashiri Prison? As Ogata mentions that the only one who would have that information would be Tsurumi, which means she is working with him. Which is a big red flag.
As Sugimoto asks Shiraishi if Noppera-bou’s eyes are blue like Asirpa. Of course the only one who knows this is Hijikata. Which really shows how the hunt for the gold is really being manipulated by Hijikata & Tsurumi. As Sugimoto mentions, the only way they are getting answers is by heading to Abashiri Prison and meeting Noppera-bou. Which is an excellent point.
The scene at the end of the episode shows that Inudou is aware of the 7th Division’s interest in Noppera-bou and the gold. Curious what his aim is beyond his beef with Hijikata.
This episode adapted chapters 115-118 after skipping the rest from the end point of the previous episode. It covered the main things it needed to, all things considered, and nailed the scenes it had to adapt. All the Hijikata scenes were skipped, which honestly was fine with how it executed it. Gives his side a more mysterious vibe with what he is plotting.