Golden Kamuy Episode 4 Review: Grim Reaper

You know how women like to say men don’t understand them? Find out more in this week’s episode of Golden Kamuy.

Japanese Title: カムイモシㇼ

Plot

Sugimoto is enjoying the simple life, fooling around with the Ainu, eating, learning their traditions. After Asirpa’s grandmother begs him not to abandon her granddaughter, he deems it a good idea to disappear and continue his quest in the middle of the night on his own.

Asirpa is not impressed and starts tracking him down using her uberwolf, who, because of a misunderstanding, finds the Escape King instead. After some brief questioning and blackmailing, Asirpa manages to convince him to take her to Sugimoto.

In the meantime, Sugimoto has managed to get himself captured by the 7th division douchebags by going around asking about men with tattoos. The weird guy with the half brain is torturing him by poking sticks through his cheeks. After he’s fed up with their shit, Sugimoto decides he doesn’t want any more holes around his mouth and jumps around while tied in his chair to escape.

Episode Highlights

Traps for fish and traps for bears and traps for humans: Will they really catch anything? Will I ever get tired of Ainu themes and trivia? I don’t think so. Being immersed in tribal traditions I’ve never heard about is just great.

More FOOD PORN: I’m not one to judge people’s dietary needs and habits but this show spends a little bit more time than it should on food. In this particular episode, there were at least three very descriptive eating sessions of what looked to be some very very delicious foods.

What did you expect brah: Peaceful episode begging, cute meals, a lady from a whore house that is very keen on offering free food… I mean, this was definitely gonna become bloody very soon.

Born a linguist: Thank god for your language skills Sugimoto, and thank god you understood everything Asirpa’s poor old grandmother said. I mean, you deliberately interpreted the words of someone you don’t know in a language you don’t understand based on your feeling. What could possibly go wrong?

Themes and Trivia:

Ainu fashions: The Ainu had many clothes : birdskin clothes made of birdskin with feathers of seagulls, Temminck’s cormorant, Staff-tree, and other birds ; hide clothes of hides of bear, deer, fox, seal, dog, and other beasts ; fishskin clothes of salmon and trout ; and plant clothes of flags and wild rye. As you can probably imagine, they no longer wear these things.

Ainu religion: Ainu spiritual practices are quite complex. They are different to Shinto, the traditional Japanese religion, and they don’t fit the usual definition of animism. The Ainu were supposed to feel the presence of the spirits of the dead in their everyday lives. They believed they were protected by the dead spirits who lived in all things that existed in the human world.

Creepy af: Doesn’t that weird no-face no-brain guy look like the Nutcracker? I’m thinking he doesn’t have any lips…

LET’S SEE SOME ACTION

Much as I love Ainu fun facts, it’s time for the plot to start moving, so let’s do that, shall we?

What did you think of the Golden Kamuy’s fourth episode? Let us know in the comment section! And don’t forget to check the rest of the Spring 2018 anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!