Golden Kamuy Season 4

Episodes 37-39

Golden Kamuy returns, and with it my will to live.

Okay maybe that's a touch dramatic, but I'm excited to see one of my favorite shows return after a seemingly endless wave of isekai-also-rans. Season 4 certainly opens strong. The absurd tension of last season's finale transitions nicely into a calm, relax- oh, wait, no, it's a sniper trying to gun down our leads within the first few minutes!

It's a smart opening sequence that encapsulates everything Golden Kamuy is about, making it a suitable primer even if you have no real experience with the story before this. There's tense gunfights, brutal close combat, and misunderstandings that break away into comedic doodle contests between characters who connect with each other in spirit more than in language. By the end, it's all chuckles as the crew riders off into the snow, but one can't shake the ominous feeling hanging over them. The only elements this opening did not touch on were the focus on food (reserved for later in the episode) and the strangely absent beefcake shots.

The rest of this episode settles into a setting of the stage for what is to come. Kadokura and Kirawus are the new additions to the mix, and I'm curious to see where they are going. Kadokura's over-the-top bad luck is a perfect fit for the outrageous yet hilarious misery many of the characters in this series undergo. I got a big belly laugh out of him slipping on the ice and making all his fish swim perfectly into convenient nearby holes.

But honestly, it's most heartening to see Sugimoto and Asirpa back together again. I enjoyed last season a lot, don't get me wrong, but I think the show is really at its best when these two are working alongside one another. Their dynamic is the beating heart of the show, and while their separation made for an excellent source of tension, I think this season will be stronger overall simply by having them back together. Can't wait to see what else is in store for us.

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The second episode of season four serves as an introduction for our new cast members and reintroduction for a few supporting characters. It's about as episodic as Golden Kamuy gets, resulting in a tidy (if bloody) resolution in the half-hour it's working with.

Sekiya is the escapee in focus for this episode. He has an interesting personality and arc, playing games of luck with others to see if God is real because his daughter was so cruelly and randomly killed by a lightning strike. He's not the most compelling prisoner we've encountered, but his poisoning shtick is a good one. I think his best moment by far is when he plays the cocoon game with detective Kadokura. The big spinning wheel and spokes with different poisons on opposite ends sets up a sort of Princess Bride by way of a Rube Goldberg machine that was pretty intense. The fact that Kadokura ultimately escapes through sheer luck (as did Hijikata) is icing on the cake.

The scene on the ice where Kadokura and Kirawus confronted Sekiya is also perfect Golden Kamuy fare, with lots of hilarious comedy involving naked men and random happenings. This series is a potent blend of well-researched factoids and goofball buck-naked men if nothing else.

The b-plot with Ushiyama was one note, but by God was it funny. Having him emerge memory-stricken and fiending so bad that a child mistakenly names him Pussy would be funny enough, but then they develop the very particular kind of bond that anime kids develop with, say, a brand-new Pokémon or semi-sentient giant robots. The dialogue alone had me rolling, and I was honestly hoping this bit would go on for a while longer. Sadly, Ushiyama regains his memory by the end of the episode, and we are all worse off for it.

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Episode three sees us jump to a new perspective once again, this time following some of Lieutenant Tsurumi's followers. We are reintroduced to old hands Usami and Nikaido, and also meet newcomers Warrant Officer Kikuta and Ainu soldier Ariko.

This ends up being another episodic tale centered around masseurs at a hot spring. The core tension of the episode works well, with lots of mystery and suspense surrounding the inability to get a clear vision of what is going on in these mountains. Most of the episode plays with the various senses in some way or form: the inability to see at night, the particular echo of certain objects, the feel of warm hot spring water, etc. It all comes together to create a really interesting location and mood that works very well.

New additions Kikuto and Ariko are both interesting, if not quite exceptional. Kikuta is a pretty typical Golden Kamuy character – a rugged and resourceful fighter who was deeply impacted by the Russo-Japanese war. His particular affectation for the pistols of Russian officers (and carrying them in multiple braces on his chest) is interesting at first blush, but doesn't result in him acting all that much different than any other soldier-type character. The scene where he used the eyepatch to quickly adapt to low-light conditions was exceedingly cool though, so props there for a great sequence.

Ariko seems to be the character with more potential of the two. The way he set up the masseur to fire his gun and spark an avalanche so he could easily swoop in and recover the tattoos was terrific. That said, he seems to be very similar to many other rugged and resourceful characters in the cast, and I'm wondering what will help set him apart (other than being much calmer than a lot of the other goobers in Tsurumi's crew).

The final sequence of Sugimoto and Shiraishi begging the granny for more chewed-up treats was an absolute work of art, and no one could tell me otherwise.

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Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Golden Kamuy Season 4 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.