For a one cour anime where getting a sequel is a 50/50 chance, introducing more and more side characters and/or enemies is getting a bit overwhelming. After this episode, it sounds like maybe Tsurumi might take a back seat, but then we already have somebody else that might take his place as someone to watch out for. There’s just kind of a lot of characters at this point and I’m scared that they might add even more.
Sugimoto manages to escape before, but in a way that was pretty smart but simple. With the help of both Shiraishi and Asirpa, it made things a lot easier for him but he was still able to escape by pretending to be horribly wounded. Killing one of the twin guards and stealing his guts to make it seem like it was his own guts he was holding on to, he begged Tsurumi to save him and he would agree to help. Tsurumi makes his men take him to a hospital, but Tsurumi observes the murder scene (he should have done that before) and realizes it’s all a trick. As he chases after Sugimoto, Asirpa helps out in the background, and in the end, Tsurumi decides to let Sugimoto go. He’s going to let Sugimoto collect all the skins and tattoos himself so then he can just jump in and steal it all from him. Which, I guess? It’s lazy as hell, but it’s smart. He has a whole gang of soldiers, and Sugimoto’s group is tiny, so the next time he goes after him he’ll be more prepared. Also, it was creepy as hell that Tsurumi I guess…stitched the skins together and wore them like a coat? Unfortunately Shiraishi couldn’t get it back, but at least HQ was burned down and Sugimoto was saved.
We see Hijikata again and see that he’s trying to gather up some more allies and weapons. There’s a bout and Hijikata shows his strength and learn that he wants to set up a new Shinsengumi, and just like Tsurumi wants, he basically wants to take control of all of Hokkaido. We’ll see how far he goes.
After patching up their awkward bond and having a nice meal of horse meat and miso shit, Sugimoto and Asirpa go hunting and Asirpa notices strange foot prints. We learn that the soldier that faced off with Asirpa before is up and about with a man that has a fierce reputation as a bear hunter, and it seems like he’s looking for Retar for some reason. We didn’t get much after that as that was when the episode ended, but the way he easily killed the bear makes me worried as to why he wants Retar. I don’t want Asirpa to be sad again, even if she makes weird grandma faces. 🙁
The episode was exciting in the beginning and then slowed down with some short cool scenes later on. Again, as interesting as this Nihei man might be, I’m not too thrilled that we’re getting introduced to more and more characters. Maybe he won’t play a big role, but I hope they actually make me care about the guy. I’ve seen plenty shows where there’s many characters, and not much time is spent on each of them, so I don’t end up caring about most of them, and I don’t want Golden Kamuy to be like that too.
