What kind of plot twist…?
The first half went just as I expected it to. Tanigaki was smart and lured them to a dead deer where a bear would return the next morning. As the men waited there and checked to find his tracks, Nikaidou gets attacked by the bear while Ogata is in the back. While Nikaidou is getting mauled, Tanigaki wants Ogata to shoot so he can get his location and use his one bullet to kill him. He does, he shoots, and at first thinks he kills him, but he ends up surviving as it was his binoculars that got shot, not himself. Lt. Tsurumi and his men appear and Ogata escapes and leaves Nikaidou behind, and with Tsurumi there, Tanigaki can safely escape and head back to the Ainu village.
God…poor Nikaidou. He loses his brother, gets attacked by a bear, and loses both his ears. I don’t even know how this guy is still standing, but his rage just grows.
Later, we return to Sugimoto and the rest of the group as they talk about Hijikata, not even knowing that they already met him. Shiraishi doesn’t mention that he’s now bascially recruited to work for him. They find an Ainu dam for fish and they get hungry. Asirpa talks about a local Ainu legend about a giant fish big enough to eat a bear. Shiraishi falls into the river and of course they come across the giant fish. You know, they’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to food. 😐
They meet Kiroranke Nispa, a friend of Asirpa’s father. I’m not too sure what to make of this guy. Once Sugimoto learned that he used to be part of the 7th, he immediately got suspicious thinking that he might have worked under Tsurumi, but he says he had another lieutenant. That is suspicious, but he doesn’t seem like a bad person, and Asirpa likes him. Either way, he drops a HUGE bomb on us and the characters when he reveals that an old man came into the Ainu village and asked for a “Kochoube Asuko”. We learn that it’s Asirpa’s Japanese name, and we learn that Nopperabo, the man that started this whole gold hunt in the first place is actually Asirpa’s father! He gave the prisoners the hint of finding Kochoube Asuko in Otaru, he and was trying to entrust the gold to her. Asirpa is absolutely shocked and cannot believe it and wants to personally meet him to fully believe. The problem is that actually breaking in to the prison will be tough, but with Shiraishi’s help, it could be doable. Nispa gives them the route to pass through Sapporo to make it to the prison and so they leave on their journey in the end.
In the post credits scene, we get a suspicious lady that’s obviously evil. Literally, the name of the next episode is Murder Hotel. And the group is just going to happen to come across it? Again, I don’t want to be suspicious of Nispa, especially after he said he wants the gold to be returned rightfully to the Ainu, but…huh. How convenient.
