English Dub Review: Golden Kamuy “The Smell of Sulfur”

Overview

Recovering from their last mission, soldiers Usami and Nikaido, from Lieutenant Tsurumi’s group, spend time in hot springs used by other military personnel. There they meet Warrant Officer Kikuta and Private Ariko, who has a curious story about a man in the mountains who wears “clothes with an unusual pattern”…

Our Take

Once again we’re shifting gears as we jump over to a group of 7th Division soldiers who rest on the laurels of Noboribetsu Hot Springs while finding more tattooed people as a gift given back to Lieutenant Tsurumi, and this is a dangerous point because Hijikata is presumed to be alive, awaiting information about the 7th Division. Unfortunately, coupled with the sound of the geta, with Warrant Officer Kikuta being on guard with the rancid smell of sulfur, a tattoo trace was found with Nikaido. This also leads to the introduction of Kikuta and Ariko. As the two are trying to find this mysterious running mountain man in a race against time, further displaying both their ingenuity and skills.

Ariko being an Ainu himself knows this part of Hokkaido well, while Kikuta is a bit of a gun fanatic collecting Russian revolvers as trophies from his past battles. As the two proceed to track down the mountain man, who turns out to be the same blind guy Toni from Season 2 whom we last saw somehow survived a serious head injury from a prison warden Hijikata fought. Ariko and Kikuta had to wade through that dark tunnel not making a sound. Ariko proves that the Ainu are just simply built differently since he can move through that heavy snow like it’s nothing which leads to quite an unexpected outcome…

Overall this was a decent filler episode that somehow served an actual purpose. While the show never shy’s away from its usual homoerotic undertones, we’re at least introduced to newly added characters who may serve a potential antagonistic role somewhere down the line. And yet somehow despite once again focusing on other characters outside the main cast, it still manages to be consistently compelling. Yet in the end, we did get to see Sugimoto, Asirpa, and the rest of the crew in the last few minutes. And in a post-credits scene, the focus shifts onto Koito who was perplexed at something Ogata said to him at the end of season 3 which hopefully they’ll explain next episode!