English Dub Review: Golden Kamuy “Manslayer”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Hijikata’s group searches for one of the tattooed prisoners, Yoichiro the Manslayer. However, they’re not the only ones after the old man as assassins from the families who have their loved ones killed by Yoichiro continue to search for him. Hijikata’s group arrives at an Ainu village where they learn about Yoichiro and his wife. Later they find Yoichiro at the fishery along with the assassins. Yoichiro cuts assassins that he confuses with the people he faced years ago. Yoichiro walks out to the sea as Hijikata trails after him to finish him off. Meanwhile, Asirpa’s group hunts a white whale and discusses how they’re going to break out Sophia.

Our Take:

In this week’s episode of Golden Kamuy, we follow Hijikata’s group for the majority of the episode. They search for Yoichiro the Manslayer with a clue that Hijikata found during Yoichiro’s time in prison: a part of a beak from the etupirka, a bird that only lives in Nemuro. It’s nice to see that episode gives us more on the Ainu culture through this tidbit.

Through that clue, the group traces Yoichiro’s footsteps to an Ainu village where he lived with his wife. However, a man seeking revenge took his wife hostage and he took action. His story gets tragic as he finds out that his wife gets severely ill and he breaks out of prison to reunite with her. Despite his old age, Yoichiro still has the skills that earned him the title of manslayer. I liked how the episode frames him as a typical old man who closes to death with him walking to the sea and a younger fisherman has to stop him.

Then when the assassins come for him, Yoichiro’s sight fades from the present and into the past as he moves to cut down his pursuers. Even the background reflects the change with a red tint to the scenes. It worked well to show how his mind has deteriorated with his old age. Then there are his final moments as he sees his wife while he painfully succumbs to death. The two symbolic etupirkas flying away was a nice touch to end Yoichiro’s story.

Then we transition to Asirpa’s group hunting a white whale and then eating it with miso that Asirpa held onto from Sugimoto. Their scene was a good ending to set up for the next episode. I look forward to seeing the plan to break Sophia out of prison with the bombs from the lighthouse. On a minor note, Ogata saying hinna hinna despite his refusal to do so in the previous seasons was a surprise, but it could be a ploy to get Asirpa to trust him like with Kiroranke and his tales of her father. We’ll have to wait and see if it pans out though.

Overall it was a good episode with both action and tragedy in Yoichiro’s story. It looks like Asirpa’s group is also going to break Sophia out of prison along with the other prisoners.