English Dub Review: Golden Kamuy “Eyes of a Murderer”

An unrelenting old man.

Overview:

Hijikate begins to set his own plans into motion and veers Sugimoto’s group to the next prisoner.

Our Take:

Here we have a lot of Hijikata, and more on this dandy old man and his schemes.

It turns out that Hijikata is trying to use the gold for a similar way that Tsurumi is– to redeem his failures from when he was young. As the Vice-Commander of the Shinsengumi, Hijikata tried his best to preserve the shogunate when it was in decline and ultimately failed. The Shinsengumi were chased up north into Hokkaido, where they established the Republic of Ezo in a last attempt to keep the rule. Of course, the Shinsengumi were defeated and Ezo was broken up, but Hijikata wants to use the gold to build his own country.

Hijikata also goes out of his way to recover the Izuminokami Kanesada, which is a sword locked away in a vault. A bit about the Izuminokami Kanesada is that this is one of Hijikata’s prized swords from when he was still in the Shinsengumi. One theory exists that the sword wasn’t with Hijikata when he charged to his death at the Battle of Hakodate, and that it was sent away before the fighting broke out. As a result, the sword exists even to this day and is housed currently in the Hijikata Toshizo Museum. In Golden Kamuy where Hijikata survives, Izuminokami Kanesada is kept in a bank vault away from prying eyes, and Hijikata schemes to get it back. It’s not only a finely made sword but a companion from his Shinsengumi days, which brings Hijikata closer back to the self that he lost.

Even though he’s old, he’s still plenty sharp enough to terrify Shiraishi. Hijikata sends Shiraishi after another prisoner, who’s still doing plenty of murder. Henmi Kazuo has gotten the taste for killing (enough to be sexually aroused by it) and is still up to his old tricks. Henmi runs into the main group by chance and seeing Sugimoto’s ruthlessness, becomes attached to him. Not only is Henmi obsessed with death in general, but that includes his own death. He wants to fight with and possibly kill Sugimoto, but he also wants Sugimoto to kill him as well. Death to him has become mixed in with love, which sure makes something alright.

Normally, this would make things very easy for Sugimoto, but the Seventh Division seems to be everywhere, huh.