English Dub Review: Golden Kamuy “Fakes”

A mad mine cart chase.

Overview:

Ogata finds out about the fake skins, and it becomes a race to find Edogai.

Our Take:

Everyone’s favorite cat, Ogata is back. Ogata now is aligned with Hijikata, at least for the time being. It’s pretty clear that Ogata is just looking out for himself, as he doesn’t consider anyone from the Seventh Division to be former comrades, or even anyone that he was particularly close to. He kept to himself, and that goes for turning sides too- in the end, he doesn’t feel particularly bad about shooting his old comrades-in-arms, because they were never people that he needed to bother about. So far, we have no idea what Ogata is actually planning for himself, but either way, he is directly against the Seventh Division and Sugimoto’s group both.

As weird as Edogai is, he did prove what I said the last review. He is still unquestionably out there, but he is genuinely trying hard for Tsurumi’s sake. After all, Tsurumi is the first person that opened a genuine line of communication with him and treated him like a fellow comrade. Someone as lonely as Edogai felt he had to give his all for Tsurumi, and this time, he actually succeeded. Just before Ogata stormed in, Edogai managed to finish the fake skins and in the mines, he handed them off to Tsukishima. Unfortunately, Edogai loses his life in the process, but even that he’s not upset about: he gets to die for the sake of a person that truly believed in him.

All parties end up converging this time around Ogata for Hijikata, Tsukishima for Tsurumi, and Sugimoto and Shiraishi for their aforementioned side. In the end, despite the struggle, Tsurumi comes out the victor. Tsukishima escapes the mines with his life and delivers the skins to Tsurumi. This means that Tsurumi has at least four fake skins at his disposal, and most importantly, he’s the only one that knows how to tell them apart. If he utilizes this well, that could change the entire gold hunt.

However, as it seems, Hijikata and Sugimoto’s groups have formed a temporary truce. Knowing the threat that the Seventh Division and Tsurumi now poses, it’s much better to remain allies than to make enemies. While this is an extremely unconventional group, it seems to be a very humorous one so far. With Hijikata knowing a lot about Noppera-bou and his origins, it’s likely that Hijikata will steer the group down an interesting path…