Golden Kamuy Final Season

Episode 55

For much of Golden Kamuy, Lieutenant Tsurumi has felt almost inhuman in his ability to manipulate disenfranchised young men and rally them to his cause. Thanks to this level of hyper-competence, Tsurumi has felt more like the embodiment of the kinds of leaders looking to exploit others to achieve their own ends, rather than a multi-faceted character like much of the main cast. What makes this episode so affecting is that we finally get to see Tsurumi's — metaphorical, not the one on his forehead — mask slip and get a sense of what has personally motivated him to go to such extreme lengths in pursuit of the Ainu gold.

Most of the episode is a further exploration of how the seven Ainu who attempted to utilize the gold were killed, how Wilk became Nopperabou, and the ideological differences between the competing factions present in this narrative. However, as Tsurumi is the narrator of these preceding events, this entire episode explores just how obsessed he is with undermining Wilk's vision for Hokkaido, how traumatized he still is by the death of his young wife and daughter, and how broken he is underneath his veneer of confidence and altruism.

I was so curious to see how the anime was going to adapt the scene where Tsurumi dawns Wilk's skinned head Hannibal Lecter style, and it did not disappoint! While this moment feels shocking in the manga, it's more disconcerting and saddening in the anime. It's a literalization of the ghosts of his past haunting him, and Asirpa reacting with pity and what's nearly concern to a taunt against her showcases both her deep capacity for compassion and makes the cracks in Tsurumi's facade more prominent than ever.

Koito and Tsukishima take notice of these cracks, with the latter becoming enraged as it becomes more and more clear that the person and cause he's dedicated his life to has actually been Tsurumi's pursuit of his own interests. Tsurumi saves face at the very end of his speech — or at least manages to convince the more sycophantic Koito — by giving some hard political arguments for why Hokkaido should be a militarized state, but it feels clear that the two are only convinced because they want to be. Asirpa, Sofia, and the audience having an entirely different take away from Tsurumi's speech than Koito and Tsukishima because of their different values and personal baggage is a microcosm of what makes Golden Kamuy a masterful work of character-driven writing.

While season five episode six was a bit more dialogue heavy and, as such, the animation was more limited, it still hit its emotional beats and sheds light on the few lasting mysteries and circumstances that motivated this story. Golden Kumy is one of the most human stories I've ever experienced and this episode reminded me of that. While it doesn't capture the fullness of the human experience like some episodes, this one did showcase how a series of independent choices made by disparate people can build into huge events for those individuals and society at large. To be a person today is to live in a world shaped by countless interactions like these while adding your own, and I love that this episode, and this show, understands that.

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The immortal Lucas DeRuyter (no one's been able to kill him yet at least!) is an entertainment writer with a focus on anime, video games, and other forms of niche media. A sampling of his past work is available on his portfolio and you can keep up with him on a weekly or daily basis by checking out ANN's This Week in Anime and his Bluesky account, respectively.

Golden Kamuy Final Season is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.