Well, that could’ve gone a lot better. How Evil are Golden Kamuy Episodes 17 and 18?

Golden Kamuy
Studio: Geno Studio
Genre: Action, Adventure, Historical, Seinen

I think it’s safe to say that we all expected the rescue attempt to go horribly wrong. So, when the plan fell apart we all should’ve seen it coming, even if it varied from what we thought would happen. I thought that they wouldn’t even get near Shiraishi before things got bad. I was wrong. Their disguises held out until someone had the idea of contacting Lieutenant Tsurumi. And that’s when Second Lieutenant Koito arrived.

Koito wasn’t as easy to fool as the others. He put the fake warden through a series of test. I kind of wonder why none of these other guys thought to do any of this. Also, Sugimoto’s face is supposed to be chewed off but we can see his lips and the skin around his eyes. I guess the officers they tricked are blind. Oh, they also called him by name. So add deaf to the list too. Anyway, Koito didn’t buy a word of it and ended up shooting both of them, killing the fake warden in the process. RIP, guy I hadn’t remembered the name of.

Of course, the Immortal Sugimoto was able to escape out a window with Shiraishi, still living up to that awesome nickname. With the clumsy escape, the army was hot on their trail and the gunshots alerted every soldier in the place. This complicated things by blocking all of the normal escape routes with the newly alerted soldiers. But this is Golden Kamuy. Something like that isn’t enough to stop this group. Sugimoto’s team ends up stealing a blimp… an experimental blimp that’s incomplete. And things get even crazier. They end up crashing because the engine runs out of gas or breaks down, stranding them all in the mountains in the middle of a blizzard.

That didn’t last long, though. As soon as Episode 18 started, it’s revealed that the 7th gave up on chasing them through the storm. Right after that, we got a flashback of Tanigaki telling a story from his past to Lieutenant Tsurumi. If you see a flashback while watching a flashback what do you even call it? A super flashback? (Voyager: Flashback-ception) …Anyway, this wasn’t the typical episode. We got a whole lot of dark backstory, but very little funny to soften the blow. The whole thing dealt with Tanigaki’s reasons for joining the 7th and it’s a classic revenge story for the most part. Tanigaki was searching for his sister’s killer but the guy ended up getting mortally wounded in the war. 

Tanigaki tried to finish the guy off but instead got his side of the story before he passed. It’s a long, sad story. I was hoping it would be at least a little funnier, but this was good too. I just hope we get back to the funnier stuff next time.

He did finally manage to catch up to Sugimoto’s group, so I’m hoping for some fun interactions in the near future. Also, maybe we’ll finally find the traitor that was mentioned earlier. Tanigaki is coming into his own alongside the others now, so I’m curious where he might go in the future as well. I hope they keep him around for a little bit at least.

Overall, I’d say these episodes are about as Evil as a Villian (9). I’m kind of glad I couldn’t cover 17 before now, these episodes belong together. When you get the chance to check out the latest from the twins. Well, that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for letting me waste your time, people.

Golden Kamuy’s second season is on Crunchyroll.

Keep It Classy,
Evil Bob