Golden Kamuy vol. 20

After all the excitement of the previous volume, you’d think that it’d be time for the story to take a break and let the cast catch their breaths.  This lasts for about two chapters as the main cast does just that and the focus of the story shifts back to some of the 7th Division as they relax at a local hot springs resort and await new orders from Lieutenant Tsurumi.  While they’re waiting, one of their members, an Ainu named Ariko, tells them about a man he saw one evening with a strange design on his kimono.  It sounds like a bit of nothing to build a storyline off of, until you realize that their masseur looks veeeeeeery familiar.  This all leads to another solidly executed action-filled-adventure as the men from the 7th Division try to outsmart a skilled hunter and his companions who can use every advantage the dark has to offer.  I realize that these kinds of sequences are the bread and butter of “Golden Kamuy,” but mangaka Satoru Noda still finds ways to differentiate them from previous ones and keep them interesting.  This one is, of course, no exception.

Afterwards, Sugimoto’s plan to keep Asirpa from becoming a killer bears fruit and leads into a flashback sequence for Koito of all people.  We get to see how he was the spoiled son of a general back in his younger days and that it took an encounter with Lieutenant Tsurumi to get him to think about changing his ways.  What gets him to think harder is when he’s kidnapped immediately afterward and the Lieutenant has to work with Koito’s father to save his son from these suspected Russian kidnappers.  All of this is handled in a straightforward manner that’s still engaging even as it spins off into “Looney Tunes” territory via the chase at the end.  Said storytelling also winds up feeling a little predictable overall as it’s not that hard to see the big twist at the end coming.  Still, vol. 20 manages to keep the narrative engine of this series humming along nicely in the wake of the game-changing events of the previous volume.