Golden Kamuy vol. 16

Are we done here?  Nope!

How do you follow up a volume that combined Russian wall-fighting, manly steam baths, and wolverines?  By having the majority of it take place at the circus!  After an urchin steals one of their bags, Sugimoto’s group tracks him back to Yamada’s Circus who are back in Japan after a successful tour of Russia.  Their main gimmick is a live hara-kiri show, and Sugimoto figures he can get word of his survival to Asirpa if he takes part in it.  Things go predictably, absurdly awry when Sugimoto reveals himself to be an awful ham in rehearsals, Koito comes off as an acrobatic prodigy, and Tanigaki is shown to have two left feet when he and Tsukishima are relegated to dancing with little girls.  It’s an agreeably goofy episode that entertains even when some angry Russians show up. Which is good because, Sugimoto’s goal aside, it’s a huge diversion from the main plot.

Said plot is better served at the beginning and end of this volume.  The beginning has Hijikata’s group tracking down another Tattooed Convict, a former assassin who is suffering from dementia.  We do get some more insight into Hijikata’s aims here, though it feels like the more we learn about them the more we’re supposed to recognize how awesome this old man is.  I’m not feeling it, though (on a different note) I did like how mangaka Satoru Noda realized the Convict’s delusions.  Noda wraps up the volume by shifting the focus back to Asirpa’s group as Kiroranke and Ogata hope that by retracing her father’s path she’ll give up some clue regarding the Ainu gold.  Said path leads them to cross the border into Russia where a rather “What the hell…?” revelation dropped by Lieutenant Tsurumi has the guards on the lookout for Kiroranke.  So it’s good that the suspense generated by the sniper-centric cliffhanger of this volume is done well enough to get us past that oddness.