Golden Kamuy

Golden Kamui

I've heard a lot about this anime on YouTube, especially that it's supposed to be relatively funny. And to my surprise it is, it has a similar and qualitative humor as Gintama. And it even has a rather interesting main plot, which is actually in the spotlight and not just secondary.
Unfortunately... these positive words only apply from season 2 onwards. The first season is so bad that I considered quitting the anime at episode 7. The pacing was disastrous, the animation mediocre, the dialogue dull, and no tension at all. There was a joke 2-3 times per episode, the leftover was even more ... boring than watching any Penguin documentaries. Sorry, but penguin documentaries are boring.

It's only thanks to my iron willpower that I made it through the first season. Who on earth is going to convince someone with a start like that? There was nothing about the anime that could even begin to hold the viewer's interest. But surviving the first 10 episodes was worth it. After that, the anime actually gets interesting and even good.

The main plot is very simple and generally gives me a certain Jojo vibe. Which is all the more noticeable in the later seasons. Especially with the constant gay humor among the main characters. It begins with the protagonist accidentally meeting the Loli protagonist. Through various happenings, they decide to collect "skins" of prison escapees that have something to do with the One Piece. Only by putting the skins together can the true map of the treasure be revealed. The enemies they fight are either some madmen or future antagonists.

Unfortunately said, practically nothing happens in the first season until episode 10, and due to the very weak pacing, the episodes are all the more difficult to watch.

[Conclusion 4]

This is one of the few anime that gets better as time passes. And I'm really glad I survived the first season, it was worth it. If you like series like Gintama and Jojo, you will definitely get your money's worth here. All 3 series have a lot of similarities in style, humor, and structure.

[Enjoyment 3]

-------------- Golden Kamuy Review ----------------

Over rated anime that had a lot of potential.

Story :
definitely the string aspect of it. The setting, the time period, the people, everything is there for a good recipe. Ainu, soldiers, conflicts brewing in the background, it is here you feel the potential of the series.

Art : absolutely TERRIBLE.
Below average in every way. I will not mention the poor CGI bear again which is a running joke at this point. But the animation overall is very bad. From the soldier's faces, the badly animated animals, the switch between 2D and 3D wolves, the refusal to use correct models for proper ... anatomy.
There's nothing more irritating than having to watch an action anime with this amount of mediocre animation.

The way people move is beyond laughable. I had to force myself to watch it because I saw all these high score reviews. But an anime is visual first, audio second. And the visual part was painful.
I have read some of the manga and the art is much better there.

There are so many soldiers, the animators could have spent more time using partial rotoscopy to animate the reloading/shooting better. Also the hunting is something that could have been interesting but it was so bad looking at how the weapons were drawn and animated.

Sound :
I never expected some Michael Mann level of sound quality, but the gun sounds are muffled and weak. War, shootings, hunting, it makes up a huuuuge portion of the anime and yet the sound effects are some GTA 4 level on average.
The voice acting is ok, but how about some subtitles for the ainu words which are unintelligible??

Enjoyment :
Not much. I see so much potential. I really had to force myself to make it to 10 episodes. I dropped it when the animation managed to go even lower than low. I couldn't make it. I always see some reviews unfairly low grade above average anime, but this one is over rated for TECHNICAL issues to me, not the content not the writing.

I actually feel like another studio could have made it an epic piece.

4/10

There are anime in this world that bring upon the community entertainment or a meaning in life beyond what our personal experiences could hope of comprehending before encountering such masterpieces. And then you get those series which exist to only advertise their source materials.

Story: 6/10
The story begins with a unique setting of the early 1900s after the Russo-Japanese War. It has a conflict that is already set up with a Japanese soldier, Sugimoto, and an Ainu hunter, Asirpa, who search for prisoners tattoos which connect to make a map leading to a treasure of Ainu gold. The conflict is set up and ... the viewers know what the end goal is so we sit back and enjoy the journey. Unfortunately, the execution is what corrupts the experience of those who enjoy adventure and action. I would blame this on Gene Studio, a new upcoming animation group, who just took on a project that was too great to be handled amateurishly and while they did the best they could, it led to a disappointing struggle. The story also does follow the cliche pattern of centering the focus on one villain every 2 episodes which made the experience monotonous and irritating. Their lack of experience made the story feel uninvesting, the atmosphere wasn't as movinig as the synopsis is read to be, and viewers are just left with the feeling like their could be something more.
I will give it props that it was able to maintain itself in the 1st half where it focused on Asirpa teaching Sugimoto about Ainu culture, which in my opinion was the most interesting part. The 2nd half was where it tried to get back on track with its plot but it was not exciting for me to feel connected to what was going on. And if anything the action was pretty gritty at a basic level, which gets a pass if you don't mind CGI bears and wolves.

Characters: 7/10
The characters have their own unique personality with Sugimoto being a ruthless killer in action or a laid-back man when he's just chilling. He has a believable goal and he is a fitting main character for this series. Asirpa is the heart of this series as her personality is strong, determined, cute, sarcastic, and expressive with the meme faces that she makes throughout the series. She also is introduced with a compelling reason to be a part of the story and immediately has you routing for her. They both share a good chemistry as fighting partners and their relationship feels very real and well-developed as they teach each other about their own cultures and fighting strategies.
The villains on the other hand are either too strange and took up more screen time than they deserved or they were menacing as hell but the series did not last long enough for them to fulfill their highest potential. We can fault the unfinished manga for that but the number of villains and how memorable they were are at a disappointing level and could not carry this anime the way Sugimoto and Asirpa were able to.

Art/Animation: 5/10
I'm someone who doesn't try to let art/animation derive my overall experience because I prefer to judge more on story and characters. The art is pretty average since some character facials become inconsisten every now and then and the animation can either be breathtaking to look at, very below average, or a CG bear or wolf. In this case, the animation was a major factor as to why this series had a lesser chance of standing out to shows that premiered during the same season or share the same genre as other anime before it.

Sound: 6/10
The soundtrack isn't anything worth mentioning but I have to admit the opening is unskippable. It is very badass and provides the atmosphere of a struggling adventure that this show needed more of.

Enjoyment: 4/10
I just could not find it in me to care after the 2nd half. And I was very disappointed considering that reviews for the manga of Golden Kamuy are stellar. If a studio such as Bones, Madhouse, or White Fox could take this on, this could have been bigger and would have appealed to me better personally. But it relied on the fanbase of its original source material to get the viewership it received. Let's hope that Gene Studio will improve with time.

Well, I've said enough. I've got a manga to catch up on.

Well, this watching experiance was... unexpected
To be fair, the story and characters were filled with potential to be extreamly interesting, the execution not so much...

This anime has absolutely no freaking idea what it wants to be
The tone shifts so erratically, jumping from a gourmet slice of life, to all out comedy, to the most gruesome gore fest
I get how the gore fits the story, but the way it was presented, going from gore, to happy comedy, back to blood splatters, and then we're all happy again, in the matter of minutes, it had me questioning wheather the soul purpose of the anime was to traumatize ... it's audience
What reinforced this thought?
Out of all the gruesomeness in this, you see animals get gutted and skinned, you see people get skinned and mutilated, and the one thing in this whole anime they decide to pixelate is... wolf poop... WTF??!

On the more technical side
Thank fuck this anime was not full CGI, 'cause the CG in this was some of the worst i'd ever seen
The rest of the animation, also not great, various inconsistencies, proportions and facial fetures changing from scene to scene

This is also the first anime in which i did not like the performance of a japanese VA
The voice of Asirpa... let's sum up Asirpa's range: serious voice, flat as hell, it is not an exageration when i say every word that came out of her mouth sounded exactly the same, and comedic voice, exageratedly expressive, which works for some scenes, but gets very repetitive when overused, comedic voice is also used for other emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear, and is also the exact same comedic voice she used in Umaru-chan

The one and only redeming factor of this anime is the adorable white fluffy hokkaido wolf Retar, he's cuteness personified <3