Stop me if you've heard this one before: a man battle-scarred by a terrible war is out on the frontier looking to strike it rich quick when he finds a native girl who knows the location of a vast fortune and ends up being chased all over the ragged edge of civilization by criminals, killers, and corrupt army officers in a race to be the first to the loot. Come on, don't tell me that doesn't sound like a Spaghetti Western (but since it's Japanese, why don't we call it a Soba Western?). Make Sugimoto an American Civil War veteran, Ashirpa an Apache, and move the location from Hokkaido to Arizona and you could basically keep everything else intact. Golden Kamuy borrows tropes from films like 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" like Sergio Leone borrowed from Akira Kurosawa. Maybe 'borrowed' is too polite a term in the Leone-Kurosawa case, but we're getting off track...
It doesn't just borrow from the conventions of other works, however, Golden Kamuy executes them very well. The pace moves steadily, balancing out gritty violence and moments of comedy (and food). It's a plot driven story, so the characters don't change much over the course of the first season, but the cast is still well characterized and interesting. Ashirpa in particular is one of the best female leads in an action series I've seen in a while. A fiercely tomboyish girl who deeply loves and respects her native Ainu culture, but is also striving to change it so it can adapt and survive the oncoming modern age. She's has enough character depth to be funny, vulnerable, or deadly as fits the situation without losing consistency, doesn't fit into any obvious, basic anime trope and isn't there for ship-teasing.
Speaking of the Ainu people, this is the first time I've ever seen a real exploration of their culture in anime- and I'm a historical anime junkie. The last time I saw any Ainu character at all was in "Princess Mononoke" and that film was as fantastical as it was fantastic (no, the Ainu do not ride red elk into battle). You really get a sense the original mangaka did serious research into the subject matter, something I appreciate as a history buff.
Moving on to least great part of Golden Kamuy: the animation. CGI bears and green-screen camp fires may be the obvious offenders here, but for a 2017 anime the production values on this show are about as low as you can go and still get away with it. The 2D animation avoids slipping into 'Bad' territory, but it never goes above OK either. The music is strong though, with the OP and especially the ED being first rate. "Man With A Mission" hits another home-run OP song and I swear the ED "Hibana" sounds like something Anberlin would write, but once again we're getting off topic.
In short, Golden Kamuy is an enjoyable action series that will be very easily consumable for American audiences, and you may even end up learning something too.
