Golden Kamuy
a review by R2R
a review by R2R
We often see Anime that throws blood and gore on your face to bring a serious tone, when in reality it's just a cheap shock factor used for gimmick. But in Golden Kamuy, you don't have that gimmicks because it's a raw story from start to end. Raw meat of dead animals, naked & muscly men, blood pouring off from a face torn apart by a bear; it never feels like it's pretending to be serious because it really is serious. And this rawness not only exists in visuals but also in dialogue and characters as well. You can't really imagine a kid like Osoma to exist in this world if he doesn't man up. But it surprisingly knows when to be light-hearted. The reason why this rawness works so well is because of;
The Anime takes place in the aftermath of Russo-Japanese war in the northern Japan, following different characters into the wild nature who are searching for a stolen treasure of gold by a man who made a map but divided & imprinted that map on raw skin of 22 different prisoners. The map can be recreated only when you have their entire skin. It's believed that Golden Kamuy takes some references from real life people and incidents (pretty sure you can find a wiki page or something) but you don't really need to know that to enjoy the story. The setting and plot are really interesting cause it balances some engaging mystery by also exploring a spiritual connection between man and nature via 'the Ainu tribe'. Half of each episode was taken to explore the Ainu tribe's traditions & believes towards nature and it conveys a small but interesting message about nature.
Often times you see an Anime where you can't really decide who you like or favourite the most when the whole cast are equally interesting and likeable. Sugimoto the immortal, is a badass solider who faced and facing challenges with death; Asirpa the Ainu woman of the new era, is a lonely yet lively girl with a strong personality and a clear goal who shows & understands the effection with the nature and ones dear to her; Shiraishi the Escape king, is as his acquired name implies, a person who can escape from any trap with a goofy personality; and many more. Some characters doesn't last more than a single episode yet they leave a strong impression due to their quirkiness, motivations or their overall story. Even with having not-so-great animation, the Anime had able to pull off some thrilling action sequences that makes you anticipate the next move of each character in a fight and makes you wonder what crazy stuff will happen next.
Often times you see characters who share a connection with animals like Nihei's dog or Asirpa's wolf, that empathizes this connection between mankind and mother nature.
Now even for an Anime like this couldn't escape from it's understandable controversy so let's address the elephant in the room or should I say, bear in the snow.;
YES. CGI bears and wolves are off putting but in reality, there are only like 5/6 moments in entire 12 episodes where you actually see CGI bears and wolves. Most of the anime is completely hand drawn.
I don't wanna beat the wound more than it had so I'll just stop there, but if you wanna read me ranting about good & bad CGI with examples, you can click the spoiler below. Otherwise, you can ignore it.
Believe it or not, there's actually a well integrated CGI in this scene, one you can tell if you look a little closer in the water splash at the beginning that you'll miss in the blink of an eye.
Now let's look Golden Kamuy.
Here the CGI is so obviously visible that it breaks the immersion because of the visual miss-mash between 2D & 3D.
Now as I see, there are 2 reasons why JJK worked but GK didn't.
1. The amount of CGI
In that water splash scene, only a few water droplets were CGI and even that went unnoticed because Nanami's shoe takes most of the frame in that scene, unlike the bear in GK which takes more than half of the frame in the scene.
2. The Pacing
JJK's gif quickly went into the fight due to it's fast pacing. The water splash doesn't even last a single second unlike the bear in GK which lasts for considerable amount of time to notice and get put off by it.I know, it's kinda unfair to compare a fairly new & small GENO studio to a powerhouse in battle shounen Anime like MAPPA but I don't mean to demean them either. They showed that they have talent and passion in the "Lop & Ochou" episode from STAR WARS - VISIONS, it's just that they lack the budget to pull off something that great again.
#Summary
If Golden Kamuy had a much greater production or if taken by a bigger studio, then I'm sure it would've gained more reception that what it had gotten now. But it's still a great Anime. If you have an itch for historically accurate treasure hunt stories with badass characters and interesting storyline, that doesn't mind some CGI, then you are in for an absolute treat.29 out of 31 users liked this review
