Crack theory about Tsurumi and Umeko (spoilers for ch179)

A really cracky idea I had for a while, but the big reveal of ch179 made it slightly more likely, at least in my opinion, so I’m sharing. 

First of all, it’s been a while since we had anything about Ume in the story, when she used to get a little focus before (both in flashbacks and present timeline) because she’s obviously very important to Sugimoto’s character arc. 

I rambled previously that maybe it was because Sugimoto’s own motivations in the story went from 100% “gold where?!” to Asirpa slowly getting priority, because she and Sugimoto got extremely close and there was the whole matter of her dad at Abashiri, before they got separated by Kiro and Ogata and the plot took a turn towards Karafuto. 

Anyway, despite that, I’d still be extremely surprised if Umeko turned out to be irrelevant until the epilogue or something, especially since nothing guarantees that anyone will ever get even a tiny portion of that gold…

image

…and one way or another Sugimoto has to eventually feel better about himself, which is something that cannot be achieved only thanks to Asirpa in my opinion (same for other characters, like Ogata for example, the point is that Asirpa can catalyze a change but eventually they will have to confront their past anyway). 

Moving onto the theory itself, it’s going all the way back to vol4 and this scene that we get of Umeko and her mom discussing her getting married again:

Initially, my personal take on why Sensei would even show us something like that was that it emphasized on the parallels with “Ezo owls” mentioned in the same chapter, implying that even though Toraji is dead and Sugimoto went to find gold for her sake, Umeko had to go on with her life and couldn’t wait and stay a widow forever.

image

However since I also always hoped that Umeko would one day be present in the plot in person (instead of remaining a warm memory and motivation for Sugimoto), later I started considering that maybe the man in question her mother mentioned was Tsurumi.

After all, when you see Tanigaki’s or even Tsukishima’s flashback, it is shown that Tsurumi goes to great deals to find out about people he has an interest in or who might be useful or a threat to him. With Tsukishima for example, Tsurumi went to investigate about his past, his father and the girl he loved in order to later manipulate him and turn him into a devoted follower of his:

image
image
image

So the same could be applied here for Umeko if we’re considering that, logically, Tsurumi might have done some research about “Sugimoto the Immortal” at some point, since he proved to be quite a thorn in his plans until fairly recently. 

Sugimoto is quite famous amongst war veterans in the first place, so I’m sure Tsurumi easily knew where to look to find out where he came from and, from there, by asking around and putting a few facts together, he could have found out about Toraji and Umeko. 

That was the initial crack theory, with the whole “getting married again” for Umeko being maybe one way to get her to Hokkaido and use her later as leverage against Sugimoto (similarly to how he slowly turned Tsukishima into his right hand man, or even how he told Inkarmat about Tanigaki’s past in order for her to initially use him). 

The reason I’m saying ch179 made this idea more likely is because of the parts I highlighted: I have no idea if Tsurumi can be considered wealthy but that doesn’t matter since he could have just lied. However he’s indeed charming, very eloquent (iirc Ogata even mentioned that he always knew how to appeal to younger soldiers) and also most likely in his 40s. 

Finally, as for the “his wife and child passed away” part…

image

…well, with ch179, we now know that this is true (of course being a spy this part of Tsurumi’s life could be something he never told anyone, only using it to be introduced to Umeko as a widower, but from a narrative point of view this could be a hint Sensei meant for us readers once ch179 would be out, kinda like all the foreshadowing about Kiro in restrospect). 

Besides, Sugimoto remembered Toraji being worried about “no one wanting to marry a widow with bad eyes and a kid”, therefore asking him to take care of her, so is it really a coincidence that a random widower turned out to be interested?

I know it’s a crack theory, because the most likely explanation for this scene in vol 4

for now

remains that Sensei wanted to show that Umeko wasn’t going to wait for Saichi forever (understandably). 

Still, Tsurumi who was dead last in the run after the 24 tattoos took the first place back after Abashiri: as such that makes him the most likely to be the most ruthless when it comes to using Asirpa and so the most likely to be Sugimoto’s main enemy again. 

image
image

How fitting when they’re missing brain bits buddies, right?

image

That’s why Tsurumi having a little leverage against Sugimoto would be clever and interesting.

There, this crack theory doesn’t have to convince anyone but I’m personally super fond of it. So far the cast is great and diverse, so

personally

I’d love to have Umeko join the list. xD

midnight-in-town:

I really enjoy how compelling Noda-sensei’s writing is (it’s really a strong point of this series) because (spoilers for ch177, I checked the Chinese version) you can just feel what he’s going to set up for the Karafuto arc and how shit is gonna go so down as a result.

Like, that incoming Asirpa/Sofia foil around Wilk’s character? It’s going to be so good because I bet whatever you want that Wilk and Sofia had a thing

(Kiro even said that Sofia should know more about Wilk than himself did) and, seeing ch177, I guess at least Sofia might have wanted a family with him (?)

but then she was arrested and Wilk & Kiro scrammed to Hokkaido.

And now Sofia will meet Wilk’s daughter that he had with his Ainu wife: Asirpa. Who is the only one who can, in theory, find the gold everyone is after. 

The second thing is, this thrill is even more intense considering that the initial plan years ago was most likely for Kiro and Wilk to get the Ainu gold and return to Karafuto, except that “Wilk changed” (most likely thanks to being a father, so thanks to Asirpa), leaving Kiro to be a in a bind because he didn’t (and maybe that led to him framing Wilk for those Ainu men’s massacre). 

=> Probably double backstabbing for Sofia I’d say (if they really had a thing and she hoped for a family) so I personally don’t envision her liking Asirpa so much.  

The final thing is that Asirpa doesn’t know the truth about her father and believes that he really killed the Ainu men to steal their gold, in order to fight for the cause Kiro is still strongly advocating for. So whatever Kiro and Sofia will tell her about her father, she will just have to take as such, because she has no way to know.

However, one person knows the truth and is catching up: Sugimoto.

He took a bullet in the head because Asirpa trusts him more than anyone and Ogata guessed (rightly so) that Wilk had started telling him stuff he shouldn’t have, but he’s catching up (hang in there in the meantime, Shiraishi!). 

I don’t know if Sensei is planning the big moments of this arc to be a Christmas gift, but damn, this whole arc is slowly building up to several amazing confrontations. I can’t wait to find out even more!!

Hmhmhm, reading ch179, since it turned out that Sofia voluntarily stayed behind and got arrested after Wilk and Kiro left, maybe she will not be made to foil Asirpa but Kiro after all? 

image

I’m really moved by how close she and Wilk used to be and she seems very sad about his death even if it’s been years since they last saw each other

image
image

so actually I doubt she’ll be happy to find out (thanks to Sugimoto and co who will catch up one day) that Kiro asked Ogata to put a bullet in Wilk’s head…?

I wonder if the revolutionary part in her (which may not understand instantly why Wilk ended up changing his mind over the years about that Ainu gold) can be counterbalanced by what she once felt towards Tsurumi’s baby, when Wilk himself possibly changed his mind because of Asirpa, his daughter?

I guess maybe it all comes down to the way Kiro will present how the whole thing with Wilk went down? If he lies to her, then Sugimoto bringing answers later could make her turn against Kiro… On the other hand, if over the years the revolutionary part within her became more important than everything else (like it still is the case with Kiro), then she could still turn out to be Asirpa’s foil. 

I don’t know which idea I like more, but I loved how the flashback presented Sofia. She appeared way more ruthless initially, but the flashback makes me think that she may have more in common with Wilk than with Kiro. IDK, I just love how children play into this for the three of them:

  • Sofia couldn’t forgive herself for thinking she possibly killed Tsurumi’s baby, so she decided to give up on her happiness “as a woman” (aka a life with Wilk) and spend her life fighting as a revolutionary
    • and now she’s about to meet another child, Wilk’s, who is stuck in insane circumstances because she’s the only one who can supposedly solve the mystery around the gold
  • Wilk went on to Hokkaido to find out about the Ainu gold, but everything went wrong and he didn’t turn on the Ainu men and their gold as expected, for something that I believe has to do with having had Asirpa, amongst other still unknown reasons
  • As for Kiro, he ended up marrying an Ainu woman too but having Ainu sons made him even more dead set on the idea that he had to fight for the freedom of minor ethnicities, no matter the cost.

This is escalating slowly but surely, I can’t wait for when it is going to unravel.

I really enjoy how compelling Noda-sensei’s writing is (it’s really a strong point of this series) because (spoilers for ch177, I checked the Chinese version) you can just feel what he’s going to set up for the Karafuto arc and how shit is gonna go so down as a result.

Like, that incoming Asirpa/Sofia foil around Wilk’s character? It’s going to be so good because I bet whatever you want that Wilk and Sofia had a thing

image

(Kiro even said that Sofia should know more about Wilk than himself did) and, seeing ch177, I guess at least Sofia might have wanted a family with him (?)

image

but then she was arrested and Wilk & Kiro scrammed to Hokkaido.

And now Sofia will meet Wilk’s daughter that he had with his Ainu wife: Asirpa. Who is the only one who can, in theory, find the gold everyone is after. 

The second thing is, this thrill is even more intense considering that the initial plan years ago was most likely for Kiro and Wilk to get the Ainu gold and return to Karafuto, except that “Wilk changed” (most likely thanks to being a father, so thanks to Asirpa), leaving Kiro to be a in a bind because he didn’t (and maybe that led to him framing Wilk for those Ainu men’s massacre). 

=> Probably double backstabbing for Sofia I’d say (if they really had a thing and she hoped for a family) so I personally don’t envision her liking Asirpa so much.  

The final thing is that Asirpa doesn’t know the truth about her father and believes that he really killed the Ainu men to steal their gold, in order to fight for the cause Kiro is still strongly advocating for. So whatever Kiro and Sofia will tell her about her father, she will just have to take as such, because she has no way to know.

However, one person knows the truth and is catching up: Sugimoto.

He took a bullet in the head because Asirpa trusts him more than anyone and Ogata guessed (rightly so) that Wilk had started telling him stuff he shouldn’t have, but he’s catching up (hang in there in the meantime, Shiraishi!). 

I don’t know if Sensei is planning the big moments of this arc to be a Christmas gift, but damn, this whole arc is slowly building up to several amazing confrontations. I can’t wait to find out even more!!

yet another day i gotta thank noda-sensei for things i just realized: like how he gave us comforting het sex in canon and he didn’t leave a single element that could support a fallacious argument about the woman being a hoe. i love this man.

sentrakk:

YES, Inkarmat is like an antithesis to those fallacious arguments and I love her a lot for that. She is a trickster that was originally only trying to use Tanigaki so it would’ve been really easy for Noda to turn her into the typical seductress that would’ve slept with him for manipulative reasons, but that isn’t the case at all. Inkarmat always tricks people by using her intelligence and charisma and she never tried to use Tanigaki by seducing him. They ended up sleeping together, because they fell in love and that is portrayed as a beautiful thing that helped Inkarmat move on from her past and is a huge source of positive character development for her. I just adore these kinds of female characters that take the typical arguments people who like to shit on them make and show how idiotic they are, Inkarmat and Tanigaki’s relationship is portrayed as a healthy good thing and a source of positive character development for both and you can’t deny that.

(I miss Inkarmat by the way, I hope we get to see her again soon)

@sentrakk YEAH, I love your answer and I love how Sensei subverted her whole character until the Abashiri arc: first presenting her as only this vixen manipulating others (as if giving reason to Nihei’s many warnings about women to Tanigaki), before developing her character through her dynamic with Tanigaki and Cikapasi and eventually her link to Asirpa herself.

Like, it’s not that Sensei simply gave her a warmth along with her development, but more that he allowed her to show how vulnerable she actually is despite her strong resolve to pursue Kiroranke and protect Asirpa, no matter the means.
So it was genuinely human to have her seek physical comfort through intimacy with the one guy who, despite acting rather cold at first, still treated her nicely.  

Also I love how she’s the one who pushed Tanigaki away initially, after they had already had sex, because it emphasized even more on that vulnerability.
It was made clear that she worked for Tsurumi by then, so it raised more doubts, and she truly believed that she was going to die through pursuing Kiroranke anyway… until Tanigaki proved her that “fate could be changed” which gave her hope for an actual future, something she was truly happy about. 

Ahhh anyway, the more we move into the Karafuto arc, the more I realize I miss her and I hope we’ll get to see her soon. ;_; Honestly this part broke my heart…

image

I really hope that Tanigaki (and Cikapasi) get to confront Kiroranke about what he did. :/

It just struck me but someone amongst Kiro, Ogata, Asirpa and Shiraishi is most likely really going to die.

goldenkamuyhunting:

midnight-in-town:

Because Noda Sensei wrote about the use of fortune-telling/divination plenty of time in the story so far and, so as not to judge the customs of Ainu people or other minor ethnicities from Karafuto who strongly believe(d) in this, he made it generally accurate when it came to following plot twists.

  • Overall Inkarmat was more right than wrong (Kiroranke, Karafuto, Wilk didn’t kill those Ainu men even if he was Nopperabou), 
  • her own prediction she got from Mifune Chizuko also turned out to be correct (Kiroranke, the man she was after, stabbed her), 
  • Asirpa was indeed betrayed by one of the three men who used to follow her (by two, to be accurate, but you get the point)

Since most of what Inkarmat predicted is half divination/half investigation though, that’s why Sensei ended up introducing the additional idea that “fate can be changed”, meaning divination doesn’t have to be the only truth. 
However, where Sensei could have let Inkarmat be the fake she initially seemed to be (especially when Asirpa didn’t believe in this kind of things), she ended up being given a lot of credits.   

And that means that this reindeer’s shoulder blade from ch166… 

image
image

is supposedly a good indicator that someone within the group who (unknowingly) received this prediction will die.

The most expected/logical candidate initially is Shiraishi because it’s his decision to keep on following Asirpa that changed the prediction from “someone is following you” to “someone is going to die” but as it is, well that’s kinda too easy to think like that. xD 

Sensei could go for a double bluff (making us think it can’t be Shiraishi because #too easy, only to kill him anyway) but… meh. Besides, Shiraishi hasn’t really done anything wrong, okay he’s the Escape King, but he never killed anyone which is quite the difference with most of the cast, so killing him would be unfair. 

When it comes to Asirpa, she ain’t dying or I riot. Nah but for real, she’s got one hell of a plot armor, being (in theory) the only one who can work out the code her father hid amongst the 24 tattoos, which is why everyone wants her. 

Besides if she dies, Sugimoto will most likely annihilate the whole world and this wouldn’t help his character development or the story, so double nah.
Final point, but eventually she also has to go back to her village, to see her grandmother again, so that Tanigaki can be free from that self-imposed duty (and so that he can go back home too) => so, not Asirpa. 

Which leaves Kiro and Ogata, the two traitors. :))

image

And Kiro is the most likely candidate to die between the two, at least for me. 

Firstly, so far, Ogata was the one who was hinted to have a possible chance at redemption

between the two, mainly through the concept of “guilt” he pretended never to feel but that he must feel regardless, if just towards the memory of his brother. 

Besides, he does get along well with Asirpa and, while I agree that nothing guarantees Asirpa will forgive him for what he did (assuming she doesn’t already know), he might still really change, thanks to her/for her sake. 

We may not know why he wants the gold, but he left nothing behind when he went to Karafuto, so he could definitely change his mind about the gold and using Asirpa, which is a huge difference with Kiroranke.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro sees Asirpa as only a mean to an end (he’s not Tsurumi), but he’s still ruthless. For example, Wilk was his old friend, they even assassinated the Russian Emperor together, but he still ordered his death.

Besides, I personally think it’s likely that Kiro is actually the one who assassinated those Ainu men which is something Wilk took the fall for…

image
image

just like he’s the one who stabbed Inkarmat. Hopefully Inkarmat will survive this, but Asirpa still believes her dad murdered some of her fellow Ainu people and she’s bound to find out it wasn’t the case once she sees Sugimoto again.

image

For Kiro to hide a truth like that is not an element vouching in his favor or his survival. In the first place, going back to Karafuto is a real step back for Kiro, because it’s like going back to the past and as we know now…

image

…that past holds a lot of complicated elements that we have to take in consideration for the future developments. 

Going back to Karafuto ties directly into Kiro’s motivations obviously, because fighting for the independence of minor ethnicities is all that he’s always been after and, as Sugimoto said to Wilk, sure it’s a just and noble cause, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of everything else. 

For example, just like Sugimoto was angry at Wilk for apparently trying to make Asirpa this Ainu “Joan of Arc” (because it’s selfish as @sentrakk​ explained here), Kiro shouldn’t have gone to Karafuto without a single look back at the family he left behind (how many months has it been since he saw his sons?). 

Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro doesn’t care about his family.
On the contrary, having Ainu sons is giving him even more reasons to fight for the independence of Ainu people and other minor ethnicities, which is most likely why he’s even more ruthless now than he used to be and so why he even had Wilk killed.

But here’s the thing…

image

Kiro and Wilk were old friends, who fought and killed together, so for Kiro to have Wilk killed (just like maybe for him to frame Wilk for the murders), it must indeed have been because Wilk really changed when Kiro didn’t/couldn’t.

As for how/why Wilk changed…

image
image

…it’s thanks to Asirpa herself (just like it was the case for Sugimoto, Tanigaki, even Shiraishi and for Ogata next): Wilk’s plan and motivations regarding his daughter were definitely questionable, but at least it seems that he truly loved her and the Ainu people, to the point he wasn’t ready to keep going with the initial plan about the gold and that’s the major difference with Kiro. 

He and Wilk used to have common goals, they used to be the same, but where becoming a father apparently changed Wilk, having sons didn’t make Kiro change his way of life/way of thinking: he just can’t leave the cause he’s been fighting for his whole life behind just to be with them. 

And beyond the notion of this being “good or bad” (since the cause is indeed seen as just and noble), since Kiro couldn’t forgive/understand Wilk changing and had him (framed? and) killed for this reason, this difference between them is most likely what’s going to kill Kiro too at some point during this arc. 

Personally right now I have no idea as to who might kill him or lead him to his death, hopefully not Sugimoto (who’s set up to confront Ogata) or Tanigaki (even if Kiro stabbed Inkarmat, because he should know revenge isn’t for him). 

Maybe it’s going to be the Russians? Or maybe it will have to do with Shiraishi

one way or another, since it’s Shiraishi’s change of mind that led to this change of prediction in ch166.  

TL;DR just my opinion, but I’ll be very surprised if Kiroranke were to make it back to Hokkaido somehow (unless he has a change of heart about everything, since “fate can be changed”, but it sure doesn’t look like it right now). 

I hope you won’t mind if I’ll hijack your post but I really wanted to talk about all this and you gave me the perfect chance!

Afficher davantage

@goldenkamuyhunting I don’t mind, your inputs are always very interesting. :))

In regards to predictions, I agree and even mentioned that they’re not just divination and not 100% accurate (most of what Inkarmat was vouching for came from her own investigation indeed). 

However, while Sensei could have gone full “it isn’t real” through several examples in the story, maybe out of respect for such beliefs (especially considering Ainu people and other minorities strongly believe or believed in this) he still wrote the related events as fitting relatively well overall.

One example: okay Inkarmat didn’t die and I hope she survives, but she was still stabbed and her life was in danger. She also said she and Wilk wouldn’t meet again (because she thought she was going to die) and technically she saw him from afar but he died before they could be reunited and talk.

It’s a little play on words and events by Sensei, but overall it works for whoever (in and out of the narrative) believes in this.
If Asirpa doesn’t believe in it, then she doesn’t have to see it as a sign. However if Shiraishi (for example) is more receptive to it, his resulting actions could be influenced and so it is interesting to consider it. That’s all I meant to convey. 🙂

If anyone from the group dies anyway, it won’t be a consequence of the shoulder blade itself (especially since they don’t know about that “new” prediction), but rather of the events and people involved (“fate can be changed” indeed), which is why the rest of my post is built on theorizing that Kiro has a bigger death flag than everyone else. xD 

Also just saying but, from the way the scene was written/drawn and since Sensei showed us readers only the shoulder blade’s prediction changing, I have a hard time thinking it isn’t meant to at least be taken in consideration for possible foreshadowing, whether you believe it might really happen or not. 

Finally, personally I don’t think that this shoulder blade is saying anything besides “someone is going to die”, a change that was triggered (so to say) by Shiraishi’s sudden decision that watching after Asirpa was more important than saving his skin. I don’t buy the idea that there were two meanings in one but as with everything, it’s only my opinion and I can be wrong. :)) 

Thanks again for your addition!

It just struck me but someone amongst Kiro, Ogata, Asirpa and Shiraishi is most likely really going to die.

Because Noda Sensei wrote about the use of fortune-telling/divination plenty of time in the story so far and, so as not to judge the customs of Ainu people or other minor ethnicities from Karafuto who strongly believe(d) in this, he made it generally accurate when it came to following plot twists.

  • Overall Inkarmat was more right than wrong (Kiroranke, Karafuto, Wilk didn’t kill those Ainu men even if he was Nopperabou), 
  • her own prediction she got from Mifune Chizuko also turned out to be correct (Kiroranke, the man she was after, stabbed her), 
  • Asirpa was indeed betrayed by one of the three men who used to follow her (by two, to be accurate, but you get the point)

Since most of what Inkarmat predicted is half divination/half investigation though, that’s why Sensei ended up introducing the additional idea that “fate can be changed”, meaning divination doesn’t have to be the only truth. 
However, where Sensei could have let Inkarmat be the fake she initially seemed to be (especially when Asirpa didn’t believe in this kind of things), she ended up being given a lot of credits.   

And that means that this reindeer’s shoulder blade from ch166… 

image
image

is supposedly a good indicator that someone within the group who (unknowingly) received this prediction will die.

The most expected/logical candidate initially is Shiraishi because it’s his decision to keep on following Asirpa that changed the prediction from “someone is following you” to “someone is going to die” but as it is, well that’s kinda too easy to think like that. xD 

Sensei could go for a double bluff (making us think it can’t be Shiraishi because #too easy, only to kill him anyway) but… meh. Besides, Shiraishi hasn’t really done anything wrong, okay he’s the Escape King, but he never killed anyone which is quite the difference with most of the cast, so killing him would be unfair. 

When it comes to Asirpa, she ain’t dying or I riot. Nah but for real, she’s got one hell of a plot armor, being (in theory) the only one who can work out the code her father hid amongst the 24 tattoos, which is why everyone wants her. 

Besides if she dies, Sugimoto will most likely annihilate the whole world and this wouldn’t help his character development or the story, so double nah.
Final point, but eventually she also has to go back to her village, to see her grandmother again, so that Tanigaki can be free from that self-imposed duty (and so that he can go back home too) => so, not Asirpa. 

Which leaves Kiro and Ogata, the two traitors. :))

image

And Kiro is the most likely candidate to die between the two, at least for me. 

Firstly, so far, Ogata was the one who was hinted to have a possible chance at redemption

between the two, mainly through the concept of “guilt” he pretended never to feel but that he must feel regardless, if just towards the memory of his brother. 

Besides, he does get along well with Asirpa and, while I agree that nothing guarantees Asirpa will forgive him for what he did (assuming she doesn’t already know), he might still really change, thanks to her/for her sake. 

We may not know why he wants the gold, but he left nothing behind when he went to Karafuto, so he could definitely change his mind about the gold and using Asirpa, which is a huge difference with Kiroranke.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro sees Asirpa as only a mean to an end (he’s not Tsurumi), but he’s still ruthless. For example, Wilk was his old friend, they even assassinated the Russian Emperor together, but he still ordered his death.

Besides, I personally think it’s likely that Kiro is actually the one who assassinated those Ainu men which is something Wilk took the fall for…

image
image

just like he’s the one who stabbed Inkarmat. Hopefully Inkarmat will survive this, but Asirpa still believes her dad murdered some of her fellow Ainu people and she’s bound to find out it wasn’t the case once she sees Sugimoto again.

image

For Kiro to hide a truth like that is not an element vouching in his favor or his survival. In the first place, going back to Karafuto is a real step back for Kiro, because it’s like going back to the past and as we know now…

image

…that past holds a lot of complicated elements that we have to take in consideration for the future developments. 

Going back to Karafuto ties directly into Kiro’s motivations obviously, because fighting for the independence of minor ethnicities is all that he’s always been after and, as Sugimoto said to Wilk, sure it’s a just and noble cause, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of everything else. 

For example, just like Sugimoto was angry at Wilk for apparently trying to make Asirpa this Ainu “Joan of Arc” (because it’s selfish as @sentrakk​ explained here), Kiro shouldn’t have gone to Karafuto without a single look back at the family he left behind (how many months has it been since he saw his sons?). 

Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro doesn’t care about his family.
On the contrary, having Ainu sons is giving him even more reasons to fight for the independence of Ainu people and other minor ethnicities, which is most likely why he’s even more ruthless now than he used to be and so why he even had Wilk killed.

But here’s the thing…

image

Kiro and Wilk were old friends, who fought and killed together, so for Kiro to have Wilk killed (just like maybe for him to frame Wilk for the murders), it must indeed have been because Wilk really changed when Kiro didn’t/couldn’t.

As for how/why Wilk changed…

image
image

…it’s thanks to Asirpa herself (just like it was the case for Sugimoto, Tanigaki, even Shiraishi and for Ogata next): Wilk’s plan and motivations regarding his daughter were definitely questionable, but at least it seems that he truly loved her and the Ainu people, to the point he wasn’t ready to keep going with the initial plan about the gold and that’s the major difference with Kiro. 

He and Wilk used to have common goals, they used to be the same, but where becoming a father apparently changed Wilk, having sons didn’t make Kiro change his way of life/way of thinking: he just can’t leave the cause he’s been fighting for his whole life behind just to be with them. 

And beyond the notion of this being “good or bad” (since the cause is indeed seen as just and noble), since Kiro couldn’t forgive/understand Wilk changing and had him (framed? and) killed for this reason, this difference between them is most likely what’s going to kill Kiro too at some point during this arc. 

Personally right now I have no idea as to who might kill him or lead him to his death, hopefully not Sugimoto (who’s set up to confront Ogata) or Tanigaki (even if Kiro stabbed Inkarmat, because he should know revenge isn’t for him). 

Maybe it’s going to be the Russians? Or maybe it will have to do with Shiraishi

one way or another, since it’s Shiraishi’s change of mind that led to this change of prediction in ch166.  

TL;DR just my opinion, but I’ll be very surprised if Kiroranke were to make it back to Hokkaido somehow (unless he has a change of heart about everything, since “fate can be changed”, but it sure doesn’t look like it right now). 

goldenkamuyhunting:

midnight-in-town:

goldenkamuyhunting:

chibivesicle:

goldenkamuyhunting:

midnight-in-town:

Btw you know how clearly the current arc In GK is setting up to a Sugimoto vs Ogata confrontation when they’re to meet again and whether Sugimoto will really end up killing him or not?

Well I think that’s all about the current arc as far as Sugimoto is concerned.

When it comes to Kiro, even though Sugimoto said he’d kill both him and Ogata there is literally no build up particular to that in the arc, especially when Kiro wasn’t even for shooting Sugimoto along with Wilk in the first place.

You know who could be set up to confront Kiro though? Tanigaki.

Even though Tanigaki isn’t into killing as much as the others ever since the arc with Nihei, it turns out that Kiro kinda stabbed the woman he loves + he took Asirpa away so ehhhhh not saying Tanigaki would kill him, but being the one to confront him would make more sense than Sugimoto as far as the arc went till now.

Just some thoughts. :))

You raised a terribly interesting point. I admit I had wondered why Tanigaki felt the need to tag along because the excuse was rather poor.

Sure, Sugimoto wasn’t well RIGHT THEN, but by the time they reach Karafuto Sugimoto is fine enough he can take part to the stenka.

All right, if he get punched too much he loses control but nobody knew about it right then.

Sugimoto doesn’t really need Tanigaki to play babysitter… so it felt weird he felt the need to tag along, especially considering Tanigaki isn’t THAT close to Asirpa…

…but at the time I didn’t really remembered that Tanigaki is also this guy… who left his family to avenge his sister…

Of course it backfires on him terribly, causing him the loss of his mother as well… but he pursues in his purpose anyway…

Until his great plan to get revenge was completely twarted by the mere fact he was hugely misguided in it..

…and he ended up like this…

Tanigaki had been then healed by Nihei, Huci and Osoma but there’s really to wonder if Tanigaki will try again to avenge a person he loves as he wanted to do with his sister, slipping up in the same mistake which caused everything that went wrong in his life the first time.

In a way he’s already risking it… as he left Inkarmat alone as he did with his mother. It’s also worth pointing out that although Kiroranke threatened Inkarmat with his knife he didn’t mean to stab her and actually it’s possible she was the one who did herself the most harm as the way she’s holding the knife suggests that in fear Kiro could take it away she’s pushing it inside herself.

Kiro is a man with a purpose and willing to die for it. Probably, even if Tanigaki were to kill him, he wouldn’t have much to regret.

So, honestly, I’m curious.

Is Tanigaki going to make the same mistake again and trying to extract a revenge that won’t help him any and might even damage him?

Or, like many characters in Golden Kamuy, he’s going to evolve and become someone different?

You made me really curious about it, I can’t wait to see what Tanigaki will do when he’ll confront Kiro!

Thank you for raising such an interesting point to ponder!

I always thought Tanigaki’s major driving force to join them was to get
revenge for Kiro stabbing Inkarmat.  It has been highlighted it is hard
to tell if he actually intended to stab her or if she made it worse.   Tanigaki may have partially healed via Nihei/Huci/Osoma but the fact he still haven’t gone home when he should have means something else is driving him … . 
The rest of his reasoning is weak unless he knows more about Tsukishima
and Koito than we as readers know but Tanigaki seems to lack the ability to read people as well as some of the others.    As I’ve said, I think Inkarmat drove the knife in deeper due to her strong belief that Kiro would kill her as a self-fulfilling move  …

I was so willing to believe Tanigaki was past his ‘I’ll get revenge’ period I assumed Inkarmat might be a factor in his decision but I merely thought he wanted to stop Kiroranke in her place because he felt guilty he hadn’t given her warning the proper attention.

On a second though however what pushed Tanigaki to go with Sugimoto might have been more than that.

Yes, undoubtedly the fact Tanigaki isn’t returning home hints at something… but I was hoping it was just he was still ashamed for what he did and that he sort of learnt the lesson… not that he was going to slip into it again.

Tanigaki couldn’t be moved in his action by something he knew about Tsukishima and Koito as they’re selected to go with Sugimoto after Tanigaki volunteered and Koito clearly had no idea he would be sent with Sugimoto and even asked why.

In regards to Koito I tend to believe Kiro didn’t want to stab Inkarmat, just to scare her.

When the stabbing takes place he says he didn’t mean it and looks surprised.

In such situation he would have no reason to lie. If he wanted to stab her I would have expected him to say something like, ‘served you right’ and not something like ‘wait, I didn’t mean to stab…’.

Inkarmat wanted to much to make him a culprit, wanted so badly to prove he was guilty and she also claimed more than once she was ready to die for this I think she ended up on causing her own stabbing.

After all I had wondered what she had in mind here (Chap 116)…

The answer might be in the following chap 117

She expected Kiro to come after her. Actually once the truth about her suspicions was out she she wasn’t more of a threat than any one else, actually even less than the others as there was actually little she could do to stop him… so why would Kiro have to kill her?

Actually it seems what she’s doing is taking advantage of Tanigaki again to push him to kill Kiro should something happen to her. She’s very driven into proving Kiro is guilty and, I guess, seeing he was involved in Wilk’s death only made the whole matter worse.

Thanks for your input, @goldenkamuyhunting​ and @chibivesicle​! However, I can’t agree that Inkarmat purposely caused her own stabbing or that she used that to manipulate Tanigaki into going after Kiro.

Tanigaki leaving is presented as being related to Asirpa. My point was just that once they’ll see each other again, Tanigaki might remember that the guy who took Asirpa away is also the guy who stabbed the woman he loves. 

I’m aware that Chibi in particular distrusts Inkarmat (I do remember your post on the subject), but in my opinion we saw a genuine gradual change of her character until the Abashiri arc and Kiro remains the one who ended up having Wilk shot and taking Asirpa away anyway.  

I do agree that Kiro clearly only meant to threaten her but her stabbing herself on purpose and manipulating Tanigaki to go kill Kiro doesn’t make sense with her character development. At least not in opinion.

Wilk and Asirpa are important to her, but she thought Wilk was dead for years and, before Abashiri, she confirmed she wasn’t in love with him anymore, didn’t care about the gold and only looked forward to moving on, so that she and Tanigaki would think about their own future together.

image

For me, she was being absolutely genuine and, besides, Tanigaki already said during the hot spring arc against Toni Anji that his clearly obvious feelings for her were what was driving him to protect her. So she wouldn’t even need to pretend loving him if all she cared about was using him. 

Similarly, her reason to run after Kiro once he had Wilk shot during Abashiri was first and foremost to warn and get Asirpa away from him, before they were alone and she ended up asking about why he’d even kill his old comrade.

Finally, there is no ground for an argument about her agenda being the crappiest especially compared to Kiro, Ogata, Hijikata or Tsurumi: sure she used them, but like literally everyone else in the group, and all the time it was to protect Wilk’s daughter from the man she thought had killed him (she never directly wanted revenge against Kiro in the story, just Asirpa’s safety). 

I’m not excusing her, but ya know, “let’s protect a young girl from adults who are killing each other to get their hands on her” sounds overall better. xD
In that aspect, it’s great Tanigaki and Inkarmat have found each other. It’s not about the gold, it’s about people and, currently, about Asirpa in particular. 

Thanks again for your input, you guys! 🙂

Ops, I’ve explained myself really poorly so I apologize.

First of all I also believe Inkarmat feelings for Tanigaki are genuine at this point in the story.

Her attempt to use Tanigaki to which I referred was in the past.

As you pointed out Inkarmat is a character who developed but she started her interaction with
Tanigaki considering Tanigaki a pawn she could use.

I think
she slowly started to revise that idea because she slowly started to
grow feelings for Tanigaki. However when she had that discussion about
how Tanigaki should held Kiro responsible where she end up dead, she was
still unsure about her feelings for Tanigaki and torn about her feelings
for Wilk. She also had no idea past could be changed and believed she
would end up dead due to her prediction, so in that time period it probably makes sense to her she wanted her
death to at least serve to prove Kiro was guilty and that she hoped
Tanigaki would aid her in this matter.

We’ll see that even if I believe Inkarmat have developed genuine feelings for Tanigaki, she will
keep on cooperating with Tsurumi

behind Tanigaki’s back, using him to let Tsurumi know of their moves.

Inkarmat started to think she wants to walk toward the future WITH
Tanigaki after he saved her… but we see she’s still torn. It doesn’t mean her feelings for Tanigaki aren’t genuine, just that she didn’t change overnight. She didn’t wash away completely the person she was before, the actions she did before, the thoughts she had before… and that’s good because in life very few people manage to turn page abruptly.

Golden Kamuy is about slow development, not radical development.

However, and this I expressed really, really poorly, I didn’t mean to say that Inkarmat… let’s say grabbed the knife from Kiro’s hand and stabbed herself on purpose so as to set Tanigaki on murdering Kiro.

As I see it, the scene probably went as following:

1) Kiro threatens Inkarmat with his knife. He doesn’t mean to stab her, just to scare her into silence.

2) Inkarmat has no idea he’s only trying to intimidate her and anyway she’s too furious to think clearly. This guy has caused Wilk’s death and now he’s taking away Asirpa and blaming her to be a liar. She never planned to go down quietly and the situation is clearly not making her change her mind.

3) The two struggles and Inkarmat somehow managed to make Kiro fall on her. The scene is purposely dark so as to stop us from knowing what exactly happened.

4) Inkarmat and Kiro are on the ground. They’re both panting and sweating a lot, a hint they had a struggle before falling. Inkarmat is obviously in pain.

5) Either when they had struggled but more likely when they had fallen Kiro’s knife had ended up stabbing Inkarmat. It wasn’t planned, which is why Kiro says he didn’t mean to. Inkarmat got stabbed into her stomach, it seems. I can’t see the area clearly but a wound in such area is often deadly. We don’t know how deep Kiro ended up stabbing her but, fearing she’ll die before being able to tell he’s the culprit and that he’ll take away the knife, the only proof Kiro did stab her, she grabs the knife and holds it inside her. Look at her hand, it’s not how you position it to pull it out. What’s worse, she curls her body protectively around the knife likely hurting herself more, possibly even causing it to slid deeper. Note that since it’s implied by the box she believed she wouldn’t be alive to point out who attacked her, she’s not really being suicidal. She’s just trying to save the only way she has to prove Kiro murdered her.

Long story short, I think Inkarmat felt cornered and tried to act under the belief Kiro would have killed her anyway. He was pointing his knife to her neck, after all. In such situation, her LEGITTIMATE attempt to fight a man she believed wanted to kill her caused her unplanned stabbing (I don’t think Inkarmat wanted to be stabbed in that moment, she likely only wanted to fight Kiro), and her belief she would die due to having been stabbed in the stomach, caused her to hurt herself further in attempt to save the only mean she has to prove the culprit was Kiro.

While I think it was legittimate for Inkarmat to hope that if Tanigaki were to discover Kiro killed her he would do something, I’m not even sure she wanted Tanigaki to murder Kiro.

Ainu usually aren’t really fond of murders so I don’t think she ever wanted

that. She might have wanted him stopped, or punished the Ainu way, but probably not murdered.

Inkarmat is a cool woman. She’s trying to do her best to do what she believes is the right thing. Discovering the truth about Wilk’s death, protecting Asirpa… those aren’t bad goals.

I’m not really sure how I managed to give you the impression I thought her to be worse than the other boys as I didn’t really compared her with what the other boys are doing, one way or the other as that wasn’t my intention and I don’t even think poorly of her for using Tanigaki.

Tanigaki is a soldier under Tsurumi’s orders as far as she knows and she was told by Tsurumi to use him in such way and Tsurumi, being Tanigaki’s superior officer, IS ALLOWED to decide Tanigaki can be used in such way.

Yes, it’s not nice toward Tanigaki but Tanigaki is a soldier and he’s not supposed to discuss, Tsurumi is a commander and this sort of decisions are part of his job and Inkarmat had an agreement with Tsurumi so she technically was allowed to do what she did.

I hope it works a little more clearly now and I apologize for explaining myself poorly previously. Really, I didn’t mean to discount Inkarmat’s feelings for Tanigaki or to claim she just committed suicide to have Kiro murdered.

Regarding Tanigaki leaving, yes, I know it’s presented as being related to Asirpa. My point was your words had made me remember how Tanigaki was a man who believed in revenge and this belief might still linger inside him and might have pushed him into wanting to join Sugimoto.

As I said I’m not sure about this, it might be Tanigaki has made a radical turn over and would never pursue revenge at present time, but it might also be he hadn’t fully overcome this weakness and that this will be something he will have to face. I’m just curious to see if that’s the case. I like Tanigaki, I want him to manage to deal with all his lingering issues and finally feel able to return back home. Then I wouldn’t mind if, once he managed to go back to his relatives he would decide to then return to Hokkaido and settle up with Inkarmat as he seems to long to do.

I just want him to settle his issues first. It’s just me though.

Sorry, if it came out confusing and messy, I really had a long day at work and words aren’t really coming easily to me. Many, many apologies again.

@goldenkamuyhunting aww no worries and thanks for your answer, I always love reading your posts!

Also I didn’t mean at all that you had made any comparison between Inkarmat and the other men from the group.

Since we were on the subject, it was just my own input that, narratively, she was presented to be shady and manipulative, her link to Tsurumi being revealed fairly early on, so it’s natural to distrust her (namely any fan thinking she might still be manipulating is understandable). However it turned out that, in spite of it, her goal isn’t as selfish as most of the other characters’ from the group because she’s not motivated by the gold at all.

That’s what I like about her character and the way Noda Sensei writes her! She and Tanigaki both actually. They’re on Asirpa’s side, they really are, like Sugimoto and Shiraishi (maybe Ogata too in the future) and I’m quite enjoying that.

I also agree about slow development in GK and Inkarmat, just like Tanigaki, is consistent in trying to protect Asirpa, indicating Karafuto as where Kiro possibly left, etc. Even calling Tsurumi over to Abashiri she justified as protecting Asirpa.

On the point of Tanigaki, we share the same exact same thoughts so I have nothing to add! :))

I hope I managed to rectify my own confusing explanation, complex week ahead as well xD you caught me after a national mock up exam, haha.

kjaznbrkeak so listen I just… T_T so much about this scene from ch171, because it’s not the first time Sugimoto hallucinates about someone who isn’t there (what I mean is that it’s not his head injury). 

It happened in vol2 as well:

image
image

…and I can’t count how many times he dreamt of Toraji, even if he never directly hallucinated about him being present. 

Anyway, I find this little parallel rather interesting when Sugimoto has “two girls in his life”: one is Asirpa, his partner, and the second is the woman he’s in love with, Umeko. 

The story started as he decided to find money in order to take Umeko to America so that she’d see again, because…

image
image

of what Toraji said before dying (very haunting, thanks). 

Along the way though, slowly the gold became less of the big priority it was at the beginning, because of the strong partnership between Sugimoto and Asirpa. Like, I remember how shocked I was when I first read this part…

image

…because yes, Saichi, the gold for Umeko, remember?

And sure, he does remember, of course Umeko is still extremely important to him, but

image

…it’s interesting how his way to express this goal changed over time…

image
image

because Umeko is no longer the only priority. 

I don’t mean by this that Sugimoto loves her any less or that he’s fancying Asirpa, not at all, but it’s just that…

image

for now he’s convinced that he can’t go back to Umeko because of all the blood on his hands and how war changed him too much. 

That’s why finding that gold to make her see again was super important to him because, besides the fact that he’s worried by what Toraji said and he wants Ume to be able to see her kid growing up, it was also his only way to go back to a place he could call home (”would you recognize me?”).

It’s literally the dried persimmon talk with Asirpa:

image

…after which he started crying: Sugimoto wants to go home, he wants to go back to Ume, but for now he can’t because war changed him too much and he hates what he became. 

That’s where Asirpa is different from Umeko and why caring about her + protecting her became an equal priority to finding that gold for Ume, because Asirpa… 

image
image

…is currently the one light in Sugimoto’s path through deep self-loathing.

Maybe it’s because she didn’t know him before the war, or because “the Immortal Sugimoto” for her is unrelated to his past in the army. For Asirpa, he’s just her partner, who eats & hunts with her and who said he’d remain by her side until she could figure out the insane situation surrounding her father. 

He’s a nice guy who wouldn’t leave her behind and use her like almost everyone else is trying to do, but he believes he fucked up during the Abashiri arc when he let Kiroranke and Ogata take her away from him.
That’s why he can’t forgive himself, to the point he hallucinated that she was the one in danger in the newest chapter (except that this time he could save her). 

War fucked up Sugimoto so much, just like it fucked up many others in the story, to the point that he hates himself for being so strong and yet not being able to protect the people he cares about the most.

image
image

This is why he dreams of Toraji and why he hallucinated about Asirpa and Umeko. 

  • He feels guilty about Toraji because he couldn’t save his friend. 
  • He’s worried about Ume being considered useless and thrown away as a blind widow with a kid. 
  • He hates that he couldn’t protect Asirpa in Abashiri. 

And I’m…. SO DAMN EMOTIONAL ABOUT THIS. He lived through so much already because of war, why did he have to also get PTSD from Abashiri? ;_;

So I need someone to tell this man that it’s okay, that he did what he could and that no one is holding any of that shit against him (also mostly because he was totally shot in the head at Abashiri and he did a great job surviving through that).

I know we’re getting there, that’s the whole narrative, and that he’s going to need both Asirpa and Umeko to feel better about himself, but damn, I have so many feelings right now. ://

[Side note about Asirpa below]

I also want to point out that Sugimoto is not the only guy who made Asirpa an utmost priority in his life: 

  • Tanigaki: Left Inkarmat, the woman he loved, behind as well to bring Asirpa back to Huci. 
  • Kiroranke: Same, he left his wife and sons behind, but his intentions towards Asirpa aren’t as noble as Tanigaki or Sugimoto.
  • Ogata: is most likely going to reach that point as well, hopefully shedding once and for all that traitor coat because Asirpa will become more important than whatever his goal about the gold is
  • Shiraishi: gave up on an occasion to save his skin because watching over Asirpa being with Kiro and Ogata was more important
  • Tsurumi & Hijikata want Asirpa too, but only because of the gold. 

So, since it’s a pattern, it’s also logical that Asirpa became as much of a priority as Ume over time for Sugimoto (when he’s been with her the longest), and him hallucinating about the two girls is because he cares so much and also hates himself so much, thinking he failed them. 

As for everyone else who actually cares about Asirpa, it’s not that she’s a literal Jesus (like Sensei depicted it that one time) who’s supposed to bring them salvation; rather it’s that she’s a freaking kid with absolutely horrible circumstances…

image

…and anyone who only wants to use her is a real dick. There I said it, Kiro.