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…
I really hope that Tanigaki (and Cikapasi) get to confront Kiroranke about what he did.
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…
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. :))
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.
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…
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.
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…
…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…
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…
…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!
@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. :))
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…
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. :))
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.
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…
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.
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…
…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…
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…
…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).
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.
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.
Inkarmat: Why use makeup and high heels to strike fear into the hearts of men when just existing as an autonomous person with your own thoughts and feelings is the most terrifying thing any man can imagine.
midnight-in-town 