Score: 8.15/10
Golden Kamuy 2nd Season [DUB]
Synopsis
Second season of Golden Kamuy.
I like Golden Kamuy. It has the slice of life charm with its episodic nature, there’s great animation that works in tandem with the narrative, and most importantly, it is unapologetically itself. I think this show is unique, meshing Japan’s historical periods together and bringing cultures to life. Golden Kamuy never gets away from what makes it stand out. There are witty jokes, there is great interactions between characters, each character is consistent in many different moments. There is the interesting mix of Japan’s history coupled with very flamboyant characters and creates an interesting contradiction to what is typically shown on TV. What you can expect to get out of this show is twisted humor, animation that complements the narrative and interactions, and a whole lot of confusion.
Why I say confusion is that the narrative has a rollercoaster trend. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to always get closer, then farther, then closer, then farther. It isn’t clear whether you can determine if the next episode will get you to the promised land or if we will see another hinna hinna episode, but frankly that is the charm of the show. I can feel the passion and charm of the characters when they just interact with each other over nature and survival of the fittest tactics. The down time really brings out the characterization and gives a nice break to high, fast paced scenes regarding the end game. All of a sudden, it is hard to determine each character’s true goal and when the plot twists hit, they hit hard. They kept me on the edge of my seat and I started appreciating the seemingly pointless down time scenes because of the little things that we can see in characters. This confusion of the narrative actually made me enjoy the show more, because it diversified the content while also jumping themes/tones. I’m more of a fan of the light hearted side, where we can just learn the history of the Ainu and learn more about cultures we otherwise would’ve never hear of.
However, the animation overall is not part of Golden Kamuy’s strong points. *CUE CG BEAR*. There are a lot of shortcuts with stills with slightly moving animated blood or things like that. The face animations are great though. Each character display their emotions and disgust so vehemently, it is hard to not appreciate them and just laugh. Some scenes were more gorey than what I expect from TV Anime, but they weren’t as appealing as it could be. It got the point across though and I can appreciate why in certain areas in the narrative, they upped the gore. It displayed the stakes and importance of the respective scenes.
Golden Kamuy took me by storm, I wasn’t sure if it was going to hit the right notes for me. But I soon realized how much charm and passion went into the writing, especially developing the characters, who carry this show. The plot is interesting, but loses steam in certain parts. It overall hinna hinna’d all over me though and I can’t get enough of the witty humor, the stupid jokes, the idiocy of the characters, the food wars like eposodic episodes, and its charm
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