Welcome to Bates hotel!!
Alright, make no mistake, this is the funniest episode of Golden Kamuy we will ever have. Still dark, have very little to do with the main plot, but it’s spooky fun. Even trashy fun with all the dick jokes. This is Golden Kamuy at its loosest shape. Which is not a bad thing at all, although I must admit that the humor remains hit or miss to me. In this episode 11 (!), we have another mad tattooed prison of the week, this time revolves around a former doctor who regains youth (and changes sex somehow) by killing and cutting off parts of the victims. Nutcase she might be but it’s one of the strongest part in Golden Kamuy in general. Not only the side-villains are memorable, they fit the show’s theme like a glove. Ienaga, the hostess who runs a murder hotel, is lust with immortality and youth, both themes in which Golden Kamuy has consistently explored. Her design is decidedly goddess-like which contrast very well with the plain-looking of other characters, especially the soldiers. In Golden Kamuy, the weapons these characters using could tell you whole lot about their characters: Nihei with his one-bullet rifle; Henmi with his sickle, and now this new villain and… syringes. Way too awesome.
Another notch for the design of the hotel itself, in which it’s designed like a maze, and we have this wonderful shot (screenshot above) of the interior of the hotel which for me remains the episode’s best single shot. I’d love more if the episode spends more time with the hotel’s layout. But being Golden Kamuy, it’s pretty busy with other stuffs as well. And that other stuffs are the (coincidently?) arrivals of both our gang and Ushiyama on the same night. Ienaga recognises two of them, but in its twisted turn of event these two have a lust for her (pure lust this time) and chase her around the corridors. It’s when Golden Kamuy becomes some sort of a farce pulpy mystery in the same vein of Cluedo board game that somehow torture room, licking the eyeball, bombing, wall-breaking, bombing (it deserves to be mentioned twice) and dick jokes make their appearance. While I can live without Asirpa participating all these dick jokes and the mild rape jokes to boost, it almost succeeds because it never takes itself too seriously. Speaking of tone, one thing I realize is that the more Golden Kamuy gets into these new adventures, the less serious and more goofy it becomes and I’m still not sure what to make of it.
More significantly, the Immortal Sugimoto finally meets Undefeated Ushiyama and apparently they’re both to awesome that they’re engaging on the fight just by the handshakes. Okay, I still don’t like this Ushiyama dude since he’s all about brute force but even I can’t deny that he’s up to the level of Sugimoto. The star of the hour, however, is Shiraishi; the one who argurably goes through hell (and back) and all his expressions are just so hilarious. On the more serious side, he’s supposed to meet Ushiyama the next day, which for my money to hand these tattooed skins to him. The plan fails, although Ushiyama has another tattoo after this, but by this development I actually think that Shiraishi won’t betray our Sugimoto and Asirpa. Then again, we still need to keep an eye on Kiroranke, who can just sit back and wait for the right opportunity to strike. I don’t see the anime ending anytime soon at this rate, so just hope we’ll have some kind of conclusive ending and pray for the next season to be announced.
