Golden Kamuy (ゴールデンカムイ)

Meiji 37

Liaodong Peninsula, Lushun, 203 Meter Hill

Sour.

I'm so hungry.

I'm going to survive, even if it means

taking a bite out of the pale asses of the Russian soldiers I kill.

Charge! Forward!

Just try and kill me!

Try and kill me!

Die!

I'm Immortal Sugimoto!

Hokkaido, Near Otaru

Episode One Wenkamuy

Hey, Sugimoto-san!

Sugimoto Saichi-san.

You just came back from the Russo-Japanese war, right?

I heard they call you "Immortal Sugimoto."

You fought like a demon, they say.

You were so badly hurt you were almost at death's door,

and the next day you were up and running around.

They said that bayonets, machine guns, and even cannonballs couldn't kill you.

Is that true?

Listen, if that were true, you would've been given a medal for your heroics, right?

So why are you panning for gold?

I would've gotten a medal if I hadn't halfway killed a superior officer I didn't like.

Right now, I need money.

I see.

Hey, want to hear an interesting story?

It's got to do with gold.

Don't tell anybody about this.

I'm only telling you because I like you.

A long time ago, you used to be able to find tons of

gold nuggets the size of soybeans on the Hokkaido riverbanks.

Every day you could come back with 30 monme's worth of the stuff.

It was what they call a "gold rush," you see.

Around that time,

some of the Ainu were storing up tons of this gold to fight the Japanese,

who even after the Meiji Restoration were oppressing them by forbidding them

to hunt salmon or deer, and stealing their lands.

And then a single man stole it all,

and killed the Ainu who owned it.

Twenty kans of gold!

Enough to buy every brothel in Otaru and have money to spare!

The police were after the man, so he hid the gold somewhere in Hokkaido.

But he was arrested before he could tell anyone where it was,

and thrown into Abashiri Prison,

the prison at the far end of the earth, to be sentenced to death.

He wanted to tell his comrades on the outside where the gold was,

but he never wrote a letter.

The guards would just steal it, you see.

Everybody was looking for this gold, you know.

No matter what they did to him, he didn't tell anyone where the gold was.

In the end, one of the guards turned out to be a horrible man.

He cut the tendon of one of the man's legs so he couldn't escape.

What would you do in that situation, Sugimoto-san?

What would you do if you wanted to get the location of the treasure

out of the most heavily-guarded prison in Japan?

What did he do?

Just tell me already.

Tattoos.

He tattooed the bodies of his fellow death row inmates in his cell

with a code that revealed the location of the treasure.

He mixed charcoal with saliva,

and then slowly carved that ink in with a needle he'd kept hidden.

It's said only his comrades on the outside can decrypt the code.

And this is what he said to the other prisoners:

"Escape from this prison.

Whoever succeeds can have half the treasure."

A strange story.

Why go to all that trouble? Why make a tattoo that stands out?

You'd think, right?

It's what comes next that explains the tattoos.

To crack the code, you need all the prisoners' tattoos.

Some of the less reputable members of the military heard the rumors

about the tattoos and dragged the prisoners out of their cell,

saying they were going to "transport" them.

The police and the military were after the gold, too, you see.

But that was the prisoners' chance to escape.

They knew that somebody would get greedy and take them outside.

The prisoners killed all the soldiers,

and every last one disappeared into the forest.

And then?

Then what?

What happened to the escapees and the gold?

That's the end of the story.

Nobody's caught them.

And nobody knows what happened to the gold, either.

Who told you that story?

You seem quite well-informed about it.

This is another tall tale, right?

I remember last time, you told me that there was still an Ezo wolf out there,

and those things are extinct.

It's cold.

Saichi, you should come with me.

You can still pan for gold in Hokkaido.

You're not married, so it'll be easy for you.

I have to make money for my family's sake.

I want a good doctor to take a look at Umeko's... At my wife's eyes.

Every day she loses more of her vision.

It makes me sad to think she might not see her kid grow up.

Don't you agree, Saichi?

Yeah.

They say the doctors in America are the best in the world.

Look at this.

The boat tickets and the cost of the surgery will be about 200 yen.

But one lucky find when panning, and that's all you need.

Once the war's over, relations between Japan and the United States will get worse.

I have to hurry.

Saichi, take care of Umeko.

Nobody will take a girl with bad vision and a kid.

I've been your best friend forever, and I'm begging you.

Toraji, what are you talking about?

I can't go back to Japan!

Wait! Don't go!

Are you going to make Umeko a widow?

Toraji! Hey!

Damn it.

I said too much.

Want to see if I'm really immortal?

Look.

Now, you can shoot it whenever you want.

How about that?

That tall tale is starting to seem a little more credible.

If I ignore him, he might come back to kill me.

I'll have to kill him before he kills me.

What the hell?

Hang on, I'll pull you out.

A bear.

A bear buried the rest of his meal here.

His neck's broken.

Looks like he died before he could scream.

You've got bad luck, too, huh?

Hey, come on, now!

What the hell is this?

Are you one of the prisoners you were just telling me about?

It wasn't a tall tale.

That explains how you knew so damn much!

So these tattoos lead to the treasure, huh?

I can't leave him here.

I need to get him somewhere else.

Or that bear will come back and eat this part of the treasure code.

What? A baby bear?

Wait, if there's a baby bear...

She'll eat me!

Get back.

That poison is a mix of red stingray needles and wolfsbane root,

but a brown bear can take ten steps after being hit.

An Ainu...

Golden Kamuy

Is it dead?

Its hairs that were standing on end have fallen.

It's dead.

What are you doing?

Removing the meat from around the poison arrow.

It's a strong poison, so if you don't, it will ruin the meat and pelt.

Is he dead?

Yeah.

His whole stomach got eaten, and he was buried.

That mother bear got him.

Mother bear?

It came charging out of the cave next to a tree where a baby bear was hanging.

That's strange.

When a bear has just come out of its cave after hibernation,

its stomach has shrunk, so it can't eat immediately.

Even if it attacked a human to protect its child,

it couldn't eat them.

See? The stomach is empty.

Then another bear ate him?

This is bad.

The only ones who can eat meat at this time of year are Matakarip.

In the language of the Ainu, "Those that wander in winter."

Very foul-tempered, dangerous bears who failed to go into hibernation.