#hasegawa fumi

[murmurmurl]

Helianthus♡Light! redesigned !!!!!

individual refs + school uniforms + hands under the cut

I spent. Way too long on these. Everyone stayed almost the same, except for Fumi, I changed her outfit the most + switched Seina's and Toshiro's heights.... also added their hands because I realized I usually don't give much detail to them, even though I actually have. A Lot of thoughts about my ocs' hands. Going to attempt to draw all of their unit outfits together next. Probably. I'm insane about my pjsk ocs again, I think I'm being sucked back into the hyperfixation hole, what do I do..... ok running away before I look at this for too long and start hating it

[animebw]

The Anime Binge-Watcher's Queer Anime Ship Tournament!

Just one more match-up before the first round is over! Will it be l8r boi for the sk8r bois, or sayonara for Wandering Son's underrated cousin? Cast your votes now!

All Round 1 Match-Ups

Rules and Full Bracket

[boydswan]

この国の空 (2015, 荒井晴彦)

[goldenkamuyhunting]

While anon's ask about the GK women isn't wrong about love being a central part of their character arc/plot, I personally think it's very surface level to say love is the only big part of the female character's arcs in Golden Kamuy. Personally when I think of the most important characteristics of charas like Asirpa, Inkarmat, Sophia, etc etc I don't think of how they show/depict love right away (though no doubt it's a big part of their character and arguably what distinguishes them from the men/male charas), but more their own personality and strengths/abilities, which help support how they give and receive love. It's a lot more indepth than most female characters would give in most shounen stories so I appreciate Oda writing female characters with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Hum...

credits when it's due, anon said and I quote ""love" be a part (or central) to their character plot", not just that 'love is central to their plot'.

Note how central not only is the second option but it's also between brakets. I might be wrong but I think not even anon meant to imply love is all there is to those girls (anon is free to correct me though).

As I've linked in that same reply my rather long and detailed view on female characters, I didn't feel necessary to rewrite all their respective strenghts. As I said in the past, I think that for being a Seinen GK does well enough in regard to characterizing female characters.

It's also worth to note that shonen are aimed to a younger audience compared to seinen, so characters aren't necessarily expected to have the same depth (mind you, I'm not saying they can't be deep and well characterized, just that there's often less request for it... but in the end it depends on the author).

Now, just to put things into perspective on why people has disappointed by the way females seems not to exist independently by males, there are 30 female characters (sort of) in GK which, as I've said in the past are many, diverse and well characterized but yes they're almost all tied to 1 or more male characters and, if they weren't, they wouldn't be in the story.

Let's see how they're split.

They've no name and are just some male character's mother/wife/daughter/grandmother

1 Nihei's female populated family

2 Kiroranke's wife

3 Hidoro's wife

4 Edogai's mother

5 Tanigaki's mother

6 Ogata's grandmother

7 Youichirou's wife

8 Tanigaki's daughter

9 Makanakkuru's wife

They've a name but they're in the story because they're some male character's mother/wife/daughter/grandmother/love interest/sister

1 Kenmochi Umeko (Sugimoto's initial love interest, Toraji's wife)

2 Chiyoko (Hidoro Tamotsu's lover and love interest of Hidoro Shinpei)

3 Inkarmat (feels one sided love for Wilk, will become Tanigaki's wife)

4 Tanigaki Fumi (Tanigaki's sister, Aoyama Kenkichi's wife)

5 O-gin (Sakamoto's lover/wife)

6 Ogata Tome (Ogata's mother, Hanazawa's ex-lover)

7 Harumi Chiyo (Tsukishima's love interest)

8 Hasegawa Fina (Tsurumi's wife)

9 Hasegawa Olga (Tsurumi's daughter)

10 Koito Yuki (Koito Otonoshin's mother, Koito Heiji's wife)

11 Noriko (Heita's brother's wife)

12 Hanazawa Hiro (Hanazawa's wife and Yuusaku's mother)

13 Kaneko Kaeko (Yuusaku's arranged fiance, she gets a crush on Sugimoto)

They are strongly connected to a male and won't be in the story without said male but they've also a goal/role that's independant from male characters

1 Asirpa (Wilk's daughter... she's dragged into the gold quest because first she wants to avenge her father and then discover his role in the Ainu slaughtering, she's also Sugimoto's partner... but through the story she manages to develop a goal that's independant from males, aka protect the Ainu culture)

2 Riratte (Wilk's wife... though yes, she's also Asirpa's mom which is more important.. though Asirpa doesn't know her if not for what her father told her)

3 Sofia (one sided love for Wilk which lead Kiro to think she's the best to give them info about Wilk that might help them solve the code, Kiroranke's love interest... but she's also a revolutionary who wants improve Russia... too bad she sacrifices her goal to fulfill the one of Wilk and Kiro)

4 Svetlana (leaves her family to follow a male but wants to see Saint Petersburg)

5 Sister Miyazawa (Shiraishi's idealized love interest, she doesn't even know of his existance and wants just to do her role as a nun)

6 Monoa and the other Ainu women of her village (they were the mothers/wives of the Ainu of their village, who were held captive by escaped Kabato convicts and would want to marry Ushiyama... actually I'm placing them here solely because in the end they carry on living on their own without men but without the Kobato convicts they wouldn't likely be in the story)

7 Osoma (she got a totally unncesssary crush on Tanigaki... that she overcomes thanks to a crush for a boy her age... but she's also Asirpa's cousin and that's more relevant)

8 Enonoka (while she was doing good at being a female character on her own, ultimately the story implies she'll marry Cikapasi once she grows up... and yeah, technically she's in the story to help her grandfather with his job and to carry Sugimoto's group through Karafuto)

They aren't in the story due to a male!

1 Susupo (she's Asirpa's grandmother and while it can be argued she became as such by marrying a male... well, said male is deceased and never seen in flashbacks and it's only worth is it's established early on Susupo is an important figure in the village because her husband was)

2 Kaneko's maid (not only she's not in the story due to a male but encourage Kaneko to not think her worth is tied to how handsome her husband will be)

It's... basically almost the totality of the female cast who's dragged into the story due to male characters who're mostly the focus of the story so that even well rounded characters like Asirpa or Inkarmat or Sofia just feel too tied to the male characters... and the fact the story feels the need to give them unnedessary crushes for male characters (did Asirpa really need to have to crush on Sugimoto? Couldn't she just see him as a brother figure? Especially since Asirpa is rather young? Did Sofia really need to have to crush on Wilk? Couldn't they just be companions? Did Inkarmat really have to crush on Wilk also? Same as Asirpa couldn't she just see him as a brother/father figure?)

So while I think that GK is doing remarkably well in regard to female representation for being a Seinen... well, this is very far for equal opportunities representation and I'm not surprised if someone is annoyed and feel like females are ALWAYS sidelined compared to male characters in manga... especially because in many countries shonen and seinen are the predominant manga which get translated, so if you aren't aware of what's a shonen, shoujo, seinen, josei but collect each story under the umbrella term of manga, the disparity gets even more marked.

That's why my stance is to aknowledge GK for how he's doing better, but also aknowledge that female representation in it is far from perfect.

Also... I think it's just a typo but Oda is "One piece" creator... "Golden Kamuy" was made by Noda... ^_-

Sorry for the long reply you probably didn't ask for.

The whole 'females in GK' would probably deserve a full meta which, at this point, I'm not going to write but, in honor of all those who complain, I wanted to write I also understand why they've problems with them, because indeed there are problems with them, even though I tend to see GK as a work that, for a seinen, deserves more praises than criticisms in that aspects.

Again sorry for the long reply.

[leagueofgardens]

Rare Skills

Funada Kiito using Lunatic Trancer

I hope you like long lists.

What are Rare Skills?

In Assault Lily, Rare Skills are potent abilities which each Lily has one and only one of. Lilies tend to awaken to them during their years at which their magie is at its peak (i.e. high school, or close to it.) For example, Miriam Hildegard von Gropius awakened her Rare Skill just before entering high school, and Hitotsuyanagi Riri and Kawabata Hotaru awakened theirs during their first year.

Not all Lilies have a Rare Skill, though it's quite rare—no pun intended—for any Lily featured in an Assault Lily story to not have one. Some of the only examples are Hitotsuyanagi Riri (at the very beginning of Bouquet and League of Gardens) and Kondo Misaka.

Rare Skills are said to reflect each individual Lily's personality, with this being the reason that every Lily only has a single one, and there are vague "stereotypes" associated with some of them. Lilies with Phantasm are often said to be daydreamers, and those with Heliosphere tend to be dependable people who balance rationality with emotion.

Some Lilies' Rare Skills are more powerful than those of others, and Lilies are ranked C, B, A and S depending on the power of their Rare Skill, though generally only Rank S is considered especially worthy of note. Rank S Rare Skills often have unique powers that lesser users of the skills cannot manifest at all, such as Heliosphere's "beam coat".

Lilies also have "subskills", which are lesser versions of Rare Skills that have about 70% of their power at most. Even so, subskills are almost as important as Rare Skills in combat, because Lilies can have several of them (as many as seven.) All subskills correspond to a Rare Skill, but some Rare Skills have no known subskill equivalent. They have different names from their Rare Skill versions.

The Long List

Brave

Notable Users: Hatsukano Yo (Last Bullet), Hasegawa Gabriella Tsugumi (stage plays), Nagasawa Yuki (stage plays) Subskill: None known

Brave users are able to purify negative magie within those Lilies who the user touches. This makes then the ideal partners for Lunatic Trancer users, as Yo demonstrates with Ran and Tsugumi demonstrates with Kayo. However, it consumes quite a bit of the user's own magie, so it has to be used judiciously.

At Rank S, Brave can be used to affect a wide area, creating an effect similar to that of Regista (but less powerful.)

Circlet Bless

Notable Users: Banshoya Ena, Rokkaku Shiori, Fukuyama Jeanne Sachie (stage plays) Subskill: None known

Circlet Bless is real simple. If you have it, you can wield a different CHARM in both hands. If you don't, you're stuck with one CHARM (or you have to get a fancy, expensive CHARM like the Triglav that's specifically designed to be dual-wieldable without Circlet Bless.)

Circlet Bless only began to appear recently. Banshoya Ena and Tiuccia Paumgartner were the first known Circlet Bless users, and they both awakened to it during the Koshu Withdrawal, two years ago. It makes Lilies with it much more powerful, so it's quickly become an important Rare Skill.

Despite the picture above hinting that "circlets" are involved in some way, we have no idea why it's called Circlet Bless.

Hawk's Eye

Notable Users: Futagawa Fumi, Takashima Yakumo (Last Bullet) Subskill: Clairvoyance

Hawk's Eye gives its users a birds-eye view of the battlefield over a large area. This comes bundled for free with the mental ability to easily process that much information, as if one were playing a board game (aside from in some unusual circumstances, demonstrated in episode 10 of Bouquet.)

Though within the setting itself, it has never been stated to be an uncommon RS, Hawk's Eye is one of the least frequent ones for named Lilies to have; it's possessed by only 6 of them, out of over 200 Lilies that we know of.

Heaven's Measure

Notable Users: Wang Yujia, Tanba Akari (Last Bullet) Subskill: Magic Eye

Heaven's Measure (also known as The Scales of Heaven) allows its users to manifest a series of mystical scopes in front of their eye and reckon the distance to the target down to the centimeter, as well as enhancing their eyesight in general. Needless to say, this skill is a major asset to snipers.

At Rank S, Heaven's Measure grants another ability called "Dead Eye Motion", which slows the user's subjective perception of time.

Like Hawk's Eye, Heaven's Measure is an uncommon RS from a meta perspective and is possessed by only 9 named Lilies.

Heliosphere

Notable Users: Amano Soraha, Serizawa Chikaru (Last Bullet), Seto Veronica Ichika (stage plays) Subskill: Consecration

One can think of Heliosphere as the opposite of Regista: instead of creating a field that makes Lilies stronger, it creates a field that makes the Huge weaker. While it doesn't come with the nice extras that Regista does, even a low-ranked user of the skill is a major asset to their team.

At Rank S, Heliosphere users can surround themselves with a "beam coat" that shields them against negative magie and weak attacks.

Laplace

Notable Users: Hitotsuyanagi Riri (...probably), Shiba Tomoshibi (stage plays) Subskill: Charisma

Laplace is a new and mysterious Rare Skill, and in Assault Lily Bouquet, no one seems to have been quite sure what it did yet.

However, all indications since are that it's a souped-up version of its subskill, Charisma. It creates a field that shields Lilies from negative magie, supposedly via the user actually absorbing it from the nearby Huge and inverting its polarity, then radiating it again as usable magie. For unclear reasons, this seems to allow more (sometimes far more) than nine Lilies to take part in the Neunwelt Tactic.

Laplace is unique among Rare Skills in that it typically appears first in Lilies as its subskill version, Charisma, and over time evolves into Laplace.

It isn't 100% confirmed that Riri has Laplace, but as a playable character in Last Bullet she does, so… she probably does.

Lunatic Trancer

Notable Users: Shirai Yuyu, Sasaki Ran (Last Bullet), Funada Kiito & Ui (stage plays) Subskill: Threshold of Madness

Lunatic Trancer is said to balance a Lily upon the threshold of madness (hey, that's also what its subskill is called.) This lets her go well beyond her physical limits, ignore gravity, and even continue fighting if her heart stops beating. But it also makes her build up negative magie like crazy, which can have major consequences for her later.

Despite statements to the contrary in some Assault Lily stories, Lunatic Trancer by itself does not normally cause Lilies to attack their fellow Lilies. More on that later.

Phantasm

Notable Users: Ando Tazusa, Egawa Kusumi, Hanaoka Angela Moe (stage plays) Subskill: Rainbow Path

Phantasm users can simulate a vast number of illusionary futures, near-instantaneously within their mind, and choose their desired outcome. They can then telepathically transmit the actions necessary to produce that outcome to nearby Lilies.

However, the Lily needs to trust their allies to do as they're directed in order to make good use of this Rare Skill.

This RS is canonically one of the rarest ones there is, but from a meta perspective it's not as uncommon as many others are, with 26 Lilies known to have it.

Phase Transcendence

Notable Users: Miriam Hildegard von Gropius, Endo Araya, Iijima Renka (Last Bullet) Subskill: Awakening

Phase Transcendence users can channel a huge amount of magie into a single powerful attack, capable of taking out stronger Huge like large-types in one blow. This often leaves them completely incapacitated afterwards, as Miriam has demonstrated more than once. Without good teamwork, it's quite dangerous for the user.

In contrast to Miriam, higher-ranked Phase Transcendence users like Araya tend not to be left completely unable to move after using the RS.

Regista

Notable Users: Kaede Johan Nouvel, Aizawa Kazuha (Last Bullet), Kon Kanaho (Last Bullet) Subskill: War God's Protection

This skill does a lot. The most important thing Regista does is create a field that improves the purity of magie, increasing the offensive power of nearby Lilies. It also shields those Lilies from harm, and includes the ability to see the battlefield from above similar to Hawk's Eye (though it's less powerful than Hawk's Eye and comparable to its subskill version.)

Having at least one Regista user is considered virtually mandatory for performing the Neunwelt Tactic, and thus, for forming a legion at all.

Shukuchi

Notable Users: Yoshimura Thi Mai, Sano Matilda Kokoro (stage plays) Subskill: Invisible One

This skill lets a Lily move incredibly fast. That's it. Normally they can move only virtually instantaneously, but at Rank S, Shukuchi users can create wormholes known as "gates."

Shukuchi is another of the least common RSes from a meta perspective. Only 6 named Lilies have it.

Testament

Notable Users: Kuo Shenlin, Toki Kureha (Last Bullet), Kawamura Yuzuriha (stage plays) Subskill: Promised Land

This Rare Skill allows Lilies to boost the area of effect of other Lilies' powers. But it also consumes a great deal of the user's magie, weakening their defenses. Testament users are at risk of injury or death whenever they use it, and often wield specialized CHARMs focused on personal defense. Teamwork is especially important for them.

Canonically (but not from a meta perspective), Testament is one of the most uncommon RSes.

Übersein

Notable Users: Li Christina Susu (stage plays) Subskill: Stealth

Übersein (also known as Ubersign) allows a Lily to become invisible and completely erase her presence from both friends and enemies. She can also make other objects seem to be her in order to lure the Huge in. Übersein is considered a very helpful skill when performing the Neunwelt Tactic, as it can help clear the way for passes.

Rank S Übersein users can do something that's a massive spoiler for the stage play Assault Lily: Lost Memories. Maybe I should make a post about that play with a spoiler warning...

From a meta perspective, Übersein is the least common RS. Only three Lilies are known to have it.

The Way of the World

Notable Users: Mashima Moyu, Sadamori Himeka (Last Bullet), Amamiya Sophia Seren (stage plays) Subskill: Whole Order

This RS (also known as World's Reason) lets its users anticipate the direction in which Lilies, the Huge, and other things will continue to move. It greatly increases one's personal evasive ability and can also be used to warn allies of danger.

The Way of the World can also be used offensively in order to hit many enemies with a single attack or flurry of attacks.

Z

Notable Users: Amatsu Marei (stage plays), Kosaka Anastasia Ryoko (stage plays) Subskill: None known, but it's rumored that Yamanashi Hibari might be the first Lily to have it

Z, also known as Control-Z and Last Letter, lets a Lily rewind time within an area about the breadth of her armspan. It can save the lives of critically injured Lilies, and also do things like repair CHARMs that overheat or break in the midst of battle.

Z is an incredibly uncommon RS both within the canon and outside it. Five named Lilies are known to have it.

Zenon Paradoxa

Notable Users: Hata Matsuri, Miyagawa Takane (Last Bullet), Hishida Haru (stage plays) Subskill: None known

Zenon Paradoxa is often considered to be a fusion of Shukuchi and The Way of the World, and allows its users to make swift and powerful attacks. It's a straightforward RS that is prized when choosing Lilies to go on the offense.

Things That Aren't Rare Skills

Earlier I wrote "Lunatic Trancer by itself does not normally cause Lilies to attack their fellow Lilies," so why did Yuyu do it? I'll just direct you to the wiki article on Divine Possession. This isn't a phenomenon associated with Lunatic Trancer in specific; Hishida Haru, a Zenon Paradoxa user, is also susceptible to it.

There are also Boosted Skills. I described some of them in my blog post on Boosted Lilies.

Aside from those, some Lilies have powers that, for whatever reason (perhaps because they're often incredibly rare and have only been observed in a single Lily, and because those Lilies already have Rare Skills) aren't themselves considered Rare Skills. A well-known example is Mori Tatsuki's ability to hear what the Huge are "saying" to one another. Another Lily at Yurigaoka, Hara Midori of Legion Reginleif, can somehow sense the presence of nearby Huge or Caves through her skin.

GEHENA has recently been experimenting with two abilities of this sort, "Sacred Eye" and "Evil Eye," that are possible to implant into Lilies in the manner of Boosted Skills. It is not yet fully clear what these abilities do...

[youthblooms]

in hindsight? maybe she should have seen this coming. but if fumi backs down now, then she might as well resign before narumi can gloat about it! ❝ ow ow ow ow, i'm so going to report you to hasegawa! ❞ he even gives a hearty tug on the console for good measure, not that he expects it to do anything—— really, if they're not careful, they may break this thing. ❝ maybe if you just! did! your! job! ❞ he kicks at narumi's ankles with each word ( wow, how ironic! ) and seriously considers digging his nails into the other's arm for good measure. self-defense, right? since narumi started it!

the reaction is instant;   the second the realization is made that he’s lost all visibility on his game,   he lets out a screech.   body jerks the handheld console in a desperate attempt to at least catch a glimpse of the main menu   (   if he could save,   then her childish actions hold no power!   )   but hayasaka was just as stubborn as everyone else in the damn defense force,   so of course he didn’t let go.   which meant the screen was getting even more smudged!   ❛   YOU SHITHEAD!?   THIS IS INSUBORDINATION!   ❜   but narumi gen wasn’t one to take such shows of disrespect,   so when he leans over to bite her palm?   it’s simply self - defense!

[anime-end-cards]

Yuyushiki

Episode 12 end card by Mikami Komata

[greendrums]

[cinephiliaisnotadisease]

[scenesandscreens]

Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013) Jigoku de naze warui (original title) Director - Sion Sono, Cinematography - Hideo Yamamoto "Make a damn good movie, even if it's only once."

[murmurmurl]

how bugs look at you when you lift up a rock

[twilightronin]

Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Why Don’t you Play in Hell 2013

[goldenkamuyhunting]

I love GK, but like most mangas, good female characters scarce. Inkarmat and Sofia are the only two developed female characters; Asirpa's character is currently indistinguishable from the standard stock heroine. When Inkarmat and Asirpa had that conversation on the lake, I was hoping they'd talk about anything other than... oh well they talked about Wilk, sigh. Also that recurrent trope of killing off female characters as plot drivers for male characters is starting to grate. What do you think?

Hum...

I’ll discuss your points one by one if it’s okay with you.

1) I love GK, but like most mangas, good female characters scarce.

“Golden Kamuy” has, comparatively, a much smaller female cast than a male one. However this is not because it’s a manga, it’s because “Golden Kamuy” is a seinen, a manga aimed at adult Japanese men between the ages of 18 and 40 and, sadly, it seems this kind of target audience has made clear they aren’t that interested in female characters, beyond the ones who are written to exist to support the male cast.

If you’re interested in manga with a bigger or a better female cast you might consider trying shōjo or josei manga, which are aimed at female readers.

Sadly in almost all the countries of us western readers, the manga that get more imported are shonen (aimed at young boys) so the general impression is that manga as a whole have a scarce female cast.

I’m not saying so to excuse shonen or seinen, this is just a characteristic of their genre and, since their target audience is often not interested in a better female cast, I fear things aren’t going to change.

2) Inkarmat and Sofia are the only two developed female characters; Asirpa's character is currently indistinguishable from the standard stock heroine.

Now... for a Seinen, “Golden Kamuy” has a decent female cast, with females that are different among them for age, race, interests and characteristics and who often try to be in control of their own lives.

Yes, they’re all females who, one way or the other, are tied to the male cast because the male cast is the real main character, as, as said before, this is a work that aims at male readers and male readers want to identify with male characters but, at least, female characters are different among them and, although way too many of them are minor characters, many of them are developed. Development isn’t necessarily measured in how much pages you’re given but in how much of you (your story, your character, your goals) is developed. Many female characters have this.

Let’s go through them starting from Asirpa:

ASIRPA: Main character along with Sugimoto. I wouldn’t say she’s the standard stock heroine more than Sugimoto is the standard stock hero. She has, of course, some character traits who’re mandatory for the action heroine, she’s intelligent, mature and capable well beyond what would be expected for someone her age. Her character arc is one of growing up, because she’s a child and this is the sort of character arc you usually give to a child, but she isn’t just ‘growing up’ as in ‘becoming more mature’ she’s growing up in the sense she becomes aware of the Ainu and the other minorities problems and how hard it is to solve them, she’s also growing by learning tragically what a war means, what it means to watch people you care about die all around you, what it means to have your life threatened, to have the lives of the people you care about threatened, if it’s easy or not to pull a trigger. Her non violent beliefs are challenged as she is asked more and more to decide if she wants to fight or to keep on not killing people. Men around her, starting from her own father, are also killed as a plot device for her grown.

KENMOCHI UMEKO: Sugimoto’s love interest and childhood friend. She challenged her family by still getting near Sugimoto despite his family situation and was willing to go with him when he considered escaping. We don’t know why ultimately she married Toraji, might be to forget Sugimoto, might be because he loved her more than Sugi, but when she did she was firm in her purpose and didn’t walk out of it or mourned her fate once Sugimoto came back. She made clear she would stay with Toraji. And she also doesn’t remarry despite social pressure and the fact she’s losing her sight.

SUSUPO: Asirpa’s grandmother. She’s caring and nurturing with everyone, Tanigaki included but she’s also strongly tied to old female roles. However, when Asirpa beats Sugimoto up, she doesn’t scold her and even though she believes Asirpa would be better married she doesn’t try to force her but let her free to live her life.

OSOMA: Asirpa’s very young cousin who knows how to speak Japanese. She’s friendly, gets a crush on Tanigaki and then grows out of it.

NIHEI’S FEMALE POPULATED FAMILY: Although we don’t really see them beyond Nihei’s first born daughter, we learn Nihei’s wife is tough and scary and that Nihei had to babysit his own daughter.

They survive, differently from Nihei only male son who dies... same as Nihei himself.

KIRORANKE’S WIFE: Although Kiro didn’t love her as much as Sofia it’s implied he loved her. She’s tough enough to manage even when Kiro is out and can count on the support of her siblings in case things are too hard.

HIDORO’S WIFE: Cruel, tough and clever, she’s the real boss in the family. She got ambitions, when she can’t get pregnant from her husband she’s not afraid to question HIS fertility instead than blaming herself, and even concedes herself a lover. She’s not a positive character but she’s basically the opposite of Huci.

CHIYOKO: She’s the damsel in distress of “Golden Kamuy” and the opposite to Hidoro’s wife. She looks kind and gentle. Lover to Hidoro Tamotsu, she however falls for Shinpei and gets pregnant from him. She’s willing to leave with him to make herself a new life.

INKARMAT: Strong willed, clever and manipulative, she’s not afraid to travell alone through Hokkaido or cooperate with Tsurumi, betraying the rest of the group. Yes, she can’t grow out of her childhood crush for Wilk, but, at least, she’s the one who’s in charge when she decides to spend the night with Tanigaki and, differently from Tanigaki, can plan things. She’s also generous and motherly with Cikapasi but she’s not afraid to attack Kiro when she believes he’s involved in Wilk’s death or to place herself in front of Tanigaki when Tsukishima threatens to kill him. She can read the mood and doesn’t reveal how Koito stole Nikaidou’s hand but use it to affirm her authority and get money from Koito.

EDOGAI’S MOTHER: Abusive and manipulative to the point she castrated her own son so that he wouldn’t become like his father, managed to traumatize Edogai so much that, when she dies of heart attack, he keeps her alive by turning her into a stuffed corpse.

TANIGAKI FUMI: She marries the one she loves and is beloved by her family. When she falls sick with smalllpox her actions are similar to the ones of Sugimoto’s father, she doesn’t want the village to be infected and wants her husband to leave her and find happiness.

TANIGAKI’S MOTHER: She falls into depression due to her daughter’s death and Tanigaki leaving the family and, ultimately, dies.

SISTER MIYAZAWA: Although she wasn’t a beauty to Kumagishi she was so lovely he kept her printed in his own memory. She’s tough enough to travel from male prison to male prison to offer her services as counselor.

MONOA AND THE OTHER AINU WOMEN: Although they ended up prisoners of the fake Ainu and forced to cooperate with them they tried challenging them by trying to ask for help to Sugimoto’s group and when they could they even fought the fake Ainu personally, killing some of them.

O-GIN: Deranged criminal, madly in love with Sakamoto, she’s not even afraid of Tsurumi.

OGATA TOME: Ogata’s mom, madly in love with Hanazawa. However, as her love isn’t returned she gets insane and lives in a delusion until her son poisons her. She’s kind of the opposite of O-gin.

OGATA’S GRANDMOTHER: As far as we know it’s her and not her husband the one who took back home Ogata and his mom and raised him. Ogata was so fond of her he couldn’t kill Huci because she reminded him of her.

ENONOKA: Karafuto Ainu kid. She’s the one who deal with Koito when he rents her grandfather’s sleds and dogs. She knows Japanese and she can count and handle business. She goes with Cikapasi when they’ve to retrieve the dog and cooperates with him to come up with a plan to retrieve it.

HARUMI CHIYO: She was willing to marry Tsukishima but disappeared short before he came back from war. Tsukishima believes she killed herself out of grief for his death, instead she merely accepted to marrying another man since she believed Tsukishima to be dead.

YOUICHIROU’S WIFE: Beloved by him, according to him helped him to become human again, giving him peace. She loved him back and gave him a bird beak so he would always remember Nemuro, even when far. They were living peacefully when a man took her hostage because he had a grudge on him. He killed the man and was arrested. When he escaped he came back to her because she had fallen ill and was about to die, remaining with her till she died and only then he left their kotan and clearly lost his will to live.

SOFIA: Although she’s a noble she’s also a revolutionarian who can fight on par with Gansoku, shoot and plan the murder of the emperor. Beloved by her men, for whoms he care and who doesn’t get behind, she has a motherly side. Kiro falls for her and will always love her but she falls for Wilk and will always love him... though she wanted to avenge Kiro when he was killed.

HASEGAWA FINA AND OLGA: Tsurumi’s beloved wife and daughter. While Olga is too young to do anything else but being loved, Fina loved Tsurumi and was loved back. Tsurumi spoke with her and, differently from him, she could pin why Sofia couldn’t learn Japanese. He believes she was smart enough to figure out he was a spy yet remained with him anyway, actually, when she believed he was in trouble she came back for him despite the danger and ended up killed with her daughter.

SVETLANA: Leaves her family because she wants to see Saint Petersburg, gets arrested, escapes, gets found by Tsukishima but decides she won’t go back home so she travels with Gansoku proving she know how to use a rifle.

KOITO YUKI: Not much is know except she’s a proper woman who worries a lot for her own son.

RIRATTE: Asirpa’s mom who died short after Asirpa’s birth. She gave Wilk his name and she was cheerful and bright, capable to make funny faces and be strong spirited. Wilk loved her a lot.

NORIKO: Assuming she was as Heita portraied her she likes to seduce/play with men and she’s easily bored.

HANAZAWA HIRO: Although she’s also a proper Japanese lady she’s not shy to try to plot behind her husband’s back to try to spare Yuusaku from becoming a flagbearer. In a way she’s the opposite of Koito Yuki who instead passively accepts for her sons to become soldiers.

KANEKO KAEKO: Upperclass girl in a rush to get married due to social pressure. She’s willing to sleep with ‘Yuusaku’ to force him to marry her. She likes good looking men but she’s so impressed by Sugimoto’s bravery that, despite understanding he’s a nobody, she would be willing to marry him instead than Yuusaku. She’s an excellent student, marries a big name in the world of finance and dedicates her energies nursing men who were back from war and helping their widows.

KANEKO’S MAID: She’s very supportive of Kaeko but also makes that beautiful speech you can read above so she gets a mention.

There’s more females, I know I’ve skipped a bunch because they were minor but the ones I mentioned, despite often being minor, still are all different one from the other, and, often, in charge of their own fate. Although they’re almost all tied to men, many of them are not subservient to them, but this doesn’t mean they all fall into the action girl trope.

It’s much, much more than what other male authors do with their female cast.

Is it a dream cast, the representation females wants? Hell no, but, at least, there’s an attempt at making them people. Yes, they’re often tied to the male cast or in service of it, but that’s also typical of this genre.

None of them is sexualized despite some of them being sexy or having sex. For each of them Noda though to a different character design. Noda tried to make them characters with their own wishes, histories and personalities.

Again, it’s far from perfect, but this’s not the story I would pick up for poor female representation.

3) When Inkarmat and Asirpa had that conversation on the lake, I was hoping they'd talk about anything other than... oh well they talked about Wilk, sigh.

It’s true that to pass the Bechdel test a story should have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something other than a man but the main topic of this story are men.

Everyone and their mom has talked with Asirpa about Wilk, we had Hijikata, Sugimoto, Ogata, Shiraishi, Tsurumi and so on doing it, because Wilk was a huge topic of interest. If the characters aren’t talking about Wilk, Sugimoto’s group is talking about Tsurumi, because he’s chasing them and he’s a rival in the gold hunt, and, if they’re not talking about Tsurumi, they’re talking about Hijikata or of another adversary/member of the group who, incidentally, is male.

It’s worth to mention though, that in their first discussion Asirpa and Inkarmat talked about Inkarmat’s predictions and how Asirpa didn’t believe in them.

Also, Inkarmat talked with Huci about Asirpa being in danger, Asirpa talked with the Ainu women in the fake Ainu village about the Osoma, Svetlana talked with Sofia about Saint Petersburg, Asirpa talked with Enonoka about the differences between minorities while Yuusaku’s mom told Kaeko her experience as a nurse.

It’s all minor because it’s often not really that relevant in the plot because this is a story about men, so they’re what’s relevant but still they can have conversations about something else.

4) Also that recurrent trope of killing off female characters as plot drivers for male characters is starting to grate. What do you think?

The first character killed as a plot driver is Toraji. Then we’ve Wilk (who’s first assumed dead and then dies for good) and who’s a plot driver for 3 female characters (Asirpa, Inkarmat, and Sofia) as well as male characters since his death affected them too... only not so emotionally, more on a practical side. We’re told Sugimoto’s father is the last to die in his family and this triggers him to leave his village (which ties in with the discussion Sugimoto and his father had in whcih his father encouraged Sugimoto to do so). Then we’ve Youhei. Then there’s the bear trio (sort of, they more tip Tsurumi on how he has a rebellion in his ranks and trigger some other events so more than plot drivers for male characters they’re just plot drivers). Then Nihei. Henmi’s maddness is caused by his brother’s death. And then many other men until, finally, Fumi gets killed.

Characters can be killed off in order to be plot drivers for other characters. This is what makes a story. The real problem comes not when a female met this end (females can die and it would be tragic if men were to remain unaffected by their death) but when ONLY females met this end or when the scale is tipped so that plenty of females die for this, while only 1 or 2 males do.

5) What do you think?

I think “Golden Kamuy” is a seinen and that if I want to read it I must be aware of the characteristics of this kind of manga which, among other things, are that it’s a story that panders to a male readership so the female cast will be scarce and aimed at supporting the male one.

I think that “Golden Kamuy” if viewed as a story targeted to general audience instead than just to males, is definitely not perfect, that due to this there’s no balance between female representation and male one, that often females are in the story merely because their story is connected to the male cast (they’re love interests, wives, daughters) and that the fact that we’ve plenty of male protagonists force them to focus on the males.

I think that sometimes Noda ends up including ties to males that aren’t really necessary, like Asirpa’s crush for Sugimoto or Osoma’s crush for Tanigaki, or how Sofia felt obliged to carry on Wilk and Kiro’s goal (instead than doing it to help Asirpa or to help her people) and ultimately felt guilty toward Tsurumi to the point she let him shoot her and needed him to absolve her.

I think sometimes he just ends up letting himself influence by popular tropes (like how everyone fall for the main character) and this caused him to make choices who weren’t really that needed by the plot but, since they’re part of the genre... he just included them.

So yeah, I’m not always happy with what happens in “Golden Kamuy”, as who read my meta knows, sometimes I protest loudly about things I don’t like (see, for example, Sofia’s death scene).

However I try to give it credits when it’s due.

This is just me though, everyone is entitled to see things the way they prefer.

Thank you for your ask and sorry for the late reply!

[nanopyonn]

fumichan

[bittersweetcinema]

Why don’t you play in hell? (2013)

‘I wanna make a good movie...’