#please read golden kamuy

[guillotinerot]

Golden Kamuy is the single most respectful anime wrt indigenous peoples that I have ever seen. I am not of these cultures so I might be wrong, and I’m sure it could still use work maybe, but it just seems to have a sort of joy in the way it represents native cultures, without glossing over hardships. Like there’s tragedy and grimness and horror, but at the end of the day I always feel like it is celebrating these people and places; their food and language and customs.

Again, and I want to make this clear, I am an outsider and I don’t know what the team behind the show looks like, so if I’m way off and it’s problematic I would want to learn about it

Oh, it is 100% a celebration of indigenous Ainu culture! Noda is not himself Ainu, he is Japanese, but he worked with Nakagawa Hiroshi a professor of Ainu culture and language. Noda's core message in the manga isn't about assimilation, but rather is about celebration. He treats the Ainu with respect, and has a very delightful way of crossing the Ainu/Japanese cultural divide between the characters. With any story, its not perfect. The ending, with out specific spoilers, is a touch... overly optimistic. However, the culture and language of the Ainu people are very much admired and explained in a way that highlights how important they are to the island of Hokkaido and the northern peninsula.

I also would highly suggest doing a little research yourself- I am just one simple cat on the internet who is blinded by their love of Noda's art and comedy. There are multiple showings of Ainu textiles that Noda has helped sponsor, and a noted uptick in positive interest in Ainu language and culture.

I also highly highly recommend reading the manga, as the anime (while improved from past seasons) misses out on entire arcs. I have so many feelings about Golden Kamuy as a series, and I love the characters and the journeys they all go through.

Also man ass. Lotta man ass. This is a good thing. You see balls, too.

[catboyenjoyerdesu]

Hiii it’s me again!! Have some Luna one boys’ dorm story.

Traced a classic from Golden Kamuy #115-116

Once again I’d like to recommend this manga to everyone.

[charlesherbertlightoller]

Golden Kamuy was insane.

The protagonist is a Russo-Japanese War vet who regularly performed near-suicidal attacks in battle and survived multiple near-fatal injuries, earning him the moniker "Immortal" which he regularly shouts out during fight scenes. His best friend is a 12 year old Ainu girl who hunts bears and has a pet wolf. The main bad guy is another war vet who's missing his forehead so he wears a ceramic plate over his exposed brain and despite being an irredeemably evil Bond Villain type antagonist, all his inferior officers simp for him to ridiculous levels. The minor adversaries include (but are not limited to) a giant undefeatable escaped prisoner with a pornstache and square-shaped lump on his forehead, a cannibalistic transgender woman who runs a death trap hotel, a serial killer who gets boners when thinking about someone else killing him, Japanese twink Ed Gein, a pervert with a stupid hairdo who dies while fucking a bear and a blind old man who dresses like an owl. Toshizou Hijikata, who was a real guy from real life who existed at one point, is a supporting character. The Ainu girl's father assassinated Tsar Aleksandr II. There's gratuitous cooking scenes between the action and death. The manga is at least partially responsible for kickstarting a Renaissance of Ainu culture in Japan. The author cannot stop talking about his characters' dicks in interviews.

This is one of the most popular manga and anime series of the past 10 years.

[basilknell]

Vasily's Literacy

I’ve been asked a couple times about Vasily’s literacy, so here’s a quick overview of stats and pertinent information laid out regarding that idea. I’ll make my statement on my own opinion towards his literacy at the end, but for now I’ll focus on exact numbers and stats without interjecting opinion.

While this post primarily pulls specific stats from When Russia Learned to Read by Jeffery Brooks, I’ve read a couple papers and other books regarding these subjects I pull general statements from as well. Please note, though, that there were no large scale official census in Russia until 1897 so some of these stats from previous years could potentially be skewed.

Source Material

First and foremost: do we ever see Vasily read or write in the series?

No. However, this can be explained quickly away. Until running into Tsukishima, Vasily was likely (incorrectly) assuming that not only did none of the Japanese characters speak Russian, but they did not use the same writing system either. It would have been a waste of resources (paper) to attempt a conversation where a drawing could suffice. Additionally, there is no other scene in the series involving him and Tsukishima that would have warranted him writing to Tsukishima either. At least, none that we see. So, him never being seen writing does not necessarily prove he is illiterate.

Vasily’s Age

With that out of the way, there’s another important piece of information we need to pin about Vasily before we continue: Vasily’s age. While Noda specified he’s the same age as Ogata, Ogata is unfortunately given no age range. But, unlike these two, Usami does have a canon age: 26. We can use Usami as a frame of reference because Noda stated Usami is, in fact, older than Ogata. Thus, this means Ogata is 25 and so Vasily is also 25.

Now, I personally tend to make these two older, but for a frame of reference we are going to pin Vasily at 25 years old. The reason this is significant is to pin down exactly when Vasily went to school. If in 1907 he was 25, then the age he was deemed ‘school age’ (8 - 11) would be around 1890 - 1893. Of course, he always could have attended school at an earlier or later age, but for conjecture’s sake, we will use the average age such as these.

As I said previously, an official census was not published in Russia until 1897, but any previous information before that typically begins around the 1870s. So it would benefit us to default to 1897 statistics, but keep in mind that the stats are skewed a tad higher than they would have been.

Rural Literacy

Literacy in the late 19th century was not nearly as bad as people make it out to be (at a rate of around 21% in 1897), but only because rural numbers brought it down. For example, in industrialized cities such as Moscow, 70% of men were regarded as being literate. There were also a plethora of schools dotting the country, from Zemstvo-funded schools, to church schools, to state schools. It was often not the lack of schooling availability that caused a decrease in rural literacy compared to urban children, but rather social aspects.

I am unable to find exact stats for rural literacy rates around the year 1890, but literacy rose from 6% in rural populations in the 1860s to 25% in 1910. It’s also best to keep in mind, however, men were far more likely to be literate than women, and the young more likely than older populations as well. So, if we were to take an increased decade raise (rounding up to about 4% every 10 years), and exclude the population numbers from including women which will be about half the population, we get around a 36%* base chance Vasily is literate when he is from a rural population (of which he is – he is from Yeleninka, a rural town in the Orenburg voisko), still not excluding elderly populations.

This is still not a very high chance, but there’s some other factors to discuss. Firstly, would have to be involving his background. The reason literacy was so low in rural areas was because, although parents did place value on literacy because it allowed for social movement and potentially higher wages, parents simply could not afford the lost labor of their children attending school. If a family had several children and could afford the loss of labor, then a child was much more likely to attend school. So, even if Vasily’s family had been described as being poor by Noda, this had no bearing on Vasily’s likeness to attend school. Given Vasily is almost entirely assured to be in the military through conscription, he very likely had brothers. And if he had brothers – he was very likely to attend school compared to single children families.

Another factor involves his family’s occupation. Families dependent on agricultural work were less likely to send their children to school because it was expected for them to work on that same farm when they were older, thus limiting their need for literacy. But, if Vasily’s family were artisans or practiced some kind of craft alongside agriculture, parents highly valued literacy in comparison, and were more willing to spare the labor loss for schooling.

Religion also played a role. Specifically, those of the Old Believer faith tended to be more literate and push to educate their children regardless of their occupational status compared to regular Russian Orthodox peasants. Aside from a general cultural insistence on preferring literacy, there is no other reason why this occurred, as the only major difference between Old Believers and Russian Orthodox peasants was a matter of ceremony (excluding some fringe Old Believer cults). If Vasily came from an Old Believer family, they'd push for him to be literate regardless of the labor loss they'd experience.

Finally, some parents preferred to send their sons to school to lower their military conscription length. While university students conscripted only had to serve 1.5 years of the required 5 year length, those who completed at least 3 years of any schooling had that length lowered to 4 years. If a family had several sons, which meant their sons were eligible to be drafted by the lotto, they would be more partial to educating said sons.

For some stats: unfortunately I could only find the rate of attendance of boys in school for 1911. Please examine these stats with a critical eye that they should be lower. 88% of boys in rural areas attended school for at least 1 year, but by year 3 this percentage dropped to about 38.5%.

*My math numbers will be off because there were a decent amount of women who were literate, just at a noticeably lower rate compared to men. For ease of math’s sake, I removed them from the population entirely, though the original percentage statistic did include them. They originally were likely less than 1% of the literate population in the 1860s statistic I used as a base.

Soldier Literacy

While it is useful to look at literacy stats of Vasily’s background (being a rural resident), what’s more useful is the literacy rates of the army for when Vasily was serving.

By the 19th century, Russia realized the value in literate soldiers – but unfortunately for Vasily, schooling for soldiers that the government had originally created in 1855 was abolished across the 1890s. But this did not mean literacy still did not rise in the military, as certain soldier ‘uncles’ brought it upon themselves to educate other soldiers. In fact, literacy in the army rose from about 21% in 1874 to about 68% in 1913 – rounded up to about a 6% increase in literacy every 5 years. Vasily would’ve been conscripted into the army by 1902, and applying the rate of increase, there was about a 51% literacy of the army in 1899, and 57% literacy in 1904. A higher than half chance for Vasily, who we see actively still in the army by 1907.

There are other factors to consider as well: Vasily’s rank and station. While the illiterate often went to the infantry units, specialized units had much higher rates of literacy. As I’ve discussed in the past, Vasily might have been in a specialized unit – an RIA unit continually supporting the Cossack border guards, or the Special Border Guard Corps. His literacy chance rises higher due to this factor, as literacy was especially preferred because of the ability to read topographic maps and telegrams.

It is not Vasily’s presence in a specialized unit that also increased his likelihood of being literate – it was his rank as well. While Noda removed most telling marks from Vasily of his rank, such as shoulder straps, there’s two glaring tells. Firstly, are his and Ilya’s binoculars. Ilya appears to be to be a Feldwebel (equivalent to an American First-Sergeant, British Sergeant-Major) given his position of ordering the other soldiers, and that he has binoculars which were only used by officers. He is, like Tsukishima, a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). Vasily himself also has binoculars, though one could argue this does not inherently make him an NCO because Ilya has at least two traits marking him as an NCO. After all, Vasily could have stolen his binoculars and his overcoat is one that a private would wear (Ilya does wear a private’s coat as well. Though, I have addressed before that the uniforms of the border guards gang are completely incorrect regardless of rank, so I am unsure of how much weight this should be given).

That second tell is actually Vasily’s cockade. The cockade worn on the hats of soldiers denoted generally their rank and status. So, while Vasily lacks any other visual clothing tells, his cockade can give a general idea if he is of a lower or higher rank, which does indeed change his literacy statistics.

[Pictured are 3 cockades. The far left is the cockade of a lower rank soldier, while the cockades in the middle and far right are cockades of officers. Thank you to @rdstrpv for this image!]

This information is important because NCOs were almost demanded to be literate. It was essential for their occupation, as being able to read maps was one of the most important skills for an NCO to have. If Vasily was an NCO, which his cockade would indicate, he almost assuredly would be literate, or at the very least incredibly good at faking it.

[Pictured are the 3 different ways Vasily’s cockade is drawn.]

While in the anime Vasily’s cockade is given the appearance of the average lower-rank soldier, and typically this is how people place him. However in the manga, Vasily’s cockade is more ambiguous. When referencing it to the cockades above, it could pass as both a lower-rank or an officer’s cockade. The final example is of Noda’s detailed Vasily illustration that was not outsourced by an animation studio, nor constrained by swift time spent on manga panels. In this, Vasily clearly has on the cockade of an officer.

Obviously, given the anime drawing Vasily with a lower-ranking cockade and the manga is ambiguous, you could still make the argument he’s a low ranking soldier. Nonetheless, one should also consider that the government likely would’ve preferred to send a group of officers to apprehend a Tsar’s killer over, perhaps, privates, giving more credence to him being an NCO. That, and because Vasily was an experienced sniper in the war, it'd be especially strange he'd not received some promotions at the end of the war. And thus, Vasily’s literacy likeness goes up to almost-guaranteed. There were occasional examples of NCOs not being literate, but there were few and far in-between, making it unusual that a young NCO was illiterate in 1907.

Cossack Literacy

Of course, Vasily was not necessarily in the RIA. He could have instead been a Cossack. While the idea of an NCO and cockade still apply to Cossacks, I will still discuss Cossack literacy in the case you find Vasily to be of a lower rank.

Unfortunately exact statistical information regarding Cossack literacy has almost never been tracked before the Soviet period. Still, by the 19th century the Imperial Russian government had a special vested interest in educating their Cossacks, more so than their peasantry. There were many Cossack schools that taught everything from literacy to combat that children were almost required to attend. In fact, once entering the military at 21, Cossacks were required by the military to be literate unlike other soldiers, and if they were not literate they were mandated to pursue education while they were deployed.

This is not to say there were not illiterate Cossacks – one could finish their entire service as a Cossack without properly pursuing their literacy if they were crafty about it, similar to illiterate NCOs. But, again, this was unlikely. In comparison, Cossacks were far more likely to be able to read than that of the ordinary peasant in the army.

Final Thoughts

I’m of the opinion Vasily actually is literate, regardless of him being in the RIA as an NCO or a Cossack. He’s a very prideful character, and it slowly became a limiting stigma that one was illiterate in Russia, even in 1907. This is not to say Vasily can’t be illiterate – many of the stats I gave showed that there was a decent chance for illiteracy, especially if he was a first-born son to a farming family and only low-ranked. But in my opinion of all the facts culminating, I find I prefer the idea of him being literate. Have fun with this information regardless, and may it help you in whatever you intend to write or draw in the future!

A big thank you to @rdstrpv for her help in answering a couple of my questions to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting information, and for her images. She's always a big help.

[cup-o-noodlez]

Pursuit of Perfection💉🪚🩸

Not nearly enough Ienaga fanart in this world. Alt version and stupid meme under the cut.

[velvet-backrooms]

//golden kamuy 306 spoilers

everyone shut up while i talk about why this entire segment on the train in golden kamuy is my absolute favorite segment in this entire gem of a manga and maybe one of my favorite scenes in manga as a whole first off toshizo hijikata? hottest man in the manga, and i say this as the straightest man i know in the comfort of my own home. man just oozes cool and confident and manages to steal every single scene he is in. so seeing his climactic conclusion where he reclaims and relives his glory as the last of the samurai is a treat, sad as it might be secondly the dopeass glitch effect they use. seeing it for the first time when hijikata pursues and kills the old assassin convict was cool as hell because he becomes younger and hotter and you get to see him in his glory days and the way its used as a "censor" of sorts to hide the fatal wound hijikata has is just MWAH like, its symbolically hijikata using the pure glory and faith in bushido he holds, the only thing still tying him to faith and the reason he is after the gold to begin with, to keep himself walking just that much longer, not willing to let the last samurai simply pass away and to top it off, hijikata seeing the younger version of himself as sugimoto, "overtake" him, symbolically passing on his will to the current generation and putting his faith in them, only to then quite literally pass it on by giving sugimoto his katana. this entire sequence is peak CINEMA and i love this manga to bits "That, Sugimoto-dono, is Bushido."

[burgersnacksformax]

I wanted to see Vasya's face so, screencap redraw of vasily without covid safety protocols

With neckbeard

Without

[mercy-misrule]

I'm watching s4 of golden kamuy, and obvs the manga is better but the anime is so charming and so full of character and the voices are great and i really think it's underrated.

Noda really created characters of all time here.

[noellium]

PINNED POST ?!?!

hi ^^ im noelle or noellium or noe or ellie WHATEVER YOU MIGHT KNOW ME AS

im 18, my pronouns are she/her 

a few of my interests areeee: golden kamuy, one piece, the cat returns, trigun, jjba, soul eater, cowboy bebop, breaking bad/bcs, spider-man, sonic the hedgehog, pokemon, tloz, yakuza (THE GAME), guilty gear; music such as: kendrick lamar, sza, laufey, atcq, newjeans, loona, pinkpantheress, etc etc etc all kinds of shit whatever i talk about a lot of things

this blog is just. me shitting all over your timeline maybe if you follow me there is no guarantee what youll get

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Congrats on restarting uni! I think a lot of the dunmeshi discourse comes from people latching on to what they as an “unproblematic” or wholesome show w/respect to sexualization of women and then get jumpscared when the tone shifts - or at least from people with strong senses of “moral purity”. Like I saw someone talking about how shipping farcille was bad because it was sexualization of these characters and it essentially ruined the purity of the show and was counter to what it was written for, lol.

I'm pretty sure you're right. I just received an essay last night that says it's wrong for us to sexualize the female characters of Dungeon Meshi by putting them in these polls for reasons. I haven't read the full thing yet.

I went and looked it up but Dungeon Meshi is in the Seinen genre, I don't think most people realize that I didn't. I thought it was a Shonen. But now things make sense because remember what is the most iconic Seinen manga? Oh yeah, it's Berserk. So now do things make sense for everyone? Complaining about the wholesome purity of a show in the Seinen genre yeah things are going to get dark and if we use Berserk or Vinland Saga as the base lines since they're two of the most iconic mangas in the genre. Yeah it's going to get real dark. I can't believe they hid the fact this was a Seinen from us for so long.

I get that it's refreshing not to have an anime that doesn't overly sexualize the female characters and uses them exclusively for family service. But it doesn't give you an excuse to become the morality police. Because the fandom is beginning to act like all those little old ladies in the church who used to shame me all the time for what I was wearing. I don't know if they realize it, but it feels like that when all of you clutch your pearls and panic because how dare you sexualize the female characters? That's against the purity of the show.

Just a little FYI, I found another Manga/Anime that also refuses to sexualize its female characters. That exclusively does fan service with its male characters. It's just as refreshing. Like Dungeon Meshi, it's also a Seinen series, but it's a historical action-adventure series similar to Atlantis the Lost Empire called Golden Kamuy. It is incredible. Please watch or read it. It does not get enough credit for how good it is. When I say it exclusively does fan service with its male characters, I mean it. We have not seen so much as an ankle on the female characters, but the male characters are frequently shirtless, if not naked. Plus, they're all hot, and there are several types of hot, whether you like skinny, muscular, scarred, or various levels of hairy. Please go watch that show

[throttlee]

i finished golden kamuy some weeks back and I can’t stand to live wiithout this complex wildcat anymore.  please read this manga is my suggestion

[snoopdoggs]

#150 gifs of KENTO YAMAZAKI in 'golden kamuy (2024),' can be accessed by joining my discord server, or sending me a message off anon. kento is of japanese descent and was born in 1994, so cast accordingly. please like and reblog if you found these useful.

tw: partial nudity, graphic injury, violence

please read my rules before using. all gifs were made by me, so do not redistribute or claim as your own.

[arlecchisims]

You'll find a Skin Detail version (ArlecchiSims_SugiScar-SkingDetail.package) -it may replace freckles -  and the other one is under facial Make-up category (ArlecchiSims_SugiScar-FacialPaint.package). You can install one or both.

Infants to Elder. Male and Female.

Please, do not reupload nor claim as own.

✨ More Golden Kamuy collection CC here. ✨

Download:

♦ SimFile || MediaFire (Zip containing two .packages files, and one Read Me file).

Please, do not reupload nor claim it as yours.

•Check my CurseForge profile: https://www.curseforge.com/members/arlecchisims/projects

Based on Saichi Sugimoto from Golden Kamuy (© Satoru Noda). No copyright infringement intended. This is just for entertainment.

[whipbogard]

Henlo! ✨ I'm putting my merchs up for online orders! Form will be closed on 31st January, 2024 (12pm; GMT+8).

Order Form here. Please make sure you read all the T&Cs 🙏

Mostly Batman-related stuff 🦇 but there are some One Piece 🏴‍☠️ and Golden Kamuy too! 🐻

Reblogs appreciated 💕

Note: I recycled my Comic Fiesta catalogue but most of the items are there except for the Golden Kamuy sticker sets as I have very limited left. If you're interested, do let me know!

[starrath]

I NEED TO RAMBLE PLEASE

PLS ANYONE LET ME RAMBLE ABOUT GOLDEN KMAUY OR DUNGEON MESHI TO THEM PLEASE!! none of my friends have watched/read either of them and I'm currently drowning in shit because i NEED to talk to literally anyone about those two things😭 i just need to talk about why laios' genuine curiosity on consuming monsters is valid and not gross!! because i definitely side with him (totally not because of bias)!!!! and i just want to talk about golden kamuy-literally anything! just one friend that knows golden kamuy is all i wish for PLEASE🙏

[unhonestlymirror]

Please read Golden Kamuy, it's really good. About Ainu culture and language, and a lot of interesting facts about nature, hunting, weapons, etc!