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chibivesicle · 5 years ago

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Golden Kamuy 235 & 236: Clint Eastwood as a postal delivery man and our pirate has domestic desires . . .

Hello all, I apologize for the delay in my posts. I am one of the many people who had to change from a job of going into work to working entirely from home and online only. I have found the transition to be incredibly difficult - I have always had a strict division in my work/home balance. Add on top of that the fact that I live alone with my cat, my parents are almost 2,000 miles away and my brother is currently in Tokyo has made things very stressful. I don’t mean to dump this on you [readers], but sometimes I think it is better to at least say these things since a lot of other people are dealing with this or some version of these situations. It sucks, it is messing with my life and I am trying to deal with this situation.

Okay, enough about me, let’s get to GK.

Chapter 235 starts with Boutarou and Sugimoto about to have a showdown (to the death since Sugimoto just wants his skin). It starts out with Boutarou sizing up Shiraishi, he appears a bit playful and curious that Shiraishi is still in Hokkaido - based on Shiraishi pre-Asirpa/Sugimoto/Kiro he really was a self interested guy. You’d expect he’d make his way back to Honshu and have some fun going to red light districts. The fact that Shiraishi has a pensive look means he’s trying to think a way to deal with this situation and also reacting to the assumption of his personality. He immediately sees Sugimoto reaching for his bayonet and realizes they need to ask him if he know more information.

I really have grown to like Shiraishi - he was a successful escape artist, indicative of being a smarter than average guy and he’s already putting the pieces together that Boutarou would have more information on the Ainu as he sees Sugimoto in his murder mode.

Shiraishi is able to de-escalate the situation by calming stating an assumption on his part. It is gamble, but based on what he learned from Heita, it is a good gamble since the thought things over pretty well.

This is enough information to get the pirate to stop and then he’s excited that they are thinking the same thing as him. Shiraishi is close enough to Boutarou to keep Sugimoto at bay who in this panel looks like a predator coming in for a kill after stalking. Sugimoto is hunched over, almost creeping forward like a cat while Shiraishi is upright and super relaxed.

Shiraishi’s statement is enough to get more information out of Boutarou, he then tells them that there is a rumor that the tattoos are useless to figuring out the code. This is enough to snap Sugimoto out of his murder mode. Excellently played Shiraishi!

They are interrupted by the fact that the pirate gang notices another paddle boat is coming the opposite direction and there are soldiers on it and if they are from the 7th it would be bad news. Only then does Sugimoto realize that of course Boutarou would have men working for him and it causes him to pause.

Boutarou has an excellent reaction to things, he calmly gets the boat moving again, and his men, keep the passengers under control. The postman is the introduced, our Clint Eastwood stand in as he’s armed to protect valuables sent via the post.

We can see where this is going . . . there will be a shoot out on the boat and Asirpa is still out cold. It looks like they will be in the clear, they pass by the other boat as they wave over.

Shiraishi is nervous as he hopes the plan works with little issues. Asirpa then wakes up as the postman readies his handgun. The postman thinks he took out one of the pirate gang members and causes enough of a commotion that the other boat notices the gunshot.

Unfortunately, his “excellent” aim had nothing to do with him. Instead, it was all from Vasily sniping them one by one from the boat with the horses. This is the worst outcome possible, it makes a huge scene, escalates the entire situation, and takes out most of the pirate gang a disadvantage to Boutarou.

Sadly, our inexperienced postman makes terrible decisions wasting his ammo from his revolver for no reason and then someone finds Sugimoto’s lost rifle. Cue Ogata lecture. Oh wait, Ogata isn’t present, yet we as readers can hear his “tch” sound. In the meantime, due to Vasily’s sniping, the other boat is worried about saving the passengers and turns back around.

Thankfully, Boutarou thinks quickly on his feet. He takes control of the boat and he turns it so that he can ram into the paddle wheel of the other boat.

By incapacitating the drive system of the other boat, they can leave them stuck in the river. Very clever moves and it additionally, breaks the rope that kept Vasily tied to the boat. He’s now stuck in a small boat as they escape from him.

This all in all is a good situation for Vasily even if he doesn’t realize it, keeping him away from the rest of the group means, there won’t be another shoot first, ask no questions later situation. The man he should have sniped was the postman, not the pirate gang. As usual he goes for clean head shots, indicating he doesn’t snipe the same way as Ogata, who frequently thinks about his most effective way to do things.

Back to the action where our postman from hell now has Sugimoto’s rifle is and still fighting back awkwardly and is under the indication that his men were shot by him. He goes into a calm mode as he looks at his options to take out the man. Meanwhile, Sugimoto is just trying to dodge him and not die due to the man’s recklessness.

Boutarou has an expression of complete seriousness, he cares for his gang and he’s going to do what it takes. Being the wild man that he is, he manages to swing the anchor into the passenger galley and Sugimoto luckily is able to yell to Asirpa to protect her as she gets the man down as he goes for the backpack.

Of course Sugimoto goes back to angry murder mode as Boutarou hits him in the face with the anchor as he gets close enough to punch him in the stomach under the pretense that he may have hurt Asirpa.

Yes, Sugimoto, you lost your rifle, and your inability to keep an eye on your firearms lead to this entire situation and he’s now back to “who cares - kill the man and skin him” mindset.

Quick summary of the chapter

1.) Shiraishi remains the brains of their group. He was on the path for the most information and least amount of violence, but that didn’t work out.

2.) Boutarou is a clever guy. He has a good balance of using his brain and calmly and effectively making decisions. The fact that he’s friendly with Shiraishi tells me that he is a more complicated convict that some of the others and will continue to be a major force in this story arc.

3.) Vasily is a giant liability. He can’t effectively communicate with the rest of the group. He snipes the wrong people resulting in a more complicated situation and he eventually gets ditched. His sniping style is clearly one of simple execution. There is no way that he’s as intelligent as Ogata and lacks the ability to play a long game at all. In a way, he may even make Sugimoto feel good about him being around b/c he can write off snipers as being all like Vasily and therefore, puts Ogata in that category even though he’s no way close to it. The fact he wasn’t with the rest of the group to see what was happening made things far worse, what did he gain by sniping some of the pirate crew? Nothing.

4.) Sugimoto put Asirpa in danger. By rushing off to deal with things and leaving her out of his sight, losing his rifle and being stuck in murder mode, he endangered her. If he truly wants to protect her, he can’t just leave her out of his sight. He deflects everything in the name of always following short term actions.

Chapter 236 starts with several pages of Boutarou and Sugimoto fighting each other. Both of them have white murder eyes as they beat the shit out of each other.

I think the fight between these two is to show us how tenacious they are. They are able to put everything into the fight - it is a brutal all out brawl between them and they hold nothing back.

In the meantime, the postman wastes his last shot with Sugimoto’s rifle and Asirpa is able to cleverly kick him off into the water. Then Asirpa is able to stop Sugimoto as she gets onto the deck with her bow at hand (not sure where she put his rifle). Sugimoto’s eyes return to round and black with a little sparkle in them, indicating that he’s out of his murder mode.

By her actions, she was able to get the postman off the boat and all the commotion can calm down, it gives Shiraishi the opportunity to also get Sugimoto to stop with reason to talk to Boutarou.

Boutarou seems unfazed by Sugimoto’s switch from murder to normal. To me it indicates that they must have a lot in common as he looks at him with some sort of “kindred spirit” vibe. It may just be me, but both men appear to have on/off switches for their murder modes.

Shiraishi then asks him about the rumor to be unable to solve the code, and Boutarou gives him what he knows. We finally learn the origin of the Baroto skin; Wakayama had found one of the other convicts; he killed him and skinned him.

We get an extra image of a naked Boutarou as he reveals he lost it via gambling. Wakayama states the odds of all of the convicts being alive to be found and skinned is too to low as two of our previous convicts are shown how they died. He was confident that was a moot point and even went as far to see how Wilk may have just messed with everyone, because he could.

This then connects to what the candy peddler said - that Wakayama was disappointed; likely due to the fact he lost the skin and also the fact that if he thought about what happened to other convicts, it really is a pointless quest.

Despite all of the skins they’ve found, Wakayama and Boutarou have valid points. Boutarou tells them that it gave him a reason to give up on trying to find the skins, but thought if he tried to figure out where Wilk hid the gold, it would be worth the effort. He then asks them if they’d like to join forces with him.

To keep them intrigued in him and his goals, Boutarou tells them what he wants to do with the gold. He wants to leave Hokkaido, move someplace warmer in SE Asia and then become a major producer of agricultural products. He sees himself making himself the ruler and he wants to start a large family.

His idea is exceptionally childish and still is mis-placed colonial/imperial feelings but it is coming from his own personal experience. Shiraishi is less than amused and Sugimoto tries to almost hide his feelings on the idea of why everyone wants the gold to rule a country. Boutarou is very perceptive he asks Sugimoto about his family. As Sugimoto states he has none, it leads him to ask what caused them to die and Sugimoto tells him it was due to TB. He then reveals that his own family died of smallpox. This lead to his childish dream of creating his own family that wouldn’t be shunned due to disease and he used this concept as the way to keep him going - the side effect is that he used his dream as his way to push through everything.

All of a sudden their brutal fight makes so much sense - neither of them have something to lose related to their family. Their lack of a family back home allows them to be reckless idiots. And this leads to a much awaited Sugimoto flashback! Finally! I have to admit that I’ve been waiting for this for a loooooooong time. I was thinking it would happen on Karafuto due to Sugimoto’s vision during the snow squall - this just shows us how deep his denial of this is.

With Sugimoto’s dead looking black eyes, we can tell that even before his father died, he had reached the same mental state as many of our other characters where they “broke” inside. Ogata around age 9, Tsurumi with the death of Fina and Olga etc etc. We learn that Sugimoto’s family have a weakness for being kind and caring towards others, so his father feels bad for his situation.

I want to know exactly what his dad did that leads him to say that he was always helping people even if he shouldn’t. Does this mean that his father got overly involved in things? That he was also overly emotional and rushed into things without thinking them through. Argh! I want to know more about Sugi-dad.

Sugimoto sits outside of the house as a cat approaches him. As stated in the footnotes at the end of the chapter, the cat is supposed to prevent TB. Sugimoto then wonders if due to the cat’s aloof nature, perhaps it isn’t helping with curing his sick dad. He tells that cat that it is useless too, this implies that Sugimoto himself feels useless to help his father.

The cat then walks off to do its cat things as Sugimoto stands up and prepares himself. His clenched fists and determined expression in the last panel show that he’s made a decision. In an attempt to give him ‘release’ his father tells him to leave their home.

He is told that for him to live for his own sake isn’t a bad thing. This tells us that Sugimoto has a hard time being selfish, he’s clearly done actions for the sake of his family without any regard for his own feelings and self care. He leaves the house as his father coughs in the room. He’s nervous and unsure of the decision at first. He’s sweating as he holds his feelings in. But the wind blows through the trees and he makes his verbal commitment to not lose. He begins to cheer himself up and it leads to the dramatic panel. He declares that he’s immortal!

So, before his father has died and he burns the house down, he has made his first declaration of how he will live his life - he will be immortal. We now know this attitude was created before he enlisted in the 1st and fought in the war.

He then snaps back to the present as Boutarou asks him what his dreams are. The facial expression of Sugimoto is one of almost confusion/panic/thought

The fact that Sugimoto can’t answer him easily, indicates that Sugimoto has been living without any dreams for himself. Just living without a long term goal. His various shades of his eyes show us that he’s never been asked this question before so directly. It isn’t about Umeko and Toraji. It is about him. And thus, his father’s statement makes more sense now; Sugimoto doesn’t want things to be about him; then he’d have to face himself.

The chapter then ends with them arriving at their destination. Again, Boutarou is reasonable with the passengers; they just take the registered mail money and leave the passengers with their money and unharmed.

Since the postman was looking in Sugimoto’s backpack he revealed what was inside of it. Heita’s skin and his tobacco case. So now, Boutarou knows that they ran into Heita and he’s clearly not alive anymore. Good eye, Boutarou!

Clearly, the next chapter will have more drama in relation to this discovery.

Quick summary and conclusions;

1.) Sugimoto is most similar to Boutarou. He spends so much of his time othering and making the convicts inhuman; just the skins. Boutarou has too much in common with him. The tenacity to fight to the death, carrying the PTSD from losing their families to disease and the feeling of helplessness. The difference is that Boutarou thought deeply about his childhood motivation and has accepted it for his future plans and motivation. Boutarou has the ability to self-reflect and use it in a pro-active fashion. Sugimoto has revealed that he has been running away from facing himself since before his father died. This is terrible - it tells us that Sugimoto’s problems go back even further than we originally realized and he went to war already wounded and broken. No wonder he continues to be reckless; he was as broken as Ogata was going to war. The Ogata-Sugimoto similarities gain another point for how they were both broken before enlisting in the army.

2.) Sugimoto clearly hates cats and the link to Toraji’s nickname of Tora-chan and Ogata add to it. The black cat let him down unable to help his father recover from TB. He’s been surrounded by cats, people with cat nicknames, or cat like characteristics. It is obvious that he’d lash out a those with the overlap and Ogata is our most obvious easy target. A random black house cat let him down. All other future cats will let him down. The link to Ogata is so obvious with his aloof attitude and ability to float between groups with little attachment.

3.) We finally learn the origin of the Barato skin. I’m glad to know that it was a skin that was lost by Wakayama. It shows that many of the more rational convicts knew when to give up with the hunt for the skins and it was key in highlighting the Hijikata-Ogata alliance of convenience. It also highlights that with Asirpa knowing the code, it is likely that not all of the skins are critical. @goldenkamuyhunting had an excellent meta post about what this could mean for the hunt for the skins. I reblogged it before this post if you missed it.

That’s pretty much all I have for now!

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #sugimoto saichi #asirpa #Shiraishi Yoshitake #boutarou the pirate #ogata hyakunosuke #vasily #heita

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goldenkamuyhunting · 5 years ago

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Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 236 “King”

And so in this chapter we learn something important about how someone was…

…yeah, an unreliable narrator as there was more than a bit of trouble in Barato and it was caused by a tattooed skin, tattooed skin he left there. Still, kudos to @bloody-fabre for guessing Wakayama was the one to blame for the skin which ended in Barato.

There’s to say the situation is much more complicate than what it looked like when we first met Wakayama and a side of me is very happy that a arc that seemed to go nowhere (the Wakayama arc didn’t seem to have effects on the plot beyond giving Sugimoto an extra skin) is now becoming a relevant part of the plot.

But let’s dig into the chapter.

We resume where we have left, with Boutarou and Sugimoto fighting.

Despite the punch Boutarou doesn’t even let go of his gun but hurries to point it to Sugimoto. Sugimoto however put to good use his experience as a war veteran and grabs the gun in such a way not only he manages to move it slightly away from his face but also takes care to place his hand between the hammer and the bullet, so that when Boutarou pushes the trigger, the gun can’t fire.

Hand-to-hand combat is where Sugimoto excels after all, with tons of life threatening battles on the battleground, surrendered by other soldiers all willing to kill him. It’s in these moments Sugimoto’s six sense and experience, let him find a safe way out in the blink of an eye.

It’s kind of amazing as he just knows how to do.

This is not being a tactician genius though, that requires long term planning. Sugimoto doesn’t have the time to plan, he’s just a man who, when in extreme danger in a hand-to-hand fight, can find the right countermeasure in a blink thanks to his huge experience and talent in this sort of things.

Give Sugimoto two days to think of a plan and he likely will come up with only a vague idea of what to do. Give Sugimoto five second to stop a fatal blow and he’ll come up with the perfect method to stop it and, if possible, to retaliate.

So, now that he has stopped Boutarou from firing, Sugimoto tries to retrieve the gun from himself and at the same time damaging his enemy by attempting to cut away his fingers from it with his bayonet.

Who has good memory might remember Sugimoto doing the same with Nihei, cutting his fingers to stop him from holding his weapon.

(Japanese people knew very well how big of a harm it was to lose fingers, that’s why Yakuza used to cut the pinkie of a Yakuza who failed them, because afterward he would have troubles holding his sword)

Boutarou though isn’t a rookie either.

He’s quick enough to let go the now useless gun, so that all that Sugimoto’s bayonet hit is the gun itself and uses his powerful legs to kick Sugimoto hard enough not only he send him flying against the wooden railing but makes it partially crack. As someone who can jump out of the water like the merman he obviously is Boutarou clearly has strong legs and if he had kicked that way another men, the poor guy might have been sent out of commission.

Meanwhile the postman is still shooting like crazy, Boutarou’s accomplice swearing he’ll kill him but, thanks God (or should I say thanks Kamuy?), Asirpa is there to save the day.

She calls him and hurries him to come with her, telling him there’s spare ammunition there, then catches her chance to retrieve Sugimoto’s rifle and kick him off the boat at the same time, forcing him to swim away.

Asirpa is a genius and this constitute as planning as she considered her options, laid out a trap for the postman and put it to work.

Boutarou, on the other side, has recovered his anchor and is tossing it at Sugimoto, who manages to avoid it before Asirpa reaches him. Sugimoto worriedly asks her if she’s hurt.

I wonder if he realized how, while he was busy punishing Boutarou for putting her in danger, he had left her to fend for herself as Boutarou had an accomplice and that postman was completely out of it.

Boutarou’s accomplice informs him the postman has escaped leaving behind the money.

Shiraishi in a scolding tone stops Sugimoto from fighting further, reminding him there’s something they have to ask Boutarou.

This is the problem with Sugimoto losing control and getting himself into battle. In his attempt to ‘avenge Asirpa’ he had left her on her own and has risked jeopardizing his chances to get info out of Boutarou. His actions weren’t a smart move, they were just the result of his feelings overtaking him.

However, after a moment of hesitation, Sugimoto now makes a powerful and rather smart gesture, throwing Boutarou’s gun in the water.

Why is it a powerful gesture?

Because normally it’s assumed that the one with a gun is at a huge advantage toward the one who haven’t it. By tossing it away and therefore by apparently tossing away an advantage, Sugimoto gives a clear demonstration of not having aggressive intentions and only wanting to talk.

Why is it rather smart?

Because Sugimoto is rather bad with firearms and much, MUCH better with his bare hands and therefore for him the gun is more of a disadvantage than a help as it keeps one of his hands busy and, if he were to lose it by mistake, Boutarou could manage to get it back.

Boutarou accepts the truce with another of his smiles, acknowledging Sugimoto by his name. I wonder if his name also rang a bell or he’s just repeating it to make sure he would remember it/got it right.

‘Omae… Sugimoto tte iu no ka’

「お前… 杉元っていうのか」

“You… are called Sugimoto, right?”

We’ll see.

Honestly I doubt Boutarou heard of Sugimoto before but it’s possible. Everyone and their mom know Sugimoto in the 7th so that they could even open a fanclub. People talk and maybe rumours of Sugimoto had reached Boutarou as well. But still i think it’s unlikely, as Boutarou didn’t act as Sugimoto’s name rang a bell.

Meanwhile Shiraishi asks for clarifications about what Boutarou said on how there’s a rumour about how it’s no more possible to solve the code, also asking him if, due to it, he’s no more collecting tattoos.

In the panel we can see clearly Shiraishi and Sugimoto. Asirpa is present too but she’s in it only partially due to her head and due to the ballons covering her partially, hinting at how in a way she’ll be cut out from the discussion even if she saved the day.

Boutarou tells Shiraishi that a little over one year ago he met Wakayama in Sapporo… and approached him planning to murder and skin him. From the way the scene looks like, with Boutarou naked on a bed, I’ll say his way to approach him, was to try to seduce him.

Wakayama though, evidently realized something was off, had his men encircle him. Among them there’s Nakazawa (princess), while the others are all dressed in black suits with sunglasses (okay, no, they don't have sunglasses, it's just their eyes are so deeply shadowed they seem to wear sunglasses, which fits with the stereotype of Yakuza wearing them so I love Noda's visual choice).

Wakayama tells him that the code can’t be solved. He then explains he killed (and skinned) one of the tattooed men just after he escaped but then dropped by to Barato and left it as a payment for a game he lost.

As he says so we see the same image we saw in the Barato chapter, showing how the Hidoro gang got the skin, but not showing it was Wakayama giving it to them.

As Boutarou asked him why he did so, Wakayama claims the tattooed code can’t be solved because the other convicts might have ended up in the sea and be swallowed by a fish (and at this we’re shown an image of Henmi meeting this fate) or killed by a bear on the mountain (and at this we’re shown an image of Gotou).

Or that a certain weird guy (which I bet is our dear candy seller) might ruin it on purpose.

Long story short, Wakayama leaves without skinning him, which convinces Boutarou he was sure that the tattoo code couldn’t be decrypted.

At this Asirpa is reminded of how the candy peddler commented that ‘Boss Wakayama’s disappointed face was pretty great too, though’.

Shiraishi also whispers to Sugimoto that this might be connected to what Asirpa overheard the candy peddler saying, both of them sweating as, after this story, the possibility he was right, seems even more concrete.

And maybe it means nothing but in the panels, even though the group thinks exactly the same thing Asirpa is visually ‘parted’ from Sugimoto and Shiraishi.

They’re in separate panels, the panel with the candy peddler divising them.

Now… let’s stop a bit and recap what we knew about Wakayama and the Barato skin PRIOR TO THIS CHAPTER.

Time unknown (It could be before Wakayama was arrested or afterward): Wakayama entered a gambling den by chance and was charmed by Nakazawa’s (Hime’s) skill in rolling the dice. After an initial refusal, Nakazawa betrayed his group, ran away to Wakayama’s place, spent a hot night together, but the yakuza pursuers were already outside… we’ve no idea how it ended as Noda interrupted the story here. [Noda Satoru’s Q&A]

FEBRUARY

- Wakayama escapes with the other prisoners… [GK according to Noda begins at the end of February, the convicts, supposedly, escaped a bit sooner than that]

MARCH

- Wakayama with a young man drops by in Sapporo World Hotel. Ienaga locks the younger man in the underground and tortures him, and the guy admits that the man he was with has the same tattoo as Ienaga and is an escaped convict from Abashiri. When Ienaga goes to check on him the morning after Wakayama has disappeared, supposedly planning to go in Hidaka to meet an American named Dun. [The guys went to Ienaga’s hotel in April, she said Wakayama was there a month before] [Chap 55-63]

APRIL

- Things escalates in Barato between the Hidoro gang and the Umakichi gang after a guy went to their gambling hall, lost a lot of money and left a tattooed skin as a collateral. Nagakura, Hijikata and Ogata went there and manage to retrieve the skin from Hidoro. [Chap 55-59]

- Wakayama buys horses from Dun [chap 69: When meeting Wakayama again, Dun said he’s the guy who bought horses from him a month before]

- Kiroranke takes part to the Tomakomai race on Wakayama’s horse in place of the jockey who has escaped. However, instead than throwing away the final race he wins it. [Chap 61-62]

May:

- While trying to deal with 3 bears Sugimoto group ends up hiding in the same place in which Wakayama and Nakazawa (Princess) had met the guys who organized the race. Wakayama explains the oddity of him not having men around with sending all of his men to Barato to help a guy in Barato who did him some favors. It’s unclear if the guy is Hidoro or Umakichi but I would say it’s Umakichi as the visual shows him.

It also turns out it was Nakazawa who exposed the heads in plain view because Wakayama cheated on him with a prostitute.

It also turns out the prostitute ended up being killed, although Nakazawa denies killing anyone (was it Jack who killed the prostitute? I wonder... after all Jack kills prostitutes in Sapporo although so far it seems he focused on females).

Wakayama complains he should have left him in Sapporo.

Due to various happening Wakayama and Nakazawa die, Wakayama’s skin ending up in Sugimoto’s hands. [Chap 65-69: Noda said chap 64 is placed in May]

And this is were I thought Noda placed the words ‘THE END’ to Wakayama’s story.

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Turned out that’s not the case.

In fact, whose info made it look like Wakayama had no interest in the skins, in fact he was back handling his betting business instead than searching for convicts, which made me think it would be weird if he had taken his time collecting a skin and then… dropped it somewhere, as if it were to be useless.

I mean, if he went through the trouble of getting that one skin, I would expect the guy who beat a bear wouldn’t let it go easily.

However this chapter and chapter 233 added some interesting info to Wakayama’s story.

The first is that yes, Wakayama in the beginning wanted to collect the tattooed things but then something, or more likely ‘someone’ (read ‘our dear candy peddler’) persuaded him that it would be impossible to do it, suddenly making the skin he had collected to look worthless.

Hence it was possible for Wakayama to have an abrupt change of heart and drop collecting skins.

I wonder if the candy peddler, to persuade him, told him about Henmi’s death, or just showed him he has completely ruined his own tattoo.

Hard to say.

However he and Wakayama likely met pretty early on, likely in March as, by then, while he was in Ienaga’s hotel he was already thinking to go meet Dun to buy horses from him, meaning he wasn’t going to devote all his strength in pursuing convicts but was going back to his horse betting business.

Note that this is just my speculation, I might be completely off and maybe he wanted to pursue both.

We don’t know what pushed him to leave abruptly Ienaga’s hotel, maybe he couldn’t find the man he was with and assumed Nakazawa killed him, or maybe Nakazawa dropped by in his room and he left with him or maybe he was actually penniless and couldn’t pay the bill of the hotel nor the man he came with and left.

Hard to say.

We aren’t even sure back then he was already with Nakazawa as we don’t know when the two met.

However, according to what he says to Boutarou, we’re to suppose he moves to Barato alone, went into a gambling hall, lost a lot of money and left the skin he had with himself as collateral, tattling out the whole tattooed skin matter that could set everyone and their moms hunting for him.

As he did so he clearly didn’t act like a Yakuza boss, Shuhei wasn’t impressed by him and even said they planned to have him work in the fishery, meaning they didn’t realize Wakayama could be a dangerous fighter or even a Yakuza himself.

Why going there alone?

We get he likes to gamble but unless it was Nakazawa who again worked against him as Wakayama complained Nakazawa kept on trying to screw him over it seems weird he would just put himself into a huge debt.

Or did this happen really early on, when Wakayama hadn’t yet managed to reach his underlings?

After all it seems his headquarters are in Sapporo, it can be that moving from Abashiri to Sapporo he just stopped to Barato, which is on the way...

...ended up losing money in the gambling hall and, not wanting to lose face, he hid his own identity.

Anyway, after he left the skin there, he meets Boutarou in Sapporo.

The cover of chap 233 showed Sugimoto and Shiraishi looking at huchen/Adonis flowers, which we know can be observed in April, so if Wakayama and Boutarou’s meeting in Sapporo happened a year before than we supposedly were in April. Boutarou says a little over a year though, so it can be it was in March.

This time Wakayama has plenty of his men around himself, among which Nakazawa.

But figuring out when this meeting exactly takes place becomes hazardous and that’s not the only problem.

When talking with Sugimoto Wakayama declared he went to meet Dun alone because he sent all his men to help someone who helped him in the past (supposedly Umakichi).

As his men were with him when he was in Sapporo we’ve to assume the fight in Barato hadn’t taken place yet (Umakichi will die during it so he can’t really ask for support afterward) so he hadn’t sent his men there yet.

Overall the thing seems to be a bit shaky.

If Umakichi was someone who helped him, why did boss went to bet at Hidoro’s place instead than at a friend’s place? Or was that the moment in which Umakichi helped him? Because Umakichi should have helped him BIG TIME if boss sent ALL HIS MEN to help him… yet he didn’t warn him pursuing that tattooed skin was useless as we know Umakichi was actually pursuing it?

And Umakichi didn’t know Wakayama was also someone who escaped from Abashiri?

Because if he had known sending all his men to help him retrieve the tattooed skin would be dangerous as then Umakichi might try to get Wakayama’s one.

Besides we don’t even see a single man, among the ones with Umakichi, dressed in black suit and tie as Wakayama’s men. Sure, maybe they changed so it’s not big deal but overall the whole thing is weird, so weird even Sugimoto found odd how Wakayama went there alone.

Did Wakayama lie to Sugimoto, whom he knew was searching for the tattooed convicts?

Is there another reason why he sent all his men to Barato but didn’t go there himself?

Or actually he was there also for some other reason than punishing the two at the race (he said he wasn’t expecting Kiro and the others to show up and it makes sense, Wakayama didn’t meet Kiro back then so I’m not even sure if he would have recognized him)?

I don’t know but I’m starting to wonder if we’ll learn more about boss and how that skin ended up in Barato, maybe through Shinpei, who left Barato with Chiyoko and might have transferred temporally to Ebetsu.

It would be interesting to meet Shinpei again as we were never told exactly how his meeting with Ogata ended, we just saw that Ogata gave him a scolding...

...then the scene was cut and we dealt with Hijikata’s group reaching the place, Hijikata and Nagakura getting in to talk with Ogata who now owns the skins, the bodies of Shinpei’s parents nowhere to be seen.

The next we see Shinpei he’s with Chiyoko, first observing the place burning down,

then ready to start a new life with her.

Besides, Shinpei was there when the skin was left to his family, he might tell us exactly how things went and if Nakazawa or the candy peddler were involved and if he knew if Wakayama had a relation with Umakichi.

LOL, overall I’m curious.

When I first read the Wakayama arc it felt like its only purpose was to hand Sugimoto a new skin as it seemed to bring no other development, so now I’m extremely intrigued at the idea there could be more behind it.

And always about Wakayama… what the candy peddler said that made him so sure the tattooed skins can’t be used anymore? Did he ruin his own tattoo? Or, since Wakayama was spot on about a convict ending eaten by a fish and another by a bear someone warned him about Gotou and Henmi’s deaths? Because okay, Gotou’s death is normal enough and one could guess it but Henmi’s death is a bit of a stretch. They were supposed to go to Otaru after all, not go to fish whales or orcas so one of them drowning wasn’t something one should consider a normal occurrence yet it’s the first thing Wakayama comes up with.

But yes, it could also be a lucky guess.

Long story short though… I don’t know anymore which of Wakayama’s words were true and which were a lie, making him an unreliable narrator. I’m only sure that he believed they couldn’t use the tattooed skins anymore to find the gold but that’s it.

I wonder if more will come up in the future.

Back to the story, Boutarou explains that since Wakayama was sure the tattooed skins couldn’t be collected he also decided stopping collecting them.

Shiraishi, clever guy, asks him if he found the place in which the Ainu gold is hidden.

Boutarou though, might act friendly but he’s clearly not a stupid.

He doesn’t directly answer, he just says it’s possible to get close to it but he’s confident Noppera-bou wouldn’t have hid it in a place that’s easy to spot once you get close by.

So Boutarou asks Shiraishi and Sugimoto to join forces with him and help searching for it. He claims he wants Shiraishi in his team because Shiraishi is fun and Sugimoto because Sugimoto is strong and both are things he likes he claims as he wraps his arms around them.

Shiraishi though, using a joking tone, points out they might end up on fighting over how to split the gold.

Boutarou claims they can become his vassals as he wants to become the king of a warm Southeast Asian small island on which he can grow and sell fruits to other countries and have so many kids he can make a country of his own family.

The way Boutarous smiles as he asks them to become vassals in his kingdom is kind of cute, like the one of a happy child.

Shiraishi laughs a bit uncomfortable at his ambitious dream while Sugimoto wonders on why everyone wants to be in charge of something as huge as a country.

He covers his eyes with his hat at this, shadowing them completely even though he smiles, making hard to read his expression. It’s usually no good when Sugimoto’s eyes can’t be seen.

I think Sugimoto believes Boutarou is moved by either ambition or greed or both, therefore by something negative, and that due to this he’s getting in his way when he instead aims at something much smaller and that should also help a person he loves.

I think Boutarou gets what Sugimoto is implying and that’s why, although he keeps his smile he looks much more serious as he makes Sugimoto a personal question.

‘Do you have any family?’

Sugimoto’s face is shadowed and his eyes fully black as he says he doesn’t, Boutarou clearly touching a sore spot.

Boutarou goes on, asking him if they’re dead. He’s still smiling but he’s not being overly cheerful.

Sugimoto, also smiling but with his eyes downcast, admits they died due to tuberculosis.

I think that’s the first time Sugimoto talked with someone about how his family died. Sugimoto, Asirpa and Shiraishi are a group but, except for Asirpa who occasionally talk about her father or about Huci, they hardly talk of any personal matter. Credits when its due both Shiraishi and Asirpa tried talking with Sugimoto about personal matters but both stumbled on the Umeko issue (Shiraishi asking him if he had someone and Asirpa asking him what he planned to do with the gold) and Sugimoto closed up to Shiraishi and wasn’t quite honest with Asirpa so talks never went that far… when instead it was probably important they did. They’re risking their life together, they should be able to share the burdens of the pasts with the others.

Anyway at Sugimoto’s reply Boutarou’s smile stay even if his expression is much more serious.

Then Boutarou goes closer to Sugimoto (WOW, Boutarou seems quite a bit taller than him), wrapping his arms around him in some sort of conforting or kinship gesture and telling him his family died too, although what killed them was smallpox, and adding ‘you know what it’s like, right?’.

He’s likely not referring to smallpox but both to the pain of losing your family but also to the sad fate of victims of contagious illness. Places in hospitals were scarce, which means they would have to stay home until one would free, infecting, if they hadn’t already, their family members.

Back then there was no cure for illness like smallpox or tuberculosis same as there is no cure for coronavirus now and they also had a lot less mean to protect themselves from infection.

The result would be that neighbors, in fear of getting infected, would ostracize the families whose members would fall prey of an illness, mock them, claim if they got sick it was because they did it was due to something they had done, as if illness was some sort of divine punishment, abandoning them to their sad fate and refusing to help.

It’s easy to feel empathy for Boutarou and Sugimoto’s conditions, especially considering how even now, in a time in which superstition shouldn’t rule us way too many people had felt entitled to mock or blame or turn their backs to those who would get coronavirus cases.

Boutarou found himself living this situation when he was a child and, as he was a child, he came up with this naïve dream.

‘If I become a king, nobody would ever shun my family.’

For a child this makes sense. He was powerless to fight what was happening so he assumed if he were to be the most important person he would have had control and would have been able to stop the world from rejecting and abandoning him and his family to their fate.

In a way it’s not a completely wrong assumption as we see that people in position of power or with a lot of money can get tested sooner than people who aren’t and they also get better health care, everyone hurrying to find a comfortable place for them in the most comfortable hospital.

Child Boutarou was aware of this as well but instead than thinking that the system was unfair and wanting to fight the system decided he would ride it.

If only who’s in power, who’s rich get help, he would be that person.

A king.

And then he wouldn’t have to suffer that fear and that pain anymore.

This thought helps him to survive.

He decided to stop being afraid of getting smallpox, to pursue his dream and look at the world in a positive manner and this allowed him to carry on to the point that adult Boutarou thinks it was his own attitude that kept smallpox away from him.

Boutarou makes it simple but it doesn’t really work like turning a switch on. You’ve to persuade yourself that you aren’t afraid, that you’ve to feel positive day after day, wearing these thoughts as if they were a mask that covers fear and negativity until the mask becomes you and you believe in all this… but sadly it’s not so easy and it doesn’t necessarily work smoothly.

Often the mask remains just a mask that stops us from facing what we’re really thinking. Only we’ve been wearing by so long we just delude ourselves the mask is us when it’s always just a mask and, since what’s behind it remains there unchallenged, it slowly poisons our life.

For Boutarou by now it’s probably hard to say if he smiles because he’s genuinely happy or if he smiles because HE MUST BE POSITIVE.

And he’s not the only one who hides behind a smile. We saw how in this chapter Sugimoto too smiled as he said his family died. His smile is a lot less cheery than Boutarou, it’s clear it’s a sad smile but Sugimoto too tries to cope with pain through a smile… although Sugimoto more often than not use it to cover his fear.

We saw him smiling when he punched the bear and it didn’t work, when he faced Tsurumi for the first time he smiled and even joked around even though he knew he was in deep troubles.

Although smiles are usually connected to happiness, they don’t necessarily mean the one showing them feels genuine happiness because they’re also more often than not used as a mask to show confidence, to hide troubles, pain and fear to the others and to yourself.

So I’m not so sure always smiling Boutarou is as happy as he looks like, and I don’t know if his obstinacy in having a positive outlook might cause him to miss facing something negative, becoming a maladaptive behavior. We’ll see but, for now, I think there’s more in Boutarou than just a happy guy, and the same goes for other Golden Kamuy smiling prone characters.

Who knows, maybe as @osomanga has suggested, maybe the funny Shiraishi too has behind himself a sad backstory and let’s not forget the friendly Kiroranke hid behind himself a partisan fighter who had remained alone after he believed Wilk, his hero, betrayed him.

Golden Kamuy is a story with characters with a complicate psychological background after all, we shouldn’t just wave them off as just black and white.

So, back to Boutarou, now we know it’s not greed or ambition what’s behind his wish, but merely a traumatic past that forced him to face on his own the powerlessness of watching your parents and relative die due to a terrible illness and the people turning their back to you.

What Boutarou GENUINELY wishes is fundamentally to never again live that experience, to erase it from the universe but, as this is not possible, he came up with this, with a dream that deludes him he won’t be abandoned, that he will be able to control his fate, that he and his family will be able to live happily.

Not being abandoned, having a measure of control over our fate and live a happy life with our beloved ones are really normal things, things we all wish and that we normally pursue through more normal means but as Boutarou lived in desperate times he decided to use desperate measures.

And, in a way, Boutarou’s dream is overall pretty similar to Tsurumi’s goal and to his men’s dream. They want a country in which they will be safe, happy and in control.

And yes, although what they fundamentally wish is something really normal and human… their wish is sadly a very selfish one as, to fulfill it they would sacrifice other humans. Their world is not a perfect one where everyone is safe, happy and in control but one in which they are.

However, as they perceive they were sacrificed first, they have a hard time realizing sacrificing others is wrong, that they should just accept they were wronged but that it’s not okay to retaliate, to return just retribution for the pain they were made to suffer.

It’s sad. It’s wrong. And it’s also something that happens way too often in life.

As Boutarou explains his dream, Sugimoto’s eyes are still downcast...

...and he remembers himself as he watched over his sick father, Sugimoto’s eyes back then, completely void of light.

This transition reminds me a bit of the transition Noda used to shift from when Asirpa asked Ogata which was his favourite food to when we saw him with Hanazawa.

We know that Sugimoto’s father was the last to die, before him Sugimoto lost three other family members.

One of them was likely his mother, the other two are either his grandparents or two younger siblings (Sugimoto’s name implies he’s the firstborn as it contain the kanji for “1”).

His father is probably the last surviving member of Sugimoto’s family and he’s there, sitting at his bedside, watching him slowly die due to illness.

There are many stress lines under Sugimoto’s eyes and his expression is grim. He likely knows there’s no hope, that there’s nothing he can do, that he can only stay there and watch.

Sugimoto’s father tells him not to hope he’ll manage to get a bed in the sanatorium. For who’s not familiar with the term, in a time in which they had no antibiotics against tuberculosis, they assumed you could cure the illness just by giving the ill person a regimen of rest, fresh air and good nutrition. But beds in sanatorium were scarce, that’s way Sugimoto’s father is warning him he won’t get a bed in one… and since sanatorium were assumed to be the only place in which one could heal and he finds unlikely he’ll get a bed in one, basically Sugimoto’s dad is telling Sugi to prepare to the idea of his death.

His father then tells Sugimoto he’s kind and this causes him to end up stuck with the worst roles… same as it used to happen to his father, a personality trait which didn’t seem to want to change.

Sugimoto’s father looks like Sugimoto, only older, thinner and sick. He’s in a bed whose covers are dirty with the blood he should have coughed. The poor guy choughs occasionally but he’s smiling and, contrary to Sugimoto, there’s a light in his eyes.

Sugimoto’s father probably sees the shortcomings of being kind but, at the same time I think he also sees the good sides of it.

It’s not a personality trait that doesn’t want to change, it’s him who didn’t want to change it.

And this makes me think at how it should have been terrible for Sugimoto to accept to kill in order to survive. Because killing is all but kind and he should have made a lot of mental gimmicks to accept to do it and receive a lot of mental scarring.

So of course his reasoning to cope with it is that enemies are soulless bad guys, which Asirpa waved off as an excuse one would give to a child.

Probably a side of him, to protect himself, reverted to a kid and came up with such a silly excuse, same as Boutarou who can’t let go of his childish dream, and then he clung to it and he keeps clinging to it even now, a maladaptive copying mechanism that helped Sugimoto survive the war but that’s now plaguing him, a mask he uses to try to cover the fact he views himself as no more kind as his father said he was.

Sugimoto is a complicate psychological mess and I’m sorry for him because deep down he should be suffering a lot inside and hiding it deep inside himself, covering it with a smile and a kind attitude and not really facing it, which only result in more psychological harm for him.

Again, it’s sad.

The scene changes, Sugimoto is outside of the house and a black cat comes to him.

Contrary to what us westerns say Japanese people back then believed black cats to bring good luck and ward off against illness.

As the cat comes to him to be patted Sugimoto, who has shown through all ‘Golden Kamuy’ to be superstitious enough he even absorbed Ainu superstitions, complains with the cat that the cat was supposed to cure tuberculosis and asks him if this is happening because the cat hardly comes there, therefore making the cat useless. The cat leaves at that, leaving Sugimoto alone to watch him walk away, bringing away with itself even the silly hope the cat could fix everything.

It’s another bit of life experience that forms Sugimoto’s mind, a bit that explains why he’s not very good at cooperating, because back then he could do nothing but entrust his hopes to a black cat and yet he was left alone to deal with it.

Sugimoto stands there as he watched the cat leaving, clearly trying hard not to cry. He’s alone stripped even of the delusion the black cat would magically save his father. No one will help him.

He can’t do anything and no one will help him.

At this point I think he remembers what his father told him, he told him to leave the house and not let himself trapped by tuberculosis. He told him he could live for his own sake, that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

The words, the memory of them after the cat’s abandonment, push Sugimoto to run.

He wants to do it, to escape from that house, but more exactly to escape from that pain. However, as he’s about to get out of the fence he stops, unable to go further.

He looks at the world that extend itself outside the fence, he looks at the freedom, at a place in which he isn’t plagued by the specter of getting infected with tuberculosis each day. He squeezes his eyes shut. In his home his father is still lying in his bed, coughing.

And, I think, at this point Sugimoto knows he can’t leave him to die alone.

In fact in the past flashback we learnt that his father managed to find a spot in a sanatorium… but then he died there and only when the note he was dead reached Sugimoto he managed to leave his home.

So, even though Sugimoto wants to escape, even though he can’t bear it any longer, he can’t leave either. For his torn mind not to crack under the pressure of this two contrasting things, wanting to leave and wanting to stay, his psyche build up a narrative meant to help him to cope.

Sugimoto is a good judoka, isn’t he?

Well, this is a fight, a fight to death against him and tuberculosis, a fight Sugimoto isn’t going to lose. He states he’s going to live and then challenges it to try and kill him, like he will challenge the Russians much later on war, stating he’s immortal.

The image depicts him as if his aura was a fire, a fire burning around him but his expression is contracted, ugly. Not as bad as Usami when he murdered Tomoharu but still… ugly.

You can see in it determination… but it’s a forced determination.

Sugimoto is forcing himself to think all those things to overcome his fear.

Telling himself he’s immortal is the copying behavior he has chosen, a behavior that fits with how he’s a fighter at heart but it’s also just a big lie. He’s not immortal and he’s not really facing the realty of the situation, that he’s a mortal taking upon himself a risk.

He’s young, the situation is so traumatic and terrible he simply CAN’T face the truth, but that copying behavior will follow him traumatic situation after traumatic situation, covering his fear behind a wall of fake confidence into something that’s simply not real.

It’s true that a strong will can overcome a weak body, but will can’t do miracles. Sugimoto is a normal person and therefore he can die like any other person. Just because he has more endurance and luck (and a solid plot armor) than others it doesn’t mean all of sudden he’s immortal and this wrong belief might end up doing him more harm than good.

The flashback ends and we go back to present time and to Boutarou, asking Sugimoto what he plans to do once he finds the gold to reach HIS OWN HAPPINESS and if he doesn’t have any dream.

It’s clear Sugimoto started this adventure hoping he could get gold enough for himself to cure Umeko but also to be capable to present himself in front of her as a man who’s better than the one who left her, if not in actions (Sugimoto is plagued by the fact he’s a killer now), at least in finances.

Although Toraji clearly wasn’t rich I always had the feeling he was a little better off than Sugimoto and Sugimoto was afraid this influenced Umeko’s choice... so, since he can’t clean away the blood he has shed I think he hopes he can ‘hide it’ by presenting himself as someone who’s better off economically and can provide Umeko with the means to cure her eyes.

I think he’s afraid to present himself to her but wanted to believe by going back rich and capable to cure her he could find the guts to show himself to her again and get what he truly wanted, her love back.

However many things had happened and more than a full year went by from when he started hunting skins, not mentioning the time that had gone by from when he returned from war.

This goal had moved always further from him while his hunt for the gold became a sidequest that didn’t help him to go back to Umeko but that actually kept him away from her.

So Sugimoto likely knows what he used to dream for when all this started, what he believed would give him happiness… but instead than getting closer with any skin he gained, it only got far. The shading on him isn’t uniform, it’s swirling, I think it hints Boutarou’s words forced him to realize, if not this, at least ‘something’.

Meantime the boat has almost reached Ebetsu.

Boutarou, the gentleman pirate, apologizes to the passengers, telling them he didn’t mean to cause them troubles and commotion so he won’t steal things from them, he’ll just settle for taking the money that was sent as registered mail. As he says so though, he spot Sugimoto opened back with, inside it, Heita’s skin and the tobacco case he always carried with himself.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess this means troubles for his alliance with Sugimoto, Shiraishi and Asirpa… which, to be honest, never got involved in the alliance. Boutarou just wanted Shiraishi and Sugimoto and they didn’t mention having a third member in their group even if it was kind of obvious Asirpa was connected to them.

I’m a little annoyed at this, it’s not the first time Asirpa is handled as a minor part to the group even though today she’s the one who saved the day by handling the problem of the crazy postman (along with Shiraishi who got information from Boutarou and set the basis for an allegiance)… but well, I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll see if things will change in the future.

#Golden Kamuy #Sugimoto Saichi #Asirpa #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Oosawa Fusatarou #Matsuda Heita #Wakayama Kiichirou #Nakazawa Tatsuya #Henmi Kazuo #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories #Hidoro Shinpei #Hidoro Tamotsu #Gotou Takechiyo #Ueji Keiji

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betheflare · 6 years ago

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日本

Japan (日本「にほん」「にっぽん」formally: State of Japan 日本国「にほんこく」「にっぽんこく」) is an island country「島国．しまぐに」 in East Asia「東アジア．ひがし」. Located in the Pacific Ocean「太平洋．たいへいよう」, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk 「オホーツク海」 in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

Japan is a stratovolcanic -a tall, conical volcano composed of one layer of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. - archipelago. It also has over 6,000 smaller islands, of which only approximately 430 are inhabited.

The four main islands of Japan are:

Hokkaido

Honshu, the largest island, on which the capital, Tokyo, is located.

Shikoku

Kyushu

The country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions.

The regions「地方．ちほう」 of Japan are not official administrative units but have been traditionally used as the regional division of Japan in a number of contexts.

From north to south:

Hokkaidō 「北海道」

Hokkaidō

Tōhoku region 「東北地方」

Aomori 青森県

Iwate 岩手県

Miyagi 宮城県

Akita 秋田県

Yamagata 山形県

Fukushima 福島県

Kantō region「関東地方」

Ibaraki 茨城県

Tochigi 栃木県

Gunma 群馬県

Saitama 埼玉県

Chiba 千葉県

Tōkyō 東京都

Kanagawa 神奈川県

Chūbu region 「関東地方」

Niigata 新潟県

Toyama 富山県

Ishikawa 石川県

Fukui 福井県

Yamanashi 山梨県

Nagano 長野県

Gifu 岐阜県

Shizuoka 静岡県

Aichi 愛知県

Kansai (or Kinki) region「関西地方」「近畿地方」

Mie 三重県

Shiga 滋賀県

Kyōto 京都府

Ōsaka 大阪府

Hyōgo 兵庫県

Nara 奈良県

Wakayama 和歌山県

Chūgoku region 「中国地方」

Tottori 鳥取県

Shimane 島根県

Okayama 岡山県

Hiroshima 広島県

Yamaguchi 山口県

Shikoku 「四国」

Tokushima 徳島県

Kagawa 香川県

Ehime 愛媛県

Kōchi 高知県

Kyūshū 「九州」

Fukuoka 福岡県

Saga 佐賀県

Nagasaki 長崎県

Kumamoto 熊本県

Ōita 大分県

Miyazaki 宮崎

Kagoshima 鹿児島県

Okinawa 沖縄県

Other topics : *will be updated*

#日本 #日本語 #Epistemophilic expediton #japan #language and history

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para-mi-amor-eljaido · 5 years ago

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[Entrevista] de Hyde por Sachie Tojo en DISK GARAGE WEB MAGAZINE DI:GA ONLINE!

Traducción: Este mismo blog.

Esta es la culminación de ANTI de HYDE—. "ANTI” de HYDE se ha extendido por todo el mundo y finalmente regresará para la gira final "HYDE LIVE 2019 ANTI FINAL” los días 7 y 8 de diciembre en las salas de exposiciones internacionales Makuhari Messe 4-6 en Chiba, Japón. En 2019, HYDE recorrió Asia a partir de marzo y hasta abril, viajó por los EE.UU. Con una gira en mayo. Luego regresó a Japón. Luego, después de concluir con éxito su gira por Japón "HYDE LIVE 2019” que vio 26 shows en 7 ciudades a partir de junio con su último álbum “ANTI” realizado, rápidamente movió el escenario para sus shows de regreso a los Estados Unidos para hacer una gira con STARSET en su gira "DIVISIONS: 2019”. Actúa como el segundo acto de apoyo día tras día. Nos preguntamos qué tipo de caos “ANTI” traerá a las etapas finales en los 2 días en Makuhari después de que haya duplicado su poder en esta gira de EE.UU.

—HYDE-san, lo estás haciendo muy bien en la gira DIVISIONS: 2019 de STARSET. ¿Qué espectáculo habrías terminado para cuando respondas a esta entrevista?

Hyde: Acabo de terminar el cuarto show en Silver Spring. Hoy, finalmente pudimos establecer el escenario como queremos por primera vez. Todas las bandas de apoyo, incluidos nosotros, no han podido ensayar ni siquiera hacer una prueba de sonido, pero nadie se queja de eso. Lo hacemos todos los días (risas). No es de extrañar que nos ponemos más fuertes.

—Es una locura... Sin duda preguntaremos sobre la gira actual de Estados Unidos después, pero primero nos gustaría saber de usted sobre "ANTI". Este álbum fue creado con creadores que están activos en la vanguardia de la escena musical estadounidense. Y por lo que puedo ver, asumiste muchos desafíos y mantuviste "shows de clase mundial" al crear este álbum. ¿Qué piensas que significa el álbum ANTI para ti?

Hyde: Creo que este álbum refleja al productor en mí como un todo más fuertemente. Mi objetivo era hacer un álbum que funcionara bien en un show en vivo, así que incluso si una canción sonaba bien, si no pensaba que le iría bien en un show, tomé la decisión de no incluirla. Estaba aspirando a la audiencia extranjera, pero muchas de las canciones terminaron siendo animadas, lo que la audiencia japonesa prefiere.

—Su gira por Japón <HYDE LIVE 2019> para este álbum, que tuvo 26 espectáculos en 7 ciudades, tuvo una impresión cinematográfica más fuerte con el paisaje urbano de NEO TOKYO en el escenario y el efecto del escenario con luces UV. ¿Qué fue especialmente particular en lo que respecta a la producción en el escenario?

Hyde: Los espectáculos fueron en Japón, pero el escenario reflejó el "sentimiento de Japón que me gusta como un aspecto pegadizo para el público extranjero. NEO TOKYO también es uno de ellos. La cultura tradicional japonesa antigua no coincide con mi imagen de estilo, pero me encanta la imagen de Asia retratada en "Blade Runner", y creo que esa atmósfera también se adapta a mi estilo. Como era mi gira en solitario, pude armar un escenario que resalta "yo" sin retenerme. Así que creo que hubo muchos aspectos notables.

—¡Estoy de acuerdo! Y cuando corres por los pisos 1º y 2º, subes a las bocinas y a la batería, siento que la actuación en el escenario de HYDE-san se está volviendo más juvenil año tras año. Estaba pensando esto mientras veía tu "¡elya!" salta durante esta gira también. ¿De verdad dices "elya!" en tu mente mientras saltas?

Hyde: Sí digo algo como "¡elya!" en mi mente (risas)

—Jaja, ya veo.

Hyde: actualmente usa palabras que son un poco más duras. Creo que mi identidad está en entretener a otras personas, así que siempre estoy pensando en qué más puedo hacer en el escenario. Y cuando se me ocurre una idea, en lugar de ser tacaño, la uso de inmediato. Hago lo que puedo cada día creyendo que si uso mis buenas ideas a medida que surgen, seguirán llegando a mí más ideas. Creo que ya hice todo lo que pude en el lugar de ZEPP, pero... probablemente hay más que puedo hacer.

—Por cierto, ¿El bate que llevabas en los shows es tu pertenencia personal?

Hyde: Es un bate de metal que alguien me compró.

—Tengo la impresión de que el pequeño lado travieso en ti se está intensificando cuando te veo golpeando los barriles de metal y caminando con un bate (un video en <HYDEPARK> nos dijo que HYDE-san era particular sobre todo hasta el más mínimo detalle hasta el periódico que estaba atascado en los barriles).

Hyde: Originalmente, pensé en la idea porque quería tocar instrumentos, pero me gusta mucho. Ya que siento que el rock agresivo se está volviendo menos común, quería mostrarle a la gente antes de morir.

—Después de gritar agresiva e intensamente, y volviéndote loco, terminaste cada show de esta gira con "ORDINARY WORLD. El flujo de cerrar el show con un final tan conmovedor entre las luces provenientes de los teléfonos de la audiencia fue hermoso y nuevo.

Hyde: Pensé que sería una buena idea ayudar a diferenciar mi show de VAMPS. Pero, es demasiado hermoso. Quiero estar más loco, así que quiero hacer los shows en Makuhari la última vez que uso este final.

—Ya veo. Con toda la energía, saltando, gritando y cantando mientras aplauden, los shows de HYDE-san de tus días con VAMPS, y esta gira también, parecen terminar en un abrir y cerrar de ojos (el tiempo vuela cuando te diviertes)...¿hay una razón del por qué no haces sets más largos?

Hyde: No me gustan los shows largos. Cuando estoy sentado en la audiencia en shows largos, generalmente empiezo a mirar mi reloj inconscientemente después de la 4ta o 5ta canción. También pongo sets más largos, pero el estilo de música es diferente de lo que estoy haciendo ahora, y en esos shows más largos me enfoco más en satisfacer a la audiencia con un espectáculo cautivador, en lugar de solo la cantidad de canciones. Los espectáculos de esta gira (en Japón) son cortos, de solo 90 minutos, pero creo que el contenido es tan denso como un espectáculo de 3 horas. Es mi estilo de toda la vida luchar con todos los esfuerzos durante 90 minutos, en lugar de actuar a ritmo lento durante 3 horas.

—En esta gira, cambiaste entre HYDE de negro y HYDE de blanco [se refiere a su vestimenta] según el lugar. ¿Te sientes un poco diferente en cada uno?

Hyde: Sí, mi estado de ánimo en blanco es un poco "La naranja mecánica”

—Ahora que lo sé, me dan escalofríos por varias razones (risas). En el medio de la gira, HYDE-san apareció en el lugar en Nagoya en bicicleta se convirtió en un tema candente. ¿Hay algo específico que buscas cuando eliges una bicicleta?

Hyde: Cuando dije "Quiero ir al lugar en bicicleta", el promotor del evento me lo consiguió, así que no tengo nada especial apego a esa bicicleta. No suelo andar en bicicleta, así que me sentí muy bien.

—La gira por Japón vino y se fue en un instante. Durante esa gira, HYDE-san dijo en el escenario: "ANTI se completará porque usted estan aqui." Con la gira de Japón terminada, ¿qué tipo de forma final presentó el álbum ANTI a HYDE-san? ¿Fue diferente de lo que imaginabas?

Hyde: Fue más sorprendente de lo que imaginé. Mis fanáticos saben lo que me hace feliz". Pero, el final acaba de comenzar, así que me pregunto qué sucederá: seguiremos ganando fuerza ya que estaremos de gira por los EE. UU. Así que quiero que mis fan��ticos en Japón se preparen para los shows finales aumentando su fuerza nuevamente en los eventos en noviembre (<Yahoo! Ticket EXPERIENCE Vol. 1> que se llevará a cabo en Makuhari Messe, y cuando haga una aparición como invitado en el show final de la gira de THE ORAL CIGARETTES <COUPLING TOUR BKW!! STRIKES BACK 2019> en ZEPP Nagoya en Aichi)

—Mientras HYDE-san partía para la gira por Estados Unidos, <HYDEPARK> estaba siendo retenido en Japón. Además de una proyección y exhibición de video, ¡hubo una exhibición de productos de Wakayama! Esto fue extremadamente popular entre los invitados.

Hyde: ¡Me alegra que fuera más popular de lo que esperaba!

—Esto probablemente se deba a que HYDE-san fue nombrado embajador de turismo de la ciudad de Wakayama. Así que por favor díganos "Las 3 cosas principales de HYDE de Wakayama" que le gustaría que la gente conozca.

Hyde: Panda / Patrimonio de la Humanidad / Ramen

—Muchas gracias. Ahora, nos gustaría preguntar acerca de su gira en Estados Unidos que actualmente está en curso. ¿Cómo son las reacciones hasta ahora?

Hyde: Las reacciones son mejores que las de las giras anteriores, pero a este ritmo, llevará años alcanzar mis objetivos en los EE.UU. Dado que tiendo a centrarme principalmente en mi actuación en el escenario como una costumbre, mi canto es débil. Ese es mi desafío para este año, así que también trato de concentrarme en mi canto en los shows en los Estados Unidos. Como acto adicional, hay muchas veces que el escenario es tan pequeño/abarrotado que apenas hay espacio para moverse, así que lo uso para mi beneficio y me concentro más en mi canto.

—¿Puede decirnos por qué decidió hacer una gira con STARSET como su acto de apoyo, a pesar de que significó tomar un descanso del popular evento anual HALLOWEEN PARTY> organizado por HYDE-san? ¿Cuál fue el factor decisivo de su decisión?

Hyde: Definitivamente me sentía reacio a tomar un descanso de lo que seguía haciendo hasta ahora, y analizamos otras ideas como tener el evento sin mí, pero era imposible como se esperaba. Pero, en mi opinión, dejar pasar esta oportunidad que obtuve después de dedicar mucho tiempo y gastos a actividades en el extranjero durante muchos años, no era una opción. Si la rechazara, perdería de vista lo que he estado haciendo por años. Pagaré a todos algún día por mi ausencia esta vez.

—Esta gira por los EE.UU. Es del 13/9 al 1/11, con 36 espectáculos durante aproximadamente 2 meses. ¿Cuál fue su sentimiento honesto cuando vio este horario por primera vez?

Hyde: Fue “¡¡yay!!” Estoy muy agradecido de que una banda como STARSET nos haya elegido en lugar de otra banda estadounidense.

—¿Qué tratas de tener en mente todos los días para asegurarte de cruzar la línea de meta de la gira?

Hyde: Terminar la gira es un hecho, pase lo que pase. Mi set son solo 30 minutos, pero en esos 30 minutos siempre me acuerdo de poner todo lo que tengo.

—Para esta gira, el primer acto es una A BRILLIANT LIE, el tercer acto es Palisades, y el acto principal es STARSET. ¿Puedes decirme la impresión de HYDE-san de la actuación de cada banda?

Hyde: La primera banda tiene una vocalista femenina, y no están mal. Nuestro estilo musical es diferente, por lo que no estamos compitiendo por los fanáticos. La impresión de la tercera banda es que aspiramos a cosas similares musicalmente. Su vocalista es bueno y puedo aprender de él. STARSET tiene originalmente, son inteligentes, su canto es estable y los efectos en el escenario son impresionantes.

—Entonces, si tuvieras que nombrar una cosa que crees que eres el mejor de las 4 bandas en esta gira con confianza, ¿qué podría ser?

Hyde: Si hubiera una cosa en lo que podemos vencer a las otras bandas cuando estábamos en el mismo escenario... eso solo podría ser "pasión”.

—¡Eso es genial! Por cierto, cuando STARSET actuó con usted en Japón el año pasado, usaron una palabra que les enseñó en el escenario, "oppal", repetidamente antes de regresar a los Estados Unidos (risas). ¿Qué otras palabras japonesas planeas enseñarles durante esta gira después de "oppal"?

Hyde: Daichuki (Nota del traductor: es una forma cursi/divertida de decir "Te amo")

—(Risas), eso es lindo. Entonces escuché que, a diferencia de una gira en Japón, viajas a través de los EE. UU. en un gran autobús con los otros miembros de la banda, y todos pasas tus días allí durante toda la gira. ¿No es eso difícil?

Hyde: De ningún modo. En realidad, es más problemático quedarse en un hotel porque tendríamos que empacar y desempacar, y luego cargar y cargar nuestras maletas cada vez. Pero, las camas en el autobús son muy pequeñas. Además, no hay privacidad, por lo que puede ser un problema. Si estas cosas no te molestan, entonces en realidad es bastante cómodo, podemos beber juntos hasta altas horas de la noche, y cuando te levantas por la mañana ya estás en el lugar. Es impresionante.

—Pero, ¿no hubo un incidente durante su gira de primavera donde explotó la llanta del autobús?

Hyde: No. Solo estalló la última vez. Esta vez, ya tuvimos un accidente en el que un automóvil chocó de frente con nuestro autobús. No conozco los detalles porque estaba dormido, pero el autobús tenía abolladuras.

—¡Guau! Eso da miedo.

Hyde: Hablando de miedo, hubo una vez durante una gira anterior donde el motor se incendió. Ese fue probablemente el más aterrador.

—Durante una gira tan arriesgada (¡¡!!), ¿Qué tipo de cosas esperas más? Durante los largos recorridos, ¿qué haces en tu tiempo libre?

Hyde: No hay tiempo libre, pero estoy más relajado cuando bebemos después de los shows. Hoy, estoy escribiendo esto mientras tomo una copa (risas). Dado que existe una ley aquí que el conductor del autobús no puede conducir por más de 8 horas, ocasionalmente nos quedamos en un hotel para separar los viajes más largos. Y cuando nos quedamos en un hotel, tenemos barbacoas y tal. Los espero con ansias.

—Has estado luchando durante muchos años en los EE.UU. ¿Qué quieres lograr en la escena musical de los EE. UU. Al continuar desafiándola?

Hyde: Mi objetivo es lograr que la audiencia en un show en los Estados Unidos esté tan emocionada como los fanáticos en mis shows en Japón. Pero no hay mucho más que pueda hacer en el extranjero. Entonces, este es básicamente mi último intento inútil. Dejo el "logro del éxito" a ONE OK ROCK

—Bueno... Pero, incluso si te sientes así, aún continúas desafiando este mercado, como con esta gira. ¿Qué te motiva tanto?

Hyde: ¿Tal vez porque este es mi último intento? La gente quiere aspirar a un lugar que sea un poco más alto cuando creas que va a terminar pronto, ¿verdad?

—¿Qué esperas alcanzar antes de regresar a Japón en esta gira que has emprendido una visión tan objetiva de tu propia vida como artista?

Hyde: Presentarme en un nivel extranjero/clase mundial.

—Con ese logro en la mano, <HYDE LIVE 219 ANTI FINAL> comenzará el 7/12 y el 8/12 en Makuhari Messe después de que regreses a Japón. "ANTI" ha alcanzado su etapa FINAL por fin. ¿Qué tipo de espectáculo quieres hacer?

Hyde: Estoy planeando grabar estos shows, así que quiero amplificar la audiencia y hacer que pasen a la historia como el más loco de todos los shows de ANTI. Quiero que sean más caóticos que los shows en Nagoya y el último show en Sapporo. También habrá secciones sentadas, por lo que si le preocupa lesionarse, considere esas secciones.

—En cuanto al diseño de las áreas paradas y sentadas, parece que están dispuestos en una forma irregular esta vez...

Hyde: No hace falta decir que el área de pie es donde la gente puede volverse loca y hace una mejor imagen. Así que hice una zona de pie al frente en el centro. Y, este lugar tiene un pilar(es) en él, así que para asegurarme de que la audiencia en la parte de atrás pueda ver el escenario mientras evita este pilar, hice áreas de pie a la derecha y a la izquierda.

—¿Será diferente de la gira por Japón donde actuaste en “live houses” en varias ciudades en el verano?

Hyde: Diría que es probablemente la versión ampliada de los shows en las “live houses”. En cuanto al "más un (algo extra)", sigo pensando en ello.

—¿Qué tipo de cosas serán las más destacadas?

Hyde: Haré todo lo que sea capaz de hacer. Mostraré el entretenimiento del rock

—En estos shows finales, ¿qué esperas ver de tu audiencia cuando miras al suelo?

Hyde: Caos

—Si tiene algún consejo sobre cómo disfrutar aún más del espectáculo de HYDE-san, díganos.

Hyde: No me importaría si decides no imitar a los que te rodean para mostrar que te gusta la música, o si prefieres moverte al unísono con los demás, eso también está bien. Como dice la gente, "lo que sucede en un concierto de rock, se queda en un concierto de rock" (es broma. La gente no dice eso), así que quiero que todos desaten su verdadero yo y se muevan con la música libremente.

—Me pregunto a dónde "llevarás" al público en estos espectáculos. Describa su entusiasmo por estos espectáculos.

Hyde: Mi objetivo es organizar un espectáculo que haga que todos los demás espectáculos que la audiencia haya visto hasta este momento parezcan aburridos.

—Por favor, envíe un mensaje a nuestros lectores.

Hyde: Por favor, ven a mis shows sin la preconcepción de "hyde de L'Arc-en-Cier. Eso es eso, y esto es esto.

—También se ha anunciado una gira de L'Arc-en-Ciel para 2020. ¿Cuáles son tus planes para el año que viene?

Hyde: Parece que habrá muchos conciertos, como siempre. Probablemente actuar en conciertos mientras hago música.

#entrevista

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