AWTY 195 - Future Bear (Golden Kamuy)

My father was good with his hands, too, so the women loved him.

Hello and welcome to who? Are we there yet? In exploration and education and anime. I'm your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dee hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime crazed gold rush prospector with tig old midi toy story two referenced.

All I could think of is one of those anime mousepads with the big.

Titties, but with the prospector.

Oh, no.

So mixing it up a little after d said that I was singing of the meme of the woody doll with big anime titties because someone took the figures and Mitch masks and that one got very popular.

You've got a friend and me.

This week. This week.

Disaster already? Don't get your hopes up, Matt.

If it makes anyone feel better, I picked it, so it's my energies. That's the problem. Yeah. This week we're watching Golden kamui. Came out all right, I want to say came out like, a few years back. Like it's kind of recent. This could have come out 15 years ago. I don't understand time anymore.

I look yeah, came out spring 2018.

That's still over four years. That's still too old for me.

That's more recent than I was thinking. But, yeah, that's still already almost half a decade old.

When you put it that way. I'm going to go drown myself.

If this was a child river, it would talk and that's upsetting.

Oh, God, you're right. Oh, God.

The only way I keep track now is how old my kids friends are. What my friend's kids are.

You don't have a kid.

The energy friend doesn't have a kid. God, I hope not.

Can you imagine those kids at the elementary school? They're still into yugio, right? Please tell me I'm right. I have to be, right?

There's got to be some kids that are still into yugio.

My mom my mom saved all of my toys growing up. She's like, give you'll them to your kids. I'm like, yeah, because I'm sure kids 20 years from now are going to love big bad beetleborgs. God knows I was the only one that played with them as a kid, so I'm sure they'll love them in 50 years before they're born.

All my barbies are still in my closet. But barbie is timeless.

Barbie is timeless.

Going to take over the country. It's inevitable. And at this point, I welcome.

It couldn't be worse. Anyway, do either of you know anything about Golden kamui, which is the show we're talking about this week and not whatever other shit we're derailing with?

I've never heard of it.

Really?

Yeah.

No, me either.

Interesting. Okay, maybe it's just the genre of anime circles I run in. Yeah, but this one was pretty popular and when it came out, like, I think the mangoes. Of course, that's how the industry works. manga's popular gets an anime. But I think a lot of people were pretty excited for this anime. And then it came out and it got reviews, you guys will see. I've already seen a few episodes, so I'm going in aware.

Oh, dear.

But when you're not coy at the top of that time okay, it's not when I'm worried, when I'm just like, shit.

All right, I'll clarify.

I can't be hopeful after this.

It's not one that's going to make you lie on the ground for like, a few hours after to decompress, like aquikan and stuff. It's just like, ooh. This anime did not carry on the spirit of the manga as people hopes. So it's more of that, but you'll see, it's fun. Okay. But yeah, it got pretty popular. I read the manga for a bit, but then I fell off because also, you'll see, we'll talk about it. But yeah, I'm excited. It's not objectively garbage like I usually bring, and it's something I wanted to revisit it anyway, so it's convenient for me and only me.

Right? I love a selfish choice.

I'm going to selfishly just throw it straight into the break. I don't care what either of you have to say.

It finally comes out, at least from the fan art I've seen of this show. Lot of man midi, the show itself, I might have been lied to, so I don't know if I want to take this out on the community for purposely misleading me. I was expecting more himbos. I'll say it, I expected more himbos.

This show gets a one out of ten for us because there were no himbos. What the fuck is up with that?

I don't know what you were talking about. I saw plenty of bears. We're all having a good time.

We like to joke here.

All right, episode one starts off in 19 four, Japan. We see soldiers in the trenches in the middle of war with the bayonets running into battle as they're fighting against the russians.

I don't know Japanese history that well.

I'm guessing this happens. I can't yeah, okay. And they're running in, and we see one soldier, just incredibly scarred. He's got, like three big scars across his whole face running in. And as they're all being bombarded with, like, cannons and stuff, we see a lot of them go down. And he screams and powers through it and hurls himself into the Russian trenches and starts taking everyone else out. That's in there screaming, I'm the immortal sugimoto. I do look it up because the scream was inaudible for me. I couldn't tell what he said, but yeah, wait a minute. Have we watched this already? See, if this is our main character, sugi moto, and he is presumably immortal.

As far as we know, he hasn't.

Died in the first three episodes. He's got a good track record.

Spoilers, he dies immediately.

Weird. To someone else. It's like Brian cranson and godzilla. And we cut to after the war, we cut to a peaceful mountainside and we see a man panning in the river for gold, and we see another man drunk on the side of the river with a camp fire, just reclining, being like, hey, sujimoto, why are you here paying for gold? You're supposed to be a war guy. You're supposed to have done great. There are stories about you. You should be high up in the military. Why out here? Band of her gold like a mum. Like, me and the drunk fellow start, like, tells us the audience about sugimoto. sugimoto like, why he's immortal? Just being he survived every battle, and he's he survived a lot of shit. Earning him the name. And sugimoto says, like, oh, yeah, I got pissed off at a superior officer and punched him in the face. So now I'm out here on my ass like, well, fair can't be doing that, but I respect them. And then the drunk guy says, like, you hear the story about the gold, the gold mountain that's out here somewhere. He says, like, back in the day, you used to be able to find gold all over this area in Japan. And apparently, you know, people were rushing for it. Gold rush. We all know it. We all love it.

In theory, it wasn't just North America kids.

Every country's got their own shares of stinky peats.

Prospectors are a global phenomenon.

Let's bring it back. Why don't we bring them in? And he talks about how we need.

To heal the world. It's the prospectors.

He talks about how some of the indigenous people in this area, the anu anu, apparently went around and started storing up all of the gold and started, like, getting up as much as they could to try and store. It and to use for resources, weapons, for when they try and fight against the invading Japanese, for this area to try and retain their native lands. And apparently one guy found out about this, went into the I knew village and slaughtered a bunch of them and took all the gold for himself. This guy is an asshole.

Colonization. It's not just America folks.

Title.

Yeah, there's some legit historical stuff going on. So I was like, let me do some cursory stuff. How real are we talking? Yes, straight up, they called it colonization. And then they're like, that's too harsh. And then they colloquially renamed it reclaiming undeveloped lands.

We're all trash species. Luckily, this guy was captured and thrown in prison for life because he is a lunatic who just slaughtered a bunch of people. And while he was in prison, everyone heard about the gold that he apparently got and hit away. So everyone was trying to all the guards were trying to break him and try and get a secret about the gold. And he wanted to tell his comrades on the outside about it so they could still reclaim it. And the guards were, like, torturing him and cutting tendons in his legs so he could never leave the prison or escape. So his plan was a reasonable one. I think we would all come to naturally if we wanted to share a secret with our friends on the outside world.

You say on the day of your execution that whoever finds your pirate treasure gets to claim it.

God damn. That's exactly what this I didn't even realize it. Yeah, it's fucking goldie. Roger over here, he tattooed an encrypted map for his treasure on the body of, like, 20 some prisoners around their entire torso in love with this.

I love the drama, the design, the artistry. Yes, absolutely.

I love that. Not only was it like, all the maps were all segmented and on the bodies of the prisoners, but they're also encoded. Like, you also have to decipher them. And yeah, he told the inmates that if they broke out and if they met up with his comrades and shared the map, they could split half the gold with his comrades and half the gold with which everyone told them. And we find out all the tattoos are part of a full map. It's not just one full map on 20 some people, but they're all segments. We find out during a prisoner transfer one day, some of the prisoners escaped, killed the guards, and ran off into the woods. So they're out there somewhere, and we come back to presentation. sugimoto was like, that's an old legend. That's an old wives tale. Yeah, that ain't nothing. What do you talk about, old man's? Like. ah. You caught me. It's a trick. Passes out. And then we see, as you do in the snow. I'm sure it's safe. And then we get a war flashback to sugi moto in the trenches, talking to one of his comrades, his best friend in the war, saying once he's out of here, he's got to help his family. He's got a wife, kid back home. kid's just a baby. And the wife is losing her eyesight. She's going blind. So he's hoping after the war, right after, he can take her to America, where they have a treatment for it. And he says, after this war, tensions with America aren't going to be great, so you got to do it quick. It's like, yeah, it's only gotten better.

Who the worst they'll ever be?

It's all uphill from here. And he says, like, hey, Sukimoto, can you take care of my wife for me when you make it back? And sugimoto is like, what are you talking about, man? You're going to be fine. And he blinks. And as Sukimoto blinks, he sees his friend is just completely torn apart with shrapnel and is, like, missing arms and legs and just bleeding out. And as he asks sugimoto to take care of his wife and kid for him again, he falls into this pit of just blood and bodies. And sugimoto wakes up from his nightmare.

That was sad. I was like, hey, this is sad.

Hey, guys, war is bad, and it's not being glamorized by our media.

I'm just hearing about this.

Did you hear about this thing called war? That's fucked up.

Crazy. Hang on, where's the captain? Japan and all of this? He has, like, a shield, and he's the big hero. He's going to save the day, right? Yeah, that's that's how I was told wars go. Right?

That's all my he's in he's in my hero academia. He is. What a man. Great guy. And yes, heimoto wakes up from his nightmare. He's like, oh, just a dream. And he hears a click of a gun and turns around to see the old trunk man there standing up next to him going, I i told you too much. I'm sorry. So he's like, well, I guess that story is true now because he's going to kill me over it. Add some legitimate if you continue to.

Tell me too much, you could have just shot me and not woken me up.

Yeah. So Sukimo says, like, all right, give it a shot. I'm immortal. Let's test out that theory. And drunk guy panics, and sumita takes that chance to knock the gun away and knock him out and, like, punch him across the chin. So sigimo is able to take the gun away from him. And yeah, the drunk guy is able to run off when Sigamoto is not looking. He's like, I'll let him go. I don't want to kill another guy. But adds to some validity about that story. Society mode is like, yeah, maybe I'll find that gold. And as Sigamoto is walking through the woods, he finds the old trunk guy. There he is. What are you doing in that pile of snow, you little rascal? You making a little snow for it. What a guy. But a silly guy starts thinking about, oh, he's dead. He's fully why would anyone do I don't know why he didn't think he's dead immediately like I did.

Yeah, come on, guy.

Like, he shows he has incredible hunting and tracking skills every time beyond this. But he just stumbles upon a corpse and he's like, you sleeping, you good, silly goose.

We see the body. It's like, clearly been there for a bit. And like, all the blood strain from his body, he's cold and super dead.

Each limb is going in a disparate direction.

So hemoto pulls him out of snowbank and finds out, yeah, he's dead. What a shock. But he actually has his stomach ripped open and like, chewing apart, and his neck was actually snapped. Sokimoto sees like, bear tracks and he goes, ah, he was eaten by a bear. And then the bear buried him for later. A little snack. The bear deserves it. And he looks over as he's pulling the guy out of the snow. He pulls his coat off further and sees the tattoo down his back and across this whole torso. And he's like, oh, damn. He was one of the prisoners. That story is super legit because it's him. He's like, well, time to go hunting gold, I guess. And see, Mode just starts carrying the body with him. He's like, well, I need the map, so I got to take the body with me. Otherwise the bear is going to come back and need him. And as he's walking through the woods, he sees like a little bear cub up in a tree. He goes, oh, hey, look, a little bear. Oh, that means the mother is and he turns around and the mother's right behind him.

And boy, does she look great.

She looks stellar. immaculate 2004 CGI. She looks wonderful.

I wouldn't be that generous. There was like a late 90s puss and Boots animated film that I saw that was just like dog shit. Like referee to video animation. It's about on par with that.

Was.

Four years ago, post avatar World. And they're like, yes, this is the cg.

We stand by.

This is the best we can do.

This is our best shot. This is what caught a lot of flack with this show when it released because people were like, oh, boy, golden conway. This is going to be great. And then the first episode came out, everyone saw the bear. And it's like, oh, no. And we see. I didn't mention it, but like the campfire they were at before telling the story. Also CGI and rough. So yeah, the CGI in the show is what everyone fears when they hear about a CGI anime. It's not studio orange. It's not the B stars, land of the lustrous that we know and love. It's the other kinds. This is a thing that made a lot of people drop the show with this bear.

Damn.

So the bear attacks. And as sugamoto is fending off the bear, I knew Girl, I'm going to struggle with that every time. And I knew girl shoots the bear with a poison arrow and is able to save sugimoto. He's like, oh, thanks for helping me out. She's like, get away. Let me cut the arrow out so the poison doesn't spoil all the meat. And we immediately go up to the bar and start cutting away at it getting to work. And sugimoto says, oh, yeah, there's a bear cub nearby. So there's the mother bear. So she attacked because he was nearby. And she ate the mother bear. Ate this guy was saving him for later. And the girl plays out. She's like, no, this bear was starving. It didn't need anyone. And she cuts into it and pulls out its stomach and opens it up. And it's like, well, it gets empty. She didn't need anybody. And she talks about another thing that was challenging for this series. For me at least, reading it was real info dumpy. All the I knew stuff really cool and really interesting. But at least reading it in manga form is so dense versus they say it out loud and it goes quicker, which is nicer, I think, at least.

For a lot to take in, though.

It's a lot to take in.

Yeah, it does feel like half of the point of this show, at least at this point, is like, hey, let's start giving some information on this culture. So there is quite a bit of this that's like, yes, I'm teaching you our hunting tactics and our cultural stuff. So there is quite a bit of, like, let me just teach you some indigenous culture real quick.

And with this, the girl just says it and they kind of move on. In the manga, she says it and then there's like a hefty brick of text next to her in the manga, like, every panel explaining further, like a wikipedia paragraph. And it's like, that's a lot to get through, man. It's tough, but it is really cool and really informative. But it's just like, oh, that's kind of intimidating. But yeah. So she's talking about, like, bears should be hibernating. If they're not, it's because they didn't eat enough before hibernation. And that leads to, like, desperate bears who can attack people. And bears that attack people are extremely dangerous. So if this bear didn't eat your buddy, that means there's another bear out there we still have to worry about. So he said, Sukimoto is like, well, I'm not going to abandon this body. He's like, oh, was it your friend or your family or something? Like, you're really attached. He said, yeah, don't worry about it. Well, there's no point of fighting a bear in the darkness. It's a bear. It's going to win. So let's set up a campfire and hunker down and try and get camp. So we see caught away to the bear hunting them, presumably looking for the meal that got taken away from its fridge. sugimoto, while they're setting up a campfire, tells a girl about the gold legend being like, there's a bunch of gold from I knew people, and it's buried out here somewhere and you got to find these tattoos. She's like, all right, I'll help you. I'll help you find this gold. I'm intrigued. My father was actually one of those people that were killed for the gold. He was like, oh, yikes.

When she said that, I was like, damn, that didn't happen, like, 100 years ago.

Yeah, this was like, last week, real time. And so they're setting up camp for the night to try and set up an ambush using the corpse as bait for the bear. And the girl points out the tattoo on the corpse as they're setting it up. She's like, oh, wait a minute. Those tattoos don't connect on the chest. It's two separate tattoos, like, stopping in the middle of the chest, like, yeah, it's a big deal. It's just a weird map. She's like, no, that's exactly where you would, like, cut open a chest when you're skinning prey or like game or something. Those prisoners aren't meant to be alive to find that treasure.

Love the drama. I love the theatrics of it.

Your Hunger Games is really showing you hail.

It puts the lotion on.

Kind of moisturize. You got to keep that map in pristine condition. As she points out, she's like, those prisoners are all supposed to die to get the full map, so they were never planning on sharing the gold with the prisoners. And the girl says, we get more information about the bear and, like, what her tribe believes in. But, like, the bear, she says, like, that once the bear gets a taste for humans, they're no longer afraid of humans, and they're like and will try to get more human meat. So it becomes very dangerous. So this bear they're looking for is even more of a threat than usual. sugimoto is, like, preparing. He's like, don't worry. I'm the Immortal sugimoto. You seem like a pretty good hunter. I'm sure we'll be fine. Bears right behind me as an agent.

Yeah, bears right behind you, and he's right behind me.

Not only that, the bear also swats at the campfire, knocking out their only source of light. whoops more clever than the average bear of boo boo. boo boo. So caught off guard, the bear right by him. sugimoto panics and just yells and punches the bear squared in the head. Just not work. Bears have very thick skulls, and he's just like, well, I tried. I will say we did get him bows. Not as much as I was expecting. Grants us first three episodes, but I do think sugi moto is a hip. He seems naturally caring. He seems to care about people around him. He is an actual idiot at times.

That's true.

And so we see the girl goes to shoot another poison arrow, and she can't quite get it because the fire got knocked out. But as they're fighting soon, mode is like wrestling with the bear, like yelling out to her, still saying he's still alive and fighting it. And as he's fighting, see the clouds pard a little bit. She gets a moonlight, so she's able to get a shot at the bear. And arrow bounces right off his head. Again, thick skulls. So it grabs her to the bear's attention, who starts charging at her. Sugar moto is still underneath of it with his rifle, like, holding onto the bear on the bottom side of it. And, oh, he stabbed his knife into it. So he's holding onto the knife. That's it. And bear starts charging at the girl. Suddenly, a white wolf comes out of nowhere, defense her animal side kick check. And while the wolf is able to hold off the bear, so he might just be able to get down and run off the side, pull out his gun, and shoots the bear right in the heart, where the girl directs him to. And that draws the bear's attention. Again and starts charging a sugi moto, who yells at the bears, saying he's immortal. I guess he believes it because he's taken on a bear and the bear is able to knock him over and fall on top of sugi moto, who's able to pierce his heart with his bayonet on his gun. So he's able to kill the bear, but he's also underneath a bear now.

Yeah, he's fine.

He's fine. He's totally not crushed by I don't know how bears are like, £800 I don't know. It's got to be a lot.

He's not going to freeze, at least.

Yeah, that's true.

And the girl says, like, oh, nice job. That's not a new technique of getting up close to the bear and stabbing it right in the heart. You're not so bad for a Japanese soldier. And she pulls them out from underneath the baron and introduce herself as a Sierrapa. And we see the white wolf rain off like 2 miles away already on top of a hilltop in front of a full moon, howling, very cinematic, but it's like, damn, that's a fast wolf. That's a far off hilltop. Sugimo just says he was he says the wolf was protecting her from the bear. It's a clever dog. She tells him that. She tells him the I new side of the massacre story as she's like, skinning the bear and cutting apart from meat and stuff. So she's like, yeah, we thought it was just like this crazy Japanese soldier guy came out of nowhere and just slaughtered a bunch of our men. Like, we didn't know why. So from our side, we didn't know anything about the gold because I guess they kept it secret on their side. So he met to say it's like, hey, we make a good team. We should get that gold together. He's like, I only want a small part of it anyway. He doesn't tell her, but yeah, he's getting the gold for his friend's wife to get the surgery. So he's like, I don't want all of it, and it belongs to the I knew people, so it's your goal. Like, you should get it so we can work together and recover it. And while they're talking, she cuts out, like, the bears gallbladder and gives it to sigma. You killed it. You earned this. He's like, oh, cool.

Thank you so much.

Just what I wanted. Thank you is so cool. It's my birthday and I love this gift. And she's like, it's extremely valuable for medicine. It's full of nutrients, and she gives all the medicinal benefits of it and stuff. She's like, cool, I got a little bag of gibblets.

Great.

And she talks about how you don't harvest meat from bears that have eaten human flesh because they believe it houses, like, evil spirits and stuff, and it can lead to, like, angry gods if you consume the flesh and stuff. So more about their mythology and stuff, which is real neat. And she also says she doesn't want to kill people for this gold. And so you can just like right, because if you kill people, you go to hell where they have a very special place for me. It's like ah, right, soldier, for God. So Sugimota goes back over to the corpse of the guy they were carrying. Oh, sorry. I was looking for your minute. Yeah. Sigimota goes back over to the drunk guy who was eaten by the bear, saying like, hey, this guy was in hiding and he has part of the map on him. So that means no one else has at least found the gold yet. And if the prison is and he says the prison is likely keeping the original killer who made all the maps alive until they find the gold because the guards want the gold as well. So chances are he's still alive out there. And if the gold hasn't been found yet and that guy is still alive, that guy's going to be dead as soon as they find the gold. He says finding the gold would be a good way to avenge her father, because her father was one of the ones that were killed for it. And he goes, but that's why you're helping me, isn't it? You already know all of this because you're smart as shit. Looks at him like, eh, I won't deny. And while she's like, skinning the bear, sugimo just skinning the drunk guy. And he says he'll get the gold, she can get her revenge. And between how he knows how to fight, like soldier and guns and stuff, she knows the lay of the land and how to hunt properly. They can make a pretty unstoppable team. So they team up to find that gold.

Hooray.

Then we get the ending. But for the first episode, it's just the credits with I think it's the opening theme song played over the credits.

I didn't listen to it.

Yeah, not bad. We start out episode two. Okay, intense training. We got to get right to the heart of that gold. But first we got to eat some squirrels. They see some pine cones that have been chewed up. So they lay out some traps and say, yeah, this girl, a sierpa is her name, she teaches him how to set up like, snares, which will become relevant episode. And they're like, okay, so if you're an outsider on this island, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb unless you're in a big town. So let's go to the biggest local town, otoro. So they go and figure this is where all the prisoners are going to be lying low, and they just start going to all the places where you take off your clothes. So sugi moto goes to a bath house and asks a guy, hey, seen anyone with tattoos? And not helpful. But we see him in the bath without his shirt on him bow time.

Start.

Up from war. And this other guy is like, oh, a soldier. Thank you for your service. blah, blah, blah.

I'm so never mind.

No, go ahead.

I was just thinking of the I think it's Eric Andre. It's a meme. He says, Google. Show me this guy's balls, please. That's all I was thinking. He's hotty.

Yeah. And it's not just like, oh, he's got a few scars. There's full chunks of flesh missing from this man's body.

Like.

He is very hades. Laura olympus. There's a web comic reference for you.

So while he's in the bath house, a sierra goes and asks some geishas and no luck. But the owner comes out and is like, oh, girl, racist.

Blah, blah, blah.

So they beat him up because of course, sugimoto gets there right as she elbows him and wrestles her way free. And then sugimoto grabs the owner and the headlock and is like, hey, tattoos, we don't care about this shit. You being a piece of shit. Give us what we want or we will kill you.

I love the sugimoto, like, taps the guy on the shoulder and he goes, hey, look at my thumb. And the guy turned around and he just jabs his thumb in the guy's throat. Damn, that made me laugh.

And he's like, no, I haven't seen anyone. But I've seen other people asking the same questions. Other people are after the maps. My old so, yeah, they keep looking around clothing stores, all that stuff. Don't really find anything. So they head back to their camp and as they're walking out, they're like, hey, yeah, for sure we're being followed. You being a hunter, me being a soldier. We know when we're being followed, right? Yeah.

Cool.

Great.

All right, cool.

So they set up a trap for this unknowing follower to step into. And they they catch one of the tattooed people.

What are the chances?

What luck.

Yeah.

Mr. Tattoo was like that's. A lot of plot is happening here. Let me walk up to the main characters real quick.

Let me get caught in the squirrel trap for squirrels.

Me, I'm smart. I'm human. I'm not gonna fashion. So they string them up and they're like, OK, where are the others? He's like, yeah. So once we all broke out of prison, we got here and immediately people started killing each other because they didn't trust each other. Escaped criminals. Yeah, already we're not doing great. So as sugimoto is about to kill him, asyrpa is like, no, we don't do that unless you're going to eat him, which we already established not cool to eat, like human flesh tainted stuff. Please don't kill this man. And she gets a magical tool called a pencil from the colonial world. And she starts drawing the tattoos so they don't need to skin this guy alive.

What a concept.

Weird. So they're talking about stuff just going back, more backstory, more cultural background, talking about the knives that they're using that sort of stuff. And then they ask the prisoner like, hey, what kind of sick fuck just tattoos a bunch of guys for no reason? Or either that or who was the leader that started killing people? Excuse my notes. And he says, it was the faceless man. And when he says that, immediately, this prisoner is shot in the head. Not by him. No, it wasn't sugimoto. It was a sniper. No. So immediately he tackles a syrupA to the ground to get her low. And they're like, of course the person following us didn't follow us alone. We got sloppy. So immediately, Aserpa is like, hey, cover me. I'm going to make a smokescreen. And just starts burning some wood to give them some cover. And we see this sniper, who is another soldier. whoa. Who could have guessed?

Soldier of fortune. One could say.

Fortune isn't in his immediate future, I might say. They ambush him as he gets closer. Again, squirrel trap happens again, another squirrel trap. He walks into some bushes like gun first, and just immediately sticks into the yank my gun away from me machine. And so the gun is pulled away by the trap, and sugimoto jumps out and recognizes this. This guy is not just a soldier. He's a soldier from the strongest division of the Japanese army. So as they see, both of them are soldiers. They're like, hey, let's settle this like men. And they start just beating the shit out of each other hand to hand combat instead of guns, like civilized people, of course. So a searput distracts him and accidentally says sugimoto out loud. And this soldier is like, sugimoto, the immortal soldier. I know your reputation. Clearly, I can't fight you, and tries to run away. Basically just runs right off a cliff.

I love, because it feels real, like Mr. mcgoo level of bad luck where everything just spirals because he votes. Just like, hey, he's getting away. And he can't shoot him because he doesn't want to kill. So he just throws his gun at him and hits him in the back of the head. He's like, great. And then the guy falls. But he falls right next to a cliff and then falls down. And it just cascades into worse luck.

And it's like, yeah, when you roll a nat one on stopping the guy from running away, still kill him anyway.

Shit.

So, yeah, he falls off a cliff into the freezing water, and they're all like, well, I didn't mean to kill him, but it's safe to say he's dead.

So they he crunched his head on the way down.

Yeah.

So they regroup and head back to camp. They're in her tent, and she cooks a squirrel dinner, teaching him some inew cooking stuff and traditions, like eating raw squirrel brains and stuff like that. It's a partnership thing, so they both have to take turns cutting the food and faking it as they eat it and then we see. Oh, no. They should have killed that guy, because miraculously, he's not dead. He's fished out of the water by his fellow soldiers. He'll wake up soon, just long enough for the plot to advance more where we can jump in again.

He's in the opening sequence, so I assume he's a prominent character in the series.

Yeah. So later on, sugimoto and asirpa find their next prisoner. They catch them, trap them, and then they're like, hey, a syrupA points out a rabbit and is like, hey, rabbits don't really come out in the day unless they're freaking out about impending bad weather. So we should wrap things up here, but let's get that rabbit. That seems like a good dinner real quick. So they go meal fast food, if you will. anyways, so they leave the prisoner because he's all tied up, right? But oh, no, you didn't count on him being the plot relevant escape king, the legendary escape artist prisoner?

No.

So he barfs up his razor blade on a string. He just swallowed a bunch of escape tools. So he cuts himself free, runs away, and Sukimoto sees him run off and chases him. And Asyrpa is like, hey, the weather's getting real bad, so we should get back. And Sukimoto is like, yeah, I'll meet you there. I just got to kill this guy real quick. I won't kill him. I honor your culture, and chases him. So as they're running through, they think they hear gunshots of other soldiers, but it's the trees freezing and popping as they split in half. So as they're a little rattled, they slip. Oh, no. They also fall off a cliff. If only there was another way soldiers could fall and be trapped. But they fall into some water, and they crawl out of the river and are like, all right, I know there are a bunch of differences between us. I'm cold as shit. If we don't start a fire right now, we will both be dead in ten minutes. Oh, my God. I want to kill you so bad, but I also don't want to die. Please help me make a fire. So as they are just flipping the fuck out, just like, whiz, I'm so cold. We need to dry off. They're struggling with their matches. suvi moto accidentally dropped his gun in the water, and he's like, all my bullets? Those would be great. I got to dive back in and get them. So he jumps in the water and is like, hey, man, if you don't get in this water and help me find these bullets, we're both going to die. He's like, you're going to kill me if we survive anyway, so you got to promise me you won't. He's like, no, I won't do that. I'm hypothermic, but I still want to kill you. But they finally settle, and they're like, all right, whatever. Oh, you need a bullet. And escape artist guy barfs up another bullet. He's like, you never know when you need it. So they use that to start a fire. They're able to get warm, thank God.

I like how there was, like, a voiceover narration of, like, when exposed to hypothermia, the brain does not fire us. As quickly as you start panicking, you can't think clearly. I'm like, this is just an explanation for explaining why these two idiots are idiots. These boys are self.

Just lean into the fact that they're himbos. It's not current status.

Yeah, they were stupid before.

So once they're warming up, they're finally talking, and the escape king says yes. So there's 24 tattooed guys total. We don't know how many or who survived. So some we know are dead, some could be dead. Is that enough reason for you to think you'll probably never find the treasure? Yes. Anyway, good luck. Continue looking for the treasure.

You just need one guy to be dead in the middle of nowhere and no one finds a body to never find that gold.

Yeah. Luckily, it's not, like, snowing or anything.

No, it's not like, put your probably.

A heavy mountain pause for at least.

A couple of months. Yeah.

But yeah. So they're like, yeah. The leader who gathered all the prisoners, he immediately killed someone and tried to take advantage of the situation. He was an old samurai captain. Higukata. He's so ruthless. Whatever. He told everyone to go to oto and yeah, we get that backstory, and then we cut back to the sorry, I have to be more specific. Not these two frozen soldiers. The original frozen soldier.

The og.

Yes. He wakes up and we see we see his captain look over him, and he's missing skin around his eyes. It's like he's a faceless man or something.

No, this is a different character. This wasn't the guy that fell in the river.

Oh, was it not?

No, this is a different guy.

Excuse me. The way we cut back and forth as if this guy waking up was important. I thought it was the same guy. Okay, never mind.

Yeah.

And that's where we had episode two. Weird anti climactic.

Yeah. It's like introducing the villain of the series. I do want to point out, rico, when the girl is drawing with the pencil, and she's like, wow, look at this pencil. He was a very convenient tool. sugamoto takes it, does the rubber pencil trick where he, like, wiggles it and it looks like it's rubber. And I was like him. Bow check.

So we start episode three. They're preparing the rabbit they caught last time into a stew. sugimoto takes a slurp, and he says, it's perfect, but miso would make it even better. And he just so happens to have some on him.

Emergency ration of what looks like 20oz of meat.

It's a lot.

She doesn't know what it is, but he opens a container, she looks at it, and she's like, that looks like poop. And he's like, it's not. And he mixes it into his stew. She makes fun of him. He says, it's not nice to shame people for what they eat, which is.

True, even if it's poop and I'm.

Not shaming you for making me eat squirrel brain.

Yeah. What really threw me about this is she is so upfront to be like, yes, let me explain this culture and all that stuff. And he's not like soybeans. He's just like, no, it's not poop. I'm not going to explain what it is the way you've been explaining everything you do to me. How do you not know this thing?

Then we get the opening. I said I didn't listen to it before, but I did with the second and third episode. I did not skip it because I really liked the song.

Yeah, it wasn't in the first episode, but I think the opening song is playing at the credits of the first episode, but yeah, catchy. I like it.

Yeah. So they hike on. espira is talking about bear dens. She says that sometimes bears will reuse old ones and they happen to pass by one. She tells him to go check it out to see if there's a bear inside. And he goes and looks, and he does see signs that there might be one in there. And she's like, let's trap it. We can set up this trap. And when it comes out, I'll shoot it with one of my poison arrows. But then she says that her dad was so brave that he would just go into the den and kill it up close, because when you go into a bear's den, it won't kill you, supposedly.

Hopefully.

I've been asking mythbusters to correct this for so long, they don't want to do it.

Well, Adam savage. Prove your name. Kill a bear.

So sugimoto starts to walk away, saying that they'll be fine if they don't trap and eat that particular bear. And as they walk, she notices something shiny in the distance from where they came from. And he grabs her and runs. And he says they're binoculars. And I'm like, how do you know that?

Okay.

So, yeah, they're running. We see three guys skiing down after them, and he puts her down, and he says that they should split up because they'll probably go after him. And he gives her the map that they have so far, and he says, if they catch you, just give it to them without resisting and pretend that you don't know anything. They probably wouldn't kill a kid. You should be safe. Keep your fingers crossed.

The guys we've met so far have been super chill, so I don't think so.

Yeah, absolutely vibing. And he starts to walk away. She tells him not to fight them or he'll die. And he says, Come on. I'm immortal.

I have plot armor. I'm a self aware character in a fictional series.

So we see the guys who are following them. It's more soldiers. They find their tracks. They say, okay, you one guy you go after. The girl will go after sugimoto. So we see the one man. He finds Espera pretty quickly because his family is like a hunting family. So he sees her footprints. She's hiding in a tree. He tells her to come down, and she acts like she doesn't speak his language, which they speak the real language, I believe, which is cool.

Interesting.

Yeah.

They had a consultant and everything.

Nice.

And he says, yeah, like dang language barrier. Well, I'm not going to eat you. Jump down, I'll catch you. I'm not going to hurt you. You'll be fine. So she puts the map on a branch in the tree and jumps down. He asks who she was with, and a squirrel jumps on the branch and.

The map falls for adventuroal. The squirrels she ate?

Yeah. karma. So he sees that it fell. He picks it up. He's like and she reaches for her bow while his back is turned. But he tells her to drop her weapons. And her hand, she doesn't grab it anymore. And he's like, I knew you could understand me. But before he can do anything, the white wolf is back, and it lunges at him.

Get him.

Yeah. Back with sugimoto. The other men have caught up to him. They ask why he's running. He says, you're like looking for poachers, right? I've been hunting forbidden game. You got me. But one of the guys recognizes him, and they all point their guns at him and they say, oh, yeah, he attacked a higher up before. And they yell for him to get on the ground. He notices he's standing in front of a bear gun, and he just turns and runs into it. The soldiers approach the den, and they're like, let's just shoot him. And one of them just fucking shoots their gun into this animal den. I guess they just have no idea what it could possibly be.

There's just a weird hole in this earth. Can't be anything I can think of.

Nah, we can take down a big mole, I guess.

So when the guy shoots into the den, the bear comes out to attack and back with a spirit. Again, the white wolf is like, smacking the guy around, and it's about to chomp down on his throat. But she tells it to stop. And then again back with sugimoto and the bear. All of the soldiers are dead. One of them had half of his face hanging off. Gross.

I wonder how well this would get cut away. Cut back. Everyone's dead. yikes.

Not so great. So sugimoto comes out of the den with a little baby bear cub. Very cute.

Again him bow. Yeah, he's caring.

We see espera again. She's rubbing the white wolf's tummy when sugimoto returns to her. And he's like, hiding the bear cub in his shirt. And she says that they should get going. And as he walks up, she sees the cub sticking its sweet little head out of his jacket. And she's like, what is that? And he's like, oh, no, please let me keep it. And she's like, do you even have the first idea of how to take care of a bear? And then he's just, like, resigned. And he just holds it out to her. And he's like, Fine, eat it. And she's like, what? No. So she says, they don't eat baby bears. They raise them in the village. So let's go to my village. And that's just what they do. When they walk in, everybody seems happy to see a spira. Some of them are like, oh, look at that guy she's brought in. Interesting. And she introduces sugimoto to her grandma. Grandma offers to let him stay the night while they're eating dinner. He asks if it'll be a problem that he's there. And aspira says that it won't be a problem because her grandma's husband was an important guy. So her grandpa was like, an important guy in the village. Then we see the guy who was attacked by the wolf that found a spira, a surface. Anyway, he's like tending a wound and he's like, that wolf was so beautiful. I need it for its pelt. Of course. Definitely.

He gets a little weird with us.

Yeah, I think we were mixing up. Maybe I was. Asyrpa is her name.

I can't say any character's name, right? So I'm never going to correct anyone.

So I might have been saying her on acrepa. She's talking about her family, her grandpa, mother and father, all dead.

Great convenience.

Sure. Grandma says in her language that Asyrpa is never going to find a husband because she can't do, quote, women's work. And she also doesn't want in their village, it's tradition that when you get married, the women get a mouth tattoo. And she doesn't want to get the mouth tattoo. Grandma, again, not in a language Sukimoto can understand. Tells him to marry Asyrpa and when he's like, what did your grandma just say to me? She's like she says it's weird that you eat poop. And he's like, Actually, Miss, you are misinformed. Then a kid walks up to him and he's like, you have weird ears. Asyrpa says just because they're shaped different. Sugimota asks for this kid's name and he says it's Poop in their language. And he's like, you're joshing with me? You're joking. But Asyrpa explains that kids get filthy names to ward off demons until their 6th birthday, when they get a name based on, like, who they've become, their personality. And I love that.

Yeah, I mean, I also call kids under the age of six little shits. So I get it. I think he said his name was like, amiso or something, but it was similar to Miso, which is why she further thought it was poop.

So he asks her what her name was before it was a serpa. And she says, it was this, which means grandfather's asshole. And she's just smiling like, that was my name. Later on, Grandma's feeding the baby bear. And he asks Asyrpa why she hasn't gotten close to the bear. And she explains that the village sends the bears they raise back to the gods, so she doesn't want to get attached to it. And she explains that that had happened to her before. And before the ceremony, she tried to set the bear free, but everyone got upset. So she was like, Now I just keep my distance from them because I don't want that to happen again. And then she explained something called kamui. In their culture, which is just everything that helps people or is beyond their control. And they perform ceremonies to honor animals and their gods because animals are very important to their culture and the bear is the most important, and raising a cub is a great honor. And the whole village goes to the ceremony and they ask the bear to tell the gods that their world is a good place. So they'll keep returning. And sugimoto, very insensitive, is like, do.

You believe all that?

And it's like, brav, come on.

Why isn't now when you start questioning stuff?

Yeah. And she simply puts it, I believe that what we're doing is right. And he says, she's not like the other girl.

She's different.

Yeah. To that, she says, my name actually means New Year, and I believe that I am an ANU for a new era. Which is nice.

I do like that all the inu people had were drawn with very large, round eyes like she has. And it's different from Sukimo. There were physical differences in how they drew the whole village and stuff, which is a really neat detail.

Yeah. So we see the soldier with the eye scars from the last episode in the woods with a bunch of guys, soldiers, another soldier man. I don't know what their positions are. I don't care. I think this one's a captain.

Sure.

He rides up to him, yells him, what have you done with my men? Some of them are missing. Another one is injured. And you just bought a bunch of weapons. Like, what are you doing? And I scar man tries to use his injury as an excuse. He's like, Sorry, the front of my skull was, like, fractured, and blah, blah, blah. And the captain gets up in his face, jabs a finger in his face. And I scar man bites it off. feral because of his injury, of course.

It's altered his temperament. He gets angy.

Yeah. So he's like, beyond the lack of frontal lobe, I'm totally fine. And then another man shoots the captain. So I scar man is out of control all the time.

Love to see it unhinged.

Then we see a man banging a lady. He's another guy with the Map tattoos. And while this is happening. An old man comes in and draws a sword. This is presumably the man that the escape man was talking about in the last episode. So he draws a sword. Tattoo guy pulls a gun. The old man explains, like, oh, you can use oil to press paper to the prisoner's tattoos and trace them so they don't have to be killed. Tattoo man asks the old man why he's gathering people. The old man says they'll have to face the army soon, specifically the strongest battalion to get the skins that the army already has. And the tattoo guy says, with your catana, that's an old weapon. But the old man says, no matter how old a boy gets, he'll always love swinging a catana.

It's a weapon for a more civilized stage classy.

That's episode three.

Oh, I do want to say back in episode two, after they fall in the river and are heating up and, like, sitting underneath, like, the little hutch they made, like, with the fire. That's how ships start. That's a ship. I guarantee it.

Oh, my God. So many fanfiction start with two guys falling in a river and having to start a fire to avoid listing thermia.

They have to share body heat.

I'm going to say the number of stories that start with that or to have that evolved. It's not zero.

There's some so here we are.

Are we there yet?

Yeah, I mean, look, that bear animation. I don't know who signed off on that. I don't know who signed off on okay. Our cg budget budget is about $500.

For this season total.

We can't do it all the time. Let's save it for one animal that pops up, like, one scene in every episode. That's how we're going to do it. It just looks bad. It does not look good at all.

There's no way to defend it. There's no excuse.

Yeah, but apart from that, I like this. I think it has an interesting premise. It has that very western. Oh, we got to find the treasure, blah, blah, blah. So many different parties trying to find this. It has the feeling of a Western. Even the score is often like very steel guitar at times to be like, no, it's cowboy shit. But having it be in a different setting of hokkaido, I was like, okay, this is unique, new. It's fun. They were looking into it more. I was like, okay, there is actual good. I knew representation here all the facts that they drop in the show. I looked up and I was like, okay, correct. At least from my cursory search. As we got into episode three, there were some tropes of like, oh, okay, we need the outsider. I wanted to say westerner. I was like, no, this is Japan. Oh, no. everything's flipped. But, like, having the outsider come save the indigenous populations because they can't do it themselves and blah, blah, blah. So, like, there are tropes here and there is definite, like, distinction because it is, like, in Japan, dealing with it, but, like, looking it up. I knew culture that they are so heavily into sharing, straight up illegal until can you guess what year? Both of you. Can you guess what year it was legalized to, like, acknowledge and practices culture?

I'm gonna assume you wouldn't be asking if it was a reasonable year. I'm going to say 2018.

No. You both had less space than I thought. 97.

Okay.

Like, a full 93 years after this, it was still illegal. This stuff was illegal stuff. There are definite yeah. This is touchy stuff. Like, quote, unquote, full blooded. I knew people are in the low hundreds, so it's, like, very much a thing where it feels weird. Based on my Western knowledge of media taking advantage of indigenous tropes and spirituality for the sake of a show, this truly seems to be like, hey, we're representing stuff and not doing it in, like, a shitty or exploitative way. So it does feel weird in points with our current understanding of these things. But it's it feels like it's doing a good job.

Yeah, I enjoyed watching this. When I looked up the plot, I was like, oh, this is one piece.

I totally didn't realize that until recording. You're completely right. But yeah, I didn't think of that.

Yeah, but when it started and as things got going, I was like, oh, this is very interesting. I'm usually not a fan of historical fiction, but there is something very, like, MacAB about the maps being on prisoners and you're meant to skin them and stuff like that. And it is very interesting to learn about this culture that I had never heard about before. And I'm, like, so relieved that not only that it's, like, real, but that they're doing it justice. So, yeah, I enjoyed this. I thought it was good. I don't know if it's ongoing still, but it's not 1000 episodes.

That's a bonus if you're looking for.

A diet one piece.

Exactly. If you're looking for one piece that is oh, what's, 23 episodes? Divide it by a 1084.

Math.

One piece of system school.

I don't know math.

I haven't done math in decades. But, yeah, I really enjoyed it. I I started reading the manga before the anime came out. So, like, I was saying, like, which is word wise, it was so much denser to get through and I had a little more trouble. And I always prefer anime because I'm dumb and I like moving pictures and colors and don't like to read. So I didn't watch the anime till now because I heard about the bear.

That's wild that people would just completely discredit it because everything else about the animation is fine.

It's great. I mean, people we do an anime podcast. We know how fickled stupid people are.

Is it absolutely a wild choice? Yes. Is it a good enough reason. To just fully abandon all the good things apart from that? Absolutely not.

No.

Especially if you've read the manga and you know you like it.

Yeah.

Are you kidding me?

Do you want to try and wait, or I'll just do my recapping.

It's sicky.

Remember how to set up the squirrel snares?

It's worked three times.

The greenwood, this is your test. What did you learn from this episode?

Oh, shit. I just lit my apartment on fire.

Oh, no, man. We're good?

Yeah, for now.

Okay. Yeah, I enjoyed it because I enjoyed it. It summarizes the invent up nicer, so it's easier to pay through, but still informative. Like you were saying with the trip of the outsider saving, like, the indigenous people. I don't think that's even really a thing, at least from as much as I read. They visit the village, drop off the bear cup and then bounce. It's not even really part of the setting that much. So her village is kind of like they're left on their own devices. They're fine. No one's invading them. So as far as I remember. But, yeah, there is the massacre in the beginning, which is not great, but also, unfortunately, historically accurate to a lot of colonialism. But, yeah, I enjoyed reading the series, but, yeah, seeing it in motion and having the pace be a little faster by condensing a few chapters into an anime, I enjoy it better, and I'll probably continue watching it because it's very informative. It's a neat culture that we do not really know of, at least the three of us. So you learn more about that and it's respective to that culture. And it's a neat story. Like you're saying, it's kind of turn of the century where it's that middle ground of like there's a bit of technology there, but it's like old timey rifles and stuff used in the Civil War and stuff. So it's not super advanced yet, but there is still enough to create a divide. And an interesting story we haven't watched yet. Look at there. But like, demon slayers also around the same setting. So it's cool seeing, like, out in the countryside and in a major city, being just vastly different cultures and seeing how they interact and stuff. And like I said, from the fan art I've seen, there's plenty of bears in this series and plenty of ships for them. So even if you don't want to keep watching it, if you just want big tittied men, here you go.

Hooray.

Little something for everybody.

I do love big titty men.

Time to wrap up this. I know what I'm doing tonight. If there's an anime full of bigtitty men that you can send to us, not digital. Yeah. Our email is araber@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram at arwibariat on both.

I'm going to wait.

What timing.

Got to do a bit of editing with this one.

Dude, I don't know about that.

Just leave this end slowly asking me.

To do more work.

Fair. You know what's fair?

I mean, if dee's being stalked by a clown, absolutely. This is content.

Sorry, dee. They know how much he like clowns. Oh, they hear you complaining.

Yeah, stealth mode. They're stalking. They're making the final approach.

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok at honey, period D. And you can follow the podcast on TikTok now. Also at rweeb there. Yet. Honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E. Find me on Twitter.

Don't recommend it. Both Twitter or me. Not a great place. Instead, I'm going to recommend again something I recommended before, but a comic book called Girl in the glim by India Swift and Michael delake. Very good. Highly recommend it.

Thank you to camille ruley for our artwork. And thank you to Louis zong for our theme song stories. You can find all of louie's music@louisongcamp.com.

Thank you, and we hope you'll join.

Us next week as we learn to live with Anna.

If I'm not killed by the ice cream driver.