Golden Kamuy OVAs are now streaming on Crunchyroll

Summary

• Golden Kamuy exploded in popularity in Japan and has a diverse, older readership.
• The anime adaptation has brought attention to Ainu culture and history.
• Crunchyroll recently added 5 new OVA episodes pending news of the fifth and final season premiere.

Golden Kamuy was a new big hit by Young Jump (YJ) magazine,”Shonen Jump for adults”, in the sense that they are both published by Shueisha, are the largest magazines in their segments and share somewhat similar marketing strategies (it is the same magazine as Oshi no Ko was serialized).

Young hope may serialize gory and more “mature” content, but not all titles will be like that. Some can even be mistaken for shounen or even shoujo titles (it sometimes happens with Kaguya-sama: Love is waranother YJ manga).

Anyway, Golden Kamuy has been a hit, and while we don't have any news about the fifth and final season yet (it was announced in July 2023), Crunchyroll recently added 3 OVAs to their catalog. Except for the last one, each consists of 2 episodes, so there are 5 new episodes to watch. The OVAs are titled “Barato's Bodyguard / Terror! The Mysterious Giant Bird”, “Love made me escape from prison / The terrifying battle of deadly poison! A massive snake deep in the Hokkaido wilderness!” and “Monster.”

These OVAs were released from 2018 to 2019. There is one more episode, “Shiton Animal Record”, which has not reached the service so far. Alongside the new Golden Kamuy content, the service also added Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp and The concierge movies same day.

A story with the Ainu

It exploded in popularity in Japan

Golden Kamuywritten by Satoru Noda, was serialized from 2014 to 2022, totaling 31 compiled volumes. The main character, Saichi Sugimoto, is a war veteran, having fought in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), which ended as a huge victory for Japan (and a big blow for the Russian Tsar), giving way to Japanese hegemony in Manchurian territory (although Manchuria was still officially considered Chinese territory, Japan secured special rights).

After the war, Sugimoto goes to Hokkaido, where he teams up with Asirpa, an Ainu girl, to search for a hidden treasure. The plot is fictional, but Noda studied the real history of Hokkaido during that period (Meiji Era. 1868-1912) and tied this political background to the story. So the author tries to portray the Ainu people, an indigenous minority group from northern Japan, in a real and honest way. For example, the story features the Abashiri Prison, a truly brutal prison whose inmates were both criminal and political prisoners.

The anime adaptation helped increase the popularity of the series in Japan, and suddenly brought a lot of attention to the Ainu culture, which is good considering the oppression they have faced. To date, four seasons have aired: Seasons 1 and 2 aired in 2018, Season 3 aired in 2022, and Season 4 debuted in 2022.

Studio Base of the brain (To your eternity) was responsible for the last season, replacing Geno Studio, which animated seasons 1-3. Shizutaka Sugahara also took over as director, replacing Hitoshi Nanba from previous seasons. The series has also spawned live-action film adaptations.

The fifth and last
Golden Kamuy
the season premiere remains to be announced. The series is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

Source: ANN