The new truce between Sugimoto and Hijikata reminds me of the saying, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Creative Staff
Story & Art: Satoru Noda
Translation: Eiji Yasuda
What They Say
Shiraishi is a master escape artist, but he’s not very good at evading capture! After the 7th Division captures Shiraishi, Sugimoto and Hijikata join forces in an uneasy alliance to rescue him. With the help of Choan Kumagishi, one of the Abashiri convicts, they put a risky plan to free Shiraishi into action. Of course, Lieutenant Tsurumi isn’t about to let these old foes get the better of him, setting the stage for another dangerous confrontation.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Shiraishi is the strongest humor deflection point of this series and for that I love him. He’s an idiot, but whenever this series veers towards being too dark, Shiraishi pipes up with some stupid idea or performs some act of physical comedy. He also makes for a great sidekick for the no-nonsense Sugimoto. So, even though Sugimoto suspects there is a chance that Shiraishi has been betraying him on the side, Sugimoto is the only one that insists they rescue Shiraishi from his latest imprisonment.
This part of Sugimoto is what makes his character endearing to the audience. He’s a companion to be trusted, but this is where it gets tricky. The only one of his companions he trusts completely is Asirpa. After that is Shiraishi, but he is still wary of Shiraishi betraying him. Beyond those two everyone else likely causes Sugimoto to sleep lightly every night for fear of the coming betrayal in the hunt for the Ainu Gold.
But first thing’s first, they have to rescue Shiraishi. This is not going to be easy because he’s being transported by Tsurumi’s soldiers, and they never let Shiraishi out of their site. Their best chance is to use another former prisoner to impersonate the warden of the prison Shiraishi escaped from and confront Tsurumi’s men and demand they return Shiraishi. Because if they can’t recover him before he’s handed over to Tsurumi, Shiraishi will likely be killed and skinned on the spot!
Does their plan have any chance of success? Or will they have to resort to fighting as usual?
In Summary:
This series continues to be one of the best Seinen series out there. Not only for the depth of the historical world, with tons of research, spilled into it, but the variety of characters and their motivations. Sugimoto is the lead and an endearing character for his sheer faithfulness to his companions. Sure, he’s a brutal killer when he needs to be, but he is incredibly faithful to his companions. Hell, this whole story got started because he promised his dead war buddy that he’d take care of his widow. Hence this hunt for the Ainu gold.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Sugimoto’s current relationship with his competitor for the gold, Hijikata. Sugimoto seems to respect Hijikata immensely, but there could never be any level of trust between these two men. And that is what makes their truce a fascinating game of cat and mouse. They both know the other will betray them at some point, but when? Who will kill the truce first and in what way?
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Mature
Released By: Viz
Release Date: June 18, 2019
MSRP: $12.99