Love for animals was never so strange!
Creative Staff
Story & Art: Satoru Noda
Translation: Eiji Yasuda
What They Say
Sugimoto and company have gone after some twisted individuals in their search for the tattooed skins, but none as perverse as the deranged animal lover Dr. Anehata. Collecting Anehata’s tattoo will provide one more piece of the map to the Ainu gold, but saving the sick adman from himself won’t be easy. As they close in on Abashiri prison, plans begin to form about how to get Asirpa inside to meet her father, but the fortune-teller Inkarmat has more secrets to reveal about the identity of Noppera-bo…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sugimoto finds himself in a tough position. His companion, Tanigaki, has been mistaken as the culprit of killing and sexually molesting animals around an Ainu village. No easy way out of this situation. They either kill the Ainu and spring Tanigaki, or they find the real killer and clear Tanigaki of suspicions. If Sugimoto doesn’t do anything, Tanigaki will be put to death.
They have a strong suspicion of who the sick fiend is doing the molesting; a tattooed man named Dr. Anehata. They are not wrong, Dr. Anehata is obsessed with having sex with different animals and his ultimate goal is with a grizzly bear!
That obsession leads to the strangest face-off and ultimate demise of two beings that I have ever observed in any media.
With Tanigaki’s name cleared, Sugimoto’s group can hit the road again. They reunite with Inkarmat the fortune-teller and things get muddled. She claims that Nopperabo the felon is not Asirpa’s father and that her uncle Kiroranke is the man that killed her father. This quickly escalates into a game of pointing fingers and guns amongst the men in Sugimoto’s party. Add the machinations of Lieutenant Tsurumi and the movements of Hijikata’s group, and the quest for the Ainu gold continues to escalate the danger level.
In Summary:
Asirpa’s ability to live off the land and her wealth of knowledge about the plants and animals around her makes her seem like an adult despite her stature. However, seeing her deal with the intrigue and mystery surrounding her father’s true identity that has been created and muddied by adults reminds us of how she is still a child. She could easily decide to return home and forget about her father and the Ainu gold and no one would fault her. Sugimoto might prefer it that way, but his conviction to find the gold seems to fuel Asirpa’s own conviction to learn the truth of her father.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Mature
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 15, 2019
MSRP: $12.99