Golden Kamuy - Vol. 27 Ch. 267 - Severed

[Theozilla]

@spurgleburgle
While I can understand the desire for not every female character to be connected to a love-interest plot point, in this case I think it’s particularly appropriate with Kiroranke. As Tsurumi’s comment about how there can be two truths with Wilk, that he was both sincerely reassessing his revolutionary strategies with rational thought/arguments, he was also at the same time influence by his feelings of love for his family, and Kiroranke is supposed to parallel that with his dedication to the Far Eastern Federation strategy being based on his objectives and goals, while also being influenced by his feelings of love for Sofia. Neither one negates the significance and validity of the other. It’s a very deliberate parallel.

 

[dsid2814]

@spurgleburgle

 

[spurgleburgle]

@Theozilla That's a good point, and rereading the chapter, seems obvious now considering the page layout, though I think Kiroranke could have been given a different personal desire. Wilk could have pointed out that despite Kiroranke's lofty aspirations of independence for all ethnic minorities, he cared for his own people most of all, and was angry that Wilk was leaving them out of the plan. That may seem less personal, but he probably still has family in Russia. Tsurumi and Wilk's personal desires both had to do with romantic love, so I can see how having Kiroranke love Sofia serves the parallelism, but Tsurumi and Wilk were both married with a child, so Kiroranke's love for Sofia feels weak by comparison, especially since his letter to her suggests they hadn't had much, or any correspondence since they left for Japan.

You've definitely make me rethink how I feel about this scene, though. I understand the intent behind it, so thanks for the insight.

 

[KeiosKod]

Rereading ch. 179, I only just noticed that Tsurumi’s wife had had her right pinky cut off. And also that Tsurumi probably bit off his child’s pinky as well when he brought their hand close to his face. Man, all these details I missed.

 

[huianxin]

As a Tatar, it's all the more insulting for Wilk to turn his back on Kiroranke/Yulbars, neglecting not only his comrade or the far eastern Siberian groups, but entire peoples across the Russian Empire. Of course, this manga is a fantasy of politics from the real world. Hard to imagine ethnic groups from so many different cultures, backgrounds, and belief systems would sustain a unified front against centralized imperial powers dead set on land and resource exploitation. It's just not feasible militarily, economically, politically, socially, etc. Even more organized groups such as, say, the Jadids, failed to accomplish many of their independence or self-strengthening goals.

Wilk is also incredibly naive to think people can forget about their homelands that easily. While he may have found a new life for himself, that can't reflect on others. Take the Stalinist purges of ethnic groups during the 40's. Kalmyks, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Meskhetian Turks, etc etc. They didn't just forget about their homes and readily accept their new lives in Siberia/Central Asia. Even the Crimean Tatars today, for example. Many of these people weren't even young enough to have experienced the purges themselves or were alive during the massive relocation atrocities. But they still insist on returning to their homeland, even if Russians and Ukrainians and other people are residing in their former homes. It's the idea of heritage and home, the connection of land to identity.

In other words Wilk has really lost it.

 

[KeiosKod]

@spurgleburgle
It was already implied before that Kiroranke loved Sofia, mind you. Aside from how he mentioned that both he and Wilk admired her, when he was dying and experiencing a flashback of his entire life in ch. 190, there was a scene of him looking at Sofia from behind while she was blushing looking at Wilk. He even called out her name then, right before he died.

@huianxin
I don’t really agree that Wilk lost it, though. Back when he, Kiroranke, and Sofia were learning Japanese from Tsushima, Tsushima mentioned the reason for why Sofia had such difficulty learning Japanese was because she wasn’t interested in it, and that it had nothing to do with her intelligence.

Flipping that around to Wilk, the reason why he so quickly picked it up was because he must have truly wanted to learn more about Japanese culture. This is in contrast to Kiroranke and Sofia who only knew how to say poop at that time when he could already fluently speak Japanese.

Wilk was characterized as knowing so much about all sorts of different ethnic groups, and that alongside his desire to protect all these different cultures and traditions was what attracted Sofia to him. Likewise, he was ready to sacrifice others for the sake of the group. Him giving up on the ideal of a united federation to focus on protecting the Ainu can be taken as an extension of this philosophy, despite him becoming “softer” in Kiroranke’s eyes for not killing him. To him, he valued and loved all these different ethnic groups equally. He just chose to save the one that had his child in it and to which the gold rightfully belonged to. Sure, he turned his back on the other ethnic groups, but the means to save those groups didn’t belong to him or Wilk but to the Ainu, so he’s not in the wrong either for helping the Ainu use their gold for themselves.

And I don’t think he was naively thinking everyone would be fine with just moving on over. That was more just him saying that they could still be “saved” if they wanted to under those conditions, not that that was the plan to save them in particular. He was focused on just saving the one group now, what could be saved both morally (the gold was the Ainu’s, after all) and practically (the issues everyone else here already brought up regarding trying to establish a federation with their scattered tribes).

 

[Kefkabot]

Weird beard on page 8

Wilk's actions are understandable but not forgivable. That was selfish of him. ty for the chapter

 

[Speziell]

@Nakanowatari
The author often uses filtered and sometimes drawn over photos as backgrounds. most of the time you dont notice but the fox farm one looks like shit

 

[velamela]

Like Tsurumi said, it would be more easy to defend just Hokkaido but Kiroranke was right in the sense that Wilk was just choosing to prioritize the Hokkaido Ainu over the other natives, even his immigration idea had plenty of holes pointed out this chapter. His and Kiroranke's goals were definitely irreconcilable so it makes sense that Kiroranke wanted him dead.

 

[Neznau]

I wonder if it was Kiro who killed those Ainu. He had the grudge against Wilk and wanted to proceed with the original plan.
(sorry my eng is bad).

 

[RanmaChaos]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[oichifan39]

Thanks for all the reminders. I recently caught but I keep forgetting bits and pieces already, like the last bit with Wilk.

 

[A-tan]

Is like Tsurumi says... Wilk changed when Asirpa was born, and his position isn't entirely irrational (now that he has something precious to protect, why risk his life if he can make a life there? Better just focus on Hokkaido). I can't say I don't understand Kiroranke but also I'm glad he is gone 😂 Yikes, dude

Thanks for the chapter as usual!

 

[Betony]

I always thought Wilks's, Kiroranke's, and Sophia's plan to use Ainu gold that the Ainu labored for in order to help all the east Russian minority groups was selfish to begin with, so I see his change of heart as both more realistic and fair, at least for the Ainu. Still, it was silly of Wilk to frame immigration as a reasonable alternative; it's clear that he lost sight of his original convictions and stopped caring so much about his birthplace.

 

[Howeveryw]

Kiro deserves so much better... Wilk crazy ass bitch

 

[Howeveryw]

Honestly the whole manpain love interest motive instead of the integrity of Kiroranke’s actual motive which he maintained throughout is so wrong like... trying to make all of this into he did it cause he has a crush etc is just lessening the integrity of the character. I get it when it’s for one or two characters like Wilk and Tsurumi, but Kiroranke??? No way man... this guy didn’t go all the distance with a family he cared about simply cause he was in love...

 

[gyrogogozeppeli]

Finally caught up. I stopped awhile back and didn't realize I was 40 chapters behind, done them in a day.

Good place to stop as any, pieces moving and everyone setting up to the final arcs.

It does seem Wilk's goals make more sense in the long run, but I don't think it would be agreeable to his partners seeing as their goals were always diehard nationalistic to the point of no compromise.

 

[Theozilla]

@Howeveryw I think you’re kinda misinterpreting the point of the chapter if you’re coming away with the conclusion that Kiroranke’s main motivation was all just only romantic feelings for Sofia. Tsurumi literally spelled it out, how the personal feelings that someone like himself, Wilk, and Kiroranke held were truths that existed alongside their greater political/aspirational ideals/objectives as well, which were also just as real as any personal feelings also affecting them. One truth doesn’t negate the other.

 

[Howeveryw]

@Theozilla I get that point, I still think it’s cheap especially because we didn’t get it from the man itself, making great assumptions on a married mans love etc not even trying to believe that it was comradeship and friendly affection and not romantic love bothers me, especially when the person this whole chapter seems to show is deeply loved by Kiroranke (and he says it himself) is wilk

 

[BasilD]

Even 80-ish chapters after his death Kiroranke is still a major part of the story, amazing