Saichi Sugimoto came home from the Russo-Japanese War and pans for gold in Hokkaido. He took bullets at the front and did not die, which earned him the nickname Immortal. He needs money now because the widow of a dead comrade is losing her sight.
The plot starts with a drunk manโs story. A hoard of gold taken from the Ainu is hidden somewhere, and the directions were tattooed in pieces across the bodies of twenty-four escaped convicts. Collect all the tattoos and you have the map.
Three forces climb onto that premise: Sugimoto with the Ainu girl Asirpa, Lieutenant Tsurumi of the armyโs 7th Division, and Toshizo Hijikata, once vice-commander of the Shinsengumi. Nobody is entirely a villain and nobody is safe, so travelling companions turn into enemies within a few chapters on a regular basis.
What sets the series apart is the research. Ainu hunting technique, cooking, language and tools get as much page space as the plot. Much of it was drawn under supervision, and Ainu dialogue carries glosses. Between gunfights, the cast sits down and cooks a badger, and those pages are the ones readers quote most.
Serialisation ran in Young Jump from 21 August 2014 to 28 April 2022, 314 chapters collected in 31 volumes. It won the 9th Manga Taisho and the 22nd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Geno Studio animated the first season, twelve episodes from 9 April 2018.
One warning before you start: this manga puts serious historical drama and broad comedy on the same page. If the swing bothers you the early volumes will feel strange, but the swing is the method.
