History Characters / GoldenKamuySugimotosGroup

The protagonist of the series. A former soldier in the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Army]], who fled his home when tuberculosis killed his family and ostracized him from his village, causing him to run away, separating him from his love interest, his childhood friend Umeko. Sugimoto left his village for a year, and on the day he returned, he saw Umeko getting married to his best friend, Toraji. Both men took parr in the Russo-Japanese war, during which Toraji died saving while Sugimoto from a mortar blast. After the war, Sugimoto wished to reunite with Umeko, but her eyesight had deteriorated and was unable to recognize him. In order to pay for surgery that would cure Umeko's condition, having promised the late Toraji that he'd take care of her, Sugimoto began unsuccesfully panning for gold in Hokkaido, until he met a man who began drunkenly blabbering about a hidden gold treasure that would solve all his problems. Sugimoto then sets himself to find the legendary gold, and it all begins when while following the clues he learnt in the man's tale, Sugimoto is attacked by a bear and is saved by a young Ainu girl.

A young Ainu huntress who meets Sugimoto at the start of the series. She quickly befriends him and agrees to help him look for the treasure, in exchange for getting revenge on the man who killed her father. Asirpa is unique among Ainu women in that she is a skilled survivalist and hunter; although she refuses to kill anyone, she's the one ensures that her group can survive while trekking through the wilderness of Hokkaido.

* CerebusRetcon: She is surprisingly adept at hunting and survival in the mountains for a little Ainu girl, especially in a culture where women are expected to StayInTheKitchen. It is mostly presented in a lighthearted way to expose the most interesting parts of Ainu culture, and seemingly give Sugimoto a competent KidSidekick. When Sugimoto meets the real Noppera-Bou/[[spoiler:Wilk]] in Abashiri Prison, the disfigured prisoner confesses that [[spoiler:he had been secretly grooming her into becoming a freedom fighter waging war against the Japanese government for the Ainu, using hunting and survival training as a pretext]]. TheReveal is all the more shocking since Asirpa is a BadassPacifist and a follower of ThouShaltNotKill, yet Wilk planned [[spoiler:for her to eventually become a martyr through violence]].

* HunterTrapper: Asirpa is skilled at hunting and setting traps.

* IKnowYourTrueName: Hijikata knows the Japanese name she has in the family registry. It's "Asuko Kochoube", the one clue Noppera-Bou gave Hijikata about Asirpa's identity.

* InnocentBlueEyes: Asirpa has dark blue eyes. [[spoiler:It becomes plot-relevant when it's revealed her father came from Russia and the eyes confirm her link to Noppera-Bou.]]

* JeanneDArchetype: [[spoiler:Invoked. Wilk had been secretly grooming her into becoming a freedom fighter waging war against the Japanese government for the Ainu, using hunting and survival training as a pretext. Once [[ShellShockedVeteran Sugimoto]] finds about the truth, the Japanese ex-soldier calls him out for trying to [[LampshadedTrope make her some Ainu Joan of Arc]] because it would mean she has to be a murderer.]]

* LittleMissBadass: Asirpa is only 11 or 12 years old, and though she doesn't fight people, she's the most adept survivalist and hunter of her group. In fact, she was hunting bears with her father before that. [[spoiler:It turns out Wilk had been secretly grooming her into becoming a freedom fighter waging war against the Japanese government for the Ainu, using hunting and survival training as a pretext]].

* MasterPoisoner: Asirpa can cook deadly poison able to take down bears.
* MeaningfulName: Asirpa means "new year" but can also mean "future" in Ainu, reflecting that she calls herself an Ainu woman for a new era because while she respects the Ainu traditions, she doesn't follow all of them blindly. Meanwhile, her Japanese name, Asuko Kochoube, comes from the Japanese word for tomorrow (''asu'') and a locational surname derived from Kochōbetsu in Tōbuchi, Sakhalin. The first name roughly corresponds to her Ainu name, while the surname {{foreshadow|ing}}s that her father is a half-Polish half-Sakhalin Ainu settler. [[spoiler:As her father wanted her to become a figurehead for an eventual Ainu uprising, her names take on a much darker meaning.]]
* MsExposition: About the Ainu culture.
* ObsessedWithFood: She is always eager to eat.
* PeltsOfTheBarbarian: Asirpa wears a fur over her clothes to protect herself from the cold.
* PhenotypeStereotype: Hijikata speculates early on that Asirpa has European ancestry upon seeing hints of green in her blue pupils. Later, it's revealed that her father, Wilk, is half-Polish.
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: She begged Retar to stay with her when the wolf heard the howl of another wolf. Retar still comes back to her from time to time.
%%* PrecociousCrush: [[LittleMissBadass Asirpa]] is occasionally implied to have a crush on Sugimoto, who is in his early twenties.

* BrokenBird: She is noted to have rarely smiled ever since her father died, and only Sugimoto could break that stoicism. [[spoiler: Sugimoto's apparent death at Abashiri depresses her to the point that she's unable to speak for days, and only her hope in his improbable survival brings her back to normalcy over time]].

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Her mother died of illness when she was an infant, and her father was [[spoiler:apparently]] murderered when she was around 7. She spent her times in solitude in the mountains honing her hunting and survival skills

* EveryonesBabySister: Asirpa is well beloved by almost the entire recurring cast, even those that are working against her. This is due to a mix of her nice, magnetic personality, her reliability in and out of battle, and being central to solving the code within the tattoos. Even the socipathic Ogata is a bit nicer to her than usual even if just out of pragmatism [[spoiler: It ends up playing a role in his death, as he associates her with his late brother that he murdered, and starts feeling guilt for the first time.]]
* ExactWords: "'''I''' won't kill you" ''(emphasis added)''. Said during her [[spoiler: [[MexicanStandoff fight with Ogata in Russia]], who dares to break her vow to never kill anyone. Cue a ''very'' angry '''Sugimoto''' right behind him.]]

* GenderIsNoObject: Surprisingly, most of the cast doesn't call attention to her gender, even though the series takes place during the early 20th century and Ainu culture expects women to StayInTheKitchen. The only exception is Asirpa's grandmother, who worries about her granddaughter's lack of traditionally feminine skills.

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: She speaks Japanese fluently but mixes her speech with Ainu words.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Asirpa has a rule against eating man-killing animals but finds excuses to eat them anyway because she's hungry.

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Asirpa is by far the most morally upstanding member of the cast, with a ThouShallNotKill rule despite what atrocities she goes through, maintaining her moral code. Sugimoto even goes above and beyond trying to keep her as this, since he doesn't want her to become amurderer like him.
* InnocentBlueEyes: Asirpa has blue eyes. It becomes plot-relevant when it's revealed her father came from Russia and the eyes confirm her link to Noppera-Bou.

* SkewedPriorities: Asirpa running out of her favorite seasoning seems more urgent than [[spoiler:really making sure if her father is a murderer or not]].

%%* WiseBeyondTheirYears: For an 11 to 12 years old girl, she is quite mature. Combined with NotSoAboveItAll, though.

* AncestralWeapon: Her ''menomakiri'', a dagger made for women, was crafted by her father. She refuses to use guns either for fighting or hunting, citing that they are too heavy for her build, and favours her bow instead.

* ArcherArchetype: She uses a bow with great accuracy to hunt bears. She's usually calm, but sometimes NotSoAboveItAll. Her stoicism was born out of the tragedies she experienced early in her life with her father's dissapearance and his presumed murder.

* BadassesWearBandanas: Asirpa wears an Ainu bandana, and is very rarely seen without it.

* ChekhovsGunman: She is the only one who knows how to decipher the codes. The only other person was her father, who got shot. [[spoiler:This is deliberate, as Wilk designed the code in such a way that only one able to solve it would be Asirpa. The different factions only solve it after acquiring the necessary clues from her.]]
* TheChiefsDaughter: Her grandfather was the most important man in her village.

** When Ogata figured out that Sugimoto was in the gold hunt to help the window he was in love with, Asirpa suddenly interrupted the conversation by breaking into a hoparata (crane dance), chanting loudly and gesturing wildly. When Sugimoto asked why she did that, she lost her cool and claimed it was because they had been eating crane meat, all while blushing and refusing to look at him, much to Ogata's amusement. [[spoiler:Ogata would exploit this moment later in the story in his attempt to gain the key to the gold.]]
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Both her parents died when Asirpa was young. Thus she spent time in the mountains acquiring her hunting skills.
* CradleOfLoneliness: Asirpa is cradling to Retar, whom she and her dead father raised together.
* CurtainsMatchTheWindow: Has dark blue hair and eyes.
* DaddysGirl: Asirpa has nothing but fond memories of her late father and praises his ability as a hunter. He's also the one who taught her how to hunt, although Ainu women typically stay at their village. Justified in that her mother died of illness right after giving birth to her.
* EveryonesBabySister: Asirpa is well beloved by almost the entire recurring cast, even those that are working against her. This is due to a mix of her nice, magnetic personality, her reliability in and out of battle, and being central to solving the code within the tattoos. Even the socipathic Ogata is a bit nicer to her than usual even if just out of pragmatism.
* ExactWords: "'''I''' won't kill you" ''(emphasis added)''. Said during a MexicanStandoff with [[spoiler:Ogata]], who calls her bluff for her ThouShaltNotKill creed. Cue a ''very'' angry [[spoiler:'''Sugimoto''']] right behind him.

* PragmaticHero: He needs the treasure and doesn't hesitate to kill his enemies and skin them for the map.

* BrokenBird: She is noted to have rarely smiled ever since her father died, and only Sugimoto could break that stoicism. [[spoiler: Sugimoto's apparent death at Abashiri depresses her to the point that she's unable to speak for days, and only her hope in his sruvival brings her back to normalcy over time]].

* ChekhovsGunman: She is the only one who knows how to decipher the codes. The only other person was her father, who got shot. [[spoiler:This is deliberate, as Wilk designed the code in such a way that only one able to solve would be Asirpa. The different factions only solve it after acquiring the clues from her.]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: Implied. When Sugimoto tells the group that he wants the gold for the widow of his friend, Ogata asks Sugimoto if she and the woman Sugimoto loved is one and the same. Asirpa suddenly dances with a darkened face and later gets a LuminescentBlush as she answers Sugimoto that she did the Crane Dance because the group ate a crane.

* BerserkButton: Under no circumstances threaten Asirpa in his presence, let alone harm her. ''You won't live to tell the tale.'' [[spoiler:Jack the Ripper found this the hardest way out of all of Sugimoto's fights.]]

-->'''Sugimoto:''' If they touch Asirpa, I'll murder them.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: He survives all the events of the gold hunt in spite of horrendous injuries, delivers a respectful amount of the treasure to Umeko, fulfilling his debt honour towards her and Toraji, and now free of regrets, spends his days living with Asirpa in peace and traquility in her home.]]

* GoingNative: Downplayed. He adopts several Ainu habits such as saying "Hinna hinna" when something is delicious. [[spoiler: Further downplayed after living in Asirpa's village for years, as he keeps his old military uniform on and doesn't adopt their customs, even if he's very respectful of them.]]

* HealingFactor: Has an superhuman ability to heal very quickly from any serious injury, even a [[spoiler:headshot]] didn't put him down for long. [[spoiler: The katana he took to the chest in the final battle didn't cause him any lasting damage either.]]

** [[spoiler:After Tsurumi and Tsukishima are injured in a bombing, they needed sleds to cross an ice-cap to reach a nearby military hospital, the problem being that there was only one sled left to carry the wounded. Just when the soldiers were about to prioritize Tsurumi's life, Sugimoto, who was placing someone {{Implied}} to be his heavily injured BestFriend Toraji onto one of them, tells them they can use it instead, saying he was told to "give priority to the ones that can still be saved." This leads to both Tsurumi and Tsukshima surviving the war and Tsukishima becoming Tsurumi's right hand man.]]

A young Ainu who meets Sugimoto at the beginning of the series. She quickly befriends him and agrees to help him look for the treasure to get revenge on the man who killed her father. Asirpa is unique among Ainu women in that she is a skilled survivalist and hunter; although she doesn't partake in violence, she ensures that her group can survive while trekking through the wilderness of Hokkaido.

* ActionGirl: Asirpa doesn't kill people, but still participates in the action.
* AncestralWeapon: Her ''menomakiri'', a dagger made for women, was crafted by her father.

* ArcherArchetype: She uses a bow with great accuracy to hunt bears. She's usually calm, but sometimes NotSoAboveItAll.
* BadassAdorable: Very badass and extremely adorable, at least when she isn't making hilariously ugly expressions during funnier moments.
* BadassNative: She is an Ainu on the island of Hokkaido.
* BadassesWearBandanas: Asirpa wears an Ainu bandana.
* BrokenBird: She is noted to have rarely smiled ever since her father died, and only Sugimoto would break that stoicism.
* CantHoldHisLiquor: Justified since she's probably never drunk alcohol.

* ChekhovsGunman: She is the only one who knows how to decipher the codes. The only other person was her father, who got shot.

* HealingFactor: Has an superhuman ability to heal very quickly from any serious injury, even a [[spoiler:headshot]] didn't put him down for long. [[spoiler: The katana he took to the chest in he final battle didn't cause him any lasting damage either.]]

* HeartbrokenBadass: Sugimoto DidNotGetTheGirl and in all the occasions he had to change that, it never worked. Especially tragic since Umeko did love him back when they were young and even begged him to take her and run away together from their town, which Sugimoto refused to do out of fear of being infected with tuberculosis and passing it to her. The second time, Sugimoto returned to their town on the day of Umeko and Toraji's wedding, and she stood by her husband to be, refusing to meet him. The third time, Umeko, now almost blind, couldn't recognize Sugimoto with all the KillingIntent he was releasing as a ShellShockedVeteran, causing him to once more flee from their home town. [[spoiler:They both manage to put the past behind them in their brief meeting in the last chapter.]]
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Downplayed. According to the ''Golden Kamuy'' fanbook, Sugimoto's metabolism is described as abnormally high, and the reason why he is able to recover from most injuries and even burns quickly. It also causes him to sweat profusely and gives him a perpepetually damp look.

* ItsNotYouItsMe: After Sugimoto burned his house and revealed his intention of fleeing the village to Umeko, she begged him to take her along, but he refused, suspecting that he too contracted tuberculosis and didn't want her to die. He didn't have tuberculosis after all, and Umeko married Toraji in his abscence.

* KillingIntent: Exhude an intense one constantly. It even becomes evident to the audience at times.

* LossOfIdentity: When he came back from the war, the nearly blind Umeko couldn't recognize him, perceiving him as a completely different man than the one who ran away from their village.
* LoveTriangle: He was on the winning and then losing end of the same triangle. He and his best friend Toraji both loved their mutual childhood friend Umeko, and while Umeko loved Sugimoto back, he ran away from the village out of fear of infecting her with tuberculosis. Umeko later married Toraji and bore their son. Before Toraji died in the Russo-Japanese war, he made Sugimoto promise to take care of her, as Umeko was going blind and needed money to care for their infant son.

* MrFanservice: Sugimoto has been naked and has exposed his gorgeously sculpted (albeit heavily scarred) body more times than women have been even implied to. Shiraishi and Kironake lampshade it, with Shirashi saying that Sugimoto has "a face that ladies love" and Kiroranke stating that Asirpa's insistence in healing his facial wounds is because she likes his looks.

* RealMenWearPink: He knows UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc through Shōjo Sekai, the best-selling magazine for girls of his time, [[https://twitter.com/satorunoda/status/921279029218443264 as revealed by Satoru Noda himself]] on Website/{{Twitter}}. The exhibition that opened after the manga ended revealed that Sugimoto had been carrying a copy of the same during the entire time!

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sugimoto has nightmares about his late best friend, Toraji, who saved his life in the Russo-Japanese war, and lost his own life in the process, which deeply wounded Sugimoto mentally, algonside from all the atrocities he witnessed and commited during his time in the military. When he and Asirpa have to hide in a deer carcass to avoid a blizzard, they talk about this very subject, and Sugimoto, after stating his favourite food growing up, mentions how he never managed to turn back into the person he was before the war once he returned to Japan. Asirpa then asks him to take her to his hometown so they can taste the dried persimmons he loves, in the hope that it will bring him back to who he was before the war ruined his life. Sugimoto, overcome with trauma and emotion, can only silently weep, offering her no answer.

** He also really likes dried persimmons and it was a childhood treat to him. Asirpa wants him to take her to his hometown so they can taste it together in the hopes it will help him return to who he used to be before the war. [[spoiler:They do in the last chapter, and Sugimoto states that it didn't change anything, but didn't need it, as he had put his regrets behind.]]
* UnfriendlyFire: Sugimoto admits to having almost killed an officer who pissed him off, which cost him any medals and his military pension. The boots he always wears are a memento from that fight.

* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Sugimoto burned down his house to have "a clean slate" and sever his ties to his home village after his family's death and shunning by the townspeople.

The protagonist of the series. A former soldier in the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Army]], who fled his home when tuberculosis killed his family and ostracized him from his village, causing him to run away, separating him from his love interest, his childhood friend Umeko. Sugimoto left his village for a year, and on the day he returned, he saw Umeko getting married to his best friend, Toraji. Both men participated in the Russo-Japanese war, during which Toraji died saving while Sugimoto from a mortar blast. After the war, Sugimoto wished to reunite with Umeko, but her eyesight deteriorated during the war and was unable to recognize him. In order to pay for surgery that would cure Umeko's condition, having promised the late Toraji in the war that he'd take care of her, Sugimoto began unsuccesfully panning for gold in Hokkaido, until he met a man who began drunkenly blabbering about a hidden gold treasure that would solve all his problems. Sugimoto then sets himself to find the legendary gold, and it all begins when while following the clues he learnt in the man's tale, Sugimoto is attacked by a bear and is saved by a young Ainu girl.

* TheBerserker: Sugimoto would make Vikings proud over how ferocious he was during the battle of Hill 203. Whenever he battles multiple foes, Sugimoto goes for the most violent way to finish off his opponent, disregarding the wounds he suffers at the same time.
* BerserkButton: Under no circumstances threaten Asirpa in his presence, let alone harm her. ''You won't live to tell the tale.''
* BigBrotherInstinct: As stated above, Sugimoto is very protective of Asirpa even though she is more than capable of protecting herself, and vastly more experienced in the wilderness than he is. One insult to her is enough to put him into murderous rage.

* CoolGuns: An Arisaka rifle type 30 he kept from his days in the Army.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Umeko, the love of his life, married Toraji his childhood friend when he was away from the village. [[spoiler:By the time they meet again in the last chapter, Umeko had been remarried to another man for a long time, and Sugimoto parts ways amicably with her for the last time.]]

* EyesAreUnbreakable: A bear digs its claws into Sugimoto's face, and miraculously avoids his eyes. In spite of getting shot an absurd amount of times, his eyes are never hurt beyond what can be easily be treated.

* FeelNoPain: Being stabbed through the cheeks with a skewer doesn't faze him. He's so used to getting riddled with bullets that they don't slow him down while fighting and most of the time Sugimoto doesn't bother to remove them from his body.

* HealingFactor: Has an superhuman ability to heal very quickly from serious injury, even a [[spoiler:headshot]] didn't put him down for long.

* MrFanservice: Sugimoto has been naked and has exposed his gorgeously sculpted (albeit heavily scarred) body more times than women have been even implied to. Shiraishi and Kironake lampshade it, with Shirashi saying that Sugimoto has "a face that ladies love" and Kiroranke stating that Asirpa's insistence in healing his wounds is because she likes his looks.
* NiceHat: Sugimoto sports a military cap. [[spoiler:Chapter 279 reveals that he had that cap long before he actually joined the military, since it originally belonged to Kikuta's younger brother, who had died in the Sino-Japanese War.]]

* RealMenWearPink: He knows UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc through Shōjo Sekai, the best-selling magazine for girls of his time, [[https://twitter.com/satorunoda/status/921279029218443264 as revealed by Satoru Noda himself]] on Website/{{Twitter}}.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sugimoto has nightmares about his late best friend, Toraji, who saved his life in the Russo-Japanese war, and lost his own life in the process, which deeply wounded Sugimoto mentally, algonside from allt he atrocities he witnessed and commited during his time in the military. When he and Asirpa have to hide in a deer carcass to avoid a blizzard, they talk about this very subject, and Sugimoto, after stating his favourite food growing up, mentions how he never managed to turn back into the person he was before the war once he returned to Japan. Asirpa then asks him to take her to his hometown so they can taste the dried persimmons he loves, in the hope that it will bring him back to who he was before the war ruined his life. Sugimoto, overcome with trauma and emotion, can only silently weep, offering her no answer.
* SillyReasonForWar: During the Yamada's show arc, Koito's gift in acrobatics threaten to overshadow Sugimoto's harakiri's trick (the ''whole reason'' of them being in the show, to begin with). A subplot develops with Koito [[SmugSuper refusing to tone down his performance]] and Sugimoto trying to outdo and eventually ruin Koito's show.

** During his hunt for his sister's killer, Tanigaki joined the military and took part in the Russo-Japan War in hopes of locating him. During the war, he met a certain First Division soldier who was part of the White Sash Brigade. Feeling respect for him, Tanigaki offered him a kane mochi he had with him and let his accent slip, prompting Sugimoto to mention a someone similar in his platoon, giving Tanigaki the motivation to keep going so he can track him down.
** [[spoiler:After Tsurumi and Tsukishima are injured in a bombing, they need sleds to cross an ice-cap to a nearby military hospital, the problem being that there was only one sled left. Just when the soldiers were about to prioritize Tsurumi's life, Sugimoto, who was placing someone {{Implied}} to be his heavily injured BestFriend onto one of them, says they can use it instead, saying he was told to "give priority to the ones that can be saved." This leads to both Tsukishima surviving the war and becoming Tsurumi's right hand man.]]
* TheSocialDarwinist: Only in a fight situation but he makes it clear that in a matter of life and death, the strong survive and the weak perish.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: He survives all the events of the gold hunt in spite of horrendous injuries, delivers a respectful amount of the treasure to Umeko, fulfilling his debt honour towards her and Toraji, and now free of regrets, spends his days living with Asirpa in peace and traquility in her village.]]

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He goes through a lot for Umeko's sake. [[spoiler: Umeko turns out to have thrived on her own without his help, and it allows Sugimoto to finally move on after he delivers her some of the gold.]]

* MadeOfIron: He has survived, among other things, tuberculosis, the bloodiest battles of the Russo-Japanese War, multiple bear attacks, falling into a river during a blizzard, numerous injuries from his skirmishes with the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun elite 7th Division]], and [[spoiler:even losing part of his brain after getting shot in the head]]. He is also known as "the Immortal," both for surviving mortal injuries and for recovering from them almost immediately. [[spoiler:Not even multiple gunshots, a katana to the chest, and a runaway train sinking him into the freezing ocean in the final battle manages to put him down.]]

* MrFanservice: Sugimoto has been naked and has exposed his gorgeously sculpted (albeit heavily scarred) body more times than women have been even implied to.
* NiceHat: Sugimoto sports a military cap. [[spoiler:Chapter 279 reveals that he had that cap long before he actually joined the military, since it originally belonged to Kikuta's younger brother.]]

* {{Prospector}}: Briefly becomes one in Hokkaido after the war and before looking for the treasure.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sugimoto has nightmares about his dying friend, Toraji, and is still mentally wrecked from his time in the military. During a time he and Asirpa have to hide in a deer carcass, they talk about this very subject, and how he never managed to turn back into the person he was before the war. Asirpa suggests that she'd like for Sugimoto to go back to his home town and bring her with him so they can taste the persimmons he loves in hope that will bring him back, to which answer is Sugimoto trying to hide his tears from her.

** He also really likes dried persimmons and it was a childhood treat to him. Asirpa wants him to take her with him to his home so they can taste it together in the hopes it will help him return to who he used to be before the war.
* UnfriendlyFire: Sugimoto admits to having almost killed an officer who pissed him off.
* WeaponOfChoice: An Arisaka Type 30 rifle plus a bayonet.

* AntiHeroTeam: Barring Asirpa, they are searching for the treasure out of selfishness, personal gain or their own dreams that require the gold to be achieved and all of them use more than questionable methods during their gold hunt, threatening, injuring and killing many people in the process. None of them qualify as heroes.
* BadassAndChildDuo: Sugimoto Saichi is a ShellShockedVeteran of the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar known for his [[MadeOfIron uncanny survivability]], earning him the nickname [[RedBaron "The Immortal"]]. Asirpa is a young Ainu huntress and survivalist who helps him look for the legendary gold in Hokkaido to avenge her father. Even though she is capable in her own right, he is [[BigBrotherInstinct very protective of her]]. Meanwhile, she trusts him completely and has so much faith in him that [[spoiler:when told that he [[BoomHeadshot dies from a shot in the head]], she manages to believe that he's still alive in spite of no evidence to it, even having witnessed him being shot and left for dead]].

The protagonist of the series. A former soldier in the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Army]], who fled his home when tuberculosis killed his family and ostracized him from his village, causing him to run away, separating him from his love interest, his childhood friend Umeko. Sugimoto left his village for a year, and on the day he returned, he saw Umeko getting married to his best friend, Toraji. Both men participated in the Russo-Japanese war, during which Toraji died saving while Sugimoto from a mortar blast. After the war, Sugimoto wished to reunite with Umeko, but her eyesight deteriorated during the war and was unable to recognize him. In order to pay for surgery that would cure Umeko's condition, having promised the late Toraji in the war that he'd take care of her, Sugimoto began unsuccesfully panning for gold in Hokkaido, until he met a man who began drunkenly blabbering about a hidden gold treasure that would solve all his problems. Sugimoto then set himself to hunt for the gold.

* HeartbrokenBadass: Sugimoto DidNotGetTheGirl and in all the occasions he had to change that, it never worked. Especially tragic since Umeko did love him back when they were young and even begged him to take her and run away together from their town, which Sugimoto refused to do out of fear of being infected with tuberculosis and passing it to her. The second time, Sugimoto returned to their town on the day of Umeko and Toraji's wedding, and she stood by her husband to be, refusig to meet him. The third time, Umeko, now almost blind, couldn't recognize Sugimoto with all the KillingIntent he was releasing as a ShellShockedVeteran, causing him to once more flee from their home town.

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He goes through a lot for Umeko's sake. [[spoiler: Umeko turns out to have thrived on her own without his help, and it allows Sugimoto to finally move on after he delivers her some gold.]]
* KillingIntent: Seems to exude a large one constantly.

* LossOfIdentity: When he came back from the war, the nearly blind Umeko couldn't recognize him, perceiving him as an completely different man than the one who ran away from their village.

* MadeOfIron: He has survived, among other things, tuberculosis, the worst battles of the Russo-Japanese War, multiple bear attacks, falling into a river during a blizzard, numerous injuries from his skirmishes with the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun elite 7th Division]], and [[spoiler:even losing part of his brain after getting shot in the head]]. He is also known as "the Immortal," both for surviving mortal injuries and for recovering from them almost immediately.

** He also really likes dried persimmons and it was a childhood treat to him. Asirpa wants him to take her with him to his home so they can taste it together.

* WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Sugimoto burned down his house to have "a clean slate" and sever his ties to his native village.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: He survives all the events of the gold hunt in spite of horrendous injuries, delivers a respectful amount of the treasure to Umeko, fulfilling his debt honour towards her and Toraji, and now free of regrets, spends his days living with Asirpa at her village in peace and traquility.]]

* FeelNoPain: Being stabbed through the cheeks with a skewer doesn't faze him. He's so used to getting riddled with bullets that they don't even slow him down while fighting and most of the time doesn't bother to remove them.

* HealthcareMotivation: He needs money quick because he wants Umeko to have her eyes treated in America before diplomatic relationships between Japan and America go too sour.
* HeartbrokenBadass: Sugimoto DidNotGetTheGirl and when he had the occasion of making up for that, Umeko couldn't recognize him with all the KillingIntent he was releasing as a ShellShockedVeteran. Especially tragic since Umeko did love Sugimoto.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Downplayed. According to the ''Golden Kamuy'' fanbook, Sugimoto's metabolism is described as abnormally high, and the reason why he is able to recover from most injuries and even burns quickly.
* ItsNotYouItsMe: After Sugimoto burned his house and revealed his intention of fleeing the village to Umeko, she begged him to take her along, but he refused, suspecting that he too contracted tuberculosis and didn't want her to die. He didn't have tuberculosis after all, and Umeko married to Toraji instead.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He goes through a lot for Umeko's sake.

* LastNameBasis: Everyone but Umeko calls him by his surname.
* LossOfIdentity: When he came back from the war, the blind Umeko recognized a different man from the one who left the village.
* LoveTriangle: He and his friend Toraji loved a woman named Umeko deeply. Toraji married her and when he died in the war, made Sugimoto promise to take care of her.

* AntiHero: His goal is to get the gold treasure, and he has no qualm about killing people or who he has to hurt in order to obtain it.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Downplayed. Sugimoto's parents died of tuberculosis only when he was a teenager, causing to run away and [[spoiler:live as a vagrant in Tokyo and set in motion the events that led him joining the army]].
* CoveredInScars: Sugimoto's body is riddled with loads of thick scars to the point one might start to believe that he's really immortal.
* DentedIron: Sugimoto's able to shake off most of the injuries he gets, but [[spoiler:getting shot in the head by Ogata]] severely damages him for a while.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Umeko, the love of his life, married Toraji his childhood friend when he was away from the village.
* EyesAreUnbreakable: A bear digs its claws into Sugimoto's face, and miraculously avoids his eyes.

* FeelNoPain: Being stabbed through the cheeks with a skewer doesn't faze him.
* FireForgedFriends: With Asirpa after they work together to kill a man-eating brown bear.

* GoingNative: Downplayed. He adopts several Ainu habits such as saying "Hinna hinna" when something is delicious.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: has three scars on the face. Two of them are perpendicular and across his whole visage, while the third deviates from the horizontal one like a tree branch.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: They're composed of rather colorful people: three Japanese war veterans, two Ainu, an a escaped Abashiri convict. [[spoiler:They are later joined by a Russian deserter and another escaped Abashiri convict.]]

The protagonist of the series. An ex-soldier in the [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese Army]], who fled his home because tuberculosis ostracized his family at the same time separating himself from his love interest Umeko. Sugimoto left his village for one year, but when he came back, he saw Umeko married to another man named Toraji. Both participated in the Russo-Japanese war, during which Toraji died. After the war, Sugimoto hoped to meet with Umeko again, but she went blind during the war and couldn't recognize him anymore. Thus, in order to pay up a surgery that could cure Umeko, Sugimoto went to Hokkaido mining for gold, and he met a man who began blabbering about a treasure. Sugimoto then set for himself to take it.

* AntiHero: His goal is to seize a treasure, and he has no qualm about killing people.
* AudienceSurrogate: About the Ainu culture as a Japanese who never met them.

* BayonetYa: Sugimoto is handy with his type 30 bayonet.
* TheBerserker: Sugimoto would make Vikings proud by how ferocious he was during the battle of Hill 203. Whenever he battles multiple foes, Sugimoto goes for the most violent way to finish off his opponent, disregarding the wounds he suffers at the same time.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Sugimoto is very protective of Asirpa even though she can handle herself. One insult to her is enough to infuriate him.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Downplayed. Sugimoto's parents died of tuberculosis only when he was a young man.

The protagonists and their companions. Each of them is looking for the gold for different reasons, but are special in that they are all decent (not good) people. Although they are only a handful of people, Sugimoto and co. are very specialists, be it fighting, survival in the wilderness or sneaking around. Moreover, they can count on the hospitality of the local Ainus.

* AntiHeroTeam: They all look for the treasure due to selfish reasons or have questionable methods. The sure thing is that none of them qualify as heroes.
* BadassAndChildDuo: Sugimoto Saichi is a ShellShockedVeteran of the UsefulNotes/RussoJapaneseWar known for his [[MadeOfIron uncanny survivability]], earning him the nickname [[RedBaron "The Immortal"]]. Asirpa is a young Ainu huntress and survivalist who helps him look for the legendary gold in Hokkaido to avenge her father. Even though she is capable in her own right, he is [[BigBrotherInstinct very protective of her]]. Meanwhile, she trusts him completely so much that [[spoiler:when told that he [[BoomHeadshot dies from a shot in the head]], she manages to believe that he's still alive]].

** [[spoiler:After Asirpa is abducted, Sugimoto and co. do not doubt allying themselves with ''the 7th Division''.]]
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Sugimoto is several heads taller than Asirpa.
* LastNameBasis: With the exception of Asirpa and Kiroanke, most of them are called by their surnames.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: They're composed of rather colorful people: two Japanese veterans, two Ainus, and an escaped convict. They are later joined by a Russian deserter.

** Subverted later in Karafuto. Kiroanke and Ogata say he doesn't need to accompany them anymore as their next travels will be very dangerous, and Shiraishi has convinced Asirpa to try to leave with him and leave them behind, but Asirpa wants to stay. The group parts ways, but immediately after, Shiraishi is reminded of the many times Sugimoto trusted Asirpa's safety to him and can't bring himself to leave her alone with the two, especially knowing they are dangerous.

* LastNameBasis: With the exception of Asirpa and Kiroranke, most of them are called by their surnames.

* MotherRussiaMakesYouStrong: A durable and stoic Russian sniper, who shrugs off danger without major fuss. Neither his maiming by Ogata or Sugimoto attacking him during their first meeting managed to put him down. [[spoiler:The epilogue revealed he lived at least until 1940, a good 30 years after the events of Golden Kamuy, being one of the few survivors.]]

* SixthRanger: Tried to kill the gold hunters while Asirpa was still traveling with Ogata and Kiroroanke, and shoots at them again after being reunited with Sugimoto under the belief Ogata and Kiroroanke remained with them. Ends up becoming a member of the team after following them around for a while and joins them in their escape from Sakhalin.

An Ainu and a friend of Wilk, but a veteran of the 7th Division too. He meets Asirpa, Sugimoto, and Shiraishi and soon cooperates with them. However, Sugimoto still has doubts what his true motives are. It is revealed that he played everyone after the gold in Hokkaido and has managed to take Asirpa with him to Sakhalin, exposing at the same time is motives as revolutionary fighting for the independence of ethnic minorities in East Russia.

* BornInTheSaddle: Kiroroanke has been close to horses since youth, which is not so surprisingly considering that the Ainu during the Meiji Era had a reputation for being very good horsemen. Not only he knows how to analyze their behavior, but also he can also outpace experienced jockeys on a heavier than usual horse, with a horrible head start to boot.

A Russian sniper who was left wounded and his unit wiped out by Ogata and Kiroroanke, he decided to desert from the army and join Sugimoto to take revenge on Ogata.

* ColdSniper: Had no problem shooting an old man in the head in an ambush simply for carrying the best rifle. He also shoots a 7th Division soldier in the head after being told by Aspira to shoot them in the foot.
* EnemyMine: Vasily and Sugimoto have a mutual grudge against Ogata and thus easily become allies in order to kill him.
* FacialHorror: Covers up the bottom half of his face after being shot there by Ogata. By Chapter 245, it appears to have healed and scarred over, the scar being more prominent on his left cheek, where the bullet exited.
* HandicappedBadass: Is left unable to speak due to Ogata shooting him in the mouth, but is easily up there with Ogata and Tanigaki as the best marksmen in the series.
* HiddenDepths: Revealed to be a talented artist who when not sniping makes very accurate drawings of people and animals. In the epilogue a painting he made of Ogata got sold for 300 million yen after his death.
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: His sniping skills and mouth injury recall Finnish sharpshooter Simo Häyhä. He's also named after Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev. In the epilogue his surname is revealed as Pavelichenko, which was the surname of another famous Soviet sniper, Lyudmilla Pavelichenko.
* SixthRanger: Tried to kill the gold hunters while Aspira was still traveling with Ogata and Kiroroanke, and shoots at them again after being reunited with Sugimoto under the belief Ogata and Kiroroanke were still with them. Ends up becoming a member after following them around for a while and joins them in their escape from Sakhalin.
* TalkingWithSigns: He doesn't speak any Japanese, so he has to communicate with Sugimoto and his group using surprisingly detailed drawings.
* TheVoiceless: After Ogata blows his jaw off.

A white-furred Hokkaido wolf who follows Asirpa and helps her from time to time. Although thought for a while to be the last Hokkaido wolf, he finds a mate and founds his own pack, leaving the party for good.

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* DemotedToExtra: His prominence in the story greatly decreases following the group's struggle with Nihei. Understandably, Asirpa doesn't want to endanger Retar's life any further or risk him kiling a human so she deliberately keeps her distance from him. Also, as the story progresses they travel far outside his territory, reducing his role even more so.

* SugarAndIcePersonality: He acts like a wolf in public, but acts more like a big dog with Asirpa alone.

* HiddenDepths: Revealed to be a talented artist who when not sniping makes very accurate drawings of people and animals.
* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: His sniping skills and mouth injury recall Finnish sharpshooter Simo Häyhä. He's also named after Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev.

* BadassBeard: He shaves it temporarily to disguise himself as a jockey in chapter 61, and it grows back into a stubble not one hour afterward.

* MixedAncestry: She's very much an Ainu girl, but Hijikata speculates early on that she has European ancestry upon seeing hints of green in her blue pupils. Downplayed, as she's the daughter of a half-Polish half-Sakhalin Ainu settler and his Hokkaido Ainu wife.

* MixedAncestry: He reveals that he is part Sakhalin Ainu and part Tatar, also having the name "Yulbars".

* RealityEnsues: Getting punched hard in the head just a few days after miraculously healing from [[spoiler:bullet-caused brain damage]] is ''NOT'' a good idea, even for Sugimoto [[MadeOfIron the Inmortal]].

* RealityEnsues: As Makanakkuru mentions, for all her maturity, Asirpa is still a tender young girl dealing with the loneliness of being left behind by her late father and [[CanineCompanion Retar]].

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: Based on and named after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshie_Shiratori Yoshie Shiratori]], who escaped prison 4 separate times. In the museum that the historic Abashiri prison was converted into, a statue of Shiratori escaping through the skylight in his underwear is attached to the ceiling.

* ShaggyDogStory: Shiraishi's flashback involves endlessly chasing after a nun because of a lousy portrait, breaking out of various prisons before inevitably getting captured by the police. In the end, said sister turns out to be as ugly as her picture suggested.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Throws himself in front of a hail of bullets to save Shiraishi.]]

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sugimoto has nightmares about his dying friend, Toraji, and is still mentally wrecked from his time in the military. During a time he and Asirpa have to hide in a deer carcass, they talk about this very subject, and how he never managed to turn back into the person he was before the war. Asirpa suggests that she'd like for Sugimoto to go back to his home town and bring her with him so they can paste the pomegranetes he loves in hope that will bring him back, to which answer is Sugimoto trying to hide his tears from her.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Miso goes well with anything to him, and he always carries some around.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In Chapter 91, Shiraishi tries to run away from his companions because he knows Sugimoto will learn of his status as TheMole for Hijikata and thus fears his vengeance. However, Sugimoto later puts it behind him, as he checked the skins Shiraishi gave to Hijakata and saw that they were fakes.

* BerserkButton: Hurting Asirpa in any way, even vocally. Sugimoto was also ostracized because of tuberculosis, so he sympathizes with the Ainus' predicament as sub-citizens of Japan.

* FriendToAllChildren:With the Ainu children, Sugimoto loses all seriousness and readily plays with them.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Sugimoto has nightmares about his dying friend, Toraji.