Know your manga

About anime, what's the relationship?

Originally printed in newspapers, then in magazines and single-volume books, manga is now going digital and is available in many different formats – and almost all languages. If popular, a manga may become the basis for an anime series or film.

Golden Kamuy is a relatively new manga that has published more than nine million copies and is now a popular anime translated into English. Written by Noda Satoru, it's a dramatic action tale that takes place in the early 1900s on the northern island of Hokkaido. The hero, Sugimoto, teams up with a local Ainu girl named Asirpa to attempt to find gold stolen from the indigenous Ainu community in a deadly race with the Imperial Japanese 7th Division Army and other assorted (and often unsavoury) characters.

Noda, a Hokkaido native, told me how he researched all aspects of the manga, including eating the food portrayed. Both the manga and the anime are gripping, as well as beautiful and educational – you learn about Hokkaido and Ainu customs as you become absorbed in the story.