Golden Kamuy Season 5 release date predictions: Final Season ending the story in 2024?

Golden Kamuy Final Season
X marks the spot! Everyone is converging for a final battle over the Ainu gold now that Asirpa has deciphered the tattoo code. Pic credit: Satoru Noda/Studio Geno/DALL-E

Hinna, hinna! The Golden Kamuy Season 5 anime will be the final helping of the TV show series. But when will Golden Kamuy’s final season come out? 

It’s possible that new information will be announced to hungry fans on July 16, 2023. On that date, the next Golden Kamuy Special Event will take place with the main Japanese cast being present.

It just so happens that this event was announced several hours before the premiere of the fourth season on October 3, 2022. Also, the fourth season was initially announced in December 2021 during a similar event.

It’s also perfect timing since Golden Kamuy Season 4 needed to restart its broadcast after the unexpected death of a main production staff member resulted in the entire 4th season being broadcast in Spring 2023. That means the special event will take place only several weeks after the 4th season is finished airing.

Of course, there are multiple projects to discuss that day besides Golden Kamuy Season 5. Back on April 19, 2022, the wraparound jacket band on manga Volume 28 announced that a live-action Golden Kamuy movie had been greenlit for production. On April 25, 2022, manga news leaker Manga Mogura RE claimed that a “big project beyond live-action movie adaption and anime is in production for [Golden Kamuy], too.”

The Golden Kamuy Season 5 anime will feature the “Immortal” Saichi Sugimoto and Asirpa finally finishing their quest together. The Ainu girl recovered her memories in the third season and now she holds the key everyone is desperately seeking.

The Golden Kamuy Season 4 anime had 13 episodes in total. Since the fourth season was only one cour the anime TV series will need a sequel to complete the finale chapter from the Golden Kamuy manga’s ending (please see the manga comparison section below for more details).

The staff and studio making Golden Kamuy Season 5 hasn’t been announced yet.

The first three seasons (and multiple OVA episodes) were made by Geno Studio. Founded in late 2015, they’re a complete subsidiary of Twin Engine. The studio is mostly known for animating the Golden Kamuy anime.

For the fourth season, the anime production switched to Studio Brain’s Base, which is best known for making anime like the 2010 Durarara!!, the 2013 Blood Lad anime, the first season of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Spice and Wolf Season 2, Crunchyroll’s In/Spectre anime, and To Your Eternity.

The To Your Eternity Season 2 release date was in Fall 2022. The In/Spectre Season 2 release date on Crunchyroll was in Winter 2023. It’s expected that both To Your Eternity Season 3 and In/Spectre Season 3 will be produced.

The main staff for creating the fourth season at Studio Brain’s Base includes some returning names. Before the fourth season, the staff had remained the same for all three seasons.

Seasons 1-3 Director Hitoshi Nanba (Fate/Grand Order) was replaced by Chief Director Shizutaka Sugahara (Grimms Notes). But series composition and scriptwriter Noboru Takagi (Attack On Titan, Durarara!!, Hell Girl, In/Spectre) returned.

Character design artist Kenichi Ohnuki (My Hero Academia) was replaced by Takumi Yamakawa. the animation director for 5 episodes of To Your Eternity Season 2. Composer Kenichiro Suehiro (Darwin’s Game, Fire Force Season 3, Goblin Slayer, Re:ZERO Starting Life in Another World) returned to create the music.

The Golden Kamuy Season 5 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.

The Golden Kamuy Season 4 OP “NEVER SAY GOODBYE feat. Mummy-D” was performed by ALI, while the ED “Subete ga Soko ni Arimasu Yo ni.” was performed by THE SPELLBOUND.

The Golden Kamuy Season 4 OP video trailer.
The Golden Kamuy Season 4 ED video trailer.

Crunchyroll’s Golden Kamuy Season 4 English dub release date was on October 17, 2022.

On November 7, 2022, the official Golden Kamuy Twitter announced that the Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 7 release date was delayed indefinitely due to the death of an indispensable main staff member on November 1, 2022.

The fourth season’s finale, Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 13, was originally intended to release on December 26, 2022. The English dubbed version was originally supposed to be finished on January 9, 2023.

Rather than stopping the Fall 2022 TV broadcast, the Golden Kamuy Production Committee decided to broadcast OAD 1 on November 14, 2022. Then from November 21 through December 26th the first 6 episodes of the fourth season were re-broadcast.

The broadcast of the fourth season will restart in April 2023 beginning with Golden Kamuy Episode 37. That means the fourth season’s finale, Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 13, will be released in June 2023.

The 13 episodes will be released as three Golden Kamuy Season 4 Blu-Ray/DVD volumes. Each volume includes short anime episodes called Golden Travelogue Theater. The release of the BD/DVD volumes was also delayed by the unexpected death to July 26, 2023, August 30, 2023, and September 27, 2023, respectively.

  • Updated December 9, 2022: Added new S4 episode and BD schedule info.
  • Updated November 8, 2022: Golden Season 4 release schedule was delayed by an unexpected death.

This article provides everything that is known about Golden Kamuy Season 5 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.

Golden Kamuy 5 release date predictions: Is 2024 likely?

As of the last update, NBC-Universal Japan, publisher Shueisha, producer Twin Engine, Studio Brain’s Base, streaming licensor Crunchyroll, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Golden Kamuy Season 5 release date. Nor has the production of a Golden Kamuy: Final Season sequel been announced.

Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.

In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Golden Kamuy: Final Season release date will occur in the future.

While the Golden Kamuy anime series hasn’t been overly popular internationally, it has been quite a sensation in Japan. In fact, a Golden Kamuy crossover with Spider-Man was used to promote the Spider-Man movie to the Japanese!

When the third season aired in Fall 2020, the Golden Kamuy manga series had sold 14 million copies, and by December 2021 it was up to 18 million copies in circulation. By July 2022, Golden Kamuy had over 23 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series in history.

Although streaming revenue is now the largest factor for financial success in the anime industry, the Golden Kamuy Blu-Ray and DVD sales have been consistently good. The first two seasons both sold around 3,800 copies in their first week, while the third season’s first Blu-ray/DVD volume sold 3,402 copies in its first week.

Arguably, the anime has been consistently successful to the point that it would be a surprise if the anime production committee did not greenlight Golden Kamuy Season 5 for production.

In fact, based on the way that anime productions are secretly scheduled out years in advance it’s very likely that pre-production on Golden Kamy: Final Season has already begun. So when will the fifth season come out?

The first two seasons were both released in 2018. Despite being officially labeled as separate seasons, it was essentially a split-cour anime production schedule since there was only a three-month gap in broadcasting. The wait for the third season in Fall 2020 was long probably because it wasn’t preplanned.

It’s possible the producers at Twin Engine switched studios so Geno Studio could focus on another big project or simply because Studio Brain’s Base was available sooner for creating two anime projects back-to-back. If the latter speculation is correct, then it’s likely that the fifth season is already in the works.

Therefore, assuming that an announcement is made in July 2023, it’s predicted that the Golden Kamuy Season 5 release date will be in 2024.

Crunchyroll’s Golden Kamuy Season 5 English dub release date predictions

The Golden Kamuy dub was directed by Jeremy Inman. Here was the Golden Kamuy English dub cast:

In the past, FUNimation dubbed the anime TV show, but after Sony purchased and merged Crunchyroll and FUNimation the dubbing process shifted to Crunchyroll’s studios in Texas.

Thus, Crunchyroll’s Golden Kamuy Season 5 English dub release date should be several weeks after the fifth season premieres with English subtitles.

Golden Kamuy dick sizes are officially ranked

The story for the anime series is based on the Golden Kamuy manga by Satoru Noda. Believe it or not, the original inspiration was to create a Food Wars!-esque hunting manga that featured a soldier returning from the Russo-Japanese War to the Hokkaido region.

Noda’s managing editor introduced him to a novel about hunting set in Hokkaido and the rest was history.

“I think ‘hunting’ includes everything from catching an animal and eating the meat, using the fur and bone to make daily goods, to selling the goods to get money. So the depiction of food was naturally part of it,” he explained. “But if it’s only about hunting, I would quickly run out of materials, so I decided to throw in various other elements.”

Oddly enough, Noda doesn’t like reading cooking manga. But as a creator, he takes his art seriously so he endeavored to properly research to ensure the cooking scenes were done properly.

But Noda-sensei is certainly known for his odd sense of humor. Noda seriously once said in an interview that his favorite scent is “cat’s balls” and that Marilyn Manson was his favorite imaginary creature.

He also claimed that if he was forced to spend 1 million yen in a single day then he’d buy “penis enlargement surgery that’s worth 1 million yen.” And with that in mind, it’s no surprise that when Noda was picking through 2,200 questions from Golden Kamuy fans for a fanbook most of them were asking him to rank the Golden Kamuy dick sizes.

While Noda thought, “So lewd…,” he reportedly proceeded to answer:

Ushiyama > Tanigaki > Boutarou > Kiroranke > Kikuta > Ariko/Ipopte > Ienaga > Vasily = Nihei > Lightning Bandit > Tsukishima > Tsurumi

Sugimoto, Ogata, Usami, Hijikata, Koito all have average-sized dicks. Shiraishi is on the smaller side. But just so no one felt like osoma, Noda reminded everyone that it’s not just the size that matters, but also whether it’s “good”.

Supinamarada! manga
The Supinamarada! manga was a commercial failure, but thanks to the success of Golden Kamuy interest in the ice hockey manga was revived. Pic credit: Satoru Noda

Golden Kamuy manga ended in 2022 – Creator Satoru Noda rebooted hockey manga Supinamarada!

The Golden Kamuy manga was serialized weekly in Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump magazine from August 2014. Ironically enough, the manga entered its climax phase with the May 2021 release of Golden Kamuy Chapter 277: Operation Defend Hanazawa Yuusaku’s Virginity.

Golden Kamuy Chapter 314 finished the entire story on April 28, 2022. The Golden Kamuy manga’s ending in Volume 31 was released on July 19, 2022.

VIZ Media is publishing the official English translation of the Golden Kamuy manga series. The English manga was up to Volume 27 as of September 2022, with Volume 28 scheduled to be released on February 21, 2023, and Volume 29 on June 20, 2023. It’s possible that the final volume will be released in English by the end of 2023.

In April 2022, Weekly Young Jump announced that Noda would reboot the Supinamarada! manga that was canceled back in 2021 after releasing only six volumes. The exact release date of the Supinmarada! reboot has not been announced.

Set in Noda’s hometown of Hokkaido, the story was about an ice figure skater named Shirakawa Rou who quit before his Olympics qualifier when his mother died in a car accident. The grief-stricken young man moved with his sister Haruna to their grandfather’s home in Hokkaido. There Shirakawa learns to play ice hockey and competes against rival schools.

The only connection to Golden Kamuy is the Supinamarada! character Toshimitsu Nihei, who shares the name and appearance of the bear hunter Tetsuzou Nihei.

Golden Kamuy manga compared to the anime

Many manga fans complained about the way that Geno Studio adapted the story even though the series composition writer remained the same with Studio Brain’s Base. The problem was that the writer condensed the story by skipping some chapters and certain scenes in order for the first season to reach Chapter 62.

The second season skipped ahead to Chapter 70 and finished with Volume 14: Chapter 139 in order to reach the turning point involving Sugimoto and Nopperabou, Asirpa’s father.

Thankfully, some of the skipped funny moments were released online on YouTube as animated 30-second shorts while lengthier story arcs were released as OVA episodes.

OVA 1 adapted the Barato story arc in Volume 6 (Chapters 55 through 59), which featured a battle between the sniper Ogata Hyakunosuke and Bakumatsu hero Hijikata Toshizo.

OVA 2 adapted the “Escape King” Shiraishi Yoshitake’s backstory from Volume 9 (and Chapter 104) that the main anime skipped.

OVA 3 adapted the Monster Bear & the Yakuzas story arc from skipped chapters 63 through 70.

OVA 4 adapted the crazy/censored Shiton the Animals’ Friend story arc from Chapters 108 through 113.

Golden Kamuy Manga Anehata Shiton Bear
The Golden Kamuy anime series has plenty of WTF moments, but Anehata Shiton the Bearf**ker is pretty much in a class of his own. At one time, director Nanba Hitoshi claimed that manga stories involving such explicit content were off-limits, but then Golden Kamuy OVA 4 adapted the Shiton’s Wild Animals story arc. Pic credit: Satoru Noda

Similar to how the second season ended by adapting a partial chapter, the ending of the third season reordered events from multiple chapters in order to focus Sugimoto’s true motive for continuing his journey. In order to pull this off, a short side story arc and a Koito flashback were skipped and the final panels of Chapter 192 were used for the closing scene.

Other than some minor skips, the third season was a much more straightforward adaptation of the manga based on the progressive flow of the story arcs being adapted. The adaptation pacing was also not nearly as rushed since the best stopping point for the third season just happened to be within 50 chapters.

When the fourth season began airing in October 2022, there were roughly 113 chapters left for the anime TV series to adapt before reaching the Grand Finale in Golden Kamuy Chapter 314. Based on the adaptation pacing of previous seasons, that should mean that Golden Kamuy Season 5 will be Golden Kamuy Final Season!

Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 1 did not disappoint in that regard since it maintained the same adaptation pacing of 5 chapters per episode. As Anime Geek previously predicted, the main part of the story picked up again in Chapter 201.

The fourth season’s opening episode even dipped back into the Pet Monster story arc, which runs from the second half of Chapters 171 through part of 176. This was a surprise since Anime Geek previously predicted that this previously skipped story arc could be adapted by Golden Kamuy OVA 5.

Golden Kamuy 28
It’s predicted that Golden Kamuy Season 5 will pick up the story again in Volume 28. Pic credit: Satoru Noda

All in all, it’s predicted that the fourth season’s finale, Golden Kamuy Season 4 Episode 13 (Golden Kamuy Episode 49), will find a stopping point corresponding to Volume 28: Chapter 274.

The beginning of the Sapporo story arc is the best stopping point since Sugimoto’s group finally begins breaking the code of the 24 Abashiri convicts tattooed with the map leading to the gold.

The good news is that there are just enough chapters left to make Golden Kamuy Season 5. It’ll probably be the purest adaptation since there’s no need to condense the story in order to reach the best stopping point, which in this case is the final ending.

Of course, if the fourth season adapts more chapters than predicted then it’s possible that an animated Golden Kamuy movie will cap off the series. Golden Kamuy Chapter 314 is conveniently titled “Grand Finale” and we’re hoping the entire manga series will be animated, regardless of the format!

English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can jump to Volume 28 when it comes out in February 2023.

Golden Kamuy S5 anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)

The Ainu name of Asirpa’s father Wilk, Horkew Oskoni, is the key to solving the coded tattoo skins. They’re going to bet it all on the information that Boutarou revealed before he died. It’s now a race to beat Tsurumi to the gold.

But first, in true Golden Kamuy style, there will be a flashback arc! Sugimoto drifts to sleep, dreaming of a time before he was in the army, trying to make his way through the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. The seeds of Sugimoto’s current situation were sown then, back when he found himself caught up in the intrigues of the competing military factions.

It turns out that back then Lieutenant General Hidenobu Okuda intended on using the Ainu gold to control the factions within the army and the government. And various characters have surprising connections in their pasts.

Back in the present time, Sugimoto awakens from the dream. Asirpa and Hijikata are still trying to decipher the tattoo code. The words that don’t fit with her father’s name are false leads. And they’re quickly piecing together a map.

Meanwhile, Tsurumi shocks the 7th Division by declaring that he has solved the tattoo code. They are doubly shocked when Tsurumi pulls a gun and shoots someone twice in the chest!

It turns out that this person had been spying for the Central Government but a disguised drop was intercepted by Usami and given to Tsurumi. This spy may have been shot but he’s not dead yet. He tells Tsurumi that he’s reserved a seat for Tsurumi next to him on his own VIP seat to hell, but when the spy pulls out his own guns he’s quickly shot in the head by Tsukishima.

The final battle for the old is coming to a head. Tsurumi orders the 7th Division to load up guns and ammo and quickly bring in their allies from everywhere.

Back on the train, Asirpa has created a completed map. The lines all reveal the shape of Fort Goryokaku in the city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. It’s now a race to the finish line as everyone converges on Hakodate.

Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Golden Kamuy Season 5 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!

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