Satoru Noda created Golden Kamuy, one of the best treasure hunt stories in existence. Of course, another huge competitor is Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, one of the Shonen Big 3. However, it would be wrong to say Golden Kamuy is any less just because it is not as popular as One Piece.
Golden Kamuy has been one of the best all-encompassing genre anime in recent times. The story has tragedy, drama, comedy, dark humor, gore, and everything you could ask for. The only missing element is the opportunity to let the readers get bored.
Satoru Noda Prizes Character Building in Golden Kamuy
In an interview with Satoru Noda and Yukimura Makoto, the author of Golden Kamuy discussed the ins and outs of a treasure-hunting story. Golden Kamuy is not just a simple story of a treasure chase. Rather than the same old plot cliches, Noda introduced the most insane characters with a cruel yet comic plot.
I don’t intend to write Golden Kamuy as a manga that’s mainly about solving the gold mystery.
Every Golden Kamuy fan knows that the series has never been about just the treasure hunt. It is more about the journey. The adventure itself is not pleasurable at all for the characters, but as readers, you will have a heck of a lot of fun. Why? Because Satoru Noda has created comedy without any bounds in Golden Kamuy.
Noda admitted that he wrote the series thinking of it as a story of people searching for their own roles in life. For Noda, Golden Kamuy is a drama with multiple protagonists. It is a fact that each character in the series is so fleshed out they can rival the protagonist pretty easily.
I feel that I have to write each character with some depth, or else the work would end up half-baked.
Noda’s efforts truly paid off because fans of Golden Kamuy definitely can’t choose their favorite character. With the continuous influx of morally gray-hot men, it is indeed hard to pick a favorite.
Does Golden Kamuy Have the Upper Hand on One Piece for Treasure Hunting Stories?
One Piece began as a treasure-hunt story with the execution of Gol D. Roger, where the existence of an unimaginable treasure was announced. This spurred pirates to search for the titular riches, the One Piece. However, as the story moved forward and Luffy visited more and more islands and nations, it began to become a welfare story.
Rather than focusing on the hidden fortune, Luffy and his crew began to help people wherever they visited. Slowly yet steadily, One Piece became the story of world liberation. Luffy was revealed to be Joy Boy, a famous rebel from the forgotten times. Suddenly, the characters are too involved in political matters and betrayals.
Golden Kamuy, on the other hand, shows the forces of the government but never lets them become the biggest antagonists. The story is all focused on each character, their experiences, and how they play out in the grand story. Each chapter of the manga is electrifying, and the action keeps going.
One Piece, however, is so long and winding that you are bound to get tired in between due to the slow pace and detail-heavy chapters/episodes.
There is no doubt that One Piece is a legendary anime/manga, but in the treasure hunting genre specifically, Satoru Noda has created an extremely strong series.
Golden Kamuy and One Piece are available to read on Viz Media, and the anime are currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
