"I'd Hate for it to End": TV Anime Golden Kamuy Interview with Chikahiro Kobayashi, Haruka Shiraishi, and Kentaro Ito

The TV anime Golden Kamuy, which first aired its first season in 2018, is set to broadcast its final chapter starting in January 2026. Currently, the theatrical pre-release version of the final chapter, Golden Kamuy: Sapporo Beer Factory Arc (Part 1 and Part 2), composed of the prologue to the final chapter, is being screened.

As indicated by the title "Final Chapter," the story is entering its climax. While Part 1 saw the primary characters, including protagonist Saichi Sugimoto, gather at the Sapporo Beer Factory, leading to a dizzying array of interconnected motives among different factions and individuals, Part 2 offers highly anticipated, tense scenes that delve into the very core of the Golden Kamuy narrative.

In this article, we interviewed Chikahiro Kobayashi (voicing Saichi Sugimoto), Haruka Shiraishi (voicing Asirpa), and Kentaro Ito (voicing Yoshitake Shiraishi), who have played these major characters for approximately eight years throughout the series. We asked them about how their feelings toward the work have changed since the first season aired in 2018 until the present day.

Kobayashi, for whom Golden Kamuy is considered one of his representative works, reflected: "Compared to when I first got involved, this has become an even more important series to me."

He continued, "Whenever I work with fellow actors from Golden Kamuy on other projects, there’s a special feeling, and even when I’m acting in different roles, it’s a series that somehow stays in my mind." He added sentimentally, "I'd hate for it to end. It's deeply moving."