Sakamoto Days – Episode 1

Content Warning: fatphobia

What’s it about? Sakamoto Taro was the best assassin in the game until one day he fell in love and decided to retire from a life of crime.  He tries to live a quiet life, but his former comrades attack daily only to be easily defeated.  In a strange turn of events, Sakamoto ends up inspiring some of his comrades to quit their jobs and start living more peaceful lives.  

During the first half of the episode, I wasn’t sure if Sakamoto Days would win me over.  The animation looked minimal and simple in comparison to most Shonen Jump anime adaptations.  The premiere also speeds through most of the important events in Sakamoto’s life, which makes it difficult to get attached to him and his family.  Sakamoto, himself, is an extremely quiet guy and the few times he does speak, his voice is usually low and soft.  Basically, I didn’t understand the hype for this series until the true badassery of Sakamoto was shown during the latter half of the episode.  The comedy is based on the fact that he uses candy and chopsticks as weapons in the funniest ways possible before he goes in for the kill with actual weapons.  It’s clear that Sakamoto would rather not kill anymore, but if anyone threatens him or his family, he isn’t afraid to do what needs to be done to protect his peace.  

It started to make sense why the scenes of Sakamoto’s daily life were bland, since they clearly wanted to save the budget for Sakamoto’s fight scenes and the oddly cool weaponry hideout he has at the convenience store.  Action-comedy shows can be a hard sell because there’s only so long one particular joke can be funny until viewers get tired of the same old formula.  Sakamoto’s old teammate, Shin, felt more like the main character of the series since he mostly fills the role of narrator.  Conveniently, Shin can also read people’s minds, which is extremely helpful in making viewers understand what Sakamoto’s thoughts are.  It’s strange seeing how Shin’s mind-reading abilities aren’t valued in the same way that’s established in SPY x FAMILY.  That series made it seem like every organization would fight to the death for Anya’s abilities (if she’s discovered) because of how useful it would be to have access to someone who can obtain secrets from anyone’s mind. Maybe it wanted to differentiate itself?

It’s worth noting that a majority of the jokes seem to center around Sakamoto’s weight and how he let himself go.  While it isn’t overtly said, I can’t help but feel that fat jokes will be a recurring theme in the show.  I also sincerely hope that Sakamoto’s wife and daughter will become more than just their basic assigned roles in Sakamoto’s life…not that Jump titles have the best track record there.  Sakamoto’s wife, in particular, doesn’t have much of a personality aside from being nice, with no nuance to her whatsoever.  How much does she know about Sakamoto’s former life? Is she okay with the fact he has killed people in the past? I just want to feel like she isn’t replaceable in the sea of weird assassins chasing after her husband.  

Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about this one folks.  Sakamoto Days definitely deserves its success, but I’m not sure if it has enough drawing power for me, personally.  Despite my conflicting feelings, I think our readers might enjoy this silly comedy.  It’s the break that we need from the mediocre isekai and fantasy stories we’ve been getting this season.