Sakamoto Days

[Buffalobiian]

Genres: action, comedy

Synopsis:
Tarou Sakamoto was considered the greatest hitman of all time. Feared by many, he stood at the top of the underground world until he met and fell in love with a woman. As a result, Sakamoto abandoned his life of crime and now works as a convenience store clerk.

Leaving his shady past behind proves more difficult than Sakamoto initially imagined. Many of his former rivals and partners do not believe that he has truly left the business and show up in hopes of taking him out. Barred from killing, Sakamoto must find creative ways to subdue his enemies and prevent them from bringing harm to his family, his store, and the small town he resides in. MAL

Links: ANN, AniDB, MAL, Official.

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Fun few episodes. Until an overarching plot develops, this is going to be mainly character driven I reckon. I see that this is mostly a physics-bending type of action story.

Young Sakamoto looks badass, like he came straight from a Hellsing chapter.

[Ryllharu]

Yeah, I couldn't get into it at all. I was hoping for something considerably more grounded than what the intro showed, and most of the action following it. There's plenty of superpower series out there, and also plenty of more grounded "former assassin" comedy series.

I will pass on this one.

[DarthEnderX]

Decent so far. Some Spy X Family vibes.

[neflight86]

This is a... decent adaptation of a pretty good battle manga. The animation is not super fluid, but captures most of the choreography that made the panels sing, and doesn't look so expensive that we'll get more cut corners later.

What I always appreciated (and do so here) about SD is that it never shies away from corny bits during the action that intentionally clash with the serious tone, or rather, prevent the tone from ever becoming too serious.

This does eventually become a good shounen, but it'll probably take about 6-7 episodes before the 'world' opens up and sets in motion the actual conflict that drives the series. It's not all gonna be 'guarding the corner store'.

[fireheart]

Didn't check what this show or manga was about and was somewhat confused at first because I mixed it up with Sakamichi no Apollo, reason being I could have sworn it was called Saka something days and not Sakamich no Apollo. Anyway probably going to continue watching it every now and then since it's on netflix.

[Buffalobiian]

Episode 08

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This show is okay.

My biggest issue is that there hasn't been any interesting characters introduced. Every week I'm mostly watching and waiting for things to happen without being particularly invested in anyone's motives. Occasionally I'm met with a "oh that's pretty cool" action scene, like when Sakamoto was telling blind-Shin where to punch, and this time when Sakamoto was telling Shin what to dodge, but other than that stuff is just happening.

It reminds me of Zom 100 actually, in that the art is pretty vibrant overall, with lots of action and decent animation. The premise sounded cool, but we've yet to see them make much out of it yet. Zom100's MC actively grated against my nerves though, while this MC's at least cool for the most part.

[neflight86]

There are, eventually, some more interesting characters introduced, but it does take a good while before anything worthwhile is done with them. That was a problem Sakamoto Days was always going to face; the pacing of its main story that is in no hurry to establish its hook.

[Buffalobiian]

E11

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Mafia taking the Joker off Lu's hands was funny and caught me off guard. This was quite an enjoyable episode. Deer person even went as far as to place bandages on his deer mask.

[neflight86]

12-15

Well, we've reached the peak of what Sakamoto intends to be. As an action comedy, it gets the job done, but the adaptation does not inspire, sadly. To be fair, without some serious animation budget, the panels in the manga would be hard pressed to look good or plausible in motion. It rides by on spectacle most of the time, which is what we are seeing here, in an almost 'moving manga' way, which isn't fair because there is a good amount of motion, but the way the characters contrast with the background art emphasize how few frames are cell art- a strange problem I haven't seen in many other anime.

As for story, we now have various sides clashing and killing in flippant ways that might just infuriate certain posters here, but the characters are, as always in shounen, the stars of the show. They (Slur and the Order) don't disappoint. Their art reminds me of Jojo's characters who couldn't afford the haute couture designer clothes. Next episode is a full on office building massacre!

[neflight86]

15

Sorry, I mis-numbered eps last post. This JAA mini-arc was probably the best the series has been so far as a traditional shounen, though most of the humor is set by the wayside during the big standoff. Somehow it gets through that hairy battle and a brief hospital scene in the same episode. The pacing seems actually a bit too fast, but nothing important seems missing, so I guess its just me.

[DarthEnderX]

The Assassin HQ is literally just The Continental from John Wick!

[neflight86]

Sort of, except killing isn't verboten there.

[DarthEnderX]

Sort of, except killing isn't verboten there.

I mean the exterior of the building is literally the same. It's that same "built on a triangular street corner" design.

[DarthEnderX]

06

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They were saving up their budget for that one.


07

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Wooo! Exam Arc!

[DarthEnderX]

12

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Okay season. Ep 6 was definitely the high point.

[Buffalobiian]

They've hooked me in for another season with gender-bender Sakamoto.

[DarthEnderX]

It's almost disappointing knowing they're only going to get to go to the academy for a day.

[Buffalobiian]

He's currently the "pissed off, badass version" of his wife that we'd otherwise never see.

Also, talking about appearances etc... I just noticed that technically he has a mustache when he's fat, but that get neglected when he loses weight.

[DarthEnderX]

Also, talking about appearances etc... I just noticed that technically he has a mustache when he's fat, but that get neglected when he loses weight.

I noticed it immediately. At first I chalked it up to just being an extreme transformation. But when the mustache came BACK as soon as he changed back I realized it was just meant to be a gag.