I used to be fairly certain I knew how Sakamoto Days would play out — trope as outdated as time, a retired hitman will get pulled again into the world of assassins and crime. I figured he’d be juggling his double life, hiding the extra violent and harmful elements of his job from his candy, unknowing spouse.
And for about 4 and a half episodes, it performed precisely into my expectations. I used to be pleasantly entertained by the key double-life hijinks, although not essentially on the sting of my seat. However halfway via the fifth episode, the present took an sudden flip — for the higher.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the first six episodes of Sakamoto Days.]
5 years previous to the beginning of the present, legendary hitman Sakamoto left his lifetime of crime to marry his spouse, Aoi. Although Sakamoto now owns a comfort retailer and has a younger daughter named Hana, his hitman abilities are nonetheless sharp. For about 5 episodes, he goes out of his strategy to cover the hazard from Aoi. His new comfort retailer mentees (with double lives of their very own), Lu and Shin, assist him sustain the charade throughout a two-and-a-half-episode arc the place the household goes to a theme park. They fend off assassins in order that Aoi and Hana can blissfully take pleasure in their day. I used to be absolutely anticipating the remainder of the present to observe on this route, with a variety of close to misses and slapstick shenanigans designed to maintain Aoi and Hana unaware of what’s happening.
However early into the fifth episode, Aoi finds out that there’s a bounty on Sakamoto’s head — and he or she’s pissed that he didn’t let her know. She pulls out the household handbook and factors to rule quantity six: “Don’t cover issues from each other.”
Being unfamiliar with the manga, I used to be pleasantly shocked to see Aoi get to do that. I’ve nothing towards twin identities being a supply of humor. Spy x Household does it effectively, with about three completely different layers of intrigue between murderer Yor, spy Loid, and psychic daughter Anya happening at any given time. But it surely’s one other form of hilarious when Hana giggles after setting off a booby entice, and Aoi calmly feedback that the repeated assassination makes an attempt are giving her a headache — however hey, a minimum of the earnings on promoting bandages and gauze have gone up!
I’m at all times tickled when exhibits and films juxtapose over-the-top components and ideas with extra mundane logistics and grounded issues, like an entire networking conference for villains within the Despicable Me world or the informal evening market that the What We Do within the Shadows vampires go to. And contemplating Sakamoto Days has an in-universe hitman coaching academy, full with job boards and certifications, it’s precisely the kind of present to take pleasure in that particular form of humor.
Bringing Aoi into the fold helps these jokes actually land. Whereas Sakamoto, Lu, and Shin are all tangentially concerned within the underworld, she’s solely right here by affiliation. So after all she’s simply gonna need to return to the established order! Aoi is the one who can actually assist promote this complete factor as an extension of her (most popular) mundane life, which implies warring assassins will probably be only one other thing she has to take care of.
The most recent episodes take the motion away from Aoi and Hana for a bit, however I totally stay up for their nonchalant reactions to the waves of assassins and criminals. We’re nonetheless solely midway via season 1, which implies there must be loads of time for them to be delightfully nonplussed by the copious quantities of violence.
Sakamoto Days is at the moment airing on Netflix, with new episodes dropping on Saturdays.
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