There’s something of a genre of anime and manga that’s started in the wake of Spy X Family – the Domestic Action Series – a series about characters who are balancing a relaxing domestic life with also working (or having worked) in fields that require them to be spectacularly good at carrying out violence. In the case of this year’s Sakamoto Days, it’s a case of an assassin who had gotten out of the game and settled down for domestic life – but unlike (say) John Wick his family is still very much alive.
The audience perspective character is a younger assassin, Shin Asakura, who is a clairvoyant. He is sent to kill Sakamoto, and ends up learning that there’s more to life than just killing people for money, and decides to get out of the game himself – and ends up working part-time at the convenience store that Sakamoto runs, in addition to helping Sakamoto fend off various weird and wacky assassins that are out to kill him – and doing it without killing anybody (because that’s a condition set by Sakamoto’s wife). Along the way, they also end up accumulating some additional allies (either by helping them out or by beating them in a fight) – while also trying to find out who in the hell ordered Sakamoto’s death in the first place.
If there’s anything in this show that is disappointing, it’s that the animation feels lacking in comparison to Spy X Family – the closest other anime series to compare to. It’s not that it’s bad – it’s that this is set up to be something of the big new action anime of the season, and it doesn’t quite live up to that mark. That said, Sakamoto Days is still very well animated with interestingly done fight scenes, and the writing of the source material does a really good job of creating a bunch of new situations for the characters to interact with.
That said, the disappointing part of the series isn’t exactly what my complaint is with the series. Part of the premise is that Sakamato, since he’s no longer an assassin, no longer has to maintain his old bod. He’s still capable of superhuman feats, but he doesn’t look the part. Except in the series, whenever they need to convey that things are serious, have him suddenly revert to his older, slimmer physique, and then he returns to being chubby when things are fine. It’s an odd choice, and a kind of disappointing one.
I did enjoy Sakamoto Days, and will watch the next season when it goes up on Netflix, but it feels more like it stood out based on the fact that we’re waiting for the next season of Spy X Family than anything else.
Sakamoto Days is available for streaming on Netflix.
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