The Sakamoto Days Anime Looks Promising So Far. Sakamoto Days Episodes 1 and 2 Review
Has the Sakamoto Days anime finally appealed to its harshest critics? Well, we cannot really be 100% sure.
Amidst the flood of negativity due to the release of the trailers, Sakamoto Days is still hotly anticipated by the anime community and we now have the first two episodes aired.
Sakamoto Days Episode 1 is titled, “The Legendary Hit Man”
This episode adapts Chapter 1 of the same name, which had a page total of 55.
An Inspired But Subdued Opening
“Run, Sakamoto, Run!” by Vaundy is this cour’s opening.
The first 20 seconds with the “SAKAMOTO” letters across the city scenery has the same structure and tempo as Death Note Opening 2: “What’s Up, People?” by Maximum the Hormone
Visually, there is nothing much that pops, especially when compared to the show but the song itself slaps nonetheless.
The opening is mostly visuals of the Sakamoto Family (Shin, Heisuke and Li included) going about their regular routines.
We also get the JAA and other assassins with some of their distinct moves, with Kei Uzuki or Slur, the main antagonist of Sakamoto Days and leader of X’s Organization, presented to hint at his personality.
Interesting, we get the Order member Takamura, who would officially appear in Chapter 38: “No Brakes” as part of the Death Row Prisoners Arc, the third arc of the series and might be placed in Cour 2.
The Pilot Slaps!
The first episode is a solid start, which was already evident in the many, many key animators listed for the episode (some being regulars from TMS Entertainment itself and having worked on Detective Conan) and the high level of polish throughout.
Sakamoto Days Episode 1 Full Staff List:
Script: Taku Kishimoto
SB/ED: Masaki Watanabe
Action Design: Tetsuya Ishikawa
Ass. Director: Akihiro Saitou
Design Co: Masaki Hinata, Yukiko Ban, Yoshiko Takemoto, Hiroko Shigekuni
Prop Design: Ryou Hirata
2D Works: Mariya Kawae… pic.twitter.com/W5ddGbQeYi
— d0nut2x (@d0nut2x) January 5, 2025
Sakamoto Days S1/Cour 1
– Decent Adaptation
– Not all fights had consistent choreo animation there’s 3-4 fights had well animated and the rest are decent
– Production condition had tight schedule (expected tbh)
– A lot veteran tms staff especially detective conan team involved pic.twitter.com/j6aG6dC1i5— KAMS (@KAMS110300) November 10, 2024
We should start with something funny that maybe some of you may have noticed and it is that the very first music track used sounds a bit familiar to anyone who has watched anime for a while now.
You see, the composer of Sakamoto Days is none other than Yuki Hayashi, the composer for Haikyuu!! and My Hero Academia and this track has his obvious signature style, often in more motivational or awesome moments.
However, for the rest of the episode, he has his own distinct flavor for Sakamoto Days, with his more mellow tones, such as the scene with Shin in his room, being way more varied than his most popular selections.
Some parts in the anime have changed, with one example being how in the opening flashback, Sakamoto kills some of his targets with a busted pipe even though he used a knife to cut off heads in the manga.
The use of the pipe is a simplistic but nice touch to show that Sakamoto’s main advantage is his ability to make anything into a weapon, even if pipes are a lot easier for any regular person to make into weapons anyway.
The introduction is still the strongest part of the episode so far, with great character acting and nice shot composition.
The weapons in the entire anime so far look so polished that they feel full of weight and realistic.
The same can be said of the action, where the hits connect and hit, even if the animation may not be as flashy as the likes of Jujutsu Kaisen.
The camera work is also impressive, with both the start of Shin vs Sakamoto in the Sakamoto Store and Sakamoto’s rescue of Shin.
— d0nut2x (@d0nut2x) January 11, 2025
The episode is notable for having a lot of movement in its fight scenes, which should set the tone for the action scenes throughout.
This has also resulted in many fans switching up and warm up to the anime adaptation.
However, this is the first episode and there is a lot of eggs put on this basket so far.
Episode 2 is the Real Quality Tester
Sakamoto Days Episode 2 is titled, “Vs. Son Hee and Bacho”
This episode adapts the first part of Chapter 2: “The Sakamoto Family Rules”, Chapter 4: “China Invasion!” and Chapter 5, where the episode gets its title from.
Interesting choice for an episode title, since the Chapter 4 title might cause some unnecessary reactions.
Notably, we have skipped the bus jacking incident of Chapter 2: and the entirety of Chapter 3: “Officer Nakase and the Mysterious Hero”
These two chapters are more episodic with a villain of the week format and expand the world of Sakamoto Days, so we will see how focusing on plot first, that is the introduction of Lu Shaotang ,will set the pace for the season.
Like the manga, the episode focuses on Lu escaping assassination attempts as the gang seek the key to her parents’ vault.
The episode does give the character design of Lu Shaotang a lot more polish, although they completely change her outfit from more traditional Chinese garbs with white pants to something that could be described as the opposite: a white jacket and mini shorts.
Although the design is not anything offensive or new, the drastic visual change removes an important connection of Lu’s heritage, which she emphasizes through her consistent talking points about her parents.
The episode is less animated than the previous, relying more on flashes and art direction to show a good action scene, especially in the final fight.
Like the previous episode, this sets up the recruitment of another lost character but notably, besides not wanting their involvement, Lu is a lot more receptive to Sakamoto’s way of doing things, not killing the gang boss responsible for her parents’ deaths but instead just let out her anger without losing herself.
Will Sakamoto Days Work As An Anime?
The art direction is overall pretty solid, even if it does look a lot rougher and shadowy yet this does add weight to the scenes, even with less animation.
It is not like every scene looks still but quite the opposite. There is a lot of decent but not overwhelming amounts of character acting.
As to how the action scenes will play out, well we have two or more approaches to look forward.
Episode 1 should not set your expectations for the whole series but it does not mean Episode 2 should disappoint you towards watching the rest as its approach still follows the same flow and sense of weight the action direction of the previous episode would give off.
The loss of episodic moments might help with the pacing but we would be missing out on more fun content to balance the focus on plot.
Let us just hope there is a sense of cohesion throughout this cour.
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