'Sakamoto Days' Season One Review: It was pretty good!

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It took a while but I finally finished the first season of Sakamoto Days, somewhat pushed by a recent revisit into the world of anime. I've primarily been finding older shows to watch that I had missed throughout the years, finding the older and more obscure ones that perhaps don't have the best reviews, though Sakamoto Days is an ongoing anime series that I found myself enjoying but stopped watching when I had caught up with all of the released episodes. The first season recently finished, and given I had also finished a few shows I figured I'd jump back into it and watch the remaining episodes. This has been a fun show so far, one that reminds me of a few other anime shows from the past that handled humour in a similar fashion.

I think the humour is what adds to the charm of it all, it isn't like the rest at the moment, where much of the show takes place around boring fantasy settings or leans perhaps too much on the humour side of things. There are still events unfolding within the show that give it some weight. After all, this is a show mostly about two assassins: one now old, fat and retired, another younger and finding a better life for himself under the now retired assassin's wing. Their paths only crossing because the younger assassin was tasked with taking him out for leaving the assassin world. It reminds a bit of John Wick and how there's that foundation to the world of assassins, a code even.

Sakamoto, despite being old and fat, is still very much in his prime. A highly dangerous man when he needs to be, though finding a way to remain true to his new ethics by protecting people rather than dishing out death. This seems like it's something that has been hammered into him mostly by his wife, which I think is a nice touch given it shows the new lifestyle he has come to enjoy. Starting a family and going into a more simple life of running a shop. The show's more comedic moments come through with the design of his character, overly exaggerating certain features of his and giving him a more cartoonish look. For example, his chubby neck fat swaying with the motion of his body during fight scenes. Or a sudden change in his appearance that shows him back into his slim, youthful look in his golden days.

Drama remains with the concept of Sakamoto being a target still. And Shin with his own agenda of being as strong as Sakamoto one day without changing his values. Finding his own path while serving as a partner to Sakamoto. Other characters in the show are pretty fun but don't see quite the same level of screen time. One character has a bird and is a sniper; there was an episode that focused more on him but like most other characters he was pushed aside to promote the main story a bit more going into the second half of the season. Another character was a strange old man with a sword that seems to have an insane amount of power, decimating everything in his path. I would've loved to have seen more on him, though it seems like it's intentional that we haven't seen much else from him since.

Regarding the animation, it has its moments for sure. Some fight scenes look really good, and other moments the show has a bit of cheapness to it where you can see things were a bit rushed or just not cared for to the same degree. Though it's easy to overlook such moments given the rest of the show's general charm. I'm looking forward to the second season, though I do hope it can bring back more of those previous characters a bit more. Though I can see them being used more as plot points when necessary more than anything else.

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