Winter 2025 Preview: Sakamoto Days

Summary

• The highly anticipated adaptation follows a former hitman whose family life is threatened by his past coming back to haunt him.
• It’s an action comedy elevated by the premise and some strong presentation, especially in the lead’s character design.
• The production staff for the anime is impressive, from a prolific screenwriter to talented designers, and a fantastic composer.

Every couple of years, the anime community rallies in anticipation around a certain kind of adaptation, blending intense action with silly/wholesome comedy, and typically centered around one OP lead. These are anime like One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100, or Spy x Family (let’s be real, Yor is scary powerful), and now, Sakamoto Days is the latest action show to receive similar hype.

Based on the manga by Yuto Suzuki, this shōnen series follows the titular Taro Sakamoto, once the greatest assassin in the world but who left that life behind once he met the love of his next. After getting married and having a daughter, Sakamoto has put on some pounds and owns a convenience store, only to find his past catching up with him and putting his cozy life at risk.

Not Another Retired Assassin Story

It’s a

John Wick

backstory but with a much less tragic inciting incident.

Much of the logline is familiar, but its nuance is found in the presentation, something quickly evident in just the trailers. Compared to the striking and conventionally attractive appearance of Sakamoto in his former prime, his portly appearance as a loving father creates such a charming dichotomy. The fact that he retains much of his frightening proficiency at combat only adds to the comedy. It’s a John Wick backstory but with a much less tragic inciting incident.

Sakamoto (CV: Tomokazu Sugita) has made enemies and the bounty on his head is hard for the denizens of the criminal underworld to resist. Whether his former rivals and partners are in it for the money or simply don’t believe he’s truly out of the game, they’re gunning for him. And because Sakamoto’s wife Aoi (CV: Nao Touyama) makes it clear that if he kills again, their marriage is over, he needs to get… creative about how he incapacitates his foes.

A Killer Convenience Store Staff

Thankfully, he’s not alone and will progressively be joined by a who’s who of fellow assassins turned allies and coworkers at the convenience store. Shin Asakura (CV: Nobunaga Shimazaki) is Sakamoto’s old partner – a young hitman with psychic powers. Next is Xiaotang Lu (CV: Ayane Sakura), an affiliate of the Triad, and Heisuke Mashimo (CV: Ryouta Suzuki), a low-ranking assassin and sniper with a pet parrot named Piisuke.

The Staff Behind Sakamoto Days

The Director and Writer

Sakamoto Days is being animated by TMS Entertainment, the same studio behind Lupin III, Dr. Stone, and Undead Unluck, to name just a few. Its director, Masaki Watanabe, has been a recurring director on the Battle Spirits series at Studio Sunrise and Bandai Namco Pictures, and he was also an episode director on 2022’s Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. His other credits include the Code Geass: Akito the Exiled movies and the 2006 adaptation of Bartender.

The writer behind the adaptation is one Taku Kishimoto and if you’re not familiar with the name, you’re undoubtedly familiar with his work. He is a remarkably prolific screenwriter in anime, credited with series composition on recent shows like Blue Lock, Ranking of Kings, and even The One Piece, Wit Studio’s upcoming remake of the worldwide sensation. Kishimoto also penned the adapted screenplays for Moriarty the Patriot, Haikyuu, and Erased.

Behind the Art and Music

You Moriyama serves as the character designer for the TV anime, and his resume is particularly impressive. Throughout the 2000s, he was a key animator on projects like 2004’s Monster and the first-ever Naruto movie. He was an assistant to director Takeshi Koike on the character designs behind his Lupin III movies and even did background art for Koike’s 2009 cult hit Redline. Perhaps most exciting, he was the director of 2018’s Megalo Box and its sequel from 2021.

Moriyama might not be in the director’s chair here, but his resume spells good things for the artwork. An animation director hasn’t been credited yet, but it would be awesome if it was him. Speaking of artwork, Yukiko Maruyama is the art director, coming hot off the heels of her work on My Hero Academia‘s latest season, the third Overlord movie, and season 3 of KonoSuba.

Maruyama isn’t the only My Hero Academia veteran on the staff, however, as the soundtrack will be composed by Yuki Hayashi, whose career we delved into back in February. Hayashi’s inspirational blend of epic orchestra, intense rock music, and a broad blend of genres besides has cemented him as one of the anime composers out there right now. No matter how hard the animation will work to build hype, the music will work just as hard.

Only One Month to Go

The anime will be split into two parts, the first of which will be premiering on January 11 while the second will air in July. It’s been reported that combined, the TV anime’s first season will be 22 episodes total. Netflix is streaming the series worldwide.

Fans of the manga have been eager to see Sakamoto Days adapted for a long while, and for many, the trailers have been everything they could have dreamed of. Diving into the staff behind the adaptation only makes the adaptation even more exciting, even at the cost of making the next month that much more painful to slog through in the meantime.

Sakamoto Days will be available to stream on Netflix starting January 11.

Source: ANN