The Gang is All-In As a New Member is Added to the Family in SAKAMOTO DAYS Episode 11

The following contains spoilers for SAKAMOTO DAYS, Episode 11, “Casino Battle”, available on Netflix.

In the 11th episode of SAKAMOTO DAYS, which is the final episode of the first part of the first season, with the second part set to release this July, the Sakamotos have their hands full with the casino challenge issued to them by Lu Wutang towards the end of the previous episode. With Shin and Sakamoto oblivious to the rules of most, if not all, casino games, their chances of making more money than the intelligent Wutang are incredibly low.

However, as the episode reveals more of Wutang’s past, we come to understand that his control over the Lu Clan’s mafia is shaky at best, not to mention his emotions informing much of his roundabout way of getting Lu to go back to China with him. It was a decent end to the first cours of SAKAMOTO DAYS, but lacked the augustness of a so-called “finale”, even if just for the first half of the first season.

RELATED

Sakamoto Days Series Reveals New Visual Ahead of Cour 2

Sakamoto Days returns with intense battles and comedic chaos as Sakamoto faces deadly foes in Cour 2, premiering July 2025 on Netflix.

The Casino Games Begin

Sakamoto and Shin Excel Despite Their Lack of Knowledge

The rules of Wutang’s challenge to the Sakamotos are that they are given 30 million yen in chips, which they need to use to raise even more money. The side with the most money at the end of the challenge wins, but the toughness of this challenge becomes apparent when, less than two minutes after opening, Wutang triples his starting sum in a single move. Shin and Lu are already on edge about it, Lu more so because she understands that Wutang would never issue a challenge he couldn’t win, with his intelligence being the tool he used to climb up the ranks of the mafia, a world in which power is usually the defining factor.

When they consider the possibility that Wutang could be lucky, he rebuffs the idea, citing his intelligence as more of an influence than luck. Sakamoto agrees with this sentiment, adding that the world of assassins is similar, as those who are eager to leave things to “luck” or “fate” are the first ones to die.

With that, the group heads out to make some money, with Shin settling down at a poker table full of newbie-crushing poker veterans, each of whom sees the naivety in Shin’s eyes and mark him as a target, not knowing that he can read minds. Lu Shaotang has a momentary lapse in judgment when she blurts out in front of everybody that Shin doesn’t know what he’s doing, but that helps their cause as the opponents at Shin’s table underestimate him.

His spat with Shaotang leads to an accident and his cards are visible for all to see, leading them all to attempt to bluff Shin into giving up a winning hand, but these attempts fail and Shin goes all in, winning a fat sum for the Sakamotos. Elsewhere, Sakamoto prepares to play roulette, not knowing that the house has rigged the contraption to be controllable at will; however, Sakamoto uses the one chip he saved from his bet and flicks it at the mechanism to get the machine to stop where he needs it to, winning, literally against all odds.

The Origins of Lu Wutang

Episode 11 Reveals Why Wutang is So Adamant on Taking Back Shaotang

While the Sakamotos enjoy some unlikely victories, Wutang continues his winning streak, this time bringing it to a blackjack table, where his intelligence is put on full display. He is capable of remembering which cards have appeared, and by counting the cards, he can figure out when the next 10 is coming, which also means he knows exactly when to ask for a hit and when to fold. As he sits there counting cards, he recalls his first meeting with Lu Shaotang, whom he met when he was 11, and she was 8, when she saved him from neighbourhood bullies. Throughout his life, Wutang had to navigate using his wits because he lacked the strength to compete in more straightforward ways, which earned him the scorn of those around him who had absorbed the idea that power trumps all.

Wutang’s intelligence was never celebrated, so meeting Shaotang was a big moment in his life as it was the first time he’d felt accepted by someone. This flashback explains Wutang’s attachment to Shaotang beyond their stations in the Lu Clan’s mafia, giving the character, who’d been more of a goofball leading up to this point, some much-appreciated depth. As Shaotang explained to Shin, Wutang’s intelligence is what saw him rise to become the “brain” of the mafia, using intelligence to excel in a realm where power is the main currency. After the flashback, Wutang and Team Sakamoto reconvene to see who made the most, and find out that it ended in a tie.

The Tie-Breaker

Due to the lack of casino game knowledge on Team Sakamoto, the tie-breaker is reduced to something simple enough for everyone to be able to participate fairly; the classic American card game known as Old Maid. Rules are simple:

• be the first to retire from the game by discarding the cards in your hand in matching pairs,
• players take turns to draw a card from the player to their left,
• the objective is to avoid the “Old Maid” card, the designated unpaired card in the deck (usually the Joker)

This scene is a lot of fun, with Lu’s inability to lie making for some good comedy and Shin’s palpable excitement showing off a childishness that connects the two characters. The inclusion of two nameless goons in the game to make up for numbers on Wutang’s side was also the kind of silliness that really enhanced the humorousness of the situation, as a mafia sit and watch their boss play cards instead of just shooting his enemies square in the face. Sakamoto uses his superhuman speed to rifle through the disrespectful goon’s cards to pick one that isn’t the Joker, but Wutang is shrewd enough to notice that something strange has happened, so he calls it out.

Shin, excited to use his ability on his opponents, is taken by surprise when Wutang asks him how much of the human mind he can read, given that it is composed of layers (the Freudian components of the psyche), flooding his “verbalized mind” with all the information he can muster. Shin’s brain overheats due to the sheer mass of information, and is incapacitated for the rest of the game. The game comes down to just Sakamoto and Wutang, with the latter having only two cards left. Wutang guesses the right card, but when he tries to take it, Sakamoto strengthens his grip before quickly swapping them; however, that’s where the game ends, as the goons aim their guns at both Sakamoto and Wutang.

The New Addition to the Family

Wutang’s Ridiculous Bluff Saves the Day

Fed up with the games and the way Wutang does things, the goons stage a mutiny reminiscent of Wutang’s past. He gives up pretty easily, but when Sakamoto asks him if he wants to impress his crush, Shaotang, he comes up with a bluff so ridiculous, it shouldn’t have worked, but he manages to convince the goons that, in expectation of an uprising, he pre-emptively rigged their guns with explosions set to go off when the trigger is pulled. It’s one of those “crazy enough to work” situations as they’re distracted enough for Wutang to cue Sakamoto, who starts breaking necks left and right while Shaotang unleashes her signature kick to defeat their enemies and escape. Wutang claims defeat in the contest for Shaotang, but Sakamoto earns his respect by letting it slide.

As it turns out, Wutang doesn’t have much information on “Slur”, but what he does know is that four heinous criminals who were meant to have been killed on death row appear to have made their way to Japan as four different corpses, one for each killer’s preferred method, were discovered recently by one of Wutang’s underworld connects. The episode sets up for the next cours of SAKAMOTO DAYS as it introduces the four main antagonists of the upcoming Death Row Prisoners Arc.

Setting Up For Cours 2

Kashima Brings In Reinforcements

At a nearby “McWonalds”, Dump, Saw, Apart and Minimalist enjoy a meal as they wait for their client to appear. In true SAKAMOTO DAYS fashion, the new characters are complete eccentrics who really stand out in some way, but when their client appears, it all makes sense. Kashima, injured from his past encounter with the Sakamotos, gives the four murderers a list of targets, telling them not to underestimate any of them. The four accept their job and head out, telling Kashima to deliver his next list in a month’s time otherwise they’ll go on a killing spree in Japan.

The relevance of Wutang’s information is that coming into contact with the death row inmates could potentially bring the gang closer to the elusive Slur, who freed and hired them to kill the Sakamotos. The upcoming second cours of SAKAMOTO DAYS is sure to be quite the affair given how the first ended. Despite being a finale; however, the end of the first cours was an episode like any other and didn’t quite have the kind of weight a final episode has, which is likely due to this only being the halfway point of the first season of SAKAMOTO DAYS.