Sakamoto Days – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

The Legendary Hit Man

Episode 1 of Sakamoto Days begins with Taro Sakamoto murdering several men in a building. After that, Taro visits a shop and falls in love with its female owner, Aoi. The narrator chimes in. He says Taro married Aoi, had a kid named Hana, and got fatter. 

Some time passes. Shin, a fellow hitman, looks at Taro’s shop. He wants to meet Taro. Meanwhile, a child draws a target on Taro’s shop’s entrance. The child tells Taro to give him a free juice box if he hits the target with his arrow. 

The child misses the target and trips. The ink in the child’s backpack falls out and ruins a customer’s pants. Before the customer does something harsh, Taro stops the customer with his pen. The customer leaves and Taro checks on the child. Shin introduces himself and tells Taro he’s a hitman. 

Taro ponders murdering Shin. Shin tells him to stop. He tells Taro he used to work under him. Shin and Taro discuss outside the shop. He wants Taro to return to his hitman lifestyle but Taro refuses. While discussing, a passerby arrives and asks Taro to complete a task. 

Taro completes this gentleman’s and other citizens’ tasks. Shin is perplexed by Taro’s role in the town and departs to his car. Shin thinks Taro’s cool despite Taro putting on extra pounds. Then, Shin’s boss calls him. Shin tells his boss that he failed to convince Taro to become a hitman again. 

Shin’s boss wants Shin to murder Taro since he broke one of their gang’s rules. Shin understands and heads to his apartment. He reflects on his partnership with Taro and his boss’s words. Shin argues he should be the one to kill Taro, not some random hitman. 

Shin enters Taro’s shop while Taro is chewing a cough drop. He fires a bullet at Taro but Taro changes the bullet’s trajectory with his cough drop. Taro defeats Shin and Shin wakes up in a bed. Aoi tells Shin he’s at her shop’s second floor. 

While Shin eats dinner with Taro and his family, he learns why Taro abandoned the hitman business. Taro tells Shin that he can visit the shop any time. Shin heads to his boss’s hideout and begs his boss not to kill Taro. His boss refuses. 

Shin tells his boss he’ll commit suicide. He hopes this will convince his boss not to kill Taro. His boss complies, but internally, he still wants to kill Taro. Shin uses his psychic abilities to read his boss’s mind. He engages in a shootout with him and the others. 

Taro listens to their conversation via a device. He opens his shop’s armory, grabs weapons, and heads to Shin’s location. Meanwhile, Shin uses his psychic powers to read his enemies’ minds. His boss warns his underlings not to get too close to Shin because of his abilities. 

Taro arrives and defeats Shin’s boss and his remaining men. He approaches Shin and tampers with his gun. Shin learns Taro planted a bug in his firearm after their clash in the shop. This helped Taro track Shin down. Taro throws a shop apron at Shin. He wants Shin to work at his shop. Shin helps some customers and has a funny conversation with a child.

The episode ends with more customers entering Taro’s shop. 

The Episode Review

With a new season, comes a new Shonen anime for fans to watch and discuss every week. Sakamoto Days begins with an epic clash between Taro and several hitmen. The brawl was a great way to showcase Taro’s abilities to audiences. Most fights and shootouts in here will hook any diehard action junkie. 

Additionally, the episode introduces fans to Shin, whose abilities mirror those of a certain pink-haired girl from another popular action comedy anime. However, the difference is that Shin tells his enemy-turned-ally that he’s a psychic.

Also, it’s fascinating that Shin has a historical connection with Taro. Hopefully, that’ll be explored more in future episodes. Moreover, the animation was nice. Some sequences and shots mirror Yuto Suzuki’s fabulous visuals from the original work. 

While the visuals aren’t downright gorgeous, some moments will excite audiences. But all in all, this was a fun start to Sakamoto Days.