In "Sakamoto Days", the titular Tarou Sakamoto is a legendary assassin who was renowned in the underworld for being immensely powerful....until one day, he gives it all up to be with a convenience store clerk named Aoi. Five years later, he has married Aoi, had a daughter with her, started running his own convenience store, and - perhaps the most shocking change of all - is now overweight. Don't be fooled by his change in body type, however, as Sakamoto's strength has not diminished at all in the past five years. Good thing, too, because a large bounty has been placed on Sakamoto's head, and as a result, all of the local hitmen want a hit on him now. Alongside his new employees, clairvoyant ex-assassin Shin Asakura and mafia daughter Xiaotang Lu, Sakamoto fights to protect his family while also trying to respect his wife's "no killing" rule.
Normally, I save talking about an anime's animation for near the end of a review, but in the case of Sakamoto Days, it's an elephant I should probably address now. Yes, the animation can feel a little stiff in some places, but I can at least compliment how cool and well-paced the action scenes are. TMS Entertainment did as good of a job as they could, especially considering that they were also working on season 4 of Dr. Stone - another well-known Shounen Jump series - this season. There is also some really good background music during the action scenes, which really helps to elevate them. Speaking of music, the opening and ending themes - "Hashire SAKAMOTO" by Vaundy and "Futsuu" by Conton Candy, respectively - are both solid songs, with the former going especially hard and being a good fit for the series.
I don't know what possessed me to stick to watching the English dub for the entire first half of this anime, especially since the Japanese cast seems pretty solid - Sakamoto is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, for crying out loud! - but I did, anyway. Luckily, Sakamoto Days has a pretty good English dub. Most of the English cast gave good performances with voices that matched their characters well; Matthew Mercer and Dallas Liu, the respective voices of Sakamoto and Shin, did especially well in their roles. The only exception I'd say there was in terms of good voice acting was Rosalie Chiang as Lu; not only was her voice not the best fit overall, but something just felt a little off about her performance. Well, maybe I can just chalk it up to inexperience in voice acting and - wait, what do you mean, she voiced the main girl in "Turning Red"?!
Ahem. Anyway, what role could voice actors play in an anime's production without a cast of characters? Before that, though, I want to touch on the story that these characters are in for a bit. On the surface, Sakamoto Days just seems like a simple slice-of-life comedy with some action thrown in for good measure - and to some degree, it is - but the whole bounty thing that I mentioned earlier does ensure there is an actual story arc going on. Honestly, there is a part of me that wishes that there was more of the slice-of-life stuff, but the story we get here isn't bad at all. It doesn't end on a particularly satisfying note, but that's what the upcoming second part and however much of the manga the anime doesn't end up covering are for, I suppose!
Sakamoto is probably the most interesting character here. He's not a very talkative guy, with most of his dialogue coming from Shin reading his mind, and even aside from that, he's got a bit of an air of mystery to him that not many other characters have. Characters would talk about his past as an assassin, but what was he really like back then? How did he even get into that life in the first place? I just can't help but wonder. That doesn't mean that none of the supporting characters are interesting, though. The antagonists are all various degrees of menacing, and Sakamoto's allies are all fun to watch, whether it's because of their likable personalities or the cool action scenes they participate in. Shin, in particular, is especially notable in that regard; his banter with Sakamoto is always fun, his backstory is interesting, and although the ways he uses his mind-reading powers can get a little predictable, he does use them in clever ways. I do wish that we saw more of Aoi Sakamoto, though. Of course, given the kind of character she is, it wouldn't make sense for her to participate in the action scenes, but I would have liked to see the development of her relationship with Tarou Sakamoto besides the montage we get in episode 1 and a bit of backstory in episode 2.
Overall, Sakamoto Days may not be taking over the anime community - and understandably so - but it is off to a good start. I recommend it for people looking for action-comedies with middle-aged protagonists. Wait, never mind, Sakamoto's 27.... Well, I still recommend that you watch it as soon as you can in order to catch up for part 2, which starts airing in July!
