The Summer 2025 Anime Preview Guide - Sakamoto Days Season 2

Taro Sakamoto, once the world's greatest assassin, is now a retired family man. However, the underworld keeps pulling him back in. This time, four serial killers are on the loose and coming for not only him but his friends and family as well. Does he have what it takes to stop them and—more importantly—can he do so without killing them?

Sakamoto Days Season 2 is based on the manga series by Yuuto Suzuki. The anime series is streaming on Netflix on Mondays.

Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast. It jumped up a notch. Lu stabbed a guy in the arm. There were razor wire eviscerations and exploding heads... and Osaragi killed a girl with a buzzsaw. This episode is a lot of things but “slow” isn't one of them.

The odd thing about this episode is, despite the overwhelming amount of awesomely animated action, its actually anti-climatic. While Saw is able to push Shin and Lu to their limits, the two come out on top little worse for wear. And when we see the members of The Order come up against the serial killers, it's not really even a fight. They're so in control, it's obvious that The Order members will win the moment they get serious.

This ends up leaving this week's cliffhanger a lot weaker than it otherwise would be. If Lu and Shin can beat one of these chumps and Osaragi utterly destroy one, it's hard to imagine Sakamoto having any trouble whatsoever. And with Heisuke on top of Tokyo Tower with a line of sight on the whole area, narrative tension is basically non-existent.

But while the serial killers are turning out to be far weaker than expected, the idea that they're just supposed to be a distraction works well as a plot point for the greater scheme happening behind the scenes. After all, they have no issue killing rank and file assassins—so they work as a way of keeping The Order (and Sakamoto) busy if nothing else.

All this begs the question as to what Slur's grand plan is. And honestly, we don't even have a hint as of yet. However, with two serial killers left to deal with, it looks like Slur is one step ahead of our heroes at the very least—and that makes for some solid looming dread.

The premiere of Sakamoto Days can be split cleanly into two parts. The first is, oddly enough, not really about our main characters. Rather it is a reintroduction to the extended cast. On one hand, we have The Order—the assassins whose job it is to keep the other assassins in order. Through their little car ride, we learn a bit about their various personalities—and in the case of those we've not spent much time with, a bit about what they can do.

On the other hand, we have our bad guys for the season, escaped serial killers Dump, Saw, Apart, and Minimalist. Like with The Order, we get a short showing of their personalities and powers—solidifying the threat Sakamoto and friends face.

The back half of the episode is spent on Saw's attempts to kill Shin and Lu. Through the fight and Shin's mind-reading powers, we see the big difference between these serial killers and the assassins they've faced before. The serial killers are killing for fun—they aren't making any calculated plans; there's nothing on their minds but the general need to kill. This means Shin is at a distinct disadvantage.

So, of course, this give Shin the perfect opportunity to get a new psychic power—one that seemingly allows him to think like the people he's close to. In this case, it's Sakamoto he emulates which gives Shin Sakamoto's foresight while fighting. It's a cool evolution of his powers—and given how much time he's spent in Sakamoto's head over the first season, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Unfortunately, the fight ends mid-way—and at a moment where I suspect Saw starts his counterattack. However, given the fact that bottle of alcohol disinfectant ended up right next to Lu, I have a feeling that Drunken Master Lu is also about to make another appearance.

All in all, this is far from the best episode of Sakamoto Days, but it at least gets all the monotonous stuff out of the way so that we can get right into the action from now on.

I can only imagine that taking up a profession as an assassin means you need to come to terms with a lot of really screwed up stuff. Killing fundamentally should not be an easy thing to do so it's interesting seeing the different perspectives from all the characters who have killing take up a major aspect of their life. Some people treat killing as a job. Some people treat killing as a means to an end. Some people get enjoyment out of other people's deaths while others just can't stop. This means that there are some interesting conversations and philosophies from characters during some pretty well choreographed fight scenes—and that's one of the things I like a lot about Sakamoto Days.

That being said, I do feel like the fight scene at the temple that ended up taking up a majority of the episode wasn't really the show at its strongest. It felt like the show was trying to create some innate tragedy with the character Dump, who didn't seem like she wanted to be a killer but more so was forced to kill a lot of people by accident whenever she had a strong affection for them. I'm guessing the idea is that whenever she loves somebody or gets close to them, her body just kills them as a reflex and she feels all alone. The problem is her dialogue and the lack of clarity on how her ability works makes it very hard for me to be sympathetic towards her. She seems to have pretty solid control over the spikes on her body, so I'm not sure if she's just crazy with passion or if this is a writing oversight. Or maybe I'm missing a major aspect of how the show is explaining her abilities.

So the cast managed to get rid of about half of the serial killers, but there are still a bunch of moving parts going on in the background. It'll be interesting to see what The Order has planned as well as how Sakamoto's family is going to fit into the situation given how this episode ends. It's funny that Sakamoto himself hasn't really done anything directly just yet, but I'm sure the show is saving up to use him for the next big fight. There's a lot of action and a lot of moving parts that definitely help keep things engaging.

The serial killers are coming! The serial killers are coming! Sakamoto Days has always done a good job of establishing the hierarchy of power amongst all of the other assassins within the series. Now we're getting introduced to straight up serial killers and I like how the show makes it very clear that even though one group of people does it for a job and another group does it for pleasure, killing is still killing at the end of the day. The threat level is still very high so we have to make sure that everybody is up to speed. I like the fact that this episode doesn't really hold our hands but that's also because the show is really just picking up from where the last episode left off. The scale of the show is getting bigger and thus we need to make sure that we are properly prepared for it.

We see this with Sakamoto training a lot more. We get glimpses into other characters that probably are far stronger than him already and, in the second half, compare them to characters like Shin and Lu, who are definitely at the bottom of the show's power scaling. That's probably why the end of this episode is about them taking those first steps to catch up to everybody. Shin gets his psychic Super Saiyan transformation and I'm sure Lu will have her moment to shine later too. Hopefully, the show doesn't end up overcorrecting and closing the gap too soon. It makes sense, after all, why Sakamoto and other characters would be so many leagues stronger. This is something that often happens when series try to transition from an action comedy to a battle action format—because suddenly we have to sort of ground a lot of the goofier antics that happened before. Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case just yet because the show is still keeping its relatively goofy charm, it's just raising the stakes this time.

I will say a bit mixed on the performances of the Sakamoto Days dub. I'm the one hand, I think it's impressive that they are utilizing actors that typically don't do anime. The performances are mostly solid across-the-board. It just feels a bit rough occasionally when we get to some characters like Shin and Lu, who occasionally will have a bit of an awkward line that I would have liked to hear retaken. Still, if their work on this show ends up giving them more involvement in anime dub production moving forward, then we could potentially see a lot more varied performances in the future. For now this feels like a reasonable transition and I'm curious to see the extent of some of these new abilities that are on display.

While last week's episode kicked off the show's second cour with its usual mix of action and comedy, this one is all about the action as the battles against the serial killers kick into high gear. Although Sakamoto Days has never been shy about its action movie aesthetic, this episode is a good example of what happens when it really leans into it—as this one is largely just concerned with moving from one action scene to the next. It's a fun time, but it also makes for an episode that's a little light on substance.

Continuing on from last time, we get the end to Shin and Lu's fight with the serial killer, Saw. Shin learns how to use his mind reading powers to start detecting how Saw is going to move just reading his motor functions, which is cool, but nothing too unexpected for a solution in a standard shonen fight. What's a bit more inspired, is Lu's contribution to this battle as she uses her Drunken Fist to help bail Shin out of trouble—but rather than being a happy drunk or a sad drunk, she's somehow become “Mafia Drunk”, which equates to her suddenly becoming more domineering and ruthless. Since Lu is usually a very silly character, the contrast here manages to be cool and hilarious simultaneously—and watching Saw go from talking about how much he loves killing people to begging Lu not to kill him is just as fun. Having him escape from Shin and Lu only to be killed by one of The Order members was a bit anticlimactic, but the comedic timing of Saw realizing who he was sharing a taxi with right before getting splattered was pretty impeccable so that more or less balanced it out.

The other big action scene this week pits Osaragi from The Order against another one of the serial killers, Dump. Having the fight take place while Osaragi is at a local shrine praying that she'll have the opportunity to kill one of these killers herself is a good bit—and having Osaragi “demonstrate” how to pray at a shrine by bashing Dump's skull into an offering table feels like an exchange that could have been ripped right out of an action blockbuster. Sadly the actual fight isn't as memorable as that bit of violence, but it's consistent enough that it mostly serves its purpose.

There's also not much going on with either of characters as Osaragi has largely been portrayed as being a bit scatterbrained when it comes to anything but her job as an assassin, while Dump's M.O. has been that she finds people to be at their most beautiful before dying and kills as an expression of love. The episode does up play Dump's obsession with her brand of love as she doesn't quite comprehend why the world wants to punish her for it, but there isn't much there to empathize with. It's not all that interesting of a motivation, so these attempts at drama fell a bit flat for me. I did at least get a bit more out of Osaragi's response to this, as she's accepted that killers like the two of them shouldn't be allowed to exist, and only loves having ones like Dump around because being tasked with keeping them in check gives her a sense of purpose. This isn't the most in-depth characterization, but it works for an action series as straightforward as this one, and seeing Osaragi tell Dump she loves her before cutting through her with a saw is probably the most metal thing to happen in the show so far.

Beyond the action though, there isn't much else going on here. We do see that the alliance between the serial killers and Slur's group isn't very tight, and one of them slices up Kashima, which would be a shocking twist, if not for the bigger shock of Kashima surviving this. In fact, not only does he survive, but he even holds a full conversation with Slur while most of his body parts are all over the floor—and it really gets across the heightened cartoon reality this series runs on. There's also the threat of one of the killers coming after Aoi, but we'll have to wait until next week to see how that shakes out. Being such an action focused episode didn't leave a whole lot to discuss here, but since that's part of the show's bread and butter at this point, that's just a sign that it's still running smoothly, and I hope the series can maintain that as we get deeper into this arc.

Sakamoto Days is back after a three month break and it kicks off pretty much exactly where it left off. I found the first cour of the show to be a decent, if not exactly exceptional adaptation of the manga, and for better or worse, that seems to still be holding true for this one. Anyone who was hoping that the break would result in some kind of massive uptick in production quality is likely to be let down, and given how this half is going to be a lot more action intensive, I'm a bit more afraid of how well the animation will keep up. On the positive side, we do at least get a much better OP than the first one, and the visual presentation of it feels a lot more in line with the visual style of the manga, so I'm willing to take small victories where I can get them.

As for the episode itself, it basically drops us right back into the fray with the group of serial killers currently after Sakamoto. We're also reintroduced to each of their gimmicks, but since we got a good enough handle on that in the last episode I don't feel like it was particularly necessary. One important piece of new information that we get though, is that these guys are also on the radar of The Order, and they're planning on dealing with them personally. The Order is more than willing to resort to lethal methods to deal with these killers but since they're the only clue Sakamoto has to Slur, he'd rather keep them alive—and this seems like it could be setting up a big three-way conflict as we get deeper into the season.

While all this is going on, Shin and Lu are out shopping as they try to figure out how to avoid slowing Sakamoto down, but end up having the misfortune to run into one of the serial killers, Saw. He's frankly not all that interesting aside from his gimmick of wanting to give people exciting deaths so they'll be less boring to him, but it's always a delight to hear David Vincent in a villain role—and he's pretty entertaining here. Fighting Saw gives Shin and Lu the opportunity to learn how they stack up against the rest of the underworld—and while this does mostly veer into discussing power levels, it does at least result in a good punchline. Since he's gotten rusty over the years, Sakamoto apparently only registers as a B-rank level threat as opposed to the members of The Order who are all considered to be ranked S—even with Sakamoto still otherwise being portrayed as an unstoppable machine of violence. That sounds pretty par the course for shonen power scaling though, so the real surprise comes upon discovering that Lu is somehow ranked as a C, while poor Shin is ranked just above the bottom in D. He obviously doesn't take this very well, especially since Lu's only really threatening while taking a drink—and seeing Shin contemplating this while being comforted by a bunch of puppies is the funniest thing to come out of the episode.

As for the fight itself…it's mostly just okay. Much like with the show's first half, the action here looks perfectly serviceable and rarely ever feels so stiff as to be actively distracting, but there's not a ton of movement either, and anyone paying enough attention can probably tell where the team is cutting corners with speed lines and impact frames. Again, it's not very ideal, but it's functional enough that bringing up the shortcomings would feel like beating a dead horse, so I'm gonna keep trying to refrain from doing so unless something looks particularly rough. Aside from that, there isn't really much else to bring up about the episode since it feels like more of a direct continuation than a mid-season opener—and we're gonna have to wait till next week to see how the fight here actually ends. Despite the adaptation's imperfections, it's nice to have Sakamoto Days back. And so long as it can keep holding itself together, it should keep making for a good time—even if it's not always a great one.

Much like last week, Taro Sakamoto is sidelined in his own show again, but that's ok, as our focus this time is on two badass ladies beating the crap out of their enemies. First comes the conclusion of the battle between Shin, Lu, and serial killer Saw. Both our heroes develop new abilities just in the nick of time, with Lu upgrading his “readiness potential,” meaning he's better able to anticipate attacks even without reading his opponent's mind. While this is initially successful, his body isn't used to this new power and makes him vomit blood and collapse, becoming easy prey for Saw. Thankfully Lu demonstrates a hot new “drunken fist” power – after drinking an entire bottle of pure ethanol, just like her old grandad used to! Her family sounds terrifying. This new persona lets down her hair, and the tone of her voice by several octaves. I almost felt sorry for the trembling Saw as he begs the unexpectedly terrifying woman for his life. Ultimately though, his (extremely bloody) death comes at the hands of another assassin, keeping both Lu and Shin's hands clean of murder.

Even more unsettling is the deadpan Osaragi, who always dresses as if she's in mourning. She's paired with unhinged female serial killer Dump, and their fight is bloody, brutal, and invigoratingly entertaining. It's probably the best action scene the show has managed to muster so far, a mix of dark humor, twisted emotion, and painful-looking violence. Despite her expressionless demeanor, Osanagi is deeply irritated by the lip-smacking, emotionally unstable, spike-wielding monster. They seem almost evenly matched for a while, and as they duke it out, wrecking a shrine in the process, we learn a little more of Dump's bizarre backstory. All of these Death Row Inmates seem to be psychologically broken in one way or another (not that I expect anyone who engages in serial murdering to be the picture of mental health), and Dump can only feel true love and attraction to someone she's in the process of murdering. Their mortal fear focuses all of their attention on her, you see.

Shame that once she's impaled them, their bloodied, limp corpses don't care about anything any more, let alone Dump. As Osanagi finally dismembers her with an ultra-heavy circular saw she carries in a handy briefcase, she announces that she “loves” Dump, as she ends her life. I wonder if that's her own way of expressing some kind of empathy, even kindness, to someone who doesn't deserve it.

Meanwhile we learn that the Death Row Inmates are all expendable as far as Slur is concerned. He's only using them to draw out The Order's members, though for what specific reason we're not yet sure. Razor wire-user Apart isn't keen on being used though, and chops up deer head-wearing Kashima, not that it kills him. From the looks of the scars all over his body, he's been diced up and re-sutured together multiple times. For a comedy show, these characters sure are all quite disturbing. Certainly the ending is unsettling, leaving us on a cliffhanger with one of the Death Row Inmates looming over Sakamoto's wife. Once Sakamoto finds out, thinks aren't going to go well for his enemies...

For a goofy comedy show, Sakamoto Days sure can be bloody, though perhaps that's not unexpected when most of the cast comprise of either current or ex-hit men. The opening scenes involve a group of terrifying foreign “Death Row Inmates” violently murdering their way through Japan's underworld, female killer “Dump” traumatically impaling a man at the height of his fear of death, while steel wire-wielding “Apart” slices up his victim's entire body, before placing the resulting circular meat slabs in a pleasingly systematic arrangement. These unsettling murderers are a step up from the relatively less psychotic enemies faced by Taro Sakamoto in the show's first half.

Despite his intentions to retire and lead a quiet, happy family life, poor Sakamoto never seems to get a break, not since main antagonist Slur put out a massive bounty on his head. His friends (and convenience store employees) Shin and Lu are now also on Sakamoto's enemies' radar, with Sakamoto understandably upset that his threat level is regarded as a “mere” B+. Meanwhile poor Shin is rated “D” with even the non-hit-woman Lu ranking above him (probably because she's such a menace when drunk).

Much of this episode focuses on characters other than Sakamoto, from the aforementioned, creepy Death Row Inmates, to the various members of The Order. Despite also being assassins, they're comparatively less disturbing, though the deadpan Osaragi's attitude to driving is terrifying in its own way. Shin and Lu are attacked by the axe-on-a-rope-wielding Saw, a maniac so deranged that Shin's mind-reading ability is powerless against him (as all he thinks is “kill… kill… kill… kill…”). This is a very entertaining scene, with these two adorable characters in real, mortal danger, and a cliffhanger leaving the battle unresolved.

While Sakamoto Days won't ever win awards for presentation, it's a show that pretty much achieves the minimum in both animation and aesthetics. It's still an entertaining show to watch, though primarily due to its delightful characters and humor. I do love shows that mix the macabre and mirthsome, so I'm more than willing to overlook the lack of visual polish we've almost come to expect from other Shonen Jump animated adaptations like Spy x Family and DAN DA DAN. As long as you don't come to Sakamoto Days expecting revelatory visuals or a particularly deep story, it's a fine way to spend 24 minutes per week. Also Lu is always adorable—though perhaps I just have a thing for cute Chinese anime girls.