Sakamoto Days

Episode 16

It seems like we didn't get any comedy sketches this week, but that's for the best, because they likely would have felt a bit out of step here. Sakamoto Days has never fully shied away from some of the over-the-top violence that comes with its action cinema inspirations, but a lot of that has also been balanced out with a level of cartoon mayhem that's helped to keep the tone of this show fairly silly more often than not. That's not quite the case with the bulk of this week's episode, as it's a non-stop train of bloody action, and while it's not quite enough to completely change the tone of this show, it does set the mood in demonstrating how dangerous Slur and his band of killers truly are.

After arriving at JAA headquarters, Slur and Gaku waste no time in laying waste to anyone they come across. Despite their best efforts, none of the assassins here are any real match for these two, and most of them show up to get their heads severed (and honestly, I think this episode might have set a record for the most severed heads I've seen in a single anime episode in recent memory). That might all sound pretty gruesome, but these displays of ultraviolence are delivered with some bits of casual action movie dialogue like Slur mentioning how inconvenient it is that only half the floors in the building have bathrooms, or one guy realizing he shouldn't have come to work today after seeing all his men get wiped out, and these exchanges help to keep the situation here from getting too dark. For all their strength, Slur and Gaku hit a wall in the form of one of the Order members named Takamura, and he turns out to be way more dangerous than either of them. We've seen bits of him throughout the season doing things like muttering to his sword, or casually slicing Tokyo Tower in such a way as to keep it from falling after Sakamoto's battle there, and while nothing he does here as as crazy as that last feat, seeing him deal with these two with relative ease still makes for a pretty cool fight scene.

While Gaku tries to fend off Takamura, Sakamoto finally arrives on the scene, and after coming face to face with Slur, we learn that the two of them do know each other. Slur is an old classmate of Sakamoto's from assassin school named Uzuki, and while we still don't have a full grasp on his motives, he seems to have an axe to grind with the JAA and wants to replace their current social order with his own. We also don't get much on what his previous relationship with Sakamoto was like, but apparently, it was bad enough that Sakamoto tried to kill him. For now, all we see between the two is animosity, and when Slur threatens to target Hana if Sakamoto gets in his way, we see the big guy go on his usual Terminator rampage. Considering how unstoppable Sakamoto is when someone gets under his skin, the fact that Slur can keep up with him says a lot. While we don't get any big animation showcases here to get that across, it's at least fun watching these two throw rapid-fire punches at each other.

Sadly, the fight doesn't last long, as Gaku can't keep Takamura at bay, and Slur is forced to retreat alongside him. Still, the two manage to cut the JAA's numbers considerably, while leaving Sakamoto in the hospital. Given how much the show just threw at us here, it would have been nice if it had slowed down for a bit, but it seems like it's already preparing to set up the next arc. This time, it seems like Sakamoto wants to dig more into Slur's history with the JAA and tries to wrangle where he can get that info out of Nagumo alongside one of the other Order members, Hyo. While there isn't too much to this exchange beyond Sakamoto claiming that he isn't willing to leave the job of keeping his family safe to someone else, he does at least mention that he's willing to trust Shin to have his back. It makes for a nice moment between the two of them after Shin comes down pretty hard on himself for not doing more to help against Slur. It's also funny to see Sakamoto show his resolve to protect his family by slamming Hyo into an MRA table when he tells him to keep out of this, and seeing Hyo walk somehow out of the hospital room with half his body still stuck in the table is a good palate cleanser after how much violence we got early on. Sakamoto does end up learning where he can get the information he wants, and doing so is going to require him to get into the databases of his old assassin school. It should make for a fun time, depending on whether or not the show can continue to keep the action scenes consistent, since this next arc is only going to get more intense in that department, but given that these serial killer brawls turned out pretty decently, I think it'll manage to deliver on some solid theatrics.

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Sakamoto Days is currently streaming on Netflix on Saturdays.