Sakamoto Days

Episode 9

Sakamoto has been compared to John Wick many times before, but it's only in this episode that we see how apt that comparison truly is. While the show certainly hasn't been afraid to portray him as an unstoppable force of cartoon violence, what we see here really takes the cake as we see how dangerous he can be with even the most mundane of tools to work with. The show pushes the envelope of his capabilities to their absolute limit. The ensuing mayhem results in the show's best action showcase and some of the best raw entertainment it has ever had on offer.

Before we get to the big Sakamoto spotlight, there's still the rest of Shin and Heisuke's fight with Seba, which is also pretty good, albeit less impressive. At first, Heisuke's sniping skills give him an advantage since his excellent hearing and skill with ricochet shots let him hit Seba no matter where he hides, but Seba manages to use his invisibility suit to catch Heisuke off guard. When Seba closes in to finish him off, Heisuke shoots the sprinklers above them, making Seba just visible enough for Shin to knock him out. It's all pretty straightforward, but it makes for a decent fight. While it's not exactly cinematic, the shot of Shin attacking Seba just as the water from the sprinklers starts pouring on him is one of the more cinematic-looking ones we've gotten out of the show thus far. More than the fight itself, the best part of all this was discovering that rather than Heisuke's simple-minded nature making it easier for Shin to read his mind, it makes it harder, as Shin only sees Heisuke's thoughts as vague cartoon scribbles to interpret. Seeing them pull off a good team effort despite that was pretty funny and it makes me wish we could get more bits like this with Shin's mind-reading.

At any rate, this brings us to the main event with Sakamoto's face-off against Kashima. Between Sakamoto's current physique and Kashima's array of weapons, Kashima is all but certain he has the edge in this fight, but it turns out Sakamoto came prepared with some tools of his own. What tools, you might ask? A mechanical pencil, some prize stickers, and a stamp sheet. Kashima foolishly assumes that Sakamoto can't possibly be serious, but he quickly discovers just how serious Sakamoto is, as he proceeds to blind one of Kashima's eyes with pencil lead and blinds the other with a sticker before jamming the pencil right in Kashima's mouth gun when he tries to retaliate. As insane as every part of that sentence was, it's not even the craziest part of this fight. Sakamoto slices some of Kashima's weapons with the stamp sheet before changing the location by punching him onto a nearby passenger train. Although something like this should be terrifying to the locals, aside from the shock of seeing these two crashing into their train, the passengers barely react to their presence, even when Sakamoto is in the background giving Kashima a Jojo's style beatdown. In nearly any other series, I'd call this logic into question but since we've long since established that the world of Sakamoto Days operates on cartoon rules, this adds to the charm and further establishes how bonkers its setting truly is.

Eventually, Kashima manages to knock Sakamoto into another incoming passenger train on the opposite rail, but when Sakamoto dashes through that train to swing back to the one Kashima is on, it's only then that Mr. Deer truly realizes what manner of superhuman he's dealing with. Once he realizes he's outmatched he starts literally throwing everything he can at Sakamoto including random objects and other passengers, and seeing Sakamoto both effortlessly catch them and gently return the passengers to their seats is one of the most hilarious sequences the show has ever dished out. By the time it's all said and done, no amount of cyborg enhancements can keep Sakamoto from laying out Kashima and ending the fight just in time to dump him out at the next station makes for some great comedic timing. While there isn't a ton of crazy battle animation on display here, it's still one of the show's better efforts on that front, and the sheer entertainment value of this entire sequence of events is so off the walls that it hardly even matters. That said, if there's one thing that dulled the fun here, it was Kashima's backstory, as we learn that he had a murderous sense of justice before Slur opted to use him. It's fine for what it is, and the use of white and red throughout the flashback is probably some of the best presentation we've gotten out of this adaptation. Still, it's not very interesting on its own, and the most I got out of him was seeing him be Sakamoto's punching bag.

I also didn't get much out of the rest of the episode since it slowed down considerably. We do see Xiaotang and all the scientists making amends with Shin. While it's all very sweet, I still can't say that I found Shin's history all that compelling, and it all mostly washed over me. We also get some potential foreshadowing for future events as Shishiba and Osaragi discover that Kashima is indeed connected to Slur. Shin even briefly runs into the mystery man in person. However, aside from giving off some bloodthirsty vibes and implying he has a connection to Sakamoto, nothing much really comes of this run-in with Slur, and it seems like it'll be a while before we see him and Sakamoto come face to face. While some of that is a bit of a letdown, I'm at least glad that Sakamoto Days delivered an action movie spectacle this week. That's mostly what I'm here for, so aside from a couple of speed bumps, I'd count this episode as a winner.

Rating: 3.9

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Sakamoto Days is currently streaming on Netflix on Saturdays.