Sakamoto Days

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Sakamoto Days, the Japanese manga by Yuto Suzuki, grew out of a chain of small questions that its author asked himself about a strong fighter. In his words: "Why is he fat? Because he retired. Why is that? Maybe because he got married? That's how I made it." The man in question is Taro Sakamoto, a hitman. What happens to a killer once he walks away from the work? And how did a premise reasoned out in three questions become a series with an anime and a film?

  1857

• 2. A Convenience Store Marriage

  ›

  Aoi was a convenience store clerk when Taro Sakamoto fell in love with her at first sight. At that point he was an unrivaled hitman, feared by some people and idolized by others in the criminal underworld. Aoi gave him an ultimatum before she would date him. He had to quit the trade and never kill again. Sakamoto agreed.

  After the wedding, Aoi and Sakamoto had a daughter named Hana. Eventually they opened a family-run convenience store of their own in the suburbs of Tokyo.

  Several years after the store opened, Sakamoto had grown portly from inactivity, although he remained immensely powerful. Then the world of hitmen found him. Many of its members began targeting the Sakamoto family, some wanting revenge and others resenting that he had retired.

  Three former criminals ended up working at the store under him. Shin Asakura is a clairvoyant hitman. Lu Xiaotang is the orphaned daughter of a crime boss. Heisuke Mashimo is a sniper. With their help, Sakamoto must protect his family from the underworld, and he must do it while honoring Aoi's no-kill policy, even at the risk of dying. One of the three, the mind-reading Shin, would also solve a problem for the people who made the series.

  81228

• 3. Editor and Artist

  ›

  Editor Soushiro Ishikawa has explained why Shin matters so much. Putting Sakamoto beside a mind reader gave the story a way to reveal what drives the hero. It also let comedy flourish, because Suzuki wanted Sakamoto himself to be quiet and reserved.

  Weekly in-person meetings between Suzuki and Ishikawa used to decide how the story would move forward. After the COVID-19 pandemic, those meetings went online. Ishikawa says Suzuki cares about readability when he builds action scenes. According to Ishikawa, Suzuki's background in the Nihonga style of painting helps him produce interesting page layouts. Suzuki draws his characters with an analog pen and works with a team of assistants.

  Katsuhiro Otomo, Takehiko Inoue and Hiroya Oku are the manga artists Suzuki names as influences, alongside the director Christopher Nolan. Action films fed in as well, namely The Equalizer and the John Wick series. The idea of a powerful, heavy fighter owes something to the comedic action film Enter the Fat Dragon. In fight scenes, Suzuki tries to catch readers off guard with unexpected twists and surprises.

  Dark one-shot stories were what Suzuki drew before this series. For Sakamoto Days he chose a lighter tone, because the demands of weekly serialization called for it.

  Shin came from Suzuki's curiosity about an esper who talks with Sakamoto through telepathy. Lu was conceived as a Chinese assassin heroine, because Suzuki wanted a more varied cast. He admits that his characters can be hard to tell apart on the page. Gaku, he says, was the easiest to draw, thanks to his independent personality.

  By 2022, Suzuki had already planned how the series would end.

  1260

• 4. Serialization

  ›

  On the 26th of December 2019, Shueisha's Jump Giga published a one-shot by Suzuki titled Sakamoto. Sakamoto Days itself debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump on the 21st of November 2020. The first collected volume, a tankōbon, came out on the 2nd of April 2021. By the 1st of May 2026-27 volumes had been released.

  Viz Media began releasing the English print volumes on the 5th of April 2022. Chapters also appear in English at the same time as in Japan, through Viz Media and the Manga Plus online platform.

  Tetsu Ōkawa, who has worked as an assistant on the main manga, writes a spin-off titled Sakamoto Holidays. It started in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump on the 4th of July 2024, and its first volume followed on the 4th of January 2025. In June 2025, Viz Media announced that it would publish the volumes in print and digital formats, beginning in the second quarter of 2026.

  The 4th of August 2025 marked the start of the main series' final battle.

  267812

• 5. Copies and Critics

  ›

  By October 2022, the manga had 2.2 million copies in circulation. The total passed 4 million by November 2023 and 5 million by May 2024. It stood above 5.5 million by August 2024, above 7 million by December 2024, and above 8 million by March 2025. Then the climb sped up: over 12 million by June 2025, and over 15 million by August 2025.

  Bookstore staff across Japan placed the series sixth on the 2022 Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics list. Manga author Hiromu Arakawa recommended it in a comment printed on the obi of the sixth volume. At the 2021 Next Manga Awards, it was nominated for Best Print Manga and placed sixth out of 50 nominees, but it won the U-Next Prize. In 2022 it was nominated for the 68th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category.

  Katherine Dacey of The Manga Critic recommended the first volume and praised its artwork and fight choreography. She felt some later chapters were less tightly executed than the early ones, yet she said the series balanced character development with action. Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network called the first volume highly entertaining, with a strong cast, an engaging premise and effective execution. Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart thought the premise could appeal to fans of Kousuke Oono's The Way of the Househusband. She likened its tone to the action-comedy blend of Akira Toriyama's earlier works, and she found the family relationships and the bond with Shin especially engaging.

  Reiichi Narima of Real Sound called the series entertaining despite its comedic-looking hero, and he compared the superbly illustrated fights to those in Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira. He also observed that the story began with a comedic focus and gradually shifted toward battles, which made it more like a standard Weekly Shōnen Jump title.

  5152555657

• 6. Animating Sakamoto

  ›

  In May 2024, TMS Entertainment was announced as the studio behind a television anime. Masaki Watanabe directed, Taku Kishimoto wrote the scripts, Yō Moriyama designed the characters, and Yuki Hayashi composed the music.

  The first cours aired from the 11th of January to the 22nd of March 2025 on TV Tokyo and its affiliates. The second ran from the 15th of July to the 23rd of September of that year. The first two episodes of the second cours were screened in advance in Japan on the 15th of June. Netflix licensed the series worldwide and streamed it at the same time as the Japanese broadcast.

  Watanabe gave Sakamoto two distinct looks. The fat version has a symbolically deformed face, while the skinny version is drawn more realistically. He liked how Sakamoto's calm daily life contrasts with action sequences built around that heavy body. He also took pride in the unusual sound effects and in the vocal performances for Shin, which were shaped under his guidance. Despite the comedic foundation, he praised the occasional burst of unexpected violence.

  A rollercoaster fight was one of the most demanding scenes in the early episodes. It needed a detailed 3D model and careful handling of a vibrant color palette. The animation used Clip Studio Paint and Adobe, with a paper texture added to the action sequences. The team also researched real firearms so they could be depicted accurately. Watanabe had plenty of shōnen experience, yet he found it a unique challenge to balance intense action with the lighthearted tone Suzuki had set.

  Tomokazu Sugita voices Sakamoto and already knew the manga. He was first cast as Kashima, then asked to play Sakamoto instead, and he appreciated the character's bonds with family and friends. Nobunaga Shimazaki voices Shin and points out that Shin is over 20 yet noticeably weak and unskilled. He sees this as a deliberate contrast with the stronger characters, one that balances the cast. Ayane Sakura voices Lu Xiaotang and enjoyed exploring how the character interacts with others.

  Vaundy performs the first opening, "Hashire Sakamoto," and also "Somebody Help Us," the special ending used for episode 7. Conton Candy performs the first ending, "Futsū." The second opening is "Method" by Kroi, and the second ending is "Dandelion" by Go!Go!Vanillas.

  2627293233

• 7. Anime Reception

  ›

  Netflix's mid-year report named Sakamoto Days the platform's most-watched anime worldwide in the first half of 2025, with 24.4 million views.

  Allen Moody of THEM Anime Reviews praised the humorous premise and its execution. He singled out Sakamoto's exaggerated skills and the energetic contrast supplied by Shin and Lu. The villains were also well received. Moody noted that the season ended on an unresolved note, and he looked forward to the second part.

  At the 5th Astra TV Awards in 2025, Xolo Maridueña was nominated for Best Supporting Voice-Over Performance for voicing Heisuke Mashimo. The sixth edition nominated the series itself for Best Anime Series. At the 10th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, it was nominated for Best New Series. Three voice actors were nominated in the Best Voice Artist Performance (Arabic) category: Tariq Obaid as Taro Sakamoto, Moataz El-Shazly as Heisuke Mashimo, and Fatima Zakaria as Osaragi. Obaid won. Yuki Hayashi was nominated at the 2026 Music Awards Japan for Best Original Score for Animation.

  In December 2025, at the Jump Festa '26 event, a second season was announced.

  35263032

• 8. Beyond the Page

  ›

  On the 2nd of August 2024, a promotional video for the manga's eighteenth volume was released. Saori Izawa starred in it as a store clerk.

  Goodroid developed a smartphone game called Sakamoto Days: Dangerous Puzzle, which was released on the 2nd of April 2025.

  In September 2025, a live-action film was announced. Yūichi Fukuda wrote and directed it, Keiya Tabuchi directed the action, and Ren Meguro stars as Taro Sakamoto. Credeus produced it with Avex Pictures, and Toho distributed it. Snow Man performs the theme song, "Bang!!." The film premiered in Japan on the 29th of April 2026.

  In its first three days, the film placed fourth at the Japanese box office, selling 346,000 tickets and earning 478 million yen. Over the Golden Week holidays, it sold 1.14 million tickets and earned 1.5 billion yen.

  Renka Misaki wrote Sakamoto Days: Assassin's Method, a novel with an exclusive story, released on the 4th of April 2023 under Shueisha's Jump J-Books imprint. Viz Media licensed it in October 2025, with English publication set for the 28th of July 2026. Misaki also wrote Sakamoto Days: Assassin's Blues, with exclusive episodes, released on the 4th of December 2024. Viz Media licensed that novel as well, and its English edition is set for the fourth quarter of 2026.

  3738434548