‘Sakamoto Days’ Episode 15 review: “Round and Round the Tower”

In spite of the slice of life elements that help event out the series, dialogue rarely makes up an episode of Sakamoto Days. That’s not the case with Sakamoto Days episode 15 one bit. Despite having one of the best action scenes in the series to date, “Round and Round the Tower” is very dialogue heavy. From exploring Apart’s backstory to finally making discoveries into Slur’s true agenda, there’s a lot of talking going on. 

Chatty flashbacks and beyond

The talking isn’t dead air, even if Sakamoto doesn’t appear to be interested in Apart’s narration of his life. It does take up the bulk of the episode, as we see his awkward childhood wasn’t too bad, but a lot of the people in his life didn’t know how to interact with him. This leads him down an early serial killer path – however problematic that kind of characterization might be. Interestingly, there’s a sequence in a physician’s office (not a psychiatrist’s, notably) that asserts that there’s nothing neurologically wrong with Apart that “makes him” the way he is. 

Sakamoto Days hasn’t actually dug too deep into its moral core, which is inherently grey as a result of starring hit men. The Sakamoto family forbids killing, per the lesson taught by Aoi back when during her and Sakamoto’s dating days. However, that code doesn’t seem to be as expected even by allies. Nagumo, for example, is still cleaning up his most recent kill this week. But that makes it interesting that Sakamoto does eventually respond to Apart’s demand for “connection,” telling him that what he’s doing is wrong and he can and should change.

A hit man’s life (not) for me

Looking at this response, it seems that the delineation of whether or not Sakamoto advocates for his current moral posture has to do with where the potential convert is in their own life. He probably couldn’t sell Nagumo on the ideology, but characters who are more directionless like Shin, Lu, and even Apart appear to be fair game. It’s also possible that Sakamoto is just too much of a Dad at this point to not react correctively to someone like Apart. 

In that same Dad way, as impressive as the feat of strength of holding the Sky Tower in place is, it’s the line about not letting go of Apart that hits hardest this episode. And then the episode gives us the fun and actually dynamic sequence of Sakamoto swinging around Apart, slamming him into the tower itself repeatedly. It’s some of the best animation work in recent episodes by far, with strong lighting and movement between frames. 

Looking a bit rough this episode

Unfortunately, this episode also has some of the roughest animation of the season. Multiple scenes appear to just have character models skating across the scenery as if layering on top. This is most notable as Sakamoto is climbing the Sky Tower to hold onto it by a cable. It’s not Uzumaki levels of jarring, but it’s more noticeable in specific moments in Sakamoto Days episode 15. Of course, the now normal average hard cuts between action moments are filling the space where characters aren’t talking, and at this point isn’t worth dwelling on. The impact hits do still look rock solid on their own, at least. 

There’s still plenty of value in watching Sakamoto Days week to week, this surprising look into Sakamoto’s internal logic being such an example. Slur begins making a direct move at the end, moving the series into yet another arc as the OP teases out. This will give the series more to reveal about its characters over time, even if they won’t look that cool doing it.

Sakamoto Days Part 2 airs Mondays on Netflix.

Featured image ©Yuto Suzuki/SHUEISHA, SAKAMOTO DAYS PROJECT, Netflix

Travis Hymas

Travis Hymas is a freelance writer and self appointed Pokémon historian out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Known to be regularly obessive over pop culture topics, gaming discourse, and trading card games, he is a published critic featured on sites such as Uppercut and The Young Folks.