‘Sakamoto Days’ episode 2 review: “Vs. Son Hee and Bacho”

Sakamoto Days episode 2 completes the initial setup of the anime and does so pretty efficiently. By combining a couple of chapters together using a strong throughline, “Vs. Son Hee and Bacho” accomplishes a lot very quickly. There’s a new Sakamoto’s employee, Sakamoto himself gets a flashback, and Shin truly commits. As far as second episodes go, you can definitely do a lot worse. Which makes it suck that we had to wait a week for apparently no reason! 

Netflix jail never ends

Netflix’s relationship with anime has always been a mess. For ages, it’s treated the anime it licenses as a backlog to just be dumped out on the menu. Eventually, a Netflix pick up for an anime became referred to in the community as going to “Netflix jail” due to the streamer’s insistence on having all episodes released at once. That’s had a tangible impact on the way that anime is received, such as the deflating release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean or the way Beastars’ final season has lost most of its tension.  

There were some indications of improvement, in particular Netflix’s admittedly stellar handling of Delicious in Dungeon. When it was announced Sakamoto Days would be following in that series’ footsteps on Netflix as a weekly release (though not in two concurrent cours, something I won’t hold against them), I had high hopes. Instead, it turns out Netflix has found out a third and somehow worse plan: release weekly, but be one whole week behind. Last week’s premiere of Sakamoto Days actually included episode one and two — something Netflix knew full well because you can actually use a VPN to switch regions and see all actual available episodes but also their dubs on the service. 

The consequences of Netflix’s actions

Netflix has constantly pushed its vapid models on everything that comes through its doors without any kind of understanding or respect for what that material might be. It’s enough their programming changes television for the worse but it might also be even more damaging to things that it’s not producing. They slap that “Netflix Original” on every damn thing regardless, force it into its distribution model, and then forget about it the second it stops trending. It may be a bit nonsense to focus so much on distribution on an episode review, but again the impact is tangible. 

For years, Japanese produced live action adaptations of Jojo, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, and more have become completely written off through the familiar “Netflix adaptation” meme — regardless of the merits or lack thereof, these productions are written off thanks to Netflix’s branding despite the brand having zero input on them. Even Sakamoto Days is in this perception — comments in its trailers both positive and negative attribute those attitudes to Netflix’s contributions. Except, Netflix isn’t contributing staff or input to Sakamoto Days’ production. Given all the product placement, it’d be more accurate to call it “A Nissin Original Series” than a Netflix one. 

Netflix did Sakamoto Days episode 2 dirty

Now, Netflix is contributing subtitles, and they’re great. It’s creating the dub; which has a pretty strong cast and it’s likely a union project! I don’t want to take away from those things, but at this point Netflix’s biggest contribution is robbing Sakamoto Days episode 2 of the lead in from episode 1. These two are so clearly meaning to be airing together from the moment the episode begins. Pre-credits, Shin is still settling into working into Sakamoto’s, stocking shelves and not even recapping how he got there. Clearly, this is a continuation from the premiere. 

As a solo piece, “Vs. Son Hee and Bacho” doesn’t take too long to get going, but it doesn’t stand particularly strong on its own either. Everything to get Sakamoto and Shin where they need to be is carry over from the previous episode, though it is good to lead with the next immediate question left from the initial setup: why does Sakamoto not kill now? 

Exploring why not to kill

The answer comes as the two encounter Lu Xiaotang, the daughter of a murdered Chinese mafia family. She’s holding the key to her family’s vault for dear life and on the run. It doesn’t take much for Sakamoto to decide to intervene – not before securing a guarantee of replacement pork buns after Lu accidentally crushes his snack order. This is all revealed to be related, when Shin catches Sakamoto reminiscing on Aoi setting the future family rule with him. She flings herself off a railing to demonstrate that there’s an emotion at the possibility of losing someone you love, teaching Sakamoto what that feeling is and charging him with making amends by protecting others from that feeling. 

As far as reasons go, “people will be sad” is a simple but foundational idea that suits the medium Sakamoto Days is in. It’s enough to move Shin, who helps Sakamoto fight off the two assassins sent after Lu. A fight in a closed kitchen gives the anime a chance to try again to match the manga’s choreography in a closed space and it does a serviceable job at that. There’s some silly spots, such as Sakamoto bouncing back and forth to dodge attacks like a standee on a spring, that are funny but not too complex. 

More fight scene analysis

It’s still early days and worth remembering that while Sakamoto Days is an action series, it’s also quite good at being funny. The humor is the stronger part, as the series does still use little cheats to get by: particularly by transitioning into hard hitting scenes with a hard cut rather than shots dedicated to wind it up. It’s not bad but folks looking for peak MAPPA action are still going to be a bit disappointed. The hits are still hard, though, and serve as solid recreations of the same hard cuts in the manga. They work to build Sakamoto’s mythical status at this point of the story. 

On the other hand, it does seem like the anime wants to get past this part of the story quickly. “Vs. Son Hee and Bacho” skips a handful of early chapter content, and combines a part of one of the skipped ones with this storyline. You won’t notice if you’re not a reader, because Taku Kishimoto’s composition makes the right throughlines to tie things together without feeling awkward. But it does also take away from Aoi Sakamoto’s first character moment quite a bit, and I question if the anime will find time for her later if it can’t now. She’s the most important thing in Sakamoto’s life, but she’s also a character in her own right and deserves that screen time. 

A week delay is not great, Netflix!

Overall, Sakamoto Days episode 2 is let down by Netflix. It could have used the boost of not having to fly solo. The episode as a whole is efficient and serviceable on its own, but would have been much better if it got to air with episode 1. Together, they form a full introduction to the world of Sakamoto Days. That way, going into episode 3 (now next week), audiences would be fully ready for complications. I don’t think this weekly lag will hurt other episodes the same way, but it is extremely deflating. Get your act together, Netflix.

Sakamoto Days airs Saturdays on Netflix.

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