‘Sakamoto Days’ episode 4 review: “Hard-Boiled”

Sakamoto Days episode 4 continues the family trip to Sugar Park, this time getting the titular lead into the mix. “Hard-Boiled” explores Sakamoto’s past persona and the person he is now through more encounters with that past. Easily this episode is the most classical shonen the series has been yet. That’s hardly a bad thing, as the stakes are now getting pretty high. 

More time with the Sakamoto family

The Sakamoto family (and staff) take a breather after the events of the previous episode. There’s a bit of back and forth between Aoi and the rest, as she can clearly tell that something has everyone stressed. It’s fun to see Sakamoto trying to cover his tracks – even as they’re intentionally not killing, though it continues to sideline Aoi. Really, this is me still being a little salty about her getting robbed previously, but she’s doing the least compared to the rest of the main cast. 

Her daughter, on the other hand, is getting more to work with. Hana is adorable, of course. But she also reflects her parents in interesting ways. She has the same sense of affection that her mother taught Sakamoto before they got married. However, she’s also got a fearless streak that Sakamoto Days episode 3 takes some beats to highlight. Shin notices this streak of hers as well – she’s not afraid of assassins posing as zombies in the haunted house and walks right up to a hit man and gives him a bandage. Sakamoto’s got a weird family, to say the least. 

Time to get hard…boiled

“Hard-Boiled” introduces the first proper threats of the series, which here means there’s actually characterization to hold them up. Boiled (Yasuhiro Mamiya/SungWon Cho) and Obiguro (Yumi Uchiyama/Alexis Cabrera) have a proper dynamic together fed by the former’s obsession with performing as hard-boiled and cool as possible. Based on Obiguro’s secret fawning, it definitely works. The man’s got a bone to pick with Sakamoto, which itself turns out to be a gag, but it does do some work to showcase the kind of person Sakamoto actually is. 

Sakamoto’s big crime is not acknowledging Boiled (and really, being cooler than him) by being aloof and disjoined from humanity. Ironically, this is the best explanation of the effect Aoi has on Sakamoto by being someone who catches his attention. Of course, Sakamoto is still able to remember enough to eventually realize who he’s dealing with – not before actually taking some hard hits from Boiled, physically and verbally. This beatdown, along with Obiguro cornering Shin and Lu, is the best tension yet in the series. Things aren’t out of control, it’s hard to think things are going to be too bad when Lu’s drunken crying is cutting that tension with a chainsaw. Even so, it is the first moment in the anime that required Sakamoto to “get serious.” 

Okay, let’s talk about skinny Sakamoto

Which also means now is as good a time to interrogate a criticism I’ve anticipated coming since before the anime production was confirmed. Is Sakamoto Days kind of fatphobic? I realize that sounds silly at first, but Sakamoto’s shonen hero “power up” is literally losing weight. That comes after Boiled grills him about letting himself go as well. It’s a question that asks itself. However, I don’t think that Sakamoto Days is actually sitting on the side of fatphobia, and this episode actually does a good job of demonstrating why. 

First off, let’s briefly define what I’m talking about when I refer to shonen power ups, because it’s going to be important. When I think specifically about this kind of power up, it’s usually some sort of form change associated with an increase of power or skill set. We’ve got a list of a bunch of them right here, for example. Sakamoto’s “low calorie” form follows in this tradition, and it makes sense for something like this to exist, even if the world of Sakamoto Days doesn’t have any kind of mystical power system. Power ups taking the form of a transformation is a simple but effective visual tool in this genre. 

Ideal and the unideal

But where the low calorie form deviates is in the context around it. In Sakamoto Days episode 4, the reveal of this form is set up with flashes of Sakamoto’s family, which itself is followed by the real (if muted) danger that family is already in. He slims down out of desperation here, and it even brings a characterization change. Sakamoto is far more communicative, acknowledges Boiled properly, and even loses the glasses. He’s tiptoed closer to the former life he left, out of desperate need to protect his new one. This is not something we should want to see Sakamoto doing, because now he might kill someone. 

Compare this to Luffy’s Gear Fifth, or Goku’s higher power levels. Those are ideals, so much so they’re hard to maintain for long. Luffy even refers to the form as his ideal self, his “most free.” When Sakamoto’s slimmed down, it means something is going bad. His ideal form is his heavier self. The one that is happy and content, complete with a loving family. Every threat to that pushes him to slim back down, to actually go full John Wick. This does allow Sakamoto to go harder and it’s going to look real cool, but it’s in service of he and us wanting him desperately to get back to normal. 

That might not be fully convincing, it’s not like Sakamoto Days doesn’t make the occasional overweight gag after all. But I do think none of these things come at Sakamoto’s expense and instead reaffirm his comfort in his own skin. This won’t be the last time Sakamoto Days pushes a line without necessarily knowing that it is. In this case, though, I think it manages to avoid crossing that line well enough. 

The strongest episode yet

As the season has gone on, Sakamoto Days has tightened up and continues to increase in quality. Episode 4 is the strongest yet. The action is stronger and we’re now getting far more clarity on these characters. As this happens, we can see what makes Sakamoto Days worth adapting into animation in the first place.

Sakamoto Days airs Saturdays on Netflix.

---

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