‘Sakamoto Days’ episode 9 review: “All Aboard”

The Lab arc wraps up in Sakamoto Days episode 9, with a solid enough crescendo. Shin gets a fight victory, closure, and the first real look at the series’ proper antagonist. Meanwhile, his boss and idol gets to do his best Jotaro Kujo impression. “All Aboard”pulls all this off without too much corner cutting, which alone makes this one of the stronger episodes of this first part of Sakamoto Days. 

Pay attention to Shin

While Sakamoto’s defeat of Kashima is the episode’s main focus, Shin and Heisuke’s fight against Seba and what follows is more interesting. First off, the fight is particularly potent compared to the series to date. There’s less of the jump cuts that are the default Sakamoto Days trick, especially noticeable in the moment Shin lands the final attack on Seba. It’s a sequence that sticks the landing, quite literally. 

Shin then takes point on finding Lu and getting The Lab residents out of the collapsing building, showing his own growth into someone who doesn’t just follow orders. There’s a brief moment for reconciliation between him and Lu as well, though the real closure doesn’t come for Shin until the end of the episode. However, it’s the process of escape that is the highlight of “All Aboard.” The hallway sequences feature better running animation and gives Shin a chance to reconcile — in his way — with his former guardian. 

This all leads to the episode’s highlight: that Slur had been in the building with everyone the entire time. Slur’s been shown before, even a couple of times in flashbacks in this episode, but the hallway encounter hits hardest as a real introduction. There’s a projection of murderous aura, confirmed as not a thought as the scene is devoid of Shin’s psychic sound que. From Slur’s piercing eyes to Shin’s feeling of his body being ripped apart, the entire moment stands out. 

Rose(?) tinted glasses

By comparison, the full fight between Sakamoto and Kashima is pretty silly. That’s by design, of course. There’s a levity to many of the fights in this series and Sakamoto getting the jump on Kashima with pencil lead and a sale sticker gets that job done. The fight also serves to continue power scaling Sakamoto in comparison to his opponents. Even Kashima realizes that despite all his modifications, Sakamoto’s training completely outclasses him. 

Kashima’s psychology gets much more exposure in this episode to help explain his devotion to Slur. He thinks back to their first encounter through a literal tinted lens, bringing back the weird color grading change from “Welcome to Sugar Park!” I’m still not a fan of the technique, but it does finally give a bit more context and intensity that Kashima was missing. Still, he’s not really an actual threat to Sakamoto. That’s okay, because the heart of the episode gets to be Shin, but it does take away from tension. 

Hey, that’s not too bad!

Overall, Sakamoto Days episode 9 is a more interesting episode. That’s thanks to a stronger emotional center in Shin and a truly attention grabbing villain reveal. While the Sakamoto vs. Kashima fight tiptoes into Jojo’s Part 3 territory, that’s definitely not a bad place to put our lead character for now. Nothing here is what the kids call “peak” but this is a stronger showing for this series. 

Sakamoto Days airs Saturdays 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.