Kara Dennison
May 29, 2024 
At long last, Yuto Suzuki’s hit Shonen Jump manga Sakamoto Days is getting an anime adaptation. Fans everywhere are excited for the series, which debuts at the beginning of 2025. In fact, hype for an anime adaptation has been going strong for months, even before any official announcement was made. And if you’re new to the series, just know: the hype is warranted.
If you’ve never encountered the series before, allow us to introduce you to what makes it great. Or, at least, a few of the (non-spoilery) things that make it great:
Surprisingly Cute
Here’s your quick-and-dirty intro to Sakamoto Days. Taro Sakamoto was once the best assassin in the business. Then he fell in love with Aoi, who made an extremely compelling case re: it being bad to kill people. Years later, Sakamoto has traded his old job for a dad bod, a convenience store, and a happy family. And everything’s fine… until it isn’t.
Whatever else happens, this series has that same sprinkling of “what if assassins really loved their family” wholesomeness that series like SPY x FAMILY bring to the table. Not to mention Sakamoto really digs his new laid-back life. Though he will absolutely step up if he has to protect the people he cares about.
An Ever-Growing Found Family
Sakamoto Days has plenty of room for other people leaving their hitman days behind. Or, at least, trying to. The Sakamoto household (and convenience store staff) grows quite a bit, especially early on. There’s only one rule if you want to sit at the Sakamoto family dinner table: no killing.
Among the people who get roped into this inner circle are mindreading ex-hitman Shin Asakura, drunken fist master Lu Xiaotang, and sharpshooter Heisuke (along with his bird Piisuke). Though the Sakamoto family rulebook may have to get a little more flexible. Because while a lot of these people may want to do a bit less killing, the criminal underworld doesn’t let people go that easily.
Awesome Action
Sadly for Taro Sakamoto, Sakamoto Days doesn’t allow him to enjoy his slow life. But that’s good for us, because it means a lot of awesome fight scenes. Sakamoto is still a force to be reckoned with—potentially more than ever, since many of his old foes (and allies) underestimate him at first. But that doesn’t last for very long.
One of the biggest treats of this anime adaptation will be seeing the manga’s many intense fight scenes transposed into full motion. And the bits and pieces we’ve seen from the trailer are already promising. We can look forward to fistfights, shootouts, and much more as Sakamoto wades back into his old day job to protect his new way of life.
The Sakamoto Days anime is scheduled to debut in January 2025.
Taro Sakamoto is an unstoppable force. And these anime duos… are nearly unstoppable.
