English Dub Review: Sakamoto Days “The Legendary Hit Man”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sakamoto enjoys a quiet life in retirement with his family.  But one day, an old colleague demands he return to the assassin world — or face consequences.

Our Take:

Being an assassin can be difficult, but retiring from the game to become a family man is an entirely different challenge.  Just ask Taro Sakamoto, a proclaimed “legendary” hitman who’s retired from his action-packed life to marry the love of his life, Aoi, and raise their young daughter Hana.  Additionally, he’s living his quiet retirement, working as the owner of a convenience store.  While Sakamoto also lets himself go in the process, he still possesses his superhuman skills from his good old days, although they’re not as powerful as they once were.  Regardless, Sakamoto will need them to confront his old colleague, Shin the Clairvoyant, who’s tasked by his boss to bring him out of retirement.

The world of anime is no stranger to making criminals like the yakuza and assassins more humane than senseless killing machines.  While they still prove to be badasses with their impeccable skills, these characters showcase that they’re more to them than what they seem in other action-packed series.  This was proven in shows like The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting, a surprisingly heartwarming anime adaptation that combined its sweetness with its usual yakuza elements.  Based on the first episode, Sakamoto Days is looking to be another suitable example of this concept, mainly for Taro Sakamoto, whose desire to protect his family by retiring from the hitman world matches his sublime, unrivaled strength, resulting in Shin having a change of heart.

I have been hearing reports that the manga’s fans are worried about how the adaptation would turn out regarding the presentation and translation.  However, since I haven’t read the manga, I can’t speak on their behalf, but this gave me the advantage of reviewing it as a newcomer without comparing the two.  Unsurprisingly, it’s all the better for it, as “The Legendary Hit Man” delivered a consistently entertaining and promising start to another addition to the hitman-turned-softie anime catalog.  The animation from TMS Entertainment was suitably stylized for its action and presentation, and the English voice cast was pretty decent so far.  The voice actor for Shin in the English Dub version is Dallas Liu, known for playing Zuko in the live-action The Last Airbender series on Netflix, and he admittedly didn’t do too bad, considering that this is his voice-acting debut.  Even though the show could run the risk of relying on a few patterns from other similar anime, it also has a chance to utilize them to deliver a fun and even refreshing take on the concept.