Overview
In the depths of the Lab, Shin and Heisuke join forces to take down the invisible assailant while Sakamoto engages in an intense battle against Kashima.
Our Take
As the overview adequately showcases, this week’s episode wraps up the battles set forth by the two big bads from last week’s episode and does so with action-packed finesse indicative of TMS Entertainment’s near half-a-century experience producing series such as Detective Conan and Lupin the Third. Like those series every big action sequence makes sure to squeeze as much comedy as they can into the scene (in this case it’s director Masaki Watanabe) but not relying on the eventual English dubbed scripts to convey because that more than often doesn’t work. Instead, the comedy comes IN the fight sequences and as we near the end of the show’s first cour on Netflix this is becoming increasingly prevalent.
Matt Mercer’s delivery of Sakamoto is excellent, a very controlled and not excitable delivery of one of the most relaxed characters I’ve ever seen in an anime. The fight choreography is creative and dynamic, and the comedic timing is impeccable and that’s all on Matt to make sure that happens as much as he can because while the dialogue translated from Japanese is doable for comedy, Matt’s delivery becomes more important so that no matter what’s being said it’s funny and in almost every instance he’s hilarious.
The way the animation team at TMS is able to translate the manga’s unique art style is very impressive. Sakamoto’s dad bod whispering in the wind never gets old and that’s against enemies that are equally as impressive in their character designs(shout out to Yō Moriyama) but are doomed to fail because they have no choice than but acquiesce to the charms and laid-back demeanor that belie his incredible abilities, making him both relatable and awe-inspiring.
We only have a few episodes left in this cour for Sakamoto Days, but Netflix has been beefing up it’s lineup quite a bit which quality originals like this and we’ve got a bunch more on the way.