English Dub Review: Sakamoto Days “Overload”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

As Sakamoto gathers intel on the assassins targeting him, ORDER begins hunting the death row inmates.  Later, Shin and Lu face a deadly assault.

Our Take:

Following our four-month delay, Sakamoto Days has officially reopened for business!  Of course, I don’t mean the kind that sells convenient goods.  Regarding the show’s first half, Sakamoto Days has made a surprisingly good first impression regarding its concept and animation style.  Initially, I was expecting it to be a John Wick rip-off due to its concept being a former assassin coming out of retirement, minus the murder of a dog.  Thank goodness for that.  While that may be the case, the show found specific ways to stand apart from the recently popular action franchise, especially with its mixture of stylized violence and slice-of-life comedy.

This finally brings us to the show’s second cour, which aims to elevate the thrilling stakes provided for Sakamoto and his assassin crew to confront.  The stakes, in particular, come in the form of the Death Row Serial Killers, the infamous band of criminals who are deemed more malicious than any assassin combined.  As seen in the previous episode, they were tasked by Slur to eliminate Sakamoto, whose rank is considered lower than that of other assassins, hence his training to become strong enough to defeat them.  However, the episode showcased that Sakamoto isn’t the only person training to enhance his extraordinary skills, as Shin seeks to accomplish a similar goal to avoid being a burden for Sakamoto.  Of course, his determination is also caused by his having a lower rank than Lu, but his confrontation against one of the inmates, Saw, changed all that for the better.

“Overload” provided a first half consisting of exposition filler that reintroduced us to the characters we’re familiar with while digging up dirt on the deranged Death Row killers.  While it was dragged down a bit by its pacing, the characters’ interactions reminded me why I enjoyed them and its world building in the first place, primarily with Sakamoto, Shin, and Lu deciphering their enemies’ intel via a movie marathon.  But, of course, the second half involving Shin and Lu’s confrontation with Saw is what elevated the potential of the second cour’s stakes regarding the inmates’ formidable presence.  More importantly, it gave us one of Shin’s most crowd-pleasing moments through his enhanced clairvoyant abilities, but are they enough to subdue Saw’s bloodthirsty wrath?  My gut says yes.  As for the episode itself, this is a solid start to the season’s second half that promises more of the same but with more absurdity and stakes in its action and humor.