MANGA REVIEW | "Sakamoto Days" - Volume Twelve
Assassination schools should be used to a little chaos. It doesn’t have to come from, say, a giant yellow-tentacled teacher, but schools where the curriculum involves gunplay and espionage training should be ready for when outside forces break in. Does that make JCC a bad assassination school? Who knows, but if there’s anything to go by in the twelfth volume of Sakamoto Days, a little boost in security wouldn’t hurt.
It’s a mixture of the JAA’s Order and X that wreak havoc in and out of the school. From bloodthirsty geishas to cinephiles, the cast of characters here look to come straight from a Tarantino flick. There’s a mixture of tragic backstory and storytelling philosophy on-hand, all of which mesh together to craft interesting dialogue and killer fights. And yet, there’s a problem here, and it’s surprising to see Kanaguri just straight-up point it out.
Predictability makes for a subpar story, which many an action film can be guilty of. But is it right for a story to point out such a flaw, only for them to actually pull off said narrative travesty? I don’t know if Sakamoto Days and its author Yuto Suzuki are breaking the fourth wall here, but maybe calling out such a situation and just going with it isn’t the smart thing to do. Granted, it tries to act smart with it, but it’s like seeing a student be proud of a C+ paper when they could’ve pulled off an A- with ease.
Maybe it’s just the critic in me that’s complaining about it. After all, Shonen Jump comics can often be a dime-a-dozen, as they claim to pull off something new, only to deliver old hat. Maybe because there are so many comic books out there — much less manga — that are trying to be unique, that we should forgive them if said uniqueness feels all too familiar. But that’s just me, a manga reviewer in a world filled with thousands of like-minded people like me.
With that being said, it doesn’t take away from the cool action that Sakamoto Days delivers. There are some pretty cool kills, including Osaragi’s technic to keep a brutal death from the prying eyes of the public. Sakamoto and Kanaguri battle it out with some great nods to movies of old, and Shishiba stands toe-to-toe with his former mentor Yotsumura. I’ll give a little credit to Yotsumura’s back story, too, as it takes a far darker route than any of the Mr. & Mrs. Smith variations.
But then, as the blade and guns go quiet, we are left with what’s next. On top of that, Sakamoto has plenty left to get off of his chest, with Shin maybe being the one he can confide with. Whatever secrets our killer grocery store clerk has could play key to finally ridding the world of X and the bounty on Sakamoto’s head. But are these secrets something his wife Aoi knows, or is there even a side to Sakamoto that she has zero knowledge of?
There’s a bit of predictability in the twelfth volume of Sakamoto Days. However, it does deliver some great action and a couple of cool back stories. It may not be as unique as what Hollywood cranks out on a nearly weekly basis, but at least Sakamoto Days tries its best to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Until next time, our eyes are on Thailand…
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
