MANGA REVIEW | "Sakamoto Days" - Volume Twenty
When you have a bounty on your head, you don’t have many options. In the case of Taro Sakamoto, he’s got two: kill X, or dismantle the JAA. With his family’s life on the line, the hero of Sakamoto Days finds himself weighing both options. But in its twentieth volume, his wife Aoi gives him a reminder of who he is, and what matters most in his life.
It all starts when Taro overhears Aoi about their grocery store being in the red. All of their hard work and dedication has gone into their store, a place that isn’t there just to sell groceries. Nay, it’s a place Taro could call his own, as he fits into society after a lifetime of assassin work. In that instance, our hero comes up with the third option: take over the JAA, and franchise Sakamoto’s!
As all of this is going on, X is getting used to having Takamura’s identity. His sword skills have gone full throttle, with his cohort Kumanomi in shock over what X is now capable of. On top of that, X seems to have some trouble keeping his personalities in check, with his Rion side having to pop in whenever his Takamura goes berserk. But when Akira sees Rion pop up, she finds herself taking out some frustration on X, who finally reveals why he dropped the antidote and left Kindaka for dead.
So now, Sakamoto Days has two big plots happening alongside each other. On the X side, our villain wants to save the orphanage that he once called home from the people who run it. As for Taro, it’s the quest to take down the JAA and grow his family store. Both require long journeys to make either plan succeed. While we won’t know how X plans to overtake his past home, Sakamoto on the other hand has the right mindset for his goal to come to fruition: training. Lots and lots of training!
Even in his fat body, Taro still runs circles around Shin and Heisuke. But when Kindaka appears alive and well, it goes to show that the former #1 assassin still has a lot of work to be done. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much convincing to make Kindaka switch teams and aid Team Sakamoto. Another face is even thrown in to help, as the elder JAA member Torres gives him a training worth more than a winning horse racing ticket.
However, as Sakamoto Days has shown, it’s not just physical combat that’s needed to come out on top. The mental kind also is important, as Shin requires to up his ESP skills with the aid of a secret JAA member. And in order to get close to them, he and Heisuke decide to take a page out of a classic Bob Odenkirk movie!
So now, the pieces are all set for two big storylines in Sakamoto Days. The hero takes down an entire assassination organization, and the villain lays claim to his home to save others from a fate similar to his. There’s a lot of excitement showcased in the twentieth volume, as author Yuto Suzuki flips the pages on his characters in ways that correct the errors of the past volume. Yes, there’s a lot to swallow here, but Sakamoto Days helps make the plot go down easy thanks to its killer fight sequences and quirky sense of humor.
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
