Following the Danshokai group encounter in the second episode of Sakamoto Days, which saw the titular hitman and his trusted accomplice, Shin, take on mafia bosses and assassins to protect Lu Shaotang, the JAA—assassin association—became aware of Sakamoto’s secretive life as a family man. A hefty bounty was put on Sakamoto’s name by the organization, and as the third episode reveals, dreaded assassins are already on their way to take down the legendary hitman. With two trustworthy allies, Shin and Lu, by his side, Sakamoto enjoys quality family time without worrying about his enemies. Things take a bad turn in the fourth episode, which sees Sakamoto’s old associate as one of the bounty hunters—spelling danger for his family in the process. The action-packed two episodes set the ground for a bigger conflict, as it becomes clear that Sakamoto and his allies will have to step up big time to protect his family.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is Kagumo’s Unique Ability?
Sakamoto Days episode 3 begins at Sakamoto’s shop, where Lu and Shin find Sakamoto’s behavior to be odd, given he appears to be chirpy and lively all of a sudden—as opposed to his usual stoic, taciturn demeanor. Moments later, as another Sakamoto enters the store, Shin and Lu become all the more confused. The talkative Sakamoto is revealed to be a doppelganger, whose real name is Nagumo, one of Taro’s acquaintances from his past hitman days. As an assassin, Nagumo is not only a master of disguise; he is also able to shield his mind from Shin’s psychic abilities, much to his surprise. Nagumo warns Sakamoto that assassins around the world are eager to take him down for the bounty that’s been put on him by JAA. Although Nagumo himself is not interested in killing Sakamoto, Nagumo has other personal motives involving him that he doesn’t reveal.
Nagumo’s warnings prove well founded, as Pizza Nakajima, a member of Dondenkai corporate, which employs assassins,reveals himself as he holds Nagumo captive to threaten Sakamoto and co. Nagumo effortlessly takes him down and proceeds to almost kill him until Sakamoto asks Nagumo to spare his life. Scoffing at Sakamoto’s no-kill policy, Nagumo leaves, taking the unconscious Pizza Nakajima along with him. On the other hand, Dondenkai members keep a watch over Sakamoto through the hidden camera installed in his shop, and they mention Sakamoto being part of a certain ‘Order’—which sounds mysterious given some of the assassins refuse to acknowledge its existence. Sakamoto is able to locate the hidden camera in his shop, and he threatens the ones observing him from the other side before destroying it.
How Did Shin Protect Sakamoto and His Family From Tatsu?
Keeping the promise he made to his daughter Hana, Sakamoto goes to the amusement park the next day with his family, with Lu and Shin keeping a close watch to detect any possible troublemakers. It is tough to locate assassins in a place that is crawling with people, but Shin’s mind-reading ability comes in handy on this occasion. Kurii Ningu, an assassin in the guise of a janitor, approaches them, and with Shin’s timely warning, Sakamoto is able to knock him out easily without alarming his family. However, the next assassin, Tatsu, seems like serious trouble, as he has done his homework on Shin.
Tatsu keeps himself as chill as possible as, following Sakamoto and his family, he gets on the roller coaster ride without being detected by Shin. In fact, after the ride begins, it is Lu’s intuition about Tatsu that exposes him, and having ties to the mafia in the past, it is understandable as to why Lu was able to predict a criminal’s intention without thought-reading abilities. However, once Tatsu’s cover is blown, he tries to kill Sakamoto by shooting at him, only for the bullet to be deflected by his bulletproof specs. Freeing himself from the safety guards, Shin lunges at Tatsu by jumping off of the moving roller coaster, and the duo go through a freefall. Miraculously enough, they emerge unscathed, and Sakamoto’s family remains unaware about whatever is happening between Tatsu and Shin.
Tatsu taunts Shin by mentioning Sakamoto to be afraid of dying as he has a family to protect, which has cost him the edge he needs on the battlefield. In fact, he shows Shin through example that his willingness to protect Sakamoto and his family has weakened him, as he throws poisoned kunai at him, one of which injures Shin. However, Shin holds the opinion that people fight the hardest when they have something to protect, and even with his vision going blurry due to the poison, he chooses to fight on.
At this point, Shin makes a brilliant plan to take on Tatsu, as grabbing a hold of him, he jumps on the stage where children play, with several pop culture characters in costume as well. Shin sneakily dons the costume of the amusement park mascot—Sugar Bunny, and much to Tatsu’s bewilderment, even with his eyes closed, Shin proceeds to deliver a solid beatdown. In reality, Shin was being assisted by Sakamoto, who was watching Tatsu’s moves and, having superior combat skills, totally read through his defenses. Sakamoto conveyed the necessary assault tactics to Shin, and thanks to their perfect partnership, another member of Dondenkai bit the dust. Hana and Aoi didn’t suspect a thing; as much like others, they were simply enjoying Sugar Bunny fighting off his enemies, not knowing it was Shin inside the costume who was protecting Sakamoto and his family.
What Was The Connection Between Boiled And Sakamoto?
Despite all the slip-ups, Dondenkai isn’t giving up on their pursuit of Sakamoto, as they send two assassins from the upper echelon of their hierarchy—team Hard Boiled, consisting of a stoic, rugged assassin named Boiled and his peppy, mischievous partner Obiguro, who is smitten with him. Obiguro is excited to meet with the legendary Sakamoto for the first time, and Boiled has history with him. As it turns out, back in the day, when they were used to being batchmates in the hitman training center in Japan, Clear Creation, Boiled was fascinated by Sakamoto’s devil-may-care, resigned attitude—the aura he carried about him. For Boiled, Sakamoto represented the quintessential hard-boiled way—not caring a dime about the world and going about his way, and this impressed Boiled more than Sakamoto’s unparalleled skills as a hitman. Boiled started idolizing Sakamoto and following him like a shadow; in his mind, he considered Sakamoto as a friend and partner in crime, although Sakamoto’s extremely nonchalant attitude made it unclear whether he too gave that much importance to Boiled.
Despite Sakamoto’s reserved, indifferent attitude, he was extremely popular with the ladies, as trainee female assassins used to swoon over him. Sakamoto avoided all the attention, something which Boiled never received. In the past flashback sequences, Nagumo is seen to be present as well—which conveys how he knew Sakamoto so well, as seen in the third episode. Anyway, seeing his former idol, Sakamoto, has turned into a family guy, unabashedly flaunting a dad bod—Boiled appears furious and disappointed. He feels the person he knew and admired no longer exists, and more than getting the bounty—now his focus on taking down Sakamoto is guided by his personal motivation.
JAA Organization and The Order
Shin’s valiant efforts to protect Sakamoto from Tatsu got him infected with a poison that hampered his eyesight, as seen in the previous episode. Thankfully, as Sakamoto Days episode 4 reveals, Lu had the antidote to the poison with her – as she seemingly carried all sorts of potions just in case one was needed. Treating Shin with the antidote, Lu proceeds to threaten a captive Tatsu by infecting him with his own poison as she questions him about who sent him. Tatsu reveals he is a member of the contract killer company, Dondenkai, and also mentions that he is a part of JAA as well. Shin shares that the Japan Assassins Association is the agency that controls the directives, communication network, and validation procedure involving the assassins of Japan, and there are only 400 professionally licensed hitmen in the country, of which he himself and Sakamoto are a part. In the second episode, the head honchos of JAA had put a bounty on Sakamoto’s head—mainly because turning back on the organization is not an option.
Tatsu questions Sakamoto about the mysterious Order that came into discussion in the Dondenkai meeting in the previous episode, and Sakamoto’s silence confirms the existence of such an agency to Tatsu—and also the fact that Sakamoto used to be a member of it. Shin isn’t aware of such an organization, which makes this clandestine group all the more intriguing. Anyway, as Hana and Aoi arrive to meet them, Sakamoto and co. distract them as Shin releases Tatsu after taking away his weapons. Tatsu is surprised, as he was expecting that there was no chance that these former assassins were going to spare his life—but Shin has taken a page out of Sakamoto’s book and decided to follow his policy, which is why he leaves Tatsu to his devices after ensuring he won’t follow them. Later, Tatsu is approached by Obiguro and Boiled, and the duo grill him for failing in his task—which might have certain repercussions in the future. In his mind, Tatsu considers Sakamoto to be a lost cause, as he recalls the notoriety of this pair of killers who eliminated hundreds of people during the Balkan wars.
No major threat approaches Sakamoto’s family as they spend the whole day in the amusement park, and to finish things off, they decide to venture into the haunted house. This is where the hard-boiled pair have set their base of operation as well, having prepared some nasty surprises for Sakamoto. Hana is too excited as the family gets welcomed with all the morbid props, as she seems to have inherited her father’s fearless attitude. Lu, on the other hand, is scared out of her wits, and to numb her senses, she decides to drink a bit. Hidden among the ghosts and zombies who are waiting to scare them are killers of every kind, but a perceptive Sakamoto is able to detect them with ease and take them down without alarming his family. Seeing their lackeys getting beaten, Obiguro and Boiled decide to step into the arena.
Will Sakamoto Be Able to Save His Family?
While Obiguro uses her methods to harmlessly incapacitate Sakamoto’s family and takes on Lu and Shin, Boiled faces off against his former friend in a brutal brawl. Sakamoto initially refuses to acknowledge him, much to the frustration of Boiled, who is already furious with him for having gone soft for the sake of family. Boiled taunts Sakamoto and proceeds to deliver a severe beatdown, equipped with his explosive projectile pellets and rocket-propelled hand gauntlets—it seems Sakamoto has finally met his match as he struggles to keep up. Boiled reminds him that it has been five years since he retired to opt for a quiet life, which he interprets as five years of difference in experience between them. Boiled doesn’t hide his disgust with Sakamoto as he thinks his former partner has turned into a shadow of the man he used to be, and with a final devastating punch, Boiled sends Sakamoto flying far away.
However, Sakamoto hasn’t forgotten the old days at all; as the dust settles, he recalls all the compounds that Boiled used to create his incendiary projectiles back in their training days. Out of the debris and smoke, Sakamoto emerges in his old, jacked physique, having had enough of Boiled’s nonsense, and it seems he has finally gotten serious enough to get this over with as soon as possible. Boiled appears overwhelmed with a sudden sense of fear as a past memory flashes in his mind, and the episode ends with Sakamoto approaching him with killer intent. Aside from what Boiled mentioned in this episode, there are some issues between these two that haven’t been revealed yet, as Boiled’s anger with Sakamoto seems to also be laced with a hint of jealousy. Also, what caused the sudden transformation in Sakamoto’s physical stature out of nowhere? Was it a bodysuit, or is Boiled’s mind pulling a trick on him? The upcoming fifth episode will answer that in detail.