Sakamoto Days: Taro Sakamoto’s Weapon Choices Symbolize the Power of the Ordinary

This article contains spoilers for Sakamoto Days Part 1.

Shōnen anime is a genre of action, adventure, and jaw-dropping fight scenes. The most memorable of these scenes are often dominated by characters with supernatural talents or affinities for weaponry. However, within the first installment of Netflix’s Sakamoto Days, Taro Sakamoto proves that neither magical ability nor high-tech weapons are essential to holding a spot as one of anime’s most powerful protagonists. 

Sakamoto is the owner of a suburban convenience store, as well as a doting father, husband, and former hitman. Before meeting his wife, Aoi, and settling down to have a family, Sakamoto was the country’s most renowned assassin, his exploits in the field the stuff of legend. Young hopefuls in the business idolized him, his colleagues revered him, and targets feared his power. 

Then, Aoi gives him an ultimatum that he must quit his job and swear to never kill again, and Sakamoto must face losing his power or losing her. In the end, the choice is an easy one; not only is Sakamoto okay with this new life, but he seems to prefer it. He quadruples his body fat and settles in behind the counter of his store, abandoning the power of his original line of work in favor of an ordinary existence, in which he finds meaning helping his neighbors and caring for his family. 

When hints of his past begin infiltrating his present and hitmen target him and his family, Sakamoto has no choice but to dust off his old skills to keep them safe. The first time an attempt is made on Sakamoto’s life, he spits out a piece of candy and makes direct contact with a bullet as it shoots from a gun, changing its trajectory. In most other anime, this ability would be to the credit of magical marksmanship powers. For Taro Sakamoto, it’s merely natural talent executed with whatever was on hand, a theme that continues as the season goes on. 

Sakamoto’s mundane weapon choices are often attempts to keep his family none the wiser to his activities, even when they are onscreen right alongside him. In a multi-episode saga in which Sakamoto and his family venture to an amusement park, the protagonist subtly disarms an enemy with nothing but a pen. In another episode at a bathhouse, he uses a swift flick of his wrist while playing ping-pong to take out a bully, somehow never skipping a beat of the game. 

Even when his family isn’t on screen, Sakamoto’s choice in weapons represents their omnipresence in his psyche. Fighting with things like playing cards and popsicle sticks results in non-lethal injuries to his opponents, ensuring that his wife’s no-kill policy remains intact. While this side of his weaponry mantra is a way to keep his violent past at arm’s length, the other side is a principle he holds from his days as the “Legendary Assassin.” 

During a fight in the middle of the season, Sakamoto’s opponent is a Frankensteinian man whose various body parts can be converted into guns, knives, and a myriad of other classic weapons. Upon learning about this power, Sakamoto pulls a sticker, a flyer, and a mechanical pencil out of his pocket. His opponent laughs off the measly collection before losing his eyesight at the hands of pencil lead, and is met by Sakamoto’s advice: only the weakest assassins need to rely on weapons to get the job done. 

This theme emerges multiple times throughout the season. Whether it’s throwing a rock directly into the barrel of a sniper’s rifle, using the handrail of a subway train as an impenetrable spinning shield, or disarming villains with kitchen utensils, Sakamoto proves his power over and over again through nothing but everyday objects, which is arguably more badass than characters who would have nothing to show for themselves without a supernatural power they were born with or happened to stumble across. 

Most fantasy and action stories romanticize these characters, the ones with unachievable lives that are admittedly entertaining, but lend the show an unempathetic edge. The lens of Sakamoto Days, in which a seemingly unbeatable character is nothing more than a small business owner who both cherishes a simple life and uses the power of that simplicity to fuel his uncanny abilities, is refreshing and inspiring for the ordinary anime fan, who might therein find some power of their own.

Sakamoto Days Part 1 is available to stream on Netflix now. Part 2 premieres July 14.