Sakamoto Days has firmly transitioned into its overarching narrative with episode #3, and it left plenty to be excited about for episode #4 and beyond. While the series is still very much in an episodic stage writing-wise, the clearer focus of the narrative is very much welcome, and it will be great to see what else is done with it in future episodes.

Sakamoto Days episode #3 opened with the appearance of Nagumo, an old associate of Sakamoto’s from his assassin days, warning him that someone placed a bounty on his head for one billion yen. Sakamoto and Shin realized that they needed to lay low for the sake of Sakamoto’s family, but unfortunately, Sakamoto forgot that he had promised to take his family to an amusement park, forcing him to fight off assassins while still having fun with his family. It was an episode with a great balance of comedy and action, and episode #4 will surely be an even better follow-up.

What Time Sakamoto Days Episode 4 Releases

Sakamoto Days' Release Schedule Explained

As with previous episodes, the Sakamoto Days anime streams exclusively on Netflix, which can be accessed through the app or directly through the website. Assuming there are no delays, Sakamoto Days episode #3 will premiere on Saturday, February 1 at 6:30 AM Pacific Standard Time (PST), 9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST), and 2:30 PM Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and it will be available for streaming in both English and Japanese as soon as the series premieres.

Sakamoto Days Episode 2 Review: A Great Follow-Up To A Greater Premiere

Sakamoto Days Episode 2 In Review

Regarding the previous episode, Sakamoto Days episode #2 was a great follow-up to the premiere. Not only were the action scenes far more fluid than the premiere’s, albeit not without the previous issues of slowness and choppiness, but the addition of Lu to the cast of Sakamoto Days quickly proved to be a welcome one thanks to her strong personality and the comedy and action of every scene with her. The trio of Sakamoto, Shin, and Lu is already proving to be a strong one, and it will be great to see what else is done with them.

If there was any problem with episode #2, however, it was how it skipped some chapters from the manga. The content of episode #1 was originally followed by two largely comedic chapters before getting to Lu’s introduction, but the anime skipped over them to get right to Lu’s introduction, instead. Granted, those two chapters were largely irrelevant to the overarching narrative, so Sakamoto Days likely skipped chapters #2 and #3 to more properly streamline the overarching narrative, but with how funny those chapters were, their absence is nonetheless disappointing.

What Happened In Sakamoto Days Episode 3?

Produced By TMS Entertainment; Directed By Yoshihide Ibata

Sakamoto Days episode #3, “Welcome to Sugar Park!”, opened with Shin and Lu’s arguing being interrupted by a surprisingly friendly and talkative Sakamoto, with both of them immediately realizing something was off. Sure enough, a second Sakamoto appeared and confronted the doppelganger, who revealed himself to be Nagumo, an old associate of Sakamoto’s from his assassin days. Nagumo warned Sakamoto that someone had placed a bounty of one billion yen on Sakamoto’s head, and while Shin and Lu were initially suspicious, their doubts were cleared when Sakamoto foiled an assassination attempt from an assassin disguised as a pizza delivery man.

Sakamoto and Shin knew they needed to keep a low profile, but unfortunately, Sakamoto had already promised to take his family to an amusement park, Sugar Park, and they couldn’t change their plans without revealing everything. As such, while at Sugar Park, Shin and Lu used their telepathy to protect Sakamoto and his family from assassins while the three of them had a fun day out. Things were going well for them at first, but trouble started to arise when Shin and Lu encountered an assassin named Tatsu who could calm himself to the point of throwing off Shin’s telepathy.

Shin separated himself from the group to deal with Tatsu by himself, but not only did he continue having trouble reading his mind, but Shin was quickly hit with a poison that left him blind. Things looked bad for Shin, but then he ed how Sakamoto’s daughter, Hana, wanted to see a show with the Sugar Park mascot. Shin took the fight there, and with Sakamoto in the audience, Shin used his telepathy to let Sakamoto guide him through the fight while he was still blind, and soon enough, Tatsu was defeated and Sakamoto’s family was safe for another day.

Sakamoto Days Begins One Of The Story’s Best Running Gags

Sakamoto Days' Brilliant Running Gag Explained

Despite most of the characters in Sakamoto Days being assassins, they typically put little to no effort into keeping their fights under wraps, even when they start to escalate to ridiculous degrees, but strangely enough, civilians in Sakamoto Days tend to be strangely nonchalant about all the fighting the main characters get involved in. The way everyone just rolls with Shin and Tatsu’s fight is the first big example of such, and it makes for one of the best running gags in the manga that the anime will hopefully see fit to do justice.

Sakamoto Days Slowly Starts To Find Its Footing As An Anime

Sakamoto Days' Anime Is Slowly Getting Better

Like with previous episodes, Sakamoto Days episode #3 was a bit uneven when it came to its animation. While there were plenty of great fight scenes, there was also a notable uptick in slow-motion paired with sudden high-impact, and just like in previous episodes, it always felt like a means of covering up the general lack of fluidity in the action scenes at the most critical moments. anime still has a problem with not being able to properly express its biggest action scenes, and it needs to improve on that to truly capitalize on the source material.

That doesn’t mean episode #3 wasn’t fun to watch, of course. Not only were there still good fight scenes amidst the somewhat lackluster ones, but Sakamoto Days episode #3 did a great job with its unique style of comedy while giving the narrative some much-needed development, making for an episode that more than succeeded on a narrative level, even if it somewhat stumbled in of spectacle. There’s still plenty to be excited about with Sakamoto Days, and hopefully, that will more than show itself in episode #4 and beyond.

Be sure to watch Sakamoto Days when it releases on Saturday, February 1.