If You Like John Wick, You Need to Watch Netflix’s Newest Action Hit

It’s not hyperbole to say that John Wick changed the action genre. After the first movie was released in 2010, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular retired hitman, studios raced to produce copycats, with movies like Atomic Blonde and Extraction coming out in the subsequent years. John Wick‘s influence went far beyond movies and the US domestic box office, as the hit action franchise also inspired one of 2025’s biggest new anime, Sakamoto Days, and the mangaka behind it.

Sakamoto Days is based on the eponymous 2020 manga by Yuto Suzuki. Netflix’s official description for the story reads: “Taro Sakamoto, a former hitman, chooses to retire for the sake of love; but when his past catches up, he must fight to protect his beloved family.” Sound familiar? If you loved John Wick, then you absolutely need to check out Sakamoto Days, which just began streaming on Netflix.

Yuto Suzuki Was Heavily Inspired by John Wick

Sakamoto Days is a rare example of a story that crosses the line from being a rip-off of John Wick to a beautiful homage that shares its love for the Keanu Reeves-led franchise. The show’s plot might say otherwise; both are about a retired hitman who stops killing because he falls in love, only to be pulled back into the world of assassins due to an unfortunate run-in with mobsters. But, Yuto Suzuki takes the John Wick formula and puts his own spin on it.

Sakamoto Days deviates heavily from the John Wick formula in terms of its tone. The series is mostly a comedy about Taro Sakamoto attempting to navigate everyday life without breaking the one major promise he made to his wife: No more killing! (Meanwhile, John Wick has killed over 400 people on screen). While the series has featured some incredible fight scenes so far (and manga readers know there are so many more to come), it also contains slice-of-life elements as, after all, Taro’s ultimate goal is to spend his days running his convenience store.

Yuto Suzuki’s love of John Wick isn’t just something fans have assumed because the anime and the movie share similar plot threads and action. One of Sakamoto Days‘ editors has publicly revealed Suzuki’s love of the action franchise. “Suzuki has a fondness for movies, and I believe it’s influenced by foreign hitman films like John Wick,” Sakamoto Days‘ editor, Sousuke Ishikawa, said in a recent interview. “Works such as The Equalizer also resonate closely. I also believe that within Suzuki’s perception of ‘cool’ is a character that is a collected, strong, and hard worker. He’s good at creating action, so it was the perfect theme.”

The premiere episode began with an original cold open that’s not in Suzuki’s manga. The heavily color-graded opening depicted Taro Sakamoto in his younger and slimmer days, wielding a gun and a katana as he sliced through unnamed henchmen during his heyday as an assassin. The scene feels like it was ripped straight from the world of John Wick, especially as the latter character has had numerous fight scenes across the four films with his iconic pistol and even using katanas in the third installment.

[RELATED – Sakamoto Days’ Anime Is Already Better Than the Manga]

Sakamoto Days Features a Subtle John Wick Reference

As previously mentioned, Sakamoto Days pays a beautiful homage to the John Wick franchise. The first two episodes feature very similar references back to Keanu Reeves’ titular hitman. Taro’s closest ally, Shin Asakura, has the ability to read minds. When he messes up in front of Taro, the latter imagines brutally killing him. These methods range from quickly snapping his neck to stabbing him with a pencil.

John Wick fans may recall their introduction to the titular assassin, as Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) told his son Iosef (Alfie Allen) about the time he “once saw him kill three men in a bar with a pencil.” The scenes involving Taro and a pencil in Sakamoto Days are incredibly short, but it’s hard to separate them from their John Wick origins. All the anime needs now is for a character to read Travanian’s novel, Shibumi (which inspired John Wick and its pencil scene), and it will be the ultimate layered reference.

Two episodes of Sakamoto Days are currently streaming on Netflix. New episodes are released weekly on Saturdays. The first two episodes have already enthralled fans, as the anime has broken into Netflix’s Top 10 most popular shows of the week, sitting in third place at the time of writing.