Sakamoto Days’ Anime Is Already Better Than the Manga

Sakamoto Days is finally here. After a wait that felt like a lifetime, fans of Yuto Suzuki’s beloved manga can finally dig into the first episode of the new anime on Netflix. The anime adaptation was first announced in May 2024, and fans rightly lost their minds daydreaming about how good the new show could be. But Sakamoto Days‘ road from announcement to release was long and hard fought.

Posters and trailers are meant to get audiences excited about an upcoming project. But every piece of promotional material for Sakamoto Days just left fans even more anxious. Some took issue with the voice cast, while others were worried about the state of the animation from TMS Entertainment. When Vaundy dropped the show’s OP, “Run, Sakamoto, Run,” another wave of anxiety hit already concerned fans (wrongly, because that song is a banger). It all came down to the premiere episode to set things right again. And it achieved that, and then some.

Sakamoto Days Episode 1 Is Better Than the Manga

Saying an adaptation is better than the source material is a sentence that will get you burned at the stake among almost any fandom. But, in the case of Sakamoto Days, it’s true. Before you grab your pitchforks, hear us out. The show’s premiere not only directly soothed the previously raised concerns, but it also blew past everyone’s expectations.

The voice acting in the first episode was phenomenal, and the entire cast perfectly captured the tone and vibe of their respective characters. Nobunaga Shimazaki balanced Shin’s competence with his childlike sense of awe and wonder at reuniting with Taro Sakamoto. While Taro himself, voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, was incredibly impactful, even with a minimal amount of dialogue.

The actual animation in the episode was gorgeous, and the trailers didn’t do it justice. TMS Entertainment ripped Yuto Zuzuki’s unique art style straight from the pages of the manga, enhancing the black and white images on the page with beautiful, pastel colors. As for Vaundy’s OP, the haters will slowly come around to embrace the track as the anime gains more fans with each new episode.

One of the most important aspects of Sakamoto Days is the overall vibe. Despite being a story about the deadliest hitman in the world who has a 1 billion yen bounty on his head, Sakamoto Days is an incredibly optimistic and occasionally chill story. After all, all Taro wants is to settle down and enjoy a quiet life with his family. The anime perfectly encapsulated this vibe. Even with the action-packed fight scenes (which we’ll get to in a minute), the anime was bursting with good vibes, and made the audience truly understand why Taro left the world of assassins behind.

[RELATED: Sakamoto Days: Shin’s Wild Powers Explained]

Sakamoto Days Fight Scenes Work Better in Anime

One of the biggest concerns among the fan base was how TMS Entertainment would handle the manga’s fight scenes. Yuto Suzuki’s illustrations and fight choreography are both stunning and ingenious, as Taro utilizes a number of non-lethal methods to take down the other hitmen. The anime’s fight scenes are where it truly excels past the manga. Of course, this can be said for many anime adaptations, as there’s only so much that can be visualized on a printed page, whereas an anime can fill in all the gaps as Yuto delivers high-kick after palm-strike after elbow.

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, the Sakamoto Days anime adds in the perfect cold open, which isn’t in the first chapter of the manga. The opening of the series cuts to a cinematic 2.39:1 aspect ratio with a hazy color palette as a young Taro Sakamoto slices his way through henchmen to take down his target. Armed with a pistol and a katana, the scene feels like a hybrid of John Wick and Kill Bill and sets the stage perfectly for Taro’s dad-bod transformation later in the episode.

New episodes of Sakamoto Days will be released weekly, dropping on Saturdays on Netflix. The first episode is available to stream now. Do you think Sakamoto Days will be the peak anime of the Winter 2025 season? Has the first episode won you over? Or, are you still not convinced about the series? Follow Team Anime at ComicBook.com for more Sakamoto Days and anime updates.