Watch the legendary Taro Sakamoto in action. Sakamoto Days Season 2 Review: Is It Worth Watching? (2026) 🔴 Anime Review · 2026 Sakamoto Days Season 2 Review: Is It Worth Watching? Studio: TMS Entertainment Stream: Netflix Episodes: 22 Genre: Action / Comedy 8.1 OG Score ⚔️ Quick Verdict Sakamoto Days Season 2 is the glow-up nobody expected . After a divisive first cour, the second half of Season 1 won back the fanbase with darker arcs, better action, and a story that finally started showing its teeth. Season 2 is confirmed and in production — and the momentum is real. Here's the full breakdown. Let me be straight with you. When Sakamoto Days first dropped on Netflix in January 2025, the reactions were… mixed. Manga fans weren't thrilled with the animation quality. Newcomers loved it. And somewhere in between, a genuine de...
Watch the legendary Taro Sakamoto in action.
🔴 Anime Review · 2026
Sakamoto Days
Season 2 Review:
Is It Worth Watching?
Season 2 Review:
Is It Worth Watching?
8.1
OG Score
⚔️
Quick Verdict
Sakamoto Days Season 2 is the glow-up nobody expected. After a divisive first cour, the second half of Season 1 won back the fanbase with darker arcs, better action, and a story that finally started showing its teeth. Season 2 is confirmed and in production — and the momentum is real. Here's the full breakdown.
Let me be straight with you. When Sakamoto Days first dropped on Netflix in January 2025, the reactions were… mixed. Manga fans weren't thrilled with the animation quality. Newcomers loved it. And somewhere in between, a genuine debate was brewing about whether this was just another mid-tier shonen riding the Netflix wave.
Fast forward to the second cour, and something shifted. The story got darker, the fights got more intense, and characters started actually developing in ways that mattered. Sakamoto Days wasn't just good — it was quietly becoming one of the better action-comedies on the platform.
Now that Season 2 has been officially confirmed at Jump Festa 2026 and is in active production, the question everyone's asking is simple: was Season 1 actually worth your time, and should you be excited about what's coming? After watching all 22 episodes — the answer is yes. But it comes with some honest caveats.
📖 What Is Sakamoto Days?
Genre
Action Comedy
Platform
Netflix
Source
Yuto Suzuki Manga
Season 1
22 Episodes
Season 2
Confirmed
Tone
Dark + Funny
The premise sounds ridiculous — and that's genuinely part of the charm. Taro Sakamoto was once the greatest hitman in the world. The most feared. The most wanted. Then he fell in love, had a daughter, got a little chubby, and now runs a convenience store in the suburbs.
Obviously the underworld doesn't just let you retire. A billion-yen bounty gets placed on his head, old enemies come crawling back, and Sakamoto has to use every ounce of his legendary skills — often involving whatever happens to be on the shop shelves — to protect his family and his new life.
The manga by Yuto Suzuki is one of Shonen Jump's most beloved modern series with over 7 million copies in circulation. The anime adaptation was always going to face enormous scrutiny from day one.
🧑🤝🧑 Meet The Characters
Taro Sakamoto
Retired hitman / Store owner
Shin Asakura
Clairvoyant assassin
Lu Xiaotang
Mafia boss's daughter
Heisuke Mashimo
Sniper / fan-turned-ally
Slur (Kei Uzuki)
Main antagonist
Kanaguri
Film director assassin
One of Sakamoto Days' biggest strengths is the ensemble cast. Shin's mind-reading ability creates some of the funniest and most tactically interesting fight scenes in recent shonen history. The growing friendship between Sakamoto and Shin is the emotional core of the series — it develops slowly but hits hard when it counts.
📋 Season 1 Arc Breakdown
Season 1 covers two very different tones across its 22 episodes split into two cours. Understanding this split is key to understanding why the second half won people back.
Cour 1
Introduction + Lab Arc
★★★★★
The first half establishes the world, the characters, and the tone beautifully. We get the convenience store setup, the introduction of Shin and Lu, the Amusement Park Arc, and the Lab Arc. It's a perfect blend of action and comedy — the kind of series you show a friend who "doesn't watch anime" and immediately converts them. The Lab Arc has standout moments including a hilarious motorcycle chase and the first real glimpse of what Shin's ESP can do in a fight. The animation complaints were valid but not series-breaking here.
Cour 2 — Part 1
Death Row Prisoners Arc
★★★★★
This is where Sakamoto Days stopped playing nice. Slur releases death row prisoners — assassins sentenced to death for the worst crimes imaginable — and sends them after Sakamoto's crew. The shift in tone is immediate and jarring in the best possible way. These aren't quirky villains with gimmicks — they're genuinely dangerous killers with nothing to lose. The Tokyo Tower sequence is one of the most intense battles in recent shonen anime. Osaragi with her Gothic dress and buzzsaw weapon is a standout villain design. This arc is where fans who were on the fence got locked in for good.
Cour 2 — Part 2
JCC Transfer Exam + Infiltration Arc
★★★★★
The real showstopper. Sakamoto infiltrates the assassin school he graduated from — except because of his weight gain, nobody recognises him. This premise pays off spectacularly across multiple episodes. The JCC entrance exam takes place on an airplane where weapons are randomly assigned and every candidate is out for blood. New characters including the psychotic film director Kanaguri, the obsessive fangirl Toramaru, and the deceptively quiet Mafuyu all steal scenes immediately. Shin's character development peaks here. Sakamoto's past starts bleeding into the present. And Slur's true identity begins to take shape in a way that genuinely recontextualises everything.
💡 Manga Fan Note: The anime is faithful to the source material — but the intricate detail of Yuto Suzuki's fight choreography doesn't always translate perfectly to screen. If you love the anime, read the manga. It hits even harder.
⚖️ What Works & What Doesn't
✅ What Works
- Sakamoto's action sequences — creative, funny, and genuinely impressive
- Shin and Sakamoto's bond is the emotional anchor of the show
- Death Row arc delivers some of the best villain designs in recent shonen
- JCC arc expands the world and introduces fan-favourite new characters
- Tone shifts from comedy to dark thriller without losing its identity
- Sakamoto's mysterious past is teased brilliantly throughout
- Season 2 confirmed — this story is going somewhere big
❌ What Doesn't
- Animation quality is noticeably below MAPPA or Ufotable standards
- Lu Xiaotang gets heavily sidelined in the second half
- Slur lacks villain presence for most of Season 1
- Death Row Inmates don't all hit as hard as the concept promises
- Comedy drops off sharply in Cour 2 — slice-of-life fans will miss it
- Season 2 release date still unconfirmed — likely 2027
📊 Our Ratings Breakdown
🆚 How Does It Compare?
The most common comparison is Spy x Family — and it's fair. Both series blend domestic life with high-stakes action, use family as the emotional core, and balance comedy with genuine danger. If you love Spy x Family, Sakamoto Days is a must-watch. The action is more brutal, the world is darker, and the humour is more physical and absurd.
"Sakamoto Days is looking to be Netflix's biggest shonen hit since the first two seasons of The Seven Deadly Sins." — Anime Superhero News
That's not a small statement. The Seven Deadly Sins launched Netflix's anime ambitions. If Sakamoto Days grows into that role — and Season 2 has every reason to — we're watching the birth of a flagship franchise.
🔮 What To Expect From Season 2
🚨 Season 2 Confirmed Details
- Officially announced at Jump Festa 2026 with a teaser trailer and new key visuals released
- Production is active at TMS Entertainment — Netflix confirmed renewal on X (Twitter)
- Live-action film also scheduled for April 29, 2026 — Ren Meguro stars as Sakamoto
- Release date for the anime Season 2 not yet confirmed — estimated 2027
- Teaser hints at darker storylines, stronger enemies, higher emotional stakes
- Story expected to continue with the Bangkok Arc and deeper into Slur's true identity
Season 2 has the blueprint to be everything Season 1 promised. The world is now fully established, the side characters have been developed, and Slur's true identity as Kei Uzuki — Sakamoto's former JCC classmate — opens up an entirely new dimension of the story. This isn't just about a retired hitman fighting off bounty hunters anymore. It's about confronting the past, old bonds, and what it truly means to leave violence behind when violence refuses to leave you.
The Bangkok Arc takes the crew international for the first time. New allies, new enemies, and the revelation that Rion Akao — a figure from Sakamoto's past — is responsible for the original bounty. The emotional stakes get personal in a way that earlier arcs only gestured toward.
👀 Who Should Watch This?
Perfect if you likeSpy x Family
Perfect if you likeAction-Comedy Shonen
Perfect if you likeCreative Fight Scenes
Think twice if you needTop-tier Animation
Sakamoto Days is for the anime fan who wants something that makes them laugh out loud in one scene and lean forward in their seat two minutes later. It rewards patience — the second half of Season 1 is significantly better than the first, and the series has a genuine sense that it's building toward something massive.
If you're a manga reader who was disappointed by Season 1, give the second cour another chance. If you're coming in completely fresh, start from Episode 1 and push past the halfway point. You won't regret it.
⚔️
OG Gamershub Final Verdict
Sakamoto Days Season 1
8.1
A slow-burn that earns every moment of its second-half greatness. The animation keeps it from the top tier, but the characters, creativity, and sheer fun of watching a chubby retired hitman dismantle professional assassins using convenience store products makes Sakamoto Days one of the most entertaining anime on Netflix right now. Season 2 cannot come fast enough.
💬 Final Thoughts
Here's what keeps coming back to mind: Sakamoto Days isn't trying to be Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen. It's not chasing MAPPA-level animation spectacle or emotional devastation. It's doing its own thing — and its own thing happens to be a beautifully absurd story about a man who gave up being the world's greatest killer because his wife was cute and he wanted a quiet life.
That premise should not work this well. And yet here we are. Season 2 is coming. The live-action film drops April 2026. The manga is one of Shonen Jump's crown jewels. Sakamoto Days is not mid. It just needed time to show you what it really was.
Have you watched it? Who's your favourite character? Drop your thoughts in the comments below 👇
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