Sakamoto Days
Short Synopsis: A legendary hitman falls in love, retires, has a kid and grows fat. But what will he do when his old life comes looking for him once again?
Lenlo: I remember reading Sakamoto Days back when it was a newly released manga. It was a clever enough comedy series in the vein of One Punch Man, all about putting an absurdly OP lead in comically everyday situations, occasionally juxtaposed with a serious look into how sad and empty the life of an assassin truly was. Most of that is successfully carried into the anime, with the combat especially getting a glow-up with decent animation. The soul of the series is all here, complete with recurring bad guys from the underworld so we can constantly jump between wholesome family time and underground serious time, similar to SpyXFamily in a way. The issue is that, much like how the manga fell off for me, I don’t expect the anime to be able to keep the premise fun and interesting for the entire run. You can only watch the same thing, the same basic formula, so many times before you get bored of it. And that’s my main concern for Sakamoto Days. I’ll watch it for a bit, see if it manages to work better as an anime than it did as a manga, but as fun as it is for now I don’t expect to keep up with it for the entire season.
Potential: 40%
Giramasu
Short Synopsis: An overworked Guild Receptionist is actually the strongest hero in the kingdom, defeating monsters after hours so she can clock out on time.
Lenlo: Giramasu is… fine? It’s another classic OP MC fantasy show, but instead of an edgy boy you get an overworked register employee beating up monsters to go home on time. Is it unique? Enough I suppose, the lead is definitely more interesting than our usual fair and her motivations are understandable. But that’s really all it has going for it, the side cast are basically non-existent and this shtick of “I want to go home early” won’t stay novel forever. Meanwhile everything else about it is still a basic OP MC “Special skill no one else has” premise. There’s a chance the show does something interesting with her identity being found out so quickly, and Rie Takahashi’s vocal is pretty good. For me personally though, I’m just not interested.
Potential: 25%
Übel Blatt
Short Synopsis: Rumors stir throughout the land: when the wielder of the black sword draws his dark blade, all who stand in its path are torn asunder
Lenlo: Do you like edge? Cause that’s exactly what Ubel Blatt is, through and through. Think Ragna Crimson, except without the self-awareness to know what it is and what it’s doing. On its own that wouldn’t be so bad, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying some edge. But it also has this weird focus on a little girl’s body, dressing her up in a lewd outfit and having the villains get… weird around her. It sort of does this to everyone to an extent, so I guess it isn’t that weird, but it’s still unnecessary and when combined with the barely restrained edge the whole thing ends up feeling like a 14 year olds first “Dark Fantasy” story. Maybe it goes somewhere, but I’m not interested enough to find out.
Potential: 5%
I only read Sakamoto days up to volume 8 and it does not get boring. How on earth can you an arc about how Sakamoto meets his arch foe in their younger days boring? What’s boring is the berserk knock off adaptation coming out.