You know what Manga would make a great Game? Sakamoto Days
The last couple of years has been a great time for manga fans as publishers trip over themselves to finally stop creating one million different isekai books and focus on making new and interesting story premises.
Oops, hold on, I feel you getting your comments ready. Listen, I love isekai stories. Hell, my last name is Halliday — just like James Halliday, creator of the Oasis in Ready Player One. I know my isekai. But there’s too damn much of it now and seeing fresh ideas for stories that don’t involve a lonely so-and-so thrust into a magic and/or virtual realm is a nice change of pace.
In this series of articles though, I’m going to go into a newer manga that, because of their unique story gimmick, would make a really interesting game. And today’s manga is a perfect example of that. I give you: Sakamoto Days.
What is Sakamoto Days?
Sakamoto Days is this fantastic manga series by a weekly manga series that appears in the famous Shonen Jump magazine as well as gets published in traditional manga volumes by Shueisha. It’s written by Yuuto Sazuki and, let me just say, for someone who’s previous work was just two one-shot stories, this is an amazing first go at a regular storyline.
Sakamoto Days is a story that mostly follows Tarou Sakamoto. Tarou Sakamoto was considered one of the greatest assassins that ever lived until one day, in the midst of a job, he went into a convenience store and fell in love with the clerk. As their relationship grew, she made a deal with him. They could only be together if he stopped killing. Tarou Sakamoto agreed, quit working as an assassin, and took over running the convenience store so the two of them could work together. Over time they got married, had a kid, found happiness, and, in Tarou Sakamoto’s case, a super chubby dad bod.
Meanwhile, in the world of assassins, a power struggle is happening in which newer assassins want the old guard gone and, for mysterious reasons, they also put a hit out on Tarou Sakamoto which gets every assassin (of which this universe has an obscene amount of) out for the bounty.
So Tarou Sakamoto, who is still immensely powerful, has to defend his store and his family while also refusing to kill, coming up with interesting ways to subdue increasingly powerful enemies using regular items he has on hand.
The end result is an occasionally violent, occasionally funny, and constantly charming story that feels like a light-hearted John Wick tale in a world where John Wick is able to constantly defend his dog and go right back to work like nothing ever happened.