 It's time for another manga First Impressions, this time on Yuto Suzuki's Sakamoto Days. Hey everybody, welcome back to A Week in Geekdom, Gio here, and we're gonna do it all over again this time. I'm actually on time for a First Impressions. We recently had the first chapter of Yuto Suzuki's Sakamoto Days come out, and if you don't know what this manga's about, well, you're in luck. Taro Sakamoto was the ultimate assassin feared by villains and admired by Hitman, but one day he fell in love, retirement, marriage, fatherhood, and then Sakamoto gained weight. The chubby guy who runs the neighborhood store is actually a former legendary Hitman. Can he protect his family from danger? That official description basically tells you all you need to know about the series. This is an action comedy series, and so far so good. I really enjoyed it. It gives off some really funny action-packed wholesome vibes as you have this former Hitman. Now he's a chubby parent. He's a silent protagonist, but most of the time it's his actions that speak louder than his words, if there are any, and it's just a really nice series to have a character like this who had such an interesting, shady, yet action-packed past as a Hitman, you know, being admired by so many people, and that one day he decided to give it all away and quit, and he eventually fell off the radar, I guess, and fell in love. Now he's married with a kid, and he's running a convenience store in Japan. The Yakuza, I guess, doesn't really like that, so they're sending in another Hitman called Shin after him. Now he's going to be the secondary character in all of this, and he's a type of clairvoyant. He can read people's minds, and he's a huge admirer of Taro Sakamoto when he was in his prime and all that stuff, so the dynamic between the two sounds and looks pretty interesting. I really like that Shin, you know, admired him, and now he's in conflict as to what he's going to do about his next Hit, which is Sakamoto. For the character of Sakamoto, obviously he'd left that past behind, but he didn't really leave it because he's still really skillful with any sort of weapon. It's not like you forgot how to take out people and kill bad guys or good guys, whatever it may be, so it's interesting to have that dynamic. Plus the absurdity of being an overweight parent running a convenience store and being in love with ramen and his wife and kid sort of reminds me of something like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, where you have a character that is posing as something, but really there's an underbelly to it all. There's a secret life where it's much more badass. The art is really clean, the action scenes are really well done. I like how fluid everything is once you get all the gunfighting and action and punching and all that stuff. It's very dynamic to look at. The character designs are very interesting. I like them as well. You can easily distinguish Sakamoto and everybody else. They're all pretty unique in their creation and that's a sign of a great manga guy, in my opinion, where you can have a wide cast of characters and you're able to identify each and every one. Now obviously this is just the first chapter, like an extra long opening chapter to the manga, so we don't really know how the story is going to evolve. The groundwork is there because it's nothing too groundbreaking. The idea, the premise, is really cool and interesting, but the stuff that happens, we've seen that before in different action comedies. It's nothing new, but just the fact that you have the whole hitman thing and now he's working in a convenience store and he's such a loving father and husband and all that stuff certainly brings new spice, I guess, to the story. So it's going to be interesting to see if it's going to be like a case by case or chapter by chapter story where you have different hitmen coming after him. Obviously, and this might be some slight spoilers, but the whole Shin situation, the way that's resolved is pretty nice and to have Shin join Sakamoto in his work is pretty nice and it gives him a co-lead because apparently Sakamoto is not going to be as verbal as other protagonists, so you have Shin to fill in that role to express with their both thinking. So it's going to be interesting, maybe it'll be a slice of life type action comedy series, maybe it'll have a long running threat. Who knows, I'm actually quite surprised I'm so early for this, but it's going to be interesting to see how the story evolves. Really nice premise, I love the idea of having a former bad guy, if you will, because it's a hitman, they're not necessarily good guys, to have him change his ways and now he's a family man and he's running his store and his past is coming to meet him, I guess, and now he has different, not just worrying about store issues, now he's got to worry about hitmen and people coming after him and all that stuff. So I can see the whole dynamic being flipped on its head and all that stuff, so it's pretty interesting on that regard. The characters, like I said earlier, are really well designed, I'd love the art, everything's really fluid, the manga chapter, the first one really shines when you get to the action, that's where you really see the potential for the series and obviously the expressions and especially Taro's expression because you see his younger self at the beginning of the chapter and then his, you know, how he aged and all that stuff, so it's a pretty interesting evolution for a character, I should say. So yeah, that's about it, first impressions wise, I really liked it, I am very much looking forward to more of Sakamoto Days. What about you guys? Did you like Sakamoto Days Chapter 1? Let me know in the comments section down below and if you haven't read it, let me know what are some of your favorite stories, one, Hitman, Yakuza stories, or two, your favorite action comedy manga, very interesting in finding out. Guys, as always, thank you so much for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of a week in geekdom, it really does mean a whole lot, and if you're new here, please consider subscribing. I do content like this, where I go over anime, manga, and a little bit of comics and gaming streams here and there. Thank you everybody for tuning in, I will catch all of you on our next episode.