REVIEW: ‘Sakamoto Days’ Episode 10 — “Bathhouse Roughhouse”

Sakamoto Days Episode 10 is perhaps the least eventful episode of the season thus far. It returns to the casual slice-of-life structure that’s been absent in recent episodes, with Sakamoto finally catching a break. It also introduces a new arc that focuses on Lu (Ayane Sakura/Rosalie Chiang), a character who’s either been a hassle or unimportant until now.

Sakamoto Days Episode 10 starts with Sakamoto (Tomokazu Sugita/Matthew Mercer) and the whole family going to a bathhouse to relax after the stressful and painful events of the last episode. Unfortunately, Sakamoto’s notoriety gets in the way of this. However, while Sakamoto is discovered for his bounty by a rookie hitman who runs the bathhouse, it doesn’t affect him; it only affects Shin (Nobunaga Shimazaki/Dallas Liu).

The hitman’s several zany attempts at Sakamoto’s life, like intense currents in a jacuzzi or flames in a sauna, only succeed in making him feel more relaxed and Shin significantly injured. This funny contrast provides some humorous moments and takes up half of Sakamato Days Episode 10. However, while initially humorous, the joke runs its course and becomes unfunny and repetitive very quickly. Luckily, the gag doesn’t run on for too long.

Sakamato Days Episode 10 aims for lighthearted vibes, but the jokes run their course.

As the family is about to depart, Sakamoto helps his harasser from being bullied despite the pain he’s caused to Shin. This shows that despite Sakamoto visibly not being a people person and only caring about people in his inner circle, he doesn’t hesitate to use his strength to help out people in need, sometimes even his enemies.

The second half of Sakamoto Days Episode 10 sees Sakamoto, Lu, and Shin encounter members of Lu’s mafia family while having lunch. This proves the almost hilarious reality that Sakamoto and his group can never have normalcy despite not being hitmen.

Sakamoto Days Episode 10 introduces a new character, Lu Wutang, an adviser to Lu’s mafia family. He wants Lu to become the next mafia leader, but Lu unsurprisingly refuses. The rest of the episode sees the group wagering Lu’s freedom in a casino with Wutang, who is both clever and a high roller. Unfortunately, the episode ends before anything happens, which is a shame as it was the most engaging part of the episode.

Wutang and his goons walking up to Sakamoto’s group with armed guns only to be quickly disarmed and defeated proves that the Chinese mafia may not be as strong as they carry themselves.

Wutang suggesting a competition with nothing to do with violence, knowing it’s his only chance of beating the group, would also suggest this. However, the gambling contest will likely force the Sakamoto group into a brand new situation that’s foreign to them, and it will be interesting to see how they handle it in untraditional ways using their skills. It will also be interesting to see if Lu finally gets a chance to be a contributing member to the group, as opposed to previous episodes.

Furthermore, Sakamoto Days Episode 10 notably lacks combat scenes. Still, the really short and almost pathetic bout with the mafia men featured cool choreography from TMS Entertainment and a cool track behind it. Lastly, the after-credits scene showing Seba and his ex-boss now running a crepe stand adds to the episode’s humor and drives home the point that this episode is meant to be as light-hearted as possible.

Sakamoto Days Episode 10 is perhaps the least engaging episode of the series so far. What the episode lacks in excitement, it makes up for with funny hijinks, even if they quickly lose steam. The episode also sets up some intriguing events for the next episode, and it’ll be interesting to see how they play out.

Sakamoto Days Episode 10 is streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes every Saturday.

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