Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Rowan checks in with “Sakamoto Days.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Sakamoto Days Chapter 13
Written and Illustrated by Yuto Suzuki
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
This week’s chapter of the zany yet poignant “Sakamoto Days” takes place right in the aftermath of a battle between Sakamoto and Boiled. Suzuki in this chapter is writing much more on the comedic and light hearted side of things, as we see more on the side of Sakamoto’s family rather than his past in crime. I like the ego clash between Boiled and Sakamoto’s wife as the latter ultimately comes out on top with a much more ferocious yell that tears down Boiled before she turns it on Sakamoto for betraying the family rule of “No Secrets! No Lies!”. It’s a great touching moment of characterization as it shows just how much the people around our protagonist care about him yet are willing to criticize him when he’s doing something detrimental to their relationship.
There’s a couple of other fun little plot elements revealed in this issue which does serve more as a transitory chapter. Having an old VHS store be a front for blackmarket information is one thing, but Suzuki elevates this plot point even further by having the information actually exist in the form of an over-dramaticized movie that Sakamoto and his gang have to watch to learn information. We get to see the gang cozy up in a little cinema with popcorn and everything just to view the movie, too! Suzuki also passes hilariously over a little cosmetic detail like Sakamoto’s weight by showing AND telling us that he’s able to fluctuate between sizes in just a few hours, a great hand-wavey move to any potential risk of reality setting in and disrupting the story.
The first thing that strikes me while reflecting on Suzuki’s art in this story is just how cleverly they can distinguish the two forms of Sakamoto yet still have them clearly look like the same person. The way that Suzuki has the smaller Sakamoto move through space and still carry himself like a bigger person is clever, and the way that he takes up space in the panel is as if he still has a larger aura, especially with the help of the ill-fitting clothes he wears.
Suzuki is also able to communicate clever emotional twists in the artwork by only twisting slight features. The most obvious candidate for this in chapter 13 occurs with Sakamoto’s wife and how quickly she goes through a range of emotions that are almost completely similar but differentiated by different handlings of the character and panel structure. She goes from being confused and disoriented but still chirpy on the first page, to taking a distinctly targeted and accusing stance against Sakamoto when a ‘price on his head’ is brought up. She may still look relatively innocent, but her face takes up almost the whole panel which is about a third the size of the page, and this close-up view lets us see little details on her face like little beads of sweat breaking out and showing her distress. Not too long after, however, she moves to being sincere and supportive of her husband’s abilities, with much more wide open eyes and an assured sense of body language, demonstrated by how stiff she is drawn in these later panels.
“Sakamoto Days” is still balancing being an absurd gag manga and a genuinely touching family tale rather well, with some great family moments sharing real estate comfortable with hilarious world-building elements like the VHS library. It’s continuing to grow on me as one of my favourite current Shonen series, so make sure to catch up!
Final Score: 8.9 – A touching yet hilarious continuation of the Assassin-turned-Family-Man tale.
