Anime: Sakamoto Desu ga?

If ever you've wanted to see a master of "winging it" and making every situation work to his advantage, Sakamoto is that person. For those who play RPGs you know that character creation is a balance, you can't have it all- well Sakamoto has it all; he has perfect strength, perception, awareness, intelligence, stamina, and even luck. This show is about him acting cool in all situations. If you take Onizuka's indomitable spirit from GTO and translate that into unshakeable coolness, that's this show.

In my opinion, the show is definitely overrated. Though there are some neat moments, it was canceled out by the impractical nature of the stunts and antics. If you're looking for someone to be envious about, this might be your show. If you're annoyed by improbable yet persistent plot shields against anything going wrong, this is going to be a painful one. In any case, the first episode is a good litmus test to get your feet wet.

Animation:
The animation in Sakamoto is a bit different from your typical cute-girl-packed show; the starting basics are relatively plain though. The show has an average amount of overall detail and shading. The background consists of urban landscapes and the school, with a surprisingly high amount of greenery. What makes the animation unique is a combination of the characters and special comic-like styling that occasionally appears. The character focus here is strongly on Sakamoto, and so it's probably on purpose that the other characters don't particularly stand out. Used to seeing girls with lots of accessories? Not happening here. Looking for moe in your girls? Not happening here either. Even the class idol Aina is toned down compared with your typical action-based harem heroine. As for the guys, you have everything from a chubby, girl-faced weakling to slit-eyed gangsters, you're not going to find any bishounens here.

Sakamoto has a bit of action but nothing strong enough to call a defining characteristic. Expect a bit of violence and a bit of blood, but it still is just a school-centric slice-of-life so nothing too extreme. There isn't any ecchi here, if anything there's anti-ecchi in the form of many chubby, older married moms showing up and chasing after the protagonist.

Sound:
Sakamoto opens with a rock-based, purposely made song; while unique, I liked neither the randomness of the melody nor the male singer. The ED has a better melody but is also slow enough to put even rowdy children to sleep. The BGM is pretty standard fare until Sakamoto does anything cool, which triggers the show's signature melody; given how often he does something "cool" you can't help but get used to the theme.

What really got me to take the plunge for the show was the VA cast; seriously, when was the last time you heard the likes of Yukari Tamura, Yui Horie, Mai Nakahara, and Kana Ueda all in the same show? Given the "cool" nature of Sakamoto, a lot of the other characters spend a lot of time commenting on how awesome he is. The cast did a pretty good job throughout though I thought Yui Horie did an especially convincing job voicing Aina.

Story:
Sakamoto is all about, well, Sakamoto of course. He's the envy of everyone who wants to be cool given his talents in everything and so various classmates and other entities do their best to trip him up. Unfortunately, for them, he always seems to be able to outplay everyone, often converting them to his side in the process.

The show is pretty episodic for the most part, often with two sub-plots per episode. Honestly, some of these sections are weird (Sakamoto playing walk on the line with elementary kids) and others are a tad off-putting (Yoshinobu's crazed mom). I didn't find have a particular arc that I thought was standout until the last quarter of the season, where a bit of tension finally builds in the show. There isn't much of a climax and the last episode wraps things up fairly nicely.

The overall tonality of the show varies, much of it is rather light and playful but there are some serious moments as well. The comedy is not really in my taste as Sakamoto's behavior and everyone else's reactions don't really add up for me, no one finds it in any way immature for Sakamoto to walk as if in a parade while on the way out during a fire drill...

Character:
Regardless of my opinion of the comedy, there's no doubt that Sakamoto is one of the more unique characters out there. I'd probably liken him most to Karasuma from School Rumble, somewhat distant and aloof yet always able to surprise and overachieve. His immense breadth and depth of talent set him apart from your typical character, but his lack of any shortcomings makes him impossible to relate with.

There is a large supporting cast for the show; many of the characters are featured in a sub-episode segment before blending into the growing crowd of Sakamoto admirers. I wasn't particularly impressed with either the depth of the characters or their development, and (obviously) believe they spent excessive time on Yoshinobu's mom. Though some of the interactions were funny, don't expect any real depth of character bonding.

Value:
Sakamoto is definitely a unique show and for that, it deserves kudos. However, despite the uniqueness and the strong VA cast, the show just doesn't rub me the right way. Not to say I'm jealous of the dude as heck it's fiction, but a character who is utterly flawless really just gets boring quickly. Though some of the latter episodes were a bit more fun, especially the college mixer, it doesn't balance out the lukewarm feeling felt throughout the rest of the show. Overall, it's a fair watch but by no means a match for the hype. Therefore, I end with my own secret technique: surprise disappointment.

Sakamoto desu ga

Art & Animation 8/10 : This is high quality, especially for comedy. The characters, the movement, the close ups the passion all well made and placed. It aims to satisfy’s both the mediocre and the expert viewer. The opening is an addicting masterpiece; it’s very catchy and symbolic with its images and colors. Also the amount of work and effort I felt was put into this, just watching the anime, my feelings in one word: “respect”

Sound 8/10 : the opening song is a master peace, it lightens up the mood and soul, stating “this will be fun” you want to watch/listen it over and over again (Personally I added thy mp3 player), the voice actors did a good job, the sounds are in place in the scenes its very good.

Story 7/10 : The story is about the daily life of a cool character who is a winner, not much to it but from daily life comedy don’t expect more. Sakamoto is maxed so little development there, it is more how he helps the rest of the cast develop by helping them witch I found very touching and good. Episode after episode Sakamoto gets into troublesome situation and hilariously gets himself out of them is the parody; he is a nice guy, who solves everyday problems with a peaceful fun and cool solution. Also the last episodes as closure for symbolism for “classic humor” were brilliant.

Character 8/10: In this anime it goes down whether you like Sakamoto or not. If yes you will love this series like I did and just ride with the ship. The main character is lucky, clever, an ace, the avatar of coolness and its FUN, easy to like and watch. The side-characters are good, but do the build of this series not more outstanding than Sakamoto. I found it interesting how they manage to give little background to each despite how little time they had to do this.

Value 9/10: The animation offers normal daily problems with creative and crazy solutions so it can be said it new and good humor, you definitely want to see this. Also finally a comedy (aside galaxy angel Millfeule) where they make fun of a character overwhelming “positive life” (It’s my personal preference so I’m a bit biased for this series). We have a main male character who is a winner! He is likeable and cool and nice one. If this breaks the cliché male looser trend in most series I’m all in for it. The anime try’s to give one positive message, instead bashing down people who we judge should we not just try to understand them and help them?
This anime stands for (or gives as provoking thought) How can one make from very normal average things more fun, with doing something extremely stupid XD. In this anime this turns out good, in real life not likely but “Would it not more fun if we just try?”

Enjoyment: 10/10 Form me this is/was the best “normal comedy” I saw in anime so far (Me being maniac for magic/extreme that says something). But to not just be personal: creative humor and solution, entertaining, positive environment, the conclusion end up good for all. All are good/fun episodes, with some indirect life lessons in a way. Surprising you over and over again, you won’t know what to expect but you will know it will be fun. You might not become a maniac of this series (like me). If you want to have fun this is a good pick to try, and if you like Sakamoto (you can decide this after one episode) you will have fun.
~WSL approves.

This high-school comedy is based on a 4-volume manga that ended in 2015. The titular chacrcter is a 16 years old boy that is as much an idealized man as Mr. Gray is. Sakamoto is athletic, handsome, studious, but his main attribute is style; to quote from the OP: “Everything he does is cool, cooler, coolest-o”.

Being the not-so-obscure object of desire of every girl and her mother (quite literally), is bound to excite the envy of the other boys; all of them want to see Sakamoto's pristine image get blemished. Those boys with delinquent habits, are willing to make the effort to achieve that. The show has a distinct One-punch-man feeling to it; the villains' careful laid plans are laid to waste by the equivalent of a single punch from Sakamoto. Actually it is a stylish move that looks initially silly, but ends up getting maximum cool points.

That way of acting sets the series tone; Sakamoto looks unapproachable, arrogant, and usually downright stupid; but he always has a selfless plan, to help his classmates while simultaneously manages to be kind to his “enemies”. The comedy stems from the absurdity of the situations that Sakamoto finds himself in and of course from when he increases the level of absurdity to resolve the situation with the aforementioned single cool-looking move.

Unfortunately, the comedy sometimes misses its target. Moreover, since there is no story whatsoever, but each episode is a series of sketches, it is vital that most of them are entertaining, which is not the case. The final negative element, probably an emanation of the lack of a storyline, is that there is no development, neither in characters, nor in plot.

So, Sakamoto offers a lot of laughs and some very original over-the-top situations. Even though the are a lot of uninteresting sketches, if we couple the good ones with the kindness that the series radiates, we have a good result. The twelfth episode concluded the series, but there is a thirteenth episode in the blu-ray, that the station didn't manage to air due to scheduling conflicts.

The worst part about Sakamoto is that it is probably the third-best original anime of the Spring 2016 season; a quite disheartening fact. 6.5/10.