How to run a store without murdering everyone
Rhythm & Reads #7: An adrenaline-soaked music video and manga combining assassins and a convenience store - what could go wrong?
Welcome to Rhythm & Reads! This is an extension of The Ryry Rundown and you can expect two things: some music to listen to while you read along and a book review. It’s great to have you here and I hope you have a happy Friday and a relaxing weekend!
A side note: if you just want The Ryry Rundown on Tuesdays, you can unsubscribe from each individual section (like Rhythm & Reads) and still get my week in review; you won’t hurt my feelings, so go ahead, customize your heart away! :)
Now let’s get into it…
Ryry’s Rhythm
Vaundy - Run Sakamoto Run
Today’s song comes from Vaundy, a Japanese artist who went viral back in 2019 for his single “Tokyo Flash.”
It’s a chill song that scratches the brain just right and has a pretty interesting music video.
But we’re not talking about that one today. No, today we’re talking about his more recent hit “Run Sakamoto Run”. Released in January for an anime/manga we’ll get into soon, “Run Sakamoto Run” is a far cry from “Tokyo Flash”. Instead of chill J-pop vibes, we’ve got some banging drums, some rocking guitars, and vocals that are aggressive at times and soft at others.
It’s a song that knows how to build the tension slowly, excite your ear drums, and, just before you’ve had enough, changes to something different and leaves you yearning for more.
In the final minute of the song, it goes all out and lets you have just what you wanted, leaving you feeling sonically full but not overstuffed.
It’s a great tune that has an equally great music video that was released just a week or two ago. It has some heart-pumping fight scenes and some beautiful cinematography in between the action. It’s a perfect pairing!
But wait… What’s Vaundy looking at here?
Why, it’s today’s read!
Ryry’s Read
Sakamoto Days - Yuto Suzuki
What if you were one of the best assassins in the world, maybe even history, and you decided to let it all go? What would you do? Would you become a consultant for other assassins? Would you go into hiding as a recluse?
…Or, would you open your own convenience store and become round like a cuddly teddy bear?
If you’re Taro Sakamoto, our hero in Sakamoto Days, that last one is EXACTLY what you’d do.
But don’t let that fool you; Sakamoto is still a deadly assassin, despite the appearances. Though he has been defanged a bit thanks to the family rule:
NO KILLING
Thankfully, there’s no need for his skills as an assassin. That is, until a punky kid named Shin comes by to try and kill Sakamoto for leaveing the assassin organization. He thinks he has a leg up on him because of one thing: he can read minds!
…Unfortunately, that doesn’t make a difference and Shin still gets his ass kicked.
Fortunately though, Sakamoto takes pity on him and brings Shin into the fold as a deadly assassin – oh wait, sorry, as a convenience store worker.
The plot is goofy and reminds me of The Way of the Househusband, a manga/anime about a former Yakuza member turned househusband. Plus, Shin’s mind-reading ability makes for some pretty silly sequences.
But the biggest difference between The Way of the Househusband and Sakamoto Days is that, while Househusband is episodic, Sakamoto has more character development and story to it.
While initially we just see Shin and Sakamoto interacting with each other as they try to get through day-to-day life in a convenience store, more and more characters come into the picture. Some are friends, some are enemies, but they all have reasons to target or befriend Sakamoto and Shin.
Eventually, the convenience store backdrop is replaced with different settings as Sakamoto and Shin fight all sorts of baddies – without killing, of course! The humor found in the first couple chapters are still found throughout the series, but things do get more serious as the characters have to tackle deep inner conflict. Shin wants to be just like Sakamoto but has to learn to fight his own way. Sakamoto has to accept he’s not the same assassin he once was. And other yet-to-be-named characters have their own struggles and moral dilemmas as well.
The manga does an awesome job at upping the ante when you just don’t think the stakes can get any higher and I find that very impressive. It’s worth a read – or watch on Netflix – and I’d definitely check it out!
Have you read/watched Sakamoto Days? What’d you think of it? Let me know in the comments!
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Tara Y
I came back to this post after watching the pilot of Sakamoto Days! It’s a pretty fun concept. Nothing groundbreaking but enjoyable. Don’t super love the “oh how can he still be good when he’s fat” stuff but hopefully there’s less of that in subsequent episodes.
I dig this song! Thanks for sharing.