Tarou Sakamoto

Sakamoto entered the professional assassin world at a young age and attended the Japan Clear Creation, commonly called the JCC, the principal training institution for assassins. His natural aptitude quickly distinguished him from most students, and he eventually developed into an operative whose name alone carried enormous weight within the profession. By adulthood he was considered the strongest hitman of his era and eventually served in the Order, the JAA's elite group of assassins.

His career changed after meeting Aoi. Sakamoto fell in love with her and abandoned assassination rather than trying to fit a conventional relationship around his work. He married, became the father of Hana and opened Sakamoto's Store in a quiet neighborhood. The years of peaceful domestic life also changed him physically: the formerly lean assassin gained substantial weight, reaching 140 kg, although his underlying combat abilities remained intact.

The rules of his new life come largely from his commitment to Aoi. Sakamoto will protect himself, his employees and his family, but killing is no longer an acceptable solution. That principle becomes particularly difficult to maintain when his retirement is challenged by professional assassins who still remember his reputation and by a large bounty placed on his head.

His old world returns directly through Shin Asakura, a younger assassin who once worked with and admired him. Shin arrives intending to persuade Sakamoto to return to assassination and is ultimately ordered to kill him when he refuses. Sakamoto instead saves Shin, and Shin abandons his own assassin career to work at the store. Their reunion creates the bridge between Sakamoto's peaceful family life and the professional world he tried to leave behind.

Later material reveals considerably more about Sakamoto's JCC years. He studied alongside Nagumo and Rion Akao and became involved in assignments that also brought him into contact with Kei Uzuki. Those events form part of the unresolved history behind the conflict with X and explain why the present crisis is tied directly to Sakamoto's youth rather than being merely another attack from the assassin world.

Sakamoto is quiet, restrained and difficult to read. He rarely wastes words and often communicates through a glance or short remark while the more expressive people around him fill the silence. Shin's telepathy gives him unusually direct access to Sakamoto's thoughts, revealing that the calm exterior frequently conceals much sharper reactions than Sakamoto actually voices.

Family is his clearest priority. The official anime profile describes Aoi and Hana as the people he loves above everything else, and his decision-making consistently reflects that order of importance. Protecting his home is more important to him than recovering status within the assassin world, proving that he remains the strongest, or settling old professional grudges.

His retirement has made him gentler without making him careless. Sakamoto is willing to give opponents opportunities to reconsider what they are doing, and several people who initially attack him eventually become allies or acquaintances. He distinguishes between stopping a threat and killing the person responsible, an attitude that sharply separates the current Sakamoto from the profession in which he was trained.

He is also practical to an extreme degree. Combat rarely produces elaborate speeches or ritualized preparation; if an object is useful, he uses it. The same trait appears in everyday life, where he approaches running the store, caring for Hana and helping customers with the same matter-of-fact attention he once applied to assassination.

Beneath his reserve, Sakamoto has a competitive side and considerable pride in his abilities. Strong opponents can draw out the instincts of his former career, but his reaction is usually tempered by the knowledge that victory is only useful if he can return home afterward. The peaceful life is not a disguise over his "real" assassin identity—it is the life he deliberately chose.

Sakamoto is 188 cm tall and weighs 140 kg in his normal present-day appearance. He has light hair, small eyes and a heavy build created by the weight he gained after retirement. Official franchise material repeatedly contrasts this rounded appearance with the much slimmer body he possessed during his career as an assassin.

He usually wears a plain shirt or sweater beneath the apron used at Sakamoto's Store, along with round glasses. The subdued clothing makes him look like an ordinary neighborhood shopkeeper, which frequently causes people unfamiliar with the assassin world to underestimate him. His glasses are also notably sturdy enough to survive many situations in which ordinary eyewear would be destroyed.

During intense physical exertion, Sakamoto can rapidly lose much of his body fat and temporarily return to a lean form resembling his appearance as an active assassin. His face becomes narrower, his jawline more pronounced and his overall silhouette changes dramatically. The transformation is a physical consequence of extreme calorie expenditure rather than a supernatural ability.

The lean form does not represent a completely separate persona. Sakamoto retains the same judgment, memories and commitment to avoiding killing; the primary change is physical efficiency. His normal heavier body is also far from useless, and he routinely performs extraordinary feats without needing to become thin.

Flashbacks to his assassin career show a much younger Sakamoto with the same light hair but a consistently slim athletic build. His expression is colder and his clothing more suited to covert operations, visually emphasizing how thoroughly marriage and ordinary family life altered his outward presentation.

Sakamoto has no supernatural ability. His extraordinary effectiveness comes from physical conditioning, assassin training, battlefield awareness and an almost unmatched capacity to weaponize his surroundings. The official anime profile specifically notes that he carries no fixed weapon and instead fights with whatever objects are available.

His raw strength is enormous even in his heavier form. Sakamoto can overpower professional killers, redirect large objects, break durable materials and turn mundane items into projectiles capable of stopping armed opponents. The force he generates is often disproportionate to the object in his hand; a pencil, rubber band or store product can become dangerous because of the precision and speed with which he uses it.

Speed and reflexes are equally important. His size does not prevent explosive movement, and he can evade gunfire, close distance before opponents react and intercept attacks aimed at other people. When circumstances push him into his lean form, those attributes become even more pronounced because he is carrying dramatically less body mass.

Sakamoto's greatest technical strength is adaptability. He understands balance, trajectories, leverage, weapon mechanics and the physical properties of his environment almost instantly. Rather than entering a fight with a predetermined style, he recognizes what is available and constructs a solution from it. This makes disarming him unusually ineffective because almost any replacement object can become another weapon.

He is proficient with firearms, knives, improvised weapons and unarmed combat. His assassin training also includes stealth, disguise, situational awareness and rapid assessment of enemy habits. Sakamoto can switch between techniques without hesitation and is particularly effective at disrupting specialists by forcing them into circumstances where their preferred weapon loses its advantage.

His endurance is similarly exceptional. Even after years outside active assassination work, he can withstand serious impacts and extended battles while continuing to protect civilians. The principal limitation on his present physical state is that retirement has reduced him from the condition he maintained during his prime, rather than removing the skill that made him dangerous.

Later manga battles emphasize that Sakamoto's inability to rely indefinitely on his old reputation becomes increasingly important. Opponents at the highest level can force him into situations where improvisation alone is not enough, and his attempts to protect a growing group of allies sometimes conflict with the ruthless efficiency that once defined his fighting style.

Sakamoto does not organize his combat style around a conventional set of named special moves. His defining technique is adaptability: weapons and methods change according to the environment, which makes a fixed attack catalogue less representative of how he actually fights.

Improvised Weapon Combat is his signature approach. Sakamoto can turn ordinary objects into effective striking, cutting, throwing or defensive tools by applying the correct force and angle. Pens, signs, household products, pieces of furniture and even food-related objects can all become useful in his hands.

Environmental Combat extends the same principle to the surrounding area. Rather than separating himself from the environment, Sakamoto uses walls, vehicles, railings, moving machinery and architectural features to redirect attacks or create openings. His fights often become demonstrations of how quickly he can understand the physical space around him.

Lean Form is a temporary physical state reached when extreme exertion burns away a large amount of his stored body fat. The reduced weight restores a physique closer to his assassin-era body and substantially improves his mobility and combat efficiency. It is not a supernatural transformation and does not give him abilities he never possessed before.

Disarming and Redirection form another recurring element of his style. Sakamoto frequently takes an opponent's weapon, alters its trajectory or uses its mechanical properties against the owner rather than simply blocking an attack. His familiarity with different weapons allows him to recognize vulnerabilities almost immediately.

Aoi Sakamoto is Sakamoto's wife and the person whose presence fundamentally changed the direction of his life. He abandoned assassination after falling in love with her and built his post-retirement identity around their marriage. Aoi Sakamoto established the no-killing expectations that govern their household, and Sakamoto takes those rules seriously even when professional killers are targeting him. His devotion to her is explicit in official character material, which identifies his wife and daughter as the people he loves most.

Hana Sakamoto is his only daughter. Sakamoto is deeply protective of her and repeatedly goes to extreme lengths over concerns that have nothing to do with assassination, from family outings to obtaining things she wants. Hana Sakamoto resembles her mother in temperament and represents the ordinary childhood Sakamoto wants to preserve from the violence of his former profession.

Shin Asakura is Sakamoto's former junior partner and one of his closest present allies. Shin Asakura begins the series still idolizing the legendary assassin Sakamoto used to be and initially struggles to understand why someone so powerful would abandon that life. After Sakamoto saves him, Shin joins the store and becomes part employee, part combat partner and part extended family member. Sakamoto trusts him increasingly with the protection of both the store and their friends.

Lu Shaotang comes into Sakamoto's life after he and Shin protect her from criminals pursuing her. Lu Shaotang subsequently works at Sakamoto's Store, and Sakamoto accepts her into the same informal household-like group that forms around his business. Her martial arts and experience with organized crime make her capable in danger, but Sakamoto generally treats her first as one of his employees and companions rather than an assassin asset.

Heisuke Mashimo initially pursues Sakamoto for financial reasons before becoming an ally. Heisuke Mashimo's exceptional marksmanship gives the group a specialist whose strengths differ sharply from Sakamoto's improvisational style. Sakamoto recognizes his talent despite Heisuke's insecurity and accepts him as part of the wider circle protecting the store.

Yoichi Nagumo is an old acquaintance from Sakamoto's assassin career and a member of the Order. Yoichi Nagumo is playful, deceptive and far more comfortable remaining inside the assassin world than Sakamoto. Their familiarity makes Nagumo one of the few people who can casually appear around Sakamoto's peaceful life while understanding exactly how dangerous the shopkeeper once was. Their connection is later shown to date back to their JCC student years, when they trained and worked alongside Rion Akao.

Boiled knew Sakamoto during their school years and later confronts him as an enemy. Boiled is particularly affected by the difference between the intimidating student he remembers and the family man Sakamoto has become. Their battle illustrates Sakamoto's willingness to confront someone from his past without returning to lethal methods.

Heisuke Mashimo, Shin Asakura and Lu Shaotang collectively become the closest thing Sakamoto has to a new team after retirement. Unlike the professional units of his old career, the group is centered on Sakamoto's Store and personal loyalty rather than contracts or JAA authority.

X, also known as Slur, becomes the central figure behind the growing threat to Sakamoto and the assassin establishment. X's organization deliberately targets assassins and destabilizes the existing order, while Sakamoto seeks information about him as the danger moves closer to his family. The first anime season ends with Sakamoto and Shin preparing to infiltrate the JCC for information concerning X.

Gaku is one of X's most formidable associates and represents the level of opponent produced by the conflict surrounding Slur. Sakamoto's connection to him is primarily adversarial, with Gaku's strength placing him among the relatively small number of active assassins capable of affecting battles involving the industry's elite.

Takamura is an overwhelmingly powerful veteran associated with the Order. Takamura's reputation and swordsmanship make him dangerous even by the standards of Sakamoto's former colleagues. The official anime describes him as capable of cutting anything within range of his katana.

Shishiba and Osaragi are Order members who operate within the assassin establishment Sakamoto left behind. Although Shishiba and Osaragi are not members of Sakamoto's household group, their missions repeatedly intersect with the larger conflict affecting him.

[Rion Akao was one of Sakamoto's closest companions during his JCC years, alongside Nagumo. Her presence is central to the history connecting Sakamoto's generation to the later conflict with X.](#spoiler)

[Kei Uzuki is tied to Sakamoto through events from their youth that acquire major importance in the present. The exact nature of that history becomes one of the central revelations of the post-anime manga.](#spoiler)

[Kindaka encounters the younger Sakamoto during a formative stage of his assassin career and recognizes the exceptional potential of Sakamoto, Nagumo and Rion. His connection to the Order becomes important to understanding how that generation entered the highest levels of the assassin world.](#spoiler)

Sakamoto begins the series already having achieved and abandoned the life that would normally form the destination of an action protagonist. He was once the industry's legendary assassin, yet Chapter 1 finds him overweight, married, raising Hana and running a small shop. VIZ's official synopsis defines the series around that reversal: the feared hitman quits, marries, has a child and attempts to live quietly until his past begins intruding again.

Shin's return brings the assassin world directly into the store. When Sakamoto refuses to resume killing, the danger rapidly expands from old professional connections to active contracts against him. He responds without abandoning Aoi's rule against killing, establishing the central challenge of his battles: overwhelming force is available to him, but lethal force is not.

The group around Sakamoto grows as former opponents and people endangered by criminal organizations enter his life. Lu begins working at the store, Heisuke becomes an ally, and Nagumo continues appearing as a link to the Order. At the same time, the mysterious X begins attacking the structures of the assassin world and gathering dangerous followers. The result pulls Sakamoto back into conflicts he hoped to avoid without actually restoring him to his old profession.

The 2025 anime's first season runs for 22 episodes across two cours. Its final episode completes the JCC transfer examination material and leaves Sakamoto and Shin preparing to infiltrate the assassin school in search of information about X. A second television season has since been officially announced, while the current official synopsis signals that the next animated material will delve into Sakamoto's younger years and his connection with Nagumo, Rion and X.

The JCC infiltration that follows expands Sakamoto's role from defending his store to actively investigating the conflict threatening the assassin world. His disguise work and return to the school place him alongside a younger generation of would-be assassins while reopening connections to his own education.

Subsequent manga arcs reveal Sakamoto's youth with Nagumo and Rion, the mission that connected them with Uzuki, and the events that eventually shaped the present conflict. These revelations turn the battle against X into something tied directly to Sakamoto's personal history rather than an unrelated threat that happened to target him.

Sakamoto's main development is not a progression from weakness to strength. He begins overwhelmingly capable. The challenge is instead learning how much of the person he became as an assassin can remain useful without allowing that profession to dictate the values of his new life.

Aoi is central to the distinction. Sakamoto does not stop killing because he loses the ability or because another assassin defeats him; he chooses a different standard for himself. Every later encounter tests whether that choice can survive contact with people who believe violence must be answered through the same rules that govern the assassin world.

Shin reinforces that change. Sakamoto could treat him as another subordinate, but their relationship becomes increasingly paternal and trusting. He gives Shin room to develop rather than demanding that the younger man simply imitate the assassin Sakamoto once was. The same pattern extends to Lu and Heisuke, producing a group organized around friendship and the store rather than professional hierarchy.

His physical condition also embodies the change. The heavy present-day Sakamoto is the body produced by years of eating with his family and living outside relentless assassin training. Returning temporarily to his lean build can improve his combat performance, but the story repeatedly returns him to the heavier appearance associated with the life he actually wants.

The revelation of his JCC past adds another dimension to that development by showing a younger Sakamoto who was much more comfortable with killing and less connected to ordinary life. His friendships with Nagumo and Rion show that even during that period he was not completely detached, but the contrast with the husband and father he becomes is substantial.

Later conflicts increasingly challenge whether protecting his family can remain separate from changing the assassin world itself. As threats become institutional rather than personal, Sakamoto is forced to confront problems that cannot always be solved simply by defeating whoever arrives at the store.

Sakamoto's name is written 坂本 太郎. The surname 坂本 (Sakamoto) combines 坂, meaning a slope or hill, with 本, meaning base or origin. It is also a common Japanese surname and is not given a special in-universe explanation.

Tarou, written 太郎, is a traditional masculine Japanese given name. 太 can convey "large" or "great," while 郎 is a common male-name element historically associated with "son" or "young man." Tarou has also traditionally been used as a stereotypical name for an eldest son.

The ordinariness of the name contrasts with Sakamoto's extraordinary reputation. "Tarou Sakamoto" sounds considerably more conventional than the theatrical aliases used by many fictional assassins, fitting a character who ultimately prefers to be known as a shopkeeper, husband and father rather than by an elaborate professional codename.

The English-language VIZ release generally renders his given name as Taro Sakamoto, while romanizations using Tarou Sakamoto reflect the long vowel in 太郎. Both refer to the same character.

• Sakamoto's official profile gives his birthday as November 21, his blood type as AB, his height as 188 cm and his normal weight as 140 kg. His age is 27.

• He is ambidextrous, a useful trait for an assassin whose fighting style depends on rapidly switching weapons and approaches.

• Sakamoto's birthday received an official commemorative Jump Channel promotional video released at midnight on November 21, 2025.

• Tomokazu Sugita voices Sakamoto in Japanese. The anime's official cast page lists him first among the principal cast.

• Matthew Mercer voices Sakamoto in the English-language version of the anime.

• Sakamoto placed fifth in the first official Sakamoto Days character popularity poll with 4,782 votes. Shin ranked first, followed by Nagumo, Osaragi and Shishiba. The poll received 71,357 votes overall.

• The official anime character description emphasizes that Sakamoto has no preferred weapon and instead uses objects from his surroundings.

• The first Japanese Blu-ray/DVD volume of the anime, containing Episodes 1–3, uses Sakamoto as its cover character.

Sakamoto is the protagonist of the television anime adaptation of Sakamoto Days, produced by TMS Entertainment. Tomokazu Sugita voices him in Japanese, with Matthew Mercer providing his English voice. The official anime profile describes him as the former strongest hitman who retired after falling in love with Aoi, gained weight after marriage and retains his assassin abilities while running Sakamoto's Store.

The first television season aired in two parts during 2025 and totals 22 episodes. The first cour ran from January through March, followed by the second from July through September. Netflix carries the series internationally and lists all 22 episodes as the 2025 season.

A second anime season was announced at Jump Festa 2026 in December 2025. The official website's current introduction indicates that the continuation will cover Sakamoto and Shin's JCC infiltration while also revealing events involving the younger Sakamoto, Nagumo, Rion and X.

Sakamoto is also the protagonist of the live-action Sakamoto Days film released in Japan on April 29, 2026. Ren Meguro portrays him, with the production using prosthetics and visual transformation to represent both his 140 kg shopkeeper appearance and lean assassin form. Yūichi Fukuda wrote and directed the film.

He appears in the spin-off manga Sakamoto Holidays, drawn by Tetsu Ōkawa, which focuses more heavily on everyday activities surrounding Sakamoto and the store while retaining the franchise's assassin-comedy setting. The spin-off began serialization in Saikyō Jump in July 2024.

Sakamoto also features in the prose collection Sakamoto Days: Assassin's Method, written by Renka Misaki with illustrations by Yuto Suzuki. A later English-language VIZ release presents several side stories involving the cast outside the central manga storyline, including a family camping trip and other episodes built around the assassin ensemble.

The franchise expanded into games with the mobile title Sakamoto Days Dangerous Puzzle, released in Japan in April 2025. Sakamoto appears as one of the principal playable and promotional characters alongside the rest of the core cast.

Sakamoto placed fifth in the first official Sakamoto Days character popularity poll, receiving 4,782 votes out of 71,357 total. Although protagonist status did not put him at the top of the ranking, he finished behind only Shin, Nagumo, Osaragi and Shishiba and remained one of the highest-ranked characters in the series.

Shueisha subsequently included him prominently in the second official character popularity poll launched for the manga's fourth anniversary in October 2024. The official voting site identifies him simply as the work's protagonist and former legendary assassin, reflecting how firmly those two identities define his public profile.

The series' fifth-anniversary campaign continued to center Sakamoto in 2025 and 2026. Shueisha commissioned a special conversation between creator Yuto Suzuki and Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue in which each artist drew the other's protagonist; Inoue contributed an illustration of Sakamoto.

Sakamoto also appears repeatedly throughout the franchise's official best-battle poll, reflecting the number of major fights built around his adaptable combat style. Entries include battles involving Shin, Nagumo, Takamura and several later manga opponents. Shueisha announced the results as part of the manga's fifth-anniversary celebrations in April 2026.

The anime significantly expanded the character's international visibility. Netflix's official presentation builds the series around the contrast between the once-greatest hitman and the retired family man whose past catches up with him, while the Japanese anime site similarly uses Sakamoto as the central image and premise of the adaptation.

The 2026 live-action film extended that visibility into Japanese mainstream cinema, casting Ren Meguro as both versions of Sakamoto. Promotional material emphasized the physical contrast between the 140 kg store owner and his lean assassin appearance, making the character's two silhouettes central to the movie's marketing.