Sakamoto is one of the dumbest design pitches for a show ever.
And yet, I love this stupid shit.
I can only imagine what the design pitch for this must have been. Seriously. Just a bunch of people standing around looking dumbfounded as someone tries to sell the execs on a show where a guy is just unflappingly good at anything and everything.
Yet somehow, it got the green light.
Sit back, and let me tell you about why you should have heard about Sakamoto.
I've already briefly touched on how absolutely, mind-bogglingly stupid this show sounds. At its core, it is purely about a guy named Sakamoto who is literally just so goddamned cool it is literally unreal. That's not hyperbole, I know I use the word literally a lot around here (and usually correctly), but this dude is so impossibly cool, its sheer absurdity is actually endearing.
Dude pulls a legit Mary Poppins. It's hard to hate someone that unflappingly amazing.
But something that's been haunting me since the first episode is, why the hell do I love it so much? I wasn't a huge fan of Azumanga Daioh!, and I thought Lucky Star was kind of overhyped. Not to say I'm not a fan of some of those characters (Osaka and Chiyo-chan for the win, and who doesn't love those stupid recorder remixes?), but the shows just weren't very appealing to me. They were boring, the episodes themselves had no real substance, and nothing of note actually seemed to happen.
It's that very thing which usually drives me away from Slice of Life shows, and in particular all those goddamned moe blob extravaganzas that saturated the market for so long - a phenomenon which still plagues anime to this day, and which I am still convinced is a goddamned cancer that should be excised. I like things with a bit of substance to them, or a story that I can follow along the way. Shows that can be watched in any order without any particular care are okay, but they're not great. (Puchimasu is the exception damnit, they're just too f***ing adorable and even there you've got an overarching plot of sorts!)
Sakamoto has all of the hallmarks of a genre I despise, but I think what sets it apart from many other shows of its kind is that it sort of recognizes how absurd it is. I'm starting to think this is a bit of a trend, but in a way, Sakamoto is almost a character study of how easily influenced people can be in large groups.
See, the thing is, Sakamoto never acknowledges, nor denies, how absurdly badass he is at all times. He has an aura of mystique around him that he doesn't really care to challenge, and by and large, it almost seems as though everyone around him is cultivating this personality of his - one of a totally unphased badass who is just insanely awesome, all the goddamn time.
I keep saying that, but it's because that is literally what the goddamned show is about. It's almost infuriating to write about, and in a way both the character and the show begin to exhibit some very similar qualities, which elevates it beyond just a mere fun show that makes me laugh. There's definitely a lot of forethought put into this, even if it's just "let's see how f***ing ridiculously awesome we can make this shit".
When I talk about mystique, you really need to look no further than the first part of the first episode. Episodes are broken up weirdly, and have multiple stories in them of differing lengths - not unlike Azumanga did. Yet these small stories packaged together somehow works, and helps it to just flow along. In the case I am presenting however, Sakamoto is trapped in a room with a fire, and no way to escape. The people that put him there think that he's just being his usual cool self (which he is), but for completely different reasons than they originally believed. He isn't merely being cool for the sake of being cool - the technical term for which is "Poser". Sakamoto is just genuinely awesome all the time. Even doing simple things, he does it with such grace and elegance that it's hard not to buy into the hype surrounding him.
But when you get down to it, that's all it really is. Just hype. Which is part of what makes this show so fascinating to watch. Because there is a very real hype surrounding Sakamoto, and it's something he really doesn't seem to care about, or even understand. Which only adds to his pure, distilled awesomeness.
Dude is pretty humble, and by and large not a bad dude. He is unapologetically out for himself, but not at the expense of other people, which defies what we normally see in media. Sakamoto appears to be the kind of person who would prefer to just do his own thing, and would do it the same way whether people are watching or not. Which says that it's not just an act, it is a way of life for him.
That someone can be so human while also acting so inhuman-like is an amazing contrast to see. There are a lot of facets to his character that I adore, none more than that of the Glorious Bastard.
I don't know what else can be said about this show, other than you should be watching it. This is a fascinating show, and I look forward to seeing where it goes - even if it is nowhere, it feels like it will still have gone somewhere, and this weird duality is something that I love.
For a stupid show about nothing, it somehow manages to hide an awful lot of depth just below the surface.
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