Sakamoto Days

Sakamoto Days is the adaptation of Yuto Suzuki's Weekly Shonen Jump manga, and the story is as gleefully absurd as its success story is impressive. Taro Sakamoto was once the most feared assassin in the underworld — a near-mythological figure whose skills were so extraordinary that criminal organizations would surrender rather than face him. Then he fell in love, got married, had a daughter, and retired to run a suburban convenience store. He is now slightly overweight, cheerful, and deeply domesticated. The problem is that his past keeps arriving at his door. Produced by TMS Entertainment, the anime adaptation premiered on Netflix in January 2025 and became the platform's most-watched anime for the first half of the year, accumulating 24.4 million views in H1 2025. Its performance placed it at number 9 across all shows on Netflix in the United States — not all anime, all shows — during its peak period. That ranking is the most direct evidence of mainstream crossover on this list: it means Sakamoto Days was competing with and beating English-language prestige television for viewer attention in the largest entertainment market in the world. The manga response was equally striking. Before the Netflix adaptation, the series had approximately 7 million copies in circulation. Within months of the streaming debut, that figure climbed to 15 million copies — more than doubling the readership as new viewers sought out the source material. The tone of the show explains its crossover appeal: Sakamoto Days is funny, kinetic, and emotionally warm in ways that require no prior anime literacy. The premise of a supernaturally capable stay-at-home parent protecting his family lands across every demographic. The action sequences are inventive and often comedic, the grocery store setting is disarming, and the supporting cast of eccentric assassins generates consistent humor that plays on broad streaming platforms the same way a prestige comedy-action hybrid would.