Taro Sakamoto

**Taro Sakamoto** (坂本さかもと太郎たろう, *Sakamoto Tarō*?) is the main protagonists of the series. Formerly the best assassin in the world, he now runs a convenience store with his wife and child. After a bounty is placed on his head, Sakamoto is thrust back into the world of assassins, alongside his new allies Shin and Lu.

## Appearance

Sakamoto is a fat man with combed-back gray hair that is tied into a ponytail and he has a small broom mustache. He typically wears an apron over a T-shirt and long pants. Sakamoto prefers to wear slippers, even when outside. His eyes are usually hidden by the glare of his round glasses.

In the past, Sakamoto was much leaner with no mustache. His facial features were more defined and his eyes were visible through his glasses. Through burning through his accumulated calories, Sakamoto can revert to this form for a power boost. Shin notes his transformed appearance makes him look handsome.

When disguising as his wife Aoi Sakamoto, he bears similar appearance to her.

Sakamoto's overweight appearance after retiring.Sakamoto during his days as an assassin
## Personality

Sakamoto isn't much of a talker and instead prefers to let his actions speak for themselves. He deeply loves his family, shown by the fact that he left his hitman profession just to be with them, and is very protective of them. He also has a great amount of respect for his wife, Aoi Sakamoto. Because of his deep love for his wife and the life that he has built with her he adheres to a "No Killing Policy". This policy has invertedly given him a sense of justice, as even in the presence of other assassins he prevents them from killing if possible. This policy also extends to his enemies, even those who attempt to kill both him and his family.

Sakamoto rarely shows emotion, though he is comically scared of incurring his wife's wrath. As the series progresses, Sakamoto begins to exhibit more of his emotions that were previously kept hidden. Even beginning to talk frequently outside of his mind and expressing how he feels to those around him. However, he is not without fault, sometimes hiding his feelings to protect those around them or make them feel safe. As shown when Saw attacked Shin and Lu in his absence and were gravely injured. Causing Sakamoto to feel internal rage, though he kept this hidden even trying to hide it when called out for it.

Although usually composed, and good-natured Sakamoto can be angered quickly when his family is threatened or injured, and he is unable to help them in any way. Sakamoto has shown intense anger when his daughter is threatened, to the point that he nearly loses his mind and attempts to kill the individual who made the threat towards his child. When Saw grievously injured Shin and Lu in a battle Sakamoto experience pure rage though he did not express this to either of them.

In the past, Sakamoto was much more callous and indifferent to killing, being described as the perfect killing machine who felt absolutely no emotion when taking on a job. However, this changed after meeting his future wife. Through Aoi's influence, Sakamoto learned to respect the sanctity of life and becomes enraged when Apart jeopardizes the lives of innocent citizens during their fight. Despite this, he is still very much capable of killing and humorously imagines killing Shin over minor annoyances, much to the clairvoyant's horror.

## Relationships

### Family

#### **Aoi Sakamoto**

Aoi is Sakamoto's wife and the main reason he left the hitman business. He deeply loves and respects her, trying his best to protect her but also to keep from making her angry. A good example of this can be seen in how he tries to keep in line with her rules to avoid her divorcing him.

#### **Hana Sakamoto**

Hana is Sakamoto's daughter and only child. Although they do not interact much in the manga, Sakamoto deeply loves her and will do his best to protect her as demonstrated when he took a heavy beating from multiple shoppers to obtain a special backpack Hana wanted.

### Allies

#### **Shin Asakura**

Sakamoto's former partner from his glory days who now works as an employee at his store. Sakamoto cares about Shin, evident by the fact he saved him from being killed, often confiding in him and trusting him above all else. Shin is the closest thing Sakamoto has to a friend. Shin harbors a great deal of respect and admiration for Sakamoto, seeing him as a mentor.

#### **Lu Shaotang**

A young woman from a Triad family whom Sakamoto saves for the sole purpose of making pork buns for him. Ever since then, she has come to work in his store although she seems to have friction with Shin. Sakamoto seems to have a great deal of appreciation and concern for Lu comparable to that of Shin, demonstrated by his constant urge to protect her. He goes through great lengths to let Lu stay as a member of his store and his family when Wutang comes looking for her.

#### **Nagumo**

An old friend of Sakamoto's as well as a member of the Order, an elite assassin group that Sakamoto was formerly a member of. It appears that they first met and became friends during the time they spent in their shared JAA class. At one point in Chapter 45, Nagumo defends Sakamoto's store while he is away, showing he is willing to do favors for Sakamoto, as well as demonstrating that Sakamoto trusts Nagumo enough to protect his family and his store.

## Skills & Abilities

**Overall Skill Level**: Even among the Order, Sakamoto is known to be the strongest hitman of all time, holding both immense skill in combat and also excelling in all aspects of killing. No one can seemingly match his skill in the current storyline. To date he has only ever been outclassed in sharpshooting by Heisuke, an assassin who excels in that aspect. Even in his chubby form, Sakamoto is a force to be reckoned with. Granny Miya notes that present Sakamoto only has 30% of his physical abilities compared to his prime.

As a student Sakamoto was still renowned as an exceptional talent, even Byodo the 'database' of the JCC stated that out of the 38,000 students he had seen go to the school Sakamoto was the greatest fighter. Alongside Nagumo and Rion he was one of the three greatest prospects to ever step foot into the JCC. He surpassed those around him in nearly every aspect imaginable, setting the record for the greatest marksman in JCC history. Though that was stripped from him by Heisuke later within his life. As he continued to grow Sakamoto further eclipsed all of his colleagues and even the very friends he once stood with as equals. Even progressing so far as to join the Order. With enough power to singlehandedly wipe out branches of the JAA, his strength only continued to grow. Throughout his entire career he had never failed a mission, the only person to have ever survived an assassination attempt by his hands being Uzuki.

Though in the present day Sakamoto's skills have waned with time due to his retirement and newfound normal life he is still an incredibly powerful hitman. Despite his chubby appearance in his current state his power is enough to not only contend with but defeat many current assassins. By the account of Granny Miya in his overweight state he is only around 30% of his former fitness level and power compared to when he was an active hitman. Though after being striked in one of his pressure points he grew more accustomed to his current physique allowing for him to use more power and use it to his advantage.

**Enhanced Strength**: Sakamoto is quite powerful even after retiring and his fitness level decreasing drastically as a result. Sakamoto boasts incredible physical might, being capable of easily decapitating people and kicking Shin across his store through multiple shelves. Sakamoto stabilized the collapsing upper section of the Tokyo Tower by pulling it with a steel cable, stopping a speeding bus with a street sign, holding a person aloft with one hand and destroyed Son-Hee's chakram with just a frying pan. During the Lab Arc, Sakamoto severed multiple ropes restraining him using a coupon sheet and destroyed a mechanized dinosaur skeleton in hand-to-hand combat. Sakamoto is strong enough to throw his wife over the pillars of a suspension bridge. Even in his current state Sakamoto's strength allowed him to fight and defeat Kanaguri a powerful former Order member.

**Enhanced Marksmanship:** Aside from being a phenomenal gunman, Sakamoto has incredible accuracy with regular objects. He hurled a rock up the barrel of Heisuke Mashimo's rifle, destroying it and casually flicked a cough drop at Shin's bullet with enough force to halt it. Sakamoto has thrown popsicle sticks and chopsticks with enough force to pin people to walls.

* **Master Marksman:** Sakamoto took mere seconds to find the cause of a mechanical issue in a pistol while chasing Amane. During his infiltration of the JCC, Sakamoto was able to assemble a gun and fire 67 shots within a minute, all of which were bullseyes; as a JCC student, Sakamoto fired 89 shots, making him the second-best all-time record setter on the JCC gun range.

**Enhanced Durability**: Sakamoto has phenomenal durability, being able to withstand a kick from Bacho, which sent him flying into an adjacent building with enough force to leave a crater. Sakamoto has also survived extremely tall falls unharmed, withstood numerous point-blank explosions from Boiled and he was unharmed by Uda's suicide bomb which annihilated the majority of an office building floor. Sakamoto's fat also grants him a degree of protection, likely allowing him to survive Apart's wires which were strong enough to cleave through multiple steel beams holding the Tokyo Tower up. During a bathhouse trip, Sakamoto relaxed in a 1°C ice bath (calling the bath tepid) temperatures and enjoyed a sauna hot enough to cause spontaneous combustion. He sat under and withstood a waterfall with a 10-ton water pressure, and repeated the ice bath-sauna-waterfall cycle multiple times in addition to withstanding a water jet powerful enough to launch Shin across the room.

* **Hypnosis Resistance:** Sakamoto was unaffected by Club Jam's hypnosis.
* **Telepathy Resistance:** During Sakamoto and Shin's first battle, Shin was unable to read the veteran assassin's mind.

**Enhanced Speed & Reflexes**: Sakamoto moves so fast most opponents cannot see or react to him. He was able to dodge Son-Hee and Bacho's "*Tofu Scramble Attack*" and hit the latter before he could react, dismantle and slice apart multiple opponents' guns in the blink of an eye before incapacitating them, and being able to catch up with a speeding bus on foot. He was fast enough to swat aside sniper rounds fired by Heisuke, though this mildly injured him. During his battle with Kashima on a moving train, Sakamoto was thrown into a train going the opposite direction, which he ran through the entire length of before bursting out and landing back in Kashima's train.

During a failed cruise date, Sakamoto threw Aoi into the air and defeated every assassin on the cruise ship before she landed back in his arms. Sakamoto has ran on the side of walls, scooped boiling water out of the air with an instant ramen cup and spun clothing hangers fast enough to deflect bullets. Sakamoto blocked a bullet fired at his head from less than an inch away using a fork and dodged close range machine gun fire from a turret. During a game of Old Maid, Sakamoto was fast enough to swipe a card from someone's hand and put it back without the person noticing.

**Enhanced Stamina:** Throughout the entire series, Sakamoto has shown no exhaustion in any fight.

**Skinny/Prime Form**: Although it's unknown how he does it, Sakamoto can assume a form similar to what he had when he was still in shape, gaining a massive boost to all of his physical abilities as demonstrated when he completely overwhelmed Boiled, an extremely capable hitman who'd previously been giving him quite a bit of trouble. Granny Miya is somehow able to prevent Sakamoto from using this form after her treatments.

**Master Combatant**: Sakamoto's combat skills are far beyond what trained assassins are capable of. Conventional weaponry such as guns are virtually useless against him as he can block or dodge such attacks before they reach him, and his intelligence and adaptability to any situation allows him to counteract unusual weapons and fighting styles. One of his most notable abilities is his ability to weaponize random objects. Sakamoto has used cooking pots, frying pans, freezers, traffic signs, cough drops, stickers, vacuum cleaners, clipboards, drawers, pens, cards and paper with the same effectiveness as regular weapons.

While he is skilled at handling weapons, Sakamoto prefers to go unarmed, believing that dependence on weapons is a sign of a third-rate assassin.

* **Enhanced Intelligence:** Sakamoto's use of anything within arm's reach as an effective weapon demonstrates creativity, resourcefulness and quick thinking under high pressure. As a JCC student, Sakamoto memorized Boiled's bombs composition after a brief glance. Sakamoto's improvisation skills allowed him to blind Kashima with a sticker and mechanical pencil lead and use a railroad tie as a surfboard.
* **Vehicular Mastery:** Sakamoto is skillful enough to use a motorcycle as a weapon, whipping the rear wheel into a pursuer's face.

## Equipment

**Bulletproof Glasses:** Round glasses used by Sakamoto throughout his life. A pistol bullet fired at them at point-blank range bounced off.

**Apron:** Sakamoto's apron is extremely durable, able to shield people from explosions with no damage.

**Hidden Weapons Arsenal:** Sakamoto's armory is hidden in the convenience store behind rotating walls, accessed by typing a code into the cash register.

It contains at least 12 handguns and 20-21 long guns of varying nature (carbines, rifles and assault rifles), at least 5 grenades, an unknown amount of ammunition (4 magazines are seen), a utility knife and a taser. The armory also contains more unusual items, such as kitchen gloves, wire cutters, rakes, a shovel, gardening spade, two wire cutters and a bolt cutter.

## Etymology

* The name **Taro** means "thick, big, great" (太) (**ta**) and "son" (郎) (**son**).
* Taro's surname **Sakamoto** means "slope, hill" (坂) (**saka**) and "base, root, origin, source" (本) (**moto**).

## Trivia

* Sakamoto and Shin used to subsist mainly off army rations.
	+ When Aoi and Sakamoto were dating, he cried when he ate a normal omelette rice cooked by her.
* After using his prime form, Sakamoto usually regains his weight in around a day.
* Taro Sakamoto is based off the Japanese folklore Taro Urashima. Stated in comparison by Boiled in Chapter 13, Page 4. The story itself can be found in much older sources, dating to the 8th century (the Nara period), where the protagonist is styled either "Urashima no ko" or "Ura (no) Shimako", attested in earlier sources such as the *Fudoki* for Tango Province (Tango no Kuni Fudoki, 丹後国風土記) that survived in excerpts, the *Man'yōshū* and the *Nihon Shoki*.
* Sakamoto ranked 5th place in the manga's 1st Character Popularity Poll with 4,782 votes.

## Site Navigation

1. ↑ *Sakamoto Days* Manga: Chapter 75 (Page 11)