Fans were treated to a brand-new character in Sakamoto Days Episode 17: A blue-haired girl assassin who readers of the Sakamoto Days manga will know as Akira Akao. Akira is the latest addition to the acclaimed anime from TMS Entertainment. The blood-soaked animated adventure (streaming now on Netflix in North America) just finished its first major story arc, which saw over 75% of Japan's assassins eliminated by the villainous Slur.
This has left the Japanese Association of Assassins (JAA) looking for new recruits, and the series' central heroes headed for the assassin-training academy known as the JCC (or Japan Clear Creation) to hopefully track down some leads on the show's central big bad to this point.
Sakamoto Days Episode 17 (subtitled "Have a Nice Flight") shows the show's silent hero Taro Sakamoto hopping aboard a flight with his blonde-haired clairvoyant protege Shin to take the JCC exam and, hopefully, get a bit more information on who Slur was before he started his string of assassin killings that have been at the heart of the series so far.
On this flight, Sakamoto-san and Shin were introduced to a new, yet-to-be-named character with striking blue hair. When all hell breaks loose and the aircraft becomes an all-out battleground, Sakamoto successfully saves the blue-haired girl during this skull-cracking first exam, capturing a trio of JCC bullets (tokens to show you've passed the test) and hands one of them to the young girl, only for her to refuse.
During the episode, fans do not get much more from the new character other than some info that she may not be up for the fight like some of her fellow JCC classmates are, and has a propensity for housework. However, the way Episode 17 leaves her story, it seems as though she is going to have a big part in this next chapter of Sakamoto Days.
Sakamoto Days is now streaming on Netflix in North America, with new episodes dropping every Monday. The new series from The Seven Deadly Sins studio TMS Entertainment follows a retired John Wick-like hitman who, after several years of operating a quaint convenience store, is pulled back into his assassinating ways when a string of his former colleagues turn up dead.
Who Is the Blue-Haired Girl in Sakamoto Days?
While they do not name her in Sakamoto Days Episode 17, the blue-haired girl assassin that Taro Sakamoto and Shin meet on the JCC plane is a big deal in the Sakamoto Days canon.
This latest episode of the hit animated series kicked off what is known as the JCC Transfer Exams Arc, as Sakamoto-san and Shin enroll at the assassin-training academy, JCC, to get the lowdown on former student Slur (aka the villain they have been chasing since Episode 1).
The new blue-haired girl they cross paths with on the plane to the academy plays a significant role in this particular arc. Her name, which fans will come to know soon enough in the show, is Akira Akao.
When Sakamoto and Shin meet her, Akira is an aspiring assassin heading to the JCC for her first year. While during Episode 17's epic play battle, she does not get her hands dirty, she will soon prove to be an assassinating force to be reckoned with.
In the manga, Akira is the niece of renowned hitwoman Rion Akao. Rion is mentioned in Episode 16 as one of the high-ranking members of the JAA still alive.
Akira and her aunt have had a close relationship all her life. Rion is the reason behind Akira's power of seeing the 'paths' to someone's death, essentially seeing a line in her mind that will lead her to killing her target. Akira sees her aunt as her biggest role model and the reason she wanted to become an assassin in the first place.
Once at the JCC, Akira joins Team Sakamoto for a bit, helping Sakamoto-san and Shin find the database of former students and uncover more information on the evil Slur.
