SAKAMOTO DAYS Episode 11: The Gang’s Wild Casino Adventure

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Delving into the captivating world of Sakamoto Days once more, I found myself on the edge of my seat during Episode 11, titled “Casino Battle.” This thrilling episode, now streaming on Netflix, is chock-full of surprises that any fan won’t want to miss!

Summary

  • Sakamoto & Shin excel in casino games despite lack of knowledge, surprise Wutang
  • Wutang’s past reveals his rise to power through intelligence, as well as how he came to know Shaotang
  • The tie-breaker game of Old Maid leads to a dangerous bluff by Wutang and escape facilitated by Sakamoto and Shaotang.

In the last episode of SAKAMOTO DAYS, being the finale of the first part of Season 1 (with the second part coming out in July), the Sakamoto family finds themselves in a tight spot due to a casino challenge presented by Lu Wutang at the end of the previous episode. Given that Shin and Sakamoto have little understanding of most, if not all, casino games, their odds of out-earning the intelligent Wutang seem slim.

As the episode unfolds, we learn that Wutang’s authority over the Lu Clan’s mafia is questionable at its core, and his feelings play a significant role in the indirect approach he takes to persuade Lu to return to China with him. The conclusion of the initial season of SAKAMOTO DAYS was satisfactory, but it fell short of the grandeur typically associated with a finale, even for the first half of the season.

The Casino Games Begin

Sakamoto and Shin Excel Despite Their Lack of Knowledge

In the contest set by Wutang against the Sakamotos, they receive 30 million yen worth of chips initially, their objective being to multiply this amount through investments. The team with the highest accumulated wealth at the end emerges victorious. However, the gravity of the task is quickly revealed as Wutang swiftly triples his initial stake within mere seconds. This leaves Shin and Lu uneasy, with Lu particularly worried due to her awareness that Wutang’s intelligence, a trait he honed to ascend the mafia hierarchy, would never lead him to issue a challenge he couldn’t conquer; in this world, power often determines success.

When they ponder if Wutang might be fortunate, he dismisses the notion, attributing his success more to intelligence than good fortune. Sakamoto concurs with this viewpoint, stating that the assassin’s world operates under the same principle; those who rely on “luck” or “fate” are often the ones who meet an early demise.

With that, the team sets off to earn some cash, where Shin takes a seat at a poker table filled with seasoned pros who crush novices effortlessly. Each veteran, sensing Shin’s inexperience in his eyes, identifies him as a potential target, unaware that he possesses mind-reading abilities. In a split second of indiscretion, Lu Shaotang reveals to everyone that Shin is clueless about the game, which unexpectedly works in their favor as Shin’s opponents underestimate his skills.

In a dispute with Shaotang, it results in an accident that leaves his moves exposed for everyone to see, causing them all to try tricking Shin into surrendering a profitable hand. However, these deceptions fall flat and Shin takes the risk by going ‘all in’, resulting in a substantial win for the Sakamotos. Meanwhile, Sakamoto plans to play roulette, unaware that the device is manipulable; yet, using the sole chip he had saved from his wager, he skillfully knocks it towards the control mechanism, making the machine stop at the desired number, an unlikely victory given the circumstances.

The Origins of Lu Wutang

Episode 11 Reveals Why Wutang is So Adamant on Taking Back Shaotang

As the Sakamotos celebrate some unexpected successes, Wutang maintains his winning streak, this time moving it to a blackjack table where his intellect truly shines. He has an extraordinary memory for cards and can calculate when the next 10 will be dealt, allowing him to decide precisely when to request another card or when to withdraw. As he counts cards, memories of his first encounter with Lu Shaotang resurface; they met when Wutang was 11, and she was 8, with her bravely stepping in to protect him from local bullies. Throughout his life, Wutang has relied on his cunning because he didn’t have the physical prowess to compete in more straightforward arenas, which often earned him contempt from those who believed power held supreme importance.

In Wutang’s life, Shaotang was a pivotal figure because he was the first person to accept him for his intelligence, something that had never been celebrated before. This encounter significantly deepened their bond, which goes beyond their roles in the Lu Clan’s mafia. Prior to this moment, Wutang was portrayed as more of a comedic character. However, this backstory adds a layer of complexity to him. It turns out that Wutang’s intelligence was instrumental in his rise through the ranks of the mafia, where power is the primary asset. Later, after the flashback, Wutang and Team Sakamoto gather to determine who made the most profit. Surprisingly, it ended in a tie.

The Tie-Breaker

Since Team Sakamoto doesn’t have much expertise in casino games, we’ve decided to simplify the tie-breaker to a basic game that everyone can play comfortably – the traditional U.S. card game called “Old Maid.” The rules are straightforward: each player receives cards and tries to get rid of all their cards by matching pairs, except for one unmatched card, known as the Old Maid, which remains in the game until someone is left with it.

  • be the first to retire from the game by discarding the cards in your hand in matching pairs,
  • players take turns to draw a card from the player to their left,
  • the objective is to avoid the “Old Maid” card, the designated unpaired card in the deck (usually the Joker)

In this scene, Lu’s honesty creates a lot of amusing moments, while Shin’s enthusiasm brings out a playful innocence that links them together. Two unnamed thugs added to Wutang’s team for numerical reasons add a touch of absurdity, contributing to the overall humor, as instead of gunning down enemies, a mafia group sits idly by watching their boss play cards. Sakamoto swiftly sifts through one goon’s deck to avoid drawing the Joker, but Wutang is astute enough to catch on and calls out this unusual move.

Intrigued by the prospect of employing his skill against adversaries, Shin finds himself caught off guard when Wutang queries how deeply he can probe into a human mind, given its multi-layered structure (referring to the Freudian aspects of the psyche). Overwhelmed with an influx of data, Shin’s mental faculties are temporarily disabled, leaving him out of commission for the remainder of the game. The contest then narrows down to Sakamoto and Wutang, with the latter possessing merely two cards left. Wutang successfully predicts the correct card, but as he attempts to seize it, Sakamoto tightens his grip before swiftly exchanging them; nonetheless, this is where the match concludes, as thugs point their firearms at both Sakamoto and Wutang.

The New Addition to the Family

Wutang’s Ridiculous Bluff Saves the Day

Tired of the antics and the questionable behavior of the group, the henchmen revolt, echoing past events within the group. When confronted about impressing his crush, Shaotang, Wutang comes up with an outlandish bluff that seems unlikely to succeed. However, he manages to convince the henchmen that he had secretly armed their weapons to explode upon trigger pull, a move intended to thwart any potential rebellion. This turns out to be one of those “insane enough to work” scenarios as the henchmen are momentarily distracted, allowing Wutang to signal Sakamoto who proceeds to neutralize opponents with swift strikes while Shaotang delivers her signature kick to vanquish enemies and escape. In the end, Wutang acknowledges defeat in his pursuit of Shaotang, but Sakamoto earns his respect by letting it pass.

It seems that Wu Tang lacks extensive details about “Slur”, but he has uncovered intriguing information: Four notorious criminals, who were believed to have been executed on death row, mysteriously resurfaced in Japan as four separate corpses – each one tailored to match the killer’s preferred method of demise. This revelation serves as a prelude for the Death Row Prisoners Arc in the upcoming episodes of SAKAMOTO DAYS.

Setting Up For Cours 2

Kashima Brings In Reinforcements

At a local “McDonald’s,” an unusual quartet named Dump, Saw, Apart, and Minimalist are having a meal while they anticipate the arrival of their client. In the style of the anime “SAKAMOTO DAYS“, these new characters are undeniably eccentric, but when their client shows up, it becomes clear why.

Wounded from his previous run-in with the Sakamotos, Kashima hands the four assassins a list of targets, warning them not to underestimate any of them. The four accept the assignment and leave, instructing Kashima to provide their next set of targets in a month’s time or else they will embark on a rampage across Japan.

The significance of Wutang’s details lies in the possibility that interacting with death row inmates might lead them to Slur, a mysterious figure who released and employed them for a Sakamoto assassination. The forthcoming second season of SAKAMOTO DAYS, however, is expected to be quite significant because, despite being a finale, the end of the first season didn’t carry the usual weight of a final episode. This might be because it was only halfway through the first season of SAKAMOTO DAYS.

SAKAMOTO DAYS is available on Netflix. The next cours is set to broadcast in July.

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2025-03-25 17:35