What is it about Sakamoto that makes him the most liked classmate at his school, but the most despised classmate at the same time?
Well for starters, he’s can do a shuffle designed specifically to NOT stop fire.
Nami Sano’s, or Seven Seas’s, ridiculously named Haven’t You Heard? My Name is Sakamoto? (Sakamoto desu ga) is a comedy intending to do really funny things with its cool main character, Sakamoto. He happens to be all suave and cool under pressure, and while a good segment of the school likes that, there are others that don’t. So in Volume 1, Sakamoto meets a number of people who want to embarrass him, make love to him, or have him be their gofer.
All of the situations are exaggerated. The hook is that Sakamoto doesn’t react with emotion towards anything; he simply does what’s needed while looking either smart or special. It then ends with the people that interact with Sakamoto changing their values.
The comedy, unfortunately, is hit or miss. I’m a fan of manga doing unusual stuff, but Sakamoto lacks consistent jokes for me. In one instance it has Sakamoto build a hotel inside of a gym storage room with zero real beds, pillows, or lights for a pathetic bully and make me laugh; In another, he’ll catch a bee that scares all of his classmates except a dude who’s jealous of him and make me wonder what all the fuss is about.
The art helps and hurts the cause. It does make for a good bonfire ritual when you have 4 kids dancing in front of it, but the looks for some of them don’t inspire comedy. And when I think of school comedy at the moment, My Neighbor Seki takes the cake at the moment of being really funny. Maybe Sakamoto needs a while to get going, but I think I’ll pass on future volumes for a bit. If you are in need of comedy, it’s on Amazon & Right Stuf for $9.74, and bookstores for potential consumption.
