Shin and Heisuke’s journey through the JAA jail comes to a temporary stop in Sakamoto Days chapter 188 as the story shifts back to the titular character’s efforts to get strong enough to take on the Order. What could be the secret to breaking through? And how are these otherwise disconnected stories actually linked?

Considering that his name is in the title, the fact that Sakamoto hasn’t made an appearance in his own series for the last ten chapters is pretty weird. Even if turning the spotlight to Shin and Heisuke for a change has led to some exciting moments, it was always only going to be a matter of time before he popped up again. Only series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Hunter x Hunter can get away with doing entire story arcs without their main characters, mainly due to extremely popular secondary protagonists.

Last time we saw Sakamoto, he was getting his ass handed to him by the cheapskate assassin Torres. This is also where we find him in Sakamoto Days chapter 188: completely unable to make a single scratch on him following five defeats. Here, Torres makes the interesting observation that assassins usually “master a specific weapon” to give themselves an edge in battle instead of just using whatever they can get their hands on. In other words, Sakamoto’s ability to turn household items into deadly weapons may not be enough if he wants to defend himself against the Order.

If Sakamoto does end up abandoning his trademark fighting style, this would arguably mark the most drastic change to his character since the beginning of his series. That being said, even Torres isn’t sure if this is the answer: when he ends up eating dinner with Sakamoto and his family, he lambasts the ex-pro for not channelling his energy for cooking into fighting. “How come you don’t use it when you fight me?!” he complains, signalling that Sakamoto’s secret to success may lie further in the ordinary, not outside of it.

Given that the focus of Sakamoto Days chapter 188 has been entirely on events outside of the JAA jail up until this point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Shin and Heisuke’s adventures wouldn’t come up this week. Nevertheless, a true curveball comes in the final pages as Tenkyu reveals that the reason he and Uzuki are no longer working together is because they disagreed over killing Sakamoto’s wife and daughter. Containing Tenkyu here therefore becomes critical for the situation outside of the jail, thus rather neatly linking the two separate plotlines together.

There’s actually more to Sakamoto Days chapter 188 than this, but not enough space in this column to discuss it all in a reasonable amount of time. Suffice it to say that series author Yuuto Suzuki is making some big moves here in terms of ratcheting up the tension and deepening the complexity of this arc, as well as linking together Shin and Sakamoto’s separate journeys. I’m more engaged with this series than I’ve ever been right now - I can’t wait to see where it all ends up.

You can read Sakamoto Days chapter 188 for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.