Say... have you heard about Sakamoto?
He's a new first year at Gakubun High School, but more importantly he is cool, cooler, COOLEST! His every motion is filled with grace enough for a dozen Bishounen characters. He's soft-spoken yet filled to the brim with confidence, and never hesitates to help those in need. It's no wonder that after starting school, he became the center of attention. The girls love him, but the boys admire and hate him for it, often plotting to prove he is not all he seems.
However, no matter what tricks the other boys try to play on him, Sakamoto always manages to foil them with ease, moving through his high school life with confidence and class like no other.
Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto (坂本ですが？ Sakamoto desu ga?, I'm Sakamoto, You Know?) is a comedy manga series and debuting work of Nami Sano, which started serialization in 2011 and concluded in 2015.
In 2016, Studio DEEN produced an Animated Adaptation, which debuted in April.
This series provides the Cool, Cooler, COOLEST examples of:
- The Ace: Sakamoto is good at everything. He even scored 120% on his health education exam! note
- All Part of the Show: Sakamoto's farewell address to the third years is interrupted by a furious Acchan, intending to beat the pulp out of him. With his expert dodging and ad-libbing, Sakamoto is able to turn this potentially dangerous situation into a memorable performance and diffuse whatever was going on with Acchan.
- Bland-Name Product:
- McDonald's is referred to as McDoodle's in the manga.
- Acchan makes a reference about Annex watches, standing in for Rolex.
- Bucket Booby-Trap: Someone tries to do this to Sakamoto. Of course, being Sakamoto, he catches the eraser gracefully before it hits him.
- The Burlesque of Venus: The girls despair over not being able to catch a photo of Sakamoto during their trip to the beach. However, when they looked through the photos, they found one of Megumi holding a sea-shell — with Sakamoto in the background posing like The Birth of Venus, complete with seaweed hair and feet perfectly positioned to look like he was standing on the shell.
- But Now I Must Go: At the very end of the series, Sakamoto transfers out of Gakubun High, saying he was moving to America. It may or may not be true, but he does leave. He even seems a little broken up about it.
- Chick Magnet: Sakamoto, of course. Multiple girls try to win Sakamoto's affections throughout the series, including the mother of one of his classmates and a ghost. But Sakamoto shows no obvious interest in any of them. If anything, the only Ship Tease moments in the series are Homoerotic Subtext with another guy.
- Clip Show: The final episode's opening concerns Class 1-2 getting together and coming up with their own ideas for a Sakamoto movie, then follows them into second year reminiscing about Sakamoto's time at school. KEN-KEN and Mario hang a generous lampshade on the whole premise, pondering and denying that it only happened because all the manga material was covered by episode 12.
- Creator Thumbprint: The anime adaptation shares hallmarks with the rest of director Shinji Takamatsu's projects— volleyball segments, over-the-top comedy, plenty of Homoerotic Subtext, and a character voiced by Tomokazu Sugita.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Though they didn't fight outright except for Acchan during graduation, each antagonist tries to make Sakamoto do something that would knock him down a peg. Instead, some problem would occur that the antagonist needed Sakamoto to solve, or Sakamoto would do something so far out of left field that he ended up looking even cooler than before. In witnessing this, the antagonist would become friends with Sakamoto, or at least admit that Sakamoto is all he seems to be.
- Demonic Possession: Sakamoto pretended to be possessed by a fox spirit during a Kokkuri game gone wrong, demanding Kuronuma and the other girls build a large arch for him, to force the girls to put their differences aside and become friends.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The anime's version of "The Devil" features the opening theme playing in the background of a shopping district in lieu of the usual opening sequence.
- Driven by Envy: The people who wanted to prove nobody could be as cool as Sakamoto seemed to be.
- Eagleland: Played for laughs. The class' idea of America is quite the exaggerated one, filled with blonde and busty girls, exaggerated noses, and rather loud speaking.
- Evolving Credits: The anime adaptation changes its opening only once to reflect the goings on in the series; the title changes one word/phrase to say Haven't You Heard? I Was Sakamoto (Sakamoto Deshita?), as Sakamoto has left Gakubun for good by that point and the main story wrapped up in episode 12.
- Friend to All Living Things:
- Sakamoto went to great lengths to save a bird that had been blown away in a storm while they were trying to outpace each other and is seen visiting it in later scenes.
- When a wasp invaded the classroom, everyone screamed for someone to kill it, but Sakamoto just told it to behave, skillfully fended it off with a compass, caught it, and put it out of a window.
- When his classmates in home economics found a slug in some lettuce, he appeared to break this track record by making a show of sprinkling salt and other seasonings on the slug until it disappeared... then proved that it was a ruse by carefully washing the slug off and putting it outside with a gentle admonishment for choosing a bad spot to "play hide and seek".
- Funny Background Event: When Sakamoto's classmates were worried about their cultural festival presentation of balloon sculptures, Sakamoto covered one of the balloon sculptures with a curtains, making it look like a realistic yeti silhouette. Aina was so convinced, she demanded a brawl with it. A few moments later, when the class rep was encouraging the whole class to make more sculptures, Aina was shown climbing the curtain with the yeti sculpture to dictate it while her two friends tried to pull her down.
- Hypocritical Humor: In "Memories of Class 1-2", both the boys and the girls have their moments where they call each other simple/shallow. The girls chastise the boys for wanting a swimsuit photo of Aina when they're scrambling for any picture of Sakamoto they can get their hands on; likewise the boys chastise the girls for that immediately after their roundtable.
- Idiots Cannot Catch Colds: When Sakamoto's friend Kubota is in bed with a cold, his mother reassures him by telling him it means he isn't stupid.
- Inexplicably Awesome: How is Sakamoto so good at everything? How does he manage to stay impossibly perfect through everything he does, even in the face of overwhelmingly bad odds? No explanation; he's just that good. Whether that involves conjuring an umbrella out of nowhere to prevent being splashed, dueling against a hornet with a drawing compass, or wind suddenly manifesting to make him look sexy, there is seemingly nothing that Sakamoto is not capable of. All of this is Played for Laughs, as the ways in which Sakamoto manages to get out of trouble are all framed in a comedic light.
- I Was Just Passing Through: While Kubota is kicked down for standing up for himself and his money, Sakamoto (who at this point works at a WcDonalds) comes to his rescue by using the trinkets the bullies left behind as an excuse to catch up to them, and giving them back in the worst way possible. Even as he's kicking butt, he always assumes a stance of being on the job.
- Last-Name Basis: Sakamoto's first name is never revealed. He does say it at one point, but it ends up being obscured.
- Lunacy: Alluded to in Fukase's case. He compares Sakamoto to the Moon, and everyone else to bugs; they're in awe of the moon's light and try to fly towards it, but despite all their flapping they'll never reach.
- Meet Cute:
- Various versions are averted and deconstructed. When three of the girls sat around reminiscing on how they met Sakamoto for the first time, they revealed that each nearly had a typical shoujo-esque meet-cute (potentially touching fingers when picking up a dropped eraser, being caught in his arms upon falling, sharing an umbrella in bad weather). In each case the trope was averted right at the end, where the potential romantic encounter turns right back to the normal interaction it really was. (Well, normal for Sakamoto, anyway.)
- Later, they overheard Kubota recount the story of how he met Sakamoto, saying that he'd lost his band-aid and Sakamoto had found it and put it back on his finger. Neither of the boys make a big deal of it, but the girls all agree that this was the most romantic meeting of them all.
- Mock Millionaire: Hayabusa and his father pretend to be a rich family for the latter's date with a well-to-do woman, and keep the illusion by renting suits and eating at a French cuisine restaurant.
- Mood Motif: Whenever Sakamoto does something really cool, his theme starts to play. It's a short flourish of brass and woodwind instruments.
- Mr. Fanservice: It's quite common for Sakamoto to be presented sexy or appealing in some way. The first chapter had him dash around a fire with his shirt open and several panels are dedicated to showing Sakamoto's chest and hips off, as he's changing into his part-time work clothes.
- Mundane Made Awesome: This is the core to what makes Sakamoto the coolest guy around, and it's not a joke. Somehow, everything Sakamoto does is with perfect style and grace.
- See that cover image up there? He's playing pool with chalk!
- Walking to school on the sidewalk is for commoners, he walks on walls or fences!
- He stylishly rips his convenient store onigiri for lunch!
- When he's standing in the hallways holding water buckets for punishment, he poses as if it's for a fashion magazine.
- In order to save a bird in the rain, he flew through the sky!
- His desk and chair got thrown out? No problem! He'll just open the window and sit stylishly on the windowsill.
- Alternatively, if his chair gets pulled out from under him just as he's sitting down? He'll sit down on thin air instead of falling over.
- He can swordfight with a wasp using a tracing protractor.
- While Sakamoto sweeps the ceiling, the "ceiling dust turns to snow," and it's the most beautiful scene you'll ever experience!
- Not So Stoic: Sakamoto never raises his voice. But he does show emotion from time to time.
- When one of his closest friends is shaved bald as a way to get to him by Hayabusa, Sakamoto looks genuinely shocked for a moment.
- At the end of the series, when Sakamoto is leaving school for the final time, looking up at his now former classmates, there's a moment when Sakamoto looks genuinely sad. He even ends up Trying Not to Cry.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Sakamoto's farewell address to the graduating class is as much about them as it is about Acchan, who's trying to pulverize him after his feelings of inferiority were amplified by Fukase.
- Parody Sue: The whole plot revolves around how Sakamoto is "the coolest" and does everything as ridiculously-stylishly as possible. He's also good at everything he does, no matter what it is. But all of this is Played for Laughs, as Sakamoto's exploits are the basis for most of the comedy in the series.
- Recursive Fiction: If one looks closely in the school library's shelves in the adaptation, one can spot multiple blurry copies of the covers of manga volumes 1 and 2.
- Really 17 Years Old: In exchange for a DVD he needs for school, Sakamoto is made to get a number of porn movies from the 18+ section, and hand them off to Acchan and his friends. Sakamoto successfully bluffs the store's manager and the cashier, but Acchan doesn't even end up watching them and returns the whole stack.
- Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: One arc is about Hayabusa's father trying to appear rich so a woman would consider marrying him. Subverted when the woman in question turned out to be a con artist who was planning to mug him.
- Running Gag: Acchan, KEN KEN, and Mario lifelessly playing ball at their school field.
- Sand In My Eyes: "Goodbye Sakamoto-kun" ends with all of Class 1-2 throwing a sendoff pie fight for our protagonist, which also serves as an easy way to hide the tears they're shedding at losing their newfound friend. Sakamoto does the same to himself to prevent himself from crying as he leaves school.
- School Festival: Your typical sports festival and school festivals, but with Sakamoto's teammates attempting to sabotage his chances to look bad in front of girls for the former, and another delinquent incident in the latter.
- Slice of Life: The plot is framed as ordinary life for a high school student in Japan. Well, it may seem ordinary for Sakamoto himself, but definitely not for everyone else around him, given how Inexplicably Awesome he is.
- Smoking Is Cool: Played with. All Japanese Delinquents in Sakamoto's school are smokers, and this story does bring up real life issues of illegal underage smoking among school children; as such, some smokers portrayed in this story are cool, and some are not. To discourage this idea to the viewers, cigarette packages used in this story all came with the label of "
Underage Smoking is Forbidden by Law." Also, it should be noted that Sakamoto, incontestably the coolest character in the show, does not smoke. - Spooky Photographs: As we find out through Fujita's photographs, Sakamoto has been haunted by a the ghost of a girl... who is just trying to confess to Sakamoto and get her feelings across to him.
- Springtime for Hitler: A recurring plot element through the series is Acchan and other bullies trying to make Sakamoto slip up or look stupid. They do this out of jealousy for how easily Sakamoto attracts the attention of all the ladies. Whenever the bullies try, Sakamoto just ends up looking even more cool than he did before.
- The bullies remove Sakamoto's desk from class so he has nowhere to sit. Sakamoto opens the window and sits on the windowsill instead, complete with Hot Wind.
- When the bullies corner Sakamoto with a DVD he needs, they say he'll only get it if he rents a porn movie for them. But Sakamoto effortlessly manages to slip in to the 18+ section undetected, and has such a good poker face that he bluffs the store owner into letting him rent it.
- The bullies hold Sakamoto's balloon sculpture hostage at the culture festival, threatening to pop it if he comes closer. Sakamoto makes a gun out of balloons, and somehow uses the gun to pop the balloons himself, even making another sculpture out of it.
- Subliminal Advertising: "Cafeteria Marketing" has Sakamoto personally make the spaghetti neapolitan dish at the cafeteria popular through this method. Whether it be PE, writing on the chalkboard, or even something like setting up chopsticks, Sakamoto somehow works a (rather obvious) subliminal message in the action.
- Super Fly Reflexes: One episode has a bee fly into the classroom during an exam, so Sakamoto ends up swordfighting with the bee using a compass.
- Take My Hand!: In the final episode, while Acchan is attacking him, Sakamoto grabs his hand when he falls over the railing, and doesn't let go even when Acchan hits his hand with a bat and draws blood. When the blood makes his grip slippery, Sakamoto ''lets his pants fall down rather than let go of the rail and Acchan.
- Tall Poppy Syndrome: A rather regular occurrence at school. While the school population is absolutely wild for Sakamoto, there do exist some people who don't like the attention he attracts and aim to take him down a peg, to varying degrees of failure. Even during the sports festival, Class 1-2's male population tried to disrupt his performance in all sports activities because he steals the girls' attention— and they all like him too!
- Title Drop: At the end of the series, right as Sakamoto is leaving school for what is apparently the final time, the gym teacher sees Sakamoto but doesn't recognize him because his face is covered in whipped cream, and asks who he is. Sakamoto responds with "Sakamoto desu ga." ("Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto.") while he's Trying Not to Cry.
- Two Men, One Dress: Hayabusa asks Sakamoto to teach him how to be classy at a fancy restaurant. There's not enough time to teach him, so Sakamoto has him rent a giant tuxedo and both of them wear it to the restaurant, with Sakamoto using his arms to cut the food and pass it to Hayabusa's mouth. Later that night, they run into some thugs threatening Hayabusa's dad. Hayabusa, who doesn't want his dad to know he's a delinquent, switches places with Sakamoto inside the equally gigantic coat, with Sakamoto being the face and Hayabusa using his fists to fight off the thugs.
- Unwanted Assistance: Sakamoto plays the perfect errand boy for the second years, but when they tire of giving him orders and just allow him to help of his own accord, he really helps. His overly showy methods of assistance, as well as his eccentric ways of making them comfortable, only scare them off and humble themselves, at least a little.
- The Vitruvian Pose: Sakamoto makes a snow angel in the shape of the Vitruvian man. His classmates mistakenly attribute the original to Leonardo DiCaprio.
