I was pretty sure I knew how Sakamoto Days would play out trope as old as time, a retired hitman gets pulled back into the world of assassins and crime. I figured hed be juggling his double life, hiding the more violent and dangerous aspects of his job from his sweet, unknowing wife.And for about four and a half episodes, it played exactly into my expectations. I was pleasantly entertained by the secret double-life hijinks, though not necessarily on the edge of my seat. But midway through the fifth episode, the show took an unexpected turn for the better.[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the first six episodes of Sakamoto Days.]Five years prior to the start of the show, legendary hitman Sakamoto left his life of crime to marry his wife, Aoi. Though Sakamoto now owns a convenience store and has a young daughter named Hana, his hitman skills are still sharp. For about five episodes, he goes out of his way to hide the danger from Aoi. His new convenience store mentees (with double lives of their own), Lu and Shin, help him keep up the charade during a two-and-a-half-episode arc where the family goes to a theme park. They fend off assassins so that Aoi and Hana can blissfully enjoy their day. I was fully expecting the rest of the show to follow in this direction, with a lot of near misses and slapstick shenanigans designed to keep Aoi and Hana unaware of whats going on.But early into the fifth episode, Aoi finds out that theres a bounty on Sakamotos head and shes pissed that he didnt let her know. She pulls out the family handbook and points to rule number six: Do not hide things from one another.Being unfamiliar with the manga, I was pleasantly surprised to see Aoi get to do this. I have nothing against dual identities being a source of humor. Spy x Family does it well, with about three different layers of intrigue between assassin Yor, spy Loid, and psychic daughter Anya going on at any given time. But its another sort of hilarious when Hana giggles after setting off a booby trap, and Aoi calmly comments that the repeated assassination attempts are giving her a headache but hey, at least the profits on selling bandages and gauze have gone up! Im always tickled when shows and movies juxtapose over-the-top elements and concepts with more mundane logistics and grounded problems, like a whole networking convention for villains in the Despicable Me world or the casual night market that the What We Do in the Shadows vampires visit. And considering Sakamoto Days has an in-universe hitman training academy, complete with job boards and certifications, its exactly the type of show to indulge in that specific sort of humor.Bringing Aoi into the fold helps these jokes really land. While Sakamoto, Lu, and Shin are all tangentially involved in the underworld, shes only here by association. So of course shes just gonna want to go back to the status quo! Aoi is the one who can really help sell this whole thing as an extension of her (preferred) mundane life, which means warring assassins will be just one more thing she has to deal with.The latest episodes take the action away from Aoi and Hana for a bit, but I thoroughly look forward to their nonchalant reactions to the waves of assassins and criminals. Were still only halfway through season 1, which means there should be plenty of time for them to be delightfully nonplussed by the copious amounts of violence.Sakamoto Days is currently airing on Netflix, with new episodes dropping on Saturdays.