The Bodies

Lore & Background

The Bodies occupy a unique niche in the Sakamoto Days world. Unlike assassins, who are ranked on a single ladder of lethality, bodyguards are measured by the breadth of their defensive repertoire: reading a room, predicting a trajectory, absorbing a hit that was meant for someone else. Their training is as rigorous as any assassin's, but the philosophy is inverted — every technique exists to keep another person breathing.

Ganta Inoue's dream of becoming a Body is one of the story's emotional anchors. In a family defined by violence, his choice to protect rather than kill is a quiet act of rebellion. It also places him in direct tension with his father's legacy: Sakamoto, the former number-one assassin, is now the most unlikely bodyguard of all, guarding a convenience store and his family with the same terrifying competence he once used to end lives.

The Bodies are not a single guild with a headquarters and a roster. They are a profession, a calling, a way of reading the world. Some work for agencies, some are hired privately, and some — like Sakamoto — simply refuse to let anyone in their radius get hurt. What unites them is a shared understanding: in a world that rewards the killer, the protector is the rarer, braver figure.

In Their Own Story

The rain hammered the awning of the convenience store, each droplet a tiny percussion against the plastic. Sakamoto stood behind the counter, restocking onigiri, his eyes half-lidded. The bell above the door chimed, and a woman stepped in — soaked, trembling, a bruise blooming violet along her jaw. She didn't speak. She didn't need to. Sakamoto set the rice ball down, pulled a clean towel from the register, and said, 'You're safe here. Nobody gets through this door while I'm behind it.' Outside, three figures in dark coats watched from across the street, their hands resting on concealed weapons. They knew the name on the store sign. They knew what it used to mean. They did not yet know what it meant now.

Reader's Guide

In the Sakamoto Days world, the Bodies function as a professional class rather than a single centralized organization. Their purpose is straightforward: to protect a client or a place from lethal threat. Membership is earned through skill, reflex, and an unwavering commitment to keeping others alive — no single governing body certifies them, though agencies and private contracts structure much of their work.

Leadership is diffuse. A Body answers to the person or place they guard, not to a chain of command. Resources range from improvised (a store shelf, a fire extinguisher) to high-tech (reinforced vehicles, surveillance), depending on the engagement. The stated goal is always the same: no one in your charge dies on your watch.

Sakamoto embodies the Bodies' philosophy in its most extreme form. A former top assassin, he now applies his lethal knowledge purely defensively, protecting his son Ganta, his wife, and his convenience store. Ganta, aspiring to become a Body in his own right, represents the next generation of this protective ethos. Together, they force the assassin world to confront a truth it prefers to ignore: the hardest skill is not killing — it is choosing, every single time, to stand in the way instead.

Did You Know?

• Ganta's explicit dream of becoming a bodyguard is established in the earliest chapters, framing the entire series as a story about protection as much as combat.
• Sakamoto's convenience store effectively functions as his 'client' — he guards it (and everyone inside it) with the same intensity a Body would guard a head of state.
• The manga's world treats bodyguard work as a legitimate, respected profession with its own training and culture, not merely a side role to the assassin plot.
• Sakamoto's transition from the world's top killer to a shopkeeper who will absolutely not let his family be hurt is the central character arc that defines the 'Body' philosophy in action.