Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2020s.
2020S HITS
About
Taro Sakamoto was the ultimate assassin, feared by villains and admired by hitmen. But one day...he fell in love! Retirement, marriage, fatherhood and then... Sakamoto gained weight! The chubby guy who runs the neighborhood store is actually a former legendary hitman! Can he protect his family from danger? Get ready to experience a new kind of action comedy series!
Character analysis
Sakamoto used to be the best killer in the business. Then he fell in love, got married, and gained a lot of weight running a small shop with his family. The story's whole joke is that he's still just as dangerous as before — he just doesn't look like it anymore. He made a promise never to kill again, so every fight becomes a puzzle: how does the strongest man alive win without throwing a single punch that could count as violence? That restriction is what makes him fun to watch, not his power alone.
Shin can read anyone's thoughts just by looking at them, which makes him almost impossible to surprise in a fight. He starts out working for Sakamoto's old world, but ends up living with the Sakamoto family and helping run the shop instead. He still has the instincts of a killer, and the story often shows him calculating danger in places as ordinary as behind a cash register. His loyalty to Sakamoto isn't really about money anymore — it's grown into something closer to actually caring about the family he's protecting.
Lu comes from the same deadly world Sakamoto walked away from, and he isn't happy that Sakamoto got to quit. Characters like this usually exist to remind the hero what he used to be, and Lu does exactly that: a reminder of the life Sakamoto left behind, and a real threat to the ordinary one he built after it. Where Sakamoto hides his skill under a disguise of softness, Lu wears his danger openly, which makes their fights feel like two very different philosophies about what a killer owes the world once the killing stops.
Aoi fell in love with the version of Sakamoto who runs a shop and worries about being a good dad, not the legendary hitman underneath it. The story gets a lot of its tension from keeping her in the dark about that first life, which means every close call has an extra layer: can Sakamoto protect his family without her ever finding out what he's protecting them from? She isn't a damsel waiting to be saved so much as the reason the whole story exists in the first place — she's what Sakamoto is trying to hold onto.
Heisuke doesn't come from the same world of professional killers that most of this cast does, which puts him in a useful position: he reacts to the chaos around Sakamoto's family the way an ordinary person actually would. Characters like this help a story stay grounded, since someone has to be surprised when an ex-assassin's day job turns violent. His exact role and growth would need a closer read of the specific arcs he appears in to describe with full confidence.
Status evaluation
The art handles both comedic exaggeration and sharp, dynamic action well, which fits a story that swings between both constantly.
The 'no killing allowed' restriction turns a simple ex-assassin premise into a running puzzle the story keeps finding clever new ways to solve.
This is one of the funniest action manga currently running, with the gap between Sakamoto's appearance and his skill doing a lot of the comedic work.
There is real warmth around the Sakamoto family, though the series stays comedy-action first rather than leaning into heavier drama.
The comedic tone undercuts most tension before it can become genuinely frightening.
Fights happen constantly, but the self-imposed no-killing rule and comedic framing keep things from getting graphic.
A growing cast of assassins and factions adds some tracking, though each arc is generally easy to follow on its own.
This is an ongoing series. The exact current volume count has not been confirmed against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“A legendary hitman faking his way through parenthood and grocery runs is somehow the most fun I've had with an action manga in a while.”