Haven't You Heard? I Was Sakamoto

Name: Haven't You Heard? I Was Sakamoto
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2016-09-26

坂本ですが？ (Sakamoto desu ga? Sakamoto deshita?)

6.8(51,087)

MAL Score

Ranked #5842

Popularity #2515

Comedy
Gag Humor
School

Episodes: 1
Duration: 24 min
Aired: Sep 26, 2016
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Sakamoto seems to have everything figured out: good looks, top grades, and an unshakable ability to turn any awkward moment into a display of effortless cool. No matter what trouble finds him at school, he handles it with impeccable style, leaving classmates equal parts stunned and impressed.

After he departs for America, the students who knew him can’t help but reminisce about the days he dominated the hallways with his signature flair. As they picture what life overseas must be like for someone so exceptional, their imaginations drift to the only destination that feels worthy of him—NASA—proving that even from afar, Sakamoto’s legend still lingers.

Otaku Consensus

Studio Deen’s one-episode Sakamoto coda lands because Shinji Takamatsu’s script-and-storyboard control keeps the gag rhythm clean, letting every escalation play like a polished sketch rather than a loose extra. Fans and reviewers consistently praise its rewatchable deadpan absurdity and character-reaction comedy, while the recurring criticism is also clear: the core joke is so singular that it can feel stretched for viewers who want more than variations on Sakamoto’s impossible poise.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want surreal school comedy without romance detours, lore homework, or a sentimental victory lap. This special works best for viewers who enjoy a gag machine built around timing: setup, social embarrassment, impossible save, stunned reaction. It scratches a similar itch to The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. in its deadpan treatment of an overpowered student, and to Nichijou in the way ordinary school moments become physically ridiculous, but it is tighter and more pose-driven than either. Because it is a single finished episode aired after the TV run, it plays like a compact encore rather than a commitment. If your favorite comedy scenes are the ones where the animation, silence, and classmates’ disbelief do half the writing, this is exactly calibrated for you.

Key Characters

S
Sakamoto
Sakamoto is less a conventional protagonist than a walking comic principle: every scene tests how far absolute composure can bend school-life logic before everyone around him breaks first.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
This entry is a single-episode special that aired on September 26, 2016, making it a compact post-TV installment rather than a second season or recap package.
2
Shinji Takamatsu is credited for both script and storyboard, a useful detail for a gag anime because the written escalation and visual punchline timing come from the same creative hand.
3
Studio Deen’s production leans on controlled posing, reaction cuts, and compositional stillness instead of nonstop motion, which suits a comedy where Sakamoto’s elegance is the joke’s visual anchor.
4
Atsuko Nakajima served as chief animation director, with Fumiya Uehara and Minefumi Harada credited as animation directors for the episode, giving the special a defined supervision chain despite its short format.
5
AniList’s highest tag is Surreal Comedy at 80%, ahead of School at 79%, which accurately signals that the appeal is not school drama but reality-bending gag escalation inside a classroom setting.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime is adapted from work by original creator Nami Sano, whose concept is unusually minimal for a serialized comedy: the pleasure comes from repeated formal variations on one impossible standard of cool.
Fun fact 2: MyAnimeList lists this installment at 6.82 from 51,087 votes, while AniList places it at 67/100 with 202 favourites, showing a similar middle-positive reception across major anime databases.
Fun fact 3: The page’s MAL popularity rank of #2515 is notably stronger than its score rank of #5842, suggesting the title’s meme-friendly premise reached more viewers than its numerical rating alone implies.
Fun fact 4: Several viewer reviews describe the broader Sakamoto experience as structured around two or three mini-stories per episode, which helps explain why this special can function as an encore built from sketch-comedy rhythm.
Fun fact 5: The most repeated criticism in outside reviews is not that the comedy fails, but that the premise can feel stretched by the end; that critique is especially relevant because the show operates closer to a sitcom/sketch hybrid than a plot-driven school comedy.