# Smoking (2018)

> A band of homeless assassins flays its targets and delivers their tattooed skins as proof of completed contracts.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/70009

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Network: TV Tokyo
- Cast: Ryo Ishibashi, Nobuaki Kaneko, Tomomi Maruyama, Kaito Yoshimura, Rin Furukawa, Ryuhei Matsuda
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8758778/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: extreme
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: bleak, brutal, tense, morally dark

## Synopsis

Smoking (2018) is a Japanese crime drama series that originally aired on TV Tokyo, adapted from a manga. Across a single twelve-episode season of roughly 24 minutes each, it follows a band of homeless assassins who accept contracts for money and carry out their killings in brutal fashion, flaying their targets and delivering the tattooed skins as proof of completed work. Ryo Ishibashi plays Sabe, the group's hardened center, alongside Nobuaki Kaneko as Haccho, Tomomi Maruyama as Goro, Kaito Yoshimura as Hifumin, and Rin Furukawa as Tatesawa Hina, with Ryuhei Matsuda as Sakakibara Masayuki adding another layer to the story. Each episode is built around a new contract and the moral weight it carries, while the characters' tragic pasts and their pursuit of a rough sense of justice gradually surface. The series sits within the Japanese underworld, where yakuza pressure and street-level desperation shape every choice. Its tone is bleak, violent, and heavy, with revenge and survival driving the narrative. Fans of Hannibal, Hitman, and Yakuza will find resonance in its dark stylized brutality and outcast killers.

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