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type_wildHere's the shocker of the year: I'm at episode fifteen of Samurai Flamenco, and am low-key upset that I'm visiting relatives with no wi-fi and will have to wait until I get home to see watch the rest.
I didn't expect to like Samurai Flamenco. The reviews I've read have agreed that it starts out okay and becomes a mess in the second half, so maybe it's just the low expectations that made this unexpectedly fun? Rest assured, I won't be the person who tells you that this is a great anime. But I did find it lovable.
One review made the point that this series is really several different series, thanks to a number of WTF plot twists and story arcs with wildly different focuses. This is true, but it's also a description that makes it sound like the plot twists are bigger than they felt like to me. But in order to discuss how successful it was at being several different shows in one, I'm going to discuss the first of those plot twists. So: Spoilers for episode seven ahoy, but I honestly think you'll need to know about this one to know what you're getting into anyway.
If you don't want that, then this is what I took away from it: Samurai Flamenco might be a parody or homage, but for people who aren't familiar with Super Sentai beyond that it exists, it's really hard to tell. So for us, it's ridiculous. But I had fun watching it anyway. Also, did I mention the lesbian OT3?
Hidenori Goto is your average anime policebox policeman who one day comes across a weirdo who dresses up like a superhero and brings about low-key justice with suitable catchphrases and posing. And by "low key" we mean "make people stop littering or smoke in non-smoke zones". He calls himself Samurai Flamenco; during his day job, he's known as Masayoshi Hazama, and he's absolutely kind, absolutely polite, absolutely normal expcept for his critical levels of Super Sentai fanboy. Goto can't talk sense into him, and so a part of his everyday routine becomes keeping some kind of leash on Masayoshi's delusions. This becomes increasingly difficult as Samurai Flamenco of course becomes a youtube pheonmenon and the media starts taking an interesting in the failtastic vigilante.
The story of a deluded fanboy bringing about justice in the name of his childhood idols could've been a story in itself. But Samurai Flamenco stops being that story when its titular hero comes along the police on a drug bust where one of the criminals imbibes a substance that turns him into a gorilla. A gorilla whose midriff is a giljoutine.
The problem with going into Samurai Flamenco without knowing this, is that you'll be expecting something different. You'll expect a show that's out to ridicule deluded fanboys, or the Super Sentai genre, or maybe even be a heartwarming tale of how the deluded Super Sentai fanboy learns that monsters in the real world must be fought in other manners than those on TV. But Samurai Flamenco, which might be parody, might be homage, gives us Giljoutine Gorilla and it takes off from there.
No, don't expect a clever plot. Don't expect riveting drama. Don't expect great psychologies. Don't expect thoughtful and relevant themes. Don't expect useful commentary on the genre that it engages with at a meta-level, and also don't expect a lot of comedy. This is silly action, formulaic to the point where it's almost certainly parody, yet never predictable in its twists and turns.
No, I don't know what it was that sold it to me. The characters are by all means pretty one-note, but hell if my favourite bunch weren't the parodically stereotyped Flamengers. The plot is Digimon-level monster-of-the-week, but the brevity of the arcs and the expectations of 'how the hell are they going to top this' kept me watching. The animation is never more than passable, there's absolutely nothing remarkable about the form here.
And thing is, Samurai Flamenco is honestly pretty dull until it starts getting ridiculous. If I thought the early few episodes were setting up the rest of the story, I might've dropped it out of boredom, because it's obvious from the directing and pacing that drama and character insight wasn't going to come out of this. And luckily for all of us, things took a ninety degree turn and what came out of it was quality camp. Samurai Flamenco is ridiculous and it knows it, and that's why I can forgive it for being dumb. So what if it's dumb. It was a fun ride and that's all that matters to me.
Well, and finale. Trust me, you do not want to miss out on that one. Just when you thought the show had outdone itself in ridiculous, it goes there anyway and of course love wins, of course.
I didn't expect to like Samurai Flamenco. The reviews I've read have agreed that it starts out okay and becomes a mess in the second half, so maybe it's just the low expectations that made this unexpectedly fun? Rest assured, I won't be the person who tells you that this is a great anime. But I did find it lovable.
One review made the point that this series is really several different series, thanks to a number of WTF plot twists and story arcs with wildly different focuses. This is true, but it's also a description that makes it sound like the plot twists are bigger than they felt like to me. But in order to discuss how successful it was at being several different shows in one, I'm going to discuss the first of those plot twists. So: Spoilers for episode seven ahoy, but I honestly think you'll need to know about this one to know what you're getting into anyway.
If you don't want that, then this is what I took away from it: Samurai Flamenco might be a parody or homage, but for people who aren't familiar with Super Sentai beyond that it exists, it's really hard to tell. So for us, it's ridiculous. But I had fun watching it anyway. Also, did I mention the lesbian OT3?
Hidenori Goto is your average anime policebox policeman who one day comes across a weirdo who dresses up like a superhero and brings about low-key justice with suitable catchphrases and posing. And by "low key" we mean "make people stop littering or smoke in non-smoke zones". He calls himself Samurai Flamenco; during his day job, he's known as Masayoshi Hazama, and he's absolutely kind, absolutely polite, absolutely normal expcept for his critical levels of Super Sentai fanboy. Goto can't talk sense into him, and so a part of his everyday routine becomes keeping some kind of leash on Masayoshi's delusions. This becomes increasingly difficult as Samurai Flamenco of course becomes a youtube pheonmenon and the media starts taking an interesting in the failtastic vigilante.
The story of a deluded fanboy bringing about justice in the name of his childhood idols could've been a story in itself. But Samurai Flamenco stops being that story when its titular hero comes along the police on a drug bust where one of the criminals imbibes a substance that turns him into a gorilla. A gorilla whose midriff is a giljoutine.
The problem with going into Samurai Flamenco without knowing this, is that you'll be expecting something different. You'll expect a show that's out to ridicule deluded fanboys, or the Super Sentai genre, or maybe even be a heartwarming tale of how the deluded Super Sentai fanboy learns that monsters in the real world must be fought in other manners than those on TV. But Samurai Flamenco, which might be parody, might be homage, gives us Giljoutine Gorilla and it takes off from there.
No, don't expect a clever plot. Don't expect riveting drama. Don't expect great psychologies. Don't expect thoughtful and relevant themes. Don't expect useful commentary on the genre that it engages with at a meta-level, and also don't expect a lot of comedy. This is silly action, formulaic to the point where it's almost certainly parody, yet never predictable in its twists and turns.
No, I don't know what it was that sold it to me. The characters are by all means pretty one-note, but hell if my favourite bunch weren't the parodically stereotyped Flamengers. The plot is Digimon-level monster-of-the-week, but the brevity of the arcs and the expectations of 'how the hell are they going to top this' kept me watching. The animation is never more than passable, there's absolutely nothing remarkable about the form here.
And thing is, Samurai Flamenco is honestly pretty dull until it starts getting ridiculous. If I thought the early few episodes were setting up the rest of the story, I might've dropped it out of boredom, because it's obvious from the directing and pacing that drama and character insight wasn't going to come out of this. And luckily for all of us, things took a ninety degree turn and what came out of it was quality camp. Samurai Flamenco is ridiculous and it knows it, and that's why I can forgive it for being dumb. So what if it's dumb. It was a fun ride and that's all that matters to me.
Well, and finale. Trust me, you do not want to miss out on that one. Just when you thought the show had outdone itself in ridiculous, it goes there anyway and of course love wins, of course.
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Date: 2017-08-05 02:31 pm (UTC)