Would you consider yourself curry rice?
What They Say:
Masayoshi Hazama: a man who has become a superhero “by himself” with no superhuman powers or any sort of high-tech conversions, NONE!! Hidenori Goto: a cop who found out the true identity of “the superhero” by a strange twist of fate and thus constantly gets in trouble thanks to Hazama, the superhero. This is the story of the birth of a true hero featuring these two young men with a touch of comedy and serious drama, while they come face to face with hardships as they search for the true meaning of becoming a hero of justice in this world!
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
From studio Manglobe (The World God Only Knows, Samurai Champloo, and Michiko and Hatchin), acclaimed director Takahiro Omori (Baccano!, Durarara!!, and Princess Jellyfish), and series composer Hideyuki Kurata (Now and Then, Here and There, Oreimo, The World God Only Knows) comes Samurai Flamenco, a show that breaks down the hero much like Kick Ass did and in a much different way from Gatchaman Crowds. Based solely on director, I was extremely enthused to watch the show.
Samurai Flamenco’s cold open and opening song immediately indicate that it’s going to be ridiculous, over the top, and (hopefully) funny. It delivers right after the opening when two police officers, one of which is main character Goto, are discussing the legality of Kamen Rider, because he may or may not be wearing a helmet.
We move back to right before the opening scene as Goto walks past some vagrant kids, clearly hinting at something greater as he grimaces at their minor law infractions. The two characters, Goto and Masayoshi, go back to the latter’s apartment. As it turns out, Masayoshi fights evil in a Samurai Flamenco suit, which led him to his cold open naked state. By which I mean he got into a scuffle with a drunk guy that was smoking in a non-smoking area. Quite the vagrant, the drunk man is.
Masayoshi later breaks down what could, but probably won’t, be the entire trajectory of the show. He says that he’s first going to take down a minor criminal and essentially level up until he can take down the big ones, like in the show he watches. The fictional show, Harakiri Sunshine (who literally performs harikiri to defeat his opponents), seems to be based on 70s super sentai shows.
The final act is essentially Kick Ass, the film from 2010 with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and also a comic I haven’t read. If you haven’t seen that, then it’s basically what Batman would be without an infinite supply of money. Masayoshi gives a huge speech about the larger things in life. He’s giving them the bigger picture that they’re blissfully ignorant of. The kid is definitely gutsy.
In Summary:
There are a lot of subtle things dropped throughout this episode that aren’t quite touched on yet—nor should they be, it’s the first episode. Things like Goto’s own sense of justice compared to Masayoshi’s. What could end up being interesting are Masayoshi’s relationship with his (presumed deceased) grandfather and Goto’s long-distance relationship with his girlfriend. Samurai Flamenco has just the right guy behind it so that, no matter how confusing the first episode is (and it really wasn’t; it was quite enjoyable), I’ll be sticking around for the long haul.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24 in. Vizio 1080p HDTV, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
