PRETTY AND DYNAMITE. FLAMENCO GIRL.
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)
The bounty to unmask Samurai Flamenco is still out and people are laying traps just to catch him. But there’s a 2 million yen bounty for the identity of Flamenco Girl. She’s clearly the better of the two and, even without their former plan of her taking the lead, she takes the lead just by default. Her baton (which is used to inject you with LOVE) changes into a mace, which automatically makes her better than Samurai Flamenco. She has a weapon after all.
At work, Mari is kind of flippant and is more focused on her persona as Flamenco Girl than her job as an idol. Anytime the other members of her group approach her, she says it’s a secret. When Masayoshi takes a break from being Samurai Flamenco, she goes solo. But her persona without the foil of Samurai Flamenco is brash and much more vigilante than Masayoshi would ever be able to be. After saving one lady, the lady runs away and says to stay away from her. The lady’s reaction is really the reaction we should be having to vigilante justice, but we’re so influenced by superheroes like Batman that we glorify them to a ridiculous level.
Meanwhile, Goto and the police are working hard to find Samurai Flamenco and, especially, Flamenco Girl. Her actions are truly over the line as she’s not just capturing the criminals, she’s beating them to a pulp behind a mask that allows her to do so. And the identity of Goto’s mysterious girlfriend is still up in the air as she or he denies or is too busy to go on a date. It’s probably one of the other pop idols in Mari’s group.
Masayoshi’s shoot gets rained out, so he goes back to his apartment where he has a ridiculous package from his now-deceased grandfather. He planned it so that Masayoshi would receive it when he turned 20. And finally, Masayoshi has a real superhero suit. And, just when Flamenco Girl is in the most trouble, the NEW and IMPROVED Samurai Flamenco hits the scene. The episode served as a great reminder that the two work best together, not separately. Flamenco Girl is too harsh without Samurai Flamenco stopping her and Samurai Flamenco is too weak and timid to act on his own.
But after that letter from his grandfather…who knows. I’m sure it’ll end with a bang.
In Summary:
The episode is called “The Meaning of Justice” and it certainly ends up being about that. I talked about how these two work off each other, but we learn what they define justice as in the process. Masayoshi wants to protect innocent people while Mari wants to defeat the people doing evil. A confrontation between the two is likely imminent and I’m looking forward to it.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 3850, 42 in. LG 1080p HDTV, VIZIO S4251w-B4 5.1 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Satellite Speakers