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)
We left Samurai Flamenco—or should I say Flamenco Red?—a few weeks ago having just beat Ugly Toxic Poison with a giant combining robot. But now he’s fighting Heatnoid with his other Flamengers, and we start off the episode just like we’ve started the last few.
Unlike every episode of Power Rangers, Flamenco Red starts with their big gun while two of the others fight hand-to-hand, like TRUE sentai rangers. They fire anyway, since there’s an 82 percent chance that they’d dodge. The monster gets big, they use a robot, and victory is achieved thus defeating the final of the Four Kings.
With that, we’re just back to Masayoshi appearing on TV and, of course, being ignored by the other four rangers (he even asked if they wanted curry!).
But what we do know is that things between Goto and Masayoshi are the same as always. He apparently hasn’t seen Goto since fighting the first king, since he still has the helmet. It’s an important scene to have since it really grounds things in a show that could really use that given the perfume guy and the fire guy. It even brings home the fact that the types of justice Masayoshi brings home and the type that Goto brings home are completely different.
Meanwhile, Mari…Mari is…Living in Goto’s closet? She’s the same as always too: cheeky and doing whatever she wants. She knows that everyone is worried about her, yet she still remains away from them. But the other two girls are at the top of the charts.
One thing is clear though: While the Flamengers are pretty good at masking their lack of teamwork, they still aren’t really a team. Whatever teamwork they had when they fought the first king has since shattered through time and confidence. Joji always said it was up to Red to lead the team, but it appears that Masayoshi doesn’t lead unless he has to. His plan works, but their teamwork is still shaky. And when the 33 other members of MMM34 show up, they split up.
But now they have a DELUXE MODE, a gift for working as a team. Which includes a drill for a hand and a penis. No really, it’s a satellite that is in the would-be penis area of the robot and he points it at the female monster, she blushes and then loses.
They even have curry together, to celebrate their teamwork and Masayoshi’s leadership.
In Summary:
And that’s not even mentioning the ridiculous and hilarious documentary that was placed in the middle of the episode.
But we’re back with the Flamenco Rangers with a woeful lack of Flamenco Girls. Samurai Flamenco is super fun and breaking down a lot of ideas about the super sentai that I completely expected it to do. What’s going to be more interesting is how the show lets the Flamenco Girls grow from their experience in episode 11, Mari especially. I’m definitely curious as to what their reactions are to everything. I’m not quite sure if Samurai Flamenco is everything I wanted it to be from deconstructing the sentai, but it’s certainly getting there.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, Olevia 32 in. 720p
FLOOOOW