What They Say:
“Imitation Justice”
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)
Every time Samurai Flamenco feels like it’s falling off the rails, something happens in that climactic episode that proves all the naysayers wrong. Since the introduction of the Flamengers, feelings have been more mixed than ever on Samurai Flamenco with everyone I know questioning whether this entertainment will really live up to the ideas its touting.
This week, we reach the conclusion of the From Beyond arc (at least it appears that way) and everything that was put into question culminates beautifully. Beyond Flamenco, Samurai Flamenco/Flamen Red’s “brother,” appeared last episode in a cliffhanger for the ages and explained that he is the spokesperson for the conglomerate of From Beyond.
As expected, he is literally the foil character to Flamen Red. He doesn’t know what From Beyond wants, he doesn’t know why they’re doing this…he doesn’t really know anything. So what are the Flamengers fighting for? More importantly, why are they fighting against them? They have no goals, no aspirations of evil. One could argue that they’re not evil, they’re just doing evil things (and then it’s another argument if doing evil thereby causes you to just be evil).
In true Flamenco fashion, they use some super powered moves to defeat From Beyond’s drill from erupting Mt. Fuji and save the world. In truth, From Beyond was a fabrication on the part of the Japanese government. They made up the entire thing to raise their own political clout and are now putting the entire From Beyond ordeal on the heads of the Flamengers. Each and every one is arrested, including a worrying scene between the Prime Minister and Flamen Blue in which Blue is pounded into the ground Hulk/Loki-style. American politicians could stand to use this method to a much lesser degree, if they haven’t already.
It brings up the question, once again, of what is justice. To the people of Japan—no, to the people of the world, justice is what the Prime Minister is saying. The Flamengers fabricated this entire mess and caused everyone quite a bit of trouble. It goes back to what Donflamingo, and I’m sure many, many others, was saying in One Piece where the victors choose their justice. And in this case, the cabinet of Japan are the victors.
In Summary:
The…I don’t know what to call it. Appearance? Of Mister Justice really changes the entire landscape of the show, just as the introduction of the Flamengers changed the show and just how the introduction of the Flamenco Girls changed the show. This is another episode that resolves a whole bunch of questions, but just raises a few more; just enough questions to stay really intriguing. But it also proves that the Samurai Flamenco Staff (Flamenco Staff?) know how to make a series connect thematically from episode one to at least episode 15. With seven episodes left, I’m really excited for what comes next.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24 in. Vizio 1080p HDTV, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
