What They Say:
“The Quiet Life”
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)
Samurai Flamenco really just had one big mystery left under its hood, and four episodes to delve into that. So, of course, something else is going to be revealed to really shake things up before those four episodes are up. Sure, it took 20 minutes into this episode, but it happened.
The mystery is Goto’s girlfriend, who he’s been texting since episode one, but we’ve never seen. The truth behind the masks people build up for themselves is always sad, and Samurai Flamenco is no exception.
We jump into the story six months after the Alien Flamenco ordeal and everything has turned to a peaceful life. Even the skeevy newspaper guy is mad at it all since all he has to print is a woman who thought the sunset’s reflection was a fire, a kitten who set off a house alarm, and a cop who almost fell over, but saved himself at the last moment. Yeah, boring times, but that’s exactly what Masayoshi has been fighting for.
The Flamenco Girls? Back to being Miracle Mineral Muse. And the Flamengers? Blue is on a show with Joji, Green is in grad school, Black is taking care of his grandfather, and Pink went back home. The formerly supervillain filled city is now filled with neither heroes nor villains. There’s simply no need for them.
When Masayoshi, future President of the World Government (wait…is this world government going to be like the World Government in One Piece?! That’s another enemy to fight!), goes to Goto’s place to hang out. He has a date planned with his girlfriend and he’ll be going back to his hometown for it. Mari, Masayoshi in tow, decide to stalk Goto back home. They don’t catch his train, but get on the next one. You see, Mari knows where Goto lives and Masayoshi comments that she may be the one true evil left in the world. Who knows if that’s true, but she only stomped on the balls of bad guys.
The dark secret hidden underneath it all is that Goto’s girlfriend is dead. Well, missing, if you want to get technical. This says a lot about Goto. He’s been emailing himself, convincing himself that the girl he loved is still alive. It’s a serious mental condition and his mother is only letting it pass because it allows him to function properly. Mari and Masayoshi recognize the flaws in this logic, but don’t try to stop him just yet. They’re his friend and they want to support him above all, but Mari is heartbroken.
You can tell it just from the few seconds of reaction to the story, but also from calling Moe and Mizuki out there to hang at an inn. She doesn’t want comfort and she doesn’t want Goto to come in on a white horse (she might want that). All she wants is to let loose. Mari wants to forget everything even though she knows she won’t. Goto’s done too much for her and she’s too deep in and one night isn’t going to change anything about her feelings but she goes down this road anyway. Mari, maybe more than Goto, is broken.
The last moments of the episode have Masayoshi face to face with his next enemy, a boy named Sawada Haiji who seems to look up to Samurai Flamenco. The kid is actually an old nemesis, as he says “Nice to see you again.” And then a building explodes.
In Summary:
I’m honestly at a loss for words regarding the larger plot of Samurai Flamenco. It’s always going somewhere and I have no idea where it’s going. It’s like watching a car slide across the ice in winter (and, being in Iowa, I usually see a lot of that come winter).
But we do get a lot of character development, which was absolutely superb. I didn’t know what layers lay beneath the exterior Goto puts up, but I should have expected something. He seemed like the straight arrow cop that you can rely on, but no one’s that perfect. Not just that, but the scenes with Mari after that reveal are absolutely heartbreaking. It’s not overplayed, but it’s justified. She expected something out of Goto for some reason and got nothing. Maybe in another life…
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24 in. Vizio 1080p HDTV, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II
