Samurai Flamenco – 02
Meet your next Youtube idol: not Mr. Sci-fi but Samurai Flamenco!
The first impressions of this series should have been a tag team between OC and I but as some of you already know that I was pretty sick that week, so I couldn’t join in the fun. We also wish it was something like Shiki but what the hell, the first episode did have a sliver of hope. Would that turn into a giant spark? Episode two at least gave me some hope. However it may turn out to be, for information’s sake, both of us will be covering Flamenco on alternate weeks so enjoy the ride from the two sadists of Metanorn… Muhawahahahaaaa!
If you didn’t know, while editing Fall preview, I was pretty pumped about this show. I still am surprisingly. This had me at Omori because noitaminA doesn’t always mean gold after Fractale. Though, whenever you have original creation in this day and age, there are pitfalls of it going wrong with the usual banter of old stuff reenactment and boring material. I have to be honest, the first episode almost bombed with the long talks on vigilantism and old school hero flashbacks. Now picture this, if this story was about the three idols of Mineral Miracle Muse, who started their music journey with the intention of touching lives and down the road get a piffany to add a flamenco routine to their live act. Voila! The moment they perform by bursting into energetic song and dance, they are transformed into super beings with special suits all ready to fight crime with amazing music and damn, exactly at that moment, some alien/supernatural being decides to invade and destroy their city. Of course, they win against the baddie with an amazing flair and become heroes instantly, gathering cheers of the crowd present and the entire country who are glued to their TVs. Now this would get attention as a first episode but hey, wasn’t it already done somewhat in Symphogear? My point of this fanfiction concept is that some stories are fine in blinding you with the first episode and fizzling out later (hey, remember Guilty Crown?! ^_~), while some stories start slow and build into a wondrous crescendo in due time. I’m betting my money on the latter with my aniblogging sense tingling on this one.
Two bros, who will save this show
However the first episode was, the most prominent event was the budding friendship between Masayoshi and Hidenori, which still has room for development and we have plenty of episodes for that to happen. What I liked most is how these two are two sides of the same coin. Masayoshi is an innocent (in terms of his age), and highly righteous person, which I assume is an effect of his grand father’s personality who not only transferred his hobbies of figure collection and hero worship to him but his sense of morality as well. On the other hand, even if Hidenori did not have extreme otaku tendencies while growing up, he still decided to join the Police force because he wanted to make a difference in the society by catching the bad guys or so as I assumed. Of course, his ideologies are not as extreme as Masayoshi, who treats trash deposition at night as a big crime, but Hidenori still gets where he’s coming from. Combine these two, a super-active hero with a reluctant hero and you have a great duo complementing each other with brains, common sense and a dash of brawn. Though, don’t expect them to open a robot shop and start working on their new mecha, rather a more practical way to fight crime.
And the day is saved by Mr. Super Spandex
The umbrella story was not only sweet but had a reminder of things we ignore or even accept to be all right when they are not. Taking anybody’s umbrella while raining is not right even if someone else took yours. It’s still wrong bro. Throwing trash cans or chips packets out of your car window on a deserted street is wrong even if no one is looking. Crossing a road when the light’s red even if there is no traffic is still wrong. Smoking in a non-smoking zone on a late night just because no one is around is still wrong. Honking your car horn during a traffic jam even when you know it’s going to be a while before your turn causes noise pollution and is not a good stress reliever either. These are examples of some things we do without batting an eyelash but in the end, most of it is not right and we better realize it before it becomes a common practice among all. What Masayoshi did to battle the umbrella thief was very extreme, I mean he should join Souhoku High Bicycle Club if he can follow the cityrail on his bicycle! Though, he was successful marvelously.
For a note, Ishihara is one crazy lady and a fierce talent manager. Nobody should cross her and I can understand Masayoshi’s anxiety on her over-the-top bossy attitude. A similar note for Konno, who has more than a sharp eye. If he could pinpoint Masayoshi under that ridiculous SF suit after one meeting, I can’t even guess what he will do if further shenanigans are reported, well unless he’s part of the upcoming gig. So, Masayoshi’s chance encounter with the MMM girls and following pending fellowship with Mari over the old Samurai song is still pending. But there was a spark, yes, and the preview is plenty promising.
Bonus Idols Show ▼
Alright, this is going to be a slow grower but I see a lot of potenial in it. Besides the derpy animation (ugh, Manglobe, I understand your pain of limited budget but mannnn, bishies should not be THIS derpy… OTL). The show is definitely taking its time in establishing the characters and why not? You can’t always have wham-bam-thank-you-mam, right? Rather than being a one trick pony, this series is doing its thang on a steady pace. Till now whatever has transpired from the dropped hints, I can only hope that Ishihara will leverage the popularity of Samurai Flamenco online and use it as a break for Masayoshi’s debut on TV, reprising a hero that he clearly worships (he sure is not modest). I’m not sure if she will realize it’s really him but reprising a modern day hero, who is your simple Joe but has the guts to parade around in a weird outfit trying to stop small crimes is not so bad. It could actually make a good reality show and we all know what underhanded tricks the producers of such shows use.
We can go anywhere from a reality show to an actual gang of people who come together to fight annoying/acceptable crimes because somebody has to put a stop to it. Slowly, but surely, the anime poster is making more sense showing a band of goody-two-shoes and/or opportunists. Some of whom we have met, while some we have glimpsed in the OP. They might not have super powers but they share the same ideology for making things better for others. So, even if this is not the best looking anime of the season, I’m sticking around and would be blogging this with Cools, because it has potential and we like it.
Preview:
This curvy silhouette has promise!
About Kyokai
The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & #[email protected].
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
But where are the flamenco-dancing samurai?「(°ヘ°)
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Masayoshi’s gonna do it. HE HAS TO.
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
This and Galilei Donna has some false advertising. The other one has mecha goldfish and this one has no flashy stuff and superpowers(yet?) when I expected the opposite. But both are doing well for me especially this one.
Trashes are serious business in Japan from what I hear and umbrellas are cheap and yet gets stolen each time. Deep.
Hoping that the girl voiced by Tomatsu Haruka will shake things up a bit and probably remove the BL stigma that this show is getting.
And I’m hoping Masayoshi does a costume upgrade in the future with his rising popularity.
Also waiting for that flamenco dancing samurai.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Indeed, these definitely came out as a surprise as I thought this would be something like Gatchaman; while not expecting anything tech/mechaish from Donna.
Anyways, yes I expect good things from Mari as well. They have started from small crimes but I’d like them to tackle major crimes as well, at least under their lens to see their POV. Also, any anime with two main male characters faces the pitfalls of fujoshis crawling in on the pair but hey, a good bromance is not so bad. 😉 And this is me strictly speaking with it not being BL.
I think we will definitely see a costume upgrade from Masayoshi as the current one is ill-fitting at best and uncool too. Who knows, in one of his upcoming acts, we finally get to see that flamenco dance. Added bonus would be the traditional samurai hairstyle to boot.
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This had some humor to it, but it’s just not really sticking with me. I still think Masayoshi is one of the stupidest and most annoying superheroes I’ve seen in a while.
I understand what he’s getting at with the umbrellas and the trash (though a lot of their rules kind of went over my head since as I’m from the U.S. we don’t really have some of these issues), however I’m still think it’s stupid and that he’s still doing more harm than good. I don’t care how many people he gets to agree with him. First of all, most people I know keep their umbrellas with them when they anywhere (cultural difference, I know…) but even if it was stolen after the guy you saw steal it went on the train, I would have called it quits, bought a new one and explained things to my significant other. I would not have traveled miles in the rain by bicycle to catch up to the train the guy was one (which is impossible by the way) for multiple reasons that would deal with my safety.
Anyway, I’ll check this out a few more times sparingly, but I’m not committing to this show at all. It’s not worth it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
As this is the second episode, I have no big reason to sway your decision except for few assumptions and an instinct. This does remind me of how Tiger & Bunny became great with more episodes from the first shitty episode.
Also, small crimes are very big in Asia. From experience I can tell you that due to haphazard or lack of infrastructure planning, small things like trashing on streets, stealing of cheap common items to even traffic jam is a big nuisance. For example, simple basic life standards like electricity round the clock is something of a novelty for some Asian countries because their power supply is not well equipped to take the full load, thus relying on regular load shedding and people scrambling for different sources of it, which then gives rise to electricity theft, which is actually a thing.
Anyways, as Fall is already pretty heavy, you can check this sporadically.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I can’t recall the names right now, but that moment when the Idol hesitated, when it looked like she recognized what the MC was singing….that will take me to episode three. Other than that, I still don’t know if I need a Kick-Ass Low Carb Anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Ah yes, that was a pretty good moment. I haven’t watched Kick-Ass as well so no idea what to expect but I’m at least hanging on a small hope for something cool, like Tiger & Bunny or even Phi Brain, which are still great anime even after being derpy.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
T&B is one of those shows on my way back list….need to get to that.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
It’s pretty great, just not judge the book by it’s cover. 😉