Samurai Flamenco – 09
Something’s fishy…
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My turn at the wheel with Samumenco just happened to coincide with the week I have all of my final exams. Joy. So I’m a little stressed and probably a little more cranky than usual. Excuse me if I put a little more heat than usual on this week’s episode – it’s either my lack of sanity or the genuine fact that this new direction just isn’t working out. (Probably the latter *coughs*) |
Kyokai and I are not big fans of this change of direction from a more down-to-earth super sentai spinoff to what is basically just a (bad) modern super sentai show. The monsters pop up endlessly and Masayoshi dispatches them without even breaking a sweat. It’s boring. Of course, you can argue that this is the entire aim of having these dull battles – to show how people will eventually treat something as crazy as monsters as old news. In the same way just about everyone watching had a coniption fit over the Guillotine Gorilla and then proceeded to not give a damn about any other monster, the citizens in the world of Samurai Flamenco have become bored. Now the regular attacks by evil monsters are so dull that it’s mentioned in passing alongside he weather forecast. Hello, there is a 60% chance of rain today and oh, I suppose an evil fish monster blew up somewhere. Back to you, Todd.
And now he can watch himself fight villains on TV instead of Red Axe
While I appreciate the attempt to make a scathing jab at how society moves from one fad to the next for even the most extreme of events, that doesn’t really make the fighting any less boring. It makes a point, yes, but it doesn’t entertain. That’s the most important part! If you are sacrificing enjoyment and good storytelling just to make a point then you are wasting the viewer’s time. Story first, your clever commentaries about how fickle society is after.
Thankfully, there is some good from having these lame monsters. Usually the minions get stronger – not weaker. As such, the types of reactions you see from Masayoshi and Mari to this trend are actually kind of fun to witness. It’s an interesting change of pace. For example, Mari is bored to tears and completely gives up. With no ties to doing what is morally right, she can choose to ignore any villains she deems as being inferior. Her main goal is fun – not justice – so she’s free to pick her fights.
She could just give up and live it up as an idol, but instead of being complacent she tries to find a bigger challenge by calling out King Torture. Yeah, it’s a reckless move, but I love a woman with that kind of hunger to move up in the world. She’s driven, and she gets really upset when Goto tells her to give up. It’s never explicitly stated, but I got the feeling he wants her to stop because he sees her as a weak girl. Compared to Masayoshi she’s a much better fighter, and her wonky morals don’t matter when the enemy is a snake on wheels. There is no good reason for telling her to stop, yet enabling a scrawny manbaby like Masayoshi to play superhero.
He can defeat any monster with his weapons. But without them? Err…
On the other hand, Masayoshi is totally into this. He’s the hero he’s always wanted to be, with monsters to protect the city from all the time. He’s become so caught up with this that he’s starting to ignore some glaring details. He sees nothing wrong with the monsters being so weak and pathetic, nor does he question why they explode any more. The way he’s so stubborn about how important his role is, so desperate for fame (he won’t admit it, but he totally is), and so downright bitchy to Goto is quite hard to watch.
To be quite honest, he really got on my nerves. He expects everyone to have the same interest in his crime-fighting and the monsters, so he gets a short fuse when things happen to contradict his view that “omg I’m the best person ever saving the world, everyone should pay attention to meeee.” So when the cops just kind of let him do whatever because he’s doing all of their work, he gets pissed. They arrive late because there is no urgency in just cleaning up a pile of black soot and filling out forms. Masayoshi is being ignored, and he’s not enjoying it one bit.
For a model, he has questionable fashion sense.
Watching him act like his old, childish self was infinitely frustrating. Goto fighting back was frustrating as well. We don’t need melodrama, please stop making Masayoshi fight with everyone he sees! Fortunately, we’re freed from the terrible drama once King Torture starts kidnapping people. The dark turn feels realllly forced, especially for a show with so much comedy, but it does spice things up. King Torture kidnapping Flamenco Diamond was the best thing that happened. It may be another dumb twist (I get the feeling we’ll be seeing tons of dumb twists in the future) but hey, it’s interesting! Samumenco pedaling furiously to the final boss battle was pretty amusing, given the tone. Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or not. At this point, I’m just going to treat this as a huge parody and laugh at everything.
Next week should be…wow, I don’t even know, you guys. Samurai Flamenco will use his new, ultimate weapon to fight against King Torture and save Flamenco Diamond, I suppose. King Torture will probably reveal why he sent all these weak-ass minions after Samurai Flamenco as well. My guess is that the otherworldly residue they supposedly leave behind is a set-up for something. It’s either a pathogen, something explosive, or a magical kind of particle that can be used for other evil-related shenanigans. Whatever it is, King Torture purposely let his minions die for his greater goal of evil. The fact he’s following TV logic is also probably another important factor to his plan, likely to lower everyone’s guard.
My optimism was misplaced: I do not like this new direction. On the bright side, it provides new surprises each week. The fluctuations from humorous to dark to wtfgorilla are unpredictable and crazy. I have no idea what this show is going for. There are tons of messages to pick up on, but the whole theme of the show remains rather disjointed. At the very least, this show is getting a lot of people talking.
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh I know where you are coming from. The weekly switch of genre is getting on my nerve too.
However, seeing the current trend of King Torture finally doing his thang (torturing people and that torture device on Konno sure looked pretty painful), things might be turning to the dark side. This I will welcome from the lame monsters any day. I hope the creators go away from the typical toku concept and fire up things with some darkness. If Masayoshi is just able to save Mari single-handedly, that would be pretty bad and a direction I don’t want to see for this.
Well, Thursday is not too far off so we shall see. And oh, hope your papers went well!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
King Torture starting to reveal his plans definitely makes things more exciting…although it’s kind of cheesy and typical. But yes, I’ll take this over the monster of the week formula any day.
Thanks, I’m still writing them hahahaaaa…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
The mood switches are just so clumsily handled. Hard to get a bead on, much less appreciate.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
The sudden blood and gore has no place. I’m convinced they could convey the same message without going to these extremes that just look WEIRD compared to how the show normally looks and feels. u_u
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I don’t like the way this show is going. The earlier episodes were much better and the dumbass monsters of the week tried my patience sorely and really bored me. Nor do I like Masayoshi turning into a real jerk. If the series is taking a darker turn now, it’s too late to hold my interest. I’m done with this show.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Just when I thought it was picking up, it does…this. If anything, the darker turn is making things worse. It makes it harder to laugh at the jokes.
I’m going to hang in here a bit longer, but to be honest it’s mostly out of duty to not drop something I’m blogging :B I’m also mildly curious about how the heck this hot mess will end.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I really don’t mind what the show is doing. I think it’s interesting that it keeps throwing you guys off. Maybe everyone wants to put it in some bin and the fact that it resists that is offputting? I haven’t thought it’s taken any direction seriously, more just doing things to mix it all up, and the show itself it talking about a lot of things but mostly just trying to be entertaining.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
The trouble is, I haven’t found this new direction at all entertaining. I’m sure others feel the same, just as there’ll be some who agree with you. I gave it a chance to win me over with this new direction, but it hasn’t. Time to drop it.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I honestly don’t know where the direction for the story is going but more seiyuus are joining in. We’re soon getting KENN, Yukari Tamura, Showtaro Morikubo, Toshiyuki Toyonaga. I’m not sure if this news will make anything better.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Hmm, that might be part of it. It might cause a sort of emotional betrayal from the genre shifting.
However, I’ve had shows violently shift genre and tone on me and still enjoyed it because it pulled the shift off well. Samurai Flamenco has not successfully shown that this new style is as good as the old one. So even if I do eventually get used to the changes…they’re still not very good ones. The main problem here is that it just isn’t really executing ANY genre very well.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 88 comments
The reaction of the people on the streets when a kaijin is walking around town doing crazy stuff is hilarious. They’ve seen a lot of tokusatsu for them not to give a shit anymore.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yeah, I found it amusing that they literally let a scrawny kid handle everything instead of the police, and now no one even cares. They just kind of stand around and watch.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
The new direction is trying my patience. At least make the monsters more manacing but seeing King Torture being true to his name might be the glue that will keep the show sticking with me. Even if she has a degree of combat experience, Flamenco Diamond should have known better than to stir up the hornet’s nest.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 107 comments
Masayoshi isn’t weak anymore. He’s been training with Joji and got stronger. Plus it’s not the fact that she’s a girl that Goto wants her to stop, but the fact that she is picking a fight with King Torture. Even though the monsters haven’t shown the same ferociousness as Guillotine Gorilla, Goto isn’t going to underestimate the boss.
King Torture not only grabs Konno who was one of the people to interview Mari when she made the threat, but had him trick her so he could capture her as was implied in the episode itself. Not to mention unlike Mari Masayoshi takes the fighting seriously, no matter how silly and pathetic the monster get, while she gets bored easily if she isn’t the center of attention and even one of her friends points out she goes crazy if she’s not getting it so she’ll be far more likely to make mistakes.
I think it was obvious the show was going to get into Toku eventually, especially when no one seems to even try to guess at what the Flamenco girls identities are despite how obvious they are, while always trying to guess as Samurai Flamenco’s. That was already a tip off that they weren’t going to be as realistic as people seemed to think it would be.