Samurai Flamenco – 04
Meet an uprising magical girl, who loves playing football…
I apologize for a late episodic but I was buried under multiple types of reporting at work so yeah… Anyways, we (Overcooled and I) are still sticking around for something good to happen with Samurai Flamenco. And nope, still no samurai doing flamenco but hey, we can hope, right? The current episode has an eccentric character showing up out of the blue. Of course, there were hints of her soon involvement but at least for me, she appeared like a breath of fresh air with her sadistic heart. Hey, beating up thugs is fun!
Random guy, “Say cheese!” SF, “Snap already, damn it! My mouth hurts!”
I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to think that Red Axe will take Masayoshi to Mount Fuji and train him until he becomes one of the Free! bishes. Of course, for an anime series that works on its own pace, such a shounen development was not possible even when its inspiration is super sentai shows that are all about powerrrrr and training hard. Interesting fact is that it breaks all such hero tropes and add a reality spin to it. So, there will be no Bruce Wayne but your average Joe trying his best to fight crime in his own way. From the get go, the Japanese version of Chuck Norris had been all about fame and more fame. I clearly dubbed him an opportunist so it was no surprise that he left Masayoshi after some coddling about how heroes should behave. The reason he took Samurai Flamenco visage in the first place was to get on the fame horse and that he got with a role abroad. In the end, Masayoshi’s doing everything according to his sense of morality, which drives him to dress up in stifling clothes night after night to become the new age vigilante. Though, he needed a bat mobile and gadgets yesterday.
I didn’t have to wait long for my desire to see Masayoshi getting embroiled in some serious crime with the small time criminals, in this instance car-jackers to foil his plan. Just look at him, he really needs to work on his punches and stance rather than action shots of weird hero poses that only works in anime and cheesy Japanese hero shows *coughpowerrangerscough*. Him getting kidnapped was bound to happen and it didn’t help matters that the guys were your average slimeballs. But of course nobody dreamed about a famous Idol coming for the rescue, in a goddamn magical girl outfit to boot! From her previous enthusiasm, I was thinking about a group coming together rather than her pulling up the visage of Flamenco Girl. But right now, this works because it’s progress and we need it! And we definitely get more than progress with Flamenco girl blazing across the screen to steal the show.
SF: Anego… (づ￣ ³￣)づ”
Now, of course, Masayoshi is just being a nice guy and I think afraid for his dear life seeing how Mari loves playing football and how can a man not worry about his gem, pun intended? Leaving the innuendos, Mari is one crazy girl and I’m not saying it because she kissed another girl on the mouth. Hey, that’s the least of our problems. Along with having some daddy issues (details might crop up any time), she’s a fanatic otaku with an envy-worth collection. She’s also over-accomplished with her Idol career and a seemingly robot composer. She has so many good qualities that I want to know the chink in her armour. Of course, her foul personality is one but is that all? What has driven her to become a hero in saving mere mortals when she could be away from all that and be a successful idol alone? There’s a good background story lying around I hope as she has definitely taken some extreme measures to punish thugs. And I would definitely like her to develop more in recognizing the bad guys from harmless criminals and not wish death upon every bad doer.
Similar to Masayoshi, she wanted to fight crime too but her preparation is more intense and makes him look like an idiot in comparison, whose best weapon is his helmet… Just look at that dangerous magical stick with a built-in taser. The Police force are not wrong in issuing a special memo against their shenanigans, which have become more helpful in degree but more harmful to the small-time thugs, who might not intend big damage. However, there’s a fine line between bad intention and a malicious act and there are times you can’t really differentiate because not everything is black and white. So, a guy stealing money is bad for the person who has worked hard in earning it but who knows the guy stealing it has an emergency reason behind it? Still, looking at the thugs that the MM team captured fit the criminal bill so I had no sympathy for them.
Mari, “Officer! If you wore megane I might have nosebleeded to death…”
But all my sympathies were with Hidenori for getting zapped just because he was trying to put some sense into Masayoshi. However, the end was very entertaining with Mari falling all over the Officer visage, blushing to the roots of her hair or what I would like to think. Derpy animation or not, our Cop is one hot dude. I appreciate the scenery guys. The staff always throws something promising at the end of each episode and without a preview on this one, I can hope we get some more surprises in episode five.
Yes, we are still going somewhere with the story but man, I hope they speed up the pace a bit next episode. For Masayoshi’ sake, he seems very serious to continue fighting crime with Mari but will he continue playing the second fiddle to her? Arguably, he should not because damn, Samurai Flamenco is all his hard work, including the cheesy lines and poses, even if it has been heavily inspired from Red Axe and other Sentai shows. For now, Mari can’t be called a partner because of her bossy attitude. We still have to see if her behaviour sticks around and if there are any improvements. But at least a resourceful person has joined the Samurai Flamenco mission, I see some good things on the horizon. Though, I’ll be sticking to my theory about Samurai Flamenco popularity rising to the degree of him playing the hero on TV. With limited amount of battle tactics that Masayoshi has, I see his actual crime-fighting chances slim unless we have some more people added to the whole cause.
Bonus Snaps Show ▼
If this trio combine their forces, something great can happen
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: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Hey!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Was this a “Hey, give my comment back!” or just general “Hey!”? Cause I didn’t find any comments caught from you.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
What? I’m just talking bout Flamenco Girl. She’s one bad motherfu…
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
We can dig it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Yeah, yeah, she is. Motherfoshing sadist giving all the anime S’s a run for their money.
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I think Flamenco Girl is good for Samurai Flamenco, because he wasn’t making much progress on his own. Even if she claims to be the leader, it is better for him to have an ally than not. I’ll agree that she seems to be more interested in having an excuse to use violence than in doing real good. In fact doing good probably falls to third place behind showing off. But I do think, in her own way, she can be a force for good, and it might be that she really needs Samurai Flamenco to have her energy channelled in a positive direction.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Indeed, Mari has a lot of issues going on but I like her character. At least she has shown a spark of promise and Samurai Flamenco definitely needs a push in the right direction. I hope he does the same for her, the other way around in fixing some of her personality traits. Still, this kid got spunk and lots of potential.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This anime needed someone like Mari to appear and start beating up the bad guys (but, damn is she vicious!) It was getting tiring seeing Masayoshi getting beat up all the time. Plus Mari can add another dimension to what was an otherwise pretty standard buddy cop movie, even though Masayoshi isn’t an actual cop.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
In the beginning I thought the magical stick is just going to be a prop but oh noes! It has been enhanced into a dangerous gadget. I am sure there will be more from wherever they have been R&D’d from… x_X
Overall, I like her kicking thug butt but with Mr. Goto in the mix, I’d like to see where this goes.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Yes, sadistic Mari definitely added more interest to this show and I want to see where they go with it.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Kinda nice to see a girl take the lead role for once. She’s even stronger than Masayoshi! Although I don’t like the way she fully blackmailed him to pretend to get beat up. That’s just low. Hopefully they find a better way to work together other than throwing Masayoshi under the bus while Mari reaps the rewards.
The ‘ding’ sound effect whenever she kicks someone in the dick is the best, by the way. =w=
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh yes, we definitely need our power girls rather than lame/moe girls. As we have many episodes still left, hopefully Mari’s character will develop to a well-liked one.
Also, high-five on the ding, always makes me chuckle. XD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I’m rather fond of Mari’s character and like what she’s done with the character dynamics.
But… but… her outfit and Masayoshi’s don’t match. At all. Someone should get on coordinating them OTL
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh yes, she’s precious alright! 😉
And now that you mention it, you have a valid anime-logic point! Somebody really needs to work on colour-coordinating both their wardrobes!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
So frm the looks of it, Mari is basically anime Hit Girl?
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Depends. Are we talking movie Hit Girl or comic book Hit Girl. Movie Hit Girl is G rated by comparison….and like 11 years old.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Werewolf Chaser with 1270 comments
Well, I only seen bits and pieces of Kick Ass trailers andm reviews. Don’t particularly feel like watching Kick ass anytime soon.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It’s basically an exploitation film, I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to see it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Erm… Haven’t seen kickass yet but she’s a cool character nonetheless.