Friday 25 October 2013

Samurai Flamenco - Episode 3

Samurai Flamenco is becoming a YouTube sensation, and as you might expect this quickly starts to cause some issues for Hazama when it comes to preserving the secret of his true identity.

Most pressing of these issues is Ishihara, who is beginning to have very definite suspicions about what her charge is up to, even though he dnies outright to her face (and her death threats) that he isn't Samurai Flamenco.  To make things worse, there's now a one million Yen "bounty" on this not-so superheroes head, available to anyone who names the man himself.  When Hazama is invited onto a show that's all set to discuss Samurai Flamenco, and then announces that they're about to name and reveal him live on television, he begins to fear the worse...


...imagine his surprise then when a former super sentai actor, and the man behind the mask of Red Axe, who Hazama adores, reveals himself to be the rather unlikely (and decidedly violent) claimant of the Samurai Flamenco name, even taking the hefty rewarding and offering to donate it to charity.  Although Hazama considers keeping quiet and simply letting the torch be handed over to this man, Joji Kaname, Goto is having none of it; thus, Hazama ends up in a behind the scenes showdown with Kaname to duke it out for the right to call himself Samurai Flamenco.  No prizes for guessing who wins, of course, even if it's achieved with heart rather than hands.

If nothing else, Samurai Flamenco is still pretty fun to watch - its cast works well, it provides some very well executed moments of comedy, and the grounded nature of its take on superheroes and the like still feels pretty fresh.  However, I do have to question how long it can continue down this path however, as it feels like a more seismic shift is required of the series sooner rather than later if it hopes to stay the course, especially across almost twenty more episodes.  There is clearly a lot still to be revealed and moved forward, but now seems like the time for the show to pick up the pace rather than luxuriating in its current circumstances for too much longer.

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