Thursday 13 March 2014

Samurai Flamenco - Episode 20

He might have faced off against Prime Ministers and aliens, but Samurai Flamenco might be about to meet his toughest opponent yet... a middle school kid.

Certainly, Haiji Sawada makes an instant impression by blowing up Hazama's apartment before introducing himself properly as the building burns.  It seems that, having met Samurai Flamenco in his formative crime-fighting days, Sawada was fascinated by this man and his crazy yet honest and somewhat truthful proclamations - rather than taking him as a role model however, Sawada has spent the past year working to become Hazama's nemesis, and he's more than prepared to target not only the man himself but also all of his associates, including the Flamengers and beyond.


But is Sawada even real?  Some checking by the police suggests that he died a year ago, there are no signs of explosives in Hazama's apartment, a supposedly poisoned curry appears to be anything but, and put simply nobody else has ever seen him.  When even Goto casts aspersions on Hazama's sanity and suggests he might simply be seeing things, our hero seems utterly alone, and when events lead to the pair falling out even the man himself begins to wonder if he's at the end of his thread.  Maybe Haiji Sawada doesn't exist after all...

Although I'm still not convinced by this current story arc as a way to finish Samurai Flamenco, I will admit that I'm still intrigued in it and where it might head nonetheless - it's light on comedy relatively speaking, but its running with its idea in an interesting direction that could spin off in any number of directions knowing this series.  I certainly hope that it can pull a surprise or two out of the bag to match what has been a fun show which has delighted in defying expectations throughout, as it would be a shame to see it fizzle out at this late juncture.

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