Samurai Flamenco - Episode 1

It isn't every day that you run into a superhero; it's even less frequent to run into one whose hiding naked behind some bins.

This, however, is exactly the situation that off-duty policeman Hidenori Goto finds himself in as he stumbles across said naked man who claims to be a superhero.  As if this wasn't bad enough, Goto's lit cigarette ends up setting our supposed hero's discarded costume alight, leaving him with nothing to wear home.  Thus, Goto has to lend this man some of his clothes, which proves to be the beginning of an unlikely friendship.

Despite his claims to being a superhero, there's really nothing super or heroic about Masayoshi Hazama - during the day he works as a model, but by night he lives out his long-held fantasies of being a hero of justice.  Without any special powers or technology to help him out however, Hazama's brand of crime-fighting is decidedly low-key, from lecturing jaywalking drunks (the incident which leads to the whole "naked behind the bins" incident) to telling off delinquent middle school students.  Unfortunately, even this seems to be beyond Hazama's abilities, and although his heart is in the right place it's Goto who ends up picking up the pieces time and again.  Maybe, however, Hazama can win the hearts of the populace by gaining notoriety online....

Although it still feels like there's a lot left to be introduced within this series, there's no denying that Samurai Flamenco's opener was a lot of fun - the rapport between Hazama and Goto somehow clicks straight away, and the core concept of the show feels a little like Tiger & Bunny meets Kick-Ass, which is no bad thing.  As with so many series the big question is whether it has legs to stay the course and remain as enjoyable and amusing, but this is certainly a solid start that gives us plenty to figure out what directions the series might head in, from its comedy through to its monologue of a lecture.  For now, this definitely remains one to watch for the autumn.