Samurai Flamenco - Episode 9

Now that the initial shock surrounding the appearance of King Torture and his minions has dissipated, any initial terror has faded to a sense of mere boredom of the regular appearances of these agents of low-key terror - and to be honest, when their nefarious plans involve giving people split ends it's  hardly surprising.

Such is the apathy towards these events that Flamenco Girl and her cohorts can't even be bothered to show up at all, while Goto rolls up lately merely to file the necessary paperwork and the news relegates any news of Samurai Flamenco's latest victory to that frivolous "silly story after the weather" segment of bulletins.  Thus, Hazama is effectively left to his own devices as the sole protector of the Earth from King Torture - a role which he doesn't seem to mind too much, even if he's increasingly resentful at being left holding the proverbial piranha baby.

As for Flamenco Girl, her bad mood and irritation at having no crotches to stomp on leads to her laying down a televised challenge to King Torture to up his game and give her a worthy fight - an outburst which might just be playing into this villains plans.  With Goto deciding he's had enough of Hazama's attitude and considering switching jobs, this fractured state of affairs plays right into King Torture's hands - it's time for him to escalate his efforts and start really living up to his name and reputation...

While some episodes of Samurai Flamenco have been enjoyable as pure comedy outings, this week's instalment is a little more dark and subversive in its sense of humour - asides from poking fun at Super Sentai shows as it has to some extent throughout, the nature of human apathy when something unusual and threatening becomes everyday seems like a pointed commentary on an era of 24-hour news media and the constant crowing about terrorist threats which leads to people ignoring situations until something really bad happens.  That all of this is delivered with a chuckle and a smile as the show sets itself up for wherever it plans to head next is rather delicious, and the added bite to an already entertaining show is certainly playing its part in keeping the series engaging.