Friday 10 January 2014

Samurai Flamenco - Episode 12

Masayoshi is certainly going up in the world - thanks to his transition from Samurai Flamenco to Flamen Red, he's now the leader of a squad of five superheroes, complete with their own giant robot amongst an arsenal of vehicles and weapons that an army would be envious of.

Thanks to this, things are going rather well in the fight against the mysterious From Beyond, who seem insistent upon sending various crazy creatures to Japan to wreak havoc.  Although defeating these monsters is still relatively easy, life is tough for Hazama largely because his leadership is still frequently questioned by the rest of the team, who struggle to work together at the best of times, united only in the heat of the moment during battle.


Such are Masayoshi's difficulties that you almost suspect that he still yearns for the good old days when he was merely Samurai Flamenco - he still looks to Goto for help and advice, and worries about where Mari has disappeared to since the battle against King Torture (little does he know that she's hiding in Goto's closet).  All of this has to be pushed aside in the fight to keep the Earth safe from the Four Kings, of course - but what's this about Sifty-four War Gods?!

Although its entered the realms of the ludicrous, Samurai Flamenco has still retained - or rather, refined - its charm and sense of humour.  Although it still certainly knows how to deliver a funny line or set up some amusing dialogue, the delights on show now seem to be more targeted towards poking fun at Super Sentai and Tokusatsu shows; something which it does with glee, referencing the hypocrisy of heroes who fight as a group against a singular enemy but curse the dastardly villains for ganging up on them amongst some of its more pointed moments.  It's a lot of fun, and having found myself wondering if the first half of the series could keep up its head of steam only to discover that yes, it could, I'm decidedly more relaxed about where Samurai Flamenco might deign to move now that the stakes have been raised for the remainder of the show.

No comments: