Samurai Flamenco - Episode 14

The government may want to keep it quiet, but Hazama can take no more and announces From Beyond's invasion plan on live television.  It seems that he isn't the only one with plans to make an important broadcast either...

While Hazama is trying to further explain his announcement on TV, thousands of phones start ringing amongst the country's most influential people - it seems that From Beyond have taken to cold-calling the media and politicians to inform them that they plan to attack the next morning, only serving to increase the panic and tension as it spreads to the general populous.  Of course, this panic leads to mayhem as people flood the roads trying to leave Tokyo - cue a calm, considered online broadcast from Hazama trying to reassure the citizens and persuade them to take less desperate action; a plea which works surprisingly well.

With that immediate issue resolved, it's time for the Flamengen to steel themselves and do what they can to protect the city in the face of impossible odds, while the city's police also prepare to do what they can to stem the tide of From Beyond.  As if dealing with over sixty thousand enemies isn't asking too much as it is, it also emerges that the group's grand plan is to force a detonation of Mount Fuji to destroy the city - can anyone stop this evil scheme?  Perhaps, as Kaname has returned... and he's brought a few friends!  There are still more surprises in store however, as Hazama comes face to face with the final, previously unseen, member of From Beyond...

There continues to be something highly entertaining about Samurai Flamenco that transcends its terrible animation - there's a lot to be said for the way it pretends to play its story complete straight when it's clearly not taking itself seriously at all, and its increasingly ludicrous enemies supplanted by an announcement that all of those dumb superheroes of various Japanese television shows are real is deliciously amusing.  All of this is all the more incredible given how the series also employs some genuinely dark moments in the midst of everything to leave you doubting whether the show is really being as light-hearted as you think - then it throws in a bonkers curveball of a cliff-hanger just to melt your brain a little further.  Its treatment may infuriate some, but I'm still loving the series and can't help but keep on coming back for more.