Samurai Flamenco

[David75]

1587

Male model Masayoshi Hazama decides to become a superhero, despite having no superpowers or the technology to create a high-powered suit. He becomes the hero, Samurai Flamenco and begins to fight crime in the name of justice. Police officer Hidenori Goto finds out about Samurai Flamenco and his real identity by a twist of fate, which leads to him getting involved into lots of trouble. Nonetheless, these two young men will come face to face with hardships of being crime-fighters while discovering what it truly means to be a hero of justice.

I was bored, decided to try that one with no hope of ever enjoying it... and I was utterly wrong.
Even if ep 1 and 2 did not hook me very strongly, they still managed to get me interrested. The intro to the OP really helped I guess.
Then Ep3 came, and I did too.

Honestly, I can't really tell why I like this show. Is it because it's for a more mature audience, with the same dream as the MC? Is it because it could totally happen in real life, because there's nothing magical, no supper powers involved, but only improbable yet possible settings?
I wonder if that show is in the feel good bracket, but so far I like it a lot and hope to like it till the end.

It's very different from Uchoten Kazoku I liked a lot too, but nobody watched, yet there's that same sense of having watched something nice at the end of each ep.

Have fun!




[Commie] Samurai Flamenco - 03 [BCB91CAC].mkv (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=486308)



[Commie] Samurai Flamenco - 02 [36297D49].mkv (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=483923)



[Commie] Samurai Flamenco - 01 [550974E7].mkv (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=view&tid=481717)

[MFauli]

wow, first episode was really good. well, nothing too special, just interesting and fun enough. Though I don´t know if "walking around at night" is enough of a crime to work yourself up about so much.

[David75]

walking around drunk. In France it's also a minor crime.
Ep3 is a key ep already, from there you should know wether you like it or you drop it.

[MasterOfMoogles]

All I can think about while watching this is that it is "Kickass - the anime".

[David75]

All I can think about while watching this is that it is "Kickass - the anime".

I wanted to write about it, but I only watched the 'industrial micro-wave oven' scene and decided that movie wasn't for me. So I couldn't really make an educated comment linking both, eventhough I had the feeling it would be what you just wrote.

[MasterOfMoogles]

The basic premise of both is essentially the same. Someone wants to be a super hero so they go around effectively acting like an idiot and getting beat up and put on youtube.
Kickass ended up really being more about 2 other characters and how awesome they were, though.

I'm curious where this show is going to go. I'm guessing the idol girl who was watching TV and realized it wasn't Flamenco is going to play a bigger role coming up.
I like that Red Axe is actually training him to have some real skills.

[MFauli]

haha, it really is kickass - the anime. just watched ep 4.

i hate how hazama is going along with Mari´s over-the-top violence while reducing himself to a goofy sidekick. That´ll change, Im sure of, but it still kinda sucks for now. And: Hitting guys in the nuts is NOT fun :/

Though I loved how Hazama so casually blocked Gotou´s punch at the end. This will get fun, just you wait :D
Maybe the most promising new show of the season.

[MFauli]

well, gotta say ... i really hope flamenco girl is raped rather sooner than later. she´s totally overdoing it. kicking guys in the balls just isnt funny. either fight evil by being just, or stop calling youself a hero. right now, she´s just some psycho bitch on some personal revenge trip.

at least hazama seems to get back on track, though his "i have the ability to do so" at the end felt off. he doesnt. I hope he´ll get a real training arc that turns him into a super hero as much as that´s possible within the constraints of reality.

[shinta|hikari]

I think he does have the ability, just not the proper resolve. He has been training after all. The time when he was beaten and needed saving this episode was because the girl faked being a victim.

[MFauli]

i love this anime so much. the upgrade for flamenco was necessary and kinda believable. though hazama learned to use those weapons too quickly, i guess. and running around in town in this costume really would never let you escape from the crowd lol.

still, kicking guys in the nuts isnt funny at all.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 04 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=488579), 05 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=490890), 06 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=493068)

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This show is hilarious. The trio's singing remind me a lot of the songs from penguindrum.

[David75]

I still like that show a lot, although I could do without those stupid girls.

[MFauli]

regarding the girls: I find it pretty damn irresponsible of the lead girl to bring in her band mates, who aren´t trained for fighting purposes (i assume?). She´s simply crying for attention, longing for more fun. Kinda waiting for bad things to happen.

[MFauli]

what the hell just happened at the end of this episode?!
I kept waiting for Hazama to wake up from some delusion/dream. But ... apparently that was all real?!

I ... kinda like crass turns like that, but it just came too quickly. One moment, we see Hazama being all sentimental about his dead parents, then the next moment an artificial gorilla-monster starts killing police officers. The hell! But awesome.

[David75]

There are 2 main crass turns, one of which is independant from the fact this might be a dream.
First one is graphic violence and blood. Maybe there was some blood before, but choping heads off people is crossing some boundaries even in a dream setting.
I wonder why now.

[MFauli]

Rewatched the ending and I still cannot decide whether its a dream or not. Obviously, the actual content points towards dream, but there´s two things against it:

1.) The blood you mentioned. It makes it all extremely realistic and the absolute opposite of a dream sequence.
2.) The reactions of ... everyone. They felt lacking. If such a fantasy-like monster appeared in front of me, immune to bullets, just killed one of my colleagues ... I´d be WAY more freaked out. Even if the faceless police officers were okay, Goto was too cool with it. And I´m not sure I can account Hazama´s relatively calm reaction to being an otaku.

Assuming it´s not a dream ... what a turn. I hope it is real, because that´s the kind of twist I want the most in stories. A 100% tonal shift. Just awesome.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 07 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=495234)

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The singing trio created these monsters so they can continue to have fun playing hero.

[MFauli]

ok, this is super weird.

i like stories that introduce big changes, but ... it´s like we´re missing at least one full episode explaining it all. And most importantly, none of the characters react in a believable way. Hazama and Goto witnessed people getting killed right in front of them, and in gruesome ways, too.
Where´s the episode that shows Hazama being all scared, cowering in a corner of his room in fetal position? The episode about Goto quitting his police job, growing a beard, getting all messy and having depressed thoughts? You know, all the clichee stuff, clichee but APPROPRIATE!

I really don´t know how I should feel about this either being a very long dream sequence or it being a drastic change without proper introduction. Hm ...

[David75]

Decide wether you like crass turns or not. Because you seem to contradict yourself from last week.

I would also like to understand how you can move from petty crimes like littering to beheading 4 cops like there's no difference.

[shinta|hikari]

People do this all the time. If anything, the lack of drama makes this more realistic.

[MFauli]

im now convinced that it is all a dream. maybe real hazama is in a coma or whatever.

what convinced me was how all the people didnt care one bit when Flamenco was fighting the poison monster. Either this anime got reeeeeally bad ... or it is a dream. Then everything makes sense. This is the world that Hazama wished for. It´s a super clichee super hero plot progression.

Looking back at how great this show started, Im sure this is intentional. The last episode will be about Hazama regaining his consciousness and experiencing some sort of awakening moment. Like "You dont need monsters to be a hero. If there´s other people, there´s help that´s needed". or whatever.

[shinta|hikari]

If you actually think a dream ending is a good plot twist, then well, okay.

[MFauli]

im not saying a dream ending is the ideal ending. im saying its better than the alternative.

[shinta|hikari]

No, not really.

Even characters in anime ridicule dream endings, which says a lot about its quality.

[MFauli]

the alternative is that this anime truly turned into a shallow, bland anime-version of the Power Rangers. I consider that worse than a dream.

also, they could use that dream as a foundation for future progress. though i dont know if this is a long running series, not following the manga.

[shinta|hikari]

A dream ending is one of the most stupid deus ex machina plot developments possible, but if you honestly think it is better than what we might get in this show, okay.

That is not the ending that will happen though.

Also, this is not as bad as you seem to think. Even with the sudden evil organization development, it still does not change the main theme of the story. It still shows how modern society reacts to the existence of "superheroes." A good example would be how people so easily forgot or got used to there being super villains popping up in the latest episode, just because people were not dying. It also displays police affairs in a critical manner.

This show is still about crazy people who want to be heroes doing crazy shit, and how society somehow allows it. If anything, it parodies Power Rangers, making almost every cliche in hero stories look stupid or comedic. The fact that these idols actually perform better in their real job when they are out at night fighting criminals is a hilarious reverse take on the usual double life struggles the usual superheroes experience.

[MFauli]

I think you´re totally wrong about everything here. No, this anime does not show anything about modern society or politcs or whatever, because it is TOO shallow to achieve any of that. Such commentary would be possible, but it´s ineffective when done in such shallow, bland ways.

Simple question: Have you really been enjoying the last 2 episodes?

Of course, a dream revelation would be lame. But I´d choose lame over bad. And again, there´s a lot that could be done following up such a conclusion. I hope you didn´t actually spoiler me when you said "That is not the ending that will happen though". Not knowing anything, I could imagine that once the dream is over, we could see how Hazama goes on about making his dream of becoming a super heroe come true within the boundaries of reality. Because right now, nothing feels real. Neither the enemies, nor the people´s non-reaction to them, nor how quickly Hazama become a skilled fighter.
If it was a dream, we could watch real-Hazama how he starts proper training, gets himself cool gadgets and fights real criminals. And that would be okay.

Infinitely better than "hey, suddenly a fantasy-gorilla-machine hybrid appears, kills half a dozen people in front of me, but Im not shocked, instead im now a capable fighter. More monsters appear but nobody pays them any attention, because real fantasy-monsters obviously got boring after 2-3 months. It´s reasonable that people went back to watching movies and playing games, who cares about real monsters. And the guys im fighting are dressed like power rangers enemies for surely-logical reasons that we dont know about. Whatever, Im now an egotistical asshole who cares more about my hero status than the idea that started it."

btw. do those silly fodder enemies also explode? we never saw what happened to them after a fight. Why werent the taken into custody by the police for interrogation? Or do they automatically teleport back, like renegades in Saber Riders?

[shinta|hikari]

You're the one not getting it. The fact that you find it shallow and silly IS the point of the parody. Hero shows are like that.

I am actually fine with the super villain development simply because I don't take this show too seriously, and see it as satire. The freaking title screams it.

I didn't spoil you by the way. I just don't find the chances of a dream deus ex machina too promising.

[MFauli]

ok, apparently this wasnt the last episode. still, this anime turned out worse than what i expected when i began watching it. wasted potential. still fun enough, though.

[David75]

Same feeling here.
Somehow the introduction with a late teenager becoming a pseudo-second rate here was nice. Even his relation with an average cop and all was fine.
Also, there was no fantasy or superpowers, but messages were delivered and it managed to be a nice watch.
Then, the annoying Maya came and I started to gripe a little.
They totally ruined it with the KT arc. Somehow, it's like they decided to throw away the core values of the show and made it something quite appalling.

[MFauli]

if it isnt a dream: worst anime ever and biggest disappointment of the season.

biggest wtf-moment in this newest episode: the new villain introducing themselves by showing a professionally made trailer, logo and all. :|

[shinta|hikari]

Here we go again with the Worst Ever and Biggest Disappointment comments. Yawn.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 08 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=497614), 09 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=499638), 10 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=501819), 11 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=503895)

I'm just laughing at this. It's pretty funny, really. I'm not sure if it's stupid, gloriously stupid.. or smart parody under a guise of stupidity.

Joji coming off at the start as a troll/attention whore, only to be a real ranking protector of the peace.. but is still an attention whore - nice.

Now that Hazama doesn't have to hide his identity anymore and has the full backing of the government, I'm left wondering what Gotou's role is. If it's a common observer, then there are plenty of people to take his place. Flamenco Girls have also disappeared from the stage, and I fear that a full-time ranger would mean less screen time for Ishihara. :(

[neflight86]

Against my better judgment I watched through 11. I'm struggling to describe this as anything other than a slow train-wreck with no explosions to distract the audience from the humanity of it all.

You can be stupid; You can jump Fonzie jumping a shark; You can roll down the rabbit hole; but you can't be boring. And that's what SF has become since the shock of the change and the slow realization that there was/will be no 'reset' to the scale of the show prior. Not that that direction had any better of an entertainment prospect aside from being coherent.

It's not like this is the first time an anime has done this, but it is the first time I've experienced it in a while at this magnitude. I would be very interested in watching a dramatization of the design, deliberation, and creative work processes that produced such a mess as Samurai Flamenco, just to put that out there.

[MFauli]

worst shit crap I´ve ever seen in terms of anime. it´s now so bad that I can´t stop watching this trainwreck.

EVery second of this new episode felt like it was part of some parody, of something trying to make a point. But ... YOU DONT MAKE LIKE 10 EPISODES ABOUT IT. You end it after, say, 2-3 episodes max..

Seriously, the thought that there are people enjoying all these rushed, shallow scenes is making me angry.

[shinta|hikari]

Yeah, they are kind of pushing it even if it is parody. Comedy does not excuse poor choice of material and pacing. I know all the wtf moments are intentional, but this episode was nothing but that.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 12 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=510269)


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Bring it, 64 war gods!


I don't know about you guys, I'm still watching it for the lulz. I think I had a much lower expectation than you guys considering I started partway though and all.

At the very least Gotou is still around and Red still goes back to his roots.

[MFauli]

it makes me angry that there might be people watching this anime and legitly enjoying it for the "excitement" or "tragicness" or whatever.

I swear, it´ll be so bad if this anime tries to do some huge twist at the end, trying to be all "you thought this shit was to be taken seriously? lol". This is worse than the Endless Eight, even though it doesnt repeat itself over and over. This feels like when Kishimoto gave up on Naruto - once a truly exciting shounen series, and then a complete joke ever since he let Sasuke win against Deidara.

[David75]

I officially stoped watching that. I don't remember ever doing that mid-show.

[MFauli]

wow, why was this shit given the budget to be turned into an anime? Is the manga really that popular? Why?!

I may be repeating myself, but this show deserves to get shit upon week after week again. The super cheap vehicle designs, the scene when Flamen Pink blows water onto Flamen Red´s ship, and the *shocking* revelation at the end. Wow. It´s like every bad element put together in one story.

Why is this being made, but we´re still not getting a proper BERSERK-anime series? Goddamit, this shit makes me angry. Fuck moe and fuck random shit like this. Fuck.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 13 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=512890), 14 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=515454)


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I'm still enjoying this. I'm struggling to call it good, but I can't explain too well why I still find it fun. Perhaps it's GARR! to an extent? This show is essentially "The making of a superhero" or something.

[MFauli]

"The Japanese police is so weak" - yeah, because for some reason they stand still, not shooting, while you´re making some slow punches and even slower gay beams.

Does this anime think it´s on par with Gurren Lagann? This constant "adding a stronger enemy on top of a strong enemy" is so boring, it´s not even funny anymore. Lameness keeps growing from lameness.

Worst anime of the last bunch of years. I´d rather some moe-shit.

[shinta|hikari]

Why would this anime "think" (anime can't actually think btw) it is better than TTGL? Apples and oranges.

This is far more a parody than any serious story. It isn't a good parody, but it should still be viewed with that in mind.

[MFauli]

Shit continues getting shitter.

The lesbian kissing scene was the only good moment during the last 12 episodes or so.

Btw. whatsup with Horrible Subs´ subber? I see the phrase "raison d´etre" being used way too frequently recently. It´s silly to use some french phrase all the time. Just call it "reason of existence" or similar. It totally doesn´t suit the characters that say those sentences most of the time.

[MFauli]

"Is this really happening?"

Indeed.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 15 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=518018), 16 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=520458), 17 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=522750), 18 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=527416), 19 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=529888), 20 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=532159), 21 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=534281), 22 (http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=537050)

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This turned out pretty solid in the end. The psychology involving Goto really gave this that down-to-earth feeling again. Given that this kid's been developing Masayoshi from the beginning, there really was no avoiding combat against aliens and all. The only way to go was up, after all.

The most disappointing thing was actually seeing Goto revert back to texting himself since it feels like all the trauma-recover was all for naught.

[MFauli]

"Let´s marry!"

And right when he got randomly naked, too.

:|