Samurai Flamenco

"Plot twists are good, so the more we put in our story, the better it is, right?" - M. Night Shamalayan, who was apparently the director of Samurai Flamenco Viewer expectations are an interesting thing to mess around with, you've got your Dokuro-Chans, which mess around with them and utilise them for comedic purposes, and you've got your Evangelions, which utilise them to enhance an emotionally impactful story, in what is called a deconstruction, a word I really do not like and so I hope I won't have to say it again. Samurai Flamenco clearly intended to do something, but it didn't really manage to do so, it betrayed my expectations as a viewer, but failed to utilise them, in any manner. It's like a joke without a punchline. We've been told that 2 men walked into a bar, or that a chicken crossed the road, and that's the end of it. SF starts off reasonably decent, we've got some (male) model who is obsessed with superheroes to an unhealthy extent, and has created one by the name of Samurai Flamenco, costume and all, and has taken it upon himself to go about at night and stop people from all wrongdoing, starting small, and usually creating misunderstandings, one such understanding brings him to police officer Goto, who spends the next few episodes basically trying his best to keep our protagonist, whose name is Masayoshi for the record, out of trouble. If the show was funny, I'd say that Goto plays the straight man, and Masayoshi the funny man, but I'll talk more about humour later on. After a video of SF embarrassing himself goes viral, he finds himself having to keep his secret identity just that, while simultaneously trying to keep a lid on the whole affair, despite others seemingly intending to do the opposite, and in most cases, I’d use the phrase “it all takes off from there”, but herein it really doesn’t, it all descends from there. From Episode 7 in particular it goes from a bit unengaging to what I can only imagine was the writer having 25 minutes of time to make 25 minutes worth of content, which resulted in some awful storytelling, not the absolute worst, but certainly bad enough that it is highly deserving of the title “shitload of fuck”. Once the evil aliens who want to enslave humanity for no reason other than that they enjoy enslavement come along, there was a definitive drop in quality in storytelling, one it never recovered from. And this is where Samurai Flamenco biggest shortcoming is – its tone. It has none. It seems to have wanted to make it about philosophical ideas about justice a little bit, a little bit a standard superhero (and later super sentai) type, but doesn’t really do either, it’s got poorly orchestrated action, uninteresting and shallow attempts to be “deep”, and to return to humour, it’s got some things that seem like they could very well be humorous, yet were not. Consider, for instance, a politician whose mecha suit’s power is directly linked to how much support he has. Or an evil alien brandishing a “Destruction of Japan Device”, or, more generally, just a story about a man with no superpowers at all, trying to be a superhero, it all seems like it could very well make for some perfectly good comedy, they just rather strangely chose not to do so. Now, on to plot twists, I’m not going to go too in depth on this, but I do believe it would be agreeable to say that the most effective plot twists are ones that the viewer does not expect, and ones that greatly alter the course of the story. Samurai Flamenco has foregone both of these, as at around the halfway point, they decided to implement a plot twist every single episode, after about 3 of them, they lost their charm, and after about 5, they were stupid, bungled, meaningless, and predictable, in other words, the complete opposite of what a plot twist is meant to achieve. Imagine if you had a surprise birthday party every year. After a few years, you know once your birthday’s arrived, you’re going to get someone trying to surprise you, but there is no surprise at all, you know it’s coming, and that’s just what SF’s plot twists were. You knew they were coming, and you know they were going to be an omnishambles, utterly reprehensible, every last one of them. So, to conclude, Samurai Flamenco’s unbelievably poor writing, coupled with the boring and uninspired and genuinely impossible not to predict plot twists forced in, resulting in some extremely boring writing, and despite all the faux philosophy they tried to put in, it is utterly irredeemable, I’ve seen better stories written in shit on the walls of a public toilet.

I wanted to wait until it finished airing before I made a review about it and now that is over I can officially say that Samurai Flamenco is weird as sh"" This a story of Hazama Masayoshi a young man how grue up watching Japanese super hero shows (like Kamen Rider our the Power Rangers) and gain a strange obsession by them... He decides to become a real life super hero and fight crime for justice and for all that is good but after his first attempt fails he is discovered by Goto a police officer who instead of arresting him decides to let him go and builds a very strong relationship with Masayoshi and eventually becoming best friends. Even so Masayoshi dosent give up and continues his quest to become a super hero and continues his long journey to greatness. Its during this journey that he meets new allies who got inspired by his deed and decide to assist him like an actor of one of Masayoshi's old shows who decides to train him , a pop star who decides to be a super hero as well ,and a scientist that decided to make weapons and gadgets for Samurai Flamenco. The thing that made me be attracted to this anime in the first place was the realism and the amazing pacing , it was amazingly well written and the characters had such great personalities that made me think if id put this Im my top 10. How ever everything changed when ep 7 arrived... No one was waiting for this one and just for your own sake Spoilers The realism of the entire show drops in a instant when in a drug bust a drug dealer turns into a Giant Cybernetic Gorila with a Guillotine for a belly... Yeah true story... This is 100% real and I was baffled when I saw that... How ever it is just the tip of the iceberg of wired ness of the show , Giant Robots ,mutants , cyborgs and even aliens make an appearance and the show isn't even subtitle about it . Even so its still very entertaining and the story is still very well written even tho there is some indices of shark jumping and and plot points that are completely bull... Still its still a a good show how ever its has two major weaknesses : -The pace constantly changing -And the ending The show consistently changes its story and thus the pacing changes as well one minute the show is very realistic ,the its i realistic and goofy ,then its very dark , than epic ,than absurd.... its like the show has multiple personality disorder or did a lot of drugs. The ending kinda bordered me not because it was too stupid of anything but because it wasent anything special... I was waiting for a great climax that enplaned everything but instead it ended in filler. But still Samurai Flamenco is a good show or rather Samurai Flamenco is a a very good experiment it shows perfectly how creative processes can collide with each other and and create something half baked that honestly because of its writing it kinda holds off together. This show isnt for every one but i still encourage every one who likes super heroes shows to watch it. VIVA TORTURE !!!!!!!

(TLDR Review at the bottom, as usual, thanks for reading) "Hero will never give up, never hide, never be defeated, never accept evil." Superhero. That word, a word which millions of people across the globe have come across before. A superhero, defined as: >a benevolent fictional character with superhuman powers, such as Superman. Has taken the hearts of many, in a wide range of different interactions ranging from media consumption, merchandise, or just plain inspiration. The idea has been a thing for a very long time now, with the origins of best selling comics of such heroes dating back as far as the 1930s. The superhero, however, despite its waves of resonance into our subconscious, is of no limits to the idea of deconstruction. Deconstruction is usually considered to be up there with kino, zenith, chef-d'oeuvre type storytelling. So when the concept of superheroes and the idea of deconstructing such come together, I had no real idea what to expect, considering how this is also under "Parody". The result of such, more so, the result of Samurai Flamenco, was probably one of the most unique and well-written stories I have seen in a long while. It's like Goku (DBZ), as he keeps achieving higher levels of Super Saiyan and transformations, just when you think the bar is as high as it gets, he pushes it even higher. That's what Samurai Flamenco is in this tidy mess of an anime it has made for itself. The narrative of Samurai Flamenco is simple, it starts with a superhero-obsessed fan, Hazama Masayoshi, wanting to become the very thing he looked up to, that is the Superhero. Luckily for him, he could, taking up the role of the new hero in town "Samurai Flamenco". From here on out, the story is on a linear path, consistently going through the different petty crimes the Samurai Flamenco has to fix for the neighbourhood. In this time of life, he is just your friendly odd hero guy doing whatever it takes to make the small things in life just that better for people. This part of the story, however, is just a bigger connection to the ascendance that is the greater chaos waiting to erupt from this deconstruction. When you get to episode 7, you know something is not right, something has changed, and that it will never revert back to its prior state. The anime is full of rising action and climaxes that knows no end. It comes up with new ideas that should be apparent, yet combust devoid of notice as if it was already there. What this anime does is it takes popular tropes ranging from martial arts movies, dark age of comics, tokusatsu and others, and slimes them all together to make this magnificent wtf. It's strange, and to some extent, completely stupid. However it is a unique idea I don't see quite a lot in the medium. In fact, such an ambitious task is already self-aware of how dumb these things are and uses them for the purpose of enhancing the story at hand. I'm sure many of us understood shows like Power Rangers was completely amplified in everything, I mean, it wasn't hard for me to decipher such at a young age, continuously pointing out irregularities in acting skills that could never have been real. The same thing applies here, when this anime seems dumb when it seems that there is no hope for what it gives, you need to remember that there was never hope to begin with. Looking for real-world logic simply does not exist here, and the reaction in being self-aware to such is simply amazing. It doesn't even stop there with mixing superhero pop culture, it mixed cliches like every arc out of the book, I won't go into it due to spoilers, but I'm sure what you think up would be most likely true. From what I understand, everything based on the narrative/writing of the anime seems to be based on poking fun at what currently exists in the entertainment media. It makes for something quite fun, something to look at with the knowledge that you are entering a new elaborate adventure that seemingly knows how to continuously overwrite any absurdity with something you wouldn't have thought it would come to. Great creativity made here. The characters are in a similar situation, though they are usually under the command of the story. However, they themselves have real attributes accumulating their whole personalities to them, when one character looks baseline, they may surprise you with a new quirk or backstory you didn't think would apply to them. Sure, it may not be true for all, but the anime does compensate with some interesting quality for as many characters in the story as it can. Some may have more detailed backgrounds in comparison to others, others may just be an over-exaggerated idea with nothing else to their name, but entirely, the anime does a good job at pushing characters to be of some substantial quality. Going on about the main characters, Hazama comes across as basically the centre of the anime and everything that happens to it. At first, that may seem obvious, however, it is called for in a skilful way. At one point, when he is just some hentai (not the sexual kind) running around trying to help people, at the next, he is this red ranger getting all the fame and glory as you would expect him to. Sure, this would be expected in an anime of its kind, however, you could argue that it being such and not focusing on others, like Goto, for example, would indeed be a good way to show how Hazama has developed as an individual. It makes sense that he would grow as a hero, as all heroes do. In some sense, Hazama is a very fitting character. Though it should be noted, he is still the same individual that he was, with him still maintaining human personality so much so that his character isn't completely distorted. He's an interesting character to see how he moves from start to finish in the entire anime, I suppose everything just plays out and sails smoothly with the guy. Goto is an interesting one too, you don't see his true identity until later on. He may seem a little boring, and honestly, I can't go on about a lot about the dude since there is nothing to go on about that wouldn't otherwise lead to spoilers. Though from what I understand, he seems to be that perfect fit for Hazama, being the dude Hazama can depend on when he is in need of help, he sure gets along with others too, which makes him a more loveable character putting up with the antics of the eccentric characters in this anime. Overall, fine characters. I could go on a lot about the characters a lot more than I have already done so, but it may become unnecessary saturation that isn't needed to actually appreciate Samurai Flamenco. Sure, it can be a little cryptic with it hinting at future ideas non-stop through objects, and characters, but the entire foundation can be understood without relative overthought, which people can stumble into whenever something of "thought-provoking" anime comes to play. The thing that gets me the most with Samurai Flamenco is its low-quality animation, I am giving it the benefit of the doubt relative to when it was released, and to be fair, it had its moments of shining. However, sometimes it was clunky with its motion, borderline visually unappetising. It comes across as one of those products of its time which is why it isn't as bad as it seems compared to others around itself. Though given Manglobe's other works, I am not too sure as to what is needed to be said here, because better has existed. The audio is pretty good, I can't praise the voicing, because nothing of importance is to be noted there. The OST was amazing though, and it was placed right every time, I didn't think something this skilled could come to be but it is shown here and I've heard it for myself to confirm such. It comes across as that main theme you heard yourself thinking about 10 years down the line from when you originally first heard it, it is that main theme that clicks with nostalgia, being easy to remember and catchy to get a hold of. Same with the 1st OP, not so much the 2nd. B…

I'm gonna make this quick. Samurai flamenco is meta as fuck. The show goes through three different genres throughout the entirety of the show. Starting off as a realistic if not somewhat parody based drama, then changing into a full force super hero show, and then pulling back and becoming somewhat of a psychological thriller(the final genre being the one to really make me appreciate the show). I think if I could rate the three different genre changes in the show I'd give the drama portion a 7, the super hero portion a 6, and the psychological portion an 8. If you like something that doesn't take itself too seriously but you still want to get something out of it than I think this would be the show for you. I got a lot more out of this show than I was expecting which I why I'm deciding to write my first review on Mal because of it.

I'm tired of superheroes. All of them. Every time you turn around there seems to be a new superhero adaptation hitting the big screen or television. The novelty is gone. Asking me to get excited for a new superhero film is like asking me to get excited for a video of a cat doing something cute on YouTube or a new meme. So, when a title comes along that parodies the superhero genre, I'm interested. If you feel the way I do, watch "One Punch Man". Then if you still want some silly satire, watch "Samurai Flamenco". Coming from the respectable studio "Manglobe", "Samurai Flamenco" or "Samumenco" gives us a whole parody parade drawing it's influence from many, many famous titles and genres. From "Kick Ass" to "Power Rangers" to "Sailor Moon" to more grown-up titles like Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight", you could have a game of "guess what that's referring to" while watching this 22-episode series. While it is a parody in most ways, it does try to stand on it's own. The story is about a guy who wants to become a superhero like those he watched growing up on TV. So, he puts on a silly costume and goes out crime fighting. This starts a long, winding road where he makes new friends, plenty of enemies, and has one of the most bizarre adventures this side of JoJo. Watching this story unfold, I thought I was gonna be rooting for the bad guys because the campy "justice will prevail" stuff gets annoying quick. But, by the time I was bored with that, the story shifted gears and things got a bit serious. It was quite refreshing. The characters actually grew on me and while I'm not going to place them in my Top 10 or anything, I will say that I did enjoy the lovable goofballs that were as colorful as the art on display. A lot of bright colors and primaries that are typical of the superhero genre with sound effects of equal ability. The music is very ordinary, with some rock opening themes and some J-Pop to close. I was hitting fast forward through the credits a lot. The Japanese voice cast did a good job (still no English dub) performing well in both the silly scenes and the more dramatic stuff. Overall, it is a well-made show from top to bottom. The finished product that is "Samurai Flamenco" does have it's merits, I laughed out loud many times and enjoyed myself, but I did also have to grind through a few of the early episodes and questioned the rapid shift in tones and plots that seemed to happen almost at a whim. To go from a bad guy who is actually intimidating to a group that looks like a band of rejects from "One Piece" is a bit of a let down. In the final analysis, it is hardly a failure, but it struggles at times (as many before have) mixing the action with the comedy and therefore ends up only as slightly above average spoof piece. 6/10 across the board. Check it out. Cheers!

I loved Samurai Flamenco! If you are a fan of the superhero genre, you should definitely watch this! SamFlam starts off pretty much as a story about a kid who grew up and never lost his desire to become a super hero. Our MC starts off small, trying to stop petty crimes by petty crooks and juvenile delinquents, and things don't go as well as he hoped. It definitely tries to stay grounded in reality despite its superhero premise. Then things go absolutely crazy as time goes on, where our superhero story becomes an insane, and insanely fun, over the top superhero adventure. Story: 9 - The story is amazing, and just when you think you have it figured out it turns things up another notch. You cannot fathom where its going from watching the first 4-5 episodes. Art: : 8 - Artwork is definitely better than average, animation is well drawn. Sound: 8 - Sound is good, and totally fits with the visuals and story. Character: 9 - Characters receive great development, especially the main cast. Side characters are all awesome, no one really feels superfluous. Overall: 9/10 - I enjoyed this series a lot, and would highly recommend it to all anime fans, especially if you like the superhero genre.

This is literally the only anime I'm actually going out of my way to leave a negative review on. But, after forcing myself to finish the series due to completionism, it would haunt me if i didn't. The anime started off as a slightly meta-breaker of an anime, with some One Punch Man tones despite the MC being weak as heck. Essentially what caught my interest was that it was parodying popular shounen genres and I enjoy those. I enjoyed the anime up until around the 7th or so episode, and then from that point on the anime pretty much did a backflip and dove head-straight into a pile of crap, and turning into one of my greatest regrets in my lifetime of viewing anime. The anime suddenly goes from parodying the cliches, to actually adopting them, becoming absolutely horrible cheap knock-offs and NOT with the intention to be humorous but instead assuming it's doing a good job. character development went to absolute crap, the story development turned into something along the lines of, "hey, remember that old anime that everyone loved? let's copy it's plot and major plot twists, and add in bits and pieces and pretend we're doing it better!!!" absolutely horrible, at the end of it you sit there in your chair or whatever wondering, "why..?" "why did I even watch this...?" in summary: Crap. story: Pathetic. character: Disgrace to shounen genre. Enjoyment & overall: I'm surprised I didn't jump off a building / 10 the art and sound was decent I guess, in other words...a decent budget flushed down the toilet.

Where are the lines between good, badgood, and bad? Where is the line between a deconstruction/parody and the thing the parody is commenting on? Where is the point at which the pretense of irony is dropped and the show just becomes what it is mocking? I can't really say. Samurai Flamenco seems to be a parody of bad superhero shows and also itself is a bad superhero show. It seems to make fun of forced emotion and drama and follow it up by unironically forcing emotion and drama. It seems to be a show that cares about its characters and has some form of real message to give, but is also completely mindless in the presentation of those messages. At the end of the day all I can say for certain is that it is compelling. Whether it's compelling to see the surprisingly good character growth, or just to see how stupid things can actually get. It's a tough show to write a review for. But just to touch on the specific categories reviews here are divided into generally: The story is absolutely batshit crazy. Twists that aren't foreshadowed left and right, genre shifts mid episode, plot holes left and right. But somehow even within this fucked up system things work. The narrative is funny, and fun to watch unfold. At times the animation during the action sequences is genuinely very good. At times the characters faces looked like fucked up memes during conversation or still shots. It's a mixed bag but it evens out to "average". The sound is pretty solid all the way through. Good VA work, two awesome OPs, fairly solid music during the show. The characters are where the show truly shines. Always likeable, many with a lot of nuance, and somehow generally very human despite existing within the context of such an insane narrative. I didn't want to like Samurai Flamenco initially, I tried not to initially, but I did. I liked the flawed artwork. I liked the ridiculous narrative and untelegraphed twists. I liked the characters. And I'd like to go ahead and give it a solid 8/10.

Samurai Flamenco is a cluster fuck of ideas that subtly asks the question of justice wanting villains even if they were fabricated. It also delves into some human psyches, experiencing the trauma. The beginning premise was very humane experience of what heroes from TV shows would be in real life. Being ostrisized and ridiculed, while few thanked and supported the gentle hearted Hazama. It was mundane and the problems that occurred wasn't any extraordinary news. But the story takes a sudden turn with real monsters and psychopathic villain appears out of thin air. Then tops that with a ridiculous bullshit that is Flamenger and the classic superhero sentai trope of previewing monsters before their arrival. This again gets topped by senator Armstrong from MGS: reveagence propaganda, in order to defeat Alien Flamenco god. However Hazama being epitome of a hero; he refuse to continue fighting fabricated enemies to fulfil his fantasy, if it meant endangering other people around him. This yet again gets topped by sickening attacks made by Haiji, who is not a formulated villain like before. This was what superheroes should be concerned if their secret identity was revealed. At the final arc there is the revelations of many of these mentally broken characters which are then explored making interesting mini plots for each of them. Whether it was a setup or incidental, the final arc definitely the highlight of the show with ridiculous fantasy build up crashing down to grim reality. The show overall is a massive superhero plot orgy ride, you will never see same thematic more than once every 7-8 episodes, which is like watching 4 animes at once. The art direction wasn't anything outstanding, but definitely average if not better. Presentation was consistent while accompanying myriad of themes and moods. As a disclosure I am bias as donkey when it comes to superhero content. Should you recommend Samurai Flamenco? Yes, if they like plot orgy

At first Samurai Flamenco reminds me of Tiger & Bunny and decided to watch it but it was very different from what I expected. It's nothing compared to T&B because they don't really resemble each other, just the "Hero" part but nevertheless, it was still a good watch (at least for me). Story: 7/10 Actually the first time I watched it.. I've only seen 2 episodes in a row and it was kind of interesting but I decided to put it on-hold NOT because I didn't like it, but because I wanted to wait for all episodes to be completed and probably because I'm the type of person who's very lazy to watch anime (I prefer reading manga). Then the last episode came out a few days ago and I wasn't still in the mood to watch it to be honest but I saw a spoiler of the last episode which made me want to watch it right away. The idea of the story wasn't really that bad.. the protagonist, Hazama Masayoshi, wanted to be a superhero (but he's just a normal human being) and to achieve that, he starts to solve small/petty crimes like lecturing people who smokes in a non-smoking area, people who jaywalk, people who doesn't throw their garbage on the right time, catching an umbrella-thief.. small crimes like that... it was kind of ridiculous at first because I really thought he's exaggerating. But then when he said that "even if the crime is really small, if no one's gonna stop them it will never stop", actually I thought he has a point and that made me think the story was kind of interesting. I really thought the story was only like that. Like he's just a modern wannabe-superhero in a super normal city. But then the story drifted off from what I was expecting. I wouldn't say it was horrible but it did put me off at some point. Like... was that even necessary? It was ridiculous though I was still kind of amused. But I was really looking forward to that "scene" in the last episode so I continued watching it. I'm glad I did because it got better in later episodes. Art: 7/10 I really like the character designs. Ikemen and cute characters but the quality wasn't that good. Like you'll see deform characters sometimes. Sound: 9/10 One of the good things in Samumenco is the songs I guess. I really like the opening and ending songs. The BGM is nice too. Character: 8/10 They were enjoyable characters I guess but my most favorite is Goto Hidenori. Especially when I learned what he had been through before. It made me cry actually since I'm a crybaby. I'm a BL/Yaoi fan so one of the reasons why I watched it was because of Goto and Masayoshi. I really like them together. And aside from my fangirlness, the friendship that they have is something that I really like... I love their tandem! Enjoyment/Overall: 7/10 My main motivation at first to watch the entire series was because of that "scene" in the last episode but I'm glad that it turned out to be nice overall aside from the ridiculous arc though. I enjoyed it and made me laugh in some episodes. The BL and GL hints made it more interesting in my case. (Boys Love & Girls Love)

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL STREAM/TV RELEASE and should be viewed as such. THings such as art may improve with a home release and therefore as such keep in mind that this is a review of the original stream/tv release of the show. IF you don't want to read my review here are my recommendations for this show . Overall recommendation: WATCH episodes 1 to 10 . This covers the first two arcs, which are really the best. This is when teh animation suffers the least, and covers more of a "Kick ass" type of plot and a parody of "Power rangers/sentai" THEN watch 19 to 22. Why you say skip 11 to 18..... Well this is when character development , animation, and really most things drop off the radar. The plot is still there, and the show is funny with it's parody of super heroes in general. With episode 19 a new plot picks up, and they more of less cover from time to time what happened in the past episodes. Like who they defeated. You really don't need much details about the previous 2 arcs because they don't affect the overall plot of the last arc hardly at all( aside from characters which make one liners at times). And anything that does seem to affect it they seem to reference it via flash back, or they mention it so many times that with some thinking you can guess what happened like since the plot is very complex. The last arc really picks up that pace of the first arc IMO and really hits its stride again, and if samurai flamenco had been given a 14 or 15 episode anime season and was able to skip the arcs from episode 11 to 18 , I think this show would be much better Story: 7/10 the story for flamenco is really all over the place, which is fine IMO to go above and beyond throwing galaxy's at each other. However, it lacks something within this story. Yes the plot seems to continue on one right after the other, and it is a very enjoyable comically because of the characters . But the story just misses the mark overall. Without spoiling much, Flamenco story is a truly unqiue one and it gets larger and larger and large with each arc. However, the end result in the last episode completely throws this pattern away, leaving a disappointing feeling at the end. Like nothing is going to happen to these characters any more other then "Daily life". Also the plot isn't one to psychologically evaluate (aside from the last arc), so if your looking for a show with a light hearted super hero themed plot this will be up your ally. Art 5 or 6 / 10 Samurai Flamencos style and art starts out great, it was fantastic and amazing at the beginning...... But starting in episode 11 it starts to have its on and off moments. For example in episode 17, the fight scenes are drawn in a normal or high quality like the beginning of samurai flamenco showed. BUT other scenes that may happen inbetween the fight barely look animated and some characters faces look so almost it hurts. (this episode in particular i remember the most of for whatever reason) Also , the 2nd opening animation begins as a montage of first half of the series and then is later changed to an almost still opening. Using pictures of the cast from the shown at there multiple identities (such as hazama yoshi as samurai flamenco). For some reason after abandoning the montage and given this as a replacement, the first few episodes of using the revised opening animation result is a badly animated opening. And strangely enough with every single episode something is usually added or changed to the opening, making it look more presentable and nice, but at the same time makes you wonder if the production team truly didn't have the budget or time at the moment, and could only alter it little by little. Compared to the first opening, which was fully animated like most shows really makes you consider the lack of budget to make samurai flamenco look as nice as it did in the beginning. Note, to my knoweldge, aniplex often trys to touch up the animation for the home release. So heres hoping this also applies with samurai flamenco, and that they fix all the horrible moments that look like bad animated sketches, and can remove the 8 different versions of the opening 2 animation. Sound 7/10 : Nothing amazing here, but it wasn't bad, Usually fit and the moment, but nothing that makes me want to go listen to the soundtrack . Characters: 6/10 Overall the main probably 3 to 5 main characters get developed a good bit, but overall as the story progress' only hazama masayoshi (Samurai flamenco) gets developed at all at times. The other characters help with situations, but really after the 11th episode it seems like character development, samurai flamenco aside, is thrown at the window for the most part just to be picked back up in the final arc. Enjoyment 10/10: The only perfect thing about this show. I love there take on super heroes and there parodies of multiple views of heroes through out the series. Every weeks episode was like feeling like a kid , wonder what villian would face Samurai flamenco, or what crazy plot twist(which there are too many of) would happen. and as such I highly enjoy this series, even if it may not be the best one out there with all the other areas falling hard in the 2nd half of the series.....

As much as I want (and perhaps have every right) to hate on SAMURAI FLAMENCO, I just can't. For all of its many, many problems and missteps, there is one undeniable fact: it's just FUN. I will always applaud audacity and go-for-broke gusto, and Samumenco has that in spades. The opening story arc was refreshing, deserving of its easy comparisons to Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. When the first big plot twist (and that's putting it mildly) happened, I giggled with glee and couldn't wait to see what happened next. But when the third and fourth twists came, I admittedly got frustrated and considered dropping out. Seemingly throwing away storylines and characters I was invested in really left a bad taste in my mouth. And then the final story arc kicked in. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what elevated Samurai Flamenco to something truly heroic. This is a comedic show that's not afraid to go dark. And when it goes dark, it goes DARK. I truly loved the chances this show took in its final episodes, more than enough so to help me overlook its numerous shortcomings: inconsistent (often mediocre) animation, retconning character personalities for all the wrong reasons, being stretched out for way too many episodes, etc. All of those are valid complaints, but I finished the series on an emotional high that I never imagined was possible, even during its strong start. Like our hero Hazama, I'm thankful I never gave up, never hid, never was defeated, and never accepted evil. Samurai Flamenco flipped my crazy switch, and I went full Samumenco.

**SPOILER FREE** This is a great show. I don't know much about hero shows, but this show essentially only requires that you've seen a couple episodes of, say, Power Rangers to understand the premise. STORY: It starts out light hearted with a boy who wants to be a real life hero. Halfway through the series, however, the show takes a hard turn towards the serious. Honestly, it was a light hearted show about a guy that desperately wanted to be a real hero and often took a beating for it. Then we find out about his family connections to this dream, the serious emotional ties. And then, in the middle of en episode in which it seems like there's someone in an elaborate costume...people start dying. Have you ever been the only one laughing at a joke only to realize it was a relatively inappropriate response? That's how this will make you feel. But still, by that time you've been pulled into the characters and their story to give it up. CHARACTERS: I enjoyed the character development, even if I felt tricked into thinking it was a light hearted buddy comedy. People suffer from things that have happened to them. Romance isn't easy. And friendships have bumps. My only issue is that you get attached to some new characters only for them to leave for the final arc. But I suppose that's what happens in real life, as well. SOUND: Good music and fantastic, fitting casting. ART: Consistent, fluffy animation that is enjoyable to watch.

Despite this being my first review that may or may not be helpful, I have quite a bit to say about this anime so I'll try and keep it short. I happened to stumble upon a list of new animes airing in 2013 and Samurai Flamenco was one of them. After reading the synopsis I thought it was going to be slice of life (which normally isn't my style), and thought maybe I'd try it out. The first few episodes were a bit awkward and somewhat childish but honest and down to earth. I could say that I fell in love with the first few episodes until it took a turn for the worse. After that point in the show, the rest of the series felt like an utter betrayal. I question why the writers decided to take the route that they did, but now I see you really couldn't make a 22 episode show about a superhero solving petty street crime. Even so, the writers took the story so far beyond it's starting point that it leaves you completely flabbergasted and confused; it is literally the mother of all plot twists. Later on in the series, about episode 16 or so, you start to see some of the old Samumenco come into light. I found one scene to be so heartfelt I actually teared up a bit. (seriously though). Then it gets insane again the following episode. The last episodes really make you want to keep watching because once again, there were some last minute twists that I found to be enjoyable. The overall plot was bad due to its poorly executed manner, but I have to admit there were a few heartwarming lessons and scenes that made me love this anime. I really don't want to say too much more other than I was bit disappointed with the path it took, and while the story and plot were not as enjoyable, there were some elements I loved about. The characters are my favorite thing about this show. Having completed this series, I honestly recommend you watch this. You are forewarned, but the end was well worth it.

Samurai Flamenco displays an uncommonly blatant disdain for narrative conventions and so little coherence that after the last episode I was left thinking, “That was baffling, even for anime.” I don’t consider my time wasted – in fact, I enjoyed myself for all 22 episodes – though on closer inspection it must be admitted that this show really doesn’t look out for itself. Blessed with a solid cast and a superb soundtrack that includes blood-pumping hero fight music, adorable idol pop, and a suspiciously Pink Panther-esque sleuthing song, Samurai Flamenco racks up some style points right off the bat. The character designs have a wide range of quality; some, like Joji Kaname, are memorable and perfectly appropriate for the personalities that reside therein. Others, like the Flamengers, seem very ordinary, and I’m not sure if that’s the point or what. By and large, however, I have no complaints from an audio-visual standpoint; the key issues with Samurai Flamenco lie in the writing. The show’s first arc, equal parts insightful superhero origin and compelling underdog tale, lasts for six-and-a-half episodes, and that is about the longest stretch of time this show spends in any one dimension of reality. At that point, Samurai Flamenco experiences an abrupt shift in tone and direction, only to undertake a hasty regression to the mean over the next few episodes while getting continuously more surreal. Arcs that could have easily filled a season vanish within a couple of episodes, with the breadth and scope of the overall story changing in the blink of an eye. Soon, its powers fully unleashed, the show becomes a runaway train of retcons and wild twists, cycling through characters and concepts faster than Mumen Rider. The nature of the world we’re meant to experience seems to change with such wanton speed and elasticity that the show feels like it was written not episode-to-episode, but minute-to-minute. Samurai Flamenco must have developed ADHD halfway through, because suddenly it is no longer content to tell one story or let things lie as they fall. Characters phase in and out, sometimes emerging at the other end of the series with very different personalities and no straight line from point A to point B. At the conclusion of each mini-arc, I can practically hear a voice in the background saying, “That was fun, but how can we make that not matter anymore?” There are satisfactory emotional payoffs, decent moral lessons, and the beginnings of some engaging tangents about heroism, society, and justice, but for the most part, the show staggers back and forth like a drunk, varying in atmosphere, genre, and plane of existence far too much to be considered a paragon of excellence in writing. What began as the story of a naïve, powerless teenager with dreams of becoming a hero winds up as a reality-spanning clusterfriend of aliens, deities, conspiracies, mech battles, power suits, and sociopathic ghosts. I can no longer say with certainty what Samurai Flamenco is about. Is it about the character of Masayoshi Hazama, the titular Samurai Flamenco? Is it about the concept of being a hero or a superhero? Is it a revelation about love or friendship or sacrifice? Is it an examination of world peace, doing good in society, the nature of good and evil, the government? Is it a parody of Super Sentai- and Kamen Rider-type shows? Perhaps a tribute to them? Is it some weird, obsessive thing about the word “flamenco”? Whom are we supposed to be learning about and what are we learning about them? By the show’s finale, things have gotten so far off-base that it’s hard to say there is any truly satisfying closure, either because it was already snapped up earlier in the show or because there just doesn’t seem to be anything in need of closure. Maybe because there was supposed to be closure, and then there just wasn’t. I can’t tell anymore. Is Samurai Flamenco… “good”? Oh, hell no. Well, maybe. No, no, it probably isn’t, at least from a storytelling perspective. It probably deserves a 5, a 6 at best; I’m just feeling generous because of how much I liked it. Nonetheless, I’ll look back on it fondly: an ugly duckling, perhaps, but still a good egg, and something I’m likely to recommend to others. Hazama is an idiot and so are all of his friends, but they’re lovable, goofy idiots who are fun to watch and very easy to believe in and support.

A cute idea that potentially thought it was a parody and then, perhaps growing bored of that (or realizing it was failing), chucked the idea out the window and doubled down on the worst of anime and manga superhero tropes and put the two most important characters through a writing woodchipper. Not to mention that it doesn't seem to ever know what genre it wants to go into. This might have worked, if the writing wasn't completely terrible. The first several episodes seem fine for what it was trying. It's your generic anime/manga protagonist who wants to be a hero they've always read/watched taking the first opportunity to do so. Except there's no magic powers, no secret societies, no other dimensions, no vast wealth, no mad scientists inventing tech, no supervillains, no years of martial arts training across the world, or heavily condensed hard martial arts training from a master(s), no experiments gone wrong or dangerous medical procedures or supernatural mental or physical capabilities. I have no issue watching a series about any/a mix of any of these particular tropes, but this series seemed to originally be committed to something without all of those things. And that's fine. One of the best moments in the first several episodes is when we see a civilian who wants to collect the bounty for Samurai Flamenco's identity actually change his mind when SF saves him. It's one of the last times we see what should have been the message of the show: that ordinary people going out of their way to help others, even if they put themselves at risk, can change hearts and minds of those around them and make the world a better place. And this should have been a warning about how the show doesn't care about any cliche messages it puts out before it does a 180 and focuses on something else shiny. Because not even halfway through the show there is a 'mad scientist' with powerful gadgets. There is a martial arts 'master' to train with. Further along, shockingly, there are actual monsters to fight (not just humans) and a supervillain or several. And there are aliens. And giant monsters (not just regular size ones). And interdimensional gods? And a government conspiracy! Pretty much all of this is everything that's bad about the show. The one good thing and perhaps one of the show's only good ideas is the inventor, whose idea is to make stationary that can be used in fighting and self-defense, rather than just giving SF a gun or something. Admittedly I don't know Japan's legal system all that well, but I'm pretty sure the concept that 'it's stationary so it can't be confiscated' or SF wouldn't be held criminally liable for using it has no water whatsoever (pretty sure hitting someone with a ruler rather than a bat isn't going to protect you from liability as long as it causes the same damage). The idea behind the inventions is still pretty great. And that's it for the neat ideas here. Have you seen any amount of "Power Rangers" or "Kamen Rider" or "Voltron" or any other series that required a giant robot formed of five or so smaller robots run by a team? Then you have seen the last 2/3rds of this show, and any version of those other series is likely better than what's in this show. If this was striving for a parody, it's not succeeding, because all it does to 'parody' is to reproduce the same content, but with worse writing (which is saying something, just not what I imagine the creators of this show intended). By the time it's incredibly obvious that the main message is "look at this tropey thing, it's so corny!" is basically every joke, it's long since stopped being funny. Any other message of hope or camaraderie or working together to make the world a better place or being the best you that you can be, even in the small things, is lost. This is not a good new take on any of the series that formed the base idea for this one. So it is not a parody, not enjoyable on its own merits, and not a good addition to any particular superhero genre it wants to be part of. And then there's what it does to its main two characters. Goto's background is so badly written that the actual only good part of it is how it plays into the final antagonist's story arc (and I don't even like the last antagonist). The end of the conversation the last antagonist has with Goto has one line that just felt so well written and terrifying, particularly coupled with Goto's reaction, and it's the only villain moment that felt like someone on the creative team cared about making a decent story. But it seems like at the last moment, someone thought that the protagonist was missing a few important personality traits, so the writers tossed them in at the last second to add more plot to the story. The show actually seemed to be going in an interesting, unusual (for an average similar anime/manga) direction with Goto and Masayoshi's relationship, but then the bad writing came in and bungled it. As is, I like to pretend the ending scene between the two characters didn't happen, not just because it destroys any character development for the two characters or plot development for the last several episodes, but also because it seems like a studio exec or five stepped in and said WOAH WOAH WOAH, this is TOO gay. A part of me likes think that if "Yuri On Ice!!!" had come out before this series, that ending scene would have been very different. Unfortunately we got what we got, which, considering Masayoshi's actions during the climax, isn't too bad. There are a few decent gags and jokes that work. Most fall flat because they're at once trying to be corny and also trying to make fun of the corniness, and just end up being a string of corny-ception that makes you roll your eyes or forget it ever happened. Unfortunately, whole characters, at least in the last 2/3rds of the series, are used as gags, which only makes things worse. The token Pink Ranger is the worst example, with one of the weirdest and dumbest plotlines in the story. And then there's one of the gags that makes me wonder if someone wanted to write a shonen but got stuck with this: Masayoshi's boss is constantly being sexually harassed by a reporter and every time you can tell that it's being written as a joke. Even worse, the guy gets sort of turned into a hero, so if you really couldn't tell before, it all was a joke! Ah, women threatening men that don't take a hint and men constantly not taking a hint, and neither of them demonstrating any particular reason why they'd be good together... How cute and funny! -end heavy sarcasm- Notably, I have nothing to say about the magical girl trope. That's because nothing notable about it whatsoever. It is neither interesting enough to merit commentary, or offensive enough to merit any worthwhile critique. The animation is decent for a modern, off the line anime. It's no "Garden of Words" or a Studio Ghibli film, but it's not whatever the worst anime you've ever seen is visually. The character models look good, with a nice art style. The music made no impression on me, and I liked none of the opening or ending songs. The overall soundtrack wasn't horrible (although the second opening definitely is), but heck if I remember anything significant in it. Don't watch this. If you do, be ready to fast forward because most of it isn't worth watching. Watch "Voltron: Legendary Defender", for some giant robot/monsters/aliens fights and good team-building stories and action scenes and animation. "From Up On Poppy Hill" for some cute romance, or "Yuri On Ice!" for some cute M/M romance. Watch "Darker Than Black" season 1 for a half-decent government conspiracy/superpower/cop serial. Watch "Free!" for relationships between men and humor and drama (among other things). Watch "Natsume Yuujinchou" for 'average kid with a superpower makes lots of friends along his journey'. Those are all so much more worth the time.

If Anime was a family, Samurai Flamenco would be that one cousin living in his parents' basement who's so wierd and awkward you can't decide if you should laugh at him or feel pity, but in the end it turns out he's a guy like us, only a bit insane. That said it's really difficult to juge SamFlam. Depending how you interpret it, it's either brain-damagingly stupid or refreshingly brilliant. The story starts simple - a young guy wants to become a superhero in a non-super mundane world. He meets a policeman, who's a little weirded out by the idea but is eager to help the protagonist not get arested/beaten up, and soon some more people sympathetic to the idea of superheroism show up. But as you settle yoursef to watch Kick Ass: The Anime, everything goes full bananas (I made a pun!). Basically it puts a fairly normal bunch of geeks in a world of often heavy-handed shonen/sentai parody with little to no continuity. The parody part is mosltly in "so bad it's good" teritory, while character developement and characters' reactions to the grand oddity their lives have become are treated seriously and with as much realism as possible. It creates a chaotic plot, jumping from one sentai trope to another whithout warning, which is not bizzare enough to call it a mind-screw, but surely is pretty surreal. First I thought the plot is a pile of smelly kaka with chunks of a good slice-of-life now and then, but looking back I realised the genius of it, which I cannot describe whithout spoilers, so I'm putting my interpreation in SPOILER section at the end of this review. As for other aspects, such as animation and sound, it's pretty standard - there are no grand desingns, super-fluent action scenes, or breathtaking backgrounds to marvel at, and music is so medicore you don't even pay attention to it. It seems the studio didn't put that much effort into making SamFlam, but it's good enough not to cringe. You're there only for the plot. I did enjoy Samurai Flamenco very much, in a sort wtf-am-I-watching way. Slice-of-life parts made me invested and it had some moments when I felt tears coming up my eyes. SamFlam derailed, then blew up and now it's orbiting Saturn. It made me so hectic I couldn't sleep whole night after watching it. Surely one of a lifetime experience. I shall give it 8 Sit Downs/10. SPOILER TL;DR After revealing that Flamenco is a magical word making your wishes come true, everything falls into place. All that weird stuff happening was Masayoshi thinking how cool it would be if X turned out to be true and the universe did his bidding, that's obvious. BUT is goes beyond that. After the Aliens arc he's back to the mundane world and is immidietly targeted by a stalker who attacks Masayoshi's friends personally. Keep in mind Masayoshi is STILL reality wraper. But he couldn't wish to harm his friends and have a tragic backstory, right? Oh, but he does. The whole "now it's sentai" part of the show starts IMMIDIETLY after Masayoshi proclaming his parents' death doesn't touch him this much and cannot be his origin story. He thought instead "I don't wanna this gritty Batman-style sh*t, I wanna fight mutants and aliens!" and so he does. Then he ends up in space, and needs to deus-ex-mahina himself from there, so he imagines some grander power explaining what's going on and putting him back on Earth. I'm pretty sure he didn't meet the will of the universe or whatever you wish to call it, but Masayoshi himself is an irregularity strugling to wrap his head around why he's living in a real-life sentai, so he explained it to himself like he understood it - that's why the explanation is so all over the place, taking bits from Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. Masayoshi sure does like shonen (sadly he didn't see Haruhi Suzumiya). Back on Earth, the thought of tragic backstory started surfacing again, possibly because Masayoshi already used his favourite tropes and cannot think of anything else. And that's why it's so important that he rescues Goto as Masayoshi, not Samurai Flamenco The Godlike Abomination - SamFlam would be complete with a tragic backstory, but it's time to turn the powers off and go for real life. It's funny how his wish for nemesis got fullfilled - said nemesis was one of the kids who Masayoshi called troublemakers. He wished they would stop being apathetic, that they would love him, and boy, it turned out like a deal with the devil. Either that or during ep 7 Masaoshi had gone mental and that whole thing's in his head.

This was a fascinating watch. To get some of the bigger picture stuff out of the way first, this show is pretty uneven. That seems to be purposeful, as the goal is to throw not only the audience off, but the characters as well. There are a lot of meta jokes about episode counts and viewership that work in the show's favor, but even though I can appreciate those elements, it doesn't change the fact that the show is very chaotic and occasionally opaque in its approach. Especially as it gets to the middle of the series, I think most audiences will have a split opinion on whether the direction of the series really works, and as someone who is a big fan of absurd escalation a la Gurren Lagann and absurd twists a la Bang Brave Bang Bravern, my mileage varied. At a certain point, the crazy variety the show implemented started to feel less purposeful and more there just to move the plot in a certain direction. That's not necessarily a flaw, but considering where the series really shines, I think a lot of that portion of the plot stands out as considerably weaker as a result, especially since the show could have leaned more into the humor to make it pop (again, a la Bravern). As for the more granular details, I think this show was at its best in the beginning and towards the very end because these characters are what make it work. Hazama's a bit of a mixed bag because many of his best elements seem to leech from him in the middle of the series, but he's also one of the major elements carrying the finale, so I can't be too harsh on him. Goto might be the best character in the show, but again, largely takes a backseat in the middle before getting a devastating finale that brings the series full circle in the more ways than one. A lot of the same can be applied to MMM, who also get some of the best comedy in the series while hitting some of the best emotional highs and lows. I love Kaname, just everything about the man proves he's essential to the series, start to finish. As for the rest of the cast, while I think there are a few highlights, a lot of the newly introduced characters for the middle section are pretty tropey and uninteresting. Overall, the ride was definitely worth it, even if it went through a rough patch. The show started and ended strong, and the journey was a good time regardless of the p(l)otholes. An underrated gem.

Without any specifics, in a way... This is the photo negative of Banana Fish and I am in love with it. This is Great Pretender that sticks the landing. This is real-world Gurren Lagann. Our coming of age with all the 90s Sailor Moon memories. This could end up being my favorite anime of all time. I feel like maybe watching it a decade later with the lenses I have now might've made me see what so many archaic posts here didn't seem to but wow. I think this is such a daring and whimsical and impressive piece of art. How they were able to lean into every single jump-the-shark curve ignoring any ridicule that could come (and did come) is fascinating. I binged it in a day, and maybe so much was lost in a week by week episode format but flying thru it non-stop, it all comes together. This was before the Avengers and Marvel franchises tried to go higher and higher with every sequel, and it called it. It called so much. It's a decade ahead of its time, and that I'm seemingly one of the few psychopaths that actually understand it makes me feel like I'm insanely a part of it. I love this work and I appreciate everyone who made this creation become what it is in the face of whatever 2013 was. We didn't deserve you and we thank you for your magic.

This show is for people who are huge fans of Super Sentai/Power Rangers shows, and absolutely no one else. If you've never seen an episode of Kamen Rider, this show is not only not for you, but it's a little frustrated that you're even watching it at all. I had the misfortune of being that unwanted viewer. Samurai Flamenco is a pastiche show, though a poorly communicated one. This is not a spoiler. You will enjoy the series SIGNIFICANTLY less if you don't know this. I feel like the show wanted you to pick up on it the moment the genre switches for the first time, but because the writing is clunky and poorly communicated, it just feels like a plot twist. It is not a plot twist. There are no real "plot twists" in the traditional sense in this show at all until the real-world aspect comes back. If you think it's building up to a plot twist? It isn't! It really isn't. The answer to why all the nonsense in this anime is happening is "hey, super sentai shows, am I RIGHT fellas", and if you don't go in with this in mind, this show is going to rate a 4 and you will feel robbed of something. So, a review: The anime cycles through various different genres: The vigilante, the sentai hero, the sentai team, and, three more genres, before concluding on a regular action/drama arc that actually carries itself REALLY well, with none of the pacing issues that plagued the previous mini-arcs. Does it mean anything? I don't know! The rest of the series is so wildly disorganized and I know so little about the genre that I can't pin down any sense of quality or intention. This show is REALLY weird! Despite the garbled, senseless storytelling, the characters are strong, distinctive, and behave naturally enough, and I was rewarded for sticking it out for them with the last few episodes. Even as the plot fades into obscurity, the characters are still clear in my mind, and I find myself attached to them despite having zero interest in the show. The ending made me cry and I still feel happy and fond about them even now, years later. Hm, what else...There's gay themes, but mostly as hands-off, "if you don't want them to be gay it can just be a fun jokey-joke! No in-text reciprocating because that would mean something concrete! They're not gay they're just dudes being dudes! Lesbian whomst???" coward's way of doing it. If someone recs you this show based on the presence of gay/bi characters, they're begging for scraps and you shouldn't trust their judgement, but it's still present and has real dramatic weight in a "gay love saves the day" sort of sense, so you can enjoy it for what it is. I guess. Overall, while I think the show wouldn't have been as interesting if it went from "Vigilante" straight to "real-world action-drama", I really wish the show had gone with 3 genres instead of trying to awkwardly speedrun through 7. It just didn't have enough episodes to do what it was going for. One of these genre arcs lasts an episode and a half. It was exhausting. 7/10 for lopsided viewing experience, saved from true mediocrity with the strength of the character writing.