Anime Review: Samurai Flamenco
Masayoshi Hazama is an up and coming male model with a superhero fixation. Since superheroes don’t exist in real life, Masayoshi decides to become the first, as non-powered masked hero Samurai Flamenco. He goes out to fight minor crime like jaywalking and littering, and it doesn’t go well. His first adventure winds up with his costume being burned, but he meets kindly police officer Hidenori Goto.
The first few episodes are a reasonably realistic depiction of what it might take to be a real-life “superhero” in a world where none of the usual comic book plot devices apply. Until suddenly we learn that maybe this isn’t the normal world after all, and monsters and villains are real…or are they? Each plot twist takes things further down the rabbit hole until it seems to wrap all the way back around to the beginning.
This anime series by Manglobe ran from October 2013-March 2014. Discussing too much of the plot and character development would be highly spoilery, so the best I can say is that the major mysteries of the storyline are explained to most people’s satisfaction. Some minor matters are not given any resolution–they take place in the normal world setting, where we don’t always get proper closure.
A couple of content advisories: Masayoshi has a habit of winding up naked or shirtless. There’s also a couple of torture scenes, the show does a pretty good job of warning you they’re coming up, but people who are triggered by that might want to skip those scenes and have a friend describe the plot. Oh, and one character is way too fond of kicking men where it hurts.
This show is not for everyone–it starts slow, and is more realistic than some superhero fans may like, then takes a series of roller-coaster twists that might throw off the fans of more down-to-earth fare. But for those who persevere, there is a reward in a show that deals with the nature of our relationship with heroes, and the way we compensate for the brokenness inside us.
