Samurai Flamenco: "Predetermined Quota"

It is 4 December 2013, and time for the ninth episode of Samurai Flamenco.

It is three months after King Torture's attacks on Japan began, and interest is waning among both the Japanese public and Samurai Flamenco's allies. Tensions are rising between Masayoshi and Mari, with the latter getting pretty dissatisfied with what she thought was going to be an exciting and varied vigilante life. Even Hidenori is getting tired of the situation, eventually losing his temper with both Masayoshi and Mari, and quitting helping them altogether.

There is a growing and ridiculous self-awareness in Samurai Flamenco. After staggering through an awkward transition stage over the last two episodes, the show about an obsessed tokusatsu fan has transformed into a tokusatsu parody. Masayoshi is fighting near-daily battles with mutated villains with names like Branding Piranha (pictured) and Whipping Walrus. While the tone is a little uneven, particularly in its final minutes - and we'll get to that, it is feeling like it has regained a lot of confidence after shifting the tone and context so significantly.

Samurai Flamenco: "Attack! Army of Evil"

It is 28 November 2013, and time for another episode of Samurai Flamenco.

The mysterious King Torture announces he will invade Japan with a series of deadly monsters, however those monsters keep getting defeated by Samurai Flamenco and the Flamenco Girls. Hidenori begins to worry about how enthused Masayoshi has become about the conflict. Mari begins to feel jealous of how Masayoshi is dominating their monster battles.

This really has become a quite peculiar series. The first six episodes followed a clueless male model attempting to be a superhero in a mundane world. The seventh suddenly introduced a genuine monster that kills several police officers before killing itself in an explosion. I really was not sure what sort of series was going to emerge after such a weird change in tone and content. Now that I have watched the eighth episode, I am still not sure. I'm intrigued, and that does count for quite a bit.

Samurai Flamenco: "Change the World"

It is 21 November 2013, and time for another episode of Samurai Flamenco.

So Samurai Flamenco follows the naive male model Masayoshi Hazama, who has decided to assume the tokusatsu (Power Rangers and their ilk) persona of Samurai Flamenco, and to head out onto the streets of Tokyo to fight crime. Over the first six episodes his crusade has escalated somewhat: a local pop idol and her back-up singers have assembled costumes of their own to become the Flamenco Girls. A TV network put a reward out for anyone able to unmask Samurai Flamenco. A crazy inventor fitted Masayoshi out with weapons and gadgets derived from office supplies.

In this seventh episode Masayoshi discovers that his parents did not simply die in an accident when he was a child, but were murdered in a robbery gone wrong. He also discovers that his grandfather, who created and wrote the Samurai Flamenco character, wrote that tragic origin into his television script. Then a police raid on a drug laboratory goes haywire as one of the drug dealers mutates into a giant homicidal cyborg gorilla with a guillotine in its chest.

Samurai Flamenco: "Capture Samumenco!"

It is 14 November 2013, and time for another episode of Samurai Flamenco.

With a huge reward out for anybody willing to unmask Samurai Flamenco, Masayoshi finds himself in an increasingly desperate situation. Thankfully scientist Jun Harazuka is on the case to provide Samurai Flamenco with the superhero technology he requires.

It has close to 18 months since I last reviewed an episode of Samurai Flamenco, such is my lax attitude to watching anime. Thanks to a DVD release by Australian distributor Madman, however, it has suddenly become a lot more convenient to watch. A quick recap of the series: Masayoshi Hazama is a young male model and aspiring actor who is such a fan of Japan's Power Rangers-style superhero shows that he has put on a costume, called himself Samurai Flamenco, and has started fighting small-scale crime on the streets of Tokyo. It's a decision that has already gained him a sudden level of celebrity, a sidekick (Flamenco Girl) and now a bounty for him to be publicly unmasked. It is sort of a Japanese animated take on Mark Millar's Kick Ass, only less distastefully violent.

Samurai Flamenco: "The Meaning of Justice"

It's been a while since I've reviewed an episode of Samurai Flamenco (this is the fifth), so it's probably worth a quick reminder of what this anime is and what it's about. Masayoshi Hazama is a young male model and aspiring actor whose love for tokusatsu TV shows (think Ultraman or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) is so extreme that he's taken to putting on a costume and taking to the streets of Tokyo as the masked vigilante Samurai Flamenco. His low-rent exploits - basically returning lost purses and interrupting muggings - have attracted the attention of the public, the scorn of the local police, and the adoration of the novelty-obsessed news and entertainment media.

It has also earned him a sidekick, Flamenco Girl, actually a successful pop starlet named Mari Maya with a penchant for excessive physical violence. The contrast between the polite, awkward Samurai Flamenco and the brash, brutally violent Flamenco Girl forms the basis for this episode, "The Meaning of Justice".

Samurai Flamenco: "Idol Devastation"

Hazama's crusade as Samurai Flamenco seems to be taking off. He's receiving combat training from tokusatsu legend Kaname Joji, he's successfully intervening to stop genuine street crimes, and his popularity online seems to be growing and growing. When he steps in over his head, however, things look grim - until the sudden arrival of Flamenco Girl, the sidekick he didn't know he had.

Ever since I started watching Samurai Flamenco I've been noting how it's skirted the line between being something specifically Japanese and being a riff on American works like Mark Millar's Kickass or James Gunn's Super. This episode pushes things pretty firmly on both directions. It draws pop starlet Mari Maya into Hazama's superhero plans, after some pretty clear foreshadowing last episode. It's great to have another female character in the series, even if she appears to slide pretty smoothly into stereotype.

Samurai Flamenco: "Flamenco vs. Fake Flamenco"

Video recordings of Samurai Flamenco's antics have gone viral across the Internet, leading one media outlet to place a significant reward for anyone revealing his identity. Hazama's manager Sumi Ishihara has a strong suspicion, but Hazama refuses to confirm it. Things are complicated when, on a TV variety show, classic TV star Kaname Joji outs himself as Samurai Flamenco, leading to a showdown on the street between Hazama and the ageing TV star.

I think this may be my favourite episode of this series so far: it cleverly enriches Hazama's tokusatsu fandom by introducing a retired tokusatsu star: Joji, who used to star in the TV show The Red Axe. It also prominently features one of the weirder phenomenons of Japanese television - to me, anyhow - which is the weird genre of talk show where a panel of celebrities watch and comment on YouTube videos. I saw a bunch of these while on holiday in Tokyo, and they're pretty much exactly how they're depicted here.

Samurai Flamenco: "My Umbrella is Missing"

Professional model and wannabe superhero Masayoshi Hazama continues his secret quest to become a real-life superhero. He shouts at people for littering. He hassles a woman in the middle of the night over where she puts her recycling. For his sort-of-friend, police officer Hidenori Goto, Hazama's attempted heroics are nothing but trouble as public complaints about a masked local nuisance continue to increase.

This is a strong second episode that maintains the comedic tone of the first, while slowly expanding both the series' extended cast of characters and the depth of its two protagonists. Here we are introduced to Hazama's pushy, ultra-aggresive agent Sumi Ishihara and tokusatsu fan and up-and-coming pop singer Mari Maya.

Samurai Flamenco: "Samurai Flamenco Debuts!"

Masayoshi Hazama is a bright-faced optimistic, and ridiculously naive male model. He's also a lifelong fan of "tokusatsu" TV shows: those visual-effects heavy Japanese action shows like Ultraman, Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. He's such a big fan, in fact, that he's decided - despite having no supernatural powers, technology or even combat abilities whatsoever - to become a superhero. His first attempt ends with him beaten up and naked in an alleyway, which brings him to the attention of bored, cynical police officer Hidenori Goto.

Samurai Flamenco is a 2013 comedic anime, originally broadcast on Fuji TV. I've only watched the first episode, but it's a pretty likeable sort of comedy so I may go back and watch some more. It has been licensed in Australia by Madman Entertainment and has been streaming on Crunchyroll. It's basically Kickass or Super, only done with a much lighter touch and in an understandably much more Japanese style.