Samurai Flamenco and Flamenco Girl continue to work together to take on evildoers, although Flamenco Girl is more “enthusiastic” in her approach. With the bounty on their heads, though, criminals are teaming up to take the crime fighting duo on together. Outside of their crime fighting, Masayoshi lands a role on a superhero show, and Mari’s teammates begin to worry about her.
Masayoshi receives a package from his late grandfather, explaining to him the history of Samurai Flamenco; a hero he created to entertain Masayoshi as a child. However, Samurai Flamenco soon grew to into something greater than that. He became the embodiment of justice Masayoshi’s grandfather wanted to see in the world. And so, Masayoshi’s grandfather charges him with continuing his work.
Samurai Flamenco and Flamenco Girl go their separate ways, coming to the realisation that their views of justice aren’t congruent. Mari then recruits the other members of MMM to help her out as the Flamenco Girls, much to Goto and Masayoshi’s shock and horror (and my amusement).
The background we got for Samurai Flamenco this episode gave us some real perspective on the relationship between Masayoshi and his grandfather, too. Masayoshi was raised solely by his grandfather, and the character of Samurai Flamenco was created for him. No wonder he holds such a strong attachment to the character. His grandfather’s wishes that he continue on his work for justice will likely serve as the fuel for his actions from here on, too.
It’s interesting to note that Masayoshi and Mari actually work quite well as a team when they work together as equals. They took down the pack of goons quite easily, and their Double Flamenco Kick was quite impressive. However, it would seem Mari is unwilling to relinquish her role as leader of the pack. Coupled with her different take on justice, Masayoshi decides it’s best for them to part ways. Which is the smart decision here. If Masayoshi isn’t acting on his own notions of what is right, he’s miserable and will never achieve his goal of becoming a true hero. Even if he were to be recognised as such following Mari’s methods, he wouldn’t be happy with it and would probably end up hating himself. I think they handled the split quite well; it was clean and mature. What I really appreciate about Samurai Flamenco is this realism and the way relationships grow and behave naturally. There’s no excessive drama, which to me, actually makes scenes more powerful.
With the formation of the Flamenco Girls, Masayoshi now has rivals on the crime fighting front. This will probably lead to competition between the two groups, and likely be quite comical.
This new group will also prove to be more work for Goto, especially with the establishment of the Vigilante Counselling Group. Also important to note is the “Flamenco Partnership Proposal” he’s drafting. The promotional images for the series feature Goto wearing much more official and important looking regalia than his police uniform, so perhaps with this plan, he becomes an important representative that deals directly with Samurai Flamenco. Again, it’s great seeing Masayoshi and Goto’s relationship developing; Goto obviously cares a lot about Masayoshi and wants to help him achieve his dream. Even though this is the detriment of his relationship with his girlfriend, who is currently quite annoyed with Goto’s apparent lack of interest in the relationship. I really hope he doesn’t end up losing her because of Masayoshi, as that will set the boys up for a falling out.
If Goto’s plan does go through, though, it will definitely set us on track for Masayoshi achieving his dream of becoming a genuine superhero. And maybe finally donning that supersuit!!
Masayoshi is also becoming increasingly well-known and successful as a member of the entertainment industry. Managing to balance both this and his work as Samurai Flamenco will require some very good organisational skills on his part. Plus he also has to compete with the Flamenco Girls now. But if anyone can do it, it’s Masayoshi.
Talk about goto in the opening kinda give me a bad feeling about goto in the future, i mean black suit usually used for funeral and the scattering flower and the fact that goto standing on the edge of a cliff with kind of sad expression
It’s definitely foreboding, yeah. I’m still undecided if it’s Goto literally mourning someone (likely his girlfriend) or more a figurative representation of death (in that Goto is in mourning over the collapse of his relationship). If we use anime tropes as a basis for the construction of the scene, generally throwing flowers over a cliff is something a character will do when they’re broken up with someone, so I’m leaning towards the latter.