And let it be known that Samurai Flamenco is God’s gift from Heaven.
Seriously this series is so damn good. No anime is as ridiculous and over the top as Samurai Flamenco is. This series is literally the master when it comes to escalating a story? Don’t talk to me about Kill La Kill and extraterrestrial clothing, this shit’s where it’s at. I was literally in tears watching this episode.
Hazama finally regroups with Goto and Harazuka aka Mad Stationery Scientist, and they escape together to try and defeat the Prime Minister…who turns out to be IRON MAN ARMORED POLITICIAN IZANAGI. Turns out his powers get stronger the greater his public support is. Genius. And that he’s not actually evil, IT WAS AMERICA NICE JUSTICE ALL ALONG. WHODA THUNK IT? And we get another revelation that he’s an alien! Alien Flamenco?! What’s next, the whole universe is a big bad? Are we approaching Gurren Lagann levels of epic here?
This series is absolutely ridiculous. We get to see Harazuka’s car churn out thumbtacks to prevent their car from being followed, but the thumbtacks will melt after awhile to prevent people from getting hurt! How thoughtful. Also, giant dusters? Flamenco Girls managed to make their return as well this week in ball-stomping fashion, literally. Mari is really quite the jerk and there is absolutely no way she’s scoring sympathy points with anyone with her tears and depression, but it’s good to see she’s back, with her real flaws in character back in hiding. Goto also upgraded to become Samurai Policeman this week. (badass!) Samurai Flamenco is just so happening.
Even with all this craziness though, it’s never pointless. The series does make a lot of meaningful political commentaries, going way beyond the usual black and white manner most anime take to villainy and all that. (see, it still makes sense! kinda!)
Some lines in particular I enjoyed:
PM Izanagi – “Power determines truth! Alone, truth has no power! The people want to be tricked! They seek positive news that can easily be understood!”
Now this is some cold hard truth that we see today. It bleeds into an earlier idea the series mentioned that mankind cannot be saved BECAUSE mankind itself is what needs to be ‘purged’. The people WANT to think they’re fighting for the ultimate good, and in the end we have many different groups with different beliefs fighting for their own ‘noble’ cause. They all want to be fighting the good fight. But sometimes we fail to see that by doing this itself we have completely eradicated any notion of what is ‘good’.
PM Izanagi – “[Heroes] are simply entertainers.”
This line is interesting as well. Heroes, or in this case, politicians like Izanagi himself are the icon the people need to ‘fight for that noble cause’. They’re there for the people to cling to.
I’m sorry this episode’s post is a lot clunkier than my usual prose format. There’s just so much craziness happening. I had to fit it all in (with caps!) so using the usual format just seems kind of weird.