![\"flamencogoto2\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/flamencogoto2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nEat your heart out, Agent Coulson.<\/em><\/p>\n While Samurai Flamenco<\/i> is primarily focused on costumed superheroes, the first defender of justice the audience sees in action is far less flashy.\u00a0 Goto is a regular beat cop who starts the series working out of one of those tiny corner police stations that seem to appear in every single anime series ever.\u00a0 As he gets tangled up with the show\u2019s other heroes, Goto quickly becomes the show\u2019s voice of restraint, often making the argument that it\u2019s impossible to enforce every law and regulation a modern society has in place.\u00a0 He\u2019d sooner ensure a drunken salaryman makes it home safe than arrest him, and he\u2019s okay with letting minor infractions slide if police resources would be better used elsewhere.\u00a0 Where other characters have an ironclad \u201csee evil, fight evil\u201d policy, Goto focuses on the bigger picture and tries to work for the greater good.<\/p>\n The series seems to take a mixed view of Goto\u2019s approach to fighting injustice.\u00a0 On the one hand, he\u2019s clearly portrayed as the most rational of the protagonists, and often gets stuck resolving problems created by the other characters.\u00a0 The costumed heroes can only be successful with the help of the police.\u00a0 On the other hand, the series makes a pointed argument that Goto\u2019s approach will never lead to any kind of change in society.\u00a0 The people of the city know that the police will deal with any major criminals, but they also feel as though they can get away with small misdeeds since no one will bother to stop them.\u00a0 Goto may be able to alleviate the symptoms of evil in society, but the show\u2019s writers argue that he can never cure it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n They’re here to kick ass and sing catchy pop songs, and they just ran out of catchy pop songs.<\/em><\/p>\n Three idol singers roll up to a crime scene in a pink Hummer.\u00a0 Dressed as masked magical girls, they beat the bad guys to a pulp with the help of taser-based weaponry.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a setup for a cheap joke about anime tropes; it\u2019s business as usual for the Flamenco Girls.\u00a0 While the lead singers of Mineral Miracle Muse were initially far better equipped to fight crime than the show\u2019s titular hero, they became stuck in the role of sidekicks by virtue of being second to appear on the scene.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Mari, Moe, and Mizuki still prowl the city streets, looking for opportunities to ambush and incapacitate criminals.\u00a0 If they happen to protect the innocent in the process, then all the better.<\/p>\n While they may be as close as Samurai Flamenco<\/i> ever gets to a comedy relief team, the Flamenco Girls form an important part of one of the series\u2019 most important debates.\u00a0 By habitually applying excessive force, they ensure that their efforts will be successful, and their violent brand of justice ends up being a deterrent to would-be criminals.\u00a0 However, the show seems to argue that the shock and awe approach doesn\u2019t make someone a hero.\u00a0 While the Flamenco Girls are able to defeat villains easily, they never receive the fame and admiration that Samurai Flamenco gets.\u00a0 Beating up bad guys may stop crime and garner attention, but it won\u2019t inspire anyone to work for good.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This isn’t a clever one-liner. He’s seriously telling someone not to litter.<\/em><\/p>\n When we first meet Masayoshi Hazama and his costumed alter ego, he\u2019s essentially a punch line, by which I mean he gets beaten up repeatedly for the sake of comedy.\u00a0 However, his early failures in combat bring out what makes him unique among the show\u2019s heroes: he would rather lose a fight than do nothing at all.\u00a0 Samurai Flamenco\u2019s initial success lies in getting people to talk about him, and, more importantly, what he\u2019s standing up for.\u00a0 Because he starts his career by hassling jaywalkers and umbrella thieves, Samurai Flamenco shows people that not having to do the right thing is no excuse for not doing it anyway.\u00a0 His unique style of heroism earns him support from others, who help him become more capable of actually fighting against evildoers.<\/p>\n As the title character, Samurai Flamenco naturally ends up representing the show\u2019s favored form of heroism.\u00a0 What makes him different from the others is that he fights against the absence of good, rather than simply going after evil directly.\u00a0 We get to see his crusade for justice gather support from the public, who start trying to emulate his focus on doing the right thing.\u00a0 Still, that doesn\u2019t mean the series lets Samurai Flamenco off the hook for his own mistakes.\u00a0 He\u2019s constantly in over his head, dependant on the other heroes and an increasingly awesome arsenal of office supplies to keep him alive.\u00a0 Sure, he\u2019s the only one who can change the world, but he literally has to be crazy to try, and relies on cooler heads to support him.<\/p>\n Much like its titular hero, Samurai Flamenco<\/i> isn\u2019t without its flaws (initially slow pacing, inconsistent animation quality, etc.), but there\u2019s still a lot to like.\u00a0 If you enjoy superhero stories for the moral questions they present, it\u2019s definitely worth your time.\u00a0 And if that doesn\u2019t convince you, I have two words: stapler nunchucks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While Kill La Kill has been grabbing the lion\u2019s share of attention this season, it\u2019s not the only series to offer clever commentary on a well-established genre.\u00a0 In contrast to Kill\u2019s shark-jumping action parody, Samurai Flamenco has been subtly questioning the core elements of masked superhero franchises like Kamen Rider.\u00a0 While the show\u2019s biggest strength [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Flamenco Girls: The Armed Vigilantes<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nSamurai Flamenco: The Classic Hero<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n