[DreamSword]

Episode 8: Attack of the Army of Evil!

One of the things that made Kamen Rider Kuuga unique is that it took a much more grounded approach to the superhero genre. Asking questions such as "Why don't the police ever show up?" "How would the public react to the sudden arrival of monsters?" and "What kind of person would it take to rise up and be the hero that everyone needs?"

And while I found that approach and the answers provided to those question to be great(Kuuga is one of my favorite Toku ever, afterall), Samurai Flamenco takes a similar approach and goes almost in the polar opposite direction. The police work with the superheroes to chase down monsters as they would criminals and try to arrest them while also doing what they can to keep civilians safe. The monsters blow up not due to any sort of super heavy damage, but more so they can't be arrested and lead the cops back to King Torture. And Masayoshi, ever the soft-hearted man, feels incredibly saddened whenever a monster blows itself up rather than surrender.

But I think the biggest takeaway of the episode can be summed up in one not so simple word: Desensitization.

The biggest difference between Kuuga and Flamenco is that, with Kuuga, every Grongi was portrayed as a serious threat that took great effort to overcome, which in turn kept them as a foreboding and threatening force which constantly put the lives of everyone in Japan at risk.

Meanwhile, with Samurai Flamenco, the story takes many more cues from Toku such as Power Rangers. Sure, the monsters are a threat, but Flamenco and the Flamenco Girls are better. They're so good infact, that the monsters begin to be seen as less and less of a threat in both the eyes of the public and the government as time goes on. It gets to the point that even Masayoshi is more concerned with riding the high of being like some of his childhood heroes rather than reflected on what exactly this entire situation means for the people at large. It's to the point that it worries Goto(and apparently scares his girlfriend).

The balance between deconstruction and parody is great here by the way, and really reminds me of how Megas XLR handled its setting in that Megas also had its populace totally rolling with all of the craziness going on. Heck, the last monster fought in the episode? Its master plan is to steal all of the apples in Japan solely so no one else can have any. And this is the plan that causes Samurai Flamenco to use a recently acquired upgrade to his gear.

This episode is literally a handful of average Toku episodes rolled into one, and that's very much the point. What's funny is that while sure, there's definitely been a big shake-up in terms of the status quo, this still very much feels like its the same show we've been seeing since episode 1, and the narrative still keeps the core idea of commenting on and showcasing the possible cause and effect of what a Toku mindset and setting would have.

For some this is where the show dropped the ball, but for me, it's simply taking another avenue at delivering its overall themes and insight.