[DreamSword]

Episode 12: Documentary! We are the Flamengers!

It's good to see that despite all the crazy toku shenanigans going on, at the end of the day, the very human element of Samurai Flamenco remains.

The latter half of this episode is more Super Sentai hijinks that one would expect from that show, even parodying Dancougar at one point, but just as much time is dedicated towards the more slice of life and deconstructive aspects that Flamenco rooted itself in in its early episodes.

And really, that's where the best parts of this episode end up for me, even as an unapologetic Power Rangers fan. The main point the episode makes it that, while sure, Masayoshi is out living his best life being part of a superhero team(heck, even Ishihara had a turnaround about his lifestyle), life itself isn't exactly just sitting around and waiting for him to swoop in. Adding onto that, work life and personal life very much separate things.

While Masayoshi is every bit of the passionate hero as he's always been, the rest of the Flamengers treat their service under the government as, well, a job, and while Masa would love for it to be otherwise, the team consists of coworkers, not friends. Just because you see and work with someone often, that's not the same as genuine companionship.

Things have changed since he's been gone, too. MMM is under threat of breaking up due to Mari disappearing after the King Torture fiasco, Harazuka has had his stationary research confiscated by the government, and Goto has gone back to being a patrol cop with the disbanding of the specialized unit that he'd helped form. With so much going on in the world, not everyone can keep up.

And can I just say that these scenes between Masayoshi and Goto, where they just chill at one of their apartments, hangout, and just kinda talk about stuff are probably my favorite scenes in the entire show? The two's' growing bond over the course of the anime has been completely genuine, and these scenes always do well to showcase that. They're so simple, but they do a ton for a characters, and it's the sort of thing I wish some other shows I've seen had.

With all that out of the way, the only thing left to note is that starting with this episode, Samurai Flamenco switches over to its second opening.

It's a good song for sure, but the opening sequence itself is a glorified slideshow. A very stylistic one, but a slideshow all the same. You can tell this show is low budget, but man have they been using that budget effectively so far.