[DreamSword]

Episode 18: Flamenco in Space!

That's literally all I can show you out of this episode without spoilers.

If you felt like I was being pretentious when I called Samurai Flamenco "postmodern" then this episode should be all that's needed to prove it.

It's also the kind of episode where, had you not been following everything that the show has been doing up to this point, it spends the last few minutes of it outright spelling it out for the audience.

If you want the short version of everything that goes on in this episode, then all you really "need" to know is that, whereas the previous episode was Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, this one is straight up The End of Evangelion. And no I am not friggen kidding.

But if you want more details and my own personal analysis, then continue on. So, as it turns out, Alien Flamenco was actually responsible for nearly every enemy group in the entire show so far. They're the one who gave King Torture his alien heart, the one who took over most of the world, thus causing the Japanese government to create From Beyond, and well, you know the rest.

Alien Flamenco's' plan is to soar throughout the universe; Assimilating everyone and everything into one collective consciousness and thereby eliminate all evil from the universe. They even invite Masayoshi to join them. To evolve and become as one with the collective. In the most hilarious counterargument to the proposition ever though, Masayoshi denies the prospect of forced evolution. Because while Alien Flamenco's' words make sense, Masa does not.

It's then that the fight goes full Ultraman with both Flamenco growing giant-size, and Alien Flamenco uppercutting Samurai Flamenco into the moon. But, through both luck and perseverance, Masayoshi manages to win via uppercutting Alien Flamenco into the far reaches of space at mach 2. I'm sure that eventually their mind will stop. Just as Masayoshi begins to lose consciousness due to the lack of oxygen on the moon as well as the injuries that sustained from the fight.

And then Masayoshi literally meets the writer of the anime. No I'm not joking.

Okay, so, Masa wakes up in a paradise full of things that he loves; Action figures, DVDs, the merch of any Toku fan, and strangely enough, they all reflect the various people he's met throughout this entire show.

God is there(no joke), and as the Universe's Will, it proceeds to lay out everything to Masayoshi.

See, the reason that everything has gone so crazy over the last twelve episodes is because of Masayoshi's' own subconscious desires. He wished to live the sort of life lead by the various superhero stories that he loved, and his wishes actually came true.

In the world of Flamenco, anyone with especially strong personalities and ideals can literally reach out and mold the world to their desires. And because Masayoshi's' wishes were granted, God literally pulled in enemy forces from parallel worlds for Samurai Flamenco to fight. Beyond Flamenco, Prime Minister Flamenco, and Alien Flamenco? All of them were alternate universe versions of Masayoshi, all with their own way of seeking out justice.

The reason it came to an end and Masayoshi is now meeting his creator is because, simply put, Masayoshi ran out of wishes in terms of superheroics. God does tell him though that if Masayoshi really wants, he can easily open up the fabric of reality again and create new foes for Samurai Flamenco to face. His story doesn't have to end here. Heck, the alternative is rather boring.

It's during this conversation that so many things are laid to the forefront. When you get right down to it, aren't all of the stories we read, watch, whatever, the life stories of the characters we indulge in? And in that, writers, creators, they are in turn the Gods of their own invented universes. And it's all in the name of entertainment or attention seeking at the end of the day. Masayoshi literally shakes the foundation of everyone's' lives, because he IS the main character. And in the end, he himself realizes it's not right to keep stringing everyone along.

There's something else made apparent here too. Something every big bad up to now has had in common is the seeking of a collective consciousness. Groupthink, mob mentality; it's all very dangerous stuff, and even if you heavily disagree or even dislike what someone else thinks or has to say, individuality is far more precious and mentally stimulating than everyone simple expositing the same things over and over. Masayoshi manages to stand out because, even if many of his beliefs aren't exactly unique, he's genuine, whether people agree with his stance on life or not.

In the end, Masayoshi declares that whether God decides that Samurai Flamenco's' story is over or not, Masa will never quit trying to be a hero, as it's what he truly loves and believes in. And with that, the universe is set back on its proper course, and Masayoshi returns home; Goto having waited for him this entire time.

Fun fact by the way, the Universe Will's' true form is shown to be a tesseract, which for those not in the know is a shape that we as humans can't actually fully comprehend due to it existing in the 4th dimension. That's actually pretty smart!

But hey, despite coming off like a series finale, we still have a few more episodes left to go! And I'm sure there's still plenty more avenues of this story and these characters left to explore.