Forum - View topicSamurai Flamenco (TV).
|
Goto page Previous |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
|
||
|
Aaaaand ... done. The power of love spoiler[saved the day and brought Goto back from crazy land.] I really loved the ending with Masayoshi spoiler[transforming into Samumenco because people were littering. He's back where he started, but has learned what it means to love and be a hero. It would have been truly tragic to see this wonderfully naive character being turned into a dark hero. We always knew those two were meant to be together, anyway.]
Also, this was the first episode where I cheered for Flamenco Girl getting violent. I'm still not 100% convinced this whole this didn't happen in one crazy mind or another, especially with spoiler[ending the show in front of a mental hospital and Masayoshi telling the punk he'll be waiting for him until he gets out, and that it was OK for him to become the villain if that's what he really wanted.] Although I feel a bit silly now for waiting for a sensible explanation for so long, seeing how things turned out in the last couple of episodes. Even though the WTF factor of this show was very much through the roof, I can't say I didn't enjoy the ride. I absolutely adored Masayoshi and Goto, their chemistry and interactions, everything. Not sure yet how to rate this, though. Have to get spoiler[naked] Masayoshi out of my mind first. Also, Blood-, you really are a cruel, cruel person. Through the whole flashback in the beginning I was worried sick, having your prediction in the back of my mind. 
|
|||
|
|||
Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
|
||
|
Gosh, those first couple of minutes were spoiler[ depressing to watch...
 ]
But Masayoshi spoiler[in all his naked glory confessing to Goto] was one of my highlights of the season.  We may not have gotten a spoiler[gay happy ending but i guess this was as close as it gets in a series not explicitly labelled BL. ]
After my initial frustration with the....sudden changes in this show subsided, i enjoyed it quite a bit. It certainly was never boring. I think it was a very unconventional anime as in "not giving a crap about genre or other conventions" and with the bulk of formulistic shows we get every season, i feel that it deserves praise for trying something different. Finally, i'm glad that everything wasn't explained as spoiler[being the fantasy of some crazy mind or someone in a coma or whatever else people were speculating about, that would have devalued the series in my opinion.] Of course, ny of the aforementioned reasons still could be true, but that's up to our own interpretation now. Rating this Very Good. |
|||
|
|||
Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
|
||
|
Oh God, the spoiler["Let's get married!"] part got to me. Oh well, at least the finale didn't leave off on some huge cliffhanger. Mari was also awesome with her fists against that kid.
|
|||
|
|||
Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
|
||
|
This show always shined when it focused on the characters. The last ep focused on the two main characters spoiler[but mostly on fujoshi fanservice. I didn't expect a marriage proposal! Least of all from a naked Masayoshi (how pandering can you get?
 ). Of course, it wasn't a *real* proposal, because Masayoshi is naïve and childlike (and a virgin, as Goto had to point out), and he probably doesn't quite understand all that it entails. Still, it was a real acknowledgment of their relationship and it was great. In the end, the characters ended up right back where they started--Mari is still enjoying the role of violent vigilante (who's excited by the increasing crime rates), Goto is still messaging his missing girlfriend from high school, and Masayoshi is still an extremely idealistic superhero. But now all three of them have a better understanding of and appreciation for their closest friends. And isn't that what the show was all about in the end?]
Satisfying conclusion to an uneven series. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I were a tokusatsu otaku. |
|||
|
|||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11355 |
|
||
|
Nice final episode, but too little too late. I think if they had jumped from somewhere around episode six into the final arc (with appropriate adjustments), I would have really loved this series. None of the lunacy in the middle was necessary to set that up (spoiler[we didn't even get a resolution about if Masa was going to be world president or whatever]). 11 episodes and out would have been a great series. Instead we got incomprehensible hogwash.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
|
||
|
I agree, Gina Szanboti. The only thing I would miss if the show were first 6 eps + final arc would be Mari's character arc, which I think was well done. But they could have found another way to make Mari do some soul searching (just give her a personal villain who targets Moe, or get Moe hurt while taking down street thugs). This would have been a much better, more consistent series without episodes 7-19 or so.
|
|||
|
|||
leatherhead333
 Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
|
||
|
I agree with the above too posters. I think the strongest part of the series has been it's main cast of characters. Whenever the show is focusing on their development it really shines but of course after episode 6 everything the show had going for it disappeared and with nonsensical super hero antics that were explained through one of the biggest "deus ex's" of the season.
Now obviously some people thought the change was awesome which is fine but i really think they just completely alienated fans of the first 1/4 of the series by going about things the way they did which i think overall is what hurt the series the most. It also doesn't help that they completely ignored our main cast and replaced them with the extremely uninteresting flamengers who ended up becoming irrelevant by the time things were all said in done anyway which makes me question why they were even introduced. This final arc was good because it was the show going back to it's roots but it's just to bad that those too upset about the series snorting enough crack to kill a blue whale midway through missed out on it. |
|||
|
|||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11355 |
|
||
|
When stalker-kid said he wanted Masa to spoiler[have a tragic past so he'd become a Dark Hero,] I so wanted him to reply,spoiler[ "Already got one, didn't work."] I was truly disappointed they didn't call-back that scene when given such a perfect opportunity.
|
|||
|
|||
DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
Episode 22 (final)
*spoiler[naked Masayoshi]*: "Love at me foe!" Well that happened, I guess you could say we had spoiler[bromance] in the end, but did much really change? Also how did the villain pull off all of the spoiler[appearing and disappearing when we found out he only had his death faked]? Samurai Flamenco has been one of the most controversial series of the year, because pretty much screwed itself up with story elements that did not make sense. They actually had a pretty good setting that they took time to create at the beginning, but like a gorilla with a guillotine for a chest, it just cut what good we had going and threw itself off a building. This was especially prominent when we were introduced to the Flamengers who really never went beyond be 2 dimensional. Every scene with the Flamengers just felt incomplete because I don't think they were made anything more than perhaps stereotypes or perhaps parodies of characters we just did not care about. Never cared about the music, nothing special about animation or art, and story elements were far from consistent. What it had going what it set up as an urban superhero and perhaps the original ensemble cast which were interesting. Actually forget what I said about the music, the EDs were actually nice. As for a rating, I give it overall Not really good, harsh rating, but they made a number of problems with this series that was just a mess of a narrative. |
|||
|
|||
|
Merida
Posts: 1945 |
|
||
I'm not sure if you meant that in a negative way, spoiler[but why is it automatically fujoshi fanservice when a guy confesses to another guy? And would you have called it "pandering" if it had been Mari instead of Masayoshi? Also, i'm pretty sure Goto is still a virgin, too...unless phone sex counts.] |
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
|
Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
|
||
|
I've been giving this series a shot for a while now. I think it peaked when he came back from the alien stuff, that should have been the end. Really even the Power Ranger stuff was a good conclusion. I liked the satire of the Japanese hero industry, but the further the stretched it out the less fun each episode was, and it became more of a "well I have to see where they're going with this" than "well I'm enjoying this episode for what it is." Solidly 6-7 out of 10.
|
|||
|
|||
danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
|
||
|
This show was [expletive] awesome!Frankly to me it had good meta commentary,witty dialogue and pretty great central characters( I agree that most of the Flamengers weren't as nearly as good as central characters). Plus due to the insane structure of the show it was consistently entertaining and interesting,albeit a bit messy.
ROCK ON SAMURAI FLAMENCO!!! |
|||
|
|||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23771 |
|
||
|
I really liked that finale, a lot. I had no idea what was going to happen from moment to moment - there was excitement, laughter and poignancy. And quasi-gayness. What more could you ask? Well, I guess I could ask to see Flamenco Girl spoiler[deliver one last testes hoof] ... oh wait, we got that too!
One of my biggest beefs with anime finales for fighting shows is we get action, action, action and then there's five seconds left for the "leave-taking" stuff. SF avoided that trap quite nicely. Everybody got to take a little bow in a very satisfying way. This was a very unique series which is not something, alas, that we can say for very many shows these days. I leave you with a jaunty Very Good rating, Samurai Flamenco-kun! |
|||
|
|||
ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
||
|
God damn, they actually did it. They actually went there. It was (like the rest of this show) completely insane in execution and didn't really work but god bless em for trying.
Final thoughts on the show overall: Truly, I don't even know what to say about it. It is so completely and utterly insane. Plenty of shows make me sit back and wonder "what is the writer thinking" but this is one rare one that made me think that sincerely. It seems like they were clearly going for something. But whatever the writers' intent, it did noooooot work in practice. Despite a few good parts, especially initially, this isn't a good show at all. It's a mess. But hey, god bless em for tying. I really mean that. I have a ton of admiration for what was clearly a tremendously ambitions and high concept project. I'd like to believe there is a parallel world out there things were they did things just a little different and it totally clicked and produced a masterpiece.
Or, even better, they could have just merged the key bits of the King Torture arc (really, only the last couple episodes mattered) into the final arc. Keep Mari's role the same but replace the villain with the kid from the final arc. And him torturing Mari replaces him tormenting the flamengers who would no longer exist. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group