Recap: A bunch of stupid stuff happens but it’s all awesome.

Okay, so I now totally accept that they have abandoned the heavier plot of maintaining a high moral code in a society whose morals are crumbling. Now that I have reached that acceptance, this show has become awesome. It’s about justice shining through nomatter how much crazy gets thrown at your face. It’s about how far can you take the concept of a previously normal world getting Tokusized. The results seem to be: pretty friggin far. My favorite part is the reveal of Kanade Joji. I’ll let this skype conversation best describe it.

Marlin Clock: so hes an actor who played a super hero who pretended to be another super hero who turned out to actually be a super hero
Iro: okay then

The new team looks pretty interesting too. I was worried that working in new main characters this late in the game would be hard, but their eccentricity makes them pretty easy to accept in this new bizarre world of Samurai Flamenco. Not quite sure why we needed full crotch shots of everyone’s underwear preferences but at least they were dolling out some equal opportunity fanservice there. When everyone started coming out wearing the same Flamen Red uniforms I was dying, it’s probably the best joke you can make. With a bunch of skilled people, of course they’re going to assume they’re the leader because everyone wants to be the Red Ranger. I’m a little worried why the Pink Ranger uses fetish ropes in her attack and calls it lynching, but I guess every group needs a wild card.

That said, there’s still this weirdly sinister edge that is almost accentuated by how cartoony the rest of it is. This week’s villain is your typical monstrous ham that you’d find in any sentai show, but then he kisses a guy and blood shoots out of every orifice in his face I was expecting maybe a few more deaths before we were done here, but again Samurai Flamenco finds a way to just make it feel so much more hardcore.

Speaking of the villain, that was definitely part of the reason I loved the new change. Off the bat, From Beyond announcing their presence with something out of a 90’s metal band was just perfect. Other than the horse dude, King Torture’s henchmen didn’t have much personality. This guys creepy mannerisms, combined with that hilarious purposely low-res introduction video just sold me completely. The Power Rangers has a special place in my heart, so when he powered up and turned into a kaiju and the Flamengers transformed into a mech to counter it, my inner five year old was just unleashed. I also love at the end how we got one of those typical “BUT YOU HAVE ONLY DEFEATED THE WEAKEST ONE OF US!” spiels from the new bad guys.