Recap

Hazama’s message brings From Beyond out of hiding, and mass panic ensues. He resolves to fight them at all costs, but will the Flamengers be able to face such an overwhelming force?

That’s it. I’m done trying to understand anything in this show. Ever since Guillotine Gorilla, Samurai Flamenco has been some twisted mix of childhood dreams and human realities with a penchant for constant emotional whiplash. One moment the world is cold and heroism is a vain venture, the next our hero is able to burst forth with courage and righteousness, and save the day. It’s like the show really wants to be a deconstruction of tokusatsu, but in the end always decides to renege on the depressing payout at the last second and revert to the idealistic sensibilities befitting of the genre.

The implications made by this episode are just too many to count. Are they actually saying Super Sentai and the like have been real this entire time? Every time you sat down to watch Power Rangers, a city was actually getting attacked by a giant turtle with a stop-sign sticking out of its neck? It’s the kind of insanity I suppose I should be expecting by now, but somehow Samurai Flamenco managed to blindside me yet again. It’s a twist that puts even the show pre-Guillotine Gorilla in question. Like, when Hazama was on the cast for the Ensemble Rangers, were they actually attacking real monsters this whole time and no one even noticed? It seems like a bit of a stretch, but in the infamous vein of Valvrave, this show has already gone so far that there’s no sense in stopping now.

The one positive about the last minute revelation is that it might prove my one theory that the whole flashback to grandpa creating Hazama as a robot is actually true. Having Hazama, and hell, maybe all heroes in general, be some kind of creation would explain why they alone seem to have the power to destroy monsters just by punching and cutting them. I do love the cheesiness of a Nega-Hazama of sorts. It seems like having a rival who is everything like the hero except for his sense of justice is a rite of passage of sorts. I’ve finally stopped asking questions. I’m ready to just sit back and have some fun.