Name(s): Samurai Flamenco / Samumenco / サムライフラメンコ
Format: TV series (22 episodes)
Studio(s): Manglobe

I think what bothers me about this show is not the many directions it takes throughout its run, but rather the transition in doing so. The concept of some normal guy’s dream of becoming a superhero gradually changing reality out of sheer passion has a lot to say about how fiction can influence people and add wonder to the world.

All of that is addressed in Samurai Flamenco, so it’s not a wasted premise or anything of the sort, just one that could be done better. A lot of the genre shifts can come across as a novelty with how sudden they are. You don’t always see the actual process of how the world gradually becomes more influenced by fiction, just when it happens and what it affects. When it changes to a full-on superhero show out of nowhere then that’s all it ends up being, and little more than that.

When the part about it that could be interesting, how it could somehow be plausible for supervillains to show up etc., is glossed over then the show can fail to become anything more than what it’s inspired by because of how loose its connections are to where it came from. Fortunately there are flashes throughout of the normal ideals Samurai Flamenco began from to make the show not become too unfocused or too redundant—and thank God for that.