Samurai Flamenco
Samurai Flamenco is a Japanese anime television series conceptualized by Manglobe and produced by Aniplex, Fuji TV, Kyoraku Industrial Holdings, Dentsu, Hobibox, Movic and DeNA. It was directed by Takahiro Omori, with Hideyuki Kurata handling series composition, Chinatsu Kurahana and Yoshimitsu Yamashita designing the characters, Masaki Yamada serving as main animator, and Agehasprings and Kenji Tamai composing the music. The series focuses on Masayoshi Hazama, a young adult who aspires to become a superhero despite having no superpowers. In doing so, he meets several people who support his cause.
It was broadcast for 22 episodes on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block from October 2013 to March 2014. Aniplex of America has licensed the series for North America. A manga series by Seiko Takagi and Shō Mizusawa, titled Samurai Flamenco: Another Days, was published in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy from October 2013 to July 2014, with its chapters collected in two volumes.
Plot
Male model Masayoshi Hazama decides to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a superhero, despite having no superpowers or the technology to create a high-powered suit. He becomes the hero Samurai Flamenco and begins to fight crime in the name of justice. Police officer Hidenori Gotō finds out about Samurai Flamenco and his real identity by a twist of fate, which leads to him getting involved into much trouble, especially when they come across enemies that were not thought to exist outside of fiction. Nonetheless, these two young men will come face to face with hardships of being crime-fighters while discovering what it truly means to be a hero of justice.Characters
Main characters
;Masayoshi Hazama;Hidenori Gotō
Mineral Miracle Muse / Flamenco Girls
;Mari Maya;Mizuki Misawa
;Moe Morita
Samurai Sentai Flamenger
;Anji Kuroki;Sakura Momoi
;Soichi Aoshima
;Hekiru Midorikawa
Antagonists
;King Torture;From Beyond
;Shintarō F. Okuzaki
;Haiji Sawada
Other characters
;Joji Kaname;Jun Harazuka
;Sumi Ishihara
;Akira Konno
;Totsuka
Media
Anime
The series, directed by Takahiro Omori and written by Hideyuki Kurata, was broadcast on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block from October 11, 2013, to March 28, 2014. It was simulcast by Crunchyroll. The episodes have been collected in eleven DVD and Blu-ray volumes released between December 25, 2013, and October 22, 2014. The anime is licensed by Aniplex of America in North America, Anime Limited in the United Kingdom, and Madman Entertainment in Australia.For the first part of the series, the opening theme for the anime is "Just One Life" performed by Spyair and the ending theme song is "Date Time", performed by Haruka Tomatsu, Erii Yamazaki, and M·A·O as their characters' band Mineral Miracle Muse. For the second part, the opening is "Ai Ai Ai ni Utarete Bye Bye Bye" by Flow and the ending is "Flight 23-ji" also performed by Mineral Miracle Muse.
Episodes
Episodes 6, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19 and 20 were written by Takahiro. All other episodes were written by Hideyuki Kurata.Manga
A manga series written by Seiko Takagi and illustrated by Shō Mizusawa, titled Samurai Flamenco Another Days, was serialized in Square Enix's Monthly GFantasy magazine from October 18, 2013, to July 18, 2014. Its chapters were collected in two volumes, released on March 27 and September 27, 2014, respectively.Mobile phone game
A mobage of Samurai Flamenco was released on February 28, 2014. It works on iPhone, iOS6 and Android. The genre is RPG.Reception
The series' early episodes were noted for their depiction of the protagonist confronting non-superpowered criminals and for introducing its core cast, who were often perceived as likeable. While Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network considered these initial episodes underwhelming, he reported that the series became more engaging as it progressed. Joseph Luster of Otaku USA compared these early installments to the films Kick-Ass and Super, noting Samurai Flamenco utilized similar concepts in a distinct manner. His colleague David Cabrera named it his favorite 2013 series, citing its multiple narrative transitions.A significant genre shift beginning with episode seven surprised reviewers. Kimlinger remarked that while the new arc might otherwise seem like a "baffling train wreck," its execution was highly effective, praising the integration of character actions with science fiction elements. Luster also reacted positively, observing that this shift provided further development for the protagonist Masayoshi and his allies as they confronted a new threat. Andy Hanley from UK Anime Network, while enjoying these episodes, expressed concern that the story might become overly serious. Reviewing the series' second half, Kimlinger wrote that initial surprise at its twists gave way to a "half-bored curiosity" due to a lack of narrative payoff; he criticized the delivery of certain story arcs and described some plot twists as nonsensical, though he praised the series' humor and its avoidance of stagnation. The animation quality was also criticized, with Hanley singling out episode 11 as particularly poorly animated.