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「猛攻!悪の軍団」 (Moukou! Aku no Gundan)
“Fierce Attack! The Army of Evil”
Continuing on from last week, I notice a common theme here – animals are being crossbred with household items to become monsters. At first I thought this was a joke, but it’s no laughing matter, these monsters are legit. Whoever King Torture is, he’s here to stay and wreak havoc on the city. This is seriously turning into a superhero-type show that has the hero fighting off episodic monsters and the hero never seems to fail or lose. To me, it’s obvious that a lot of the earlier mentions of heroes reminded me of Power Rangers. Now, it’s impossible to get the Power Rangers references out of my head – monsters appearing out of nowhere with some mastermind is trying to take down Samurai Flamenco. It bothers me that there’s no logical explanation behind the attacks or motives, but it’s also somewhat fun to watch. I hope that somewhere along the line, someone explains to me how this can be happening. And also, why is no one in the city that frightened by the fact that monsters appear out of nowhere and “attempt” to kill people (although there are no causalities after the gorilla)? The only people that seem worried are the governments’ upper management that can’t seem to decide what to do. At the same time though… if no one is dying, what are they supposed to do? I guess they’re just depending on Samurai Flamenco and the girls to get rid of these issues for the time being.
As interesting as it is to watch Masayoshi and the girls take down giant monsters, I’m glad that there’s another aspect to the show that focuses the rest of the cast that doesn’t play superhero. Seeing Hidenori play a normal cop in action is a nice contrast to the upgraded stationary weapons that Masayoshi uses. Also, I find that Hidenori and Sumi don’t have such a distorted outlook on life right now. While Masayoshi is living the life he’s imagined – taking down monsters, and skyrocketing his career – I think he’s riding a high right now that isn’t going to stay that way for long. He’s also lost a lot of the genuine interest in other people for the sake of advancing his career and I think that’s what Hidenori’s gf was hinting at. You can see the drastic change from his concerns of the “monsters” dying at the beginning, to his perception of killing “monsters” at the end while watching himself on TV. While I don’t think this is the fault of King Torture, I do think that Masayoshi has lost sight of the reasons for fighting monsters. He’s probably getting carried away by the fact that both his superhero career and his modeling/acting career are advancing so fluidly.
I’ve been calling them “monsters”, but it’s true that I also think they’re humans. Similar to Masayoshi, I believe that at some point, they were regular humans that King Torture has either brainwashed or corrupted in order to transform them. They’re also quite loyal to him to self-destruct whenever they’re close to dying to ensure that no secrets are leaked. Up until this point, it’s almost like King Torture really is bad for the sake of causing chaos in the city. Does he have a personal vendetta towards Samurai Flamenco? We’ll have to see. The more interesting piece would be to find out who he is, but I doubt that will be revealed until much later.
TL;DR – @RCCherrie: So all that from last week is as real as real can be. Hmmm… That totally changes the direction that I thought #samumenco was headed.
Totally surprised to see things were for ‘real’, although I still think this show hasn’t shown us all its cards yet.
The ‘monsters’ are so pathetic (“We managed to buy up all the apples” – what’s next, stealing 40 cakes?) that it all strikes me as very fishy, and I do wonder if “King Torture” is really the sleazy website guy who keeps chasing the manager.
There are more twists to come, I’m sure!
I think part of the reason he has come to disregard the monsters is due to them blowing themselves up whenever he foils their plans. It would make it harder to sympathize with them as they continue to kill themselves no matter what Masayoshi does.
This episode was really, really weak. I could see they were going for a parody of old supervillians but it really wasn’t funny at all. I was pretty bored through the whole ep. Here’s hoping they step it up if they intend to stick with the fantasy plotline because right now it’s looking like the show totally jumped the shark.
I love how everyone is stack downvoting any posts that say the episode is weak (a lot of people seem to agree even outside this blog). Are you that insecure that you try to bury opposing opinions?
Calling it now, King Torture is Gotou’s girlfriend trying to make him stop spending so much time with Masayoshi. While she couldn’t kill him, the fights changed him and now she’s trying to use that to separate them… or something. After this twist nothing is impossible for Samumenco.
Honestly I had thought the theory of this being something that other agency guy did seemed pretty likely but it seems to be heading in a different direction with since the monsters seem to be real considering how they’re showing hints that the monsters also care about each other and have a goal.
This show and golden time left me confused this week. I am not a big fan of where both appear to be heading.
The episode was indeed pretty weak. I’ve barely been so disappointed like this. The sudden plot and style twist is totally messing up the promising start of the series. It’s like the editors didn’t know how to move on and hastily took something out of the drawer, which totally FAILED! The missing preview in the last ep pretty much proves that.
I can hardly imagine that it will get better from here on, after all that nonsense …
Torture said he has a big plan behind sending monsters randomly just like that. so we’ll have to wait.
about motive?well, Torture keep burning samumenco’s voodoo dolls. so I am still stick to the fact he had some connection to samumenco. namely, Masayoshi’s parents and grandfather, I guess they were sworn enemies or something.
however, the thing that caught my attention the most this ep is the ending, again (it’s not so surprising I guess).
the conversation between Masayoshi and Hindenori tried to put the super-sentai stuff under control. the super-sentai was indeed fun to watch, but samumenco needs to keep its unique nature, and that’s what the conversation was coming to do.
but what was coming behind it was mostly intriguing:
Masayoshi finally fulfilling his dream as superhero, yet as we see, Hidenori is reluctant about that.
the conversation between them went weird. it was like they talked in different context. Masayoshi was talking about the super-hero perspective and Hidenori more like from the perspective of the cop/detective.
it’s not bad or something..but they seemed not to understand the other intention.
in the end Goto wanted to say something “are you…” but he didn’t get to finish the sentence.
and there is more, in the last minutes, Hidenori’s GF (would you mind to show up already?!?! I might think you’re Torture LOL) texted that masayoshi’s eyes are scary, and the interviewers in TV said he(aka Masayoshi) has some different “aura”.
Hidenori is feeling like that too, we can see it through their conversation..
so..what really is going on with Masayoshi? I don’t quite feel the change, but that brings quite the winds of change. so far Masayoshi was always presented as the..optimal superhero, but now it’s implied he isn’t exactly that way.
I wonder what’s ahead of us in that matter and how exactly Torture is involved.
p.s
some people say that the series is “ruined” ever since the 18th minute in ep06.
I must say I disagree. although it’s quite a change, a shocking one, and now samumenco has filled with more super-sentai stuff, I still think we can see samumenco features here, and it’s still samumenco, with a bit of change. besides, the whole ep was indeed fun to watch even with all those super-hero stuff.
so, my love to samumenco hasn’t change, and I am still intrigued what else is hidden there.
p.s 2
by any chance that samumenco is now fulfilling those “expectations” you thought about before the series has started?
p.s 3
if all falmencos are going to establish a team, we need a slogan. like of “go go power rangers”..we need something like “go go samumencos!”. any suggestions? 😛
I don’t think Goto’s girlfriend is Torture (I could be wrong damn I want her to be introduced) I have a feeling the guy who keeps talking to Masayoshi’s manager is behind it since he said he was “bored” an episode or 2 ago.
A possible catchphrase would be “Flamencos Unite!”
LOL, I was kidding about Goto’s GF being the Torture. of course it’s on the table..THO unlikely now IMO
I have been thinking about that guy who seeks for rating. he also puts interest in Masayoshi and samumenco (and in Masayoshi’s manager :P) yet, I don’t think he’ll go this far burning samumenco’s voodoo dolls, not to mention killing cops through Gorilla guillotine. plus, in the OP he seems in par with the other good guys.
so, although he seems like a possible suspect from what we have seen, I still not convinced enough.
someone suggested it might be Red-Axe. that’s also doesn’t feel right due to the above reasons as the journalist guy.
I am sticking to the fact it’s someone who had interaction with samumenco parents and grandfather. who it is?maybe someone we still haven’t seen…
of course it can be the prime-minister, he keeps his mouth shut in those meetings. LOL (kidding again, or not..I am not even sure HaHa).
p.s
“Flamencos Unite!” – nice^^ that might sounds good in Japanese with the right tone, of course, non other than Mari’s tone 😛
If the OP is any indication, we won’t meet his GF since, according to the OP’s hints, she’s dead.
For some reason I feel that Torture could also be a blood relative of Masayoshi, because he seems to have such a big hate for Flamenco. Maybe’s he’s even Masayoshi’s grandfather or parents. It’s not like we see them die anyway. Ever since I played Final Fantasy IV, I’ve learned not to trust character deaths unless you see the character die right in your face, haha.
Currently the main differences between Power Rangers is that the bad guys blow up at the end of the first fight and in Power Rangers it takes 2 one normal one and one giant sized, the other huge difference is that there isn’t good giant robot (at least not yet) 😛
Anyways I’m excited to see where this will go from here and hope we finally meet Goto’s girlfriend soon.
This show is definitely fun to watch, though a little underwhelming… But this episode had some MAJOR animation issues in some points. I hope they raise the standards a bit.
The show just become full-on tokusatsu. Plus some animation hiccups.
https://randomc.net/image/Samurai%20Flamenco/Samurai%20Flamenco%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
So that’s what happened to Jessie’s Arbok.
Count on /a/
Has SF some reality alteration powers?
The world keeps molding itself to give him his desires, but doing a clumsy job of it.
He wanted to compete with Flamenco Girl. Bam, a mysterious scientist contacts him and starts designing science fiction gadgets.
He wanted a better origin? It turns out his parents were murdered.
He wanted villains? Bam, GG necksnapping.
Villains are too violent and powerful? Bam, they get weaker and weaker. The second villain goes from killing to kidnapping. The third villain just targeted SF. The fourth one was going to make people gossip more. Eventually you had a villain much, much, much weaker than GG who was just stealing fruit.
But the running theme of it is that no matter how much reality alters itself to let him play the hero, no matter how much he tries to be the hero, he feels empty and hollow. He realizes deep down that what he’s doing isn’t real, that he’s the one creating this threat just for the sake of his own glory. No matter how much he tries to be a hero, he realizes that that’s just the dream of a boy.
But he can’t accept that, and he’s just falling, further and further into his delusion.
That’s an interesting insight you make there. More interesting in light of Hidenori’s GF’s comment at the end of the episode.
Watch out! Bcuz the next villain will be ‘dun’dun’dun’ A LITTERBUG!!!
Seriously, this show is mailing it in fast. It’s time for this guy to wake up.
Does Kosugi-san voice King Torture as well? Why do I get the feeling that Jouji is a villain here?
this show just went retard,i drop this shit till they clean this mess
See you next week.
The whole robotic animal thing reminds me of the bosses in the Megaman X games. 🙂
But yeah, I hope there’s some kind of plausible explanation for their existence, or it’s kinda gonna ruin the show for me. It was generally realistic up to this point, so I hope the show doesn’t just toss that aside to further the plot…
Yeah, I’m not sure if you got this, but those were not regular household items. Remember the horse guy? He was actually one of these…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wooden_horse_(device)
The things monsters are combined with are a mixed bag, really. Since the whole theme of the monsters is torture, I expected them to be all torture-themed. But we started with a guillotine (an execution device), then went to a hot pot (I suppose it could be used as both an execution device and as a torture device), a fishing rod (?), a wooden horse (finally, a proper torture device), and, uhh, a wheel? So yeah, can’t really see the pattern so far.
Oh yeah, almost forgot: King Torture himself seems to symbolize the greatest torture of them all: eating a cactus.
So that was the meaning behind his threat to Sapphire about riding him as punishment. Thanks for the link.
So I guess no one here watches Pretty Cure or Kamen Rider? Thats pretty much what the hero motifs and villian ones come from.
Kamen Rider? Does the old Kamen Rider Black counts for you? Because that and Ryuki were the only ones I have watched.
WTF is Arbok doing in this anime, in this episode, as a Kaijin no less?
I’m glad they pulled this off quite nicely. Automatically my AOTY hands down.
> Hmmm… That totally changes the direction that I thought #samumenco was headed.
Its because everybody compare Samumenco with KickAss, its not. Samumenco is not “wannabe superhero on normal world”. its either
a ) normal people (Gotou) live on Kamen Rider world
OR
b ) It’s a be-careful-what-you-wish-for plot. Ananas explanation above is spot-on.
Some commenter in other anime blog has pointed out that Samumenco world is not as “Real World” as we think. no idol-fan pointing out similarities between Flamenco Girl and well-known idol despite very minimum disguise.
I for one am glad it took Samumenco took such a drastic turn. Who wants to watch him take out drunkards and petty thieves with a stapler forever? Do hope he finds some romance though.
I won’t be trolled by the anime studio, this is fake! It’s all a big dream sequence!
This is a show for people who dont grow….
I see many people watching this series has forgotten than..
Why are you complaing about been alike to power rangers? Its just add the nostalgic ingridient into the interaction show-viewes.
Im so happy torture appeared!
Now i really dig this show!
I still wonder who the lackies are. They are defeated and they fall down but they don’t explode. Has nobody looked into them?! Humans, monsters, SM Freaks? Masayoshi and the police are doing so many things wrong and just going with the flow and they are bound to get backstabbed or worse.
On another note, I was like, yes, yes, put her on the horse but Masayoshi avoided the fans service with an eraser 😛
do you think the art quality dropped this episode? i noticed it.
Oh God…it’s like the old Showa-era Kamen Rider shows, mixed with Power Rangers and Pretty Cure. I love it. 😀 (Also it figures that the mooks are gimps. Yup.)
I personally don’t mind the direction the show has taken. I had the feeling that the slice-of-life elements were only temporary, but I just didn’t figure when the bubble would burst on that one, though my bets were for the second half of the show.