With his crime-fighting skills improving under Joji’s tutelege, Masayoshi decides to patrol a more dangerous district, despite Goto’s warning, and gets beaten up and taken hostage. He’s rescued by “Flamenco Girl”, AKA Maya Mari, who had been preparing for her hero debut when Masayoshi beat her to it. She blackmails him into joining forces, forcing him into a subservient position and using more brutal methods. Goto receives orders from above to look out for the Samurai couple and be prepared to make an arrest should a citizen lodge a complaint. Goto tells them, but they refuse to give up, and Mari tazes him with her wand for which they apologize the next day, while promising to tone things down.
Well now, that was an interesting course of events. In four episodes, Sam-Flam has kept things fresh and moving at a good clip. Here we see Joji’s coaching having a positive effect on Masayoshi’s budding career as a hero, but because Joji’s also a bit of a flake, Masayoshi doesn’t have backup, leading to him getting in over his head, and then rescued by Flamenco Girl in extravagant fashion. Our first thought was of Death Note’s Misa-Misa, another idol who inserted herself into a guy’s life (and didn’t give him a choice in the matter). But Mari isn’t a copycat; she was planning to be a hero all along, and her demeanor is more of annoyance at him beating her to it than admiration. She’s not his admirer; he’s her fly in the ointment.
Where Mari and Misa are alike is in their complete lack of subtlety or discretion. From her giant pink Hummer H2 (we did spot one of those while in Tokyo) and her multi-function wand of punishment, to her repeated kicks to her captives’ junk, Mari is a loose cannon, one who’ll be looking at the wrong side of a jail cell if she keeps up her unsound methods. Fortunately for her (though she may not see it that way), her new partner knows a good cop. Masayoshi plays the submissive sidekick as long as he can, enduring the damage to his hero pride, but when Mari hurts Goto in a misunderstanding, he snaps out of it and reigns her in. If they’re going to do this, they’ll have to do it right.
Rating: 9 (Superior)
Stray Observations:
- Goto realizes Joji likely forgot Masayoshi’s name…again. But Joji’s unexpected “Don’t get cocky!” chest punch was even funnier.
- While Masayoshi is a hero otaku, Mari’s into magical girls, desiging her persona accordingly.
- Both Mari and Masayoshi spend only the briefest time at their “day jobs”, which they seem less and less interested in, which doesn’t bode well for Sumi, Mizuki or Moe.
- Mari blushes when she first sees Goto in uniform. Look out, Goto’s nameless girlfriend!
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