Samurai Flamenco – 10

King Torture lures Samurai Flamenco to his lair by holding Mari and Moe hostage. He’s disgusted by Mari’s attitude, but frees Moe when she says she’ll take Mari’s place. When Samurai Flamenco arrives, King Torture tells him how they’re alike, before attacking with a chainsaw arm. Samurai Flamenco counterattacks with his new weapons. Mizuki calls Goto, who bursts into the lair with Mari’s pink Hummer, deflecting Torture’s harpoon.

King Torture ends up impaled on a life-size action figure, but isn’t harmed, and he activates a rocket launch sequence that will bring about the creation of a giant monster version of himself. Goto launches the Hummer at the rocket to knock it over before it launches, while Samurai Flamenco tears out King Torture’s life core, defeating him for good. Moe and Mizuki carry the wounded Mari to the concert stage, where she sings solo.

When this show sets out to make a final battle episode, it does not mess around. Pretty much every trope in the book is employed with a panache and self-awareness that we’ve come to expect. We learn King Torture grew up watching hero TV shows like Masayoshi, but rather than become inspired to be like them, what he got from them was that the heroes never win; it’s wiser—not to mention more entertaining—to be evil.

But this episode wasn’t just a send-up. Whether it was Moe offering her life to save Mari, Goto saving Masayoshi and killing the rocket, Mari taking the stage, or Masayoshi removing his mask and revealing his identity, the boss battle was a vehicle for everyone to step up and prove their mettle. For all of King Torture’s gum-flapping, in the end he was all alone, while Masayoshi had allies and friends who helped him win the day.

Rating: 9 (Superior)

Stray Observations:

• If King Torture’s dressing-down of Mari wasn’t enough to get her to reexamine her life, witnessing Moe’s heroism was. She’s very lucky Moe didn’t suffer more than a crushed pinky.
• We only see the foot of Jun’s savior. Was that Kaname?
• Nothing about King Torture makes any goddamn sense, and  that’s why he’s so awesome. For instance: right after he talks about the lovely mausoleum he built for his fallen comrades, he needlessly blasts through the wall, trashing the place. 
• Goto getting a text from his girlfriend while he’s driving a pink Hummer through a corridor towards a bio-rocket that’s about to launch: the show in a nutshell, really!
• Next week we’ll be halfway through this excellent show. We figure it will be a relatively calm affair after all the action this week, but who knows.