Samurai Flamenco
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. Media. Anime. The series, directed by Takahiro Omori and written by Hideyuki Kurata, began airing on Fuji TV's noitamina programming block from October 10, 2013 and is being 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 , performed by Haruka Tomatsu, Erii Yamazaki, and M·A·O as their characters' band Mineral Miracle Muse. For the second part, the opening is by FLOW and the ending is also performed by Mineral Miracle Muse, which will be released on a mini-album titled . Manga. A manga of "Samurai Flamenco" titled "Samurai Flamenco Another Days" featuring a new story was written by Seiko Takagi and illustrated by Shō Mizusawa. The series debuted in Square Enix's "G Fantasy" magazine in October 2013. Its first  tankōbon volume was released in Japan on March 27, 2014. 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 have been notorious for its take on the lead character facing criminals without supernatural abilities and the episodes focused on the introducing the cast which have often been found likeable. Although Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network found the early episodes underwhelming, he noted the show became more entertaining the more episodes he watched. "Otaku USA"s Joseph Luster compared these  episodes with the films "Kick-Ass" and James Gunn's "Super" noting that "Samurai Flamenco" employed similar elements in its own fashion. David Cabrera from the same site listed it as his favorite series from 2013 due to its transitions that allow for several events to happen across the series. Cabrera notes that starting in episode 7, "Samurai Flamenco" goes through a genre shift that surprised reviewers. Kimlinger commented that the new story arc "would qualify as a baffling train wreck, if only the arc wasn't so... good" highly praising the execution of its episodes based on the mixture  between the character's actions and the sci-fi elements. Luster had a similar reaction, commenting how this transition allowed further character development to Masayoshi and his friends as they had to deal with the new threat. Despite enjoying these episodes, Andy Hanley from UK Anime Network feared the story might take itself too seriously resulting in unappealing episodes. Kimlinger addressed the second half of the series by stating that "at first each new twist and bizarre addition is greeted with shock and bafflement. But as with any magic trick, the novelty eventually wears off, and the conspicuous lack of  a real narrative payoff begins to weigh heavily on us, dulling our reaction to a kind of half-bored curiosity at what will come out next" criticizing the delivery of certain story arcs and describing some plot twists as nonsensical, while still giving praise to its sense of humor and lack of stagnation. The series has also been criticized for its poor animation with Hanley finding episode 11 to be one of the most badly animated ones.