I feel like making a detailed post about why I enjoy
Samurai Flamenco so much, mostly because I've noticed two things week after week. There are those watching who dislike the show for various reasons, there are those watching who enjoy the show quite a bit, and there are those watching because its "so stupid its awesome" or whatever, but there isn't a lot of reflection on what the people who enjoy it like specifically. So I think I'll do some reflection.
First off, I'll say that the show has completely betrayed all my expectations of it many times now. I've had theories and ideas about where the show was going and what sort of story it's been trying to tell, and I've been wrong every single time. But in spite of that, I'm not annoyed or disappointed, because every week the show is really enjoyable for me. It's funny, it's witty, and it's filled with ideas which I approve of, even if I did not expect. Why? Because I think the show does a great job of putting what it wants to do above all else, and I like what I see.
What attracted me to Samurai Flamenco in the first place was the characters. The show features a cast of varied adult characters in the working world, and it started off as a character drama with some silly hero overtones. It was relatively grounded and I found the dialogue to be really sharp. I love the way conversations are written because they talk like real people, and more importantly they talk about things real people talk about. Sometimes it's mundane and random, sometimes it's about a current event, but it's the sort of interactions which real people have.
Even 11 episodes into the show with all the crazy stuff going on, I don't feel that has changed at all. The tone has certainly changed a lot, but the characters are still written to be people - except people who are somehow trapped in this ridiculous scenario which has no basis in reality, but sometimes they still stop and ponder about that before being driven towards the next ridiculous scene. But these scenes are entertaining and often funny.
Watching the various characters react like normal people at certain points, only to have no issues with snapping into their "role" as required by the scenario at times is definitely a huge disconnect, but that's also part of what makes the show interesting to me. The contrast makes the entire setting less real, but it also makes fun of flaws and shortcomings of the works they are parodying without actually insulting the nature of the works. It's a celebration of cheese while acknowledging the silly parts of it.
I think there's a lot in common between Samurai Flamenco's narrative flow and Edgar Wright's comedies or an even better example would be Cabin in the Woods. It's the show which promises certain things in a misleading way, turns out to be something you don't quite expect, and then escalates it more and more in really ridiculous ways, while keeping everyone in character. It's certainly not the sort of show I've seen in anime much at all, so it's very refreshing that someone even had an idea like this.
