Flashman Episode 35

Speaking of Inoue, he returns and gives us this crazy and awesome episode, that really highlights the great and unique flavor this show can have.

Inoue does have his pet ideas that he'll haul out every now and then, but not the damned falling in water thing. Things like jerk guest characters, glorifying a villain, bickering heroines, tennis playing, wanting to culture you like you're a dumb-dumb, having a character lose a hand or arm, star-crossed romances, heroes gone bad, doomed friendships, powers being handed off to other characters...

This episode hits a few. We got the tennis. We got the bickering heroines. We got a slight attempt at being cultured. Another thing Inoue likes? Conflict amongst heroes. Remember how I said a few posts back that the Flashman team seems to always get along? Inoue must have noticed that, too. You might think Sara overreacts, but I don't. (More on that in my coverage of the next episode.)

What begins as a fun day hitting stores and shopping ends in a nightmare tennis match. When did the Flashman learn how to play tennis, you ask? They obviously didn't, because Bun is using his crazy ninja ability to jump and hit balls and Ruu's resorting to returning serves with kicks. (You don't want to be playing against Bun and Ruu. Dai and Sara find this out the hard way.) When Sara's newly bought earring is destroyed by one of the balls Ruu kicks back to her, she gets pissed, and soon the match turns into Sara and Ruu truly competing, the match becoming a hailstorm of tennis balls that nobody escapes uninjured.

It's a very quick, very funny scene that needs seen to be believed. Believe it or not, there was a time when Flashman's excessively quirky humor was really special and stood out and was one of the things that made the show so fondly remembered. If you're a modern viewer going back and watching this episode, though, it plays completely differently. Toku shows have lost their damn mind and the scene is certainly not as bizarre and cartoonish and unique as it once was. So, keep that in mind, kids! In a pre-Carranger, pre-Den-O world, this episode of Flashman and episode 26 were some of the nuttiest depictions of comedy you'd seen in a toku.

That whole match leaves Sara and Ruu in a bad place, just bickering nonstop afterward. And wouldn't you know it? The villain plan leaves no other choice but for them to put aside their anger and work in unison. The monster generates soundwaves which can coordinate with Wandala and extend his 3-Second Kill maneuver into twice the length. Magu finds the precise soundwaves that will counteract the monster's, turning it into a music piece, a duet to be played by piano. (We get a line by Jin about how beautiful the piano is, how he didn't imagine such a beautiful thing on the Earth. Inoue telling you to stop listening to your Kajagoogoo, kids. Culture!) Combatting the monster with pure music -- Inoue foresaw Hibiki almost 20 years before he took that show over!

Sara and Ruu play and play and play to get it right, Ruu's fingers eventually bleeding, like Magu is J.K. Simmons from that movie everyone pretended to watch. Their hard work pays off in success, mending their friendship and also providing new maneuvers as Flashman, in another hilarious scene in which they just completely take over the fight scene, leaving the three guys to watch, frozen in bewilderment, left in the dust. (And ordering Red to get moving on calling for the Rolling Vulcan when he's too slow.)

Last, but not least, this great villain line Inoue has for Wandala, to the three Flashman, going into a hopeless fight: "You're men who don't fear death. Your lives will decorate my sword nicely." I like how Wandala challenges the Flashman by just sending his Killer Saber down to pierce a mountaintop, emitting a current to tip off the Flashman.