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VivisQueen

  • Joined Jan 19, 2006
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Michiko & Hatchin

May 12, 2011

Story

Here at anime-planet, we have to give ratings for our reviews, which although convenient snapshots of a show's worth, also mask a lot of valuable and necessary detail. Some shows do not readily lend themselves to pigeonholing and there are times when I’d like to warn readers simply to disregard the rating. This is one of those reviews. Michiko to Hatchin gets a 6.5, but that doesn't mean it is average; that means my thoughts on it are complicated.

If I were the Bill Gates of anime and could write blank cheques, I’d write one each to the likes of Shinichiro Watanabe, Mamoru Oshii, Masaaki Yuasa… and now Michiko to Hatchin’s debuting director, Sayo Yamamoto. She is not playing in Watanabe or Oshii’s league but she could get there if rewarded with more projects like this to hone her evident skills. The show has several flaws of execution but it offsets them with an abundance of passion and pathos, and an addictive overexcitement that admittedly leads the plot to meander like a squirrel in a nut factory. But I’d much rather see another thousand Michiko to Hatchins somewhat overzealously documenting the misadventures of gripping characters than one more white-washed shounen that starts on a mediocre promise only to peter out a gazillion episodes later.

The setting is a fictional Latin America with Japanese influences (character names include fusions like Atsuko Jackson and Satoshi Batista) where street urchins become gangster bosses in epic revolutions of fate, life is chump change, and everyone makes their own fortune in a hostile urban jungle. In this environment, a biological mother and daughter meet for the first time and have to bond as they journey in search of the father. The show soars when on track about the hunt for mother Michiko Malandro’s old love, Hiroshi Morinos. He is the mcguffin, the reason why the two women break their status quo and embark on an adventure that spirals breathtakingly out of hand. We keenly sense Michiko’s desperation to find him and, in sharp contrast, daughter Hana’s apathy towards a man she feels no attachment to. Much of the drama hinges on Hana and Michiko’s tentative relationship, which sometimes cracks under the pressure of their clashing personalities and other times hums beautifully with virgin tenderness. This is, after all, the first time Hana has ever been loved as well as the first time Michiko has truly loved anything.

Mixed in is a much weaker diversion of gangsters and police detectives hot on their heels. The show attempts a similar jive to Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, with randomised, action-packed adventures driving the character studies. It’s just not as good. What it gains in an effervescent style and sensitive characterisation (Hana and Michiko are better developed than the Champloo lot, although fall short of the immortal cool of the Bebop crew), it loses in insipid episodic narratives. Let’s not forget, Watanabe’s scripts, though equally fanciful, are concise and masterfully composed to ensure consistent climaxes. Here, we get the feeling Yamamoto saw interesting possible threads springing up from the main narrative and, rather than judiciously select the strongest of them, decided to follow them all up in detail. As a result, every ‘what if’ becomes a new episode and, in spite of the rip-roaring action, feels utterly inconsequential.


Animation

Michiko to Hatchin offers a funky, dancing visual style full of gunfights and car chases and extremely pretty women who kill and maim even as they smile coquettishly. It’s not a technical masterpiece, considering some of the movements could be smoother and the stunts could easily have taken a few more liberties to seem memorable, but it has a distinctive visual concept.

My favourite feature of the animation is actually the women’s changing wardrobe. They model big bulky afros or pert little bob cuts; they wear big gold earrings and heeled boots; and after spending one morning strutting in hot pants, they’ll switch to a sixties-style dress for the afternoon. Their clothes change constantly - an attention to detail I’ve thus far only seen in Red Garden - and are noticeable because everything they wear makes them look gorgeous.


Sound

Oh, I wish so much that I were a jazz fan, because I could then delineate the score in erudite phrases and metaphors of compelling grandeur. Alas, the truth is that I find the music suitable but not particularly memorable.

As for the Japanese voice acting, Yoko Maki (Battle Royale II: Requiem) strikes a perfect note with a snarling, bratty Michiko who rolls words in her mouth as though she were chewing a gobstopper. Suzuka Ohgo (Sexy Voice and Robo) sounds a little old to play nine-year old Hana, but she emotes a tough combination of vulnerability and world-weariness that I find enthralling. What’s remarkable about them is their inexperience of voice-acting, with both having stronger tradition in live-action movies. Working in a less physical medium, however, doesn’t stop them delivering authentic performances that ripple with nuance.


Characters

Michiko could not be more irresponsible; a product of Latin American-ish slums and a prison escapee, she has no sense of refinement or self-control. Imagine an Angelina Jolie figure with the same purring, primal sexiness but who just won’t shut the fuck up. Even when you beat her face to a pulp. In those moments when her obnoxiousness makes an interrogation go much faster or leads a car chase into strange new dimensions, it becomes clear that she’s the show’s source of untameable energy, its unique maestro of madness. Even so, the point of real gratification comes when she starts to learn responsibility not just for her daughter but for her mistakes too.

Hana “Hatchin” Morenos, on the other hand, is a premature adult at nine years. While her mother guns down crooks and mows through police blockades, she concerns herself with the daily practicalities of providing food and working part-time jobs to sustain them. To Hana, none of the adults in her life have proven capable of pondering one sensible thought, creating in her a nigh-constant exasperation that we tend to attribute to hardened middle age. Only Michiko breaks through her disinterest to trigger a special kind of reaction, although it’s not automatically love. At the start, Hana’s abusive foster family is all the excuse she needs to go with the mother she’s only just met in search of a father she doesn’t care about. Anyone can see they’re a mismatch, and their interactions predictably spark into - sometimes funny - furious fights. Eventually, as their adventure turns treacherous, we sense her frustration stemming from an entirely different reason – deep concern for Michiko. That’s also the point when love flowers and the two ladies’ journey becomes far more than just a whimsical road trip.

If only the supporting cast were as good. I’m impressed enough with the plethora of women in it; some anime give the impression the world’s population is ninety-five percent male, but here we get a representative fifty-fifty split that doesn’t patronise either gender. Many have boisterous personal quirks befitting the show’s unruly style – like a brittle-tempered detective with a majestic afro or a boy who sings to his tin of corned beef. Regretfully, colourful is the best we get; the names of most of them will elude us as soon as they leave the screen and their scenes will seem no more memorable than the funky music that tinkers away in the background.


Overall

Michiko to Hatchin is not an average show – it is a brave and infinitely interesting one about gangsters and mothers, love and redemption. Granted, much of the middle, despite being tremendously stylish, is not entirely needed. Many of those episodes invoke thoughts like ‘My, another shoot-out’ and ‘Oh, that car chase is quite something but a whole episode of it, really?’ Gutting them out would have left a leaner, snappier product. But sometimes, shows that trip conspicuously do so because they’re attempting bold new steps; despite its flaws, I adore the unique protagonists and the general wild, exuberant gumption with which Michiko to Hatchin expresses its themes. I just hope Yamamoto gets another chance to improve upon her technique.

6/10 story
8/10 animation
7/10 sound
7.5/10 characters
6.5/10 overall

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KiyoneSaya Dec 27, 2011

Great review! Obviusly I loved the series but Icould see it's flaws.  I  was also under the impression that Michiko was not Hana's biological mother becuase she had been placed in jail around the time Hiroshi was thought to have died and she had only seen a pic of Hana which confirmed that Hiroshi, Hana's father was still alive because of the time difference from when he ha supposedly died in the explosion. 

KawaiiSenpai Aug 1, 2011

I really loved this anime so i don't understand how can your overall rating be so low. Mayabe you should look through it again and think about it. But the bad thing is that we all have different tastes so that might be the problem here... some people will say that this anime was awesome and other might give it only a middle rank, ofcourse some may say that this is worthless and noone should watch it. But at the end i still think that this should have higher rating.

Releashi Jul 25, 2011

Not having to be objective or review it rocks, I loved this series and can happily give it 5 stars! I would never have said they were actual mother and daughter, I thought she was born after michiko went to prison, mihgt have to watch a better translation!

BashZeStampeedo May 14, 2011

This is the type of review that's probably the toughest to write, isn't it? I mean, I couldn't stand to see myself rating this one lower than, say, Advent Children. But it's true - sometimes numbers just don't apply.

zenithofanime May 13, 2011

now, this is an underrated anime by vivisQ!