thatotakugirl

Japanese media aimed towards female viewers has a lot of options when it comes to the male idol genre. So much so that new ideas may seem to come across as a bit stale. 

Enter Hypnosis Mic, a series that stands as the weird cousin to these types of series. Instead of pretty boys performing on stage with bubblegum pop lyrics and shiny outfits, you get pretty boys rapping eachother into oblivion in an alternate version of Japan where weapons have been outlawed, so what do you do? Wage war with words. 

What started of as a series of character based rap songs combined with the narritive of drama tracks has now taken off into it's own mixed media franchiset that consists of CDs manga, stage plays, live shows with the voice actors and more merch than anyone should be able to afford. The anime is the latest addition to the Hypnosis Mic (or Hypmic) canon. 

The anime so far seems to be following the basic premise set up by all it's predessors in that, at somepoint in this alternate Japan, women took over the government with the power of "hypnosis microphones" that can be used to vocally beat someone into submission. With weapons outlawed, the men of the world now fight it out in territory based divison rap battles with their only weapons being said hypnosis microphones. 

Is it silly? Yes. It's a bonkers premise that runs full speed ahead into taking itself seriously enough that bank robbers and yakuza thugs all use hypmics as weapons. So, if want to see bad guys getting sick beat versed into the ground, here's your show. 

Kudos to A1 for actually making this series look good. A lot of otome-type series suffer from bad animation, from off-model characters to wonky backgrounds. Hypnosis Mic has not suffered this cruel fate, and the characters look vibrant and well done. 

Perhaps the biggest question should stand as, well can they actually rap? Some better than others, but that's really up to people's taste, and for me personally, there are stand outs and weak links. Sure, it's not the rap music a western audience would expect, but I did find it hilarious that the English release of the series needs a MA warning for all the swearing that is present within the series. 

In the end, Hypnosis Mic is a silly idea that takes it self very seriously. The show can only reveal so much of what makes the series great. If you are enjoying it, I reccomend getting out and trying the music that started it all, and anticipating the new wave of rapping anime/manga/games that a sure to follow it's huge sucess.