Welcome everyone, to the penultimate week of Michiko & Hatchin! Last week was solid, as for the first time in ages it felt like the show finally cared about its premise. This week? Somehow even better. It’s like they saved an entire cours worth of content and decided to shove it into the last few episodes. Good for these posts, probably not as a regular viewing experience. Anyways, without further ado lets dive into the episodes!
First up I want to talk about the production, because aside from it’s backgrounds Michiko & Hatchin hasn’t had a particularly strong one. Oh there’s some decent shots in the first few episodes, and one or two spring up after that. But rarely has the show “wowed” me at all. At least until this week. More specifically, at least until episode 19. More more specifically, that final ending train sequence. Everything about that was just fantastic. The backgrounds, the facial expressions, the character movement. Rough in places, sure. But still one of the most memorable scenes of the entire show. Takafumi Hori did an incredible job here and managed to make the beginning of the end more climactic then most of the arcs leading up to it. Hopefully they can pull this off again for the last two episodes, but I’m hungry for me.
Onto the episodes, first up we have episode 19 “Nettlesome Light-blocking Butterfly”. This was, baically, the conclusion to Atsuko and Michiko’s story. And you know what? Despite how little interaction they had, how rough the road to get here was, it was actually kind of good. The flashbacks in the middle of this episode felt like they did more for their relationship then most of the story leading up to here. Not to mention their conversation in the train, Atsuko’s final conversation and her eventual breakdown. There was a… gravitas to it that I wasn’t expecting with how weak the road to get here was. Combine that with the next episode, which we will get to, and it gives me an unreasonable amount of hope for the finale.
Getting into the details a bit, I thought Michiko & Hatchin did a fantastic job revealing what Atsuko’s motivations were. This entire time she hasn’t been trying to capture Michiko. She’s been trying to get her out, to get her away from this criminal underworld. She pointed her towards Hatchin in the hope it would give her something else to live for. Let her run and made underhanded deals with Satoshi so she could smuggle her out. Tried to reconcile a bit through Hatchin and the actor last episode. And when all of that failed? Offered to take over looking after Hatchin and made her a passport out of the country. Atsuko knows this life is probably going to get Michiko killed. And for all of a bitch that she is, Atsuko respects and look up to her. They were a family, after a fashion. But not anymore.
Of course none of this is perfect. Had Michiko & Hatchin spent a bit more time on this and a bit less time on random episodic stuff, it could have hit a lot harder. Maybe let Atsuko spend some time with Hatchin like Satoshi is now. Or have Satoshi and her gab a bit about growing up together since they all came from the same area it seems like. Anything to give her a bit more personality, a bit more depth, before this big finale for her character. It’s not like Michiko & Hatchin can’t make compelling relationships. I understood Ricardo’s feelings at the end when he held the police off so she could have her moment. But part of what makes it work is that those two have spent more time together, as partners, than Michiko and Atsuko have as veritable sisters.
Beyond that, the rest of the episode was primarily setup for Satoshi and the next episode. Things start to come to a head with Shinsuke, who has basically supplanted him and turned the entire organization against him surprisingly easily, and he even starts off on a small adventure with Hatchin. I really like this! I like that Hatchin is getting other opinions on Hiroshi, other people who grew up with him but weren’t dating him. It makes for an interesting dynamic, even if it could be more interesting if Satoshi was aware she was his kid. Whatever the case though, I think it’s a really good setup for the next episode. Satoshi has both Shinsuke and Michiko coming after him, and Hatchin is along for the ride with someone far more violent than Michiko.
This brings us to episode 20, “Rendezvous of Extermination”. Once again, this episode sees the end of found family of sorts, this time with Satoshi and Shinsuke. And once again, it was surprisingly good. Michiko & Hatchin has this problem of backloading all of a characters history, shoving their moments together into a bunch of flashbacks. But even with that poor exposition, Michiko & Hatchin still managed to nail the execution. The small flashback of taking over Monstro together and torturing the guy with the water, their back and forth, Shinsuke being a bit crazy but Satoshi liking it. All of that setting us up for Shinsuke dying the same way, calling back to those old bluffs and good times as he cracks under his impending death and Satoshi lamenting how this life has changed them into these sorts of monsters. It was the exact kind of end Shinsuke deserved.
Beyond the finale that was their relationship though, having most of the episode just be him and Hatchin felt really good. Watching them talk about Hiroshi, connecting, reinforcing what Michiko said about him from a completely separate source, etc. Satoshi is someone we really haven’t heard all that much from on this. And even if he had reason to lie and say what Michiko did, he has no way of knowing what she said. They are mortal enemies after all. What makes this so interesting though is that Hatchin basically has the audience perception of Hiroshi, that he’s a scumbag running away from responsibility who doesn’t care about those around him. But so far both of his closest friends have said otherwise. So it makes you wonder… which is real, and why is he running as he is?
Aside from that, we also got to watch Michiko drive across the countryside chasing after them. This was mostly spectacle, with her running not 1 but 2 police barricades and taking someone hostage. She’s effectively setting them up to get caught by police in the last episode, or to at least end as mutual criminals. It was nothing particularly interesting if you ask me, but I did enjoy the spectacle. Hopefully there end up being some actual consequences from this and it isn’t just swept under the rug next episode.
So yeah, all in all I think these were to really good episodes. Each one felt like I was watching the death of a family, a found family, in a way. The first was Atsuko and Michiko’s family, growing up on the streets together. The second was Shinsuke and Satoshi, taking over Monstro and ruling together. I expect the next episode will be Michiko/Satoshi/Hiroshi, capping their family, and then ending the series on a new family: Michiko and Hatchin. It’s engaging, in a way. And despite the road to get here being bumpy and filled with missteps, its the most engaged I’ve been throughout Michiko & Hatchin’s entire run. Suffice to say, if it can pull off a satisfactory ending out of the mess we had before, I’ll be happy. Not impressed, but happy at least. Which is a big step up from where I thought we would be.
