Category: Michiko e Hatchin

Short Synopsis: Michiko tells Hatchin a few things about her past.
Highlights: It becomes more and more apparent how misleading that OP is…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 (Excellent)
That OP… it definitely belongs in the category of misleading. It’s a very colourful and cheerful piece of art, that makes you think that this series would have the same fun factor as Samurai Champloo…

Well… no. I feel that this is the episode where this series shows its true colours. As it turns out, Michiko was involved into a huge gang-fight and power-struggles before she got locked up. This episode seems to suggest that she ended up in prison because she once made a wrong move and provoked the wrong kinds of people. This episode really showed that there’s much, much more to her character than she originally showed.

I mean, she remains an irresponsible woman. In this episode however, we can see that she’s starting to regret what she did, as she suddenly realizes that the gang-fights are still out there. I’m still not exactly sure what she did to invoke the wrath of a gang for twelve years, but hopefully the future episodes will shed light on that. Anyway, because she finally starts realizing that Hatchin could get in trouble, she drops her off at a local orphanage for safety. Obviously, she didn’t take into account that it costs money to do that, so Hatchin ends up getting kidnapped at the end of the episode.

And the whole mystery around what happened with Hiroshi still isn’t much clearer. First I thought that he was the fat guy, but that turns out to be somebody else (who I guess was the one who made sure that Michiko ended up in jail). This episode still doesn’t explain why Hiroshi abandoned Hatchin, though, or who was Hatchin’s mother, but I do now understand why Michiko is so keen on Hatchin. She probably sees Hiroshi in her, and the good times they had together. And this episode also confirms: Hatchin has the tattoo on her belly.

Seriously, here I thought that this series would be a fun-filled travel adventure, in the same veins as El Cazador. Boy, was I wrong, but this series makes optimal use of its setting this way. That’s why I’m so annoyed that 90% of all anime takes place in Japan. The samurai-period is nice and all, and it has produced some awesome series, but there are many more interesting settings with potential all over the world, in lots of different time settings. You just have to have the guts to find them and base a story around them. Gunslinger Girl is also a good example of this: it took the political power struggles of the country, added a bit of science fiction, and voilá: an excellent set-up for a story.

Short Synopsis: Michiko meets a local party-girl with a few problems of her own.
Highlights: Drunk Hatchin was awesome.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10 (Awesome)
With this episode, I’m convinced: Michiko e Hatchin is going to be an excellent series. The big question was of course whether the creators would make the random stories that will form the large part of this series well enough, and this episode proved that the creators are excellent at even that. This was one of these episodes where everything felt right, just like every single episode of this series since the second one.

I’m especially a big fan of how this episode progressed, and we got to know more and more about Pepe: she started off as a cocky whore, but then it turns out that she didn’t chose for that life of hers. She once was a rich lady, but lost everything when her parents died. It sounds really cheesy on paper, but the way the episode presented it made it really exciting.

I also really like Hatchin, even though she just had a supporting role in this episode. Seeing her getting drunk on what she thought was orange juice was hilarious, and I was also really surprised to see her still working at that restaurant, and how he hasn’t been sacked yet for just running off after the previous episode.

Short Synopsis: Michiko looks for Hana’s father while Hatchin finds a job.
Highlights: Number of episodes Hana’s hair lasted: 2,5.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Three episodes in, and I’m finally beginning to see the huge strength of this series. I originally went into this series, expecting this series to be some sort of cross between Samurai Champloo and El Cazador, with fun characters in fun and exciting fight scenes. The OP seemed to suggest the same, and that’s why the first episode disappointed somewhat because it was so damn serious.

I now see that the direction this series chose might be even better than just a fun-filled adventure. There still is some enjoyable banter here and there, but what this series really is about is the really colourful characterization, and the immense attention to detail that’s put into the dialogue to make it seem as realistic as possible, while keeping a solid pace. This series has the potential to become one of the hidden gems of the Autumn-season, but that all depends on how it decides to fill in the rest of the series. There’s no end goal in sight, so who knows?

In any case, in this episode Hatchin (who officially changes her name to Hatchin and cuts off her hair in this episode) and Michiko clash again when Michiko buys (read: steals) Hatchin a pair of shoes. Hatchin then tries to work off the shoes at a local restaurant. I think that she just thought that she’d be handing out plates and dishes, but an unexpected part of her job is trying to stop everyone who’s out for a free meal. At one point she gets carried away and chases a bunch of kids far into the city. Before she can deal with them, they reach their gang, and Hana has to stand in front of a guy with a gun.

I found it typical of Michiko that she refused to acknowledge the guy she slept with because he found another woman and got married. At least, that’s what I think happened, we never see this actually confirmed, it could be that she indeed got the wrong guy, but I think that if that was the case then Michiko wouldn’t be as gloomy as she was gloomy as she was here.

Short Synopsis: Obviously, the police isn’t going to let Michiko get away without a fight.
Highlights: Surprisingly genuine.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Well, since Michiko e Hatchin’s second episode took so long to come out, it’s taken me quite a while to finalize my blogging schedule, but here it is (note that the days correspond to the days in which I can expect to get my hands on them, rather then their actual airdates)
Monday: Blade of the Immortal*
Tuesday: Nope
Wednesday: Mouryou no Hako, Kurozuka, Porfy no Nagai Tabi, Michiko e Hatchin**
Thursday: Shikabane Hime, Casshern Sins, Bonen no Xamdou***
Friday: Tytania
Saturday: Telepathy Shoujo Ran, Jigoku Shoujo
Sunday: Mobile Suit Gundam 00
*airs bi-weekly
**could move to thursday at this pace
***seems to be on a hiatus for about a month

Like always, the good shows seem to have concentrated themselves on two or three days, rather than spreading evenly, so Wednesday and Thursday are going to be pretty busy, while Monday and Tuesday will be quiet.

In any case, I’ve decided to blog this. The first episode could have been better, but there’s definitely potential here. Manglobe is a unique animation company, in the way that they only release a series every two years or so. This is a very risky strategy, because if the sales disappoint, they’re screwed, but this way it does allow them to put extra effort into developing their series, and making everything come out right. In Samurai Champloo’s case, it enabled them to create some really awesome fight-scenes, Ergo Proxy did this with its plot, and Michiko to Hatchin seems to be doing this with its characters.

The fight are not amazing, and neither the plot is very complicated, but the characters so far are feeling much more genuine than with Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy’s case. If given time, I can really see Michiko and Hatchin develop into an excellent duo, which makes up for their own weaknesses. At first sight, they may seem like a standard “Strong and Weak person who Travel”-series, but I’ve yet to see such a series where the strong person is such an irresponsible person as Michiko is. And yet, she does show that she can take responsibility, just as how Hatchin is a strong girl, but can just as easily collapse, since she’s still only nine years old.

I just wonder… why are there two people called Michiko and Hana, walking around in Brazil? They don’t really strike me as typical Portuguese names or something. Still, I do have to admit that I really appreciate it that the creators have chosen such an original settings. There are so many different countries out there, with so many different cultures and potential for juicy stories, and yet 90% of all anime plays in Japan, 5% in a fantasy world, and 4% somewhere either in Europe or the United States (okay, so these numbers are way from exact, but you get the picture). It’s awesome to see a series that attempts to screw conventions and go with something completely different.