Category: Throwback Thursday

Welcome everyone, to the grand finale of Michiko & Hatchin! It’s been 11 weeks and we have finally come to the end of this season of Throwback Thursday. Was it good in the end? Or did it fall apart right at the finish line? Lets jump in and find out!

Right off the bat, my overall impressions of this finale is… disappointment. The main thrust of the series was clearly that of found family, with the quest of finding Hiroshi a sort of Red Herring on that road. That your family isn’t necessarily blood nor who you grew up with, but who was there for you and who cared for you now. But the presentation of Michiko & Hatchin ends up detracting from that. The timeskip, Hiroshi’s final actions, the whole thing with Hatchin and her son. It felt like there was a good ending here that simply didn’t get the support it needed to properly shine. Like the series leading up to this point let it down That isn’t to say there aren’t good portions to this ending, there are. But by and large I was left feeling disappointed and hollow.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 21/22 [Last Waltz Blooming Out of Season/Run as You Are] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! There’s been a lot of negativity in the past few episodes, lots of complaints about the lack of meaningful narrative. And I stand by those! But as if it heard my thoughts, this week is marked shift towards exactly what I was talking about. Is it perfect? No. Can more be done? I hope so. But its a step in the right direction. So lets talk about it.

Starting off we have episode 17, “Buckets of Blood! Opera that Stirs the Heart”. This episode was a pleasant surprise. It’s the first one in a long, long time to actually make me feel like these two are family. Not just in the big moments, like Hatchin trying to save Michiko, but the small ones to. Stuff like having their photo taken together and roughhousing, or the small hug at the end rather then Michiko hitting Hatchin for disobeying her. For once, I feel like Michiko and Hatchin are finally, FINALLY, starting to care for each other in a meaningful way. Not just in that they need each other to survive, but because of a true emotional connection. I’d rather this have started a long time ago, but I’m not going to begrudge Michiko & Hatchin for doing something food just because it’s late.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 17/18 [Buckets of Blood! Opera that Stirs the Heart/The Fool’s Ballistic Samba] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome all, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This week sees us grow slightly closer to our finale, finally letting us meet Hiroshi in the present. Is it any good? Let’s dive in and talk about it.

First up is episode 15, “Graffiti in Vain”. This episode is a cute little love story between Hatchin and a local boy. It’s all about the idea of losing yourself, figuring out the new you, and how they really aren’t all that separate. As a stand alone episode, I thought it was cute. Hatchin gets to interact with more people her age, gets a small wholesome tryst, and comes away from it with an understanding that who you were need not be who you are now. And aside from some pacing issues regarding Lenine, and the knowledge that we will never see him again, it was a decent time. A perfect laid back episode after the assassins from last week. But that raises a very important question I think: Where the fuck are the assassins?

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 15/16 [Graffiti in Vain/Etude of Crimson Inconstancy] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to a late post about Michiko & Hatchin! Apologies for that, First Impressions is pretty busy at the start of a season. Still, the show must go on, so lets dive into the episodes!

Starting off, we have episode 13, “Goldfish of the Marsh”. This episode was all about Atsuko, giving us both a look into her past as well as her future. All in all? I thought it rather interesting. Watching Atsuko get back on her feet after being demoted and sent off to some tiny shack of a police station was really nice. It felt like she was being sent back to her roots, allowing us to watch her claw her way back up, just like she did as a child. But it’s held back by the fact that we really don’t know all that much about her. We get a lot of that this week, yeah, and that’s a good step forward. However giving us her history and defining character moment in the same episode makes me think neither were able to live up to their full potential. A shame.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 13/14 [Goldfish of the Marsh/The Daredevil Explosive Runner] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to the halfway point of Michiko & Hatchin! This is… it’s an interesting week, not entirely good reasons. I have some concerns about what happens and where the series is going. Still, that means there’s plenty for us to talk about so lets just jump right into it!

Getting right into it, first up is episode 11, “Starting Line Downpour”. At it’s core, this is a good episode. Michiko & Hatchin has the right idea here. It’s all about Michiko and Hatchin coming back together. Taking their solo episodes, meeting back up, reconciling some differences and realizing that they need each other. This is way sooner than I was expecting Michiko & Hatchin to do this, sure. I thought we would have a few more episodes of them solo. And the opening segment of the episode is just as confusing as it always is. But overall the show has the right idea. These two are the emotional core of the show after all. There’s just one major issue. It doesn’t feel like they actually resolved anything. Well ok I lied, 2 major issues, they also rushed the shit out it. What do I mean? Let me explain.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 11/12 [Starting Line Downpour/Purgatory 108°C Telepathy] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! It’s been a busy week, between catching up on posts and starting up a Mob Psycho review. A bunch of stuff needs to go out by new years and I’m not sure I can get it all done. So if a few things start to slip a bit, like maybe this post being late cough, don’t hold it against me yeah? Now without further ado, onto the episodes!

Overall this was an interesting week, as we get 2 solo episodes. This is the first time since episode 1 where Michiko and Hatchin haven’t been together, and the first time in the entire series they haven’t shared an episode. I’m honestly rather surprised by that. I thought that they would be reunited by the end of episode 10, at the latest. Instead this appears to be our new status quo, with both of them going their separate ways and heading further and further apart. Makes me wonder when they will reunite, if they ever will. Are they going to look for Hiroshi on their own, finding him at the very end with their own methods and reuniting as a family with all of them full self actualized? Won’t lie, that would be pretty cool if they came to miss and appreciate each other that way. Only time will tell.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 9/10 [The Chocolate Girl in Love/The Carnival of Hyenas] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This is going to be a weird week since I will be attending a wedding when this goes up. Maybe it will mean that this actually goes up on time this time though, who knows. Anyways, without further ado lets dive into the episodes!

Starting off, this week I want to take the opportunity to talk about Michiko & Hatchin’s OST. I haven’t had the opportunity to go through it in full yet, I tend to save that for the final review. But this week definitely served to bring it to my attention, with tracks like “Desencanto” and, I believe, “Gagorra“. Now for those of you who read my Megalo Box: Nomad review this should come as no surprise, but I absolutely love Latin music. There’s a rustic passion to it I feel, a beautiful simplicity that speaks to the heart that a lot of more modern, urban music just doesn’t for me. So tracks like this, or what little I heard of “Temporada das frutas” before I turned back to avoid spoilers, are right up my alley. Hopefully Michiko & Hatchin can keep delivering on them moving forward, because I love it.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 7/8 [The Rain that Falls in Monotone/Black Noise and a Dope Game] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! This week is our first 2 parter, so we have a lot to talk about. From getting more of Michiko’s past to Hatchin going out on her own, it’s all inside. So lets dive right in!

First up we have episode 5, “The Saudade of Fools, Part 1”. This was a really interesting episode, and definitely my favorite of this week. We get loads and loads of backstory for Michiko, not only arriving at her home town but meeting who raised her, seeing how she met Hiroshi, and learning how she fell into a life of crime. All the while we see the knock on effects of these moments in the present as Michiko returns to town with Hatchin. I cannot understate, I really really liked this. Backstory is generally hard to do in anime, and is often just a forced flashback during a climactic moment. And while this was a flashback at times, it was done via Michiko revisiting those locations in the present and remembering them herself. They had in-narrative effect on her own emotional state, making them feel so much more purposeful.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 5/6 [The Saudade of Fools, Part 1/Part 2] – Throwback Thursday” →

Welcome everyone, to another week of Michiko & Hatchin! Last week was our introduction, so this week is our chance to see what the show is really like. Is it a buddy cop? A think piece? Some kind of tragedy? Lets dive in and find out!

Starting off though, I just want to once again praise Michiko & Hatchin’s backgrounds. These are, without question, the most impressive part of the production. Not just in their details, those are incredible, but in their variety and number as well. Even something as small as the Chinese noodle shop had, at least, 5 different backgrounds portraying it’s interior from various different angles. Each one covered in minute details like slightly discolored tiles, dents in the wall, rusted pipes, and chipped surfaces. Not to mention different colorings for day/night, lights on/off, etc. Now consider how many repeated locations we had across these two episodes, and multiply all of these backgrounds by that many locations. You begin to understand why I’m so impressed, right? While the animation isn’t perfect, and Hatchin’s design is a tad unappealing, the backgrounds carry the visuals on their back.

Continue reading “Michiko & Hatchin – 3/4 [Like a Frantic Pinball/Stray Cat Milky Way] – Throwback Thursday” →