Short Synopsis: Satoshi sends a bunch of hit-men after Michiko.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
The best moments in this episode were definitely the ones involving Satoshi. Really, the guy is one of the best villains I’ve seen in a while; he just screams “charisma”, even though we hardly know anything about him. You know this guy is dangerous, and surrounded by a cast of awesome characters as in this series, I can’t wait to see the guy fully back in action again.
The rest of this episode was typical Manglobe. Their series really have a tendency to include a game element at non-filler points, even though these seem quite illogical at the time, and especially Ergo Proxy loved pulling them. This the second episode of Michiko e Hatchin in which Michiko’s enemies start playing a cat and mouse game with their victims, and I must say that they’re just as fun, and much more balanced than the ones in Ergo Proxy, which lost track of its plot a bit as it went along.
Satoshi this time hires two assassins: one of them is a drug addict at the end of his road, who desperately needs the money in order to get back to his girlfriend, and the other is a once awesome assassin who now is retired. Apparently, he’s good buddies with Satoshi, so he agreed to lend out his skills again, though the guy does make use of the opportunity to play a little game with his opponent. This all goes well until the other assassin rages into Michiko, apparently having heard her location from Satoshi who heard her location from the old guy.
Oh Manglobe why hast thou forsaken us? Was this Ergo-Proxy-esque animation nose dive really necessary? It looked odd first and then got worse each scene. However it wasn’t blunt enough to be acceptable as alternate style. Actually this episode reminded me of how similar it is to Cowboy Bebop plot-wise but with sub-par animated episodes like this, it will never reach the same status, which is a pity.
Fun episode. Getting back into the main plot again. Very stylish overall, with better animation than recent episodes. Free flow drawings do add fluidity (like Tetsuwan Birdy action sequences). Manglobe hallucinations are always fun to watch and interpret. Have to agree that Satoshi has malicious charisma. Almost like an anti-Mugen (from Samurai Champloo). Thanks for blogging this great series.