Michiko to Hatchin

Under the unrelenting heat of the South American sun, hardened criminal Michiko Malandro breaks out of a high security prison for the fourth time in search of a man from her past. Michiko finds a clue in the form of Hana Morenos, a young girl trapped under the fists of her abusive foster family. In her powerlessness, Hana fantasizes about the day when she is finally whisked away from her captors by her very own Prince Charming. Little does she know that her fated prince would turn out to be the buxom and husky convict who charges in atop a stolen motorbike, claiming to be her mother.

The unlikely duo chase down their dreams in the sun-drenched land of Diamandra, navigating through the cacophony of betrayal, poverty, and child exploitation rings hiding in plain sight. However, wind of Michiko's manhunt soon reaches the ears of criminal syndicate Monstro Preto, and a storm of gang warfare begins brewing over the horizon…

Michiko to Hatchin is the story of vibrant people and their clashing agendas, and of all the unlikely human connections drawn together by one elusive man.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Malandro, Michiko Main

Maki, Yoko Japanese

Morenos, Hana Main

Ohgo, Suzuka Japanese

Jackson, Atsuko Supporting

Sakai, Maki Japanese

Batista, Satoshi Supporting

Miura, Masaki Japanese

Lima, Pepê Supporting

Kohinata, Shie Japanese

Lee, Vanessa Supporting

Yoshitaka, Yuriko Japanese

Rodriguez, Shinsuke Supporting

Murakami, Jun Japanese

Sasha Supporting

Shimizu, Risa Japanese

Jair Supporting

Kiyokawa, Motomu Japanese

Mariza Supporting

Iino, Mayu Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Yamamoto, Kouji Producer

Kouchiyama, Takashi Producer

Kobayashi, Shinichirou Producer

Reviews

Oct 21, 2025

NkalaB

Recommended

An underrated and underappreciated gem of a series. It is heavy of the theme of imperfections as a thread throughout the whole show.

Michiko has to literally find a way to balance out her wild life with strong will whilst taking care of her child, Hachin. Michiko doesn't say I love you to her child a lot, but she knows how to protect and be vulnerable with Hachin when it matters the most.

At times, the plot does deviate from its main purpose: to find Hachiko's dad, Heroshi. But in my eyes, Heroshi was just a light thread that got this family of two going through the ... streets of Brazil.

You'll hear Samba-esque and vibrant jazz within the soundtrack of this series which adds to its own unique presentation of enjoying imperfections within a dazzling country of Brazil.

The poverty and crime here...they do not hide it and it only adds to the urgency of Michiko trying to find Hachin's father as she knows due to her past and how she grew up....that it's rough when money is not available.

Even Hachin shows off why she's her mother's child, especially when she stands up for herself. Hachin had to be the voice of reason every now and again to remind the viewers and Michiko that the adventure is not over.

Plus, some great side characters like Satoshi really added to the depth and the layers of crime that lay within the underworld of gangster syndicate in which is one of the reasons why Michiko got to Heroshi...

It's quite an enjoyable watch, but I wish they gave a few episodes for a timeskip before the end of the series. All in all, a quite enjoyable experience watching this series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 23, 2025

MichaelBellonis

Mixed Feelings

“So…how far should we go this time?”

Michiko and Hatchin is a 22 episode series that came out in 2008 - it was produced by Manglobe, who had previously done Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy, and was directed by Sayo Yamamoto, who prior to this had been an episode director on a few things including both Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy, but Michiko and Hatchin was her first overall series director work - though she would go on to helm such projects as Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine and Yuri On Ice.

Michiko and Hatchin is an adrenaline ride that manages to be ... a blend of Cowboy Bebop, Thelma and Louise, and City of God. It centers around a rude, foul mouthed escaped convict named Michiko rescuing her long-lost daughter, Hatchin, from an abusive foster family. The two then go on a journey across a country inspired by South America to find Hatchin’s birth father who supposedly died many years prior.

It’s a mostly episodic story with a new set of characters and circumstances in each place they stop, which all boil over into one another, leading them from one place to the next. It’s chock full of social and pop-culture references (I even spotted a reference to A Trip to the Moon!), while being a riveting emotional exploration of the basically found-family story between the two main characters.

The writer for the anime was Takashi Ujita, who is otherwise only known for Japanese live action scripts - which likely accounts for the film-buff references and inspiration for the series. The animation director was Hiroshi Shimizu, who has also worked on productions like The Girl Who Leapt through Time and Sword of the Stranger, which you can ABSOLUTELY see bleed into all of the character animations and sweeping camera movements throughout Michiko and Hatchin.

All in all, this anime is a rollercoaster of an adventure that showcases a part of the world not often shown in anime, while telling a poignant story of a mother and daughter discovering themselves through their hastily built relationship. It can be breathtaking in moments, relentless in its pacing in others, and laugh out loud crazy in yet more. The only things that the series could stand to use are more emotional beats between the titular character sprinkled through their journey, and a…slightly altered ending. It’s a definite contender, but solely because of those two missing ingredients, I’m unsure at this point if it’ll make it on the Top 100 Anime of All Time List. I’ll revisit as the list builds!

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 11, 2021

jo_la_truite

Not Recommended

After watching the trailer, I was excited to watch this series as it reminded me a lot of Cowboy Bebop and the likes. It isn't, so I was quite disappointed. I know it is not fair to compare it to such a household name and that one should evaluate an anime on its own merits, but this is also where the main problems lie.

The story itself is quite interesting, but you get the feeling that the plot gets forgotten about on multiple occasions throughout the episodes. Especially in the middle, it got hard to keep on watching since it just felt like random occurences ... one after another without any relevance to their search of Hiroshi or them getting caught up with gangs. This would be fine if it at least helped to develop Michiko and Hatchin's relationship or their characters, but it didn't. Which leads to the next point: they are just so mean to each other for seemingly no reason. Most of the characters and their motivations just fell flat, making it extremely difficult to care for them or understand. This way, they only get increasingly annoying over time and in pivotal moments, like the ending, you just stopped caring. Not to forget, the ridiculous amount of plot armor the protagonists would get makes it so that their lives are never really in danger, therefore no real reason to root for them.
Michiko is best described in my opinion as being the representation of the crazy stalker ex-girlfriend meme, and Hatchin is just plain irritating. Honestly, the most interesting characters were oftentimes extras that were only relevant for 1 or 2 episodes.
Overall the pacing was awful, with a good beginning, a super slow middle and a 'meh' ending. It feels like the writers intended for there to be a deep meaning and for the audience to always get the secondary meaning of certain dialogues or monologues, but most of the time it just felt like nothing was said or it just became confusing.

In my opinion, it is a unique show with a setting that is seldomly explored, which deserves praise, but it is just massively underdeveloped.
Wasted potential, 3/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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