Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle - Rhyme Anima

In a world overtaken by war and conflict, "Hypnosis Microphones"—devices through which a user channels lyrics that can affect the listener's brain and even cause physical damage—were introduced to the masses by the Party of Words. Revolutionizing warfare, Hypnosis Mics have transformed words and music into the sole weapons used by gangsters, terrorists, and the military, with physical weapons having been banned from use.

As a result of swooping in during the chaos, the all-female Party of Words rules over the Japanese government. Women in Japan now live in Chuuouku, while men battle over surrounding territories outside the ward through rap battles.

With intentions unknown, the Party of Words begins to gather the former members of the now-disbanded legendary rap crew The Dirty Dawg to fight not for territory or war, but for their respective crew's pride and honor in the greatest rap battle of all time. The first Division Rap Battle is about to commence, and practice is not something these rappers are going to need.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Amemura, Ramuda Main

Shirai, Yuusuke Japanese

Kannonzaka, Doppo Main

Itou, Kent Japanese

Aohitsugi, Samatoki Main

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Yumeno, Gentarou Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Jinguuji, Jakurai Main

Hayami, Show Japanese

Arisugawa, Dice Main

Nozuyama, Yukihiro Japanese

Yamada, Ichirou Main

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Izanami, Hifumi Main

Kijima, Ryuuichi Japanese

Iruma, Juuto Main

Komada, Wataru Japanese

Busujima, Riou Mason Main

Kamio, Shinichirou Japanese

Shibata, Misaki Assistant Producer

Ono, Katsumi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Motoyama, Satoshi Sound Director

Nogami, Kazuo Episode Director

Reviews

Dec 25, 2020

KANLen09

Recommended

In anime, everything happens for a reason. But what happens if you try to mesh some of Japan's well-known corporations altogether? Take for example:
King Records' (famous for co-producing shitpost anime) Evil Line Records X Idea Factory's Otomate label (Fujoshi-bait) X A-1 Pictures (one of the best high-quality anime studios), and you get Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle, more commonly known as HypMic to hardcore fans and fandoms.

First spawning hip-hop rap battles of endless hit banger songs in 2018 under the Evil Line Records sub-label, then manga adaptations of its 4 main rap groups and stage plays in 2019, and this year, other than Idea Factory's ... smartphone game (appealing to Fujoshi fans), HypMic fans have been eagerly waiting for the next notable hit of the mixed-media project: the eventual anime adaptation, produced by none other than A-1 Pictures.

I'd like to preface this as an anime-only: if you like the presentations of the anime, please check out the official Spotify and YouTube channels, along with the other mixed-media iterations, there's a hell lot more to the HypMic universe than just pure Fujoshis rap-battling with hip-hop music.

Believe it or not; I really want to say this: "Fuck the story and its plot. Fuck character development. All you absolutely are required to tune into is for the bat-fucking-shit, "balls to the wall" ear-rapping insanity of banger songs!" But hold on, there's actually a very simple world-building context for this: Image Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)" song of a weapon-prohibited setting, leaving the Fujoshis left with HypMics for violence tactics. Manga readers will know the story of -Before the Battle- The Dirty Dawg: the main leaders splitting up and representing their own territorial states with the formation of rap group trios. AND THAT'S IT, HOMIES.

Otherwise, wash, rinse and repeat the last paragraph from the top, because the music is what you're here for. It's not just some mindless circumstances leading up to the eventual musical hip-hop travesty: Fujoshi guys bein' MA-18 dudes and spittin' fire bars of bad-ass songs of fiery and burning bridges, because this show is barely worth trying to be serious at all. You might think that ham-fisting this bullshit setting would sound inferior on paper, but bring it to the small screen and let the execution deliver with outstanding levels of lunacy and madness. Combine that with A-1 Pictures' calibre of exceptional visuals and animation, from the bearable CGI to the high-octane MV-levels of audio-visual rap battles, and you're inviting yourself into a marriage of the wackiest, unhinged, yet stylish anime that's indeed worthy of the "one-of-a-kind" moniker.

Oh, that Rhyme Anima opening? Absolutely another banger song of insane proportions and done with majestical CLASS (especially the chorus, also the refrain of Doppomine singing with his old-school cellphone to a screaming "BATTLE ROYALE!!!" shriek of an exclamation. Now that's awesome!).
And the ending song covered by all 4 main groups in their own specialized versions, that's another "Easter Egg" degrees of uniqueness. Solid OST and visuals.

Stop watching anime from the lens of seriousness, you watch anime because you want to have fun and be entertained all the time, so switch off your brains and appreciate HypMic for what it is: a large-scale (small) concert that's 1000% guaranteed enjoyment of a niche hyped music-fest battle royale.

"Hypnosis action ends corruption...Ignition! Division Rap Battleで!"

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Dec 25, 2020

SunlitSonata

Mixed Feelings

“And they’re ‘rhymes wack, you hear’?”

HypMic.......is a mess. A massive, massive mess. The dialogue is stilted, the tone bafflingly serious despite the premise, the lighting weakly considered, characterization inconsistent with numerous unearned turns, animation mediocre at best and empathetic context missing.

Yet, somehow, it manages to be a really funny time.

“So Bad It’s Good” is hard to truly quantify, since it depends on what can crack the spectrum to any particular person beyond average, everyday badness. However, most of the time, when applied to anime, it’s used to refer to something that tries to be dark and miserable but comes out as comedic instead; Assassin’s Pride, ... Mirai Nikki/Big Order, Ousama Game, Mayoiga and the early episodes of Arifureta as common go-tos. However, those shows tend to operate too much on misery to really hold any likable impressions for my part. Garzey’s Wing is a popular go-to for this category, moreso because of how absurd its entire conceit is than edge falling flat.

Hypnosis Mic, though, champions being so bad it’s good for the sheer WTF value nearly every episode. It’s almost impossible to tell how much of the show is merely being an advertisement for music CDs, and how much is the animation team trying to make some sort of grand cohesive tale out of thin air. This push pull between corporate ad and direction vision gives the show a distinct flavor of entertainment.

The core idea of the plot is that somehow, in some way, every normal weapon was banned from existing, except for microphones. An all female government is in place, which holds a rap battle tournament that four teams of three, who were once together in a group called “Dirty Dawg”, prepare to join.

Any worldbuilding required to make this all happen is borderline nonsensical. The idea of an all-female government taking power, getting normal weapons totally banned (when most people IRL can easily slip illegal marijuana) and standing being asserted by rap dominance naturally only make since by Yu-Gi Oh/Jojo logic, but that just makes things more exciting. The sheer absurdity of these facts plastered onto what’s otherwise a fairly normal setting leads to some hilariously goofy moments.

HypMic’s first eight episodes are essentially prep to get viewers to know each of the four teams, titled Buster Bros, Mad Trigger Crew, Fling Posse and Materno. Aside from Buster Bros they aren’t even in careers associated with rap, some being doctors, salarymen or military men. To get the audience to pick favorites among these Sonic Heroes, the show runners decided “let’s throw these pastel colored fujioshi avatars into deafeningly serious plots that’ll have nothing to do with anything else!” The plots tend to have a lot of threats thrown each team’s way, with the power of corny camaraderie to save the day. If nothing else, these episodes do a passable job showing why each team cares about their respective members.

But remember, weapons are banned in the world of HypMic, so how are all these conflicts solved! RAP BATTLES! Scenarios where guns and grenades would exist are replaced by microphones because that’s just how the world works and everyone completely accepts it. The sheer power of rap allows teleportation, and it’s a sight to behold.

Bank hostage situation? Rap Battle.
Yakuza caper? Rap Battle.
Mortgage scheme? Rap Battle.
Illegal drug deals? Rap Battle
Murder framing? Rap Battle.
Terrorist bombing specifically to prevent one team from participating in a rap battle? Rap Battle.
Only getting a B on my college final?! Rap Battle.

These rap battles are the only times the show gets to add flair where there generally IS none. Most scenes have no flair; the animation is choppy, the lighting poorly implemented and garishly bright enough to make you think all the available colors got used on the character designs alone. With realistic backgrounds featuring absurdly costumed characters, you get the type of wacky dissonance that can elicit a chuckle all on its own. That said, the scenes before one of these conflicts get going with flat exposition are some of the only times the show is actively boring, little but basic partnerships to pass the time. Once the conflicts get into full force and get solved with a rap at the end, then it’s a blast.

So how about the raps themselves, likely the main reason you’ve checked out this anime?

I’m happy to report that they’re absolutely wild. If you’ve watched Epic Rap Battles of History before, they provide a good sense of what to expect; killer beats with over-the-top visual effects in conjunction with mad disses. Given the language barrier, I can’t tell if the animators took influence from them, but it catches a similar vibe. At some points it’s more effects than animation, with different filters thrown about, kanji and battle effects splattering the screen during the rap. 2D characters swap into CGI and back and forth, but the timing of the rap music videos is on POINT. It’s clear this is where the most effort went, for good reason, but it contrasts greatly to everything else in the anime. Props to the translators for creating subtitles that seem to fit into rhyme scheme. It’s hard to tell how well the seiyuu ACTUALLY sing the lyrics as someone who doesn’t understand Japanese, but if I could judge, the Buster Bros have the most amount of oomph and flow to their lyrics while Materno seems like they struggle with nailing lyric flow the most. The raps slap, and when they don’t, they’re so silly it’s hard not to laugh at them.

Of course, the galaxy brained writing doesn’t stop once the division rap battles in title begin. If anything, the presentation gets even more bizarre.

There’s attempts to add some angsty spice by implying that one character was involved in what happened to another character’s sister. Of course, this drama lacks the punch it needs without proper context. Because there was no time to build that up in the 8 episodic segments before that.

Shonen battle mechanics get introduced! Now every character has specialized “traits” that only appear as they rap! Once again it’s spontaneous, poorly built up, and means nothing outside of specific scenes, but it adds to the general madcap nonsense that is this show’s existence.

At around the same time, one character rather inexplicably appears to be a twist villain, with a more sinister grin and complicit goals. Yet, before the episode is even over, they’re instantly talked out of it. It’s almost incredible how the show decides to hold off on its conflict. This is then doubled down further by having two morality turns in incredibly quick succession for events the audience never got to see, only to have neither of them mean anything soon after. You can’t make this up.

Despite all of these issues, the big conspiracy plot keeps rolling, with a repetitive background score of funky fresh beats even in the serious scenes. It’s fitting at times when things are more lowkey but only makes sillier any attempt outside of that. Like trying to understand its attempts to tell a story and remembering; we’re watching working professionals stuck in the rap circuit.

Hypnosis Mic is a respectable anomaly of confused existence and cloudy vision. In this bizarre place where it’s narratively, tonally and structurally nonsense, but it somehow works to be entertaining. What makes the show so bad it’s good for me is that I just can’t tell what they were really going for with this story, beyond an attempt to show off seiyuu vocal range to mixed effect. The characters have light chemistry with their team members, but any attempts to develop anything fall hilariously flat. Its plot goes through every spectrum of tense you can think of under a weak production that gives it no gravitas. It’s a 3/10 for serious merit, but a 7/10 for enjoyment, so 5/10 is a fair way to place it. You might not find it hilarious, or just be interested to see all of the raps out of context, yet for me it hits the perfect spectrum of unintentionally intentional comedy to make it worth something.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 10, 2021

Sakoori

Not Recommended

The Hypnosis Mic anime was a very hyped anime within the HypMic fandom, but I can't help but feel like it just completely missed the mark entirely. As a fan of the original multimedia project, the anime pales in comparison and was just not a good show on its own either.

What is Hypnosis Mic? It's a multimedia project created by King Records with character designs from Otomate (Idea Factory). The premise of HypMic revolves around a fictional Japan run by women where weapons are illegal and men fight for territory using the power of rap. The story follows the relationship between ex-The Dirty Dawg members ... Yamada Ichiro, Aohitsugi Samatoki, Amemura Ramuda and Jinguji Jakurai and why they are are all at odds with each other. HypMic has been around since 2017 and has spawned multiple CDs, drama tracks and 5 manga series, each detailing the storylines of the main protagonists and what happened when they were still part of The Dirty Dawg. The so-called rap battles done in the project are an opportunity for fans to interact with the project and directly affect the outcome of the battles. Fans can buy CDs of the respective rap battle and inside each CD is a code that they can use to vote for the winner of the battles. This also affects the story of the universe, as each character faces consequences for winning/losing the rap battles.

The anime was hyped up to basically be another adaptation of the first division rap battle arc. Fans from the music and manga were aware of the results of the division rap battle being depicted, but were excited to finally see the rap battles be depicted visually with animation, rather than with static manga panels or audio. The animation itself was pretty standard. The usage of CGI wasn't too intrusive/distracting. The character designs are classic fujo bait material, which is the reason why I got into the series in the first place.

The raps were very creative and felt true to the original music style. Though they had to compose new raps for the actual rap battle part of the animation, the new songs echoed similar sentiments to the original music. I found myself enjoying a lot of the songs and still listen to them regularly on Spotify.

The story is by far the most disappointing part. Though the rap battle tournament was still the same in terms of the results, everything else about the story was a mess. The anime spent way too much time setting up character introductions and very little time on the relationships between the characters outside of their respective divisions. You don't really learn why Ichiro and Samatoki hate each other nor why Ramuda and Jakurai are at odds with each other. You don't learn about The Dirty Dawg rap group until the very end of the anime, even though the reason for the entire story stems from that rap group and is the central event stressed in the other media. These relationships are explained in the manga and drama tracks but failed to be captured in the anime. The anime introduced new original characters that were never seen in the previous media and they served little to no purpose until the last 2 episodes. The story diverted significantly from the canon that has already been established, which is a major disappointment for those who have been following the HypMic story for so long. Even as a standalone anime, the story makes no sense and suffers from "13 episode syndrome". There was just way too much source material for the animation team to condense into a 1 season anime and make it coherent and they did not manage to do that.

The HypMic anime is nothing more than a series to get your toes wet and a way for King Records to sell more HypMic merch. If you found yourself intrigued by the premise of the anime, then you will want to go out and seek/buy the music and the manga for more information. If you didn't like the anime, you may still find some value in looking up the source material, since the pacing in the manga and drama tracks are much better for telling the story. Overall, this show is just disappointing in terms of being an extension of the HypMic multimedia project and as a standalone show. It's just fujo bait without a coherent story and decent J-Rap music. I wouldn't waste my time watching this show if you're intrigued by the premise; just go read the manga or listen to the drama tracks on Spotify instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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