Michiko to Hatchin

As a brazilian I felt like I needed to review this anime, as it's trying to represent my country (and you can't say the opposite, the resemblance is obvious), and it does this in one of the worst possible ways (while also not knowing how to write a story). Whoever made the "research" for this anime did it so poorly that it makes me glad that this Cowboy Bebop wannabe is buried on the deepest part of the internet and no one knows about it.

So, first, everything wrong (culturally) with Michiko to Hatchin:
Hana was adopted by a priest and his family, except that priests, by ... rule, don't marry nor have kids in the catholic faith. They could have made him a protestant pastor instead, another christian segment that is very significant in Brazil. In one of the episodes they also show a spanish "plaza de toro" with a spanish-like arena and uniform, that is clearly out of our reality.

Other thing that bothers me is how they do not know the brazilian people. We're known for being one of the most diverse countries in the world, we have the largest japanese community outside of Japan, we have thousands and in some cases millions of descendants from turks, native americans, arabs from Syria and Lebanon, africans, italians, germans, portuguese, haitians, and the list goes further. However, the production thinks that we're a Haiti-like country made up by freed slaves only and makes the entire population black. It's great that Japan for once recognized the existence of black people, but it was only to represent them poorly.

Everyone in the anime is an asshole besides Hana. Almost everyone is a criminal, and crime is everywhere. Yeah, we're one of the most violent countries in the world and our criminality is high, but do people think we live in anarchy or something?

It sure seems, as they depict our cities as giants "favelas", not knowing the point of why favelas exist and that they're only found in medium and big cities. Small towns in Brazil are mainly made of small houses with big terrains, with neighborhoods far apart from each other and a lot of farms nearby. Representing our interior cities as thousands of the city of Rio de Janeiro's poor neighborhoods is just ridiculous.

Now, about the story:

People freak out about Michiko being a black female protagonist and often praise this anime for having "black representation" and ignore the fact that she is a terrible character and a shitty mom. I don't know why did she come to rescue her daughter in the first place if all that she does is mistreating, ignoring her needs and putting her in danger. Also the production decided to give her massive boobs instead of a personality, and that's what 90% of her scenes are focused on.

The story, just like Michiko's personality, is all over the place. Their story in a city starts to be developed just so they move in the next episode, characters are introduced never to be seen again, a story arc starts, the episode ends in a cliffhanger and in the following an entire new arc starts without finishing the previous one. It's very confusing and stressful to watch, specially after they spend 3 episodes looking for the father just to find him and LEAVE without any explanation of what happened.

Instead of looking into this you could spend your time watching something better, like Cowboy Bebop that this show tries so much to be. Overall, it's a very weak anime with poor story, characters and animation, that does a disservice on making terrible representations of black and mixed people and Latin America. It's kind of disappointing that this happened since the first episode was good and it seemed like a starting point for a great show. The opening is good as well, the best thing that came out of this for sure.

The plot is inconsistent, like there was a subplot where Hatchin was chasing after a thief who took her shoes in episode 3 but by midway episode 4, that subplot is completely thrown out the window. Though, the main plot is a buddy road trip show about two young girls who clash a lot, the writer did put a fresh twist on it but it ended up being executed pathetically.

Michiko and Hatchin’s relationship is cliched, starting off not really liking each other but then growing to genuinely care for each other. None of the characters are particularly likeable, Michiko, while a refreshingly cool, badass black ... lady is really hot-headed, immature, and irresponsible and Hatchin is aloof, dense, and bratty. They tend to fight a lot like young sisters, though that’s toned down by the middle of the series. The characters are overall, mediocre.

The only redeeming values are some of the comedy in it (though there are some corny ones). The music has a more latin/brazilian vibe to it, some of it is jazzy but it’s nevertheless catchy. The voice actors did a fairly good job bringing fresh life to their characters (I watched the english dub) though the only downside is Hatchin sounds a little too whiny but it’s not too big of a problem since she has a whiny, emotional personality. But she does sound like a 10-year-old instead of an adult trying to sound like one. And the charmingly beautiful art and animation.

Good quality production values, fairly decent animation, fresh voice acting, and groovy music is wasted on a poor script. Too bad Watanabe is only part of the music department in this anime. If he had a more major staff role, this anime probably would’ve been a lot charming. I can see why this anime was never that popular: It’s too forgettable to be recommended. If you want something better by Watanabe, go check out Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, they are much more memorable with a more creative story, clever jokes, and likeable, realistic characters.

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.