Dec 14, 2020
I feel like most people interested in this manga are either:
A) just getting/early into the Hypnosis Mic fandom
OR
B) anime-only fans who are looking for more story content
If you are in either of those groups (I was), you would probably read this manga anyways, even if it was bad. Luckily for you, it's amazing, i highly recommend it.
If you are in the small minority of people who haven't been initiated into the Hypnosis Mic fandom yet, I would strongly suggest going to listen to the music albums first before consuming this manga as that's the way the franchise is meant to be consumed. Trust me, it
...
will be harder to see the appeal of watching a bunch of guys have a dramatic falling-out while rapping all over the manga panels, if you haven't experienced the music.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, Hypnosis Mic takes place in a zany world where weapons have been outlawed and dudes battle each other with hypnosis microphones, which actually do physical and mental harm when used in rap battles with each other. This new reality is established after a coup d'etat puts an all-female political party (translated as the Party of Words) in charge of Japan. That's basically all you need to know about the setting since honestly it's not explored that deeply, as of the time of this writing.
The main storyline of HypMic takes place 3 years into this microphone-toting era (it's sometimes hard to keep a straight face though when you see criminals wield mics like they're automated guns, sadistic smirks and all) where 4 (soon to be 6) rap teams represent various "divisions" in Japan and rap-battle each other in government-sanctioned bouts for money and territory. The important part here is that the leaders of the 4 rap teams (Ichiro, Samatoki, Ramuda, and Jakurai) all used to be on a team together before they broke up and went their separate ways. How the 4 of them got together to form a rap team and how they had their falling out is the focus of this manga so think of it as a prequel to the main story.
Now if it wasn't obvious by the style of art and the genre tags, this is a manga that caters to fans of male idol/singing shows and manga so if those are not your cup of tea, it might be the time to reconsider. That said, I've watched a fair amount of male Idol anime and I think Hypnosis Mic takes a refreshingly more serious and story-heavy approach. Often anime/manga like this tend to adhere to a lot of fanservice and admittedly hokey plotlines of male friendship and determination and achieving grand dreams; all accompanied with lines like "I want to make people smile" etc. etc. Nothing wrong with that, but HypMic: TDD is definitely not that kind of manga, not by a long shot.
The breakup of TDD was a lot more tragic than I was expecting, with all the members suffering through little or no fault of their own and misunderstanding each other, the ones they used to be close to. It was a lot heavier tone too, kind of uncommon in the genre, and I'm a sucker for a tragic/emo backstory. Nothing felt too cheap or trope-y about the breakup, and the misunderstandings weren't because the members were just stubborn and didn't talk to each other, real lives were at stake and friends and relatives were sacrificed in the buildup to their group collapsing. The 4 main characters feel like people you can root for and each have their own backstories and goals that don't necessarily fall into the usual otome-like stereotypes, a.k.a. the cool guy, the mean guy, the happy guy etc. etc. The setting is an interesting one, but it's not that fleshed-out (how did the Party of Words stage the coup d'etat? What about the economy? Foreign relations? How come Japan kind of just looks the same after the government is basically overhauled?) so don't expect deep politically-focused worldbuilding, there'll be some suspension of disbelief required.
The highlight is really in how tragically everything played out. For me, it made me care more about the 4 main characters, who I was already kind of familiar with before. I knew them from the anime and the music albums but this manga really made me sympathize with all of them and now I'm highly invested in seeing how the main storyline plays out. I do think I wouldn't have been as impressed if I wasn't already familiar with the main storyline at least a bit so I really think that's a must for anybody interested in this.
I really think for what it is (a prequel manga for a niche genre usually targeted to women who like rhythm and dating games), it is really really good. This isn't a gritty grimdark manga about the evils of humanity, but it's a serious and genuine addition to the male music manga genre, one that I think is an exemplary example of said genre. Also if you've seen the anime already, this is way better. If you haven't seen the anime yet...same as above.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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