Michiko and Hatchin #01 — And Your Little Dog Too!

October 15th, 2008

 

Making Disney villains look normal…

Impressions:

Ah, finally… the last of this season’s new series.

Well… the Michiko parts were alright, but those lasted maybe two minutes of the entire episode. They were completely eclipsed by the awful writing in the Hatchin/Hana segments. Those were so ridiculously excessive that it got painful. There’s making things clear, and being so over the top and using a cluehammer so large that it completely stops being believable. Hatchin’s family is Cinderella’s stepmother and sisters about five times over. Flicking food at the table? Fine. Throwing rocks? Alright, they’re physically abusive too; that’s fine. Pushing her down the stairs? There’s the line and then some. Throwing the cat in a sack, telling her to get rid of it, and then telling the son that it was Hana who did it? A bit past the line and into "we have no idea how to write a dysfunctional family" territory. Letting one kid ride her around while the other attempts to brand her face with an iron? We’ve obliterated the line of believability and are somewhere in make-believe land waiting for Santa to fly in with the Hanukkah Zombie and Kwanzaa Gundam for the Hogswatch party.

It was animated well enough, but for a season filled with a ton of high production value shows, it’s didn’t really seem to be putting in quite as much effort as most. I’m not really certain what they were doing with the camera occasionally. They zoomed from evil stepmother to the breakfast table back up to evil churchy stepfather, giving the impression that the camera was on a slack zipline and it bounced off their breakfast. They didn’t even do things like that particularly often though, but I guess at least the art was nice enough. The highlight of the production was the music, but it very much feels like they just took Cowboy Bebop’s score, added some maracas and whatever else felt Latin to them, and called it a day. I expected some similarities since Watanabe’s in charge of the music on this one, but not quite to this level. Oh well, at least it’s good music, even if it may be a remix.

So really, this episode went in pretty much the exact direction that I feared it would. Almost all of the focus was on Hana and how unbelievably awful her life is before she was saved and the healing of her fragile little childish psyche can begin. I expect that things would get better from here on out now that the terrible family and that particular source of godawful writing is out of the way, but at the same time, starting off with something completely out of touch with reality and spending most of the episode on it doesn’t really give me too much hope that they won’t do something similar in the future. I do sincerely expect the next episode to be quite a bit better, the only question is whether it’ll be better enough to actually be sensible.

Michiko & Hatchin OP

Posted in Anime | 35 Comments »

35 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Kabitzin says:
    October 15, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Ride a loli!

  • JKTrix says:
    October 15, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    I dunno, maybe some adopted families really are that crappy in Mexico (which is where I’m guessing this takes place). I agree it takes the ‘suspend your disbelief’ thing past its limit and they could have toned it down–or at least shown more of Michiko.

  • DmonHiro says:
    October 15, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    Wake up and smell the urine. STuff like that DOES happen in the real world. A LOT.

  • happy kun says:
    October 15, 2008 at 4:51 pm

    damn i been waiting to see this all day

  • Miria says:
    October 15, 2008 at 5:49 pm

    This takes place in Brazil.
    I noticed all the signs were in Portuguese.
    They’ve been mixing berimbau sounds from Capoeira and added some Samba.
    LOL nice!

  • kalamunki says:
    October 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    It does feel a little drawn out on the Hana segements, I don’t know if I should be laughing or pitying Hana. The storytelling approach tried to do both and fizzled.

    With some editing – either by removing some scenes completely or using a short montage segment – I’d think the first episode could be compressed into 10-15 minutes. Or shorter to trim the fat and make room for more story telling.

    [spoiler]At least the best thing about Hana in the end was her sticking up for herself against her adopted siblings and ran away from home. However what really sucked was she went back because she didn’t know where to go afterwards. I was surprised to see Hana the next day at the dining table completely unscathed as if nothing had happened. You’d figure we might actually see the parents make her take some sort of responsibility for her actions, since she beat up their kids and all, but we don’t. That scene in particular felt really awkward to me, in addition there was no tension over the rifle the priest was brandishing before and after Michiko’s semi-blaxplotation-ish grand entrance.

    As a whole, the first ep was a bit of a hot mess that needs cleaning up. Dark humour could totally work in the show if we consider making light of Hana’s situation. The show could stop taking itself too seriously, but seeing as this is a debut director project thing, I’m probably going to expect some more crashing and burning in future eps.[/spoiler]

    With Shinichiro Watanabe doing music direction I wasn’t surprised by the slight Cowboy Bebop-ish approach to the soundtrack so far. He’s got a music group from Rio [Kassin] to do the music to boot.

    The ED song was weird, but at least the OP rocked.

  • Aroduc says:
    October 15, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    Alternately, just show similar minor bouts of physical or emotional abuse to show that it’s systematic instead of this crazy escalation to absurd levels.

  • happy kun says:
    October 15, 2008 at 7:42 pm

    Hopefully it gets better I would be dissapointed since this was a must-watch show for me ever since I heard of it in april.

  • kalamunki says:
    October 15, 2008 at 8:50 pm

    It’s a bit of a long shot, but maybe a revision of the first ep will be made. Manglobe did that with Ergo Proxy before.

  • lgmassco says:
    October 15, 2008 at 10:15 pm

    actually, this series is set in brazil and we recently had two cases of an adopted girl being mistreated by her foster family and it was straight out torture way worse than this. one of the girls died.

  • lgmassco says:
    October 15, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    now that i think about it, the kid died from asphixyation and third degree burns from an iron. coincidence?

  • Aroduc says:
    October 15, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    No? The only thing even close that I’m aware of, or that Google shows, was three years ago and done by army officers to their grunts. Besides which, Brazil’s child slavery issues are certainly disgusting, but they’re a bit different from the progression of events in the episode. Like I said, the problem was the escalation that started out normal and a pitiable enough situation, then jumped to absolutely ridiculous levels.

  • moonkin says:
    October 16, 2008 at 12:16 am

    ok, its obvious why you watch anime, cause you have no idea what the actual world is like. yes there are scary people out there who do sick things, like brand children. people rape newborn babies why wouldnt they brand them? ever see the movie “am american crime”? this stuff goes on all over, not just brazil, and to all people, not just kids. they didnt show the bad stuff first because its somethin called “building up”. if they showed the intense parts first you wouldnt be shocked by the mellow abuse. open your eyes my friend. theres a whole world of lunatics out there. be glad you have an anime that shows you how messed up the world can be so u dont have to find out yourself firsthand.

  • sage says:
    October 16, 2008 at 12:31 am

    Hot lips. Damn garotas.

  • Aroduc says:
    October 16, 2008 at 12:48 am

    Aw, Moon… ad hom and slippery slopes are terrible arguments to make.

    Regardless, it isn’t a matter of whether or not things occur in reality, it’s a literary matter as to whether or not the writer/director of the show can make the audience feel like this was a believable situation. Here, they have seemingly rational and socially normal people systematically psychologically and physically torturing a girl who for all outward signs, seems to have just started enduring this for the last week.

  • Chii-non says:
    October 16, 2008 at 2:52 am

    Alright, so here we go. First off, we have a young woman most likely in her late twenties/early thirties. Busting out of a Brazilian prison, chased by helicoptors, with only a shotgun and her awesome. And she gets away.

    Why the HELL were you expecting things to be believable? It’s meant to be a crazy, fun, action romp with a bit of sexy and cool characters. Not a literary masterpeice. Also, do you understand that not all people outwardly seem abusive? I know familes where everything seems peachy keen but really they’re beating their daughter if she dares forget to put a cup away. Now, if you want something with more realism, I suggest seeking elsewhere. AS this is most likely going to get more ridiculous.

  • Aroduc says:
    October 16, 2008 at 3:02 am

    Suspension of disbelief is not a transitive concept that can be freely applied to all things equally. Just because one thing is illogical does not mean that all things can or should be.

  • sage says:
    October 16, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    Hey if Stephen Spielberg can suspend my belief long enough to think a giant foam rubber shark is alive and can be killed by a single bullet to a gas canister lodged in it’s teeth, then I can suspend my belief long enough for anime.

  • passerby says:
    October 16, 2008 at 6:58 pm

    What a clueless review.

    Michiko to Hatchin stands out because it hit much closer to home than harems and demon spirits. Abusive households are a fact, and this show is brave enough to pay attention. Children (foster or otherwise) actually die from abuse. The disturbing scenes in first episode isn’t over the top in context. If there are too much real-life issues in this show, go stick to pokemon.

    Mitchiko and Hatchin also is very stylistic, like other Manglobe productions. Both the visuals and music are exceptional.

  • Aroduc says:
    October 16, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    You guys have strange ideas of the world if you think abusers cackle and evilly twirl their moustaches in between beatings.

  • sage says:
    October 17, 2008 at 1:05 am

    Except in this show there was no twirling of evil moustaches.

  • Denizen says:
    October 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Obviously some middle-class internet blogger would have vast knowledge of real life.

    I guess Michiko to Hatchin just is not dumb and obvious enough for you. Fine.

  • Solaris says:
    October 17, 2008 at 4:47 pm

    Hey wait a minute. I don’t think this serie is about child exploitation or such.
    The whole Hana part of the episode is to let us know she isn’t living an easy life, but she’s strong enough to endure it till someone will come and this happens. This episode was a kind of prologue and we will watch to Hana and her cool mother trip to somewhere. The show will change a lot, and it will be a good adventure from now on…

  • Eastie.AkR says:
    October 17, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    I think my problem with this show is the same problem most had: High Expectations. I’d been waiting for this show to come out ever since they announced it, and I saw the artwork, and found out who all was involved. Rather the show was unbelievable or not, it doesn’t make up for the poor storytelling in this episode. While parts of the Hana segment was amusing (maybe it shouldn’t have been), I still felt like getting up and doing something else while it was on, i.e. I was getting bored.

  • Bob says:
    October 17, 2008 at 4:54 pm

    “It was animated well enough, but for a season filled with a ton of high production value shows, it’s didn’t really seem to be putting in quite as much effort as most.”

    So, what series would you say has?

  • Ana says:
    October 17, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    I’m guessing this takes place somewhere in central america or south America. I think that was Portueguese I read. I was confused as first because I thought it was Spanish and realized it wasn’t. But if it is the Latin American world, then I really do believe what happened to Hana is believable. My mother comes from El Salvador and my dad from Guatemala. Though it’s awful, this kind of thing *does* happen to children. And even when they have “good” families, by our standards, some of the punishments these kids get could be called abuse.

    I’m not saying all families are horrible or like Hana’s, but I’m just saying it’s not uncommon. It doesn’t seem like the law enforcement is a good one either. I mean, a *priest* was waving around a gun trying to shoot a woman. If he wasn’t even scared of going to jail, I’m guessing he knew he could get off scott free. I’m sure that tells you something about this society.

  • Sophism says:
    October 18, 2008 at 3:56 am

    First of all, I’m Brazilian, so it was pretty obvious from the beginning that this was supposed to be set in Brazil or an alternate version of it.

    I was impressed by Manglobe’s attention to details. The character designs and the backgrounds were somewhat exaggerated, but pretty believable nonetheless. The cities of “Laranja” and “Batata”, (Orange and Potato. I’m guessing they’re going with a fruits and vegetables theme for those.) looked very similar to most small towns removed from our urban and economic centers; these tend to be low-population, low-education and low-income overall.

    The time period seemed somewhat sketchy though… it had a definite late 60s vibe to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they inserted more contemporary aspects soon.

    As for the Portuguese, it was nearly flawless, despite some misses here and there… which in my opinion, are being intentionally used to distance the series’ world from reality. Some examples would be the made-up currency, cities and surnames.

    As for the child abuse, I agree with Aroduc… my eyes were about to roll right out of their sockets for most of the story line. It isn’t a matter of whether or not domestic violence happens in the real world or not; it’s a matter of presenting the subject in a believable and meaningful way.

    Hana’s scenes were simply shoddily written, horribly paced and so blatantly over-emphasized, that whatever social commentary or character development they were aiming for missed the mark by miles. All due to an extremely heavy-handed approach, bordering on a caricature.

    I’ll give this series a couple more episodes, though. After all, we’re talking about Manglobe and Shinichiro Watanabe.

  • Yukan Blog! » Blog Archive » Michiko to Hatchin First Impressions: Someone Hand Me A Flame-Thrower. says:
    October 18, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    […] Aroduc’s right in saying that the whole evil step-family stereotype was taken to extreme levels, it […]

  • chan says:
    October 18, 2008 at 5:24 pm

    Ardouc, first of all they weren’t her step-family they were her foster family. Big difference. If they were her step family then social services would not be knocking on their they’re door, unless someone reported them, and even then they’d only come once. They also wouldn’t be receiving any checks in the mail. Have you ever read the book A Child Called It? if not go read it. Cause as ridiculous as you consider the things that happen to Hana it is very realistic, almost frighteningly so. There are children in the world who are going through what Hana went through in the first episode. My mother work in social services for 20 years, and she would dealt children that were in the same, if not worse situation as Hana. The real kicker was she wasn’t the first social worker to visit their home, the others had simply passed it by, or were easily tricked into believing that everything was alright. The kids themselves can’t do anything cause they know they’d have no where else to go, and trust me there are worse places.

  • Megaman0 says:
    October 18, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    I heard this series was supposed to be like medieval tales/fairy tales in a modern day setting (like most Watanabe series it’s a mixture of things with good music) So I guess that’s why were seeing a Cinderella like situation…

  • Anonymous says:
    October 21, 2008 at 2:41 am

    i’d like to point out how stupid every last one of you is for judging an entire series for it’s first episode. and for the record, as a survivor of domestic abuse, i’d also like to say that hana had it easy.

  • Sophism says:
    October 22, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    Ad hominem and failing at reading comprehension. That’s pretty sad, Anonymous.

  • aloe, dream » Blog Archive » Michiko to Hatchin, Around the Sphere says:
    October 26, 2008 at 12:01 am

    […] quick-to-the-scene (as usual) was Aroduc who insists: We’ve obliterated the line of believability and are somewhere in make-believe land […]

  • lidia says:
    April 30, 2009 at 2:20 am

    Finally someone agrees with me. I like Hana alot but the storytelling was awkward.

  • Cachorro says:
    August 22, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    The anime is meant to be fantastic in nature, and the imagery and characters are meant to draw emotion. The world it takes place in is an obvious fusion of japanese and brazilian cultures in a setting that is almost dream-like in a world that isn’t very established. Being a character driven anime that is more focused on feelings and lush, vivid imagery, believability isn’t exactly a necessary factor. To bash an anime for not being realistic when it isn’t aiming to be in the first place is pretentious, cynical nonsense. What was set out to be achieved is certainly accomplished. I for one am not a stickler with my cartoons, and if an artist wants to take crazy, wild liberties to elicit more powerful reactions then I’m willing to go along for that ride.

    The reviewers commentary on the music is extremely ignorant. The music is almost exclusively brazilian, and all the names of the important characters and places in the anime are brazilian. One can hear berimbaus, pandeiros, all sorts of wonderful brazlian samba and folk music. It is in no way trite or unoriginal, ESPECIALLY if you were to compare it to Bebop, which has an American folk Blues vibe to it.

    Quite possibly the worst, must uninformed and overly critical review I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading.