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

Jair Supporting

Kiyokawa, Motomu Japanese

Sasha Supporting

Shimizu, Risa Japanese

Lenine Supporting

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Watanabe, Shinichirou Producer, Co-Producer

Cook, Justin Producer

Yamamoto, Kouji Producer

Kouchiyama, Takashi Producer

Reviews

Jul 20, 2023

Yardhouse12

Recommended

Well-written

Michiko to Hatchin is really good show. I've heard that the show was inspired by a trip Yamamoto and her girlfriends took to Brazil after she went through a breakup, and it's very obvious. Most of the men in this universe are shitty people, but the most meaningful and special relationships the characters form are those between women and girls. And as a 20-something year old woman, I watch my pals bounce around from crappy boyfriend to crappy boyfriend only to ultimately come back to the support network of their female friends. That's not to say that all romantic relationships are bad or that everyone ... in them is unhappy, but I think there's a very specific time in a lot of women's lives that this show plays off of. And I know that in my own life I've really come to cherish and love the women that I call my friends, much like the relationship between Michiko and Hana. The show understands that these friendships aren't always sunshine and rainbows and that can be women really complicated, but even at the characters' worst I still see a lot of realism.

It's not a perfect show, it spins its wheels a little towards the end and the animation takes a bit of a nose dive, but the message is so great. The clothes are stylish, the music is great and it was coordinated by Shinichiro Watanabe. I definitely recommend it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 25, 2023

ThatDaveGuy

Mixed Feelings

There's a lot of style here, from the fairly uncommon setting, to the unique (if hit or miss) soundtrack, to the distinctive character designs, to engaging action sequences and relatively high production value. The first episode and the last 2 episodes are especially good, so it starts and ends well.

The thing that ruins it is that the creators left pretty much nothing for the characters or plot. The show clearly is trying to do too many things and it really needed to cut some of the content off so everything was more cohesive. If they cut the kid, the show could be more focused on ... the crime drama and action. Cut some of the crime and drama instead, and we get a more interesting found family adventure. As it is, the show is very distracted and constantly feels like each part is trying to push the others out of the way.

A major failing of the show is that the main pair never really develop. From the description, it's clear that they are going to have a rough start, but over the course of the journey, the two will learn from each other and become family. We've all seen the setup about a million times before. The problem here is that the show doesn't even attempt to portray this development whatsoever, but still pretends that it has happened by the conclusion.

Actually, it's worse then that - the shows actively portrays their relationship as completely dysfunctional up until the plot requires otherwise. Even as far as the latter half of the show, Michiko completely ignores Hatchin and any of her problems, leaves her out of the loop for all of the dangerous things she might be doing, and more than once slaps her to shut her up. There's very little of the show where Michiko shows genuine concern for Hatchin, or any tender moments that would make it seems like this is anything more than a kidnapping. Hatchin has absolutely no faith in Michiko, despite Michiko's commitment to Hatchin's well-being is one of the only consistent traits she has - she will ultimately do right by Hatchin, even if it's in a way Hatchin doesn't like. Hatchin runs away at least 2 distinct times in the show and ends up joining back up with a mostly-unbothered Michiko. Once makes sense. Twice means nothing meaningfully changed.

How this relationship manages to suddenly becomes the sort of relationship where Hatchin is sobbing when they part ways requires you to imagine that a whole lot of bonding happens off screen. Just 1 episode out of 22 where Michiko takes Hatchin out for a day of fun would've made a world of difference here.

Speaking of those 22 episodes, the show would be much better if it had half the episode count. It would probably have been best if it were a movie. So many of the episodic plots are slow and just forgettable. Many members of the supporting cast are completely unnecessary and should have been cut so the ones that remained could get more screen time. The goal of finding Hatchin's dad is constantly alluded to, but is almost never developed on any given episode. It's fairly clear that each episode in the middle was written to the premise independently, rather than being carefully ordered so that there's regular progress towards the goal or towards any specific character development. When the show is nearing the end, it just suddenly points the cast in the right direction and makes sure all the pieces are where they need to be (often without explanation).

Whether you'll like this show ultimately comes down to why you're interested. If you just want a strong female lead, or you're looking for an action adventure with found family elements, you'd probably be a lot happier watching Moribito. If you're mainly here for the setting, the action/crime tags, or the staff and studio, you'll probably find some value here, but you might find that the 10 year old tends to get in the way of the action.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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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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