Review
As a brazilian, watching Michiko to Hacthin left me with two very distinct impressions. First off, it was a charming show, presenting a harsh reality in a light way, filled with emotional parts, covered by some comical scenes and ultimately trying to be an action show from time to time. Second, the show is set in "Brazil" and it is a true rollercoaster about it. Sometimes being right on the spot to promote my country but at other times being so completely innacurate that it enraged me in such a way I would consider dropping it.
The tale itself is about Hatchin, an orphan adopted by a crazy and lazy family who only wants money. Her life of submission and bullying ends when a mad woman and runaway, Michiko Malandro (what a name... Michiko Dude, Michiko Scoundrel, Michiko Rascal...), takes her to a crazy journey to search for her biological father.
- The tale is more than that
Michiko to Hatchin slowly grows from a nearly comical start to a far more complex tale surrounding criminal factions, old friends, and intricate relationships. The constant search for Hatchin's father is intertwined with a game of cat and rat against the police, mafia, and random thugs, all constributing to a decent pace of rushing and urgency that is only broken by a few ridiculous "romantic" episodes. This is like a Cowboy Bebop with samba at many points, meaning those constant fleeing, meetings, and goings are all quite random at most and only truly get together for a few key episodes and a final run of a few episodes.
The quality also helps
Studio Manglobe, the guys behind the great works of Ergo Proxy and Samurai Shamploo, once again delivers a stunning presentation, brimming with style, fluid animation, and an uniqueness that does a great service to the industry overall. The sound direction also helps a lot, truly catching a classic brazilian vibe with mixes of samba and bossa nova. Michiko's voice may end up being annoying in a different way than your typical girly voice, but it also greatly contributes to develop her character.
Light tale presentation
As I mentioned, although Michiko to Hatchin's tale is about a harsh reality of mafia and criminal sindicates, its presentation is absurdly light. It does have a few serious shots, the characters can get quite dirty and sexual, but there is a severe lack of true criminal activity in it. The bandits rarely kill, Michiko is saved by the script far more than necessary, Hatchin also never suffers from her terribly stupid choices, and so on. The main cast is protected by the script in such way you will hardly feel any danger when they do a pole dance in front of a horde of angry thugs who have no reason to keep them alive.
But this Brazil...
Well... most of the scenes are spot on. The artistic job here truly outdone themselves to present old-school representations of brazilian cities. The charming rustic style mixed with an arid atmosphere of the country's northeast and central regions, the jungle villages of Amazon, the bustling city of the southeast region, etc. Even the portuguese is mostly spot on for the signs, music, and everything else.
There are, however, a lot of problems in the show.
- Brazil is huge: I mean, REALLY huge. A single small state here is nearly the size of the entire Japan, so it may a bit hard for them to understand how illogical the characters move from jungle to shrublands then to beaches and then to bustling cities in the matter of hours. It is as if the person was on US East Coast in one afternoon and the next day they are in West Coast. By bike.
- Brazil is NOT Mexico, Peru, or Venezuela: There is NO FUKN AZTEC ruins in Brazil. Our native people were NOT part of these civilizations, they have their own culture, small, closed, and they never built these pyramids and temples.
- Brazil is NOT Spain: We DO NOT HAVE SPANISH BULLFIGHTS here. This happens in Spain, for god's sake. People in the countryside are much more similar to north americans, with rodeos, 8 seconds, jockeys, and other stuff like that.
- Brazil does NOT SPEAK SPANISH. It's not "San", it is "São". This is PORTUGUESE, not spanish. I can't understand how they can write "Malandro" okay and just make such mistakes with "São".
- What hell is a single city closed by officers requesting ports? Seriously. This looks like a dictatorship stuff at extreme levels. We do have a large divergence between poor and rich, but we have a group of united states here, if you are a brazilian you can just go wherever you want in the country and you don't have to give a shit about port. You just shove your id to the police and say: "I'm brazilian and this is my country, I go where I want". Seriously, these "attempts" to show Brazil as if run by closed military groups just annoys me. The US-aided dictatorship we suffered ended by 1985. Learn your history writers.
Comments
Anyway, despite some annoying, but unfortunately common, mistakes at portrating Brazil, Michiko to Hatchin is an entertaining experience in a mix of Samurai Champloo with Cazador de La Bruja. Its variation of action, drama, and adventure can get your attention most of the time, and the artistic work here, as well as the uniqueness to it, is simply superb.
The unecessary protection to the cast conflicts with their charming personalities, and by the end you may either end up accepting this is a light tale and enjoying its comical and dramatic moments or just may end up angry and cursing when the villains just let the characters run away for no damn reason (which is typically my case).
Those looking for something different are certain to be pleased here. There is very little in the industry similar to Michiko to Hatchin. If you want a visual experience, this is also the show for you. If you expect a true mafia show or if you are a brazilian... well, you may get annoying at many points, but still can extract some joy from this minor jewel.
