Sunday, October 26, 2008

Girls, Guns, Tequila...

It's been a really long time since I made a preview. Mostly because I don't like to speculate on little evidence, such as trailers or posters. Now, there are significantly more facts to uphold my statements, since I saw the first episode of the anime that I'm going to preview. How is it a preview if I saw the first episode? Well, that's all there is to the anime so far, since it's just started airing 15 October (I thus take the liberty to call this a preview).

The anime I'm talking about is called Michiko to Hatchin (English title: Michiko and Hatchin). This is a really strange anime. It's produced by Manglobe, responsible for Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy, and directed by Sayo Yamamoto, this being her début work. In the role of music producer we have our beloved Shinichiro Watanabe, the man behind the great scores of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. But all of this you could have found out just by checking Wikipedia.

Let me tell you about the anime, something that Wiki doesn't. It is very important to note who we have in charge of the music, since the tone is very much like that of cowboy bebop. We have slow scenes, with meaningful dialogue, and fast chases and gunfire shoot-outs, a bit outrages, but entertaining. We follow the events of Michiko, who just broke out of prison, and gives the term "Babe Gunner" a new meaning, and Hana, a girl "adopted" by a priest and lives a miserable life, abused by her adoptive father, adoptive mother, adoptive older sister and adoptive younger brother (basically everyone in her "family"). As soon as Michiko gets her hands on some cash (blatantly robbing a bank), her first thing is to make sure she gets her hands on Hana. Indeed she does and frees her from the evil clutches of her oppressive foster family. The episode ends there, so we don't really know what the relationship between the two is (though at one time Michiko says she's Hana's mother, though her foster parents say she died).

It may not sound much, but it has a very real feel to it. It doesn't hide the ugliness of real life, but it's not gratuitous either. Every scene is meaningful and the characters appear very alive. It has an atmosphere to it which rings of Desperado, and if there will be some dark humour in later episodes, I dare to say it feels like Quentin Tarantino. I hope they keep it up. This first episode is well worth watching. From there on, it's your choice.

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