Recommendation and snapshot: Michiko to Hatchin
I absolutely loved this series. It's a few years old and finished at 22 or so episodes, and it's gorgeous, and it's awesome. I definitely recommend it. (btw the 'to' in the title is the Japanese word for and, not the English word 'to.' You might also see it listed as Michiko e Hatchin because they advertise it that way too, as that's the Portuguese version of 'and.')
As one person put it on myanimelist.com:
What would you get if you crossed Thelma & Louise with City of God? You may get complete drivel, or you may, if you're very lucky, get something like Michiko to Hatchin.
-Archaeon
[What's it about? Well, ladies and gents, step right in...]
This series is set in a fictional area that is basically Brazil and other areas of South America. It's beautiful to watch, has a great soundtrack, and entertaining characters, but the story itself is both funny and dark.
Hana is an orphan who's been living with an abusive foster family for years.
One day out of nowhere, a woman named Michiko appears, stealing her away.
Michiko is ridiculously beautiful but she's also prone to anger and childishness. Oh right. And she's an escaped convict.
She tells Hana that she's there to find Hana's father and she's bringing Hana with. Hana ends up hating her name and at one point asks Michiko not to call her that, and Michiko somewhat accidentally calls her Hatchin. Which is how the nickname started and stuck.
Michiko had a rough life and it shows in the way she interacts. She's violent (not toward Hana typically) and prone to incidental (and sometimes purposeful) destruction.
They begin a journey trying to track down elusive clues to Hana's father's whereabouts.
Along the way we also meet Atsuko, who is the police Inspector chasing Michiko down, and who used to be her friend:
While in the beginning Hana has long hair she wears in poofy ponytails:
Not long into it she cuts it off and looks ADORABLE (although people mistake her as a boy sometimes)
The two of them make an extremely entertaining team. Although sometimes Michiko has a hard time of it, because Hana is a lot more studious and above board than she is, and Michiko gets very impatient when things don't go her way immediately. This is from a scene at one point where she's looking for people:
Along with the awesomeness I already mentioned, other things I love about this series:
1) Michiko is drop dead gorgeous and has a smokin body, but they never resort to panty shots or unnecessary fan service. She wears a lot of different clothes and in one scene she's even shirtless, but the thing is, it makes sense for her as a character. They aren't having her scantily clad to show off their hot character-- she's sometimes scantily clad just because she feels like wearing it. Also, there is a large variety of body shapes, races, and character designs in this, and Michiko's pretty much the only one with a supermodel body-- and it doesn't affect how attractive they are. For instance, Atsuko, who's straight like a stick with few curves, is just as gorgeous as Michiko is.
2) The outfits change dramatically episode to episode and at times multiple times within the episode itself. Michiko especially changes her hairstyle, clothing, etc. I really love it because it shows even more sense of style of the individual characters and makes it feel more realistic because very few people wear the exact same thing every day ever.
3) They draw people with different races-- not just one generic White Anime Character Type but a huge variety including people who are likely mixed race as well. In fact, there aren't really that many white characters in this at all, and that's also appropriate for the setting and I appreciate greatly that they did that.
4) This show has humor out of nowhere. There's a scene wherein she keeps drinking from a bottle and becomes like this:
One of the characters with her says something along the lines of, "You're ridiculous. You're getting drunk off juice?"
And then this happens:
And I busted out laughing.
Overall, it's an excellent series that feels more like watching an extended movie than an anime series. I highly recommend it.
As one person put it on myanimelist.com:
What would you get if you crossed Thelma & Louise with City of God? You may get complete drivel, or you may, if you're very lucky, get something like Michiko to Hatchin.
-Archaeon
[What's it about? Well, ladies and gents, step right in...]
This series is set in a fictional area that is basically Brazil and other areas of South America. It's beautiful to watch, has a great soundtrack, and entertaining characters, but the story itself is both funny and dark.
Hana is an orphan who's been living with an abusive foster family for years.
One day out of nowhere, a woman named Michiko appears, stealing her away.
Michiko is ridiculously beautiful but she's also prone to anger and childishness. Oh right. And she's an escaped convict.
She tells Hana that she's there to find Hana's father and she's bringing Hana with. Hana ends up hating her name and at one point asks Michiko not to call her that, and Michiko somewhat accidentally calls her Hatchin. Which is how the nickname started and stuck.
Michiko had a rough life and it shows in the way she interacts. She's violent (not toward Hana typically) and prone to incidental (and sometimes purposeful) destruction.
They begin a journey trying to track down elusive clues to Hana's father's whereabouts.
Along the way we also meet Atsuko, who is the police Inspector chasing Michiko down, and who used to be her friend:
While in the beginning Hana has long hair she wears in poofy ponytails:
Not long into it she cuts it off and looks ADORABLE (although people mistake her as a boy sometimes)
The two of them make an extremely entertaining team. Although sometimes Michiko has a hard time of it, because Hana is a lot more studious and above board than she is, and Michiko gets very impatient when things don't go her way immediately. This is from a scene at one point where she's looking for people:
Along with the awesomeness I already mentioned, other things I love about this series:
1) Michiko is drop dead gorgeous and has a smokin body, but they never resort to panty shots or unnecessary fan service. She wears a lot of different clothes and in one scene she's even shirtless, but the thing is, it makes sense for her as a character. They aren't having her scantily clad to show off their hot character-- she's sometimes scantily clad just because she feels like wearing it. Also, there is a large variety of body shapes, races, and character designs in this, and Michiko's pretty much the only one with a supermodel body-- and it doesn't affect how attractive they are. For instance, Atsuko, who's straight like a stick with few curves, is just as gorgeous as Michiko is.
2) The outfits change dramatically episode to episode and at times multiple times within the episode itself. Michiko especially changes her hairstyle, clothing, etc. I really love it because it shows even more sense of style of the individual characters and makes it feel more realistic because very few people wear the exact same thing every day ever.
3) They draw people with different races-- not just one generic White Anime Character Type but a huge variety including people who are likely mixed race as well. In fact, there aren't really that many white characters in this at all, and that's also appropriate for the setting and I appreciate greatly that they did that.
4) This show has humor out of nowhere. There's a scene wherein she keeps drinking from a bottle and becomes like this:
One of the characters with her says something along the lines of, "You're ridiculous. You're getting drunk off juice?"
And then this happens:
And I busted out laughing.
Overall, it's an excellent series that feels more like watching an extended movie than an anime series. I highly recommend it.