(no subject)

[pacificpikachu]

Finished episode 16 of Michiko to Hatchin, and I just... I don't get what this series is going for? It's like it's trying to do a Cowboy Bebop thing, with stand-alone episodes but sort of an overarching plot, but unlike Cowboy Bebop, most of the episodes end up feeling pointless and just seem to cut off with little/no resolution. It'll imply things that seem sort of important, and then not address those things and just leave you wondering (but not in a meaningful way, nor do you really care). It keeps arbitrarily introducing characters, spending most of the episode developing them in a half-assed way, and then ditching them. The main characters are somewhat likable, but they aren't written with much consistency or development, and it's hard to say what's going on in their heads. The screen time they're given is not enough, and when they are on screen, they're mostly just doing action-related things or behaving in weird, aimless ways. Interacting with all these one-shot characters doesn't seem to do much to develop them, either.

I want to like this series, but it keeps repeatedly baffling me and making me wonder what the point is. I'm going to finish it, but I just don't understand at all. It lacks focus, and seemingly lacks meaning. I haven't been this confused by an anime series in a long time. I feel like this series has so much promise, but instead it just keeps doing strange, pointless things over and over again. Maybe it'll all make sense in the end, somehow, but I doubt it?

Comments

[sevenatops.livejournal.com]

It doesn't get any better in those respects, but the focus of the show is the exotic style of not!Brazil. It's one of those shows that presents a theme park version of a country and just tries too damn hard to mystify it. Like Memoirs of a Geisha, it's trying to sell you cultural capital.