Line #106 Anime/MichikoAndHatchin


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michiko_and_hatchin_5.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Someone is going to come for me. It's what I've wished for all this time. On the morning of March 17th, a person came.''
4
5	->''"The only problem... I have no idea who she is!"''
6
7	''Michiko & Hatchin'' is an {{anime}} series produced by Creator/{{Manglobe}}; it marked Sayo Yamamoto's directing debut. Yamamoto's colleague, legendary director Creator/ShinichiroWatanabe, handled the music direction for the series.
8
9	Hana Morenos is nine, miserable, and abused by her foster family. She does all the chores, puts up with bullying and beatings, and daydreams about getting away.
10
11	Enter [[SpicyLatina Michiko Malandro]], who recently escaped from a hellish high-security prison, and literally crashes into Hana's life on a scooter. With nothing in common but a seemingly deceased man named Hiroshi Morenos, who's Michiko's former lover and Hana's father, the two embark on a wild trip through the countryside to find him. [[SouthOfTheBorder Traveling through a fictional South American country based on Brazil]], they evade GangBangers like the infamous [[BigBad Satoshi Batista]] and cops like the persistent Atsuko Jackson, and [[OddCouple learn to appreciate each other]]--just a little bit.
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13	Several episodes were done in conjunction with Creator/StudioBones,[[note]]Episode 3[[/note]] Creator/StudioGainax,[[note]]Episode 8[[/note]] and Creator/{{Xebec}}.[[note]]Episodes 7 & 9[[/note]] Creator/FUNimation has licensed the series as ''Finding Paradiso''. It was released in the U.S. in September 2013. The series also aired on Creator/AdultSwim's Creator/{{Toonami}} block from June 20 to December 12, 2015.
14	----
15	!!Tropes in this anime include:
16	* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: Not used for the vehicles, but is used heavily for moving backgrounds during the chase scenes.
17	* AbusiveParents: Or abusive foster family, in Hana's case.
18	* AdultsAreUseless: The visitation officer is friendly with Hana's fosters instead of being strictly there on business, which allows them to easily cover up their abuse of Hana. Hana doesn't bother trying to tell him what's really going on because of this, which will only result in more abuse after he doesn't do anything.
19	* AerithAndBob: Japanese names like Michiko and Hiroshi, as well as Latin names like Maria and Pedro... Also, Hatchin's actual name is "Hana", which can be both Japanese and Western. This is justified due to the country's source of inspiration, Brazil, having the highest concentration of Japanese people in a single country besides Japan.
20	* AnachronismStew: Vehicles from the 1970s, TV broadcasts with an '80s/'90s style, and every building and infrastructure looking run-down. It's a bit difficult to figure a proper time period.
21	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:At the very end of the DistantFinale, Hatchin reunites with Michiko and they begin another journey. After reuniting, the former asks "How far are we going to go this time?"]]
22	* AnimeAccentAbsence:
23	** Averted, since some characters have vaguely Latin American accents.
24	** A character in the third episode also has a vaguely Chinese accent.
25	** Dub wise, Michiko, for some reason, speaks with something of a [[BigApplesauce New-Yorkish]] sort of accent.
26	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In the finale, Hana checks a country map that looks like a mix of Brazil and Mexico.
27	* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Hana's foster father, Pedro, seems to be a Catholic priest and he has a wife and children. In real life, Catholic priests can't marry or have children for many theological and canonical reasons.[[note]]Technically, Catholic priests ''can'' be married if they are Byzantine Rite (unlikely here, since Pedro wears Latin-Rite robes and the series takes place in Latin America, not Eastern Europe) or "grandfathered in" through converting from another denomination that ordains married men, like Anglicanism. Given that the Anglican Church is featured prominently in anime, this could be the case.[[/note]]
28	* AscendedToCarnivorism: Episode 6 briefly features a fighting bull [[MonstrousCannibalism gobbling a steak]] made from an ex-bull.
29	* BadassAndChildDuo: A rare female version between the title characters.
30	* BigBad: [[GangBangers Satoshi Batista]] is the former friend of Hiroshi who took over his crime syndicate, Monstro Preto, after he left. Although the plot is driven by the titular heroines’ struggle to find Hiroshi, Satoshi is the leader of Monstro Preto, the biggest gang that opposes them. His obsession with killing Michiko (as he blames her for Hiroshi leaving), combined with his vast connections, establishes him as their biggest obstacle. [[spoiler:It becomes a BigBadEnsemble when his right-hand man, Shinsuke Saci Rodriguez, [[TheStarscream betrays him]] and takes control of the gang, but Satoshi comes out on top.]]
31	* BilingualBonus:
32	** Malandro, the surname of the infamous criminal {{Anti Hero}}ine Michiko, means "scoundrel" in Portuguese.
33	** Morenos means "dark-skinned ones" or "dark-haired ones" in Portuguese and Spanish. This is an IronicName as the holders of this surname are light-skinned with blond hair.
34	* BittersweetEnding: The series ends with [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory Hiroshi running off with another woman]], and the father of Hatchin's baby abandoning both Hatchin and their son]]. However, Hatchin doesn't seem too bothered about it. [[spoiler:At least at the end, Michiko is either released from prison or escapes again, and reunites with Hatchin.]]
35	* BlackAndGrayMorality: None of the characters in this series have perfect moral purity. Even Hatchin, the most innocent of the main characters, engages in felonies like breaking and entering and assault of police officers in different episodes; heck, the beginning of the series shows her giving a nasty beatdown to her foster sister (though, she [[AssholeVictim had it coming for her abuse of Hatchin]]), and that's ''before'' she meets Michiko. Still, while characters like Michiko, Atsuko and Satoshi are shown to at least have some moral complexity despite being jerks at best, many others, especially one-shot characters, prove to be ''bad people'', plain and simple.
36	* BookEnds:
37	** The cooking of omelettes. Hatchin cooks omelettes for her foster family at the beginning, then cooks for [[spoiler:her [[BabiesEverAfter baby]]]] at the end.
38	** In the first episode, Hatchin briefly runs away from home into the middle of nowhere and imagines crossing paths with a truck, whose driver is her birth father Hiroshi come to rescue her and whisk her away. [[spoiler:In the last episode, Hatchin decides to meet Michiko in the middle of nowhere, driving to her destination with a truck, wanting to travel with her surrogate mother again.]]
39	%% * BrandX
40	%% * CampGay: Ivan.
41	* CensoredChildDeath: Unlike her older sister, Lulu was (possibly) killed offscreen and so was Satoshi's enemy's young son (assuming he did kill the boy).
42	* CircusEpisode: There is a two-parter episode where a circus girl named Rita [[SweetOnPollyOliver mistakes Hatchin for a boy and falls for her]]. Even after Hatchin reveals her gender, they become friends and she stays with Rita. In the second episode, [[spoiler:it turns out that the circus was really smuggling children and selling them as slaves]]. Luckily, Michiko comes along and [[BigDamnHeroes saves Hatchin]]. Afterwards, Rita and Hatchin [[ButNowIMustGo part ways]].
43	* ContrivedCoincidence: Quite a few moments, usually involving Michiko spotting Hatchin.
44	* CooldownHug: Michiko does this to Hatchin after the latter goes through a painful, first heartbreak upon realizing that the boy she liked [[spoiler:will lose all memory for her because of an accident he suffered]].
45	* CrapsackWorld: Their home is an ''incredibly'' unforgivable country. Most people tend to live in squalor or rely on crime and violence to make ends meet, children are hurt and taken advantage of like it's normal, and the average citizen tends to be a {{Jerkass}}, or much, much worse. Sometimes it feels like Michiko and Hatchin's journey is more of a 22 episode lesson in how HumansAreBastards. It says something about how awful everything is when Michiko's completely incompetent and borderline abusive attempts to be a mother for Hatchin are heartwarming by comparison to everything else that happens.
46	* CriminalFoundFamily: The title characters offind family in each other after Michiko breaks out of prison and technically kidnaps Hatchin from her abusive foster family, being abandoned by her biological father, and they end up on the run trying to find Hatchin's biological father, before finding each other again in an epilogue and coming together as family does.
47	* DaddyDidntShow:
48	** Michiko and Hatchin spends the entire series looking for Hiroshi. After they [[spoiler:finally find him, he claims that he wants to be a part of Hatchin's life. It's revealed that sometime after Hiroshi and Hatchin left together, [[ShaggyDogStory he ran off with another woman]]]].
49	** The father of [[spoiler:Hatchin's baby]] abandoned them after three months.
50	* DeadlyGame: [[TheDragon Shinsuke]]'s plan to meet up with Michiko and Davi is to have them trolley jump their way to an unknown locale while avoiding gunfire.
51	* DistantFinale: Episode 22 takes place during a TimeSkip where [[spoiler:Hatchin's a single mother working as cook, years after she and Michiko separated.]]
52	* EasyAmnesia: [[spoiler:Lenine appears to suffer from this when he meets Hatchin.]]
53	* EnfantTerrible: Gabriel and Maria are even more sadistically psychotic towards their adopted sister Hana than their AbusiveParents are to her.
54	* TheFagin: Rico, who recruits children for his criminal activities.
55	* {{Flashback}}: Lots of them, most of which involve Michiko's past.
56	* FosteringForProfit: The only reason Hatchin's foster parents took her in. Getting a free slave was just a side benefit.
57	* FourEyesZeroSoul: Hatchin's foster family is a quartet of bespectacled abusers.
58	* FreeRangeChildren: Hatchin goes off by herself and is left alone by Michiko constantly. The same can be said for all the other children who are encountered, as they are mainly seen without adults. [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in that they rarely do this for enjoyment, but rather out of necessity.
59	* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: Most depicted kids are quite adult in their reasoning.
60	* GangBangers: All members of Fantasma and Monstro Preto, including [[BigBad Satoshi]], [[DefectorFromDecadence Hiroshi]], [[TheDragon Shinsuke]], Kirill, and Vasiliy. Additionally, there are a number of unnamed gangs, such as Rico's collection of child bangers.
61	* {{Gangsterland}}: Although in this case it's a stand-in for Brazil, not the USA.
62	* GlamorousSingleMother:
63	** Played with in regards to Michiko. She does love her (essentially adopted) daughter Hatchin, but her criminal lifestyle does often put the girl's life in danger.
64	** [[spoiler:Played straight with Hatchin and her baby, after -[[DissapearedDad the father runs out on them]].]]
65	%%* GratuitousEnglish
66	* HeterosexualLifePartners:
67	** {{Implied\|Trope}} to have been once been the relationship between Michiko and Atsuko, before they ended up on opposite sides of the law.
68	** In a mother-daughter sense, Michiko and Hatchin gradually become this.
69	* IWasQuiteALooker: [[OneSteveLimit Michiko]] Menezes was more attractive years ago before she grew to be overweight and clownish looking, as a photo shows.
70	* IntentionalMessMaking: Joanna, Hatchin's foster mother, does this as a KickTheDog moment during the first episode. During the breakfast scene, in response to learning that Hatchin burned the omelette she was trying to make for her, she dumps the omelette and the rest of her plate right onto the floor, before ''then'' ordering the poor girl to not only cook her another omelette, but ''clean up the mess that Joanna has just made''. And this is only a small part of the abuse and bullying that Hatchin has to deal with from her entire foster family.
71	* IntrepidReporter: Male example with Daniela Carneiro. He is extremely obnoxious, but [[spoiler:[[JerkassHasAPoint turns out to be right about the circus]]]].
72	* JerkassHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Daniela Carneiro, the reporter who was trying to frame the circus for child slavery, [[AccidentalTruth turned out to be startlingly close to the truth]]; they were selling off any kids who didn't prove to be useful.]]
73	* TheMafiya: Fantasma is a Russian gang operating under the control of Kirill. [[spoiler:Later, after Kirill is killed, it is absorbed into Monstro under the control of [[BigBad Satoshi Batista]].]]
74	* AMatchMadeInStockholm: In a more cynical view, this might be what causes Hatchin to bond with Michiko. Then again, ''anything'' would have been better than Hatchin's life with her foster family.
75	* MeltingPotNomenclature: Endemic in the series, with the two title characters as the most obvious examples. Most names seem to fit the Japanese First Name + Portuguese/Spanish Last Name pattern. Furthermore, the characters are addressed with honorifics, which are apparently very important in Latin America.
76	* MushroomSamba: Michiko goes through one as a result of catching a fever. [[spoiler:It doesn't help that the doctor they go to is a scam artist who uses magic tricks instead of actual treatment.]]
77	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:Three boys from a bajou who bullied Hatchin regret their actions when Hana nearly drowns while trying to retrieve her shoes that they stole from her from the bottom of a river. The boys rescue her and, while they didn't completely carry through with their end of the bet and give her their boat, give her back her shoes as well as the leader's blanket that she asked for if she won their bet and asked a man at her inn to apologize to her on their behalf.]]
78	* NameAndName: The series' title.
79	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: [[spoiler:Hana gives one to her abusive foster sister Maria after she's kicked out of the house by the latter.]]
80	* NoNameGiven:
81	** [[spoiler:Hatchin's birth mother.]]
82	** [[spoiler:The identity of Hatchin's baby's father is never revealed.]]
83	* NoseBleed:
84	** Hiroshi gets one in episode 5. Although he got one naturally after being hit on his nose, he gets another when Michiko is close to him.
85	** Michiko gets one when she feels that she is close to Hiroshi.
86	** Hatchin gets one in the DistantFinale, when she figures out that [[spoiler:Michiko is heading in her direction]].
87	* NotSoDifferentRemark: Hatchin comments that Michiko is just like Pepe Lima. However, Michiko later disagrees heavily to Pepe about that resemblance, Michiko citing their key difference as being that Michiko will never give up on her friends while Pepe feels that she can't rely on anyone. Ironically, when Pepe asks Michiko to help her look for [[spoiler:Lulu, Michiko refuses, letting Pepe go to her death, before cursing herself for not helping the woman in need]].
88	* NunTooHoly: Hatchin's foster father is a greedy S.O.B. He only took her in for the child support and was more than happy to kill her for insurance money when Michiko took her.
89	* OddCouple: Michiko and Hatchin. Really, as the former can be childish and ditzy, on top of being a criminal, while the latter is more mature and competent, along with being honest, for the most part.
90	* OneSteveLimit: Averted, as in addition to the anti-heroine protagonist, there is also a circus worker with the first angel Michiko.
91	* ParentalAbandonment: Hatchin, and Michiko when she was a kid. The two of them spend the series looking for Hatchin’s DisappearedDad Hiroshi.
92	* ParentalFavoritism: Hatchin's foster parents appear to love their own children, but mistreat Hana a ''lot''.
93	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: [[OneSteveLimit Michiko]] (the statuesque woman who works at the circus, not the title character) treats the kids who wind up working for her relatively well and doesn't take any crap from a crooked journalist who wants to make her look bad in order to get a scoop. [[spoiler:This is [[BitchInSheepsClothing subverted]] when it's revealed that she's selling the kids who aren't useful.]]
94	* RockThemeNaming: The country is called Diamandra, as in "diamond", and the cities are named after other gemstones.
95	* RoofHopping: On a ''motor scooter'', no less.
96	* ShaggyDogStory: The whole Hiroshi search has a very anti-climatic end, especially when one considers that this plot drives the entire anime. Michiko's whole goal was to find Hiroshi again and give him his daughter, and since she proclaims her love for him for a good part of the series, possibly also get her HappyEnding by meeting him again. When the three of them meet, [[spoiler:Michiko has experienced enough to know that her sole mission was to simply deliver Hatchin to her father. Hatchin, who wasn't exactly excited about meeting the guy in the first place, is abandoned by him again after a few months, when he runs away with another woman]]. Still, from a certain point of view, it was all worth it, as the bond and friendship between the two women is also the main theme of the series, and is reinforced when [[spoiler:they meet after the TimeSkip at the end]].
97	* ShirtlessScene: It's hard to tell but a rare female example happens in the [[https://youtu.be/FQf-NkWz7Yo?t=31 TV opening]] with Hatchin of all people. It's stylistically shaded so [[NippleAndDimed no "naughty bits" can be seen]].
98	* ShoutOut:
99	** The library from episode 15 is full of copies of the Vincent Law book from ''Anime/ErgoProxy'', another Manglobe production.
100	** In episode 21, Michiko does the [[Manga/{{Akira}} Kaneda bike skid]].
101	* SickEpisode: Episode 12. Michiko collapses while driving her scooter, and then tries to shrug off her fever by claiming she just has a very "hot body". The rest of the episode is about Hatchin taking care of her.
102	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Sits firmly on HumansAreBastards and seems reluctant to budge.
103	* SmokingIsCool: There is plenty of smoking featured in the series, and [[BadassBiker Michiko]] rarely goes a single episode without a cigarette.
104	* SoftWater: Michiko [[spoiler:safely lands in the sea after falling out a hot air balloon]]. This is after she has been tranquilized twice.
105	* SouthOfTheBorder: The overall vibe of the series, taking place in a combo of Central America and Brazil.
106	* StatuesqueStunner: The vast majority of grown women and teen girls are drawn this way, with the exception of a few portly ladies here and there.
107	* StepServant: This is Hana Morenos' situation at the start. She lives with a foster family who are nothing but assholes to her, and not only has to endure bullying from both her foster brother and her foster sister but is also made to do all the chores by the parents, including one [[KickTheDog asshole moment]] where the foster mother dumps the omelette that Hana cooked for her on the floor with the rest of her plate because she'd burned the underside of it and orders her not only to cook another one but also to ''clean up the mess the mother just made''! And when Michiko, who becomes one half of the BadassAndChildDuo of the series, kidnaps Hana, the father decides to [[spoiler:try to out and out ''murder her'' for the insurance money]].
108	* SternChase: Throughout Michiko and Hatchin's search for Hiroshi, they are being pursued by cop Atsuko, who has been tasked with returning the escaped Michiko to prison. Several times she comes close to catching them, causing them to flee town and continue on the run.
109	* TeenageWasteland: The whole country, for the most part, is crowded with gangs that are made up of or led by children.
110	* ThemeMusicAbandonment: The final episode does not play the opening theme.
111	* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Michiko and Hatchin switch between these at times, making the line blurred. Michiko dresses in a extremely bold manner and often wears a lot of jewelry (and is, after all, the one who is looking for the man she loves, lending her a somewhat romantic outlook). However, she is [[HairTriggerTemper abrasive]] and [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer borderline violent]]. In contrast, perceptive and quiet Hatchin could be mistaken for a boy in appearance.
112	* TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour: Little kids casually owning guns and using said guns is commonplace.
113	* TryNotToDie: Used almost ad verbatim since Michiko and Hatchin are constantly in the presence of gangs and violent criminals.
114	* UnlimitedWardrobe: Most of Michiko's and Hatchin's wear is likely stolen. Atsuko also comes in several outfits.
115	* WackyParentSeriousChild: Michiko is the adult and is prone to violence, tantrums, and getting into fights, Hatchin is more calm, takes care of the former when she's drunk and/or sick, and tries to use peaceful negotiations.
116	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
117	** Several characters, but most importantly, [[spoiler:Jair, the old man in episode 14 who attempted to assassinate Michiko. He is never mentioned again even though he was last seen taking Michiko to her destination and promising another round]].
118	** [[spoiler:Hiroshi, who doesn't seem so important in the end, although he was the main plot point and thus the reason why Michiko and Hatchin go on their journey in the series in the first place. He doesn't seem to give a shit about Hatchin. After they leave together, Hatchin reveals that at some point, he ran off with another woman.[[note]]This is TruthInTelevision as some deadbeat dads act exactly like Hiroshi.[[/note]]]]
119	** Just who is [[spoiler:Hatchin's MissingMom]]?
120	* WitchDoctor: "Deus" is something between this and a PhonyPsychic.
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Context Anime / MichikoAndHatchin