It’ll be funny if this show actually settles into a two-beat rhythm for its last stretch. One episode sprinting through an explosive chase - - either toward Hiroshi or away from the feds - - and then one episode slowing down for a leisurely, soul-searching stroll before the chase resumes again.
I still say that NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN was about 60-70% of a great movie but, at least in principle, I appreciated how it conveyed that action scenes in a crime thriller would more realistically be paced like short bursts of intensity punctuating long stretches of tense tedium.
(See? There’s another thriller I can compare MICHIKO & HATCHIN to that is far, far outside of anime’s usual sandbox).
For whatever reason, monstrously mutated tomatoes seem to be the McGuffin, now, and I haven’t the faintest idea of where, how or even why they’ll fit into the larger plot, thematically. I’m not sure why Hiroshi was working at bio-research lab, either - - let alone that an entire episode would be devoted to it. I guess it’s not out of the question for some respectable chemist to be paling around with sexy mobsters in his free time. However, at this point, it’s almost like Hana’s been chasing after some half-imagined ghost; or she and Michiko are just piecing together the trail of some Tom Ripley-like impostor who’s moving from one random job to the next.
Here I am, trying to piece together the clues of a pretty solid mystery that’s popped up by surprise. Those big, red tomatoes are pretty much just big red herrings, aren’t they?
Along that line, I feel like the oddly creepy, drugged-out sexual tension with the cute lab tech was likely included to distract the nose-bleed prone whilst some important details regarding the truth were being thrown out. I know I, myself, was having a little trouble paying attention then. How about you…?
Watch this episode, “Etude of Crimson Inconstancy" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
