THAT Animeblog

Well, almost two weeks have gone by since my last post, and in that time we’ve seen the release of two more episodes of Michiko to Hatchin, a strong indication that Manglobe intends to release the series weekly as often as it can. I don’t know for sure what exactly caused the delay of the second episode, but I would guess (baselessly) that it was related to delays in the production process.

That being presumed, I’m pleased that the team is seemingly willing to postpone airdates if it means they can maintain the incredibly high quality of animation and background art that puts Michiko to Hatchin up there with shows like Kamichu! and Mushishi. Then again, it’s really no surprise, coming from the studio that produced both Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy.

This episode, in fact, is even more beautiful than the previous two (though everything seems to get prettier when the ocean is involved). Michiko and Hana (who, per persistent request by the character herself, will be called Hatchin from here on out), make their way to yet another town which I have failed to locate, even with the aid of the infallible google maps. This time it’s the possibly imaginary sea side city of Sáo Cabal, a gorgeous little slice of urban paradise surrounded on all sides by mountains and surf.
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Now, to clarify a bit, the first post put forth a model of signification, which in itself is fairly problematic (the details thereof I’ll address below):

visual appearance [signifies] personality [signifies] ideology

The second post briefly investigated how visual appearance itself is a structure of signs, so thoughts on the more “micro” elements of the character were developed. In this third post, I hope to look into the act of signification (to fix this model), the processes which glue these seemingly inert, semiotic paradigms together, using glasses, once again, as the main investigative clue.

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The quality of screencaps in my first post was seriously lacking, as many people have pointed out to me. So as compensation, in classic Random Curiosity style, I’ve decided to appeal to both quantity and quality by littering this post with pics from the best looking torrent I could find. Enjoy!

Well, it’s finally here. It may have taken two weeks, but it was worth the wait. Michiko to Hatchin’s second episode is at least on par with its first, and in addition to maintaining the same high level of general production value, this episode succeeds in a few ways that I don’t think a lot of people were expecting.
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Some of you eagle eyes out there may have already noticed that I’m new to THAT. So new in fact, that this is my first post! I was recently selected to help maintain the surplus of writers here on the blog, and to fulfill that purpose, I’ve gone ahead and picked up Michiko to Hatchin for this season.

I apologize for posting a review of an episode for which there is already another, but I wrote this as my sample entry and I didn’t want it to go to waste! I’m not really one for self introductions, so if you want to know more about me you can just hop on over to the “About the Team” section of the site and check out my profile. In addition, we have updated the “Fall Series blogging page“, so you can use that page to navigate the series that are blogged currently.

Well then, without further adieu, let’s get to the anime! Oh wait, excuse me. It appears that there is a bit more adieu on the agenda. Sorry. During the excruciating limbo that was the waiting period after applying for a position at THAT, a number of other prospective bloggers and I banded together and vowed, as a way to remedy the pang of inevitable rejection that most of us would be feeling, to form a new team anime blog amongst those of us who didn’t make the cut. I won’t be a part of that endeavor sadly, but Douglas of otakucrave.com and many of the other THAT applicants are in the process of converting the site into their new team blog. Not much is up at the moment, but you can expect lots of fresh articles by a team of zealous bloggers in the near future! So check it out! Here’s another link in case you glazed over the first one. You can’t miss it!

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