The Hypnosis Mic anime adaptation is part of a multimedia franchise by Japanese record company King under their Evil Line record label. The project is fan interactive as King Records allows fans to vote for their preferred team.
After a street war, women have taken over the politics in the Chuo Ward of Japan and have banned weapons. Disputes are now resolved via Rap battles using a special microphone that has the power to control people minds. The story focuses on the 4 rap groups each representing a division in Japan as they Rap it out for supremacy.
(When i was out shopping for essentials one time this one guy at wal-mart was handing out his mixtape to people who have more important things to shop for than a mixtape.)
The concept of the anime is very unique. Like Afro Samurai before, this is heavily focused on its hip-hop roots and aesthetics. The atmosphere is street based and the story themes are also based around common gangsta rap themes like power, wealth and living in the hood.
(Some people in school tried to be rappers but i really doubt anyone would like their music and i'm not just saying this because i'm a metal head even rap fans wouldn't like it)
The hip-hop oriented art style was pretty good and each character design was unique. The characters were very entertaining and the interactions they had showed they have some pretty good chemistry. The visual effects were really great as well too and the animation was pretty good. The voice acting was decent and the dialogue was appropriate for the story.
(I watched this mainly for one thing and one thing only. The edgy graffiti style did give me TWEWY reminders)
The biggest problem is that its short and the story is pretty disjointed. The pacing was really brisk because of the 12 episodes which did not leave much time for character development.
(When i was in school rap fans were the ones hating on otakus and calling JP music weird yet they "appropriated" it for their style aesthetics plus also they just really using it for their own clout. :/ )
Even if you don’t enjoy rap music there still is a number of pretty good songs in the anime that were written by the leading hip hop artists in Japan. Its not purely hip hop based as there are some rock or pop based rap songs in the anime that’s in the style of the Beastie Boys and Japanese alt metal group Rize. Each rapper in the show does have their own “flow” and style of rapping so to speak.
The show had its moments of comedy nothing too special and overall was fairly entertaining. However, the storyline was somewhat disjointed which was disappointing to say the least. I’d recommend the manga and the drama cds as they have a lot more lore and focused storytelling.
It gets 3 out of 5 stars.
I highly doubt rap fans or hypnosis fans would really in hip hop terminology "dig" tis anime.
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