In a world overtaken by war and conflict, "Hypnosis Microphones"—devices through which a user channels lyrics that can affect the listener's brain and even cause physical damage—were introduced to the masses by the Party of Words. Revolutionizing warfare, Hypnosis Mics have transformed words and music into the sole weapons used by gangsters, terrorists, and the military, with physical weapons having been banned from use.
As a result of swooping in during the chaos, the all-female Party of Words rules over the Japanese government. Women in Japan now live in Chuuouku, while men battle over surrounding territories outside the ward through rap battles.
With intentions unknown, the Party of Words begins to gather the former members of the now-disbanded legendary rap crew The Dirty Dawg to fight not for territory or war, but for their respective crew's pride and honor in the greatest rap battle of all time. The first Division Rap Battle is about to commence, and practice is not something these rappers are going to need.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
KANLen09
In anime, everything happens for a reason. But what happens if you try to mesh some of Japan's well-known corporations altogether? Take for example: King Records' (famous for co-producing shitpost anime) Evil Line Records X Idea Factory's Otomate label (Fujoshi-bait) X A-1 Pictures (one of the best high-quality anime studios), and you get Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle, more commonly known as HypMic to hardcore fans and fandoms. First spawning hip-hop rap battles of endless hit banger songs in 2018 under the Evil Line Records sub-label, then manga adaptations of its 4 main rap groups and stage plays in 2019, and this year, other than Idea Factory'ssmartphone game (appealing to Fujoshi fans), HypMic fans have been eagerly waiting for the next notable hit of the mixed-media project: the eventual anime adaptation, produced by none other than A-1 Pictures.
I'd like to preface this as an anime-only: if you like the presentations of the anime, please check out the official Spotify and YouTube channels, along with the other mixed-media iterations, there's a hell lot more to the HypMic universe than just pure Fujoshis rap-battling with hip-hop music.
Believe it or not; I really want to say this: "Fuck the story and its plot. Fuck character development. All you absolutely are required to tune into is for the bat-fucking-shit, "balls to the wall" ear-rapping insanity of banger songs!" But hold on, there's actually a very simple world-building context for this: Image Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)" song of a weapon-prohibited setting, leaving the Fujoshis left with HypMics for violence tactics. Manga readers will know the story of -Before the Battle- The Dirty Dawg: the main leaders splitting up and representing their own territorial states with the formation of rap group trios. AND THAT'S IT, HOMIES.
Otherwise, wash, rinse and repeat the last paragraph from the top, because the music is what you're here for. It's not just some mindless circumstances leading up to the eventual musical hip-hop travesty: Fujoshi guys bein' MA-18 dudes and spittin' fire bars of bad-ass songs of fiery and burning bridges, because this show is barely worth trying to be serious at all. You might think that ham-fisting this bullshit setting would sound inferior on paper, but bring it to the small screen and let the execution deliver with outstanding levels of lunacy and madness. Combine that with A-1 Pictures' calibre of exceptional visuals and animation, from the bearable CGI to the high-octane MV-levels of audio-visual rap battles, and you're inviting yourself into a marriage of the wackiest, unhinged, yet stylish anime that's indeed worthy of the "one-of-a-kind" moniker.
Oh, that Rhyme Anima opening? Absolutely another banger song of insane proportions and done with majestical CLASS (especially the chorus, also the refrain of Doppomine singing with his old-school cellphone to a screaming "BATTLE ROYALE!!!" shriek of an exclamation. Now that's awesome!).
And the ending song covered by all 4 main groups in their own specialized versions, that's another "Easter Egg" degrees of uniqueness. Solid OST and visuals.
Stop watching anime from the lens of seriousness, you watch anime because you want to have fun and be entertained all the time, so switch off your brains and appreciate HypMic for what it is: a large-scale (small) concert that's 1000% guaranteed enjoyment of a niche hyped music-fest battle royale.
"Hypnosis action ends corruption...Ignition! Division Rap Battleで!"
SunlitSonata
“And they’re ‘rhymes wack, you hear’?” HypMic.......is a mess. A massive, massive mess. The dialogue is stilted, the tone bafflingly serious despite the premise, the lighting weakly considered, characterization inconsistent with numerous unearned turns, animation mediocre at best and empathetic context missing. Yet, somehow, it manages to be a really funny time. “So Bad It’s Good” is hard to truly quantify, since it depends on what can crack the spectrum to any particular person beyond average, everyday badness. However, most of the time, when applied to anime, it’s used to refer to something that tries to be dark and miserable but comes out as comedic instead; Assassin’s Pride,Mirai Nikki/Big Order, Ousama Game, Mayoiga and the early episodes of Arifureta as common go-tos. However, those shows tend to operate too much on misery to really hold any likable impressions for my part. Garzey’s Wing is a popular go-to for this category, moreso because of how absurd its entire conceit is than edge falling flat.
Hypnosis Mic, though, champions being so bad it’s good for the sheer WTF value nearly every episode. It’s almost impossible to tell how much of the show is merely being an advertisement for music CDs, and how much is the animation team trying to make some sort of grand cohesive tale out of thin air. This push pull between corporate ad and direction vision gives the show a distinct flavor of entertainment.
The core idea of the plot is that somehow, in some way, every normal weapon was banned from existing, except for microphones. An all female government is in place, which holds a rap battle tournament that four teams of three, who were once together in a group called “Dirty Dawg”, prepare to join.
Any worldbuilding required to make this all happen is borderline nonsensical. The idea of an all-female government taking power, getting normal weapons totally banned (when most people IRL can easily slip illegal marijuana) and standing being asserted by rap dominance naturally only make since by Yu-Gi Oh/Jojo logic, but that just makes things more exciting. The sheer absurdity of these facts plastered onto what’s otherwise a fairly normal setting leads to some hilariously goofy moments.
HypMic’s first eight episodes are essentially prep to get viewers to know each of the four teams, titled Buster Bros, Mad Trigger Crew, Fling Posse and Materno. Aside from Buster Bros they aren’t even in careers associated with rap, some being doctors, salarymen or military men. To get the audience to pick favorites among these Sonic Heroes, the show runners decided “let’s throw these pastel colored fujioshi avatars into deafeningly serious plots that’ll have nothing to do with anything else!” The plots tend to have a lot of threats thrown each team’s way, with the power of corny camaraderie to save the day. If nothing else, these episodes do a passable job showing why each team cares about their respective members.
But remember, weapons are banned in the world of HypMic, so how are all these conflicts solved! RAP BATTLES! Scenarios where guns and grenades would exist are replaced by microphones because that’s just how the world works and everyone completely accepts it. The sheer power of rap allows teleportation, and it’s a sight to behold.
Bank hostage situation? Rap Battle.
Yakuza caper? Rap Battle.
Mortgage scheme? Rap Battle.
Illegal drug deals? Rap Battle
Murder framing? Rap Battle.
Terrorist bombing specifically to prevent one team from participating in a rap battle? Rap Battle.
Only getting a B on my college final?! Rap Battle.
These rap battles are the only times the show gets to add flair where there generally IS none. Most scenes have no flair; the animation is choppy, the lighting poorly implemented and garishly bright enough to make you think all the available colors got used on the character designs alone. With realistic backgrounds featuring absurdly costumed characters, you get the type of wacky dissonance that can elicit a chuckle all on its own. That said, the scenes before one of these conflicts get going with flat exposition are some of the only times the show is actively boring, little but basic partnerships to pass the time. Once the conflicts get into full force and get solved with a rap at the end, then it’s a blast.
So how about the raps themselves, likely the main reason you’ve checked out this anime?
I’m happy to report that they’re absolutely wild. If you’ve watched Epic Rap Battles of History before, they provide a good sense of what to expect; killer beats with over-the-top visual effects in conjunction with mad disses. Given the language barrier, I can’t tell if the animators took influence from them, but it catches a similar vibe. At some points it’s more effects than animation, with different filters thrown about, kanji and battle effects splattering the screen during the rap. 2D characters swap into CGI and back and forth, but the timing of the rap music videos is on POINT. It’s clear this is where the most effort went, for good reason, but it contrasts greatly to everything else in the anime. Props to the translators for creating subtitles that seem to fit into rhyme scheme. It’s hard to tell how well the seiyuu ACTUALLY sing the lyrics as someone who doesn’t understand Japanese, but if I could judge, the Buster Bros have the most amount of oomph and flow to their lyrics while Materno seems like they struggle with nailing lyric flow the most. The raps slap, and when they don’t, they’re so silly it’s hard not to laugh at them.
Of course, the galaxy brained writing doesn’t stop once the division rap battles in title begin. If anything, the presentation gets even more bizarre.
There’s attempts to add some angsty spice by implying that one character was involved in what happened to another character’s sister. Of course, this drama lacks the punch it needs without proper context. Because there was no time to build that up in the 8 episodic segments before that.
Shonen battle mechanics get introduced! Now every character has specialized “traits” that only appear as they rap! Once again it’s spontaneous, poorly built up, and means nothing outside of specific scenes, but it adds to the general madcap nonsense that is this show’s existence.
At around the same time, one character rather inexplicably appears to be a twist villain, with a more sinister grin and complicit goals. Yet, before the episode is even over, they’re instantly talked out of it. It’s almost incredible how the show decides to hold off on its conflict. This is then doubled down further by having two morality turns in incredibly quick succession for events the audience never got to see, only to have neither of them mean anything soon after. You can’t make this up.
Despite all of these issues, the big conspiracy plot keeps rolling, with a repetitive background score of funky fresh beats even in the serious scenes. It’s fitting at times when things are more lowkey but only makes sillier any attempt outside of that. Like trying to understand its attempts to tell a story and remembering; we’re watching working professionals stuck in the rap circuit.
Hypnosis Mic is a respectable anomaly of confused existence and cloudy vision. In this bizarre place where it’s narratively, tonally and structurally nonsense, but it somehow works to be entertaining. What makes the show so bad it’s good for me is that I just can’t tell what they were really going for with this story, beyond an attempt to show off seiyuu vocal range to mixed effect. The characters have light chemistry with their team members, but any attempts to develop anything fall hilariously flat. Its plot goes through every spectrum of tense you can think of under a weak production that gives it no gravitas. It’s a 3/10 for serious merit, but a 7/10 for enjoyment, so 5/10 is a fair way to place it. You might not find it hilarious, or just be interested to see all of the raps out of context, yet for me it hits the perfect spectrum of unintentionally intentional comedy to make it worth something.
astrocoffee
Hypnosis Mic is set in the future where the government is overthrown by the all female "Party of Words." They ban lethal weapons and force citizens to defend themselves via Hypnosis Microphones by rapping. Our story centers around the 4 teams representing 4 districts of Japan, Ikebukuro, Yokohama, Shinjuku, and Shibuya, as they prepare and compete in a division rap battle. As someone who watched idol anime growing up, I was intrigued by this concept, so I followed this anime during winter 2020. The art style is very bright and colorful, and it brings life to the mildly chaotic world of hypnosis mic. One thing thatI found amusing was how you can tell most characters apart based on hair color. The animation is also pretty solid. This anime used a combination of CGI and 2d animation. The CGI looked great, especially during stages, and the 2d is solid too.
The music in this anime also exceeded my expectations. The only "real songs" you get are the op and ed tracks, besides that the music is more like verses from the respective rappers. I never really found a song to be bad, I just personally liked some "songs" more than others. One cool thing they did was that they gave each team their own version of the ed track, which was fun to see.
Now, onto the characters and actual story... It isn't that great. The first few episodes were fun, I enjoyed seeing the teams and their day-to-day lives, but as the series progressed and got closer to the final division battle, you notice that a lot was left out.
Without spoiling anything - certain characters have past conflict with each other, and besides the occasional insult and flashback, we don't get that much information on their past. So, when it comes to the final rap battles, there isn't as much tension between the teams as needed for it to be a high-stakes battle.
The characters themselves are very distinct, and can be identified by their occupations and hair color. You get to see the contrasting dynamics between teams which also helps for characterization. There isn't that much development between the cast, and when it does happen its short and sweet.
I started off anime only, and went on to read the manga, and I was shocked by how much was left out from the anime. But, there's only so much you can do in 13 episodes.
With all this being said, I still really liked this anime. In my opinion, if you watch hypnosis mic with a critical lens, then you're watching it wrong. Not all anime has to have a complex and detailed plot to be worth your time.
Overall, Hypnosis mic is a fun, and colorful anime with a diverse set of characters. It's a weird concept, and the plot could be better, but these shouldn't put you off from watching the show. If you like music in anime, want to watch something fun, or are a simp, I totally recommend. If you want something plot heavy, or are more critical of your media, I say to give this one a skip, or read the manga.
This is my first review, Thanks for your time :)
Auron
The introduction to the beloved multimedia franchise establishes serious concepts with a likable cast, but has trouble utilizing them to any meaningful degree, coming off as insincere. The streets of Tokyo have been rid of weaponized conflicts. Spearheaded by the Party of Words, a coup d'etat has radically transformed the way of living for the Japanese populace, springing up a matriarchal society where women alone are in positions of power and men are segregated to regions called "divisions" where they have to settle disputes by lyrical battles through the use of state-issued augmented microphones and with it either gain or lose territory; naturally, any other formof violence is strictly prohibited, including non-state issues mics. Through this mechanism, women have taken the lead where men has failed since time immemorial, to construct a society wherein peace and order are upheld in the truest sense, curbing of freedoms but a small price to pay for that worthy endeavor, surely. And thus would be the premise to our title. All of this may have sounded very enticing, and Hypnosis Mic too, is quite enticing in some respects. But you might puzzled as to why I'm phrasing it like my description and the show are two separate entities. And that's because, well, they are. The show could not possibly be more dissimilar than its premise would have you believe. I'm sure you the reader can attest to this, while reading the start of this paragraph, have you honestly thought, even for a second, that I was talking about a different show? Because see, HypMic ARB is hopelessly ordinary, and don't get me wrong, some of my favorite shows deal with the mundanities of life, but in a world that is supposed to feel extraordinary, it sticks like a sore thumb. I want the characters to feel the weight of the system under which they live, to have the fangs of tyranny seeping into their corner of the world, and seeing their opposition forming the baseline of their character. Unfortunately, vast majority of the show goes on like nothing abnormal is happening at all, and the last 2 episodes a last ditch effort to get things back on track to what the pilot episode promised, but too little too late...
The characters are your usual diverse ensemble cast who share roughly equal screen-time as is the case for idol or idol-like shows. Normally this will result in the cast ending up being tropey and weak, and while I can't entirely deny this in the case of HypMic, I argue that it does more than most of its kin. There is some genuine attempt to individualize each character beyond just superficial elements like verbal tics and hair colors, during its runtime all 4 of our division will be facing certain turbulences—some serious and some more light-hearted—that communicate parts of their identity to the viewer in a surprisingly apt manner. Jakurai-sensei's comatose patient for whom he blames himself and suspects foul play, the brief moments where Samatoki seems to have concern for his teammates like not wanting to involve them to his familial issues, Rio's loyalty to his former Navy general, and yet him opposing his fellow comrades in their Machiavellianistic ways... these sadly do not tie up to some grand narrative, likely due to time limitations, but it shows that it's not just about pretty boys dissing each other. A good litmus test for well-put-together characters is, in my view, to read a random part of the script and attempt to identify the speaker, and I believe HypMic fulfills that criterion relatively well.
Art and animation are largely inoffensive, but staticity of frames is noticeable in certain parts. The CGI for rap portions are not jarring in the slightest, impressive even, when it's at its peak. The tracks are obviously not on par with the franchise's discography, but nothing to scoff at all the same. The character design has been a strong point of the franchise since it's very inception, and this adaptation is no different. All in all, it's an amusing "pick your favorite boy" kind of show that is bogged down by not having much to do with what you'd expect a show with concepts of such caliber to have.
Sakoori
The Hypnosis Mic anime was a very hyped anime within the HypMic fandom, but I can't help but feel like it just completely missed the mark entirely. As a fan of the original multimedia project, the anime pales in comparison and was just not a good show on its own either. What is Hypnosis Mic? It's a multimedia project created by King Records with character designs from Otomate (Idea Factory). The premise of HypMic revolves around a fictional Japan run by women where weapons are illegal and men fight for territory using the power of rap. The story follows the relationship between ex-The Dirty Dawg membersYamada Ichiro, Aohitsugi Samatoki, Amemura Ramuda and Jinguji Jakurai and why they are are all at odds with each other. HypMic has been around since 2017 and has spawned multiple CDs, drama tracks and 5 manga series, each detailing the storylines of the main protagonists and what happened when they were still part of The Dirty Dawg. The so-called rap battles done in the project are an opportunity for fans to interact with the project and directly affect the outcome of the battles. Fans can buy CDs of the respective rap battle and inside each CD is a code that they can use to vote for the winner of the battles. This also affects the story of the universe, as each character faces consequences for winning/losing the rap battles.
The anime was hyped up to basically be another adaptation of the first division rap battle arc. Fans from the music and manga were aware of the results of the division rap battle being depicted, but were excited to finally see the rap battles be depicted visually with animation, rather than with static manga panels or audio. The animation itself was pretty standard. The usage of CGI wasn't too intrusive/distracting. The character designs are classic fujo bait material, which is the reason why I got into the series in the first place.
The raps were very creative and felt true to the original music style. Though they had to compose new raps for the actual rap battle part of the animation, the new songs echoed similar sentiments to the original music. I found myself enjoying a lot of the songs and still listen to them regularly on Spotify.
The story is by far the most disappointing part. Though the rap battle tournament was still the same in terms of the results, everything else about the story was a mess. The anime spent way too much time setting up character introductions and very little time on the relationships between the characters outside of their respective divisions. You don't really learn why Ichiro and Samatoki hate each other nor why Ramuda and Jakurai are at odds with each other. You don't learn about The Dirty Dawg rap group until the very end of the anime, even though the reason for the entire story stems from that rap group and is the central event stressed in the other media. These relationships are explained in the manga and drama tracks but failed to be captured in the anime. The anime introduced new original characters that were never seen in the previous media and they served little to no purpose until the last 2 episodes. The story diverted significantly from the canon that has already been established, which is a major disappointment for those who have been following the HypMic story for so long. Even as a standalone anime, the story makes no sense and suffers from "13 episode syndrome". There was just way too much source material for the animation team to condense into a 1 season anime and make it coherent and they did not manage to do that.
The HypMic anime is nothing more than a series to get your toes wet and a way for King Records to sell more HypMic merch. If you found yourself intrigued by the premise of the anime, then you will want to go out and seek/buy the music and the manga for more information. If you didn't like the anime, you may still find some value in looking up the source material, since the pacing in the manga and drama tracks are much better for telling the story. Overall, this show is just disappointing in terms of being an extension of the HypMic multimedia project and as a standalone show. It's just fujo bait without a coherent story and decent J-Rap music. I wouldn't waste my time watching this show if you're intrigued by the premise; just go read the manga or listen to the drama tracks on Spotify instead.
_Tooru-san_
I'm not good at writting reviews so i'll go straight to the point and keep it short. I love the characters, especially their designs but the story is kinda shitty. For half of the season they tried to show of the characters but i still fell like it could be done better. I see the potential but i still wasn't satisfied with what they did. The story had some good moments but overall it was pretty boring and i had a hard time watching this anime. At first, before starting it i was actually exited to do so, but later i only watched it for thecharacters hoping they will do something interesting.
KietsuTsubasa4
Easily one of the most convoluted, pretentious, and trope filled shows that I've ever watched and one that I could not recommend highly enough. It was the worst show that I had watched this year and also the one I had the most fun watching. This is the picture perfect definition of a so-bad-that-it's-good piece of media. Everything about it is pretentiously extra. You know how shows usually only have one main character? Well this one has 12. You know how the main character sometimes has weird hair or unique eyes? Well almost every character in this show has two tone ombre hair, usually in somepastel candy colored shade. Along with multicolored eyes, which are different from the THREE characters who have actual heterochromia, and pupils shaped like an hourglass. In fact, you can easily tell who will eventually become a relevant character solely on how many colors are in their eyes.
Every character has the most extra backstory imaginable (which usually is somehow intertwined with everyone else's extra backstory). Any trope or profession that you could possibly want is probably in here somewhere. Everything from yukaza leader to host club worker, expert hacker to professional writer.
Every time that they have a rap sequence the animation goes absolutely wild. Depending on who's singing the entire environment changes like they've just unlocked some strange combination of a domain expansion and a bankai.
The best part about this ridiculous world and the bizarre premise that the show is built around is that the story plays it almost completely strait.
All this combined with the almost stroke-inducing, neon colored, and (surprisingly) well animated rap sequences makes for a delightful time.
If you are looking to spend your time watching a good show then you'll likely be let down but if you go into it looking for a good time then you won't be disappointed.
Tamaki_ki
Very good, damn this is the best brain rot to watch. If you're looking for something fun to watch while also not having the braincells to think, this is the perfect show. The raps are great and the dialog is very fun. The show takes itself very serious, but that honestly just makes it more fun to watch. Though, I wouldn't recommend taking the show too serious, since it's much more enjoyable not doing that. Also, a thing I think is kinda rare for music focused anime is having good 3D animations. I'm personally not really a fan of anything 3D related in anime, but HypMic manages to hide itvery well since their models are very on par with their 2D art style.
Again, I would recommend this anime for anyone who likes a good laugh and has major brainrot like me.
Listen to more of their music and vibe with me~~
Amazing/10, very excited for S2
chocolattebjorn
Spoiler warning below (just in case) First of all, even though I love Hypmic project I have a love-hate relationship with this anime. I was eager when Hypmic has an anime adaptation, but when anime already airing I was like.. oh well. Story First episode started with all divisions introduced and rapping to random opponents. When they gonna rapping, they have magical girl transformation vibe (I'm saying this uinronically). Their rapping has special effects (thus called Hypnosis Mic). It's usually goes 'boom' after the divisions defeated the random opponents. Admit it, that moments make you go "what?" Then from episode 2 to 8, mostly are one division focused (there'salso 2 divisions combined in 1 episode). The episode order are Buster Bros, Matenrou, MTC, and Fling Posse.
They doing random things which followed with an occurrence and the divisions defeats the opponents who did the occurrence with their rapping.
Up to episode 9, plot somewhat gets interesting. The divisions are defeating each other in one place. If you read the manga, it's predictable who's gonna be win the competition and vice versa.
There's also 3 anime-only characters, at first they seems like random background characters and interacting some of the division members. Who knows they gonna be impacted to the plot. The plot really confusing to me and the anime ends with cliffhanger ending.
Art
The character designs are pretty similar to Kazui's character design. I'm not getting biased but personally the character designs are memorable. The animation and effects is pretty good.
Sound
Most of the episodes has brand new songs, the anime didn't reused the older songs. Obviously all of the songs are in rap genre. Even the ending song has different divisions who sang it per 3 episodes. The songs is good and it makes me goosebumps when the divisions defeats each other. The voice acting is fine.
Character
If I remember correctly, there's some characters who has a slight flashbacks about what they're do in the past and usually the division leaders. Some of the characters seems having a questionable background and probably because limited episodes it's couldn't be described what they are (more likely Fling Posse members). Buster Bros members are clearly brothers who lives their own. The 3 anime-only trios are foreigners who gonna be defeating the main divisions for Ichijiku's intention.
There's so many HifuDo moments and Rei appeared as a cameo in last episode. More importantly, there's no the rest of Dotsutaire Honpo and BAT appearance cameos. Just Rei.
Overall
Is this anime enjoyable? Ugh.. kind of. I was curious what plot they're gonna bring in the anime. I'm a fan of Hypmic project so I decided to watch the anime until ends.
I get it why this anime having a low score, well this anime isn't for everyone actually. Even the premise sorta weird, but yeah that's Hypmic is.
If you liked a music (especially Japanese rap) anime with weird elements in it, maybe you can try watching this. If not, stay away.
If you curious about Hypmic project, try their manga, drama tracks, and songs. The anime may confusing for newcomers and assume the anime is the alternative story of Hypmic.
Ufckingweasel33
I don't really know much about writing reviews and such, especially the scores on Story, Art and Overalls but i'll try my best for this is my first ever Anime review. *CERTAINLY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS* First of all, I'm a Hypster. Hypster is the name of the Hypnosis Mic fandom and i've been a fan who've listened to their songs for over a year. Finding out the news of Hypnosis Mic being adapted into an anime made me extremely happy that i've never been on my happy switch for so long. BUT now that i've watched every episode of this adaptation, you cannoteven fathom the disappointment i felt after all those 13 episodes. Hypnosis Mic Anime is a Mess. I wish it could've just followed the Manga, or Drama track. At first, i was extremely enthusiastic with my beloved characters having quality animation, and are finally moving around and talking. Fling Posse is my absolute Favourite group and i was happy i got to see 'em moving. But disappointment came around episode 5. (but to be honest i was already confused and down at episode 2 but i endured all that before actually facepalming.) I mean, we got to see every group that needs attention in the first episode right? so whats the use for 4 episodes focusing on each 4 groups? To make the viewer understand and know them? fine. BUT HYPMIC ANIME DIDNT DO THAT. It just straight up made us watch our boys just rapping on random situations given unto them and revealing vague information about them and their past when they could've just followed the manga or drama track itself to make everything LESS CONFUSING. Even as a broke fangirl like me who loves this franchise, i can still cringe with the fact they fight with mics lmao but i should say that a world ruled by women and no weapons is indeed interesting.(if done wisely and better that is.) Another one of my problems was that the anime adaptation of Hypmic had moments that had this one character act differently from his personality/character. For example, Samatoki who tried to punch Ichijikuand hurt other women offiials which was absolutely out of his character even if he was angry and pissed at that time.
Now, finally i came to the point of forgetting everything disappointing that occurred in this anime just to let myself try to enjoy the battle episodes. Yes, i actually did enjoy them but the problems were of that a lot of characters were out of character in the battles which made them look weak than they originally are. Now, i really want to stop comparing this to the manga as it seems to be of original work, but the source says "other." The music used in this was something which i had high expectations from as Hypmic franchise is about all those catchy and sweet music. I could say i enjoyed a lot of the new songs and i am still waiting for the release of all the full version ones. Tho i wished the lyrics stuck to the character more in depth and not just adding lyrics of the character's personality that only touched a few certain levels and then added supposedly rhyming words. The 4 groups and that whatever sEcrEt AlieNs(which i surprisingly liked) VS Chuohku episode was definitely the most facepalming and 2nd hand embarrassment episode i've ever seen. Chuohku is a powerful women ruling government system that defeated the previous government with its you know what or not methods, but now it's troops or whatever is being busted thru by 4 groups with leaders being from the legendary "almost started a coup d'etat" disbanded group? I expected more of Chuohku man. Chuohku has done more better ways than the ones that they did in the anime. I'd say Chuohku could've easily handled all those mundane situations with a better solution.
I really have not much to say about this anime i guess. My feelings of the "tried but kind of failed" adaptation of Hypmic is a mix of Gratefulness, Excitement, or ,Disappointment and Cringe. Tho im still forever grateful seeing my bois animated and talking once again and Hypmic being a Guilty Pleasure for me, despite its cringey executions and all its flaws, i hope for a second season that will be less confusing and something that will actually be better.
Just read the manga or listen to the drama tracks please, its actually more interesting and less cringey.
Seriously the Drama tracks/manga, Game, and Anime have different fucking universes and stories.
:))
Lilamon
Hypnosis Mic is easily one of the best idol anime of all time. It separates itself from it's contemporaries with absurd storylines, memorable art direction, and most importantly, hilarious writing. Almost every character stands on their own within the show's narrative. The interpersonal relationships and history between the divisions leaves me eager to learn more. The music is some of the best in the genre, with solid raps and instrumentals that bring me back to listen over and over again. For fans of idol content, this is a welcome departure from the norm with familiar staples. For those new to musical anime, I find thisto be a great starting point, especially for comedy fans.
deadlyspawn
The story is lackluster at best and lets be honest, it takes a backseat to the hip-hop/rap performances. Nothing about the story was interesting; I know I'm not familiar with Japanese hip-hop culture, even though I do listen to a lot of rappers (artists & battle rappers) from that area. Maybe that's why it didn't jive with me like it should have. The odd hip-hop segment will have 1 character with awesome rap flow but that's it. The beats are terrible; well written on their own, just not good enough to freestyle or rap to. I suggest someone remix it - Idon't care enough about the show to do it myself.
The lyrics are the point of how powerful their attack is and I challenge anyone to find good bars in any lyric of this show. Japanese battle rap leagues have great f*ckin' bars so a little more research from the creators or collab would have benefitted that aspect greatly.
A few characters are cool, most are meh... I don't suggest watching this if it's only for hip-hop/rap purposes.
I gave it a 4, it's bad.
sweetplanet
To really get any kind of enjoyment out of this series, you have to have prior knowledge of the overall plot/characters. This animation expects you to know what is happening therefore you get random flashbacks with no explanation. If you don't give a hoot about the plot and just want to watch something because you're bored, give this a shot! It was a bit disappointing that they did not follow the main plot of the Hypnosis Mic manga, but it was a fun watch once you disregard the sometimes lackluster animation. As someone who is familiar with the Hypnosis Mic project, it was decent anddefinitely could've been done better. If they decide to make a serious animation of Hypnosis Mic I hope they improve so that it can be consumed by new and old fans!
(Congrats to Fling Posse on winning the 2nd DRB!!)
Sklera
"It's time to start the lyrical fashion show" HypMic is a franchise which started fairly simple. There are rap groups and each of them has an unique style, so everybody should find something they may like. Fans can buy CDs and vote for their favourite, while the writers try to write something Sounds harsh? To be honest, the whole concept of hypmic is a creative mess. There are some enjoyable bits, but overall the plot stand on a weird fundation that creates multiple questions. For example, how people get hypmic? What happened to sellers of illegal weapons? What exactly happened when the Party of Words took control overJapan? How badly lives of people changed? Why people fight for the territory?
Unfortunately, I am only talking about the current plot established by track dramas and anime doesn't do anything good to make the wacky plot work. There are many animes with more weird concepts that were well-developed and became logical. Instead we got too many slice of life episodes that only show interactions between members of the same group and hardly contribute to the plot. Only last episodes focused on something else and we get 1000 new facts. Last episodes are nothing like the first half of the show and it's hard to lose an impression that the studio doesn't know what is time management. In addition to an awful pacing, we get couple cliches and a new group with one of the least creative backstories. The new group only makes the plot messier and doesn't do anything special.
Now that I mentioned a new group, let's talk about characters. There are many interesting characters and it seems there are couple conflicts between different rap groups. However, the anime hardly shows characters as anything deeper than a puddle. Most of the time, their traits are used for comedy and anything related to their backstory is either left unexplained or rushed. Almost no conflict has been solved. By the way, it's worth to mention that new anime charactes are embodient of a bad writing. For example, T.Rex is a rapper and he raps about... dinosaurs. His whole personality is based on this fact and it's simple as that
Then there is an average animation. There are couple scenes rendered in 3D and they're fairly awkward.
Finally, the biggest crime of hypmic anime is music. Hypmic has many briliant songs and while watching the anime, I hoped to find couple musical diamonds. Unfortunately, anything outside episode 1 sound good. Most rap battles are as smooth as sandpaper. There are too many weird breaks, screams and talking-no-jutsu.
Overall, the whole anime is an ad for CDs with couple relaxing slice of life episodes, which became my guilty pleasure. If you are a fan of the franchise and you want couple slice of life adventures, then go ahead and watch first half of the anime. If you expect a solid plot or high-quality songs, then skip it
JammyZeppeli
Genuinely amazing. Despite there being very little in the way of believable story, Hypnosis Mic is one of the best anime I've ever seen. Every single song is an absolute banger, the character designs are super fun and colourful and almost all of the characters (both male and female) are hot. This anime is perfect if you want to just sit back and have a fun time. You probably won't enjoy it as much if you don't like this genre of music though. Also, the rap battles at the very end were so hype that I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat andhyperventilating.
4rtemis4
I am someone who knew almost nothing about Hypnosis Microphone (HypMic) before watching this anime series. I had some friends that liked it, but getting into it seems somewhat difficult/tedious to do given the wide range of ways that HypMic tells its story. As someone that's basically an anime-only viewer, I think that several people are criticizing this show way too hard for what it is. For me, this is definitely a guilty pleasure kind of show. Story: 3 The story is of course, absolutely absurd. From what I can tell, the premise is "we want groups of guys to have cool rap battles with each other."So, they created a plotline that would allow for such a silly concept while still being "high-stakes." The result is that women have taken over Japan and eliminated all sources of weapons and violence (including hand-to-hand combat somehow, of course) and replaced those weapons with Hypnosis Microphones, which have the ability to amplify your songs (or raps) into something that can attack your opponents' psyche. They must have believed that men don't sing, so women now control the world! Except that some people figured out you can rap instead, and I'd argue rapping gets out a lot more lyrics a lot more quickly, so nice try, ladies.
So of course the story isn't what drives this show. With such a ridiculous plot line, anyone here for a serious show would drop it at episode 1. And that's okay, it's not for everyone. But, if you want to see some cool guys of different character types duke it out in some rap battles, you've come to the right place.
Lastly, the leader of each of the 4 divisions used to be in a group together. Fairly typical "all-star team has a falling-out and now each of those stars has their own crew" setup. Reminds me of Kuroko no Basuke. This is fine, as it creates a balance of power in the story.
Art: 9
Honestly for A-1 pictures, I was very surprised and impressed by the animation quality. I didn't notice any wonky key frames, the lines are consistent, colors are nice and vivid, and the use of 3D CGI was used infrequently enough to not really be a problem. Of course it was noticeable, but it was usually brief with minimal camera movement and lots of special effects around it, so it's not jarring. The addition of the lyrics being animated onto the screen was a really nice touch, and probably very beneficial to those that understand Japanese watching it raw. I feel like A-1 pictures really stepped up with this one, it was nice to look at.
Sound: 8
Since most of us are here for the rap battles, the sound is definitely important. I'm giving it 8 out of 10, 8 points scored by the impressive rap sequences and voice acting, 2 points missed from the non-existent BGM. I couldn't even tell you if music was ever playing during the non-rap-battle scenes, it was that underwhelming. But it also wasn't distracting from the dialogue, so there's that. The opening and ending songs were pretty nice as well, and I think did a fine job conveying the tone of each division and the show overall.
Character: 6
It's not like I'm expecting a ton from character in a setting like this. This is your classic "who's best boy?" scenario, so each character is almost stereotypical in their attributes. But, with how many characters there are (12 main characters and some interesting side characters), they did a decent job of putting some diversity in, at least, and it's not as if character development was non-existent. You'll most likely pick out favorites based on character design, and then maybe some from their personality and some from their voice/rapping style.
Though it's not the fault of the anime adaptation, I must comment on how... creative the character designs for Buster Bros!!! is. Let's name the brothers with 1, 2, and 3 in their names, give them an increasing number of moles, and ALL of them have heterochromia. Yeah, sure. I feel bad that Jiro's personality was almost completely distilled to "I like my older brother more than you," while Saburo was given the tech wiz attribute (in addition to "no I like my older brother more"). Hopefully Jiro has more going for him in the drama CDs/manga/games/etc.
The other three groups are diverse enough in characters, and I feel that the show has enough archetypes to appeal to most audiences. While not my favorite, I think that Matenro's Doppo is one of the most unique and amusing characters.
Enjoyment: 9
Despite the ridiculous plotline and somewhat generic characters, the animation and rap sequence quality gave me something to look forward to watching every week or two as this anime was being released. While I can't give it higher overall score due to it's obvious shortcomings, the enjoyment is a large reason for my overall score choice. This show is definitely a guilty pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed watching every episode of it. Sometimes it's nice to turn on something not plot-heavy and just watch some pretty boys rap.
Overall: 7
I can't give this higher than a 7 because of the obvious story flaws and somewhat bland characters, but I would certainly recommend this show to anyone that wants to see what Japanese rap/hip-hop is like, or devote their life to a new husbando and proceed to spend their entire life savings on merchandise of said boy. As someone that didn't indulge in HypMic's other lore sources previously, I do believe this anime is a good entryway into the franchise to pique your interest. Maybe now I'll go download the phone game and pray to the gatcha gods that they'll give me Jakurai cards.
Too_Hopeful
This anime is really fun to watch! Only if you know the characters already. Most people watching this series are already fans of Hypnosis Mic's songs, manga, characters, drama tracks, ect, and they get to enjoy their favorite characters fully animated. I only dipped my toes into the series with reading the prequel manga, meaning I already knew a lot about the group leaders along with all of Buster Bros and MTC. Having this prior knowledge meant I personally had a lot of fun with the show, and I already had a favorite going in. If I didn't have that, I think I wouldn't like this show nearlyas much, which is why I ranked it 6/10 despite the average score of my stats being 7.8/10. Speaking of, let's go through the categories:
Story: Let's be real, it's nothing impressive. The premise is really interesting, but you get about 6 episodes to introduce the characters for those who are new to the series and then you get the actual Division Rap Battle before we hit that finale (which was poorly executed, but that's for the spoilers section). Because of this format, the pacing is weird and the show winds up being really boring if you go by the 3 episodes rule. Again, having even a mild interest in the characters before going in makes it much more entertaining than it would be otherwise in that first half of the series. 5/10 Good premise, shit pacing, too little story.
Art: The character designs for this show are simply amazing, and the visuals during the rap battles are fantastic for the most part. However, the rest of the animation is nothing amazing and isn't groundbreaking in any way. 8/10 Solid animation and great visuals but nothing beyond that.
Music: This is an anime about rap battles, if the music was bad then this show would be very disappointing. Fortunately, the show delivers on that front, using some pre-existing tracks from the franchise but also including tracks made specifically for the show. However, I highly dislike the decision to write new rap sequences for the DRB instead of using the pre-existing ones, especially when tracks like Battle Battle Battle are considered some of the best in the franchise, so it's 9/10 for me.
Character: Despite having 6 whole episodes of character introduction, and giving every group their own episode, you can't really learn much about the characters past their basic traits, because they're introduced via some kind of episodic story that needs to be resolved. Characters like Doppo, Jyuto and Rio got a somewhat proper treatment, but the Yamada trio felt especially underdeveloped to me, since their screen time was more about Jiro and Saburo wanting nii-chan's attention and Ichiro kicking ass than characterizing any of the siblings. However, I will give credit where credit is due, the writing on Ramuda and Jakurai was really well-done in the latter half of the series, and even without knowing the full details of what happened between them, you can feel the tension between them, and it makes the viewer curious about what caused their relationship to become so strained. Besides that, the characters are at least entertaining even if some of them are a little too shallow compared to the others. 7/10 Entertaining characters but some are poorly written.
Enjoyment: I had fun, but again, that's because I already cared for the show. I'm giving it a 10/10, as I laughed a lot in the early episodes and got attached to my favorites very easily, but like I said it's because I already know those characters and so I enjoy their banter more, so realistically the enjoyment level would probably be much lower for the average anime fan.
This paragraph spoils the season finale! Skip to the next paragraph for final thoughts.
Calling this season finale disappointing would be an understatement. The visuals were extremely boring compared to some of the thing we saw in the last few episodes, the dialogue felt extra corny at times, but by far the most disappointing aspect was the temporary reunion of The Dirty Dawg, if you can even call it that. This group has been hyped up throughout the series as this legendary group of 4 rappers that was so powerful it provided a threat to the government and caused them to have Ramuda force the group to disband. Even in the episode, Ramuda says something among the lines of "You better watch and learn from the legends" to Gentaro and Dice who were about to witness the fight between TDD and Secret Aliens. The rapping was underwhelming on most ends, and we didn't even get to see TDD rap TOGETHER. The only combo we saw was of Ichiro and Ramuda singing together and then they got knocked down. I feel like adding an additional turn where each team sang as a full group before TDD was down and needed everyone's help would make this battle so much cooler and more dramatic, and it pisses me off just how simple the solution here is.
Final thoughts: As a Hypnosis Mic fan, this show provides on almost all fronts (besides some disappointing decisions), and I would easily give it an 8 out of 10. As a regular watcher though... It's nothing groundbreaking, the pacing is slow, a lot of the characters feel shallow and hard to get attached to, and while it does have a decent production value and is at least somewhat entertaining, the writing is very flawed. 6/10, it's a decent show but I wouldn't bother watching it unless you're into HypMic or plan to consume the franchise in other media.
decoboco
you can tell the 2020 pandemic really screwed this show over. it came really late due to delays, and by that time the series has already begun the second arc. ouch. the story is a mix of adapting the drama cds and adding some original scenarios and characters into the fray. personally, i don't think they should have added them, because it makes the canon timeline of events rather confusing. and the story itself between the manga and cds is already bananas lol. most episodes feel like filler, they're trying to show off the characters so you understand them and their goals better, but with the limited amountof episodes it's quite hard to do that. 16 ep would be nice.
especially towards the end where they try and throw in some backstory, there isn't a buildup to it at all and it's literally during the last 4 episodes. nobody is going to care about so and such at that point!
most of the animation itself was pretty flat and boring, i love the series art style itself but everyone moved so...stiff. especially the running. somehow this seems to be a common trend for most female-focused-audience series which is an entirely different rant for another time.
the 3d models though, they moved so fluidly! i loved seeing each characters little gestures and quirks while rapping. i would have liked the entire show to be 3dcg personally.
despite the actual animation of the characters themselves, the special effects during battles were great. each characters personal aesthetic really shines better animated! samatoki's skeletons are sick.
the music is probably this shows only saving grace. the BGM is the best i've listened to out of all the shows i've watched, but it's to be expected from a series about music. i'm not the best at describing or understanding music from a technical point but i think the upbeat feeling most of the tracks have fit well for the urban setting.
the raps themselves, just like the in the cds, is really hit or miss since it depends on the seiyuu. very subjective. but it is a step up compared to just...reading lyrics like in the manga. sadly my favorite group didn't get to be in the show so i just kinda vibed to matenrou and called it a day. mister hayami brings out the ojisan raps.
tl;dr show is a mixed bag, it's trying to be a newbie-friendly series, but if you're new to hypmic itself i'd implore you to listen to the original drama cds and read some of the manga.
if you already are a fan then go off it's screencap material.
Kanna_4869
Hi, everyone! Welcome to another review! **Note that this was written at two different 'stages' while I was watching the anime**. This is what I wrote having watched 4 episodes and I believe I will sustain my POV until the end: As a rap battle IRL enjoyer, I actually found this anime immediately disappointing. I expected the bands from the opening to encounter and actually DOING a rap battle but this is rapping against bad guys one-sided; hence where's the battle? If you want to watch this because you like rap battles, then take that into account cause you're not getting anything until the end I guess. Thestory is so bad and stupid imo. I really don't care about what happens. I feel it's overly complicated to follow and I sense they made it that way to make it look 'serious' and/or 'cool'.
There's no need for a story here, get a bunch of guys rap and that's it. I also don't understand why this anime isn't categorized as comedy because it stars off with a funny premise. Maybe they should have gone that way and it'd be much better imo.
I really liked the designs of the speakers, they are really cool, I did enjoy that. The desings of the characters are basic and stereotyped, the only one I found appealing was Ramuda as most people according to the number of favourites/likes it has in this site and also some friends that I know that like the series.
Voice Actors make a good job rapping and talking is ok. Ramuda particularly sticks out for obvious reasons and I don't find him annoying tbh.
I wish I could have enjoyed the rapping scenes more because it was either choosing to read the lyrics in the subtitles or watching the animation so it was very tiring to have to stop to read the stupid lyrics and miss the visuals. Ah, yes, the lyrics suck most the time, you don't really care or feel the losing side are getting 'owned' and there's no memorable punchline, which is something that rap specially stands out over other genres.
I liked the OP and EDs, specially I sometimes sang along the OP when it gets to the part that goes ''Hypnosis action ends corruption...'' till the end. I would cut some bits of the opening song but that's about my taste and all the guys styles had to be shownso I don't mind it.
In short, this anime is eye-candy (not a really good one if you ask me) and cool. Just a product to sell merch, promote the Android game, etc, with no real substance and that's very fine. It comes from Japan, after all...
If you like this anime, that's perfect, but unfortunately I found other eye-candies with actual stories that are interesting to me so I know it's possible to combine those and make a decent piece of work at the very least (*Kuroshitsuji cough cough*), nor to say a Masterpiece (*Pandora Hearts cough cough*).
I will force myself to finish the anime because I believe there's gonna be a rap battle in the end and that's what I'm looking forward rn: a direct confrontation from the bands in the arena (which, very probably, will end as a draw of some kind or be interrupted as for fans not to kill each other over who was the winner).
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Now that I finished the anime I have to correct myself that indeed there was a winner in the end. But not that it matters so much.
Still the plot was really boring, a lot of lack of info, no sense in the antagonists actions, things that came up of nowhere, no building, no nothing. The only way to enjoy the anime is to watch it completely brainless and not paying attention to what's really happening. Other than that, you'll feel either fatigued after a chapter, or two tops.
Anyways, I don't care too much to even discuss aaaalll the details that made this a bad anime.
I wish ALL the anime was like episodes from 8 to 11 because that's what I was aiming and I DO like the songs but well, guess they couldn't resist the urge to make an edgy story to this. Man, I even feel bad because this COULD have been a really good anime... T_T.
I do not recommend to watch this to be completely honest unless you are very young and didn't watch a lot of animes cause you're gonna get mentally tired when the anime tries to explain itself.
If you're interested in the OST or the battles, just watch them on YouTube (I should have done that).
4.5 out of 10, extra .5 'cause I'm comparing this to Basquash and it's slightly better just for the songs.
Well, that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading my review. Bye-bye~ ^^/
