Well, I’ll be honest. This episode was pretty underwhelming. I didn’t think we were going to get both MTC and FP in the episode so that just meant that we either got simple stories, or just stories that were solved quickly. I’m not sure if there’s some favoritism with Buster Bros as they had another episode to themselves while the other divisions only got half an episode. Hmm, not sure.
So I was hoping maybe, just maybe, we could get a deeper dive into Jyuto’s character but that didn’t really happen at all. Jyuto gets a case at the last minute and he gets the help of his bois, but he also gets unexpected help from Iris and her cool bike. And apparently she’s a hacker. I find it hilarious that she’s actually hacker friends with Saburo, who’s posing as someone from Dubai while she’s posing as a man in his 50’s who owns a ramen joint. I also think it’s even funnier that MTC got the help of Buster Bros without them even knowing. Samatoki would have lost his damn mind. In the end, Iris helps them out in showing which cops were trying to screw Jyuto over and MTC deals with them easily with their rap. I did like this rap better than their first one quite a bit. The “fuck tha police” line cracked me up more than it should have, only because YOU ARE THE POLICE. Well, at least one of you are and Jyuto doesn’t call himself Mr. Dirty Cop for nothing. Case is solved and MTC wins their qualifier and all is good. Yay.
Second half we have Dice getting screwed over from his horrible gambling problems, but what else is new? I do think there must be something going on with Fling Posse, or at least with Ramuda after what Rex said last time. That quiet shot of Ramuda on the couch felt a little too significant to ignore. Either way, Ramuda gets a call that Dice screwed up and they need to fork over some money, so he and Gentaro find the place that they’re at. Of course handing over the money would be too easy and boring so they…bet to get out of the bet. The word bet is just giving me stress now. Apparently these dudes bet against Fling Posse on their rap battle and lost so they hold animosity towards them, which is funny because it’s not even their fault. Betting their voices by burning it with a hairdryer (what am I even typing), they bet through whoever gets the highest sum with dice. Of course these guys cheat with weighted dice but somehow Dice wins through slamming the dice down and having one die face up all weird so three sides would face up. Agreed, it wasn’t even a roll but the rules were the number of pips facing up so…yay. But it’s rap time and of course Fling Posse make it out okay and they win their qualifier as well. Rex was the only one of the trio that didn’t really get to do anything this time but he took pictures at least? Also typing dice and Dice over and over is hilarious.
And that’s that. The four groups have been chosen and we even got our brackets, very obvious ones. I’m really looking forward to it, and I wonder if the anime will do its own thing or follow the main plot of the series when it comes to the winners and losers. I’m also just excited to see more cross interaction between the divisions as it’s only been the leaders talking to each other (Ichiro/Ramuda, Samatoki/Jakurai, etc.) I’m curious to see how the other members will interact with each other. This episode was a bit of a dud so I’m hoping next time things will get exciting.
Yeah, in my notes (I keep notes for almost everything I watch and post them to a blog) I went “Samatoki, way to diss your teammate” twice. Gentaro’s “I despise lies” was similarly hilarious, but contradictions happen so often with him that I’ve gotten used to it.
BB’s subplot was meant to stop the entire qualifiers from happening (to my memory) but the other subplots were only meant to sabotage the other divisions’ involvement in the qualifiers, hence why I think they had enough time to make BB’s longer…but I do suspect some level of favouritism there too. I mean, BB’s Kizuna was for 4 eps, while presumably we’ll get MTR’s Kizuna next time (eventually making it 2 eps each for MTC, FP and MTR, and possibly omitting the ED on the remaining episodes or doing a different ED). They also completely skimmed over FP and MTC’s qualifier battles, even though they put in Shinjuku Style and Ikebukuro West Game Park last time. (MTR is the most popular division, so I understand that, but are BB popular…?)
I remember Dice was translated as “imperial rule” on a KnowYourMeme entry (because some Dice cosplayer did the Coke and Mentos thing and it went viral, plus the characters for “Dice” translate to “imperial rule” without furigana) and I LOLled so hard…so it’s better you keep typing “Dice” over and over again, rather than doing that.
Ramuda gave some big hints as to his true nature this time (“who’s the kind human…”, the final shot of the lollipop) this episode. “Nodo” (throat) translated as “voice” was an interesting choice, because “throat” suggests a broader category of things than just rapping/singing, but translating it more literally sounds kinda clunky to me.
I remember hearing from somewhere that the anime’s outcomes for the 1st DRB will be the same as what has already happened, hence how obvious the brackets can seem. (It makes me wonder, who will DH and BAT go against for the 2nd DRB…?)
Actually, BB’s version of Kizuna was for three episodes, and MTC’s was also for three episodes. We should hear FP’s version one more time next episode, and MTR should have three episodes for their version as well after that.
I’ve purposely mostly stayed away from the fandom in fear of getting spoiled, so I’m not entirely sure which characters (other than Doppo) and which groups are more popular or not, so I don’t know if BB is popular. I do find it telling that other than Shinjuku Style and Ikebukuro West Game Park, which we only heard a tiny bit of each, the only other existing song we got was Ichiro’s, and we got a good chunk of it. There might be some favoritism, or they wanna market BB as the main crew or something. I’m not sure what’s going on tbh.
Ack, was going from memory there (re: Kizuna)…it was easily verifiable, so I should’ve checked before saying anything. Sorry for saying incorrect stuff again.
MTR are popular as they are at least partially because of Doppo. It’s why I suspect MTR episodes have had such a huge Doppo focus, despite “[having] no notable characteristics”.
Thinking about it again, it’s possible they’re trying to be as equal as they can with this approach of showing every character doing a bit of something, but in terms of how it stacks against other anime…it makes HypMic look unfocused.
No worries!
Haha yeah that’s not surprising at all. They must appease the fans and give them their Doppo boi
Hmm they’re sort of doing that but it’s a little wonky. I hope it’ll have more focus as we move onto the DRB.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This week, I’m actually going to be moving. I apologize that my reviews have been late, my family and I have been so busy every day packing and cleaning that I’ve barely had time for myself. We’re planning on moving this Thanksgiving weekend, either on Friday or Saturday. Meaning that my internet is going to be cut on either of those days, or even earlier as we want to prepare. For the people that also check out my Akudama Drive reviews, I most likely won’t even get the chance to get it out this week though MAYBE I could try to squeeze it in, but I won’t guarantee it. I also think it’s safe to say that Hypnosis Mic just won’t happen this week, sadly.
With the internet being cut and moving to a new house, we’ll have to wait until the wifi gets connected there and with Covid kind of screwing things up, I have no idea how long it’ll take. Unfortunately, I’ll be gone for awhile so there won’t be reviews from me for a bit. I’m really hoping that it won’t take so long so I apologize in advance. I’ll make sure to catch up when I can, so thank you for being patient! ❤