Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima

Episodes 12-13

Our rap battle boys wrap up their foray into the anime world with little notable fanfare. As happy as I am to see Doppo experience the sweet taste of success, this series concludes with a silly reveal, a sillier resolution, and barely enough substance to talk about. First, we discover that the suspiciously named Tom Whisper Weathercock is a "Secret Alien" and while I'd believe wholeheartedly that he literally came from space, it's apparently just a random title for CIA-like agents. They fight for love, justice, and most importantly refugee children in developing countries. Tom believes that ending war via the Hypnosis Mics is the greater good and is therefore willing to work with the Party of Words to capture our hip-hop guys so they stay under the government's control.

Fling Posse got the drop on the lady commandos and make their way through an underground tunnel to escape. The three other groups are confronted by Tom and Co. but find themselves unable to fight back because the chesty government lady has a mic canceller in her possession. Instead, Fling Posse decides to help out the other groups by shutting off the power and giving Rio an opening to throw a flashbang and escape. The diversion leads to Fling Posse's capture by Tom and he's able to use them as bait to drag out the other groups. However, everyone's too weak from the earlier battles except the individual leaders, resulting in an impromptu Dirty Dawg reunion.

The Secret Aliens make a decent attempt to defeat the Dirty Dawgs. Honestly, I'm a little upset we didn't get to hear more from Lynn (Iris) throughout the series because she's definitely a highlight in the last two episodes. Things start looking rough but the rest of the boys join in to perform the B-lyrics for the series' opener. The rule of anime is if the opening track is played over the animation, the heroes win. That's the rules. The Secret Aliens are defeated, presumably they save the child refugees, and The Party of Words starts preparing for its new plan, which involves Samatoki's sister, Nemu.

Okay, so the writing for this show overall is, well, not great. The appeal of Hypnosis Mic lies squarely on how affable you find the cast, whether it's pitch-perfect Doppo or that little shit Ramuda. The motivations are thin and ill-defined. Rather than give one or two characters a satisfying arc, Hypnosis Mic prefers to leave us with hints of a sequel or an enticing entry point into with the game. I still don't have a great understanding of exactly how Ichiro is responsible for Samatoki losing contact with his sister. Also maybe Ramuda put Jakurai's partner in a coma? What are these but speed bumps on the road of bromanship.

Also the songs are really, really hit or miss. With the exception of Buster Bros, the groups rarely harmonize in a coherent way. I can overlook this in cases where the sequences are funny, but more often I just wanted the songs to wrap up. Hypnosis Mic amused me enough as a "musical battle" anime and I'd argue it peaked around the time Doppo found a dead guy in his apartment, but I was nevertheless hoping for some kind of attempt at character development, even if it was absurd. Oh well, at least we got Tom Whisper Weathercock, Secret Alien out of it.

Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima is currently streaming on Funimation.