Money is power, and without it, life is meaningless. In a country whose economy is in shambles, second-year economics university student Kimimaro Yoga understands this fact all too well, as he is surrounded by the relatively luxurious lives of his peers and struggling to make ends meet. However, his world is turned on its head when a stranger in a top hat arrives one late night at his door.
Going by the name Masakaki, the visitor petitions Yoga to come to the Eastern Financial District, a place where money flows in abundance if one offers their "future" as collateral. Although reluctant, greed triumphs reason and Yoga accepts the offer, thus taking on the mantle of an Entre. But unbeknownst to him, the land of wealth he has entered is an alternate realm built in the likeness of his own, where Entres are forced to participate in weekly duels called Deals, with their collateral at stake. Pitted against his countrymen and fate, Yoga must quickly adapt in this new world if he hopes to protect his fortune and future—and discover just how much money is truly worth.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
animedork95
I was surprised to see that most of the reviews for this anime rated it so low! I honestly thought it was a good anime! Story: 8 The story is very original, the first with a setting and plot like this that I've ever seen. It does get confusing at points, especially near the end, but it really kept me entertained. I think it just needed a few more episodes to develop it more. Art: 9 I really loved the art, it's just the kind I like ^^ I enjoyed how they made the creepy Midas guy (forgot his name ^^") kind of 3D, though it was a bitweird in the beginning and took some getting used to.
Characters: 8
I like how the main character honestly has no idea what the heck he was doing in the beginning, and how he and his asset interacted. I think there should have been more episodes (once again) so that there would have been better character development, and I would've liked to have seen Masyu and Kimimaro interact with each other more and to have seen more of their battles.
Overall: 8
This was a really entertaining anime. It requires a lot of thought, so if you aren't in the mood for a thinking anime, don't watch it. It has some action, but it's definately not a mainstream battle anime. It's interesting and has some cute little romance going on between the main chara and his asset. The only thing I really have to complain on is the ending. It just cut off. It seemed like a good 30 seconds or so was hacked off of the end. Other than that, I think it was a pretty good anime, and definately worth your time ^^
-CHAOS-
First I have to say that this is only my second review, and I only write reviews for anime that I think are underrated. This review may be some what one sided, but I honestly feel this anime deserves a lot more respect than what it is given, so I'm here to balance things out a bit. Overall I give this anime a rating of 10, which may seem too high and simply not true, but I guess it all comes down to perspective right? Not everyone believes in the same thing, not everyone sees things the same way. Some people live for the future andothers live in the moment. That seems to be the basic underling philosophical concept explored in this anime, and the fate of Japan depends on how the main characters handle this question. They certainly could have done a better job at exploring the concept, but for an 11 episode anime you can't really fault them for giving it a good try.
Some people will dislike the philosophical nature of this show, they might even consider it to be contrived and convoluted, and an unnecessary addition to an otherwise great anime. It is of course moderately convoluted and hard to understand at points, with small holes in the plot and a lack of some character development. However, this anime is attempting to explore complex philosophical questions that don't necessarily have one right answer.
The core of the story is not economics, in fact it would be pointless to criticize the economic theories presented in this anime, because it is after all a fictional show and the validity of the economic reasoning presented herein is far beyond the point of what this anime is really about. To claim the philosophical struggle between wanting a good present and wanting a good future destroys this anime, is to claim the fundamental foundation of this anime should simply be ignored.
From the very beginning it is clear the underlying basis for this story is a struggle between two different paradigms and ideologies about what really matters in this reality. The economic overlay is simply a fitting way to present those philosophical conflicts and create the framework for a story containing characters who are given the chance to accumulate vast wealth and thus wield great power of the state of reality and the future of our reality.
Even if it comes off as nonsensical babble to half the people who watch it, there is always something you can get from an anime like this, even if half of it doesn't make much sense to you. The story isn't as disconnected and structureless as it may first appear, although it certainly isn't perfect either. The spectacular art and gripping action make up for any downfalls this anime may have, and you will certainly not struggle to keep watching this anime.
STORY - 9
The main idea behind this story line involves a hidden world of money and fierce battles (so called "deals"). The Financial Districts are other worldly realities where only a select few are granted access. These hidden realities exist in all major economic epicenters of powerful nations, and the people plunged into this world are given an "asset" (some sort of creature) with which they must fight for the security of their future. Each "Entre", as they are called, have different goals and motives for fighting these battles.
The story line of this anime is extremely unique, nothing else like it exists. That alone makes it worth watching, because the majority of anime made these days seem to lack any true individuality and just take from plots that we've seen over and over again. While it does have a few small holes, I feel they did an excellent job at fitting so much into 11 episodes. There was hardly any filler at all and even though there was a lack of character development they used their time wisely.
I felt that they had a goal in mind from the start and reached that goal in a more conclusive and satisfying manner than most animes are able to achieve. If you think they strayed off onto wild tangents and didn't seem to know where they wanted to take it, then I would say you need to watch it again and watch it much more closely this time. Although a bit predictable, they did build up the story in a meaningful way to reach their desired outcome.
ART - 10
The art is this anime is without fault. The style of the art has some very unique features, such as a sort of digital blocky overlay effect present in certain parts of the anime to facilitate scene transitions and the presence of an asset. It also uses a mind-boggling blend of 3D and 2D visuals that doesn't particularly disturb the overall feel of the artwork, but provides outstandingly detailed and colorful scenery that captures the imagination and jumps out of the screen, particularly in the financial district.
The characters are also moderately unique, especially the designs of the two lead assets, Msyu and Q. The character designs of these human-like assets will certainly provide all the cuteness and uniqueness one desires in appearance of certain female character roles. The quality of the art is very high quality and extremely detailed, and is probably one of the strongest features of this anime. It is very fluid and the emotional expressions of most characters are very clear and easy to read.
SOUND - 9
While I didn't really pay much attention to the sound, it was definitely very good quality and suited the anime very well. The action scenes had gripping and intense dramatic music and the emotional scenes had deep and heavy scores that echo the gravity of each situation nicely. The character voices were actually very good, and in particular I thought the voice of Masakaki was extremely well done, and helped a lot to enforce the ominous insanity of his character.
CHARACTER - 8
As I said, they did skip out a bit on character development, but it still deserves an 8 because the relationship development between the main character Kimimaro and his asset Msyu was actually very well done. I don't really get sucked into the relationship aspects of most anime, but I couldn't help admire the way their relationship grew stronger in this show, especially considering the way it started out.
Msyu had an undeniably adorable personality, however I felt like there was a lack of explanation and back story for her and all other assets. Her desires and understanding of the world wasn't very well explained, although I can understand why they avoided that for the most part. They did dive into it a little bit, but it seems like they decided to skip over it and just leave it as a bit of a mystery for viewers to discern on their own.
Kimimaro is a rather typical male lead character, the classic ordinary everyday guy constantly conflicted by morals and an inability to do things the right way until he is literally put through hell and finally realizes what needs to be done. While he may be overly stereotypical in a lot of ways, he does have a certain respectable uniqueness about him which seemed to be a necessary and key part in the development of his relationship with Msyu.
While Kimimaro does have a moderately developed back story revolving around the fate of his father, there is another Entre named Souichirou who attempts to befriend Kimimaro and mentor him on how to reduce any damage done to the real world by planning the outcomes of his battles carefully. Souichirou probably has the most detailed back story, he also has issues concerning his father, and claims to fight for the present reality.
ENJOYMENT - 10
There is no denying that the anime has an overall enjoyment factor of the highest degree when all aspects are considered - well it did for me anyway. It had all the necessary features to make a great anime in my opinion, the story was unique and fairly well done, and involved ideas that I really enjoy. The mix of a magical money world hidden away from reality and the philosophical concepts built around that world make for a story that had me on the edge of my seat all the way through.
The phenomenal art and the impressive battles only served to push my enjoyment level to the limit, and I finished this anime in less than three days because I just couldn't stop watching it. It could have been a bit longer but I have no real problems with the way they handled the story given the length of the anime. This is certainly an anime that is worthy of reaching my top 10 list of anime. I don't re-watch many anime series but this is one I would consider watching again.
Activelee
[C] The Lack of Responsible Spending and Viewer Sympathy It’s clear from my reinterpretation of the title that I flat out didn’t like it. I sat through the season hoping it would get better as it went along. It didn’t. So to sum up what this show did wrong: Almost everything… except the central concept and opening/ending scores. Honestly, this anime didn’t give me anything to justify my watching it. Other than its interesting premise of another world called the Financial District which controls and inevitably destroys the economy of each respective country in the physical world, there’s nothing else to see here. Our protagonist, Yoga, Kimimaro,is a kid with no drive to do anything productive with his life. Right off the bat, we’re presented with the generic “guy with no redeeming qualities” to play with. Mr. Boring here hates his dad, has no girlfriend because he was too much of a wuss to ask out his childhood friend, is an econ major, and works part time at a convenience store to pay for living expenses. His existence is double its original worth once he’s paid a strange visit by a guy named Masakaki.
Masakaki is actually kind of an interesting dude because he represents the law of the Financial District and is a guide to those introduced into this new world. There’s not one of him as each District has their own Masakaki of sorts. Throughout the anime, he pops up several times to inform people of major events going on and announce duels between those involved in the District.
There’s a plethora of supporting characters but I’m getting too long-winded as it is with just the main ones to detail the rest so I’ll tell you now that the show isn’t worth watching for them. Msyu is Kimimaro’s Asset and eventual love interest. Blehh. Jennifer is an exec of IMF, an organization attempting to bring down the Financial District. She, for some reason, is always eating burgers when she’s out investigating. Hanabi is the childhood friend mentioned earlier. Takedazaki is an informant in the District and general creeper with a crazy laugh.
Now, everyone part of this other world uses something called midas money to duel others and spend in the real world which is why it gets screwed over. Apparently, almost all of them are money grubbers who only fight for their own benefit. Of course, bringing “fake” money into circulation in mass quantities throws off the balance of the economy. I won’t delve too deep into the logistics because they don’t matter and I don’t fully understand the system myself. Each person has an Asset which is like… an astral being?... I don’t know, anyway, they represent their respective owner’s future and they fight in battles (duels) against other Assets like their goddamn Pokémon or something. And the whole micro-, mezo-, macro- flation based attacks are just silly. There’s a bunch of other stuff that happens in between the fighting but it’s irrelevant to the overall scheme of things. For example, you don’t find out what C is until the end. The hell?
The show doesn’t do an adequate job of explaining anything in enough detail to really understand what’s going on at any given time. As the story progresses, it gets more convoluted once you see cities digitizing into nothing along with the people inhabiting them. Countries disappear by ways of economic collapse. Organizations inside and outside the Districts have a hand in abusing midas currency, trying to prevent the future loss of nations, or attempting to preserve the present condition of those same nations. The antagonist, Souichirou, is an advocate for the present. He’s a suave businessman who holds a lot of influence in Japan as he’s at the top of the chain in the Far East District. He blames his father for the death of his sister because he prioritized his company over family. Ironically, Souichirou’s ideals become more like his dad’s after the event in that he starts believing money is power. To me though, he’s just a kid with a lot of toys but wants to play with everyone else’s. A stubborn man who pushes his values onto others because that’s the only way he knows to gain control over everything and mold Japan to his liking because he doesn’t believe in a future anymore.
In the art and sound department, [C] tries to blend 3D and 2D animation together, like in the case of duels. However, sometimes they don’t blend too well and it just starts to feel disjointed. The character and Asset designs are pretty ordinary. Although, some of the Assets are definitely more out there than others in both looks and abilities. Now as far as songs go, I enjoyed them both. The rock opening paired with the fluid animation of currency falling from the sky and flythrough into the streets of the Financial District got me pumped up for what was to come but obviously the anime itself fell short of what the songs did to hype it up for. And the endings electronic beats, percussion, and great vocals served as a great way to close each episode as the show was in a way an RPG considering how Yoga and Msyu fought tougher opponents each time to eventually end up going against Mikuni, the BOSS if you will. I think partly why I fancied the ending score was because it reminded me of East of Eden’s ending for some strange reason. The voice acting was sufficient when it was in Japanese and god awful when they started speaking English. Seriously, everything was terrible when it came to the English talk. I’ll leave it at that and you can see for yourself if you still feel the urge to hear it firsthand. Fair warning, you could be audibly raped.
My final grumbles about [C] is that I couldn’t relate to anyone or anything in the show and that made it so every emotional event that was supposed to evoke something out of me just failed miserably. Msyu losing limbs and crying out in agony didn’t even make me blink because I knew that she’d regenerate right once the duel was over. Kimimaro’s attempts to be heroic were not only boring but obvious and as a result I started liking him even less as a character. His existence value started at zero and doubling a zero is still only zero. My indifference towards it all was mostly due to the weak character development as you can tell. Msyu was probably the only one whose character evolved (not a Pokémon joke) within the story and that’s only because she didn’t know anything about being human until Kimimaro came around and ate ramen noodles in front of her. I know, right? Eating?! That’s insane!
Ultimately, what this anime boils down to is its lack of any real flow to the plot and missed attempt at drawing emotion out of the viewers whilst giving us a crash course in finances which to say it didn’t do a good job of that either. Maybe, and I’m being generous here, if they didn’t do such a horrendous job of mimicking English speakers, I’d give it one score higher. Maybe. But if time was currency, I’d definitely spend it on something else worth my attention.
8thSin
'C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control' is an apparent response to the current state of business, and the recent global financial crisis. The main theme of this series is "present vs future", with the main antagonist on the "present" side of the argument vying for the control of the financial district against the protagonist's "future" argument. This could be a direct criticism to the banking industry for their irresponsible lending for short-term profits (the present), which ultimately led to the subprime mortgage breakdown and Lehman Brothers declaring bankruptcy, subsequently causing economic disaster in Japan as well (loss of future). Using a person's future ascollateral for cash today is also an extreme representation of excessive lending.
The story begins in the generic shounen fashion, with the "ordinary but chosen" student suddenly getting an invitation to participate in something greater, and given "powers" in the form of money and Digimon "assets". The underlying concept of this series is extremely weak, since it's based on an overly complicated battle system akin to 'Yu-Gi-Oh!' or 'Duel Masters', which relies on new rules and abilities introduced out of nowhere in the most deus ex machina manner imaginable to advance battles. We are literally being told that the protagonist is "blessed with a strong asset" because that's the only way to explain how he won the first battle, and one minute we're being told the amount of money in possession or strategy decides the outcome, the next minute they somehow manage to defeat the richer Sennoza without strategy (pure guts?).
This series is also plagued from the presence of too many characters. There is simply not enough time in an 11-episode series to develop 20+ characters, and many of their actions did not make sense. It was especially hard to identify the protagonist's motivation for rejecting the "present" view point, and his relationship with Hanabi, if she can even be called a heroine, since she is a non-presence in terms of screen time, and appears to be nothing more than a simple friend the protagonist has a little crush on. Every single opponent the protagonist faced are presented as good-but-misguided people fighting for an honorable purpose, and extremely forgiving towards the protagonist for destroying their lives. This is lazy scriptwriting, there's no excuse for it.
The art and animation in this series is wonderful. The surreal alternative world, the dynamic presentation, the "wall" between the real life and virtual (Msyu sitting beside protagonist, the obtrusive word bubble etc), the action sequence... all makes this series very fun to watch. Character designs are pretty attractive, and other than slightly sloppy CGI in the second half of the show, it was perfect.
Sound was almost equally wonderful, with excellent voice acting that fits well for every main character, especially that of Msyu by Tomatsu Haruka.
Exciting battle BGM, and even more impressive was the music in slow scenes with the nostalgic and poignant feeling that they invoke.
The OP was a good yet ordinary rock song, but the ED 'RPG' by School Food Punishment was an overwhelmingly fitting song for this series, accompanied by arguably the most visually pleasing ED animation since 'Tatami Galaxy'.
I loved the atmosphere in this series. The narration and back-story for characters were also very enjoyable. However, they are too fragmented to make a huge impact to the main story. The single biggest flaw of this series is that the battles are far too superficial. Other money or life-game series such as 'Death Note' and 'Liar Game' had clear introduction of rules, which are enforced throughout the "game", using strategy or suspense for entertainment. On the other hand, 'C' used action, which simply does not make sense for a series of this kind. Strategies were superficial, and the consequences of loss (bankruptcy) were extremely vague. It feels like we're being shown a game's replay, rather than playing along with the protagonist. The premise of this series was amazing, with the existence of an alternative market, the Midas money, and the virtual world affecting the real. Unfortunately, the battle system was unable to fully capitalize on the concept. Perhaps the protagonist should've just turned into a stock trader or swindler... anyone using wits to earn money instead of a virtual pet who had nothing to do with money.
It also wasn't clear how the virtual world functioned, and what purposes they served. SEA financial district bankruptcy that destroyed Singapore sending "shock waves" approaching other markets? It was literally depicted like tsunami approaching on screen with a countdown rather actually showing how global businesses are connected and affected by international markets. It got so bad that there was a big stylized letter "C" moving across the ocean on a screen to represent the economic effect moving. In the end, nothing was explained, and the protagonist's efforts were in vain. The world turns as usual, and the corrupt financial districts will continue to exist.
The message of the series was also very conflicted. It started out as blatant criticism of the banking industry and questioning the importance of money, then it was the trust in the currency, and finally the big bad America? I did like how they attempted to show the futility of printing money to fix economic disaster (representing the futile Quantitative Easing), but it makes no sense to use losing face value of a currency as a crisis when Japan's recession today is mostly attributed to the strong yen. It also didn't really make sense to blame the U.S. for the financial crisis, because well, if it wasn't trade relationship with America, they would not have had the money to lose in financial crisis in the first place. Not to mention it was the U.S. that suffered the most in this recession. Like it's mentioned in one episode, you prosper together in a network, fall together too.
Random business jargons were being thrown out throughout the series, with terms like "entrepreneur" (they would usually just say "Kigyouka" in Japanese for that), "collateral" ("future" as "collateral" should not be affected until failure of repayment, so why does printing more money using future as collateral instantly destroyed people's future?), and nonsense battle moves like "Macro/Mezzo/Micro-flation", "M&A", "Overheated Economy", and "Cannibalization" (this term in business means launching a new product that eats away the sales of existing product of your own company, not eating others) etc. just makes it obvious those terms were being used simply to sound cool and an attempt to appear different from every other shounen battle anime.
'C' is a total failure in addressing real world issues. The setting, story, and character development are disastrous, but visual and audio presentation are very pleasing with good pacing. It's an enjoyable series as long as you don't think too much or take it too seriously.
It is, after all, a show that has chosen style over substance.
Detective
Abbreviated Review: Nakamura, I'm really disappointed. To firmly address some basics, this is a response to claims such as "original story" and "original concept." I do not believe that C - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (the title itself a string of nonsensical positively charged words) to be any bit of original. Kenji Nakamura, director of Mononoke and Trapeze, two works I adore, has accomplished nothing with this production. noitominA was also behind this anime, which hyped me for it to be the best of the season. It had all the makings of greatness, but suffers from excessive drama, random side stories, and well,lack of a straightforward plot. This show has no destination, and there have been numerous random twists in the series so far that have completely changed and re-changed what the show was even about.
To address the original story, I must first note a few productions that have existed before C. The main two I want to talk about are "Digimon Tamers" and "Chobits." Digimon Tamers (or Season 3) is about a group of children whose world merges with the digital world, and they gain control over monsters (in case you didn't know). Towards the end of the fifty-two episode series, a monster from the digital world tries to break into the "real world" and begins destroying buildings and erasing humans. This exact same concept is being toted by C, for what purpose I have no clue.
But let me back up.
C starts off with a boy named Yoga, who is taking some sort of economics course at his most likely community college (his friends only talk about keggers, so my guess is that it's a community college - or Harvard). He has a cute friend who tells him he doesn't need to "do everything by himself." Of course, he is a total loner - a real 2D badass in the worst sense. His whole life, he claims, he has done everything for himself. Then suddenly, he is visited by the overly-creepy pink-haired pseudo-mascot with a Chesire-esque smile who offers him infinite monies in exchange for his soul. That's cool and all, but souls are never even mentioned again in the rest of the series so, I think he was lying. So the kid who is really good at yoga says sure thing and then he gets lots of money and starts running around the Financial District (Code word for Digital World) in search of BATTLES. That's right! To get money you have to fight other people and take their star chip- monies! Losing in the Financial District also causes your real self to lose as well (it's not always money, but seeing as there's really no logic that connects how losing money correlates to losing family and friends like some characters in the show do, this aspect really doesn't add anything interesting). He also gets granted, in order to fight, a super desu kawaii persacom! Yeah, here's where the Chobits comes in. He gets a computer girlfriend essentially, and after about two episodes with yoga master she goes from tsundere to dere~dere~love and keeps trying to seduce our professional yoga lead. Spoilers: it is totally unnecessary.
His parents are also missing inside the Financial District, there's disgustingly bad ENGRISH, there's a giant death clock, enormous tentacle monsters appear out of nowhere, people eat money, John Lennon is in a Hawaiian shirt, unnecessarily complex (more so complex by disguise) guild systems exist and much much more useless, pointless, trite, and frustrating material.
There are a lot of "epic" things in this show. I put that word in quotations because they are not epic, they merely lampshade cliches and the inability to weave a coherent and original story with elements of "epicness." The fact his parents are probably dead is used to make the audience feel pity, the end of the world is near is used to give the show some sort of half-assed direction, and the romance between the Asset (persacom thing) and our king of the yoga is used to make the audience feel endeared. This production shouldn't have all of these things going on at once. It's confused as to what it should be doing, so it keeps throwing random things on screen. If you start to discuss the relevance to any of the side characters, it shouldn't surprise that they're confusing too. Most are on screen briefly, die, and C leaves it at that. I'm not sure why, but it happens a lot. Out of say, ten characters introduced from the Financial District in the first five episodes, about four of them are alive. Killing off people doesn't make a show more meaningful! Multitasking is dangerous, especially while driving, and that is where I think C went wrong. Striving to fool the audience with a masked purpose, stripped to it's bare, the story is not original at all.
As for the visuals, I really wish they used this style a little better than for monster fights in a money world. I love this art, but I loved it much more in Trapeze and Mononoke where it was used artistically. In C, the animation is used for monster battles. The CGI is atrociously awkward, and the fight scenes between the large computer generated monsters are boring and pointless. Yoga-brotha loses numerous battles but loses nothing important, so even animating these fight scenes so far has done nil. The opening visuals are fantastic, but not new. The same style was used for Eden of the East, and to be perfectly blunt, I think it was better there. The art is not original either.
A good thing about the sound is that school food punishment does the ending theme. The opening is fine too, but I really have no opinion on that. The voice-acting for Mysu (pesrsacom) and Masakaki (chesire guy) are fine, and I rather like them (as chesire was Irabu from Trapeze, I have a nostalgic enjoyment listening to him). I must say though, any respect for voice acting in this show is lost when I mention Jennifer Satou (who is she? let me tell you). The buxom blonde American secret service agent working for the IMF (I think) has one of the most ANNOYING and EAR RAPE voices I have EVER HEARD. You thought Kuroko from Index was bad?! Wait until you hear this chick voiced with a lollipop in her mouth. The awful stereotypical pseudo-American voice speaks volumes for how little this staff actually knew about American speech manner. (It also doesn't help that her character is literally always eating and that her food of choice is often hamburgers.) Then let's address the bad English. Eden of the East used English wonderfully, racial tones even mixed in correctly (African-Americans from DC sounded like such). In C, you have old white businessmen with thick black accents and women who look like Hilary Clinton sound like 21-year-old Asian girls speaking bad English. Actually scratch the "like," portion, they sound exactly the same because the voice acting is simply bad in this regard. The voice acting wouldn't necessarily be bad or frustrating to hear (the English that is) if it actually had a purpose though. The bad voices lead me to the conclusion that the studio did a poor job in their spare time because they wanted to add elements that made the show look more important than it is.
Which boils right back down to the bad characters. Aside from the previously addressed protagonist who happens to be good at yoga and pointlessly creepy pink-haired guy (Masakaki) there are a huge amount of characters.
[not so spoiler] That all die. [/not so spoiler]
We still have the psychotic John Lennon character who works under the fabulous rich guy who somehow took a liking to our jerk of a protagonist. The rich guy does a bunch of needless dramatic things like launch giant tentacle monsters at "world markets" and wears his fabulous scarf and pimps out a bunch of ASSets (one is named Q. Wicked edgy). John Lennon just runs around and acts eccentric, and his friend with the gold teeth runs around and takes pictures. So there's a lot of eccentricity and running going on in the show, but there once again, is no destination.
So don't let the idea of a show dealing with money fool you. This show has very little to do with money and it has very little to do with actual economics, financing, and business. What it is stripped bare is a shonen quest to save the world, and there's just a bunch of melodrama introduced along the way. C is not a new concept, it is a re-hash and re-buff of kids shows in a "dark and gritty" manner. Nakamura, I thought you of all people could do better than this, but I feel you've fallen for the preteen marketing trap, trying to make a work edgier than it really is.
Thus, I've come to the conclusion that C stands for "Corny."
If you found this review unhelpful, please tell me why. Thanks!
Cobbles
Prior to the initial airing of [C], I was really hyped for it because the director attached to it was Kenji Nakamura. Other notable anime on his resume were Mononoke and Trapeze (Kuchuu Buranko) and both were really good anime. They were eccentric, visually stunning, well executed pieces of animation. Most importantly it really highlighted Nakamura’s diversity as a director since Mononoke was at heart a mystery series with slight horror elements and Trapeze was an eccentric comedy about people with mental disorders. The only real element they shared was a sense of surreality. Then we got rumors of [C]: The Money of Soul andPossibility Control, a supposed anime that dealt with topics related to the state of the current economy in a battle anime-esque way. This was totally the kind of anime I thought Nakamura would direct since the premise sounded fresh and original and it was in the noitaminA timeslot which basically meant that the concept of the show wouldn’t be gutted in favor of appealing to a broader audience. The only real notable difference here was that the production studio was Tatsunoko, where Mononoke and Trapeze were done by Toei. I didn’t really think this would be a big factor in the larger scheme of things so I brushed it aside and began getting immensely hyped. And at the end of this little rainbow all I ended up with was a pot of bitter disappointment and frustration. [C] doesn’t fall short of Mononoke or Trapeze, it runs off a cliff and gets impaled on the rocks below. Not only is it disappointing in that regard but it doesn’t even manage to have many redeeming aspects, if any at all.
Now let’s deal with the least offensive part of [C] and that’s the plot. The premise involves a student named Yoga trying to tough out the hard times and getting through life in an economy that seems to working against everyone. Cutting corners to save costs, working multiple jobs and getting good grades on top of that, yeah none of us are ever really ready to deal with the hurdles that comes with pursuing tertiary education after high school. Let’s not even deal with romance and finding a girlfriend/boyfriend in addition. This is one of the few things [C] does right and that’s creating an initially relatable main character that the audience can sympathize with. Unfortunately that’s where the good things stop with [C], the premise and the first episode is probably the best part of the show and I’m not kidding at all. We then get to the meat of the story and that involves a magical dimension in the middle of the city called the “Financial District” where people fight out battles called “Deals” with pokem-err I mean“Assets”. If they win they get some Midas Money and if they lose, their future disappears. Now in terms of actual plot, [C] has a bunch of pacing issues and a narrative that goes nowhere until the last couple of episodes. Everything the audience needs to know is given to us in the first two episodes and the driving force of the plot only shows up at the end. There’s a good flashback episode in the middle but that’s pretty much character related. You have a good chunk of the middle which revolves around Yoga fighting other people and their story but ultimately none of this stuff ever adds anything to the narrative. You could argue that they’re there to characterize Yoga but that’s pointless since Yoga doesn’t grow as a character throughout the show. They play on the redundant “What am I fighting for/What do I want to protect” theme that nearly every anime arbitrarily slaps on to characters they don’t know what to do with. There’s also a concurrent plotline that deals with Yoga’s dad but even that is done in a half-assed way. You have Yoga agonizing over several episodes on why his dad supposedly abandoned his family when the whole goddamn answer is so obvious in the first place. The way Yoga treats it as an epiphany is even more annoying, really why would a father ever fight to win money? COULD IT POSSIBLY BE BECAUSE OF HIS FAMILY? But nah that answer is too high-brow for the audience, might as well pad it out for a couple of episodes. It’s such lazy way of delivering a frankly boring plot point anyway especially since Yoga doesn’t learn anything from it. To make things even worse, Yoga never ends up doing anything on his own accord. Even at the end, he’s fighting because someone else told him to, not because he reached that answer himself. That’s the problem of creating a character based on a motive like “Protecting something” without any real elaboration. Yoga comes off as nothing but the standard battle shounen lead except it’s played completely straight. He’s barely a character on his own and whatever possibilities there are initially end up being completely wasted.
Speaking of other major characters, the only other remotely interesting one is the series antagonist, Mikuni. He contrasts Yoga’s blind sheep idealism with a stark amount of pragmatism. He drives all the action in the plot and has the most characterization out of the entire cast. Honestly I believe that [C] was initially written with Mikuni as the main character instead of Yoga, yet in order to make the anime more appealing they had to shoehorn a younger character in because lol anime. If you check out some of the groundwork on [C], most of the concept art and notes focus on Mikuni. On the other hand Msyu, Masakaki and Jennifer are just walking archetypes with one gimmick they play over and over again in place of actual characterization. The only other memorable supporting characters are the professor and the charity worker but they’re only around for an episode and again, they don’t add anything to overall narrative. This is a problem since the show has an overarching plot yet it tries to be almost episodic and these different narrative structures clash horribly. Generally the writing is the definition of mediocre. It’s got some good ideas, but never elaborates on them and whatever aspects it does elaborate on are wholly uninteresting. Also there is virtually no economics in this anime, unless you count naming attacks “Micro, Macro or Mezzo” economics related. It tries to use this angle to cover up just how shallow the entire battles are. There’s a bit with hyperinflation at the end yet it doesn’t make any sense in the context it’s used in. If you’re expecting something like Spice & Wolf, don’t bother since [C] uses fantasy economics because it’s a battle anime that fails at making any relevant or meaningful social commentary.
Possibly the most damning aspect of [C] is the animation, composition and general scene layout. Even if [C] has some lackluster and boring writing, it still could have been a decent watch if the visual fidelity was on the level of the Nakamura’s previous works. Yet in the end, [C] had some of the worst cinematography I’ve seen in an anime in quite a while. The cuts and composition for each scene are not just bland or boring, they’re awkward and jarring. You have a cut of Yoga and Msyu fighting someone else and we’re getting to the climactic end yet THE FUCKING SHOW DECIDES TO CUT AWAY AT THE LAST MOMENT AND PROCEDES TO SHOW THE AFTERMATH. Really. Now yes, this style was used in Mononoke and Trapeze but it had significance there. The jarring cuts in those shows were there to play off of their quirky and artsy visual style AND most importantly they built tension in Mononoke (because it had strong mystery and horror aspects) and those same cuts really magnified the surrealism and comedy in Trapeze. It has no place being in [C], because this anime’s composition is incredibly plain. You’ll have cuts of Yoga walking across the street yet we see it cut to him being on one side, in the middle than at the other side with not much animation in between. It has no meaning and it’s obviously there to hide whatever shoestring budget this anime was made on. Truthfully Mononoke and Trapeze didn’t have great animation either yet they hid that with clever scene layouts, angles and composition. Mononoke for example still had some breathtaking cuts that were animated beautifully. Just compare the last five minutes of its fifth episode to all of [C], the difference is like night and day. Not only that but [C]’s animation is genuinely terrible, the laughable running cut in the first fight should tip you off, or rather smack you over the head with it. All the fights have bad animation; I cannot understand why they would want to make a battle show if they didn’t want to spend money on it. There were some cuts done by notable animators such as Sushio and Ryochimo but in the end their cuts only exemplified how bad the scene layouts and storyboards were. Even their animation didn’t make any of the fights more interesting or exciting. Ironically enough, it seems all the good animation was saved for the final episode and while it’s alright, it still doesn’t excuse the utter mediocrity of the other 10 episodes.
To top it all off, [C] has some atrocious aesthetics. The character designs are bland and uninspired, and the color palette clashes with the CGI work (incredibly frustrating since Mononoke had just as much CGI but the difference was that [C]’s is a fucking pink elephant in the room). You have entire cuts that are done in CGI, even the characters and it sticks out like a sore thumb. There really is no excuse for such poor visual fidelity, it’s fairly obvious that Tatsunoko did not give Nakamura the creative liberty he had with his previous works and they also gave him a pretty bad staff to work with. The musical score is non-existent except for in the last couple of episodes and the voice-work only makes the characters more lifeless than they already are.
So after all those bitter tears, is [C] worth watching? No, especially if you’re watching this because of Nakamura. I admit, I’m being biased against it because I had lofty expectations yet [C] never becomes anything more than mediocre in all of its 11 episodes. The writing is contradictory, the visuals are horrible, and so it doesn’t really do anything that deserves praise. If you want an intelligent fighting anime, you’re not gonna find it here. Hell if you want something quirky and Nakamura-esque, you’ll definitely leave this anime with a bad taste in your mouth.
Smugdear
At the first time, i watch C, I think it's just another bizarre superpower anime. But after I watch it, I completely change my mind. The phrase that immediately comes to my mind is "bizarre but unique". C: The Money Of Soul and Possibility Control have a comprehensive plot that rarely founded in 11 episode (only in Higashi no Eden). The level of originality of the story is above average. The anime proves that to appear different it's not a bad thing. The battle really looks like a kid battle for me, which a little dull because the poor execution that given. The problemis the story weighed so much that sometimes feels overloaded for a short anime.
The art is good and unique, the character has a unique design that rarely seen. The background is amazing. There are several scene and frames using CG, its add another attraction of this anime.
Like many anime, all of the sound aspects is decent. Not much to say in this section, but the ending tune kinda reminds me with Persona songs, which is good.
As for the character, we have a poor character development. Our character division is quite typical as well. We have our dull male leader, Yoga Kimimaro. He is another typical male lead that usually appear in shounen series, and we have Msyu the hero's partner. The most massive character development centered in Mikuni (because he has some interesting back story). Other character did not have a proper development.
In the end, C is another enjoyable series. Although the battle scene is not the main interest of this anime, but the enjoyment level of this anime is high. It is highly recommended for those who seeks unique settings, and for those who enjoy a short but good anime...
InfiniteRhapsody
[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is an original anime.At first i got interested in this anime because of its theme of economy, since im economist myself.It is kinda similar to the Eden of the East though because the main theme is "the money". [Story: 6] So, what is money? Money is something we use in our lives and basically can not live without. Now there is plenty of ways to use money, but what if you attract a demon which offers you infinite amount of money for your future? Story so far includes a unknown man with no money gaining access to FinancialDistrict, where he got engaged in a battle with Mikuni, fought with strange monsters and lost. He then committed suicide the following day. The main character of this story is Kimimaro and he works part time and tries hard to get scholarship. He of course(as expected) has no money, and then, the mysterious man Masakaki approaches him and offers him a deal to become and entrepeneur at a mysterious bank. Some time later on, he is once again approached by Masakaki, who places him in a taxi going for the Financial District and gives him limitless amounts of money. In exchange, he asks for Kimimaro’s future as collateral.
It may look interesting in the begining but later it becomes really boring :(
[Art:9]
the art is great so far. Actually i myself am not a fan of little boys and girls but i can't say they are not well drawn. Colors are well balanced and not the eye killers.
The animation for now looks really amazing and the only thing i like is awesome animation when it comes to fighting. Also, the opening and the ending have nice animation and i give one big + for them :D
There are also digital side bars whenever the contractor is talking to his asset.
Not to mention that art got somehow 3d-ish in the second episode, but i dont have anything against that ad, because it gives depth and somehow it makes difference between parallel world people[bank] and normal world people.
[Sound:6]
Opening and ending songs are really well done, and are fitting. Also i think they chose the right voice actors for the characters and they dont feel out of place.
[Character:7]
nothing is explained, except there are seemingly few characters we need to set eyes on: the main characters Kimimaro Yoga & Mashu[presumably his demon]. Also in the first episode they introduced mysterious Masakaki & the girl Kimimaro has his eyes on: Hanabi [sadly she has a boyfriend, as expected :(] but this show didnt work on characters as much as i wanted it to have.
[Enjoyment and overall:6]
i can't say im both impressed and not impressed, but like i said before it just has interesting story. Some things are left unexplained and that is a big minus.
NatsuofFairyTail
*There is minor spoilers. Read at your own risk* Money. You can use it to buy anything. Even your future. C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is what i consider, a very good anime. I was disappointed at some of the negative reviews out there, and even though there were flaws i believe that the flaws did not change my overall enjoyment of the series. So here are some pros and cons that i will go in depth later. Pros: +Original idea +Interesting Plot +SUPERPOWERS +Awesome fight scenes +Great animation and art quality that never dropped each episodeCons:
-Awkward cuts between scenes.
-Pacing sometimes to fast.
-To little episodes. More episodes needed to go in depth about something like characters for instance.
-Characters aren't very memorable.
So on with the review. Overall, I believe that the plot, art, and sound were the strongest points that made this anime enjoyable. But with a lack of character understanding, this anime can not get higher than an 8 objectively.
The plot is, as i said before, is very intriguing. Since the anime description of the series above is pretty accurate i wont go into plot summary. However, i will start with the negative aspects with the plot first. From my opinion, the plot was paced to fast which means less episodes and i honestly believe that they could make more episodes and could go more in depth with the characters, whom i believe lacked memorability. In addition, there were also many awkward cuts within the episodes, and to some people, it bothers them a lot. However, the plot overall is very interesting and original. Being a huge fan of superpower animes, this show really attracted me because it had awesome battles, cool power moves, and i really like the idea of spending money in order to use a move and with no money you basically lose and go bankrupt, which would impact your future. So all you superpower fans out there, you should give this show a chance.
However, pushing away the negatives sides of the plot, i do find that C does have a lot of positive aspects which has made me enjoy this show, especially the animation and art which i believe was one of their strong points. Each episode has never dropped the quality of animation and art which is awesome if i say so myself. They also tried to incorporate and blend in some 3-D which is also pretty good.
For the sound, I believe that C does a extremely good job in this department and is one their strong points. Besides the fact that they have an awesome opening and ending, C has amazing songs that especially fits well in battles and with the mood. In addition, they take advantage of AMAZING sound effects which is the reason why i believe sound is a strong point of C.
Ahhh, now the characters. The characters is, as mentioned before, the weakest point in C. When i say weakest point, I'm not saying it was super bad, but i do prefer better character development. One issue i had has that the characters were not very memorable. For example, at the end where the two main characters parted ways and never saw each other again, i was just like whatever, because i wasn't really attached to either character and none of them gave me the impression that they were special or worth remembering. However, i do personally enjoy each of the character's personality. Each character interacted with each other well and it affected the plot by making it more interesting.
So overall, despite the minor flaws, i found this show to enjoyable. True, it is not perfect, nor it is neither bad, but i believe that people should give this anime a chance. If superpowers, amazing artwork, and a really cool theme appeals to you, then C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is worth a shot.
*This is my second review and I will always appreciate feedback. Thanks for taking your time reading this!
gedata
[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control has a pretty original hook: It's a story starring economics college-student Yoga Kimimaro who only wants to acquire a job with income stable enough to support a family. One day he meets some eccentric dude named Masakaki (who looks a fusion between Willy Wonka and the Cheshire Cat) who offers him a large sum of money, asking in return that he put up his future for "collateral". From that day forward, Yoga is transported to a realm known as the Financial District where he must engage in battles known as "deals" in which he must offer notonly his money, but his future as well. It doesn't just stop there since the money printed in the Financial District is different then your average bills. "Midas money" as it's called not only has adverse side-effects on the economy, but on the fabrics of reality as well
If there's anything [C] does that's remarkable, it's that the series tackles issues you never see tackled and gets off to fairly strong start because of it. The idea of a financial crisis being the core conflict in a series sounds pretty cool. The main character is pretty easy to relate to (college student with money issues), the Financial District looks pretty neat, and Masakaki is awesome. Why did it all have to go so wrong?
Let's start with the battles. To expand further on the above synopsis, people who engage in deals within the financial district are known as entres (short for entrepreneurs), and they are given ass kicking super-powered sidekicks called assets to do most of the fighting for them. The creators try to make these showdowns seem complicated by giving them a ton of rules and financial terminology that imply depth, but the way the battles are actually executed resembles pretty much every proxy battle series out there. They are often rather short and resort to run-of-the-mill beam-spam where characters yell out the name of their attacks before firing in true Digimon fashion. Strategies are limited to mostly deus-ex machina and straight-up luck, so don't come in to expecting any sort of complex mind-games. They look pretty, but the deals are mostly brain-dead affairs. You don't really need to understand the terminology or rules really, whoever has the biggest blast wins. Strangely enough one of the most hyped battles of the entire series is also skipped over right in the middle of the action to have the characters simply spend time explaining the results, just thought that was worth tossing out there.
When they're off the battle field our central duo isn't particularly interesting either. Yoga is a pretty dull and passive lead character. His involvement in the story is really little more then an excuse to introduce the viewers to the premise since we learn about the Financial District at the same time he does. He has no real involvement with the main plot going on under his nose until the final episodes. He's not a completely terrible lead though since his ideologies make for a decent foil for the ideologies of the people he meets and battles within the Financial District, especially the last boss. The real problem here is his asset Msyu. She's basically a loli-tsundere who develops into a loli-tsundere waifu. Her interactions with the Yoga as she slowly falls in love with him are cringe-inducing, and eat up far too much time. I figured a show with such a deep setting that only has eleven episodes to work with would know not to spend time on teaching your pet waifu how to eat or what a kiss is, but there's always enough time for otaku-bait I suppose.The nature of the relationship between entres and assets is something I won't go into much for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but it's where I was hoping this show would differentiate Yoga and Msyu from all the other dull male/female leads out there, but it's a sub-plot that pretty much gets dropped right before giving us any kind of meaningful answer.
I feel no need to mention most of the other entres for the reason that they are mostly one-note entities who fail to amount to something memorable due to short screen-time. I will give props to show for the antagonist (though you could also call him an anti-hero) Mikuni, who is far more interesting to follow then our boring lead and his digital waifu. He understands the effects that losing deals has on other entres (not only do they lose money, but a part of their lives will suddenly vanish). His motives were rather interesting and understandable. I applaud the show for not giving us a main antagonist solely driven by greed which is something that I was expecting from a series where money is behind everything. His plot to is analogous to the idea of quantitative easing, wherein he tries to inject Midas Money into the Japanese economy. His role in the story was a pretty interesting one that provided some interesting criticisms to the practice.
The visuals in this show are probably as unique as the show's premise, but are about as mixed overall as the show's execution. The Financial District is pretty cool to look at with it's distinctive red/white color pallet and the battles that take place are often well animated. The character art however does this bizarre thing often goofily switches between 2D designs and 3D models. It was sort of cool at first since Masakaki was the only one doing it in episode 1 and it sort of fit in with the rest of his bizarre characteristics. However, eventually you get shots of characters walking down the streets in 3D sometimes and the occasional scene where both 2D and 3D characters are interacting on screen at the same time. The actual character designs themselves are also kinda weird in a sometimes derpish way sometimes but is otherwise average. The actual acting is alright on both sides. Funimation's dub doesn't really have much young blood so if you're well acquainted with their previous works, the English version will end up being a rather simple game of "spot the voice actor". Scott Freeman as Masakaki was excellent though. I'd still recommend the Japanese version since it has the highest ratio of Engrish to Japanese speaking (a result of having the International Monetary Fund pop up from time-to-time and the attacks and terminology used during deals) since the likes of Black Lagoon and Beck. It's weird in this since some of the Engrish sounds almost convincing too.
The main plot would've benefited greatly benefited from another cour, but as is the show bites far more then it can chew. I'm not sure if the series had it's episode count slashed or not, but it certainly feels that way (just as much as it did with Angel Beats! too). Much of the series focus on Yoga/Msyu adventures in the Financial District, yet all of a sudden in the final episodes the show forces a doomsday climax with no build up. It would've been great to get a better understanding of how the show got there and how Mikuni figured into it all. Instead it feels as if people woke up one day only to find out that they suddenly have an enormous financial crisis that threatens to plunge the world into "Great Depression " tier misery. These episodes feel to quickly paced and even though the final deal itself is pretty awesome, the show resorts to what I can only call a ridiculously ass-pully resolution that felt much too cheap.
[C] is most definitely a textbook example of neat premise being ruined beyond all recognition. The unnecessary focus on boring leads you've seen before combined with a plot that didn't get the time it needed to develop alongside the weak character development hamstring the show's potential badly. It's an interesting affair still simply because of the bizarre premise and visuals and won't take up too much time.That's not enough to prevent [C] from being a failure of forgettable proportions. Come for the cute assets and explosions, it won't disappoint too much if that's the fix your looking for.
ggultra2764
C felt like a series that seemed better suited to run for at least two dozen episodes considering the elements it tried to cover with the Financial District. The show introduced a multiple number of characters with differing motivations for their involvement in the Financial District and features an elaborate battle system that involves dwellers of the District battling one another with their futures as collateral and bankruptcy having a huge negative effect on the person's life in reality. Kimimaro, as the central character of C, tries to figure out what purpose he has in his involvement in the Financial District and gaining Asset Mashuwho supports him in his battles in the Financial District.
The first half of C was spent covering the various adversaries that Kimimaro would be up against while the second half covered a much darker element to the Financial District that influenced reality, which I felt the quality of both differed quite a bit. The first half was reasonably paced where Kimimaro adjusts to activity in the Financial District and slowly realizes just how much of a radically life-changing influence activity from the Financial District has on reality through the opponents that he fights. The opponents he encounter are fleshed out enough where you get enough sense of how being in the Financial District has influenced their lives, particularly Mikuni who becomes both mentor and rival to Kimimaro as the series progresses.
The second half of the series is where I found things to be a mixed bag and what led me to think the series should have been at a greater number of episodes. The Financial District's influence on reality shows a darker side which results in Mikuni and Kimimaro taking differing views on how to manage things. This could have made for a better half if not for the fact pacing started to advance at a more rapid pace compared to earlier episodes thus preventing any sort of build up with the mounting tensions between the two. It especially doesn't help when there were only 4 to 5 episodes left to build up on such shocking developments and create character tensions that could have been better laid out in a 24-episode series.
Other prominent issues as a result of the show's limited episode count include the series not exploring other elements to the Financial District and plot elements, particularly the higher power that the Masakakis follow, what Mashu represents with Kimimaro's future and the specifics of what led Kimimaro's father to his demise.
Visually, C is one of the best-looking titles I've had a chance of seeing for the year thus far. Scenery and character designs are packed with bright colors and have a good amount of detail to them with the art highlight going to the rendering of the Financial District with its highly colorful and abstract environment, doing well at conveying itself as being a whole different world from our reality. Action scenes are well animated with a good amount of movement and some moments of impressive animations in the battles that occur within the Financial District.
While I did enjoy seeing C, I can't help but nitpick at the fact that the series could have worked out better if given a higher episode count as not everything to it was explored and it had a second half that couldn't click for me due to the lack of proper build-up and rushed pacing that developed thanks to its eleven episode count.
Reckoner
It is quite clear to me that C is by far the worst anime ever to have come out of the notamina block airing spot. Initially, with the director of Mononoke behind the steering wheel, and interesting premise of the show, I honestly thought I was in for intriguing series. However, despite this, there were clearly some things wrong with this anime from the start. What was clear to anyone watching this was how dreadful the animation, art, and editing was. Now it would seem that C never quite received the budget it needed, but still there is no excuse for the choppy editing that waspresent from episode 1 (And got much worst as it reached its conclusion). The show jumped form scene to scene without establishing much context, the transitions were very unnatural, and the character actions were always very hard to trace out.
But regardless of what was going on in the technical department, I was still interested at the start. The story focused on people who participate in a place called the financial district where they would wage duels in which they would use beings called assets to fight. Each participant would put their "future" on the line and the winner would gain more money while the loser would lose his future, and essentially their life would be ruined. The money of the financial district, called midas money, is only visible by people who have been to the financial district. Normal people can't see it, and it's everywhere in the real world. When people lose their "future" the real world has lots of changes in it happen too.
But without rambling too much about the setting, the anime seemed to be some sort of commentary on how money is used everyday, what it means to people, and the impact it has on our everyday lives. There were different things flying around about whether we should value the future over the present or the present over the future (Similar to some of the latest bail out talks surrounding governments), so there were plenty of interesting thing underneath the surface.
That is why it is just so disappointing that this anime had to train wreck so bad with its plot. Throughout the whole show they traveled through the plot points at blinding speed. Character development was hardly given at all, and the main character's development ended up making no sense due to this. Not to mention that the events towards the end seemed incredibly random, and the only reason you couldn't pause to ask yourself what the hell is going on is because every damn second a new ridiculous thing was happening.
C is pretty much a case of nice idea, but horrible execution. Few animes ever get everything so wrong on the production side of things, stuff you can control, that i ends up ruining the show, but that is definitely what we have here. However, if you don't care much for the story it is very entertaining in its own right to see an anime such as this fall apart in such an epic fashion that you would have to see it to believe it.
In any case, don't take this story seriously as I did, otherwise you're in for quite the disappointment.
OldAccount2012
I would probably give it more of a 7.5 Now im going to keep this short (well try to anyway) The story was really good, it really got me thinking and the whole concept was way cool.The reason i only i dint rate it higher is because even though it had a really good main story i think it could have been executed better.If they had held onto the original concept and not pulled into so many other places i would have liked it alot more. The art was absolutely amazing.It was a little weird at first when i have a 2-d world and random3-d characters popping up but it was a good way to differentiate characters from the 'real world' and the other one The financial district was really pretty and the movements flow nicely.Needles to say the animation was gorgeous with nice backgrounds and even flow.
The sound was good but nothing amazing.The characters didnt have annoying voices which is always a plus on my part.
Ah the characters.Im not sorry that i didn't like Kimimaro.I mean he's not interesting at all.he actually really sucked.He thinks to much and doesn't do anything,he has no sense of vision,he's too quick to follow others opinions without formulating his own.The anime is short so we don't get to know the characters all that well but non of them are all that complex but there still likable.
Masakaki is the most complex an unpredictable so he was my fav.Mikuni was very strong minded and wasn't wishy washy with what he wants so i admired him for that.Also i hated how they just leave you on the wing with Kimimaro and Mysu.Like what kind of relationship is that?
Even with all of that it was still nice.I mean the action scenes were nice and the whole thing was pretty to look at.I know it sounds like i didnt like it but I did.I just dont like how they had so much more potential that would have made it better and didnt use it.
If the anime was longer it might have been better for character development but with the way the story was slowly deteriorating and losing focus within the 11 episodes it might have made it worse for the plot.
So yeah 7.5
so much for short huh? If you want the full bitch fest its on my blog.
http://vassalisia.blogspot.ca/
SirHellfire
The phrase, “Your entire future is riding on this.” Fits this show too perfectly to ignore. The Short Version: (+)It’s a bit different from the norm. (+)The main dou are fun together. (-)There’s plenty of CGI for you to get angry at. (-)The soundtrack isn’t that great. The Story (7/10): The story of this show is unique is the sense that I can’t think of another show that takes someone’s future, turns it into a battle avatar, so they can then win what is essentially a universal dollar, that ends up affecting the entirety of the real world in terms of economics. That’s pretty much the entire point of the showin a single sentence. The thing that actually makes this concept of fighting interesting, is that when one of the fighters lose, as in utter annihilating defeat, they lose their future as well. Meaning if they were going to have kids or something, they won’t have those kids anymore. That risk alone makes the battles interesting as hell. I don’t really know what else to say other than its unique and the fights are weighted with risk.
The Characters (6/10): The characters in this show aren’t anything special, I will say that the character you think is going to be a tsundere isn’t going to be a tsundere, not entirely anyway.
Kimimaro Yoga: The protagonist and major in Social Economics.
Souichirou Mikuni: The one trying to manipulate the entire global market and owner of a literal cash hungry asset.
Msyu: Asset to Yoga and probably my favourite character of the show.
The other characters in the show are mostly forgettable, and there’s only two other characters that actually do something in the entire show, everyone else is inconsequential.
The Art & Sound (6/10) & (5/10): The art in this show is pretty standard, apart from the MC’s neck looking like it’s about to give with the slightest force. The rest of the art is CGI, and if you absolutely can’t stand CGI, turn back now because you aren’t in for a good time. I didn’t really mind the CGI that much and I actually think it lended itself to some scenes, apart from any scene involving Masakaki, every time he popped up on screen I wanted to skip a bit forward.
The sound of the show was entirely forgettable the OP, ED & OST flew right over my head. The voice acting was standard, no single person stood out, and I can’t really say much else about the sound at all.
What do you think of this show?
It’s a unique show and I think I’ll buy it, but only if I see it in the shop, not going to look for it.
Would you recommend this show?
Yeah it’d kill a fair bit of time, if that’s what you need, otherwise you won’t miss out on much.
Goodbye my brethren, see you in the next one.
Nimious
How much is your future worth? That’s a great concept question to start a series off before it proceeds to insult your intelligence. From the outlook C may appear to focus on economics, witty dialogue, and perhaps even action. Well, it’s a trap. C is actually a series that consists of plot holes which builds on plot holes so as to continue with plot holes. There is actually no element in this story that is properly developed enough to truly attain a genre label. For example this series puts on a facade that it is based on economics using words like micro, macro, mezzo, inflation and even phrasessuch as “overheated economy” while it doesn't encompass the actual meaning of these words.
Why do that?
I’m convinced that the writers opened economic and business textbooks and took out and used every cool sounding bolded term without understanding the definitions. That or they have no idea what they're writing about or how to write.
While there is some sort of action, mystery, and what even looked like romance; none of these were suitably developed and expanded on as the series tried to do too much with too little commitment.
Coming to this series off a recommendation from Spice and Wolf I could not be any more disappointed or insulted. I tried hard to give this series every chance possible to be liked and as a 19 year old second year university accounting student I thought I could relate to the protagonist Kimimaro, who is a 19 year old second year university economics student.
Aside from the studying and lifestyle that every student stereotypically has I couldn’t relate with him. Actually Kimimaro is a character not to be messed with. This isn’t because he wears impenetrable plot armour but because he can’t grasp the opportunities in front of him nor justify any of his actions through a logical thought process; it’s frustrating. He is a character that manages to lose focus of his values early on in the story and fails to establish new values as he lallygags his way through the story.
Honestly how did he make it to university?
The antagonist Mikuni however is a far more mature character with believable ideals and justifiable actions. As the overlord of the Financial District he does his best to minimize its damage and save Japan. However as the plot was so poorly formulated all his hard work and sacrifice is wasted as the magical rule that the protagonist is always right (even when he isn’t) and always wins was enacted.
I won’t spoil the ending for you but the scheme that was implemented would in reality have crippled a country’s economy permanently and ceded its control to another nation; in other words, economic suicide was the solution of choice. Ridiculous right?
Now if you have any knowledge of economics and business stay away from this series as you will have headaches from the ignorance of the writers. The story was so disastrous that the rules that it established are changed in a moment’s notice for the sake of continuing the plot.
It's as if playing a game without rules. It's just no fun if you don't know how to win.
The one saving grace for this series was its animation. It’s beautiful like Bakemonogatari with great landscapes that are plain yet marvelous. Though really if you wanted beautiful animation you could just watch Bakemonogatari right?
Ultimately C is a series that forgot the original concept that drew in its viewers and develops in the wrong directions. Had it truly focused on dialogue, economics, and business this would have been a great niche series that would have likely fascinated a mature audience. Sadly this series tried to do too much and ended up being a badly developed battle anime with a hint of mystery and a poor excuse for romance.
_laz_
Exactly what it says on the title, the theme of this anime is about Corruption done by “The Money” in modern times for “Soul and Possibility Control” of the ignorant masses to turn them into mindless animalistic puppets to be toyed with by the government and businesses. That is probably a stretch and a bad joke. As interesting as the theme is, it is looked from a foolish naive perspective through the main lead Kimimaro Yoga, a member of the ignorant masses. There are spoilers so read at your own risk. Our main lead is an over-used archetype, present in the majority of anime titles aimedfor youths, which is designed to “relate” his entire life to the majority of the lives of its audience. He is an average student who has a crush on his friend Hanabi Ikuta and works as a part-timer in a convenience store. He has a bad unexplained childhood. He believes in living in the present. He is very OPEN towards anyone that doesn’t challenge his ideology of life. Without it, there would not be any clash of the titans in the last episode that was suggested in the last scene of the opening. Ignorance of opposing forces and the fate of our future is bliss after all. He only starts developing after hearing extreme opposing views from different parties which ends up horribly until a Total Deus Ex Machina came to “save” its audience from the truth behind the ending (Masakaki stated that the future is a collateral). Without other people, he is screwed.
Like Ganta Igarashi from Deadman Wonderland, he is given his own avatar for Deus Ex Machina in the form of a younger, cute, powerful, childlike or immature Asset Msyu who eventually falls for her owner. The number of times and the situations when he is saved by Msyu are incredible. Every time he is screwed, Msyu just does some unexplained OHKO that miraculously got them out of ANY hopeless situation. However, please take note that she herself brought up Kimimaro from a useless stick figure to a reasonable fighter with a clear belief system. Her character development is typical and predictable but interesting nonetheless.
What about the “antagonist” suggested in the opening before the start of the first episode? He is Souichirou Mikuni, the smart pragmatic businessman counterpart of our protagonist and the saving grace of this show. The emphasis on his characterization, development, and behaviour is a major influence to the entirety of the show. Without this character, there is no [C] and opposing organization to the Financial District. Midas Money is less controlled so its effects are amplified, resulting in grave losses such as loss of loved ones and/or one’s life. There is absolutely no major conflict for the protagonist to resolve. Why he is not the main character is left to your interpretation.
The rest of the supporting cast, don’t need much attention because they are written to FORCE the two main male leads to fight in the end. Jennifer Satou and Kou Sennoza represent the core contrasting beliefs of Souichirou. Both have unique lives and better reasons to be the main protagonist than Kimimaro because they have logical justifiable explanation for staying in the alternate world. Still, they are wasted because a puppet that eventually becomes them is more interesting than them gaining the same strength as Souichirou.
For the story, only the Financial District is of any value but lacked focus on its psychological and philosophical aspects. Its origins, purpose, effect on the business world, MMORPG setting with weird characters ranging from Eldritch Abominations to cute humanoid tsundere or kuudere loli characters, Midas Money, [C], unique concepts, etc. are the only reasons why anyone is watching this but all is not present in the first half. [C], the destroyer of bankrupted financial districts, is shown in the later portion of the second half. There are also certain questions left unanswered.
How does the battle system work?
Why are certain characters significantly stronger than others regardless of experience?
Why are governments not cooperating together from the very beginning to prevent [C] from removing countries of existence?
Who are the people above according to Masakaki?
Who is the “God” figure in the last episode?
Is the ending another version of Instrumentality (Neon Genesis Evangelion)?
Whatever. Let's just focus on the visuals and sound.
Production values are medium at the very least. They are not outstanding but unquestionably (YMMV) fitting. The opening and ending themes brought me out of my misery whenever I watch this so I never skipped them and watch the preview of preceding episodes. They both start and end the show well every time. Voice acting is fair as well. The style and quality of the art are normal with certain use of CGI. The resulting presentation though is quite good but aesthetics alone don't make any show good ... unless it's porn.
Simply put, this is not recommendable.
DeSwitch
Story (3/10) I imagine the executive meeting that inspired this dull, jabbering insult to my intelligence went a bit like this. Director: I’ve been thinking lately we should do something deep and relevant about today’s global financial situation. It’s been all over the news and I think the kids would appreciate someone really bringing it down to their level. Exec: Uhh, really? But finance is like so BOOOOOORING. Director: Well, of course we could spice it up a little, you know, give it a representational hook or gimmick. I have one or two ideas that I think would really - Exec: Oh oh oh! I’ve got it, I’ve got it!MASCOT BATTLES!
Director: What?
Exec: Write this down! It’s not often I get such inspirational flashes. I can see it now - economic conflicts figuratively enacted through pet monsters! ‘Cause everyone likes Pokemon, right??
The result, ladies and gentlemen, is this show, the worst possible marriage of everything that shouldn’t exist in anime. Dry, abstract exposition about money combined with utterly mindless battles between metaphorical creatures that have no real-life relevance. Burrow deep enough and C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control appears to contain a human tale about taking huge financial risks for the sake of loved ones. That this is mere veneer becomes clear the moment we ask why the characters don’t just work overtime, get a second job, or aim for promotion, considering any of these require less effort for more guarantee. The financial battles are vehicles for an impending apocalypse caused by some… thing that gets no explanation. All we know is, at some point, a digitised whatsit begins to sweep through Japan and the hero has to do stuff in the ether to make it go away.
Not that the fights are any good either. Occurring without reason or logic, they generate about as much friction as a limp dick. Just as one combatant summons giant balls of fire, the opponent blocks with an inexplicable beam of sparkling blackness, all the while an electronic voice yells nonsensical financial jargon not even the Wall Street folk would enjoy piecing together (how to counter sensibly when your enemy has just thrown a hail of MACROFLATION!!?). There are no recognisable dimensions to the battles, no identifiable limitations that tell me ‘this person is highly skilled compared to that person’. Thus we must take for granted that Souichiro Mikuni, the cool, mysterious rich guy, is unbeatable because everyone says so; when he fights, I can’t actually tell.
Art (4/10)
I’d like to put a message out there for the kids growing up on a diet of C-like atrocities: animated backgrounds full of feeling, atmosphere, and texture do exist. For evidence, look to Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica or Eden of the East. The polygonal edifices we get in C bring to mind the artistic sensibilities of a McDonalds restaurant - cold, garish, and above all cheap. Effects happen, shapes and colours and patterns zoom past but none of it serves any discernible purpose except to distract us for another five seconds.
Sound (8/10)
In moments when the plot wholly eluded me, the score managed to restore some of the potency of the situation. Unfortunately, sandwiched between unmemorable opening and closing themes, and voiced over by a crap script, the courageous cinematic soundtrack gets entirely lost.
Characters (3/10)
If there’s anything anime needs more of, it’s teenage boys trying to get stronger. I’m being sarcastic, of course. What anime needs more of are characters I can tell apart from all the others. C’s cast melts into a giant pot of tokenism and archetype that effectively abandons the audience to apathy. I’m surprised, for instance, that the bland, pineapple-haired protagonist (had to look up his name, Kimimaro Yoga) was thought qualified to be one when his only notable features are being nice and harbouring angst about his long-lost father. The only vivid performance belongs to Masakaki, the guide of the alternate dimension in which the battles take place; he is a nod to Willy Wonka that strips away all the child-friendly veneer and replaces it with a chilling pitilessness.
Overall (5/10)
Colour me spoiled if you will, but I like to spend my time watching things that I understand. I like characters for which I feel empathy doing things I could imagine myself doing if I were in their situation. Most of the financial jargon the target audience will struggle to relate to and anyone who does will snooze simply at the banal abstractedness of it. Instead of a poignant metaphor on the dangers of economic risk-taking, we get a discombobulated mess that farts a host of vague concepts. The only emotion this show inspires in the process is boredom.
By the way would of been a three and was really willing to as well, but seems its an overall and the overall comes to a total of 4.5, I have to round it up to 5, so C got lucky this time. C you round!
Gorbovskiy
Well then, what should I begin with? Story – 9 Are you used to stories which are good-for-nothing? [C] is something better than that. Let’s say money rules the world, and there’s a parallel space where all the money flows are controlled and resolved by a Persona-style fighting, ain’t this sounds cool? The plot also is about settling what is more important – the present or the future? The story develops somehow similar to the one in Guilty Crown, bringing up more and more questions… making the viewer think and jump to their own conclusions. But the logic is leaking a bit, and hence 9/10. Art – 7 Thefirst episode is marvelous, with all that great artwork and animations; the battle scenes are fascinating too… the characters lack originality (except for some figures, to be honest), alongside with the backgrounds. I was expecting to get more detailed images, really, but the current level will do too.
Sound – 8
The music is just fine, and it does help creating the right mood. The sounds, however, are somewhat lame, as well as the bright and optimistic ending song. Overall, I’m not impressed but relieved.
Characters – 10
The protagonist is, surprisingly, a simple university student, thinking about getting by and, but as the time flows, he is really growing up, changing himself and his perception of the world around him… Even though he is a slowpoke when it comes to making a decision, he does everything it takes to choose the best answer, shaping the reality the way he wants it to be. Moreover, each other character has their own detailed background and their own reasons as well, and I can’t help but sympathy them, even if they have completely different ideals. ”I’m a businessman first, then I’m a parent”, as one implies… personally, I know a lot of people thinking this way too, that’s why I can tell the characters are more that realistic and interesting, without lots of clichés (That cabin driver… what are you? Cain from VtM? Igor from Persona? Really cool, you know). Plus there’s no certain villain amongst humans in series, which is rare and great.
Enjoyment – 5
After all, it was… plain. I have almost started yawning by the last episodes. Like, the authors couldn’t come up with more breathtaking moments then the beginning had. And if you want to about economics in an entertaining way, you may receive the same joy off a simple textbook. An anime full of adventures must be more… lively. And seriously, the opening is full of spoilers.
Overall – 7
This anime has as many interesting ideas as borrowing from other series and stuff like that. Is it bad? Who knows. It resembles me of a bunch of things I like, though, and I can’t help but say this anime is worth seeing once in awhile, if you don’t mind watching something truly unusual. The end is really a something too.
It goes without saying that economy is an inseparable and indestructible part of our life. Can one prove this wrong?
Chocosword
Is it possible to say that money makes the world go round? I honestly believe that money is necessary in order to survive in today’s world, but then people get sucked into greed. Greed is one of the strongest traits a human can have. If you have a valuable item, you would want another one. Not only that, but everybody wishes to be wealthy. If society corrupts from greed, would the world still go round? Then, there are people that are humble. I have to say that they would lead to a successful life style knowing how to find a loophole to live comfortably without havingto get sucked into greed. “C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control” shows what it is like to see how money and society correlate.
To the famous line, “Would you want to make some more money?” Most people would quickly say yes and fall for the obvious scam. Living life in debt would make people really depressed and some would even commit suicide. Have you ever played the game Monopoly? It is great how you can start off with a small amount of money and easily turn that into millions within an hour or two. Sadly, it is fake money and money isn’t that easy to obtain. Besides that, don’t you feel like the guy wearing a suit, a top-hat and have a fancy cane is mocking you? The possibility of being wealthy is endless. With money, you can go out drinking, you can go traveling, you don’t have to work for the rest of your life, you can own property along with having a family and you can buy a nice car or two. The problem is what can’t you do with money? Money to some provides happiness, but for me, I don’t think so. I would rather live an honest lifestyle and not depend on anyone, but myself. This shows that you are independent and reliable. Money is just a leisure thing to have. You can still be happy if you’re poor, but won’t be living in a better lifestyle like the rich. Society splits into the rich and the poor. Isn’t it hilarious that money splits society in half? Everybody is able to climb the ladder to become wealthy. We all have arms and legs right?
“C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control” is where you give your future for money. To break it down, it is similar to slavery. It sounds dumb since if you give up your life, you have no control, but will be a human with a collar. The protagonist, Kimimaro Yoga, was chosen to be an entrepreneur. He is a humble person and works really hard to achieve what his goal. Yoga’s goal is to work in a private job, have a family and a house. Soon, his world is flipped upside down when he was chosen. There is an alternate world where he can travel to and fight to gain more money. Since Yoga was forced to join this game, he is given a cash card that has a large amount of money and also contains an asset. An asset is like a companion that fights for you except the asset resembles the owner’s future. This is one of the aspects that I like about the anime. It is like your future is brought out and is able to communicate with you. Yoga’s asset is Msyu. Compared to other assets, she is unique considering she has a body close enough to a human and is interested in the real world. Every week, there is a battle waiting for Yoga. It is a fight to win situation. If Yoga lost, he would be bankrupt and face consequences in the real world. As the anime progresses, I have to say that the consequences are pretty grave no matter what. Seeing both world collapses just because of money is crazy. My opinion of this plot would be that it is pretty cliché. It reminded me of those situations of either you win or die. Other than that, the plot is alright.
The art style is clear and crisp. I have no problems with it and it is pretty cool. I guess you can say a modern version of this anime would be Devil Survivor 2. The animation is quite good and I definitely enjoyed it. The lighting and coloring is also beautiful. It displays the scenery and depicts the mood of the situation. What I like the most would probably be the fighting scenes. They are well made and use a unique style.
The music is pleasant. It isn’t annoying or dull. To be honest, they weren’t that high of a quality for me to download. The OST is fitting for the scenes they were used in. This anime uses suspense and brought it out pretty well. The opening is well made. It shows what the anime portrays. Money isn’t everything and shows how corrupt the world is at the moment. The music in the OP is alright, but the lyrics are outstanding. It shows an underdog trying to fight his way to stop the horrid game. The ending is alright too. It is similar to the opening and shows a guy running. The lyrics used encourage fighting over the darkness and getting to know the bond between Kimimaro Yoga and Msyu more.
This anime is great, but not spectacular. It should definitely be seen as for those who wanted to see those “what if” in action.
