Ranked #1281

C

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 bit weird 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 ^^ read more

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 random 3-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/
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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 and others 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. read more

Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit.
-Story(8/10)-Two worlds, the real one, and the second, where you can win enormous fortune.
But the price is your life. The story follows two male protagonists, as well as their respective Assets. Assets are economic resources(They look like avatars). One follows power and the other one is more liberal.
-Art(8/10)-Weird, but new. I think new is always fun.
-Sound(4/10)- Alas, absolutely nothing special.
-Character(7/10)-
Kimimaro Yoga-He is a 19-year old student who studies economics. He seeks to just have enough money to have a normal life. He was forced to join death game. Souichirou made him to join his guild, because Kimimaro doesn’t care about money and that interested Souichirou. He tries to win but not hurt others as much as possible. He has very powerful Asset.
Msyu-Kimimaro's Asset, who takes the appearance of a girl with horns. She is very dear to Kimimaro.
Souichirou Mikuni-Very powerful character. His target is to own Tokyo’s financial district, he has 3 Assets also holds a strong influence over the Japanese Government. His father betrayed his sister. Because of that he decided to earn a big fortune and to destroy his father’s company.
-Enjoyment(8/10)- Pretty interesting story, outstanding animation, and tightening characters.
-Overall(7/10)- Soundtrack is horrible, the story-line is boring, absolutely nothing new.
But, it’s short and pretty full packed. The animation is good. This show left pretty bland feelings. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. It’s short (only eleven episodes,) so it’s not something that will eat up too much of your life. Just don’t expect too much.
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[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control starts off as an interesting enough idea. It is an action show centering around economics of all things; an odd concept but unique, and seemingly well suited for the older audiences that its noitaminA time slot is geared towards. However, the show quickly loses sight of what it wants to be and what it is trying to say. On one hand, it is a sleek action show, on the other economic commentary; yet it also tries to be a profound story about the relationship between the present and the future. The end result is needlessly convoluted, the victim of too many ideas going in too many different directions.

Fair warning, this review contains spoilers.

The story follows Kimihiro Yoga, an average college student, who just like any other college student is pretty hard pressed for money. That is until a strange ethereal being offers him a way to make a lot more money; it entails fighting battles (which are called deals) in the otherworldly Financial District along side mystical creatures called assets, whom are the embodiment of their owners futures. Though just a newcomer, Kimihiro and his asset, Msyu, draw the attention of a veteran of the Financial District, Souichirou Mikumi, and gets sucked into a struggle that has the fate of Japan hanging on the line.

On the technical-side of things, [C] looks stellar. The backgrounds for this show look fantastic, just brimming with detail and finesse. In particular, the financial district is a sight to behold, looking both majestic and ominous and featuring near flawless integration of 2-D and 3-D animation. The show has a unique digitized look which makes for very good eye candy. Character designs are not really anything special in the realm of anime, but still look very attractive, especially the ones for Msyu and Q. The animation is fluid and the vivid color scheme is eye-popping, which makes the action sequences a joy to watch. Like the visuals, the soundtrack here is impressive. Well composed and attention grabbing, it heavily features electronic beats and chanting vocals that will get your blood pumping in the action sequences, yet still fits the action-less moments just as well.

With the superb animation and soundtrack out of the way, lets get to brass tax... [C] has a lot of interesting ideas, but struggles tremendously to keep a hold of them. It starts off seemingly as a critique of Japan's economic system (or perhaps just economic systems in general). Kimihiro's financial situation; the high stakes of battles (called Deals) in the financial district; the extremes people are driven to by financial loss, these all fit together into a rather biting commentary. If the show stuck with just that it would have been fine.

However, the show attempts to deepen its impact by giving the money flowing out of the financial district a rather ominous effect, it steels peoples' futures. This is where the show starts running into some major issues. With their futures being stolen, people, buildings, and even countries start vanishing into thin air. This does add a little surreal creepiness to the show, but it also is incredibly contrived. There are some huge holes in logic flaws in the way things vanish, unimportant characters seem not to notice any difference, but Kimihiro and other important characters do. Perhaps it is because of their involvement with with the financial district, but it is still a flimsy explanation. Far more problematic, however, is what this plot device does to the story thematically. First off, one must wonder why the writers found it necessary to even include this device to begin with... isn't the threat of financial crisis threatening enough, a quick look at today's economic situation will tell you that it is. By adding the whole 'mystical future stealing money' angle, the show actually downplays the severity of an economy in crisis.

Even worse is the 'present vs. future' debate between Kimihiro and Mikuni that is caused by the future stealing money. Both characters start spouting philosophical babble about the nature of the present and future, and which is more important. What had started off as economic commentary becomes something completely different, with economics playing only a minor role in the story. This debate about the present and future is not developed well enough to be impactful, which isn't surprising because the show is only 11 episodes long, and culminates in a Dues Ex Machina ending that feels pretentious.

The characters of [C] are not anything remarkable either, but they do offer just enough to win some of the audience over. Kimihiro for his part is a pretty typical male anime lead, flickering between being meek and heroic as a lot
of anime leads do nowadays. Still, the way he struggles to do the right thing gives the audience something to latch on to. His relationship with his asset, Msyu, is more interesting than his personality; in fact one of the best moments in the show is Msyu reflecting on their relationship. Probably the best developed character in the show is Mikumi, whom actually has a fairly interesting back story (which is of course tragic) which serves as his motivation. The rest of the characters are a bunch of walking plot devices, and don't develop into anything more than that.

Honestly, it pains me a little to be so hard on this show, because it is not terrible. The ideas behind the show are interesting enough, and it is certainly easy on the eyes. However, the plot is poorly executed, ending up as a lot of sound and furry with little substance behind it. If you are interested in the subject of economics, watch Spice and Wolf instead. It does a better job of incorporating economics into its plot, has better developed characters, and is not contrived like [C].





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[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.
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'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 as collateral 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.

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This 11 episode anime is an anime worth checking out. We've all heard of the "money doesn't buy happiness" line and this anime takes an interesting spin on that idea.

Enter the world of Yoga Kimimaro. It's Japan, and the economy is going down, real fast. So many people are suffering, and inevitably, people driven by their greed in desperate need of money will give up their future for money. And that's what the financial district is.

A MIDAS financial district is connected to every area's economy. And like anything, nothing's free, even when it comes to "free" money. In order to earn MIDAS money, dealers, can earn millions, even trillions, but it comes at a cost. Every time Midas money enters, the future is lost.

Now add in the antagonist, Mikuni. However, he's not all that evil. He's driven by good intentions, that we need to preserve the present in order for the future. He sees promise in saving "today", unlike Kimimaro, who tries to save the "tomorrow". Now, this is where I was conflicted. It was a good plot, most are bland, and are just like one choice is obviously correct, but here, it was a paradox. Saving today is just as important, right? Without today, there's no tomorrow. But having millions of futures dying is just as bad. SO HOW DO YOU BEAT THIS PARADOX?

Watch the anime. There's your answer. Paradoxes are far more interesting to watch, and the art was ok and unique, not the familiar anime style we're used to. The characters were also pretty cool, considering the assets-(sort of like pokemon in a way) were your futures.

I enjoyed the unique storyline and as an 11 episode anime, it deserves more episodes. Definitely an anime worth checking out! read more

When I said I was planning to watch this show, my friends told me not to; that it wasn't any good. While I did find it enjoyable overall and don't think I wasted my time, it certainly had its share of flaws. If you're interested in a story that revolves around the nature of money and the meaning of future though, this might be for you.

The thing I found most irritating was the characters, particularly the protagonist, Kimimaro Yoga, who was just incredibly cliche in his role as a naive university student who never really accomplished anything important, and has strong feelings about what's right and wrong, who of course was unexpectedly paired up with a hot-tempered, scantily-clad cliche female character, Msyu. Of course, Kimimaro is the only person who is like this in his world, as many of the supporting characters were incredibly selfish with no obvious reason for their behaviour.

The story involves Kimimaro being drawn into a secret parallel world of money, promising the possibility of riches in the outside world in exchange for his future as collateral. Of course, being the cliche male anime protagonist, he tries to refuse, but ends up getting drawn in anyway. In this world, he is paired up with an "asset", Msyu, to do battles (or "deals" in the series' terminology) in order to take money from the opponent, which I found highly predictable in outcome and lacking in explanation. Of course, Kimimaro is the only person who cares about the feelings of his "asset", which everyone else merely regards as property, in accordance with his cliche personality.

Now, what's interesting about this story is how it explores the manipulative nature of money in reality; what sort of effect it has on people's lives, both positive and negative; and how the very wealthy behind the scenes inadvertently affect others through their actions. In this series, the outcome of the deals can produce serious negative changes in the life of the loser (particularly if they lose everything) as reality of their life in the outside world suddenly shifts to a different one, where things their money influenced simply vanish. This is not explained very well in the series, but will probably make sense to anyone familiar with the Many Worlds Hypothesis.

The other aspect it explores is the nature of the future. Kimimaro is seeking stability in his life and doesn't want to deal with an uncertain future, but after watching the antagonist wreak havoc on the world for the nominal goal of stability, his views on what the future really is begin to change.

Beyond that, the artwork is lovely although some of the scenes are dizzying in orientation. I found the opening and ending themes somewhat bland, but this is highly subjective and you might love them, and otherwise the soundtrack is fairly decent. There are some random amusing moments in the series, such as side character Jennifer Satou's (the IMF woman who's name is rarely mentioned) love of junk food or Msyu's lack of understanding of humans, which did make it more enjoyable. Overall, it could have been better, but I still liked it. read more

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 and Possibility 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.
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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 phrases such 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. read more

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control.
It has a great ring to it, and so far the show is pretty promising. The show reminds me of the game "The World Ends With You" & the anime "Eden of the East" They have the same feel.

Story 10/10
Original title, original story & original art.
It can easily been said that this is one of the best on-going shows.
The story centers around a guy named Kimimaro Yoga, who is a normal guy who wants to live a normal life, however he gets this mysterious credit card that can transfer him to a different realm, the financial district.
In the financial district, People called Entre makes deal with each other which can be compared to a "dualist" & "duels". I love the concept about the money and the asset(which is like a supporter to the entre's).
I got hooked after the second episode & i hope you will too, cause its a great show so far.

Art 9/10
The art is stunning!
I love the patterns they used for the money, the shape and designs of the building in the financial district. Actually the financial district is just outstanding. The character art is pretty decent, since there hasnt been that many fight scenes yet, i cant really judge it.

Sound 6/10
The opening and ending wasnt that catchy and the BGM was decent, it matched pretty well with the scenarios.
It might get better later on, who knows?

Characters 7/10
So far the characters havent been fully introduced, but i like the assets and Masakaki :D
Kimimaro Yoga, so far he hasnt shown any potential trait to him that catch my atention, but i hope he will develope into a cool character.

Overall 8/10
Definitely a must watch for this season, i recommend it for all who liked "The World Ends With You" and "Eden of the East" read more

[C] is one of those series where it probably could have been amazing if it was longer; with, let’s say, 24-26 episodes, [C] could have really turned out as an awesome series. However, the 11 episode limit here is what really limits the potential for this anime as a whole, where there simply wasn’t enough time to fully explore the characters and setting. The results of this lack of time was a poorly executed pacing and a lot of dangling plot lines that have yet to be resolved.

The main thing that really catches your attention towards the beginning is the setting. The creators placed a tremendous focus on the mysterious Financial District, and did a great job at building and fleshing out the setting. There was a sense of exoticness to the setting, with the rules and regulations to the battles and such rather intriguing at times.

However, this explicit focus on the setting pulled away a lot of screentime from the characters, leaving behind a cast of characters that are really bland and difficult to sympathize with. Seriously, Kimimaro remained a passive onlooker until the very end, Jennifer got little to no development until the last two episodes of the series, any mentioning of Kimimaro’s father just disappeared, and Souichiro’s mentioning of the conflict between different factions in the district (starlight guild vs whatever) completely vanished into thin air. The only real character worth noting here is Mikuni Souichiro, and even he ended up not doing anything exceptional for this series.

In the end, [C] was a series that was just too outright ambitious. It had a lot, and a lot, of interesting ideas and a well built setting. However, the serious lack of time in being able to flesh out these aspects to the show is what caused this series to falter.
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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! read more

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 was present 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. read more

Cool and catchy title isn’t it? It sounds like some show which is profound and thought-provoking. The Money of Soul; seriously there might be some deep and intriguing topics that it would present regarding the connection of the soul with the money. Possibility Control; now what would they control? The possibility? Possibility of what? If you add the two phrases you’ll get “The Money of Soul and Possibility Control.” “Awesome title!” a lot would say. While having a nice rhyme to it which added to its “coolness” factor, that is all in the superficial as this anime isn’t really deep; in fact it is even shallower than a piss on concrete. While Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica despite having the cutesy and girly title is a perfect example of “Do not judge the book by its cover”, you could actually apply the said idiom on [C] too, but only in the negative point of view.

Now [C] would be mistakenly thought of something that doesn’t come along in 5 years or so. If you look at its theme in concerning with money, it is shelled by that theme’s originality, but if you look at it as a whole, it is actually a rehash of some of your favorite kid shows which only sounded different because of its economical theme. And no, these kid shows aren’t those rare and hidden gems like My Neighbor Totoro but it’s actually those which you see daily in the children channels in your TV. Pokemon, Digimon, and that horrible card game or some more shows that include a master and a pet battling for manliness or whatever; [C] is actually a blatantly failed attempt to copy one of those and look cooler. Not that I am saying that Pokemon and Digimon are bad, of course they are shows for kids, you can’t expect them to have a cool way of presentation. It’s just that I felt disgusted at C who tried to copy these shows and have failed drastically.

The director of [C] is Kenji Nakamura, the one behind two highly acclaimed anime which are Mononoke and Trapeze. These two shows along with [C] were actually aired at the “noitaminA” time block. noitaminA is known for housing some of the best anime to have ever set foot mankind which include the likes of Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, The Tatami Galaxy and the aforementioned two. There were those anime which were rather less appealing like last winter 2011 season’s Fr****le. Hoping that noitaminA won’t repeat the same mistake that they did last time, most fans looked forward onto the airing of [C]. As it aired episode by episode, [C] which had a very interesting premise started crumbling down though most fans wouldn’t expect it to be “that” bad, but what [C] actually did is set a new low and embarrass noitaminA. Along with its partner which is about a ghost girl and a flower that also has one of the most lengthy titles in anime history; of the two, you can obviously tell which one is better. As for Kenji Nakamura, something bad must have happened in the making of [C] and for noitaminA, I’m pretty sure that they are very ashamed of this.

Though the producers are ashamed to admit it, [C] actually stands for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [C] starts out with Yoga (Charlie) being forced by Masakaki (Willy Wonka) to go to the Financial District to participate in Deals (trials) in which he could get heaps of money (chocolates). He was given a Black Card (Golden Ticket) to gain entry to the Financial District which contains the Midas Bank (Chocolate Factory). Along with their Assets (Guardians) they traverse the place of mysteries along with other kids that hope to have all the chocolate, err I mean money that they desire. Jokes aside, the story of [C] is not something original; it is different but it is not original. Good guy beats the living daylights out of the bad guy by his pokemon but referred in [C] as “assets” with the use of some effortlessly overpowered attack. Bad guy realizes that what he’s done is wrong so he repents. Bad guy afterwards became friends with good guy. Bad guy says goodbye to good guy never to be seen again and they live happily ever after. Good guy protected the virtual world and the real world, the end. Rinse and repeat and you’ll get [C]… for 11 episodes. Of course it would be boring if it has the generic shounen aspects so to make it look unique, it tinkered and played mindlessly with a bit of economic issues to date. I’ve mentioned mindlessly as it failed to address what it wants to and in the end turned to another shounen which obviously doesn’t make sense. The economic crisis wasn’t fully resolved, the Midas bank’s existence is still covered in vagueness, whatever happened to the “assets” were hypothetical, and how the show ended was just horrible.

What [C] could do is to make you come back for more but in a negative way. It asks you to watch it again in an obvious fashion trend like “It’ll get better soon, don’t worry.” As it starts out, the ship that is known as [C] started sailing glamorously and elegantly but as a ship that lacks direction, it end up bumping a lot of tough and hard to go through particles acquiring huge holes and eventually sinks deeper and deeper into the sea. This may be because [C] is filled with magic tricks. A lot of events felt contrived and a lot of happenings were shoved in the face of the viewers forcing them to take in and accept whatever it is presenting. Even most of the impactful dialogues in C are blatantly cooked up.

[C] has characters that are highly unlikeable. Yoga, Mysu, Mikuni are one of the most generic characters in an anime. Viewers could look at it this way: Yoga is the good tamer who aims to be the best, Msyu is the pet while Mikuni is the evil tamer who thinks that what he’s doing is the right thing. Yoga’s actions, Msyu’s existence and Mikuni’s intentions are all very questionable. Obviously they just wanted to do things for the sake of doing them because the script told them to. Some characters like Masakaki, Jennifer and Shimada doesn’t have enough backbone as to why they do things. Jennifer’s actions are highly suspicious but the story didn’t reveal what her intentions were and Shimada’s change of heart was just unjustified. As for the clown, maybe they wanted to have Willy Wonka or say Masakaki to act like this “infamous cute and furry antagonist who has no conscience and takes no sides” for more of a heavy atmosphere in hopes of making a huge impact but what happened to [C] is that it looked like it had one script that is horribly written.

The singular titular letter [C] doesn’t really stand for “Control” but actually it stands for “Cool” or “Catchy.” The title “The Money of Soul and Possibility Control” is already catchy for starters and is actually a bait to lure people in. The economics theme isn’t really for the plot but instead it was used for the technical jargons it presents. Most of the terms used in this anime are also catchy as well. It used some economical terms like “Micro/Macro/Mezzo -flation” and “Overheated Economy” as attacks; which again sounds nonsensical.

Although it’s not in the genre tags, [C] is a poorly written shounen anime and as a shounen, the visuals should be at least decent or if anything, be cool and awesome but no, the studio obviously cut corners to reduce production costs which is one dumb idea. For 10 episodes, the character designs meshed with the background settings were one of the most unappealing CGIs existing. For a serious and a darkly themed anime which contains a Trapeze-like animation is very appalling. The animation in Trapeze is of course effective seeing that it’s a comedy anime and all but putting up something comedic and funny in a serious anime such as [C] is like clashing Gundams and Hello Kitty. As for the 11th episode, they are obviously saving the best for the last with quite astounding camera angles and cool action scenes but thinking about it, if they could actually do it in an episode then why not do it as well for the other episodes? That’s just being lazy.

As most people have said it, the ending is the best part of this anime. By ending I mean the song and not the show’s end which is so craptastic. The ending song which is entitled “RPG” by school food punishment is obviously one of the better anime songs out there. As for the opening song entitled “Matoryoshika” by NICO Touches the Walls is a generic J-rock although what backs it up is the cool background video which in turn makes it likeable in the process. As for insert songs, I found the episode 11’s insert song very wrong which actually made [C] look like a kid’s show but right in some way because it really is a variation of Pokemon/Digimon.

What I found in [C] that is extremely laughable is the botchery of the English language. The dialogue, the tone, the way it was spoken was so wrong and they even had the face in repeating their lines over and over again. For somehow I mistakenly took [C] as a comedy anime because of this. As for the character’s voices, they are all very and I mean very generic. In actuality, “Meh OK” is enough to describe them.

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is one big mockery of the noitaminA powerhouse. It started out as a seinen but in the end turned into a shounen; talk about genre hop. noitaminA will be forever tainted by the dirt known as [C] as it deserves to be thrown into the sea. Seriously, it should have been entitled [D] for Disappointment. [C] – Disappointment of Soul and Trainwreck Control is one of those anime that will always be remembered and will be never forgotten not because it is phenomenal, but because of how it lowered and degraded the noitaminA standards. And no, I’m not being biased because of how good its other noitaminA counterparts are, the story is just Catastrophic and filled with Chaos. So overall, [C] deserves a rating which matches its counting in alphabetical order, a 3. read more

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 Mashu who 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. read more

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! read more

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 aimed for 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. read more

C.

Just from the title of the anime, we can see that this anime is highly abstract. But perhaps, it was too abstract. While this anime is good at creating questions, it never really answers them.

There exists another dimension (for lack of a better term) called the "financial district" where people get to battle for money - at the expense of their future. While an interesting and original concept, the anime fails to account for all of its key plot devices.

Financial District. With a financial district, entrepreneurs and loads of cash, one wouldn't expect duels to be like Yugioh. Why would entrepeneurs and their assets fight physically? It totally defies the point of calling this the financial district. Other than randomly using fancy terms such as mergers and acquisitions, there is absolutely nothing financial about this anime. Having a keen interest in finance, I am deeply dissappointed by the lack of effort to expand on this concept.

Assets. The embodiment of one's future. Another interesting concept, but again, failed to be developped fully. Why are assets the way they are? The only one that was vaguely explained was Mikuni's asset. None of the other ones made sense.

Collapse. The main cause of conflict in this story was that an influx of midas money is destroying the economy, driving down stocks. Yet the anime does not explain why this happens; with such an influx of money, it would be much more likely to result in a hyperinflation.

Morals and ideals. Perhaps the anime would've been a masterpiece even if the above were less than perfect; however, even the most basic part of a story; its morals were not clearly told. None of the main characters had a good result; who was right? Is it really as the clown says, that everyone is striving for good and making the world better? But why then, is the futue disappearing?

In the end, this anime fails to deliver in every single way. It managed to ruin such a promising setting, such a promising idea for a story. Instead of presenting it's philosophical ideas as is, the story is dumbed down with yugioh like battles and unrealistic depictions of the effects of financial disturbances. One finishes this anime with a sense of confusion; nothing in the anime is answered, and no moral value is presented.

I do not recommend this anime; however, I am giving it a 7 because of the ideas that could've been; perhaps this anime is best left for us to imagine an ending; to imagine what sort of a future this anime would've had.

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