C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

Jun 25, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

animedork95 (All reviews)

424 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Mar 7, 2012

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

-CHAOS- (All reviews)

218 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Jul 16, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Activelee (All reviews)

170 people found this review helpful

[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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Jun 24, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

8thSin (All reviews)

103 people found this review helpful

'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 read more

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Jun 13, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Detective (All reviews)

93 people found this review helpful

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, read more

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Apr 22, 2011

2 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Thezar (All reviews)

73 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

[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 read more

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Jun 23, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Cobbles (All reviews)

70 people found this review helpful

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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Nov 16, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

NeverKnowsBest26 (All reviews)

66 people found this review helpful

[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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Dec 26, 2014

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

CecaniahCorabele (All reviews)

65 people found this review helpful

At the first time, i watch C, I think it's just another bizarre superpower anime. But after I watch it, I completely change my mind. The phrase that immediately comes to my mind is "bizarre but unique".

C: The Money Of Soul and Possibility Control have a comprehensive plot that rarely founded in 11 episode (only in Higashi no Eden). The level of originality of the story is above average. The anime proves that to appear different it's not a bad thing. The battle really looks like a kid battle for me, which a little dull because the poor execution that given. The problem read more

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Jan 22, 2014

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

NatsuofFairyTail (All reviews)

50 people found this review helpful

*There is minor spoilers. Read at your own risk*
Money. You can use it to buy anything. Even your future. C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is what i consider, a very good anime. I was disappointed at some of the negative reviews out there, and even though there were flaws i believe that the flaws did not change my overall enjoyment of the series.

So here are some pros and cons that i will go in depth later.
Pros:
+Original idea
+Interesting Plot
+SUPERPOWERS
+Awesome fight scenes
+Great animation and art quality that never dropped each episode
Cons:
-Awkward cuts between scenes.
-Pacing sometimes to fast.
-To little episodes. More episodes needed to go in depth about something like characters for instance.
-Characters aren't very memorable.

So on with the review. Overall, I believe that the plot, art, and sound were the strongest points that made this anime enjoyable. But with a lack of character understanding, this anime can not get higher than an 8 objectively.

The plot is, as i said before, is very intriguing. Since the anime description of the series above is pretty accurate i wont go into plot summary. However, i will start with the negative aspects with the plot first. From my opinion, the plot was paced to fast which means less episodes and i honestly believe that they could make more episodes and could go more in depth with the characters, whom i believe lacked memorability. In addition, there were also many awkward cuts within the episodes, and to some people, it bothers them a lot. However, the plot overall is very interesting and original. Being a huge fan of superpower animes, this show really attracted me because it had awesome battles, cool power moves, and i really like the idea of spending money in order to use a move and with no money you basically lose and go bankrupt, which would impact your future. So all you superpower fans out there, you should give this show a chance.

However, pushing away the negatives sides of the plot, i do find that C does have a lot of positive aspects which has made me enjoy this show, especially the animation and art which i believe was one of their strong points. Each episode has never dropped the quality of animation and art which is awesome if i say so myself. They also tried to incorporate and blend in some 3-D which is also pretty good.

For the sound, I believe that C does a extremely good job in this department and is one their strong points. Besides the fact that they have an awesome opening and ending, C has amazing songs that especially fits well in battles and with the mood. In addition, they take advantage of AMAZING sound effects which is the reason why i believe sound is a strong point of C.

Ahhh, now the characters. The characters is, as mentioned before, the weakest point in C. When i say weakest point, I'm not saying it was super bad, but i do prefer better character development. One issue i had has that the characters were not very memorable. For example, at the end where the two main characters parted ways and never saw each other again, i was just like whatever, because i wasn't really attached to either character and none of them gave me the impression that they were special or worth remembering. However, i do personally enjoy each of the character's personality. Each character interacted with each other well and it affected the plot by making it more interesting.

So overall, despite the minor flaws, i found this show to enjoyable. True, it is not perfect, nor it is neither bad, but i believe that people should give this anime a chance. If superpowers, amazing artwork, and a really cool theme appeals to you, then C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is worth a shot.
*This is my second review and I will always appreciate feedback. Thanks for taking your time reading this!

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Apr 15, 2011

Unknown of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Queen_Stars (All reviews)

49 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

First off, 10/10 so far!
(based on 1 ep') :p
Yet this is just me, we're all different; I have been known to disslike stuff that receive much praise down to a few key cliche elements, therefore, I'll fill you in on a few things you need to know in order to make a decent judgement in whether or not to start; from story, to artwork to character types.

Story...

The plot is something out of the ordinary, yet oddly, relateable, especially to the independant.

It seems, during a great reccession, demons have came up with a great method of stealing human souls; setting up a credit card firm.
This read more

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Apr 15, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

InfiniteRhapsody (All reviews)

43 people found this review helpful

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is an original anime.At first i got interested in this anime because of its theme of economy, since im economist myself.It is kinda similar to the Eden of the East though because the main theme is "the money".

[Story: 6]
So, what is money? Money is something we use in our lives and basically can not live without. Now there is plenty of ways to use money, but what if you attract a demon which offers you infinite amount of money for your future?

Story so far includes a unknown man with no money gaining access to Financial District, where he got engaged in a battle with Mikuni, fought with strange monsters and lost. He then committed suicide the following day. The main character of this story is Kimimaro and he works part time and tries hard to get scholarship. He of course(as expected) has no money, and then, the mysterious man Masakaki approaches him and offers him a deal to become and entrepeneur at a mysterious bank. Some time later on, he is once again approached by Masakaki, who places him in a taxi going for the Financial District and gives him limitless amounts of money. In exchange, he asks for Kimimaro’s future as collateral.
It may look interesting in the begining but later it becomes really boring :(

[Art:9]
the art is great so far. Actually i myself am not a fan of little boys and girls but i can't say they are not well drawn. Colors are well balanced and not the eye killers.
The animation for now looks really amazing and the only thing i like is awesome animation when it comes to fighting. Also, the opening and the ending have nice animation and i give one big + for them :D
There are also digital side bars whenever the contractor is talking to his asset.
Not to mention that art got somehow 3d-ish in the second episode, but i dont have anything against that ad, because it gives depth and somehow it makes difference between parallel world people[bank] and normal world people.

[Sound:6]
Opening and ending songs are really well done, and are fitting. Also i think they chose the right voice actors for the characters and they dont feel out of place.

[Character:7]
nothing is explained, except there are seemingly few characters we need to set eyes on: the main characters Kimimaro Yoga & Mashu[presumably his demon]. Also in the first episode they introduced mysterious Masakaki & the girl Kimimaro has his eyes on: Hanabi [sadly she has a boyfriend, as expected :(] but this show didnt work on characters as much as i wanted it to have.

[Enjoyment and overall:6]
i can't say im both impressed and not impressed, but like i said before it just has interesting story. Some things are left unexplained and that is a big minus.

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Mar 9, 2014

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

gedata (All reviews)

32 people found this review helpful

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control has a pretty original hook: It's a story starring economics college-student Yoga Kimimaro who only wants to acquire a job with income stable enough to support a family. One day he meets some eccentric dude named Masakaki (who looks a fusion between Willy Wonka and the Cheshire Cat) who offers him a large sum of money, asking in return that he put up his future for "collateral". From that day forward, Yoga is transported to a realm known as the Financial District where he must engage in battles known as "deals" in which he must offer not only his money, but his future as well. It doesn't just stop there since the money printed in the Financial District is different then your average bills. "Midas money" as it's called not only has adverse side-effects on the economy, but on the fabrics of reality as well

If there's anything [C] does that's remarkable, it's that the series tackles issues you never see tackled and gets off to fairly strong start because of it. The idea of a financial crisis being the core conflict in a series sounds pretty cool. The main character is pretty easy to relate to (college student with money issues), the Financial District looks pretty neat, and Masakaki is awesome. Why did it all have to go so wrong?

Let's start with the battles. To expand further on the above synopsis, people who engage in deals within the financial district are known as entres (short for entrepreneurs), and they are given ass kicking super-powered sidekicks called assets to do most of the fighting for them. The creators try to make these showdowns seem complicated by giving them a ton of rules and financial terminology that imply depth, but the way the battles are actually executed resembles pretty much every proxy battle series out there. They are often rather short and resort to run-of-the-mill beam-spam where characters yell out the name of their attacks before firing in true Digimon fashion. Strategies are limited to mostly deus-ex machina and straight-up luck, so don't come in to expecting any sort of complex mind-games. They look pretty, but the deals are mostly brain-dead affairs. You don't really need to understand the terminology or rules really, whoever has the biggest blast wins. Strangely enough one of the most hyped battles of the entire series is also skipped over right in the middle of the action to have the characters simply spend time explaining the results, just thought that was worth tossing out there.

When they're off the battle field our central duo isn't particularly interesting either. Yoga is a pretty dull and passive lead character. His involvement in the story is really little more then an excuse to introduce the viewers to the premise since we learn about the Financial District at the same time he does. He has no real involvement with the main plot going on under his nose until the final episodes. He's not a completely terrible lead though since his ideologies make for a decent foil for the ideologies of the people he meets and battles within the Financial District, especially the last boss. The real problem here is his asset Msyu. She's basically a loli-tsundere who develops into a loli-tsundere waifu. Her interactions with the Yoga as she slowly falls in love with him are cringe-inducing, and eat up far too much time. I figured a show with such a deep setting that only has eleven episodes to work with would know not to spend time on teaching your pet waifu how to eat or what a kiss is, but there's always enough time for otaku-bait I suppose.The nature of the relationship between entres and assets is something I won't go into much for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but it's where I was hoping this show would differentiate Yoga and Msyu from all the other dull male/female leads out there, but it's a sub-plot that pretty much gets dropped right before giving us any kind of meaningful answer.

I feel no need to mention most of the other entres for the reason that they are mostly one-note entities who fail to amount to something memorable due to short screen-time. I will give props to show for the antagonist (though you could also call him an anti-hero) Mikuni, who is far more interesting to follow then our boring lead and his digital waifu. He understands the effects that losing deals has on other entres (not only do they lose money, but a part of their lives will suddenly vanish). His motives were rather interesting and understandable. I applaud the show for not giving us a main antagonist solely driven by greed which is something that I was expecting from a series where money is behind everything. His plot to is analogous to the idea of quantitative easing, wherein he tries to inject Midas Money into the Japanese economy. His role in the story was a pretty interesting one that provided some interesting criticisms to the practice.

The visuals in this show are probably as unique as the show's premise, but are about as mixed overall as the show's execution. The Financial District is pretty cool to look at with it's distinctive red/white color pallet and the battles that take place are often well animated. The character art however does this bizarre thing often goofily switches between 2D designs and 3D models. It was sort of cool at first since Masakaki was the only one doing it in episode 1 and it sort of fit in with the rest of his bizarre characteristics. However, eventually you get shots of characters walking down the streets in 3D sometimes and the occasional scene where both 2D and 3D characters are interacting on screen at the same time. The actual character designs themselves are also kinda weird in a sometimes derpish way sometimes but is otherwise average. The actual acting is alright on both sides. Funimation's dub doesn't really have much young blood so if you're well acquainted with their previous works, the English version will end up being a rather simple game of "spot the voice actor". Scott Freeman as Masakaki was excellent though. I'd still recommend the Japanese version since it has the highest ratio of Engrish to Japanese speaking (a result of having the International Monetary Fund pop up from time-to-time and the attacks and terminology used during deals) since the likes of Black Lagoon and Beck. It's weird in this since some of the Engrish sounds almost convincing too.

The main plot would've benefited greatly benefited from another cour, but as is the show bites far more then it can chew. I'm not sure if the series had it's episode count slashed or not, but it certainly feels that way (just as much as it did with Angel Beats! too). Much of the series focus on Yoga/Msyu adventures in the Financial District, yet all of a sudden in the final episodes the show forces a doomsday climax with no build up. It would've been great to get a better understanding of how the show got there and how Mikuni figured into it all. Instead it feels as if people woke up one day only to find out that they suddenly have an enormous financial crisis that threatens to plunge the world into "Great Depression " tier misery. These episodes feel to quickly paced and even though the final deal itself is pretty awesome, the show resorts to what I can only call a ridiculously ass-pully resolution that felt much too cheap.

[C] is most definitely a textbook example of neat premise being ruined beyond all recognition. The unnecessary focus on boring leads you've seen before combined with a plot that didn't get the time it needed to develop alongside the weak character development hamstring the show's potential badly. It's an interesting affair still simply because of the bizarre premise and visuals and won't take up too much time.That's not enough to prevent [C] from being a failure of forgettable proportions. Come for the cute assets and explosions, it won't disappoint too much if that's the fix your looking for.

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Jun 23, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

ggultra2764 (All reviews)

28 people found this review helpful

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.

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Nov 1, 2014

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

SirHellfire (All reviews)

23 people found this review helpful

The phrase, “Your entire future is riding on this.” Fits this show too perfectly to ignore.

The Short Version:
(+)It’s a bit different from the norm.
(+)The main dou are fun together.
(-)There’s plenty of CGI for you to get angry at.
(-)The soundtrack isn’t that great.

The Story (7/10): The story of this show is unique is the sense that I can’t think of another show that takes someone’s future, turns it into a battle avatar, so they can then win what is essentially a universal dollar, that ends up affecting the entirety of the real world in terms of economics. That’s pretty much the entire point of the show read more

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Sep 18, 2017

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

PakiUSA (All reviews)

9 people found this review helpful

STORY: 8/10
CHARACTER: 7/10
ART: 7/10
SOUND: 5/10
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
OVERALL: 6/10

The need for money only increases with time but what if you could score a big one by betting something? Tempting? Then again what is Money? How much is your future really worth? Would you stake your own future for the sake of others? These topics are attached to the story of ‘C: The money of Soul and Possibility Control’ meaning the anime is mainly about the Economic side of the Stock market! Don’t worry the concept is really stimulating, the world building is set to its own style thus segregating itself from other shows. I like seeing a story about the Economics of the world since it involves all of us even though it’s a confusing topic to grasp for most of us. And the story goes something like this where Yoga (who’s the MC) is a College student who’s broke as hell and after meeting an eccentric individual, is selected as an entrepreneur to a place that exists in the supernatural dimension where he can make a lot of money by betting his future. A player’s future is conjured up to a Familiar being that acts as an Asset and both shall participate in a deal (battle) with other players on a weekly basis where winners are rewarded with more money (Black money of special kind that are only visible to the players of Financial District yet they work as normal money) while the loser nervously calculates the magnitude of loses since their future depends on it! (Losing your future entails losing your meaning of existence!) In addition, the players that go bankrupt are immediately kicked out from the Financial District for eternity! Yoga’s Familiar predictably turns out to be a demoness named Msyu and while new players lose in their first match, in a typical fashion, Yoga manages to survive his 1st battle with the help of Msyu. And this anime gets interesting when we discover that the corroborative from the district actually has alarming ramifications on a worldwide scale which makes sense since more use of Financial district currency (Black Money) in the market naturally will lead to the fall of the country’s actual money! Early on the plot captures your undivided attention regarding the struggle of what’s more important, sustaining your present or shielding your future! The introduction of this concept elevates the show to new heights due to its interesting and challenging memo. Yet the message was poorly delivered due to the overall repetitive nature of this arc and generic direction in which the finale took place, lazily putting the end to this stimulating plot and replacing it with a predictable fight between the good and bad guy!

I will start with Mikuni who’s the most interesting character of the anime since he was the most fleshed out and he kinda happens to be a villain, even though he isn’t, no matter how hard the anime tries to make him one though! He was one of the rare ones to win in his debut at the District and later went on to build his own guild which reached to the top in no time, making him and his guild very rich. We also see that Mikuni’s yearning for money isn’t driven by selfish desires unlike most of the District players, he’s rather arranged himself in a powerful political position by constantly working towards regulating the tide of District money by helping the government and its partners from reaching total bankruptcy during their Economy’s meltdown! And the aforementioned continued arc comes into play here where Mikuni is all in for jeopardizing the future just to enhance his presence while Yoga eventually goes against this ‘vision’, hell bent on protecting the future. What’s brilliant here is that both sides aren’t exactly wrong nor correct. They just happened to choose a side and since you can’t have both, you can side with either of them without feeling guilty! While Mikuni’s portrayal as a character was great, Yoga’s development was that much boring! You swiftly lose interest in him since he comes across very generic. His wins never counted as wins for me since he won his battles just because he was the MC of the show, not cause of sheer skills or strength! Also, he prides himself on wanting a Normal life yet easily gets abstracted by others without weighing out his actions or penalties, this just proved that he had no real ambitions. Msyu doesn’t get a lot of screen time but she’s pretty generic too and she’s present just for the romance! The romance came across very clichéd and unreal and misplaced! From what I saw, Yoga treated Msyu more as a friend than a master unlike the other players and she mistakenly takes this act as encouragement for feelings which just made Yoga look bad cause he’s only doing this out of his naivety! Plus, Yoga has eyes on his future only and maybe Hanabe (another girl). To make matters worse, an effort for the Romance sprung up in the last 2 episodes and the anime failed at prospering their relationship so everything felt very forced! The rest of characters are mediocre as well who rarely get any screen time, making them forgettable and hurting the show’s momentum. I mean I can only remember 2 of the side character faces, a lady and a guy. All I know is that the Lady eats all the time while working for some secret government branch and the Photographer guy can basically do anything! You can either get by with Awesome Secondary characters + Weak Leads or Stellar Leads with Average Supporting characters and this anime gets by none! Hanabe is another student character but her arc was really weird cause she goes from a typical friend of Yoga to a sorta potential love interest to a depressed girl all in 1 episode! After which she’s barely mentioned at all.

The overall animation is well lit with bright colours but the quality remains inconsistent throughout and while the design of characters and the Financial district were all well done, their execution turned out to be messy with sloppy use of 3D. But Top marks to the visual department for brilliantly displaying the Best and Worst of both worlds! I particularly loved the visual representation of the Black border which were used to distinguish between the 2 worlds, perfectly doing their job whenever Yoga and Msyu were together on a single screen. In addition, the fights were nicely displayed by showcasing the different type of magic used and the use of Black money as a replacement for blood was cleverly shown! But then again, the editing in some episodes were very jarring. As for Voice Acting and the Soundtrack, it was pretty generic with nothing really standing out.

This anime oddly finds itself in a unique category of its own by explaining its story too much yet you understand very little of it! I found the main reason to be the inconsistencies with the rules of the world, the fights and the story itself! Despite dedicating a few episodes for explaining the mechanisms of the Financial District, you are still hazily unclear with some parts. For instance, you use Black money to use magic during a fight so powerful magic means Big bucks but none of the characters every showed any type of concerns when using massive magic spells. Some players had more than 1 Asset which wasn’t explained either or tricks like boosting you up during a battle by letting other players to your stock were never brought up or used again. Let’s just say I didn’t agree with the justifications given! It’s also pretty apparent the Studio were running out of money for the quality drops in spite of the anime’s 11 episodes run time. This also means a rushed ending where too many things happened in the last 2 episodes thus ruining the finale. And just like the quality of the show falls as you proceed further, so does the writing! The major events towards the end were introduced just to raise the stakes for they were flimsily explained by glossing over many vital points. The anime would have benefited with a slightly bigger budget and more episodes to fill in the plot holes. Still it manages to leave an impression for here I am writing a review about it! It’s a mix bag, not exactly bad nor good, but somewhere in the middle.

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Jul 19, 2011

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Reckoner (All reviews)

19 people found this review helpful

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.

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Sep 29, 2013

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Gorbovskiy (All reviews)

18 people found this review helpful

Well then, what should I begin with?

Story – 9
Are you used to stories which are good-for-nothing? [C] is something better than that. Let’s say money rules the world, and there’s a parallel space where all the money flows are controlled and resolved by a Persona-style fighting, ain’t this sounds cool? The plot also is about settling what is more important – the present or the future? The story develops somehow similar to the one in Guilty Crown, bringing up more and more questions… making the viewer think and jump to their own conclusions. But the logic is leaking a bit, and hence 9/10.

Art – 7
The first episode is marvelous, with all that great artwork and animations; the battle scenes are fascinating too… the characters lack originality (except for some figures, to be honest), alongside with the backgrounds. I was expecting to get more detailed images, really, but the current level will do too.

Sound – 8
The music is just fine, and it does help creating the right mood. The sounds, however, are somewhat lame, as well as the bright and optimistic ending song. Overall, I’m not impressed but relieved.

Characters – 10
The protagonist is, surprisingly, a simple university student, thinking about getting by and, but as the time flows, he is really growing up, changing himself and his perception of the world around him… Even though he is a slowpoke when it comes to making a decision, he does everything it takes to choose the best answer, shaping the reality the way he wants it to be. Moreover, each other character has their own detailed background and their own reasons as well, and I can’t help but sympathy them, even if they have completely different ideals. ”I’m a businessman first, then I’m a parent”, as one implies… personally, I know a lot of people thinking this way too, that’s why I can tell the characters are more that realistic and interesting, without lots of clichés (That cabin driver… what are you? Cain from VtM? Igor from Persona? Really cool, you know). Plus there’s no certain villain amongst humans in series, which is rare and great.

Enjoyment – 5
After all, it was… plain. I have almost started yawning by the last episodes. Like, the authors couldn’t come up with more breathtaking moments then the beginning had. And if you want to about economics in an entertaining way, you may receive the same joy off a simple textbook. An anime full of adventures must be more… lively. And seriously, the opening is full of spoilers.

Overall – 7
This anime has as many interesting ideas as borrowing from other series and stuff like that. Is it bad? Who knows. It resembles me of a bunch of things I like, though, and I can’t help but say this anime is worth seeing once in awhile, if you don’t mind watching something truly unusual. The end is really a something too.

It goes without saying that economy is an inseparable and indestructible part of our life. Can one prove this wrong?

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Apr 30, 2013

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

sydrian (All reviews)

18 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Oct 25, 2012

11 of 11 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Nimious (All reviews)

18 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

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