-Story-
The story is stuck in an awkward middle ground. It takes itself too seriously to be simply, casually enjoyed the way one might enjoy say 'Rurouni Kenshin'. But it is riddled with too many inconsistencies and unexplained questions to be taken completely seriously. For example, the Bank of Midas seems to have no clear goal. They offer 'Entrepreneurs' large loans if they'll give their future as collateral, and when an Entre goes broke the Bank collects their future. But WHY do they want those futures? Does the lifespan they take get added to their own? Are they using those lives to create a Philosophers Stone? Are they hoping to sell that collateral on the futures market? (bada-boom). And where do they get their ability to print colossal amounts of money that's indistinguishable from the real stuff? Questions of 'Why' and 'How' are asked but never answered, the Bank just exists to drive the Faustian Bargain that creates the drama of C-C. And why do the battles even exist? If Midas is actually supposed to operate anything like a real bank the battles don't make sense. 'Deals' practically guarantee that some Entres will go broke rather than repay their loans, and there doesn't appear to be any way the Bank profits from the Deals themselves unless their intention is to collect on the collateral (but again, why they would want the collateral is never addressed). The Bank operates as the plot demands, nothing more. I've heard this series described as an allegory for the debate over Austerity Vs Bailouts, but the inner workings of C-C are so divorced from reality that it seems just as fair to say the climactic fight in 'Rocky IV' symbolized Ronald Reagan's strategy of defeating the USSR by putting in under more financial strain than its command economy could handle. (And without spoiling too much, the entire final arc can be described as "Wait, what the what?")
The 'Deals' that are the center of the action don't seem to operate according to any strict rules either. For example, early in the show there are couple times where a character will sell 'stocks' in their Asset to get the funds needed to launch a major attack, but after that stocks aren't mentioned again. What are the implications of selling stocks? If somebody owns 10% of your Asset, do they get to use them every tenth Deal? It's just a cheap power-up to excuse main character Kimimaro getting an early win against a much stronger and more experienced opponent. And while Entres are implied to have different classes of cards and Assets that supposedly lend themselves to different fighting styles, the concept is never explored. The second episode has a brief mention of 'Professional' and 'Amateur' Entres, but THAT is never explored either- it's just used to emphasize that our main character is an underdog because he's an 'Amateur'. I haven't found any tactical logic to the fights, just 'Make a big special attack at the right time'. Because the story wants to develop drama it doesn't have enough time to properly develop the fights, but because the fights are underdeveloped it undermines the drama. C-C needed to simplify its concept and focus more attention on how Deals work, or go fully serious and tell a dramatic story of a character trying come out ahead in a deal with the Devil. Even the length of the story seems stuck in an awkward middle ground. At 11 episodes there is just enough time for cracks to start showing in the plot without having time to address them. I've heard many say C-C needed more episodes, but I say it actually needed to be shorter- given what I've seen of the writing I'm more inclined to think C-C would have just dug itself deeper and deeper with more time. As a movie, however, this might really have worked since there wouldn't have been time for plot holes to pile up or the initial cool factor to wear off. As it stands, C-C has just enough rope to hang itself. Premises are cheap, execution is critical.
-Art-
This series may have a Yugo's engine in a Ferrari's chassis- but a Ferrari's chassis is still beautiful. The Real World is drawn excellently, particularly Tokyo at night when the bright neon lights bounce around in the darkness. Ironically, it's Financial District that looks cheap. The buildings are nearly all boring white squares, and painting everything else red doesn't help either. And then there's the CGI. It's perhaps forgivable in the the District to emphasize its otherworldly nature, but when the art randomly swaps between 2-D characters and their CGI models (even during close-range shots) I've got to call it out. The CGI is poorly integrated, and given that C-C was released in 2011 it's just a bit too new for the 'Good for its time' excuse. Excellent aesthetic, but hit-and-miss art quality. Still, I enjoy just looking at this series.
-Sound-
Another strong showing. The OP 'Matoryoshika' has a punk rock sound I really enjoy- I looked it up on YouTube, which is the second-highest level of praise I can give a song short of buying it. The soundtrack is solid and able to convey the tone well. The ED has a techno beat that isn't really a personal favorite genre of mine, but I can't say it was of low quality or didn't fit the series. Voice actors are very solid, J. Michael Tatum dominates just about every role he ever plays and here in C-C it's no exception, he can play 'suave but dangerous' with the best of them. Brina Palencina nails the Tsundere archetype beautifully, and Todd Haberkorn gives Kimimaro a good does of innocence and naivety. Funimation shows why there the poster boys for English dubs with this series.
-Characters-
Meet Kimimaro, the world's least ambitious college student. His original goal of getting a guaranteed salary as a government bureaucrat and living thriftily with a wife and family doesn't exactly inspire cheers. I'm not saying those are bad goals by any stretch, but for a 19-year-old college student to hold them? From my experience even college students that know they're getting into careers with lower salaries are doing it for the love of what they would be doing. He just wants the sure money. This just seems like aiming low for aiming low's sake. He does get some development to explain why he might take the sure thing over the big gamble, but it still doesn't really inspire the audience. The highlight of the cast is batscat crazy Masakaki, his sheer lunacy and ability just teleport around at random makes him highly entertaining. Character designs are overall good- I could definitely recognize Msyu and Masakaki if I saw them outside of this series, and the rest aren't bad either. Much like the plot however, the cast is around long enough for the novelty of their initial gimmick to wear-off, but not enough to create truly memorable or well-developed arcs.
-Enjoyment-
It looks cool and has cool concepts, but takes itself too seriously (every time we visit the Real World we're reminded that Japan is in deep recession and everybody is struggling to get by, there are numerous reports of suicides and crimes- yes C-C is meant to be taken seriously) for its inconsistencies to be shrugged off. If C-C would just let you turn your brain off it would be much more enjoyable, but as it stands it wants you to keep it on, and when you do the faults start to really stick out. For max enjoyment you need to take C-C less seriously than it takes itself.
-Overall-
What could have been a fun proxy tournament battle show or an intriguing financial thriller ends up not quite being either due to a failed attempt be both. A large dose of 'cool' manages to keep C-C from being crap ( If thought this show was pure junk I would have let it have it) but if it had picked what it wanted to be it could have excelled in that area. C-C is like a company that tried to expand out of its core business and got burned. Enjoyable, and cool to look at and listen to, but the story attempted a risky merger that failed to excel.
