Anime Analyze: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (Anime)

This is a fun one. So the next show that I am reviewing is an anime called [C]. Well actually the full title is [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control but most people just call it [C]. Anyway, the show was made in 2011 by Tatsunoko Production and was released through TV.  The show lasts 11 episodes, so it's kind of a short one.  The opening song is "Matoryoshika" by NICO Touches the Walls and the ending theme is "RPG"  by School Food Punishment.  So, lets dive right into [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control.  

So, imagine a place where you could make tons of money in a really short amount of time.  Sounds good right? But, what if you had to put up your future as collateral in order to make that money?  Maybe you hesitate a little bit right? Oh and I never said what I meant by future.  Well, I'm not going to tell you, because you are going to have to figure that one out by yourself.  That is [C].  Well, not exactly....for that we have to go more in depth as to what is going on here.  So we start out with a college student named Kimimaro Yoga, who wants to graduate college, get a job, and then lead a normal life.  Well, in order to do that he sacrifices all of his free time or social time in order to work the two part time jobs that he has.  This gets altered slightly however when a strangely dressed man named Masakaki drops by for a visit, offering large sums of money in exchange for Kimimaro offering up his "future" as collateral.  He initially refuses, but after some time accepts and is taken via magical taxi to the mysterious world of the financial district.  It is then explained that each region of the world has it's own individual financial district and people come here in order to participate in what are called "deals".  Deals work by having two people put against each other where they can take their assets, which appear in various forms depending on the future that they have given (which no one really knows what that is),  and their owners bid money on their assets in order to attack, which causes the other person to lose money and if they lose all of their money, then they go bankrupt and are kicked out of the financial district for the rest of their lives.  At this point, the future that they put up for collateral is then taken away and disappears from the world.  Each person in the financial district (they are called "Entrepreneurs") must participate in a deal once a week or they pay half of their accounts' balance as a pass fee.

As Kimimaro goes between the two worlds he sees differences in the real world, the biggest thing being that he sees black money mixed in with the normal money and no one else seems to notice, acting as though it is just regular money.  It is explained later that it is called Midas Money which comes out of the financial district  and is circulated in the real world by the "Entrepreneurs" who earn it.  He also starts to grow in that he tries to learn what is moral through the use of this money that could possibly be affecting the economy of the entire world, especially when learning what happens when the financial district for an area goes bankrupt.

This series is one of the better ones that I have seen, so much so that I now already own it on Blu-Ray and DVD.  Being the short series that it is, it wastes no time when it comes to moving the plot forward.  There is literally no fluff or filler than can be found in the entire series and it made for a very strong plot.  The premise, is something else too, and dang is it good.  Through the entire series I was intrigued by how this world worked and where it came from, and while all of that is never fully explained it didn't make the series bad, in fact it almost enhanced it a bit, throwing something in there to guess what was going on and why it was happening.  Having a show like this that also deals with the real world and the economy was actually really interesting too, especially since the economy is the main focus of conversation in politics today.  Now I am not saying that it gives answers to all of our financial problems in this anime, no. I am instead saying that since it is such a popular topic, it was cool to see what could happen in this sort of a setting.

The animation in this series is really really good, with some things going with the basic form of animation and others having a more 3D effect, but not completely CG but somewhere in between there was a nice balance that looked really cool.  Also, the design of the financial district in general was really cool as well as the assets that the people fought with.  When it came to the real world, there were a lot of shadows and they tried to make it look like the real world and I would say that they did a pretty good job of that.

The characters in this show were really well designed, with all sorts of people that Kimimaro has to encounter.  You have the man with the most money who you don't know if he is a bad guy or a good guy, you have the guy who watches everything happen and releases information for money, you have the American government agent, you have the potential love interest, and you have some other recurring characters with less development, but that still are important to telling the story.  There is so much development with Kimimaro in this series that is so good.  I mentioned before that he tries to learn what is moral through the series, especially after starting the series wanting a normal life, having to learn how to deal with having money and learning what it is that he is really earning money for is a big step for him and it really affects how he does things through the series.  Seeing how he views the world and how that changes is one of the best parts of the show.  Also his "relationship" with his asset, mshew is something worth mentioning.  Having been in existence since the time he first stepped into the Financial District, she knows nothing about the world except for how the Financial District is run, and at the same time, since his asset's appearance has something to do with the future that he put up for collateral, his thoughts go a lot to wondering what exactly he put up in the first place.  I will say that that information is revealed at the end of the show, but I am not saying it because you have to go and watch it yourself.

Overall this show is just damn good.  If you wanna see a good show that is a little different from others, than this is the show for you to watch.  It will not disappoint.  Through the entire thing I was hooked on the plot and characters and being the short series that it is, it doesn't take a long time to watch either.  I am giving this show a 10/10, which being the first 10/10 that I have done, I have to say that it is worth it, although I may have given Code Geass a ten as well now that I think about it.  I don't know, anyway just check out this show and you will have a great time with it.  That I can make a guarantee on.  Well I will be back soon with my next review, hope you have a good hallmark appreciation day, and have a nice weekend.

Final Rating: 10/10
                           Plot:                 10
                           Premise:           9.5
                           Animation:        10
                           Character Dev:  9.5
Episodes: 11
RWF: Japanese Dub
MRS: www.nwanime.com