Friday, June 24, 2011

[Ended] C - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control: Present vs. Future


I can't exactly say I'm disappointed about this series, but, I know that it did not quite meet my expectation. Having said that, however, while it didn't turn out to be the A+ grade anime I was hoping for, this is still a very decent series.

While the story is really not that technical, to fully appreciate the story, you really have to know the ins and outs on today's financial market. Since I have vast investment interest in stock market, I am very aware of the current situation with economy and financial market. That alone makes me appreciate the story so much more than some other people did: quite a few extremely harsh online reviews towards this series I came across were all talking about the aesthetics, none had recognized or even hinted the massive parallels this series has drawn in relation to today's world's economic and financial crisis.

In fact, I would even go so far to claim that without the knowledge of today's economy and financial market, it'll be almost like watching a chess game without having a clue what the rule of chess is--all you can say is "oh, cool, that thing move there and took that thing out" without understanding the significance and brilliance of each move. To make it even more interesting, the central conflict of the story is the struggle between protecting the present versus protecting the future. That's the exact same question Ben Bernanke has been struggling with in the past four years.

If I lost you somewhere along the way in last two paragraphs, chances are, you're someone that would most likely agree with those that who do not think very highly about this anime. So you might as well not bother to waste your time on this.

Anyway, for those who managed to get through my praising of its technicalities, let's go back to the anime itself.  The reason I say it didn't quite meet my expectation is that I felt it has rushed in many aspects.  While you see the development in characters, it felt more like a "rush-to-conclusion" in which they developed a bit too...quickly. Aside from that, the rest of the series is mostly satisfactory. As I said earlier, the main concept (aside from the massive parallels drawn to today's world's financial market) is the argument of what's worth protecting, the present or the future, when it will cost one to protect the other. It is indeed very interesting topic. The story ended on a somewhat clean note, it too felt a bit rushed.

Final Scoreboard:


Drama: 92 (Pretty intense)
Comedy: N/A
Action: 87 (Mystical battles)
Art/Animation: 85 (Not the best work, but I do like Mashu)
Sound/Music: 84 (So so)
Character: 90 (Interesting, but a bit rushed on development)
Plot: 90 (Massive parallels)
Ending: 89 (Also a bit rushed)

Re-watch value: 60 - Maybe

Overall: 89 - Interesting ideas

Recommendation: I think if they have just given it another 3 episodes or so to slow down the development of the character just a little bit, and not rush so much in the ending, it'd be a much better series. On top of that, in order to fully appreciate the story, you really have to be very aware of today's economy and stay current on what's going on inside wall street. It's the difference between watching and appreciating the series.

1 comment:

yoekix said...

I found this one interesting due its unique concept, I always was waiting for this the most every week. But it ended so suddenly and that is taking its charm away.

Overall i would still rate this one pretty good, I enjoyed watching this, there were little to no frustrating about anything, so most of my expectations are fulfilled.