[C] – Control – The Money of Soul and Possibility – 05

Episode 05 –

Well, this episode was practically all setup. The previous episode did briefly touch upon the idea of “controlled deals” to regulate the effect of deals on the real world, but this episode details the concept in much more depth and illustrates exactly how the financial district has very precise impacts on the world. Honestly speaking, there isn’t really too much new information revealed in this episode, which makes a good chunk of the episode rather redundant in some ways. There are a few interesting little revelations, and even now the presence that is Souichiro still baffles me; his intentions so far seem all righteous, but it sounds almost too perfect to be true. The sheer amount of power he has over the Japanese economy sounds absurd, which in itself sounds like a rather dangerous setup.

A good portion of the episode was spent on random guys performing the controlled deals that are so coveted by the Starlight guild. I guess the battles themselves were meant to introduce some of the guild members that are close to Souichiro, but really aside from that there was almost no point to the deals. Souichiro himself seems to be the only real character that is of significant importance as of now, considering his tremendous influence in the real world. If Souichiro is truly the one holding together the Japanese economy (as the government official in the episode noted), he must be unfathomably powerful. I mean, assuming the Japanese economy is faring similarly in the show as it is in our real world, Japan’s national debt is currently well over 8-9 trillion dollars. If he single-handedly can support that, Souichiro is indeed a frighteningly powerful man. The sheer amount of influence this man has does make me highly suspicious that he is up to something in the background, though there really aren’t any hints of it so far. Maybe I’m just being really paranoid ヽ（´ー｀）┌

I’ll admit though, that Souichiro’s method of minimizing the impact of the Midas money is quite well thought out. By reducing the actual level of change via the controlled deals, the real world isn’t terribly affected (as illustrated by Kimimaro’s miniscule loss). Excess money is used to support the Japanese economy by buying bonds, and Souichiro himself regulates massive changes with his own massive wealth and fortune. In other words, the system Souichiro has devised truly does allow for a semblance of balance between the two worlds. The only weakness I see here is that the system is too overtly reliant on Souichiro himself; if Souichiro somehow falls from grace, the entire system will crumble and a huge shift would occur in the real world.

As for the parts of the episode revolving around Kimimaro, he is gradually seeming to grow closer together to his asset Msyu. I’m starting to like the pairing quite a bit, though their teamwork could obviously use an overhaul. At least Kimimaro isn’t a complete pushover and actually can plan things out fairly well, though like I mentioned before his teamwork needs work. What I found particularly more interesting here was the result of Kimimaro’s loss. Kimimaro’s aunt was afflicted, and Kimimaro failed one of his classes, which in itself is kind of bad.

What more important here, though, is what wasn’t affected at all. What didn’t change was Kimimaro’s relationship with Hanabi. Hanabi herself wasn’t affected either. In other words, considering how the financial district takes Kimimaro’s “future” as collateral, this in itself is a way of saying that Hanabi most likely does not play much of a role in Kimimaro’s future at all. Kind of depressing for Kimimaro, who seems to have a crush on her, no? Maybe I’m just reading into the situation a bit too much, but I don’t really see too many other valid interpretations of this situation here.

Either ways, with this episode much of the setup with regards to the setting and the situation of the main character has been set. What is still off, though, is how Kimimaro doesn’t really have any sort of huge primary motivation in being here. This does make the conflict a bit awkward, but at the same time, this show could be trying to develop a sense of ambition or strength in Kimimaro somehow. As to whether this actually happens, we won’t really know for sure.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.6/5

P.S. After looking at Aroduc’s post on [C], and checking up on the anime news network, the true name for this series is indeed [C] – Control – The Money of Soul and Possibility. I’m changing the post titles to reflect the actual title.

Screenshots are later in the post.