[C] – Control – The Money of Soul and Possibility
[C] is one of those series where it probably could have been amazing if it was longer; with, let’s say, 24-26 episodes, [C] could have really turned out as an awesome series. However, the 11 episode limit here is what really limits the potential for this anime as a whole, where there simply wasn’t enough time to fully explore the characters and setting. Not to mention, [C] wasn’t exactly efficient with how it used it’s airtime, instead cramming in as much as it could towards the very of the series. The results of this lack of time was a poorly executed pacing and a lot of dangling plot lines that have yet to be resolved.
The main thing that really catches your attention towards the beginning is the setting. The creators placed a tremendous focus on the mysterious Financial District, and did a great job at building and fleshing out the setting. There was a sense of exoticness to the setting, with the rules and regulations to the battles and such rather intriguing at times.
However, this explicit focus on the setting pulled away a lot of screentime from the characters, leaving behind a cast of characters that are really bland and difficult to sympathize with. Seriously, Kimimaro remained a passive onlooker until the very end, Jennifer got little to no development until the last two episodes of the series, any mentioning of Kimimaro’s father just disappeared, and Souichiro’s mentioning of the conflict between different factions in the district (starlight guild vs whatever) completely vanished into thin air. The only real character worth noting here is Mikuni Souichiro, and even he ended up not doing anything exceptional for this series.
The storytelling here was all over the place as well. Rather than choosing a set few concepts and ideas, and building up upon them very well, instead we got a ton of weakly developed ideas that are mostly disregarded by the end of the series. It was almost as if the creators were writing the story for this series week by week, with very little effort to build upon the previous week’s story. Is [C] about the loss of people’s futures? Kimimaro’s past and present? The economic impact of the Financial District on Japan’s GDP and national debt? Just what the heck is the focus to this series anyways? The arcs in this series were barely related to each other, and did not culminate in a good overall theme or conflict.
To be fair, this series had a ton of neat and original ideas, which if they had been developed coherently, could have made for one heck of a series. The truth of the matter here, though, is that it didn’t develop a lot of it’s ideas well, resulting in a messy story. The series does try to throw in social commentary here and there, but it fails for the most part because the “moral dilemma” in an arc is forgotten in literally the next episode. Remember the moral to Mr. Philantropist’s arc? It kind of just disappeared into the background, with little relevance to the successive arcs.
In the end, [C] was a series that was just too outright ambitious. It had a lot, and a lot, of interesting ideas and a well built setting. However, the serious lack of time in being able to flesh out these aspects to the show is what caused this series to falter. Not to mention, rather than using every moment it can effectively, [C] goes off on a lot of little mini-arcs and conflicts, resulting in a lack of a continuous, well build main plot. “Rushed” would be the perfect word to use here.
Animation/Art: 7.5/10
Music: 8.5/10
Setting: 8.5/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Story: 7.0/10
Overall Enjoyment: 7.8/10
Distant Paradise 