Drama

Alternate Titles: [C], Control

Original Japanese Release Date: 2011

Episode Length/Run-time: 11 Episodes

Summary:

Japan’s economy is struggling, however unbeknown to most the public it’s been kept afloat with money from a mysterious other plane of existence known as the financial district.  Kimimaro, an economics major in college who struggles to make ends meet is approached to be an Entrepreneur for the financial district, offering his future as collateral for a large sum of money.  Now, he must figure out what he’s fighting for, or if he has any place in the struggle at all.

Review:

[C], or Control, is a great anime that really suffers from one thing – it’s just not long enough.  I know, I know, in an anime world where we are constantly criticizing anime for going too slowly, or doing too little, in a minefield of filler and pointlessness Control remains the exception.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Control is a Tasunoko Production and an original story by Noboru Takagi.  Meaning yes, amazingly this is a fresh, original story, with no light novel or manga behind it.  Takagi has done series compositions for Baccano and Durarara, though both were based off light novels.

Control wastes no time, in the first episode you are introduced to the Financial District, a mysterious plane of existence controlled by the even more unknown Mitas Bank.  However, the existence of this bank is unknown to people who are not entrepreneurs or Entre for short.

Outside the financial district, Japan has hit hard times, in a rough economy and rising national debt scraping together a living is something less and less people are finding themselves able to do.  So when Masakaki, the banker and “Willy-Wonka meets the Mad Hatter” ring leader of the Financial District, approaches someone, at random, to be an Entre most are hard-pressed to say no.  But of course, there are very few freebies.  In exchange for the chance to make money in the financial district as well as a hefty sum of money to start out with you cash in your “future.”  Now there is a purposeful ambiguousness at the start of the series of what “future” actually means.  In the beginning you see a man committing suicide because he went bankrupt in the financial district (causing him to lose his “future”) so you think “future” means years on life.  Later on a man loses his children as a result of bankruptcy and everyone who had memory of them.  So “future” clearly translates very differently depending on the person’s circumstance.

The Financial District functions like a large, metaphorical, stock market.  Two Entres enter into what’s known as deals by leveraging their assets against each other in a timed battle.  What ensues is basically a pokemon battle with money, each attack above basic ones cost money, when you are hit you lose money.  You win a deal by ending with the higher total.  The higher the margin of victory the greater the effect the battle has on the real world.  This is also how Entres can go bankrupt in the Financial district.  Non-involved Entres can watch the Deal and bet on the outcome.  Therefore, money flows through the financial district, crossing hands, and enters the real world through the Entres.

Now, getting to our main character Kimimaro.  He’s an economics student at a local university, though you wouldn’t believe it with how clueless he is when it comes to money matters.  His cluelessness does serve as a purpose for explaining the financial district though, so it helps the viewer.  He is parent-less and hard working.  Determined to make his own living his entry into the Financial district is hesitant at best.  But as the story unfolds he realizes he has more significant ties to the district than he thought, as his father was a previous Entre who went bankrupt.  He’s an uncertain character and doesn’t know where he stands in the Financial District until he meets Mikuni.

Mikuni is like the ringleader of the financial district.  The most powerful person he amassed a huge amount of wealth which he invests into Japan to keep the economy afloat by investing in Japanese companies and buying up unbought bonds from the government.  In the Financial District he runs a guild designed to minimize the effects of the financial district upon the real world.  Stressing they win only by the smallest margin possible.

The series takes a sharp turn and the pace increases as the Singapore financial district collapses, taking the country of Singapore with it.  This solidifies the integration of the financial district with the real world and it sends a shockwave known as C across the financial districts of the world.  Mikuni takes matters into his own hands to try to save Japan at present and Kimimaro is forced to choose his side.

C, if you can’t tell, is a very deep and involved anime for only 11 episodes.  They introduce great characters that you wish could have more development but such things are sacrificed to the length of the series.  There are a lot of themes in this that many anime triple its length don’t even see.  Such as present versus future, what people will do for money, and how money plays a role into people’s lives.  I see a lot of people criticizing the show’s execution, but I think differently.  There was a lot of terminology that as a business student I really appreciated.  Just looking at the assets each Entre was handled like a small company.  And sure, there was a lot of metaphor and it wasn’t a picture-perfect example of real business it still was great to see in an anime representation.

Two other criticisms I see of the show are awkward CG, and yes, there is awkward CG but it’s not nearly as bad as some I’ve seen.  And the use of bad “Engrish.”  Yes, the “Engrish” wasn’t really necessary but it was used for characters who wouldn’t speak Japanese.

Overall, what really dragged the show down was not having enough time to flush things out and explain them for viewers who may not catch on as quickly to the clever use of business terms and principles.  The ending was conclusive and satisfactory, though I did not personally like it.  This anime comes in at a solid 4.  While I simply adored watching it the lack of time and what it forced the series to do really brought it down from masterpiece level to simply excellent.  This is one I strongly recommend to any anime fan or business student out there.

[starrater]