Perfect Renders
Here’s to another show that caught my fancy whilst browsing the random spaces of the internet ^_^ Its official title is C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, or [C] for short. Aired in Japan between April and June 2011, it really is an interesting piece since it’s the first of its kind I’ve encountered. The central theme revolves around the differing perspectives of economists, financial analysts and businessmen alike, where money is power and the economy’s condition is everything. People have also been calling this one as ‘Economics The Anime’ Lol.
Plot: 19-year old Kimimaro Yoga is a scholarship student at Heisei University of Economics. His goal in life is simple – to have an ordinary job as a public servant earning just enough money to sustain a home, wife and children. This is probably because he was orphaned at a very young age, and has lived by himself ever since. He currently works two job shifts at the same time earning just enough for his basic needs. You can say he’s a total half glass empty guy.
He couldn’t even go out with his friends to drink even if he wanted to, and always just orders the cheapest food in the school’s cafeteria. One day, whilst studying all night for an upcoming exam, he gets visited by a strange Chesire Cat-like person named Masakaki, claiming that he works at Midas Bank and that Kimimaro has been randomly selected for an entrepreneurial position that was just vacated.
Masakaki explaining to a dumbfounded Yoga: “To put it in words you can understand – you tender us your future and with that as collateral, we lend you money. And we would like you to use that in the Financial District. We ask for nothing more. Also, by future, we mean your future – your possibilities.”
Earning money with the risk of having your life shortened? Any person in their right mind would never accept such an offer. And of course Kimimaro declined. That night though, he checked his bank account and discovered a deposit of 500,000 yen from an unknown source.
Is this guy seriously an economics college student?
This guy really delivers that mysterious and creepy yet playful personality all throughout the series
Masakaki appears yet again to give him his Midas Card, granting him the privilege to withdraw money at any bank or ATM machine. Having that amount of money that’s literally accessible everywhere, Kimimaro couldn’t resist but withdraw some of it for his sake. Thus, enabling his contract with Midas Bank. As an Entre (Entrepreneur) of Midas Bank in the Far Eastern Financial District, he is obligated to go there at least once a week to engage in Duels.
Every Entre is given an Asset, which is said to signify the ‘future’ that the they put at stake when entering the District. Deals between Entres last 666 seconds and are represented in a form of supernatural battle where they fight by using money to attack or defend. The various attacks Assets can launch are called Flations – Micro (small), Mezzo (medium) and Macro (large) and each have unique traits and abilities so to eliminate bias of power level. Entres can use ‘Direct’ where they spend money to create a beam saber from their hand which they can use to attack.
Kimimaro Yoga’s Asset is named Msyu
There can be one out of two outcomes after a Duel – one gains and one loses, or one gains and the other goes bankrupt. When one loses, he loses a significant something in the real world, equaling to the amount of money he lost in the District. That said, when one goes bankrupt, he is banned from the District and will lose all that he values most in the real world e.g. life, family, billion dollar company, etc. Midas bank saying as vague a word as ‘future’ really makes it hard for everyone.
Swiping your plastic to go anywhere in just a second. Awesome!!!
After Kimimaro survives his first Duel with flying colors, one of the strongest Entres in the Far Eastern District, Mikuni Souchirou, takes an interest in him. The next day he visits the boy in the convenience store he works at to explain further about the District, it’s nature, and how it’s affecting the real world. Kimimaro is surprised by the fact that he can see Black Money (issued by Midas Bank) when people see them as ordinary paper cash. These are actually the money from the District that came along flowing in the real world.
If you studied any kind of business course, you’d get the situation right away. The first problem to pose is that Midas Money is actually entering the real world, which meant disrupting the balance of money. After considering it an exponentially worsening thing, what would happen to the world’s economy instead if Midas Money were to suddenly stop circulating? A dilemma – it’s like your blood got infected, but can’t just eliminate it with one fell swoop.
Everything turns to a macro-perspective in the later part of the anime, where it is revealed that at every economic center in the world lies its own Financial District. And that when a District goes bankrupt, “its respective center disappears, with negative impacts in reality at other countries whose economies had connections with said center. It can be shown that the collateral’s used for a persons future makes up the structures of the Financial District and can be the reason why it mirrors reality.” In this case, it is a country’s future that is put at stake.
Just judging from the OP sequence, it’s clearly obvious who will battle each other in the end so I’ll just stop here and won’t spoil you any further. The final battle is so epic and thought-provoking since they’ve engaged battle in a crumbling world with no time for such, where each present arguments that render them neither wrong or right.
In other words, would you sacrifice your future for the present, or the other way around?
Here’s the OP sequence. Watch!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tet3PxqZJW0]