C (TV series)

C is set in a world where Japan goes through a financial crisis that causes high rates of unemployment, crime, and suicide. The series revolves around Kimimaro Yoga, a 19-year-old man raised by his aunt after his father disappeared and his mother died. A scholarship student of economics, his only dream is to live a stable, ordinary life. One day he meets Masakaki, a mysterious man who offers him a large amount of money if he will allow his "future" to be held as collateral. When Kimimaro accepts the money, he becomes an "Entre" (short for "entrepreneur") and is drawn into the alternative reality of the Financial District, where Entres make transactions using a special currency called Midas Money. In the Financial District, each Entre is paired with a special creature who personifies their futures known as "Assets"; Kimimaro's Cousin designed and Asset called "raned", an asset that allowed for other users to make their own "sub-assets". Kimimaro is designated to be accompanied by Mashu, a horned girl who can conjure up fire-based attacks. Entres are summoned there once a week to compete against each other, betting their money in a battle known as "Deal". Entres who lose all of their money and become bankrupt are banished from the Financial District with tragic consequences to them or their loved ones in reality. Kimimaro first discovers this when he defeats one of his professors, Daisuke Ebara, who entered Deals to support his family. Daisuke's punishment for bankruptcy is the erasure of his children from history. Kimimaro discovers that bankruptcy led his father to commit suicide and he finds a reason to continue there despite his disinterest in money and his fear of hurting others. Kimimaro's attitude attracts veteran Entre Soichiro Mikuni, who wants him to join the Starling Guild, whose members' aim is to win by small margins so their victories do not greatly affect reality. Mikuni has a great influence over both the Japanese Government and the whole of Japan's finance market and aims to own Tokyo's Financial District. Born into a wealthy family, Mikuni was a rebel who wanted to be a musician; as his band broke up, Mikuni became a personal assistant to his father. When the elder Mikuni's corporation started to crumble as a result of the financial crisis, he chose to save it, denying his terminally ill daughter Takako the funds she needed to undergo a medical procedure unavailable in Japan. Swearing vengeance on his father after Takako fell into a coma, Mikuni bought out his father's company with the money he earned from his first victory in the Financial District to take away the thing his father held most dear. Because of this, Mikuni's Asset, Q, is modeled after his sister. It is later revealed the risk is not limited to the individual Entres' futures. Kimimaro starts to notice a few buildings disappearing in Tokyo. Later, the Southeast Asian Financial District goes bankrupt and starts disappearing, along with Singapore, and parts of Hong Kong and Shanghai. Mikuni uses his ability, "Darkness", to protect Japan from the effects of the district's collapse. In exchange for 20 years of Mikuni's future, Masakaki allows a large quantity of Midas Money to be printed and deposited into Mikuni's account. Mikuni and his colleagues use the Midas Money to invest in failing institutions in Japan. Artificially propping up failing banks and enterprises spares the Japanese economy but causes unintended consequences. People begin disappearing, poverty increases, birth rates decline, and morale drops as the Midas Money starts to invade the real Tokyo. To investigate the nature of Financial Districts, the International Monetary Fund sends Jennifer Sato to become an Entre in Tokyo. Seeing the effects of Mikuni's actions, Sato and Kimimaro try to stop him from using up his remaining future to print more Midas Money. Mikuni defeats Sato after she passes her Asset, George, to Kimimaro, who confronts Mikuni when he is about to use the Midas Money press in exchange for rest of his future. With the help of Masakaki, Kimimaro realizes he is in possession of a black card, giving him the means to revert the press. A struggle for control over the press ensues, and Mikuni and Kimimaro engage in a Deal. The battle is concluded when Midas Money disappears from the world along with Mikuni's powers, allowing the crisis to pass through Japan without influence. Declared the winner, Kimimaro orders the reversing of the presses and the return of the futures to their original places. With the Assets disappearing as a result, Mashu kisses Kimimaro before she disappears. Kimimaro then returns to reality to find that US dollar has become Japan's official currency and everyone's futures have been returned to them. However, Masakaki appears before Kimimaro and explains to him that the Financial District can reappear. ==Voice cast==

Staff C was produced by Tatsunoko Production and was directed by Kenji Nakamura. The script was chiefly written by Noboru Takagi, Hashimoto was the main animation director, Hiroshi Itō was the art director, an event that resulted in the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history and is considered one of the key events of the 2008 financial crisis. At first, however, the anime's focus was not on money itself; its premise involved economic battles taking place around the world and the plan was to create something lighter than the final result. The premise changed around January 2010 at the culmination of the recession, when Nakamura perceived a common feeling that Japan would not recover from the crash. After researching the history of currency, between February and August 2010 he conducted over twenty interviews with retired politicians from the Central Bank, finance professionals, college professors, nonprofit organization (NPO) members and other experts. He expected to find a broad consensus but was frustrated by obtaining too many divergent opinions and to know there was no such consensus in economics because it involves human action. Nakamura was moved by the stories of two interviewees; a trader impressed that U.S. CEOs were dealing with billions of dollars at the same time the Japanese economy was in poor condition, showing his concern for his country on the world stage; and the story of the Future Bank Business Association, an NPO that provided loans to individuals to upgrade their old refrigerators to more efficient models and that received the payment with the difference in energy savings. For Nakamura, both interviews showed the interviewees' desire to help Japan despite their divergent opinions on how to do it. The interviewees made clear Japanese people should act and that they could choose between having stability and poverty or chaos and wealth. Nakamura concluded that not deciding which path to take led to ruinous consequences, that waiting was not an option, and that people should design the future in the present. At the same time, he was worried the Japanese were abandoning their concern for the future generation by pushing financial risk into the future. By hearing inspiring stories, Nakamura pondered why people would try to help someone they had never met; he considers this question and the necessity to act to build a better future to be the main themes of C. Nakamura appointed Naoki Osaka, the editor-in-chief of economics publisher Toyo Keizai, to be the anime's advisor and concluded he could not make a "light" economic story. Nakamura purposely made the Financial District setting seem other-worldly, although it is connected to the real world. This way he could fulfill one of the missions an anime has in his opinion; to present a difficult and specialized theme in a soft way to an unfamiliar audience. He kept the story as a battle anime as a means of keeping it entertaining, which also gave him the possibility of changing it into a more in-depth media, gradually introducing finance and macroeconomics jargon metaphorically through the battles. On portraying the characters and their reasons to battle, and after reading the gambling-themed manga Kaiji, Naoki and Nakamura tried to avoid depicting money as something that would unequivocally make people crazy, and felt this path should be avoided. ==Themes and analysis==

Kimimaro's objectives in life were interpreted as representing those of an average 21st-century person. Kimimaro and Mikuni can be seen as depicting different perspectives about money and the morals of pursuing and accumulating it. Nakamura did not present any view as the correct one, but preferred to leave grey areas for the viewer; "Control asks how far you're willing to go for moneyand how far is too far". Others thought it was not a neutral presentation and that "it can serve as a broad treatise against modern economics and globalism". The recurrence of the number 666 was interpreted as a subtle affirmation that "money is the root of all evil". In the context of a crash, Nakamura may have tried "to reflect the sense of futility and confusion" it caused. In such a scenario, "To most people, moneyserious, high level money and the inner workings of the real world finance sectorsis confusing at best, unknowable at worst". The financial markets and credit were highlighted as the anime's focus. One reviewer said the anime could be directed towards the extension of the modern credit ("After we leverage our retirement funds, aren't our futures the next logical step?") or the credit itself ("Is getting money now and working it and its compounding interest off for years to come really that different from trading on future potential for present gain?"). Business and banking were also considered the anime's subject because they were portrayed as "the ultimate form of gambling". The story's exchange of a portion of one's life for money could also be interpreted as a metaphor for wage labor. Following that logic, the Deals become a metaphor for commerce because one takes another person's money, which represents the slice of a person's life. The show also depicts the value of money as a mutually-agreed-upon cultural fiction that can disappear when the agreement breaks, meaning one's life is exchanged for what is merely inked paper. ==Release==

The series' eleven episodes were initially broadcast consecutively on Fuji Television's anime-dedicated block Noitamina from April 15, to June 24, 2011. The series was licensed to be simulcasted on the Internet in six territories, including the English-speaking Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. while Siren Visual made it available through Anime News Network in Australia on April 22. In the United States, the series also aired on the Funimation Channel beginning on January 14, 2013, and on Pivot TV from October 5, 2013. In the United Kingdom, after Anime on Demand went defunct, it was added to Animax UK's streaming site; the first episode was available on March 6, 2015. The episodes of C were later released on DVD and Blu-Ray in Japan; produced by Pony Canyon, A rental version of the DVD was also made available by Toho from September 9 and December 9, 2011. In the United States, Funimation released an English-dubbed version of the series in a DVD/Blu-ray combo limited edition set on October 30, 2012; a budget-priced re-release followed on July 19, 2016. In Australia and in the United Kingdom, it was released as a DVD box set with English and Japanese audio available on November 15, 2012, by Siren Visual, ==Reception==

Sales data for C are scarce; the first DVD and Blu-Ray volume sold 460 and 1,180 copies respectively. The anime has been praised for its themes and originality, but is sometimes criticized for its execution and story. UK Anime Network's Andy Hanley wrote that if the series "managed to live up to its lofty ambitions and goals", it would be "an absolute classic". Bradley Meek of THEM Anime Reviews and Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network (ANN) were more specific on the cause of the problem, saying that despite its unique, interesting concepts, poor writing and the "dully unimaginative narrative mechanics" hinder its potential. Likewise, Luke Carroll, also from ANN, praised it for trying new ideas not previously seen in anime but said it does not deliver them satisfactorily. In a more positive review, Erin Finnegan of Otaku USA said although there was no satisfactory conclusion, viewers wanting something unusual would find it worth watching. The most positive analysis was done by The Fandom Post's Chris Beveridge, who said the series "does all ties things together well and leaves you with a satisfied feeling about the overall experience". André Van Renssen from Active Anime and Meek found C to be interesting mainly as an action show. The latter called the Deals "one of the great things about this series", Finnegan called it a "smart show" that has "thoughtful themes about the economy's effect on people's lives". The most positive analysis of the characters was done by Beveridge, who said Kimimaro is a good lead character and Mikuni "gives it that elevated feeling". Van Renssen emphasized how it affected the character designs, saying their drawn counterparts are better, Although Finnegan described it as an "art-house looking series" and the character design as appealing and original, Carroll said the character art is "rather average for most of the cast, the notable exceptions being the Assets"; both Van Renssen and Kimlinger praised the Assets and its powers' diversity. While criticizing the characters, Page commended the anime's backgrounds, especially those of the Financial District. Carroll, on the other hand, lamented the Financial District's lack of structural details, such as windows and doors. Kimlinger praised the artwork and called the series "a flashy, elaborately animated treat for the eyes". Beveridge especially praised the Financial District, saying, "The series works a very good look". One of the aspects that were mostly praised is the series' music. Page said, "One thing I can praise without qualifier is that the background music ... is very good". Van Renssen highlighted the music on summarizing the show's qualities and also praised the opening and ending themes, which Huber called "pretty awesome". The themes were also praised by Carroll, as well as its "moody background music [that] suits the tone of the series well"; he deemed it "an average but solid affair" on the audio aspect. Kimlinger wrote that most of the series' emotions are communicated through "the great Taku Iwasaki's beautiful, moody score". Its sound effects were highlighted by Beveridge because they "drive home its point". ==Notes==