C (TV series)



Set in a financially bankrupt Japan with only the government as a safe employer, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is an anime about economics, finances and beautiful battles over money ending in private insolvency of the loser. In exchange for a prospective borrower's future (including his prospects, possibilities, lifespan etc.), an organization known as Midas Bank will take him on as an Entrepreneur and lend him a large, zero-interest sum of money under the condition that he participate in weekly "Deals"--battles over each participant's money using familiars called "Assets"--against other Entrepreneurs on an alternate plane called the Financial District.

College sophomore Kimimaro Yoga is sucked into the whole affair when he is approached by the alarmingly eccentric Masakaki from Midas Bank's Commercial Division, who offers him a loan as they need a new entrepreneur and Kimimaro needs money. Though he refuses, he is more or less coerced into partaking. Kimimaro quickly piques the interest of and is recruited by Souichirou Mikuni, a powerful and exceedingly wealthy--even by Financial District standards--businessman who leads the Starling Guild, a collective that seeks to minimize any effect the Financial District and its "Midas Money" might inflict on the real world's economy.

The series is directed by Kenji Nakamura, whose previous projects, Mononoke and Trapeze, should be enough to tell you that Mind Screw and mindbogglingly good-looking scenes await those who take this anime on. Broadcasted as part of the NoitaminA block during the Spring 2011 season. It is produced by Tatsunoko Production.

" "
 * Above the Influence: It's made clear in episode 7 that an entre can rape their asset without much difficulty, if they feel like it. Kimimaro ends up sucker-punching the guy in question. And later Msyu asks him to kiss her (she doesn't really understand the implications), and he politely turns her down.
 * Action Prologue: Every episode starts with this trope.
 * Adult Fear: went bankrupt. As a result,
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Yoga has a crush on Hanabi. She has a boyfriend.
 * All There in the Manual: The website gives names and info on Entres and Assets that aren't named in the show.
 * Alien Sky: The Financial District.
 * Shown in the 8th episode to be a different colour in different Financial Districts; whereas the Far Eastern Financial District has a red sky, the Southeast Asian Financial District's sky is green.
 * Alternate Character Reading: The ending theme, "RPG" by School Food Punishment, has "future" (未来) read as "you" (きみ).
 * Alternate Universe:
 * Ambiguously Evil: Mikuni, Takedazaki, and Masakaki.
 * Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The Financial District looks awesome.
 * Anthropomorphic Personification: An "asset" is a representation of a person's future, and has the option of being like this. The "entre" is a representation (from a larger perspective) of a stock in the Financial District. "In the red", futures, bonds, collateral, using collateral to "secure" debt, and everything in the Fridge. These are all common stock market methods of making and securing money. Even as early as Episode 1, you can see the names of people flowing down the trade bars in red (down) and green (up) arrows.
 * The Anti-Nihilist/Nietzsche Wannabe: Somehow, Mikuni manages to embody both at the same time. His ultimate goal, protecting the present at the cost of the future, is because he believes that someday the future will be destroyed regardless of how hard he struggles for it, so he'd rather protect the present, even though he's destroying millions of lives to do so. So he doesn't believe in hope of the value of lives in the future, however at the same time he is fighting for an altruistic (if distorted) goal to protect the lives of people in the present. It....doesn't have a happy ending for him.
 * Apocalypse How: A Class 0, but since a financial collapse in one of the Districts means that
 * Badass Longcoat: Mikuni, although he seems to just drape it around his shoulders without filling the sleeves.
 * Big Badass Wolf: Jennifer's hulking, minibus-sized Asset György.
 * Berserk Button: For Yoga, Msyu getting hurt. Can prove problematic, since it tends to scupper any elaborate strategies he has for a fight.
 * BFS: All Entres can adjust the size and shape of their Direct according to their wealth and ability. Whereas most have a dagger-shaped Direct, Mikuni tends to swing around a blade the size of a small building.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Japan's future is saved as
 * Black Blood: If struck by a Direct, an Entre will bleed a slurry of black oil and cash. Assets that take significant damage also have the oil bit, as well.
 * Body Horror: The asset Yoga and Msyu face off with at the end of episode 5. Yeesh.
 * Q using her Mezzoflation
 * Bolt of Divine Retribution: The "Angel" Flation used by Sennoza's asset, Karma.
 * But Thou Must!: Midas Bank makes you a member and takes your future as collateral, theoretically "if you consent." Kimimaro explicitly does not consent, only to find that Masakaki has somehow spirited him off into a taxi headed for the Financial District.
 * As with many deals with the devil, the Midas Bank is very flexible about what constitutes "agreement". They put the money in Kimimaro's account, when he withdrew some of it, they took that as consenting to the terms of the loan.
 * Central Theme: The "Midas Bank" is really a metaphor for
 * The deals themselves are a smaller-scale representation of the hidden costs of creating new currency. When new ("printed") money is issued to someone/something, it devaluates the currency and everyone else holding the same currency is worse off. Whenever Entres win a deal, they get Midas Money in exchange for making someone else's life worse.
 * Cool House: Mikuni has his house, garden, and pool ON TOP OF A SKYSCRAPER.
 * Cheshire Cat Grin: Masakaki has a particularly worrying one, as does Takedazaki, the Information Broker with the mouthful of gold teeth.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Entres each have a personal color motif. Kimimaro is blue and Mikuni is red.
 * The QR code for one episode tells us that there's a CMYK colour scheme to the ending. Kimimaro is Cyan, Msyu is Magenta and the Financial District is yellow. It goes on to say that if you combine the three you get black which is the future.
 * The "black" here is significant: the old stock market saying "in the black" means that the person/company/stock is making money. Of course, black can also mean greed, corruption, etc. On the same note, the stock market saying "in the red" is the opposite: the person/company/stock is losing money. Now which area had the red sky?
 * Also in the same episode Jeniffer has three burgers wrapped in Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. She offers the yellow one to Kimimaro. Eat the Financial District?
 * That may also have a double meaning: A "blue chip" stock in the stock market is a stock that is notably well-reliable. Considering that magenta and cyan create blue when combined...
 * Conspicuous CG: Even human characters relatively close to the camera will be utilizing it, it seems.
 * Masakaki especially, in-keeping with his uncanny appearance.
 * Contemplate Our Navels: Lots of it, but Episode 7 is absolutely stuffed with this, to the point of being filler.
 * The Corrupter: Masakaki's initial M.O. is an attempt to get Kimimaro to take the loan with the possibilities inherent in all that money. It's not really necessary, though.
 * Cosmic Horror Story: What the series is shaping up to be with Episodes 8 and 9.
 * Counterfeit Cash: Midas Money, which appears perfectly identical to normal cash to non-Entres.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Masakaki has yellow and lavender eyes; the latter match his hair. His equivalent in the Southeast Asian District has turquoise hair, and his eyes are half turquoise to match.
 * The Danza: Shimada is played by Bin Shimada.
 * Dead Little Sister: Souichirou hints that this is what happened to his seriously ill sister Takako after their father spent all his money on his company instead of using it to cure her of her illness. Episode 7 reveals that she's not dead, but is merely in a coma.
 * Deal with the Devil: Midas Bank offers to invest in you or, more specifically, your future. They give you a bit of startup capital and then throw you into the deep end of what amounts to a basic futures contract - you agree to give away something (in this case, your future) for a fixed sum right now.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: After Kimimaro defeated him,,   has become a valuable advisor when it comes to handling the Deals and the consequences thereof.
 * Design Student's Orgasm: The Financial District and both credits sequences.
 * Deus Ex Machina: In episode 10 you learn that Mikuni has a special card that lets him spin the Midas Money rotisserie and  in order to produce massive amounts of Midas Money. When the heroes can't   with virtually no explanation, the "higher ups" decide to   thus giving him a fighting chance.
 * Fridge Brilliance: The financial district (and Masakaki in particular) doesn't actually want Mikuni to mortgage the country's entire future. They're in the business of loans, and loans have to be repaid to be worth anything -- someone like Mikuni who completely stops caring about the future is a bad investment.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything? : Buying government bonds and bailing out companies with money created out of thin air ?
 * Masakaki?
 * Easy loans backed by collateral?
 * Q is eating money. That's...paradoxical.
 * Driven to Suicide: Makita jumps in front of a train after losing to Mikuni.
 * Eldritch Abomination:
 * Eldritch Location: The Financial District, sooooo very much so.
 * Eleven Episode Anime
 * Evil Laugh:
 * The Southeast Asian Masakaki as
 * Masakaki as he operates the Midas Money rotary press in in Episode 9.
 * Eyes of Gold: Entres' eyes become gold when they deal or when they watch a deal.
 * Familiar: It appears that given the series' Deal with the Devil premise, this is what Assets essentially are.
 * Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Msyu, Msyu, Msyu. Msyu is Yours, indeed.
 * Bare Your Midriff
 * Cute Monster Girl
 * Femme Fatalons
 * Lady in Red
 * Stripperiffic: Played with, if you can believe that. She's not wearing much beyond her bra and miniskirt, but she's also got lots of red markings on her body.
 * Tsundere: Msyu is a classic Type A.
 * Zettai Ryouki: Grade B, almost qualifying for Grade S. She doesn't wear stockings, but her humanoid legs do the job.
 * Fiction 500: Mikuni is so rich that:
 * The only reason Japan stays afloat is because Mikuni is buying enough government bonds to stop the country's collapse
 * He buys the real-world trillion-yen corporations of failing Entres to keep them from crashing.
 * In episode 9, ].
 * To be fair, most of that was payed for by money from Guild members or his Rotary Press loan, rather than being a feat of his personal fortune.
 * Foreshadowing: Whenever we see Q, she is eating Midas Money. We find out later that
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: There are two blink-and-you'll-miss-it QR codes in the ED. The first one in the first episode basically amounts to "the ED was made in Adobe AfterEffects, which is awesome, and everybody should show us the videos they've made themselves with it". The second states that the anime was planned to be titled Control but was shortened to C when they found out that a show with a similar title would be on the air at the same time.
 * It changes every episode adding some sort of director commentary to each episode.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Msyu's introduction involves punching and slapping Kimimaro quite a bit until he gets with the program.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom/Red Eyes, Take Warning: Q sports them when she enters the fray.
 * Gold Digger: Masakaki implies that Hanabi is one; if Kimimaro has enough money, maybe he can win her away from her current boyfriend. No evidence as to whether this is true.
 * Gold Tooth: Despite being one of the least ostentatious Entres otherwise, Takedazaki has a full set.
 * Gorn/Darker and Edgier: It starts getting darker around Episode 5, and then the fights start having lots of Black Blood. Earlier fights, in comparison, usually have somewhere close to Gory Discretion Shot. The Angel fight (Episode 6) is where the series goes full overdrive, and completely averts discretion.
 * Half the Man He Used To Be: Happens to after the duel with.
 * Mikuni cuts vertically at the climax of their deal but he survives as he doesn't get bankrupted.
 * Horned Humanoid: All Assets have horns of some description. Some Assets are humanoid. Do the maths.
 * Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Jennifer Sato.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Souichirou Mikuni and his asset Q. He's quite a bit taller than the protagonist of the series and Q is a short, elfin girl. Meeting together her face is stuck right in his stomach, antlers not even reaching his shoulders.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: They all start with "C."
 * This also applies to the Japanese titles, except for the final episode, which has "未来" (Future).
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Kimimaro says this verbatim.
 * I'm a Humanitarian:
 * Improbable Weapon/Laser Blade: Money as ammo and weapons!
 * Incest Subtext:
 * Information Broker: Takedazaki.
 * Invocation: Each Asset's attacks and the scale of attack (Macro/Mezzo/Micro) are activated this way.
 * Jump Cut: They appear frequently; a director trademark.
 * Kill It with Fire: Msyu
 * Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: An Entre can "treat [his Asset] like a human, If You Know What I Mean if you know what I mean]]." Kimimaro is not thrilled with the guy who makes the suggestion.
 * Laser Blade: Made of cash!
 * Last Kiss:
 * Layered World: Even if someone doesn't fully lose a Deal; it affects the Real World. Losing a deal can result in financial problems, or a company having to lay off people. Or in ways not anything to do with money like failing a class or having a house set on fire.
 * Light Is Not Good: Kou Sennoza is a wealthy philanthropist who distributes vaccines all over the third world. His rage is also something to behold, and he wields the Asset Karma, a nightmarish angel who attacks with lightning strikes.
 * Like Brother and Sister: In the site's mini-drama/monologues, it's stated that Hanabi has known Kimimaro since high school and views him as a brother and someone to take care of.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower: The left half of Kimimaro's opponent's Asset at the end of episode 5 erupts into a mess of sticky insect limbs.
 * Love Triangle: Kimimaro has a crush on his classmate Hanabi, who already has a boyfriend.
 * Not that Msyu or Jennifer really help this situation either.
 * Magical Girlfriend: Msyu Is Yours.
 * Market-Based Title: Funimation changed the subtitle slightly from The Money of Soul and Possibility to The Money and Soul of Possibility.
 * Marshmallow Hell: Jennifer applies one to Yoga.
 * Messianic Archetype:
 * Mind Screw: To quote the first post of our very own forums: "What the hell did I just watch?"
 * Moe Anthropomorphism: Of the protagonist's future. They've managed to moe-ify an abstract concept.
 * Money to Throw Away: A convenience store customer complains that Kimimaro is not giving him the change he wants. Mikuni gives 50 000 Yen to shut him up.
 * Kimimaro does this in episode 8
 * We also have Q, who is literally eating money.
 * Finally,
 * Ms. Fanservice: Jennifer and Msyu.
 * Mons: They're called "Assets."
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: The Midas Bank. Gee, what are the odds on a loan from them having unpleasant, unexpected outcomes?
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In episode 6, Kimimaro faces Sennoza, a philanthropist who greatly helped the third world. He defeats him soundly, reversing almost all of Sennoza's work.
 * Non-Standard Character Design: Masakaki looks weird even in comparison to the other supernatural beings.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Masakaki, naturally.
 * Jennifer as well, it would seem.
 * Not So Different: In episode 9, Jennifer implies this about
 * Number of the Beast: Used repeatedly.
 * Naoya Makita, the salaryman in the first episode, uses a PIN of 666 to access the Financial District's services.
 * In episode 1, it shows that the taxi fare to the Finacial District is 666 yen.
 * Deals have a time limit of 666 seconds.
 * Off-Model: Sadly, for all the amazing work that went into the backgrounds, the characters have a small tendency to lapse into this. Stranger still when suddenly CG is substituted for traditional animation for the characters.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: episode 6 has Kimimaro fighting a truly strong opponent with an Asset that shoots lightning, after almost losing within the first few seconds, it cuts to the real world, showing the aftereffect and stating that he won.
 * Offscreen Teleportation: Masakaki makes a bad habit of it.
 * Old Master: Kikusho - an old CEO and Black Card Entre in a Financial District full of young people.
 * One-Woman Wail:
 * Used when Kimimaro's teacher
 * Also used when Msyu is damaged to the point of near-death during the battle with Sennoza.
 * And the end of Episode 8, during the.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Given the abstract, symbolic nature of Deals, dismemberment, evisceration, and even being cut in half are not going to kill you, and they might not even knock you out of the match if you have enough money backing you up.
 * Palette Swap: Masakaki and the other Districts' Midas Bank reps are simply recolors of each other.
 * Parental Abandonment: Kimimaro's father left and his mother died. He's supported by his maternal grandmother.
 * Perpetual Smiler: Masakaki.
 * Power At a Price: Well, it doesn't get any more literal than "it costs money to use your Asset's powers," does it?
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child: Midas Money is backed by the mortgaged futures of the Entres.
 * Precocious Crush:
 * Ret-Gone: Bankruptcy means that you lose your future - or, more specifically, anything that Midas Money made possible for you. This can include shops, possessions, and even children. This then gets even more ridiculous in episode 8
 * As a market reaches its dying days, even people and businesses not directly related to specific Entres begin to disappear in the blink of an eye. One minute a person exists, a second later nobody remembers they even existed. This results in whoever isn't claimed by a bankruptcy ending up listless and confused, not knowing why they were there when whoever they came with no longer exists.
 * Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Whenever the movement of money causes something to disappear, only Entres will remember the way things were before the change.
 * Sanity Slippage:
 * Ship Tease: The conversation between Sato and Yoga ends with quite a bit. "I like your eyes", indeed.
 * Robo ShipTease: Kimimaro and Msyu.
 * Q and Msyu?
 * Signature Style: Mind screwy plot events and trippy, extravagant visuals? Sounds like a Kenji Nakamura anime, all right.
 * Spats Shot: Msyu, flying around in that skirt, gets an upskirt shot whenever the camera feels like it.
 * Spell My Name with an "S":
 * Some viewers are split between Mashu/Msyu.
 * Her name is spelled "Msyu" (as shown when it is written on Kimimaro's credit card in English in the very first episode) but it is pronounced "Mashu".
 * This has to do with Msyu being a transliteration of マシュ, which when transliterated for Westerners (more for pronunciation) is frequently done as Mashu, but when transliterated for Japanese speakers (more for relation to the characters in use) can be Masyu. Just add an "a" to Msyu (seeing as Japanese basically, except for n, does not have double consonants), and you get the pronunciation. Easy for those who are fluent, confusing as hell for those who need subtitles.
 * It gets worse. The name of Sato's asset György is apparently spelled "WWJF".
 * The four-letter codes on the cards don't reflect the name of the asset. Kimimaro simply named his asset after the code on his card.
 * Spoiler Opening: It's very vague, but it dictates what happens . Worldwide currency, falling money which transitions to the US Dollar , the four kinds of cards , and the finale between Kimimaro and Mikuni.
 * Stay with the Aliens:
 * Stepford Smiler:
 * Summon Magic: Negotiations involve summoning familiars called Assets to fight alongside you. Unlike some forms of Summon Magic, Entres (the summoners) are fully expected to fight alongside their Assets; it's not just Asset on Asset. Which means that it's possible to penetrate an opponent's defenses by bypassing the enemy Asset and going straight for the Entre.
 * Surprisingly Good English: ATMs and Negotiations use English. Jennifer's boss at the International Monetary Fund is also voiced by a native English speaker, though Jennifer is not (since that character is not a bit part, most of her lines are in Japanese).
 * Gratuitous English: Said negotiations use business lingo as Invocation of their attacks, most which only makes sense in context. Jennifer Sato also spoke English in this manner in Episode 3.
 * Episodes 9 and 10 have fairly long conversations in English that, while not perfect, is pretty damn good for anime standards.
 * Sweet Tooth: Most of time, Jennifer appears eating a lollipop or fast food
 * Take Our Word for It: All we get to see of Kimimaro's fight with Sennoza is Msyu getting beaten within an inch of her life. Somehow, Kimimaro wins, but we don't get to see.
 * Talking the Monster to Death:
 * Take Up My Sword:
 * Technicolor Eyes:
 * Entres in the Financial District can change their eye color to gold, with concentric black circles.
 * Masakaki has white pupils and two concentric irises in lavender and yellow. His Southeast Asian equivalent has similar eyes, but with turquoise inner irises.
 * Technicolor Fire: Midas Money burns bright indigo and violet.
 * Title Drop: Mikuni refers to some kind of event called "C" in episode 8, which is later explained to be the chain reaction caused by a Financial District's collapse. This may only partly be a case of a Title Drop, since the title's "C" stands for "Control", but the chain reaction C appears to stand for something else.
 * The Determinator: Yoga.
 * The Masquerade: Of a sort. "There is no code of silence, but most wouldn't believe you, so I recommend silence." They don't seem to care if the whole world knows, it's just that the Financial District and its activities don't leave much believable evidence.
 * The Vamp: Jennifer's recruitment pitch to Kimimaro was delivered while on top of him. This could be her vamping him...or it could just be lust, we don't know yet.
 * Throwaway Country:
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Instant shoyu ramen for Msyu. This is unusual, as Assets do not actually require food; Msyu starts asking for them after seeing Kimimaro eating a bowl and expresses interest in the concept of food. Meanwhile, Q's is Midas money, which Mikuni actually leaves in wine glasses for her.
 * Waistcoat of Style: Mikuni wears one.
 * We Can Rule Together: A variant. Mikuni's original reasoning for having Oga join the Starling Guild is because Oga is one of the few in the Financial District who isn't actually obsessed with money and also doesn't want his opponents to have to deal with the deep repercussions that come from large losses in deals. These factors are what convince Mikuni to begin grooming Oga to be his successor.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mikuni is willing to sacrifice any number of potential futures in order to preserve the present.
 * Wham! Episode: Episode 8. Dear god Episode 8.
 * Episode 9.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Financial negotiations played out as extravagant, complex duels in an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.
 * Woman in Black: Jennifer.
 * Workaholic: Kimimaro at the start of the series. The Financial District offers him... alternatives.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The beings in charge of the Financial Districts put it best:
 * Wham! Episode: Episode 8. Dear god Episode 8.
 * Episode 9.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Financial negotiations played out as extravagant, complex duels in an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield.
 * Woman in Black: Jennifer.
 * Workaholic: Kimimaro at the start of the series. The Financial District offers him... alternatives.
 * Xanatos Gambit: The beings in charge of the Financial Districts put it best:
 * Xanatos Gambit: The beings in charge of the Financial Districts put it best:


 * X Meets Y: Puella Magi Madoka Magica meets The Inside Job meets Shin Megami Tensei all written by some drunk and LSD-laced stock broker.
 * More like Puella Magi Madoka Magica meets the stock market. Oh, great more Black Boxes.
 * Shin Megami Tensei meets Spice and Wolf?
 * Pokémon with credit cards.
 * Bleach with the afterlife replaced by economics.
 * Eden of the East meets Yu-Gi-Oh!.
 * CARDGAMES ON ECONOMICS! It is actually "money" instead of "economics", but who cares?
 * Warren Buffet's Fate/stay night.
 * Stock Market and International Economics...meets H.P. Lovecraft.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair:
 * Masakaki has lavender hair. His Southeast Asian equivalent has turquoise hair.
 * Q's hair is dark blue.
 * Hanabi has purple hair.
 * Jennifer Sato is a White-Haired Pretty Girl.
 * You Taste Delicious: