The two spring ’11 Noitamina anime (with unnecessarily long names) – [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control and Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai – have recently come to an end. With only eleven episodes each, how did they fare? Let’s take a look…
[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Reading a brief summary of what [C] is about is what got me interested in watching it. And for a while it looked like it had a lot of potential – a solid, sympathetic protagonist in Kimimaro and a unique concept of battles for the sake of finance in a wonderland-like setting called the Financial District. Sprinkled within the “battling monsters” theme of the superpowered assets and the economics-laden plot, is a universal, striking message about the evils of money and the morality of how one chooses to wield the power bestowed by wealth. So with a concept that’s so easy to relate to, presented in a unique way, why was I disappointed by the end of [C]?
My main beef with [C] is that it simply failed to explain important plot points and left too many things open ended. I don’t mind if a series wants to leave things up to the viewer’s imagination, but there’s a difference between that and not explaining very important things. One of the major examples is the background of the Financial District itself; how does it have such incredible power to alter time and space and take people’s futures away? There must be some psychic or time-traveling powers involved if the system knows what a person’s future will be, and god-like powers involved if it’s able to change that future. Where did such power come from? Is a single person controlling it? Is it Masakaki (what is he anyway?) And for lesser unexplained things, I found it difficult to follow the battles between the assets. Nothing much was explained about how the battles worked and what the rules were other than the loser losing their money. They were cool to look at, but just seemed to be all over the place with all these random attacks and economics Engrish words thrown around. And did we even get to see how Mashu is related to Kimimaro’s future in the end? (maybe it would have helped if they explained more about what assets are to begin with other than just taking the form of their entre’s future).
But…other than lack of explanations, I enjoyed some things in [C] nonetheless. The first half of the series was good (before you realized that they’re not gonna give you the answers you want). The OP and ED have trippy animation and great songs. The design of the Financial District is very cool, as are the individualized designs of the assets. Episode 7 is my personal favorite and shows the series at its best – emotionally gripping background given to Mikuni and development for Kimimaro and Mashu’s relationship all in one episode. Unfortunately, soon after that the plot moves faster than exposition can keep up before we get to the noticeably abrupt ending.
So all in all, there was just too much left unexplained in [C] for me to give it a high rating. It’s not that the story, characters, or aesthetics were bad – it’s just that I had a question mark over my head the whole time I was watching that got bigger by the end rather than smaller. Maybe Noitanima’s eleven episode limit is solely to blame and my questions would have been answered if they didn’t have to wrap up the series so quickly. I believe it’s a case of having a great premise but executing it poorly.
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Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai
Going the opposite route from the action/sci-fi of [C], we have the melodrama of AnoHana. Like [C], I was drawn to AnoHana by reading a brief summary about it. Such a simple, sweet-sounding story about a group of friends being brought back together by the lingering ghost of one of them sounded like a very down-to-earth, character-driven show filled with tears and bittersweet smiles. And for the most part, that’s just what AnoHana gave me.
I’ll admit that the first few minutes of the first episode turned me off a bit. Menma was insufferably cutesy and her relationship with Jinta just seemed too cliche. But once Menma’s identity as a ghost becomes emphasized, and the other characters along with their emotional baggage are introduced, I started to enjoy it a lot more. The fact that AnoHana has the same creators as the Toradora! anime really shows with its complex relationships between the group of main characters and their gut-wrenching angst in trying to mend those relationships.
I don’t think the eleven episode limit hindered AnoHana too much since it has a simple story and a single group of characters to focus on. I don’t feel that individualized development for the characters was necessary because the story is solely about their relationships with each other and Menma. But maybe a little more development for the relationships between the characters, especially in their younger days (and I don’t think Poppo got enough characterization) would have been nice, but not totally necessary. My only complaint about the series is, yes, the angst and melodrama does go over the top sometimes, especially in the final episode. But if you take it with a grain of salt, those are the feelings the show is trying to bring out. I think it does a decent job of it, but of course such melodrama an acquired taste.
To conclude, I enjoyed AnoHana very much. I’d also like to mention that it has a great OP and ED. The OP is a very gentle, relaxing song that still keeps a good beat and has visuals that perfectly convey what the show is about. And the ED is beautifully visually and audibly (I also like how the next episode preview is merged with the ED). Few anime make me cry, but AnoHana did, especially the scene in the finale where they all read the notes that Menma had written to each of them with the last of her strength. Anime scenes like that are golden. If you can forgive the angst getting carried away at times, it’s a great slice-of-life drama sure to bring out emotions in just about anyone.
[C] disappointed me. It needed more episodes. What was the point of even bringing up that past Mysu clone/doppelganger/whatever anyway? Both themes for [C] were a bore for me though. Typical J-rock snoozefest :(
http://aimless-anime.livejournal.com/18628.html
On the contrary, Ano Hana made me ridiculously happy. No second was wasted, and everything was consistent and well written. Though yeah, Poppo definitely didn’t get enough screentime as he should’ve. Great show, though I’m not sure if I’ll be rewatching it anytime soon. http://aimless-anime.livejournal.com/18212.html
Great reviews as always :)
I actually like both themes for [C], especially the ending “RPG.” But yeah, I agree that the relationship between Kimimaro and Mashu should have been explored more or just not emphasized so much.
I guess the reason Poppo was ignored was because he wasn’t caught in any of the love triangles between the other five. He should have gotten more emotional development because it just made his angst-ridden outbursts in the last episode seem a bit out of place. But yeah, despite its flaws, AnoHana is a good show that accomplished what it set out to do.
I haven’t watched [C] so i can comment on that.
However, I loved Ano Hana. Even with the angst. I think that the interpersonal strife between the members of the group gave it that extra pop to keep you hooked.
I admit the ending episode seemed a tad rushed and a bit crazy with the emotions at the beginning of episode eleven. Mind I didn’t think it was nearly as bad as some thought. I put it in the context that what was happening was that everyone was so focused on the one event that happened earlier and the effects of that brought them to that point. That scene needed to be done for the final ending to take place. It could have been handled a bit better and slower. But I didn’t have any problem with it. (trying to be vague and not give stuff away)
The final scene was pure gold. I have to admit I couldn’t hold my emotions in check. It was such a tear jerking moment.
It’s a series where I felt it was such an emotional rollercoaster. But the end left you with a sense of closure and happiness.
Yes, AnoHana managed to bring out a lot of emotions – sadness, longing, regret, nostalgia, misunderstandings, and finally ending with a bittersweet acceptance. There was a lot of angst, but that’s just what the show is about so it didn’t seem strained or anything. If you’re willing to just let your emotions run freely, you should like AnoHana =)
Completely agree. I had not read anything about C, so when it started, it looked like a pokemon-like anime, but with money. Then it became pretty interesting, since the stakes were personal futures, and even the future of the country itself! The it ended in complete confusion. What happened to the future of the country? how come it was given back when the financial district collapsed? Why was the currency dollarized? where does the financial district come from? who is behind it? What’s that tentacle monster that controls the money press? What happened to Mashu? just too many questions left unanswered. It could have been good though, it had a good premise.
AnoHana on the other hand was beautiful! Even for 11 episodes, they were able to develop all characters pretty well. They all had their flaws, their strengths. Even the main character had a lot of issues. Menme was pretty childish, but considering she had been frozen in a way when she died, I think it fit pretty well. Overall, I loved it! and I also cried. The ending was very heavy emotionally, but still made sense. I have to agree that the OP and ED were simply top notch. I watched them every single episode. Very nice indeed.
Let’s hope next season we get more anime like AnoHana, and a bit less like C (or C with more explanations at least).
I had all those questions about [C] too, especially who/what is behind the Financial District and its ability to alter people’s futures, even that of the entire world. They just opened up too many subplots in that show, and while they were interesting, failure to explain them adequately really brought the series down.
That’s actually the reason I didn’t find Menma too annoying. She died when she was elementary school-aged, and even though her ghost looks about the same age as Jinta and the others, she was never able to “grow-up” to that age. So you can’t blame her for still acting like a child =P
Here’s my attempt to answer some questions using way too much text :)
-What happened to the future of the country itself? How come it was given back when the financial district collapsed?-
The future of the country was largely taken as collateral by The Financial District. Not the entirety of everyone’s future, mind you, as not everyone in Japan was an Entré, but seeing as people are interconnected, even the futures of non-Entrés were collected as PARTS of the Entrés’ futures.
When The Far East Financial District Collapsed, it had to give back everything that it still held as collateral. Here’s my main theory on how this could lead to the radically different world pictured at the end. As an Entré battles, what they have in the present changes, and thus their future will be changed as well. Thus, the nature of the collateral that was taken from them will have changed by the time they get it back. In other words, the Entrés took out a loan against their future, and between the start of the loan and the closing, they may have lost or gained money, but either way, the worth of the assets the Entrés give back to The Financial District is different at the end, so the amount and type of the collateral being returned is different. Also, since the ‘deals’ have been happening for some time, much of the Entrés’ futures has already become the present or the past, and so when cashing in the Entrés’ chips, the present and past had to change as well. So, while the future of Japan and its citizens was ‘given back’, it is most likely a different future than what would have occurred without The Financial District’s existence. In other words, the future wasn’t given back at all, just the worth of that future at the time of the District’s collapse.
-Why was the currency dollarized?-
Theory: this is somehow affected by Kimimaro’s decision to deflate both the yen and the black currency by “reversing the spinning press”. Would this have any effect on the world that exists after the collapse of The Financial District, though? If my above theory is correct and the post-collapse world isn’t actually the world as it would have been without The Financial District, then yes, the yen and the black currency would still be severely deflated.
-Where does the financial district come from? Who is behind it?-
This is supposed to be largely up to the viewers to interpret. Much like the fairy realms of Scottish folklore, I believe that supernatural dimensions are much more interesting because we don’t understand how they work or why they exist.
Here’s my guesses, though. For most of the show, I was under the assumption that Satan was supposed to be the mastermind behind the financial district, and the Masakakis were demon henchmen. My biggest gripe with the show was how they introduced Masakaki’s boss at the end (well, I’m assuming that’s who he was). He didn’t seem very devil-like. Perhaps this means the God and Satan are supposed to be the same being? Or maybe that WAS Lucifer … he was an angel after all, so it may not be a surprise for him to look angelic. Or am I wrong to even be interpreting this through Christian symbolism in the first place?
-What happened to Mashu?-
She represented Kimimaro’s future; when The Financial District collapsed, the assets that the Entrés had received in exchange for their future were returned. Perhaps she’s his wife, his daughter, a distant descendant, or just someone he’ll randomly help on the street one day. Perhaps she isn’t a real person at all, and the entirety of Kimimaro’s future just happened to take on a somewhat human form while following arcane rules we don’t know about. Perhaps since she was Kimimaro’s father’s asset, she’s really Kimimaro’s sister. The thing is, since we cannot know what the future will bring, we cannot understand what Mashu really was. Perhaps someday Kimimaro will look back at his life, once it has become the past, and he’ll know the answer.
AnoHana’s 11 episode runtime was just right and any more would have ruined the whole episode.
I think it would have been okay for 12 or 13 episodes – one episode to develop Poppo more and perhaps another one to delve more into the relationships between our six heroes when they were kids. But yeah, eleven episodes was fine too =)
Weird, I just recently got into and finished AnoHana and [C] and wrote my own views of AnoHana on my Tumblr blog.
I like AnoHana better than [C]. I will simply put it as, AnoHana used it’s time wisely and fleshed out what it needed to flesh out. [C] could have used more episodes and as such could use more time to flesh out what it needed. In the end [C] feels rushed.
I also would like to comment that the CG work in [C] made me cringe. It was so very noticeable it hurt. It also seemed choppy compared to the 2D animations.
Right, [C] was just too complex of a series to successfully tell its story in eleven episodes without feeling rushed. AnoHana had a much simpler story that went well with few episodes.
I didn’t mind the actual CG of the Financial District in [C], just when the characters would suddenly get rendered in CG. It really did look out of place =/
An epilogue wouldn’t be out of place in [C], I think. Agreed that it left way too much open ended for its own good, or just didn’t pay enough attention to certain things for them to feel like they mattered much (The existence of Masakaki and the whole affair with Hanabi, respectively).
Ano Hana was overall very good, but a little too heavy on the crying in some places. Not that I can’t handle anime crying, of course, but when it practically takes up half of the last episode coupled with all the dramatic shouting… I think that’s going a bit too far. While it was understated, Ano Hana was good. When it wasn’t, it didn’t work as a drama for me.
I wanted to know more about Masakaki too…but really, I just wanted to know more about the Financial District and how it has the power it does. That was just too important for the series to be so vague about.
I agree that the crying and gut-wrenching shouting in the final episode of AnoHana was over the top. Even though I found myself tearing up, and I also thought it was a bit ridiculous. I guess it’s just one of those shows were you have to let yourself go as far as allowing your emotions to take over ’cause if you try to be too critical of a series like this, you’re bound to find such angst laughable.
I put the shouting and stuff in the context that they we’re acting like 7 year-olds again. I think that’s what the Animation team were striving for. They even tried to illustrate that “childhood” tone even further with the semi-flashback moment with the group in the final scene.
I did try to let myself go. But I found myself checking how much time was left, and it was going by at an agonizing pace. So I just got bored and listened to all the bitching and whining, and it just didn’t sink in properly.
But good on Cirris for that idea. Even then, it doesn’t make it any less ridiculous that they all cheered up because Anjou’s eyelashes were falling off.
I enjoyed both anime. I agreed that both should have 1 or 3 more episodes to resolve some of the issues. But as for Ano Hana, I’m quite satisfied with 11 episodes if only it didn’t focus so much on hatred and jealousy. I believe they should’ve used those time into exploring something else.
Nevertheless, these are highly entertaining shows and I don’t regret watching them.
So I picked up [C] on a whim after glancing though some of this last seasons titles. I saw the title for this and it caught my interest, then the summery sounded interesting as well. After marathoning though all 11 episodes today out of boredom, my verdict:
Great ideas, poor execution.
There was alot of potential with [C], but like you said they left alot unexplained. They should have really had more episodes. It was still alot of fun to watch overal, and I especially loved the animation and soundtrack (i’m read to DL it when it hits the net).
I’m also glad it didn’t get too much into one cliche which I have seen far too many times in series like this. At that one point when Mashu was asking Kimimaro what a kiss was, I was pointing to the screen going “Don’t you DARE pull that cliche!” Do they seriously need to pull that in almost every series? Where the main characters from separate worlds end up having some kind of romance subplot? Half the time it works, other times its unnecessary…here its unnecessary.
Oh, and am I the only one when they first saw Masakaki they instantly thought of Johnny Depp? (Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be exact, and perhaps even the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland mixed in)…the resemblance is really something.
As for Ano Hana, I didn’t read what you wrote (as I’m worried about possible spoilers), but I’ve been eyeing this one for a while now due to the hype surrounding it and good things i’ve heard. I plan to check this one one next time i’m up for a drama.
Since I just watched Episode 1 of [C] I can’t really comment on it.
But I watched Ano Hana and I liked it a lot. In the beginning I was confused, because Menma was there so suddenly and I couldn’t tell what was happening. But later on everything was revealed and I got really attached to the series. I liked especially the last episode and it also made me cry a lot. I just love that kind of endings.
There was just one thing I didn’t like much in the Anime. It was the relation between the characters. It was a somewhat weird relation, a bit overdone. Tsuruko loving Yukiatsu, Yukiatsu being attracted to Anaru (so it seemed to me), Anarau loving Jintan, and Jintan loving Menma. The only one left behing was Poppo, and as you already said he didn’t get enoguh characterization. That’s the only thing I personally have to critize. But all in all I really liked the Anime.