Review: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Posted: June 28, 2011 Filed under: Animu, Review, [C] | Tags: [C] 6 Comments
Anime: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Animation Studio: Tatsunoko Productions
Number of Episodes: 11
Length per Episode: Approximately 24 minutes
Alright, it looks like I won’t get all the current reviews planned for today out. I’m leaving for the midnight showing of Transformers with a friend soon, so I don’t have the most amount of time. So here’s the plan: I’m gonna type these up as quickly as possible and get them out without slideshows. Tomorrow, I’ll add the slideshows in (hopefully before my first training session for work, but no promises).
Oh, and this is the part where I’d say, “This review will be a shorter one,” but the last two times I said that they were normal length. So I’m not gonna jinx it. …Or maybe I just did.
Throughout watching [C], I learned quite a few things about it. Mainly about all of the economic references and messages that it had. Now that it’s over, there’s one thing I can definitely say about it.
I have no idea what it was talking about.
This is most likely due to the fact that I’m an idiot, but it also seems like the only people who can get any real messages out of [C] are economics majors/teachers. I’m actually still friends with my high school economics teacher, so maybe I’ll show him [C] at some point and ask what the hell it’s trying to say.
Regardless of this, it doesn’t change the fact that [C] was a pretty awesome ride. I remember watching the ending scene for the 10th episode for the first time. I was nearly shaking with excitement.
…Wow, I really don’t have much to say for [C]. Uhm… well I guess I could say that even though I didn’t get the overall message(s) for the show, I still understood some of the minor ones, such as the whole “offering up your future as collateral” deal.
I guess to sum it up, [C] was just fun to watch. I don’t doubt it has depth, but it’s too deep for me to reach it. It’s not really a “so bad it’s good,” though, it’s just plain entertaining. I mean, urgh, how do I say this? I don’t know, just watch the first one or two episodes of the show, and you’ll know if you want to watch the rest or not.
RATING: 9 out of 10.
Riyoga's Ramblings 
Amen. Whatever happened to just enjoying an anime because it’s fun? It’s not often I get that from an anime anymore, most of them are for kids or teenagers and are so shallow and derivative that I can’t get interested. C managed to fake a more mature mood and more original setting than it probably deserved, but who cares when it was actually fun?
I feel like I would have enjoyed [C] more if I had understood what it was trying to say, but I agree. That’s why I like my slogan of “anime previews and reviews from a guy with no standards whatsoever.” It’s not that I don’t have standards, it’s just that if I find a show enjoyable, I’m gonna give it a good score; that’s all there is to it. Objective critique is only a tiny portion of my scoring.
Riyoga, I really love your reviews. Your writing has this nice flow to it that makes it interesting to read. Though, I would like to make a small suggestion concerning your reviews. Sometimes in your reviews, it’s hard to understand why you gave a certain series such a high score. I know that in [C]’s case, although many questions went unanswered, you personally enjoyed it a lot, but in other reviews that is less clear. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d considering breaking your rating down into parts so that people can see your reasoning behind the final score. For example, you may give the music in [C] a 9/10 because you really enjoyed it, or the art a 7/10 because it was okay, but not fantastic.
Either way, the reviews are awesome. I just thought I’d make a recommendation. Pay it no heed if you wish. :)
I always thought my writing had a nice flow to it, too, but I thought that was just my narcissism speaking. Good to see that wasn’t actually the case, haha.
I thought my flow was always due to me basically giving the finger to my English classes and never wrote mechanically. I always write the way I would talk, but I don’t try to do it that way or anything. At least that’s what I think the reason is.
As for my scores, the only reason I even have scores is, ironically, for what you mentioned. My scores are just meant to show how much I enjoyed the show. When I say “objective critique is only a tiny portion of my scoring,” I mean it’s none of it. The actual review is my objective critique. After all, an objectively bad show can still be very enjoyable.
Though, yes, I do need to do a better job at expressing why I enjoy a show even if it isn’t objectively that good. I’ll try and do a better job of that.
Haha well, you have good grammar and that definitely contributes to the flow of your writing. At the same time, though, you can see where a comma should be grammatically speaking and can remove it when unneeded because it feels unnatural or awkward in actual speech. Your writing is the perfect half-casual, half-analytical that’s fun to read. I am also searching for the perfect balance between casual writing and analysis.
Do you just think ‘oh, this feels like a 9…’ and that becomes the score? I used to do that, and although the scores always came out pretty accurate to the mean version, I started to break the score up into several different scores to make it reflect the different aspects of the show. Nowadays, I break it into: Plot, Music, Ending, Art, Characters, and Personal Enjoyment. Then I add them all together and find the mean. That’s the score I give it in the end. (you probably already know that if you’ve read any of my reviews)
What if you weighted it? Personal Enjoyment could be 85% of the final review, and the other things could all take 5-10%. That would be interesting. Then again, scoring would become a lot more complicated. xD
Yes, I pretty much decide, “I liked the show this much.” (this is where I stretch my hands apart to varying lengths). The problem I have with incorporating objectivity into my score when it doesn’t actually affect my enjoyment is that I end up feeling like I gave a show a score that it didn’t deserve. I could spend an entire post bashing a show but still have enjoyed it, sort of like what I did with Ano Hana.
I think this will become even more obvious once I write up my Deadman Wonderland review.
Plus, I’m just far too lazy to break down scoring into different subsections.