[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – 11 (Finale)

[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control certainly saved the best for last.  That includes animation, action, story, character development, and, well, every aspect of the anime.

C knew that they wanted its final episode, the eleventh one, to be the best of the series.  Often times, many other anime take the same approach but fail to execute their goal and end up with either a rushed or ambiguous product that ends the series with a funny taste.  But C achieved their goal of making the finale the most spectacular, meaningful, and memorable episode of the series.

Let’s start off with the animation, particularly the fighting animation between Kimimaro and Mikuni.  What an amazing animation display that was, showing every fluid motion from running to slashing to falling down in pain while the camera haphazardly flew throughout the Financial District.  Getting everything right there probably took up a majority of the animation budget of this anime but it was all worthwhile, saving the best animation for the best fight in the series.  Both Msyu and Q had great animation during the fight, too, but never to the level of the battle between Kimimaro and Mikuni.  It’s a shame this anime did not have more scenes like this spaced throughout the series because these were must more pleasing to watch than the Assets using their strange abilities to make Entres and Assets bleed black money.

The action, partially dependent on the animation, was ideal in its own respect.  These brawls, unlike most of the previous ones throughout the series, had significant storylines backing them up, facing ideology against ideology.  The Assets fought each other for their master’s principles, too, showing the Asset’s humanized nature for really the first time in a Deal.  In fact, this was the first Deal that had real meaningful dialogue and discussion going while the fighting was still ongoing.  Perhaps that’s what was missing from the previous Deals to help me care about what was going on.  Rather than seeing Entres and Assets fight each other weekly for no just cause, we see these passionate fighters deal and receive these costly blows while arguing that their philosophy will save Japan and the people they both love.  I’m glad there was finally a Deal that I could enjoy.

Another aspect of what made the final episode of C such an engaging one to watch was how the story wrapped up and finally concluded.  Seeing the result of the Financial District and the two most beloved Assets, Msyu and Q, was bittersweet.  The fate of the Assets is appropriate with how the story concluded, with no reset happening where Mikuni meets future Q and Kimimaro meets future Msyu or whatever.  I am more than pleased seeing what happened to Kimimaro and the few others in the future.

Seeing the effect of the devalued yen being replaced by the dollar was an interesting aspect of the story that was included in the end.  The sudden change to another currency not only befuddled Kimimaro in the future but helped me understand what Kimimaro did to save the future.  Pretty much, Kimimaro bought back the future of the country with all the devalued Midas Money, which was oversaturating the yen in the market.  Kimimaro was returning all the loaned money that was traded in for everyone’s future, allowing him to rescue Japan from becoming a forsaken economic wasteland.  And while I’m content with that explanation, I do wonder why the future was used as collateral when the Masakakis of the world were trying to better humanity (might have misinterpreted that, which often happens in episodes like this).  It didn’t seem that the cash they infused into the market helped Japan at all.  There were other issues that remained unclear or unanswered but those trivial matters are never answered fully by any anime to begin with.

And while I touched on the topic of Msyu and Q earlier, I couldn’t be happier with how their characters acted in the finale, how they fought, and how they left the Financial District.  Msyu and Q both fully bought into their master’s ideologies and carried out their wishes more like extensions of their current selves rather than embodiments of their futures.  I had a sinking feeling we’d see Q betray Mikuni after being convinced by Msyu and stepping down but she fought until the end when she began to revert into Takako.  Their fighting was fun to watch, especially since they acted on their own throughout most of the fight.  Msyu did not really highlight any new attacks but showed how powerful she was.  Q had one new attack which froze both Asset and Entre allowing her and Mikuni to virtually do anything to the frozen beings.  That, along with her devastating Cannibalization, leave little doubt into why she was so feared as the strongest Asset in the Financial District.

The final farewell of the Assets was another point I worried about when pondering the end of C.  I was expecting these Assets to reappear sometime in the real world once the futures had been returned to the real world.  But alas, they faded away into whatever matter the Financial District is made up of when it was closing.  It is bittersweet to see them go like that, especially after seeing Msyu kiss Kimimaro (and we never saw their lips in view, which is an extraordinary yet infuriating way to show a kiss) but it felt appropriate and actually provided closure to the Assets.  I would like to have seen some more closure on Mikuni and Kimimaro (Jennifer, too) in the end but they decided to focus on the future that was unlocked rather than seeing what the characters would do in the new world.  Gah, I wish there was more but no, that’s the end of C.

And while I only touched a few topics here, there were many other characteristics that helped make this, easily, the most enjoyable episode of the entire series (and right now, of the entire Spring season).  The voice acting deserves much credit, bringing a level of emotion above the rest of the series, especially for the usually quiet Kimimaro and calm Q.  The music has always been a nice touch to C, especially during this fight, and the insert song near the end helped create a sweeter mood during Kimimaro and Msyu’s farewell.  And the ending did not feel rushed at all, despite a few episodes ago the series turned the story to full-speed ahead after weeks of discovery for both Kimimaro and us.  The one topic I wish they touched on more was regarding Kimimaro’s father, his Asset, his disappearance, and the notebook he left behind that Kimimaro found early on in the series.  But it’s not like that was entirely relevant to anything in the final episode.

C concluded in one of the best finales in recent memory.  Thanks for the fun memories, C.  You won’t be forgotten anytime soon.