It’s the second week of major exams, which means meeting attendance is cut in half.  For those with nothing better to do on a Wednesday night, CSMAC (CSM Anime Club to the rest of you) is here to reward your slacker ways.  Join me now for a long, long critique of this week’s anime.  Grab a snack.

[C] 3 – 4

Episode 3 is narrated through the perspective of Jennifer Sato, a beginner Entré and agent of the International Monetary Fund.  She is also the first IMF agent to become an Entré.

When she isn’t eating (and even while she is), Sato is investigating everything she can about the Financial District, which turns up some interesting findings.

Also under investigation is Souichirou Mikuni, who is believed to be the most powerful man in all of the Far Eastern Financial District (Japan’s District).  How powerful is he?  Aside from having a mansion, garden, and pool atop a skyscraper, he also carries a slew of titles, including consultant to the Ministry of Finance.

During this investigation, it is revealed that Mikuni is actively investing Midas Money into the Japanese economy.  However, strange things also seem to be happening in everyday life.

She regularly reports back everything that she sees (in pro ENGRISH), but her superiors believe that stopping the flow of Midas Money into reality could have negative consequences to the global economy.  So, like any good modern leaders, they “cautiously” do nothing but monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, Kimimaro heads to his aunt’s house in the country to find out more about his missing father.  While going through some of his father’s things, he finds a small notebook filled with numbers and a single word: “MIDAS.”

We learn more about the nature of Deals and their rules.  If an Entré goes Bankrupt, they are banished from the District.  Even worse, going Bankrupt means that the Entré has squandered his very future.  What does that mean?  Well, the answer is as vague as the phrase suggests.

Kimimaro heads straight to the District to confront Masakaki about his father, but of course, Masakaki feigns ignorance.  Fortunately, Mikuni directs Kimimaro to someone who makes it his business to know about other Entrés: a man who I will from now on refer to as “The Info Broker.”

From him, Kimimaro learns that his father was a strong Entré, but also obsessed with money, even earning the nickname “The Niggard.”  However, he one day went Bankrupt and hung himself from a pole in the park.  Mikuni then tells Kimimaro that they are both very similar, although Mikuni’s father was selfish, while Kimimaro’s father was selfless.  Kimimaro then remembers seeing a picture of his father holding a baby boy in the book, which gives him a small change of heart.  At this point, Mikuni makes a speech about making money only for oneself and making money in order to improve the lives of others.  Either way, Kimimaro must continue to make Deals.

Episode 4 begins with Kimimaro facing off in his second Deal, with none other than his Economics professor, Mr. Ebara (small world, right?).  This part is juxtaposed with a recent flashback of Kimimaro’s (girl)friend Hanabi talking with Ebara’s wife, who is pregnant with their third child.  In the Deal, Kimimaro is on the ropes until MSYU utilizes a new rule: stock exchange.  Mikuni buys in, and Kimimaro ends up winning the match.  Ebara argues with Masakaki, but he (cheerfully) informs the instructor that the trade of stocks is legal during a Deal.

Unfortunately, this means that Ebara has gone Bankrupt, which affects more than just the Entré.  While later talking with Mr. Ebara, Kimimaro comes to realize that Ebara’s children (even the unborn one) have been erased.  His future as a father is gone.

Ebara goes on to mention the Starling Guild, an organization within the District that is controlled by Mikuni.  The guild basically functions as a union, seeking to stabilize the flow of Midas Money (and theoretically minimize the number of Entrés that would go Bankrupt).  The guild is also gaining power, already controlling 30% of the Far Eastern District.

Later in the District, Mikuni invites Kimimaro to witness one of his Deals.  Mikuni wins, but Kimimaro remains hesitant about his direction.  Mikuni then tells him to actively control the Deals, and that doing so would allow him to not lose while minimizing the Deals’ effect on reality.  Kimimaro agrees.

These episodes seem like they throw a lot at you, but they also provide a very solid base for the characters and the world of [C].  The only problem is that the main protagonist has yet to develop much of a character at all.

As such, the series seems like it’s going to flow around him, which I’d prefer seeing less of.  Still, the characters keep me very interested in seeing where the story takes me.

The animation style continues to occasionally drop off a cliff, but only during non-essential dialogue scenes and only with character designs.  It’s as though the animators sporadically get tired of drawing the characters’ actions and replace it with pure C.G. work.  That gets annoying from time to time, but ultimately it doesn’t completely distract me from the story.

One big thing that I’ve noticed lately is the animation occasionally skips chunks of frames.  It’s a particularly jarring effect if you’re watching the show closely because it happens so suddenly and sporadically.  I might complain that this is another trade-off for having such intense background art, but for now, I’ll give the show the benefit of a doubt and say that it’s unique to the show’s style.

I do happen to like how [C] tells its story.  It presents what we (the audience) perceive as the main story while subtly adding points here and there to augment and refocusing the story.  In particular, note the theme of progeny in Episodes 3 and 4.  Hanabi mentions that news stories concerning child deaths are on the rise, Kimimaro sees a poster about child deaths, and Kimimaro hears from his coworker that he has no wife or children.  These individual details mean nothing to us until they are gathered into a bigger picture.

Another valid point about [C] is how frequently it addresses natural paradoxes: Money, happiness, the size of the Far Eastern District.  All of these get discussed repeatedly in just the last 2 – 3 episodes, and don’t expect the debate to end there.  Overall, [C] already seems very dense with over 1/3 of the series already over, but hopefully it doesn’t meet the same downfall as many other good short series and try to do too much with the time given.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

The headliner of the evening is the Fate Stay Night movie Unlimited Blade Works.  Unlike the Precure movie, this movie doesn’t have magical girls.

For those that don’t know, Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel divided into 3 different paths: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven’s Feel.  While different from the anime this is based on (which is based on the VN), the movie (which is TWO SOLID HOURS of fight scenes) is pretty well self-contained.

The premise is that every 10 years, 7 Mages and their Servants (Heroic spirits that are summoned to fight) duke it out Battle Royale-style for the Holy Grail, which will grant the winner a single wish.  The story then centers around a boy named Shirou and a Mage named Rin.  After saving Shirou’s life, Rin tells him that he is now a Master, one of the 7 meant to fight for the Grail.  Later on, it is revealed that Shirou and Rin’s Servant, Archer, are related (in that they are the same person).  As such, Archer hates himself (and therefore Shirou) after devoting his former life to a misguided ideal.  Therefore, Archer is almost continuously saving/trying to kill Shirou.  Stuff obviously drags here and there, simply because there’s relatively little relevant information between battles.  It’s usually just witty banter and fighting grunts.  Furthermore, they use up precious time to include where Shirou stays and why we even care about Shinji.  Of course, there ARE memorable characters.  Rin is one of the more iconic characters in modern anime, and of course there is the troll team of Shinji and Gilgamesh.

However, even with suspension of belief, there are some big WTF moments near the end.

Namely how Archer comes back after THAT, twice.

Also, the defeat of Gilgamesh was complete bullocks.

Overall, this movie is pretty good if you don’t want to expend brain cells.  The production values alone are among the best I’ve ever seen.  The action scenes are great.  The voice acting is pretty good, too.  If you have your own movie theater and 2 hours to burn, give this movie a watch.

Carnival Phantasm

Obviously the fevered dream of Carnie fanfic writers, Carnival Phantasm is an omnibus crossover to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Studio Type-MOON.  Incidentally, Type-MOON is the studio that produced Fate/Stay Night, so Gene thought it proper to subject everyone to this extra hour of inside jokes that only he gets.  The show is currently just 4 episodes that are 15 minutes each.  All the episodes contains various crossover sketches and jokes, so even if you technically haven’t seen any of the series that this is based on, you can still enjoy the show (although Gene was often the only one in the room that was laughing).

Personally, my favorite skit was Rin having to deal with recording a television show for Shirou…on a Blu-Ray player…

Since it’s just a studio trying to mock itself, it does a pretty good job.  Obviously it’s funnier if you’ve seen all of the base content, but since you don’t need any brain cells to enjoy most of the humor, I can see most people enjoying this show.

Come back next week when the club rants and raves about the 1st epsiode of the prequel series, Fate/Stay Zero.  Until then, study for those exams (unlike us).