C felt like a series that seemed better suited to run for at least two
dozen episodes considering the elements it tried to cover with the
Financial District. The show introduced a multiple number of characters
with differing motivations for their involvement in the Financial
District and features an elaborate battle system that involves dwellers
of the District battling one another with their futures as collateral
and bankruptcy having a huge negative effect on the person's life in
reality. Kimimaro, as the central character of C, tries to figure out
what purpose he has in his involvement in the Financial District and
gaining Asset Mashu who supports him in his battles in the Financial
District.
The first half of C was spent covering the various
adversaries that Kimimaro would be up against while the second half
covered a much darker element to the Financial District that influenced
reality, which I felt the quality of both differed quite a bit. The
first half was reasonably paced where Kimimaro adjusts to activity in
the Financial District and slowly realizes just how much of a radically
life-changing influence activity from the Financial District has on
reality through the opponents that he fights. The opponents he encounter
are fleshed out enough where you get enough sense of how being in the
Financial District has influenced their lives, particularly Mikuni who
becomes both mentor and rival to Kimimaro as the series progresses.
The
second half of the series is where I found things to be a mixed bag and
what led me to think the series should have been at a greater number of
episodes. The Financial District's influence on reality shows a darker
side which results in Mikuni and Kimimaro taking differing views on how
to manage things. This could have made for a better half if not for the
fact pacing started to advance at a more rapid pace compared to earlier
episodes thus preventing any sort of build up with the mounting tensions
between the two. It especially doesn't help when there were only 4 to 5
episodes left to build up on such shocking developments and create
character tensions that could have been better laid out in a 24-episode
series.
Other prominent issues as a result of the show's limited
episode count include the series not exploring other elements to the
Financial District and plot elements, particularly the higher power that
the Masakakis follow, what Mashu represents with Kimimaro's future and
the specifics of what led Kimimaro's father to his demise.
Visually,
C is one of the best-looking titles I've had a chance of seeing for the
year thus far. Scenery and character designs are packed with bright
colors and have a good amount of detail to them with the art highlight
going to the rendering of the Financial District with its highly
colorful and abstract environment, doing well at conveying itself as
being a whole different world from our reality. Action scenes are well
animated with a good amount of movement and some moments of impressive
animations in the battles that occur within the Financial District.
While
I did enjoy seeing C, I can't help but nitpick at the fact that the
series could have worked out better if given a higher episode count as
not everything to it was explored and it had a second half that couldn't
click for me due to the lack of proper build-up and rushed pacing that
developed thanks to its eleven episode count.