[C]-Control Episode 11--And Nothing is Resolved [Final Thoughts]

So. Things pretty much turned out how I expected. Except for Masakaki's troll comment at the end.




The final battle was pretty good, and took up the majority of the episode, as was fitting, since this was the climatic point of the show. Turns out that Q had more in her arsenal than Cannibalism, and there was interesting back and forth dialogue that finally made it clear what Mikuni was trying to accomplish; he wanted to protect the present because the last thing that his sister said to him was that she didn't want that moment to end. Flawed reasoning, but understandable.




And so, despite the odds stacked against him, Kimimaro wins, he sets the press to run backwards, and everyone's rightful future is restored, at the cost of the Assets disappearing along with the Financial District. And about that kiss... So... brother-sister incest is not okay, but possible-future-daughter and dad incest is okay? ...Whatever, Japan. Anyway, it looks like a somewhat happy ending, right?




Wrong. Apparently the Financial District will exist as long as there is a future to profit from. While Kimimaro did manage to take back the future, it means nothing in the long run because he basically just put things back to the way they were at the beginning of the series, only Japan is on the dollar currency instead of the yen. So what is the purpose of the Financial District anyway? There was that short scene with the guy who presumably ran the place that said its purpose was the betterment of mankind, but if its just going to reset everything in the end, why not just leave the world alone? It was all very confusing and not very satisfying at all. At least let us pretend that the main character accomplished something.



The yen is dead, long live the dollar

Overall, [C] is a show with big ambitions that ended up getting sidetracked somewhere along the way. Since it was on the noitaminA block, I was expecting a deep commentary on money and how it affects society when, in the end, it was really about character motivations. Because of this, as well as the strange pacing, a lot of questions remain unanswered, and the the deus ex machina in the tenth episode is still one of the biggest cop-outs I've ever seen in an anime.



Combined with the steady drop in animation quality (the fight scene from this episode looked good in motion, but once the video was paused, the off-model faces and the ragdoll physics were obvious and subsequently made the entire scene feel sloppy) what's left is a show that, while enjoyable, is not the show I was expecting after the first few episodes. I wanted to like this show. I really did. But all of the unanswered questions that are still left hanging at the end of this series ruined the enjoyment that I was getting from it. Some people are talking about the possibility of a second season or an OVA to wrap up these loose ends, but I doubt that this will happen. The main goal, "to reclaim the future," was accomplished, despite the fact that it meant basically nothing in the end. Even if there is more, I am done with [C]. At the very least, it was an interesting ride.

Screenshots from Funimation.com and Hulu.com.