Anime Review: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility

Anime Review: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility

Kimimaro Yoga is an impoverished college student, bitter about the suicide of his father, which he sees as abandonment, and working hard to make sure he has a financially stable future.  One day he is approached by a being called Masakaki and offered a deal.  If Kimimaro accepts a loan from the Midas Bank with his “future” as collateral, he can become an Entrepreneur, with access to the Financial District.  There he can engage in battle with other Entres, using Assets, personifications of their futures.  Kimimaro distrusts easy money, but is tricked into accepting anyway.

Then he finds out that when they said his future was the collateral, they weren’t being metaphorical….,

This is an eleven episode anime series and a bit of a mind screw,  The rules are never fully explained, several characters’ motives remain murky, and the ending is going to take some sitting down and thinking to puzzle out.  It’s also not about economics in the way Spice and Wolf was, so when people sling around financial terms, they’re not explained and often have little to do with their real world applications.

However, there’s a lot of allegorical economics going on, and students of such matters will be able to tell which theories the writers side with by the end.  Several of the characters, including Kimimaro, and his mentor/opposite number Mikuni are morally ambiguous.  Would you sacrifice the long term to protect what is precious to you now, or sacrifice the present to preserve the future?

It’s also very pretty, though those new to anime might find some of the color combinations overly garish.

There’s a fair amount of violence, though most of the “blood” is money, and it could be triggery for suicide, as this happens more than once.  Because of this and the need to understand basic economic principles to grasp the underpinnings, I’d recommend this for older teens and up.