C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (OP Theme, Story Theme, Battle System, Characters, Etc.)

There were suddenly a number of interesting updates the day before the first episode will air so I can't help making another post for my most anticipated Spring 2011 anime series xD

There's an episode one synopsis and a new CM at the official site. It's short, but the art has certainly become better, especially comparing to the previous trailer.

Moreover:



I'm quite surprised that it's up this early, but I'm happy to see it as early as now~
Yes, it's the OP theme of the series.
Though honestly, this would've looked better without the scenes with the characters launching for an attack. They look awkward together with those 3D visuals, haha!
Nevertheless, bias aside, it looked good. The music still rocked (I looooove the full version =3)~
NICO Touches the Walls FTW!
Oh now I wonder what the ED theme would be like~

Thanks to an interview at ANN, we now have more ideas of what the story and the characters of this series is going to be like.

=== THEME ===

The story involves a variety of themes, and its main theme is "MONEY". It's already unusual for using an uncommon theme, moreso that it depicts Japan's situation at present. Look forward to how the series shall visualize both the value of and the fear of money during this depression.

=== STORY/SYSTEM/BATTLE ===

In the Financial District, an “Entrepreneur” has the money, and an “Asset” is an incarnation of an “Entrepreneur”. Then, the Entrepreneur spends the money and has the Asset launch an attack.

Whether you win or lose, you get damaged, and you lose money.

If you lose, you go bankrupt. If you lose the game and all of your property, you will be evicted from the Financial District.

You need monet to survive. You fight and save money, and you will be rich.

This cycle repeats itself.

=== CHARACTER INFO ===

• Kimimaro Yoga - a college sophomore; just an ordinary person who dreams of “becoming a government worker and leading a secure life”.
• Mashu - Kimimaro's “Asset” in the story. She meets with Kimimaro in the “Financial District”, and helps him fight.
• Sōichirō Mikuni - a skilled financier. Kimimaro admires Sōichirō as if he were his brother.
• Q - Mikuni's “Asset” named “Q”. Q always looks sleepy, with a kind of “strange woman” atmosphere.
• Masakaki - a banker who introduces Kimimaro to the Financial District.
• Hanabi Ikuta - Kimimaro's classmate in college

=== 300 MILLION YEN QUESTION ===

It has been mentioned that the cast had an unusual audition. There were people watching them (usually, there aren't) and they were each asked what they would do if they have 300 million yet, with the exception of Yui Makino-san, who was only asked what she would do with 10 million yen. Her reply was "I would move to a place near the train station with my family. I would deposit the remaining money.", and it appears that her character's response was somethign very similar to it.
We can assume that that question was relevant to the audition to make the seiyuu's personality as close to the actual character's as possible. Here are the responses of the other seiyuus after they were asked with the 300 million question:

• Kouki Uchiyama (Kimimaro) - I would quit my job
• Haruka Tomatsu (Mashu) - I would like to eat raw meat until I died.
• Daisuke Hosomi (Sōichirō) - I would live in a larger house, add some dogs, and then, build an animal kingdom.
• Saori Goto (Q) - I would buy a house for my family. Then, I would have a highly expensive condominium built…
• Takahiro Sakurai (Masakaki) - I would have this extravagant house built. Then, I kept talking for 10 minutes. I went on and on.

=== QUICK THOUGHTS ===

Based on the interview, it appears that the seiyuus haven't fully grasped what their characters are supposed to be like yet. They lack so much in material... even the music composer, Iwasaki Taku, seems to be having a hard time. What's making me worry more is that their work on the initial episodes is still ongoing even though the first episode is already supposed to air this week. Why did everything seem to be a rush? Hopefully they have no plans in doing a half-ass job on this series.

On the bright side, with this peculiar auditioning/directing and complex theme, Nakamura-san seems to know what he's doing.

Knowing about the plot got me more interested in this~ Yeah, it seems like a card game such as Yugi-oh because we've got players (Entrepreneurs) giving orders to their cards (Assets) to fight against opponents. But with "money" involved, I'm sure that it's much more complicated that it appears. Not to mention frighteningly real, because the series just made an action shounen version of what's really happening in the real world O_O

Oh man... it's making me sooooo excited~

Oh yeah, there seems to be so many hints that Mashu has a thing for Kimimaro o_O I dunno if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But Haruka seems to be more than just a "non-Financial-District-Member" type of character. And waaah... it confuses me when I saw Kimimaro fighting against Soichiro in the OP though descriptions say that Kimimaro thinks of him as a brother. @_@

Ugh, episode one... go air already so we can know what's going to happen xD Hehe.

Credits:
- ANN
- Peeps at the AnimeSuki Forum