Beyond the financial commentary, this show is also a fighting series. It’s here where most of the cliches in this series are and after watching this episode another one hit me: the main characters’ powers… are kindof bland, aren’t they? I mean, we have all these characters with cool and very creative ways of killing their opponents, from mirrors to keyholes and flying golems and bug spiky things. So what does the main character use? A small fireball. Couldn’t the creators have gotten a bit more creative with him? Right now it’s the battles between the other characters who are the most interesting.
Instead, the main characters’ purpose here is to explain what this world is about. I can definitely see the intentions of the creators: he is a novice who is being taught by one of the biggest innovators of the financial district. This way it can both go in-depth as keep this series easy to go into, even though in terms of storytelling it could have been more solidly explained.
Creating characters isn’t on the list of biggest priorities of this series, but instead it focuses on its setting. This episode went in even more detail of how the financial district influences the real world and the effects it has, ranging from big companies to random individuals. The previous episode had that too, but this episode gave these topics the depth they needed to be actually quite interesting rather than shallow. In that way, it actually made good use of its characters by using the lead characters’ worries.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I guess fighting series main characters are supposed to have simple/brutish/unimaginative powers so that it seems more impressive when they win?(unless its also an overpowered ability…)
the main characters’ powers… are kindof bland, aren’t they?
I imagine the reason for this is cos he’s still a novice. He’s still got alot to learn before he can pull off anything fancy. Eventually he will get up there, seeing as he has to face off against Souchirou himself in the end. Everyone else seen so far seem more seasoned.
I find the setting very interesting and gripping on many levels but so far it feels like a pretty apocalyptic story. I find it really hard right now to see how this could have a happy ending for anyone. I wonder if there are answers to be found in the mysterious numbers in Touga’s dad’s diary…
Still not enough information on the setting. Is there any way to opt out of the demonic financial district once you’re in? Is there a way to bring down the district at all? Maybe somehow persuading all 1200+ members to quit? I understand how the short term gains seem attractive but no matter how powerful you get, odds are eventually you’ll lose everything in the end, and much sooner than you’d think. It seems there are similar districts in financial centers all over the world and they seem to even have their hooks into organizations that are supposed to stop them. Souchirou seems like a good guy trying to make the best out of a very bad situation. Unfortunately, he doesn’t consider bringing down the district an option, even though he’s aware that the Midas currency is inherently evil. I suspect the power the financial district has to influence reality is based on the increasing presence of the Midas money – perhaps representing the corruption of human society.
I was a little bit pissed by how this episode has Youga ask about the nature of assets but the viewers not getting an answer. Disturbing at how him losing even marginally would have a bad effect in real life. His teacher having his wife leaving him actually makes a whole lot of sense. While the loss of his children was bad, I actually thought he got off easily considering how other people who went bankrupt just committed suicide. It makes alot more sense now that I see that he’s going to keep losing everything he has over time, eventually probably even his job and house and even his life. I suspect Touga’s Dad killed himself in order to cut off further bad effects of his bankruptcy from affecting his son. Maybe he was too late to save his wife.
How many episodes is this series anyway?
I get it. The creators consciously decided on an average protagonist in order to highlight the other characters more, and the Financial District is the most important character.
But ending on the same cliffhanger twice is going to the well too often.