Table of Contents 1. Starting with the beginning of the universe 1.1. Checking my assets 1.2. This is about an anime right? 1.2.1. Attempt number 1 1.2.2. Attempt number 2 1.2.3. Deal 1 Starting with the beginning of the universe I stayed late at the CSET labs pretty much every night. Subway sandwich ready to eat about 9 or so. It was doing work time. But it was also watch youtube time. Share memes in the lab with other people. Talk about computer shit. I was friends with a first year senior and so after about a term I was Hanging in the same group as the main senior group. This strategy likely would not have worked if I was less quick on the up take. I hope I didn't often say I knew things I didn't know, but it Probably happened some. But this was a moment I was learning that there were questions I didn't Even know enough to know to ask. It was this environment which lead to my stumbling on the anime Club meeting, because I heard the siren call of Japanese anime noises from one of the class rooms On the way to and from the bathroom. The year was 2010 and the anime was C the money of soul and possibility control. 1.1 Checking my assets I got a pc, I got a family. I got a body. I have a laptop with faulty keyboard. I have a place to sleep. I have a girlfriend. I have Persona. I have Place and time. I have Technomancy. I have autism :p I have 4 different copies of encodes of C the money of soul and possibility control. I figure in the post-social media wired and the great scattering that occurs when Google Is lost and take all semblance of modern internet with it as BGP networks are obliterated, As DNS loses all cohesion and physical connectivity is broken on any run longer than about 100km (essentially one days journey) due to lack of maintenance, weird encodes like moozzie2 C Might fetch a small fortune. Stuff like Icetric's Lain collection too but that's like required reading For any would be acolyte, let alone the god I intend to be. 1.2 This is about an anime right? It's hard for me to convey why I love C so much. I want to set the stage, give context. I don't Think I'm alone in having the difficulty in explaining what C was about. The show tries 3 different times, With varying levels of success. 1.2.1 Attempt number 1 The first attempt takes 2:05 seconds and is the first scene in the show. We are treated to the most boring looking atm bank with ads and salaryman-man is digging Through his wallet for some card that will work. He needs money and he needs it bad. He is unshaven. Frantic. We have seen him for 45 seconds and we aren't rooting for the guy, Because he likely deserves whatever is coming his way, but we do empathize that this guy might Be in some real trouble. That's when he resorts to the last card. A shock sound plays as we see this black card has a number with last 4 digits 0666. The card is evil guys. Did you know credit cards are bad guys? Like they are a really bad idea. Oh wait sorry the propaganda messages sometimes start playing automatically if one of their key Ideas are triggered. Anyway the religious symbolism of the mark of the beast and stuff all Comes up. Western religious symbolism in anime. It's in everything from Eva, on down, and sometimes is used to better or worse effect. Eva I think is a pretty weak use of Christian theming, it's too deep a usage to ignore the Wrong shit. Like imagine doing Greek god stuff and being like And Dionysus and Jupiter are Actually Gemini and form the Tridevi Persephone, hades wife, half time. It's like you would be like what the fuck are you doing Olympus チャンプルー? Too specific and wrong. The use of 666 on the credit card is actually very good. Credit cards have already a kinda Evil side, so we can quickly and immediately call to that evil side with quick and dirty 666 use. This kind of efficient use of symbolism is my favorite thing about anime. That it can cut away so much unneeded information just by choosing not to put it in frame, or to put it in Frame but with low detail. In real life there is always noise in that signal. But in Anime you can experience that ideal world of architypes. Most anime use the architype language To save on doing work. But it's more fun for us lateral types (actually I'm probably close to The newtype/shadow guardian nexus) It's fun when the architype language is used to communicate A lot of information very quickly. It's nice to see that this ATM has accessibility for the blind even in anime land. I love this little bank area. I feel like I have been in that place. Just change out the sign With PrivatBank and bam. Maybe this is less relatable to Americans for that reason. This Is like a kind of European flavor that I got from my 5 years in Ukraine. (laugh about how Ukraine isn't Europe that's fine.) HOLY SHIT WHEN THAT GUY PUT THE EVIL CARD IN THE SCREEN TURNED BLACK Then this cool clearly western voice speaks in stark contrast with the Japanese voice. "PIN CODE" And I have to mention at this point the sound texture here is amazing. Fuck. "What is your pin code?" This isn't Engrish. It's like this sultry hot Very slightly stilted, to sound like a computer voice perhaps feminine voice. The pin code is [666] if you can believe they would use the same visual language Twice in 30 seconds in 2 different contexts. But don't worry not 20 seconds later this man walks from the bank into a tiered parking Structure and waves his card in the air and a taxi appears out of thin air. He gets on and pays his fare. 666$ BABY! WOOOOOOO! That's right this motherfucker is going to play games and he has chosen his opponent. He bought a one way ticket to The Financial District. The taxi drives straight into a wall at max speed. Attempt 1 summary C is credit. C is risk. C tempts you to spend beyond your means to risk in some kind of game. C is presented as part technology, part magic. But it might be better to say what we call Computer technology is very predictable magic. So in the world of C we can expect to be able To enter magical financial districts by driving a taxi into a wall. Now you are driving with IPv7 baby. I like that this is able to convey as much as it does in very little space, but We haven't gotten closer to answering what this show is about, but I suppose we are only 2 minutes Into the show. So maybe I should cut it some slack? Well. No. The show is setting the pace here, And it moves on to another scene. 1.2.2 Attempt number 2 Now in this golden digimon like virtual world of Midas called The financial district. Here we see a suave lookin guy and a cute pixie like thing literally eating money. And it's like ok. So that's a blunt metaphor. Now because fuck you I want to quote this scene right here. This monolog starts at about 2 minutes and lasts until 4:30 when the third character joins the scene. I do this to illustrate an important point about the idea "Show don't tell" In order to do this I will also describe key events as they happen in the show with the monolog. [dense residential blocks in white separated by red tinted roads] M: Take a look. (look over there) How many of the people here realize it? [shot of giant floating coin in center of city with 7 613 289 318 914 Yen. The number steadily increasing] How many are there that don't? [Man walking behind picture frame, x-ray image shows the tree of life "Chakra" and eyes the rest shadow] How many are suspicious of it? [literally low poly generic pedestrians walking on streets. Taxi cars driving] How many go on completely unaware? [Looks through the frame created by a hole in his "Evil black card"] At the end is money just money? [cute blue haired pixie girl] Or is it [pulls out money and sticks it in her mouth] Something much more? [girl small eating money, seen through frame created by card, on white building beneath red sky] Or is it [card drawn away, girl vanishes from scene] Something much less? [pause on guy's face] Q [still with money in her mouth. Long green black with brown rooted horns on her head, Pointy ears. And another red with blonde haired thing behind her] Q: Hmm? M: What do you think? Q[money still sticking out of her mouth]: Isn't it enough just to have a full stomach? M: ha, Nice and simple. [talking to him now through muffled voice and as text on the screen] Q: is it not so simple for you? [man jumping backwards toward end of building] M: It's neither simple nor complicated. [falls backward off side, camera follows] If your position changes, so too does your way of seeing things. [uses his card (seen to have a Cthulhu squid) to teleport himself away from His fall to a "Building" (collection of various sized and shaped picture frame structure) on red ground) What a mysterious thing money is. But if I were to sum it up in one sentence... For me, it is the very thing that connects me to this world. [inside the building (library like) man sets out two wine glasses] Money alone. Really, this is true for everyone, but there are few who realize it. [places money in wine glass for Q and expensive wine for self] Then, After coming to a world like this, [Q's money evaporates into numbers as he goes to take a sip] There are even fewer who realize it. Look I know it's kinda bad form to literally quote the text. Like go watch it if you want what the text is saying in the text. Here is the thing. None of you motherfuckers watched the fucking text. So I'm here having to cliff notes this bitch. Please contrast What we already know About this setting with something like IDON"TKNOW firefly. Please go watch the first bit of my video on firefly if you want the explanation to that. We don't have time here. We have spend 4 minutes 30 seconds, and we have established A pseudo sci-fi/magic world, as an allegory for the dangers of overspending in a bullish economy. We don't have metaphor so much as paper mask. This talk about what money is and how it relates To every fabric of our being. How it has more power than we typically realize. The exploration Of these ideas is the very point of this show. We want to learn What C is. We want to understand, And we know all the while what we are examining is microcosm to our own real world situation. Not in Some imaginary future. But here in real life reality now. Look. I could go on explaining every fucking thing about what this show has to offer. But That would be doing a disservice to the show. Is what I ought to say because honestly the first part of this show was so dense with clear and heavy handed Idiom at breakneck pace that it builds in itself an unattainable standard. We physically can't keep up at that rate. Our brains can't take it. Thankfully we get a bit of a reprieve as the show takes some time to show us the game battle element. Deals. 1.2.3 Deal .