[C] 11 - The ending was eerily similar to madoka and serials experiment lain ending.. not so sure what to think about it, but it certainly didn't impress me as much as trapeze or mononoke ending, so nakamura disappoints me again!
Show ended up fairly decent and watchable in the end, i genuinely enjoyed the last 4 episodes (especially 9 aka best episode in the series) but it definitely feels like wasted potential, the show was fairly problematic both in terms of writing and direction with the latter being the biggest offender considering it was a fuckin nakamura show, apart from the first few minutes of episode 1, and episode 9, the direction was fairly standard for both the genre and the director, and to boot also felt held back by the shitty character animation and CG, I'd haft to wonder if this show suffered from serious budget problems, considering they had 5 episode-directors for the last episode lulz.
In terms of writing, they are some interesting ideas such as the whole idea of the financial district, but most of the economics terms and shit all ended up to be fluff (as expected), as the plot is fairly simplistic, the show also throws down a number of emotional bittersweet scenes at the end, but it means shit, because the characters are dull as, with the only interesting character being the omnipresent joker-type character, whose the only character that actually feels like something out of a nakamura show, all the characters are all lame-ass shounen cliches especially - yoga.
Another thing about the show is like Anohana and Eden of the east - it actually feels like it suffers from the 11-episode limit, and doesn't benefit from it, but that said like Anohana i put the blame on the show itself, as the first 7 episodes had plenty of room for improvement in terms of build-up, climax, pacing etc, before the plot started kicking into gears around episode 8, i guess two extra episodes for [C] wouldn't have hurt, i guess.
Overall - Probably my biggest disappointment of the year, after delivering the best show of 2007 and 2009, i expected more from nakamura, although i don't put the blame entirely on him, as this had some noticeable factors signaling it's downfall - 1. It had clear production problems, that were noticeable from episode 1! 2. He switched from toei to tatsunko! (should have stuck with toei man) 3. This is the first original anime project by the writer.
To be fair the show wasn't completely awful or anything, it was decent and watchable for the most part (episode 2 & 6 were the only offensive episodes), but decent and watchable is not good enough, i expected show of the year material dammit, or at least show of the season, the show is not even close to that, which is quite sad, considering this season is pretty dull in general.
I think the show could have ended up good or maybe great if it focused more on the financial district, less on the shitty shonen shit, better animation, more stylistic direction (more stuff like the opening of episode 1 plz) and so on and on, man the show sure has a lot of problems when i think about it in hindsight lulz.
I just hope these type of shows aren't the future for the director... he better make a return to form in 2013 / 2014 with a mononoke / trapeze esque show (if he actually makes a new show in that time-frame i guess).
Bring on SUMMER, so i can remove the bad taste of this disappointing spring away!
Edit - I should also watch the last two episodes of Anohaha.
sorry the name eludes me, it was okay for a few episodes but aimed at a young audience I guess.
