I’m really trying hard to get invested in C. It’s an interesting premise and has a great pedigree, and it’s not as if there’s been anything to dislike in the first three episodes. It’s a flashy, cool and eye-catching show.

But for whatever reason, there’s some element that’s missing for me. Maybe there’s a sense of detachment in the style that isn’t so appealing, but I think that’s intentional – more or less. And working against that theory is that the show really tried to go for a little sentiment this week, with Kimimaro looking for information on his missing parent. Via a notebook his father had left with Kimimaro’s Aunt, the boy finds out that Dad was a Financial District guy, too – and from a guy who seems to make a living photographing deals going down he hears that his father was a financial whiz who went bankrupt on a big deal. When you go bankrupt in the FD that means your future is used up.

Stepping into the role of surrogate father is Soichiro, who tries to bond with Kimimaro over his own father issues. Soichiro is an interesting character – he claims to be using the money he’s earning to “help the country”. But this missing father/surrogate father storyline is the first major element of the series that’s felt derivative – it certainly isn’t anything we haven’t seen countless times before. Maybe they can pull it off – they’re interesting characters, especially Soichiro, but so far it’s an open question.

There was another new character introduced here – a woman who acts as a kind of participant observer in the FD. She’s reporting to some nameless international organization and the guy she reports to speaks pretty good Engrish. But despite her conviction that the Midas system is evil, all she does is observe – she’s not expected to do anything with the information she gathers but report it and then shut up. There’s some sort of metaphor in there for this series as a whole, I think.