Anime: C3: Cube x Cursed x Curious

For me C3 was welcome piece of self-indulgence. I loved every minute of it, largely because it's just so pretty. But the first episode is filled with the worst kind of pandering, and even later on it's heavy on the fanservice.

I don't generally talk about studios, but the visual flair is everything we've come to expect from SHAFT (Silver Link being a spinoff therof). There are moments when the visuals combine perfectly with the plot, and these are where C3 rises above itself - I'm thinking particularly of a scene in the climax, where one character's hands are injured, and rather than blood we simply see a pure black pair of hands. This is typical C3; it can be a very violent show, but the animators prefer to use inventive visuals to tell the stories rather than outright gore. It keeps the show beautiful even in its darkest scenes, and for my money makes them scarier.

For the most part, though, these beautiful visuals are adrift, anchored to nothing more than the matching music. Opening themes in particular (despite being only 12 episodes, C3 has two) are simply beautiful, and I could happily pass each episode just watching the pretty pictures. I remember one scene with red and blue light drifting in from opposite sides of the screen, alternately lending their colour to the actual action in the middle. It was visually stunning - and served no narrative purpose.

Some of the characters are ultimately interesting, but all take a while to find themselves. The titular cube, Fear, is introduced in disappointingly cliché fashion, heavy on fanservice and tsundere in a way that makes the whole episode painful to watch. But with time she develops a real personality and becomes genuinely charming, struggling under a curse that seems entirely undeserved for her childish innocence, by turns selfish and kind. Likewise the third main female, Kirika, who gradually develops her own personality and problems; it helps that she starts in the background, and becomes more prominent as the series goes on (indeed, the second opening makes her the focus). Sadly, no such improvement is seen from the nominal second female, Konoha, whose oversized boobs only emphasize her complete lack of personality.

A far greater flaw with C3, though, lies in its plotting. Events do at least follow causes, but we have no single coherent narrative; rather, there are three or four arcs which get resolved in turn. In a more realistic series I'd applaud this, but C3 is very much high-concept fantasy; anything less than saving the world seems unworthy as a conclusion. It's made worse by the fact that the final arc is quite weak, with a far less interesting antagonist than the one that preceded it; the show tries to get philosophical, but frankly it's overreaching itself; the magical mystery of the middle arcs was far more engaging. The conclusion does at least give some closure to, if not the world, then at least Fear's personal story; more valuably, it manages a suitably dramatic final battle, keeping up the beautiful visuals in a full-fledged action scene lasting half the episode.

When C3 is good it can be very good; beautiful presentation, stunning action and a few very tender character interactions. But the characterization can be very variable, and the overall plot is decidedly lacking. I should also emphasize that the treatment of Kirika in particular, with her bondage-gear-powered magic, can get heavily fanservicey. Frankly, when a show looks this good I'll enjoy it whatever else is happening, and I did feel real affection for some of the characters. But this is not a show for everyone; if you don't care for presentation as much as I do, C3's flaws will overwhelm its good points.

Ever looked at a Rubik's cube and wondered if it could transform into a girl? I haven't either. But apparently someone thought it was an ingenious idea and turned it into an anime. This is essentially your typical fighter-harem, where lots of powerful beauties flock to defend their precious weakling of a male lead. It combines action with ecchi and a light touch of comedy. While I cannot say anything about the source literature (manga/light novel), the anime adaptation tries to bite off more than it can chew, and ends up a confused mess.

The world of C3 is full of cursed items, be it katanas or dolls, that obtain human forms due to their cursed nature. Luckily for these cursed items, there is a guy named Haruaki who is mysteriously immune to curses, and can remove curses. Likewise, luckily for Haruaki, all of the cursed items that he encounters take the form of youthful girls of different types to satisfy any variety of male fetish appeal. If you're looking for fan service, this is probably one of the lighter ones in its season (no god rays needed). If you absolutely are dying for a harem, know that this is the type without any resolution. If you're looking for action, the production qualities will not be up to your expectations. If you're looking for a wanna-be dark but not quite harem with very little coherent plot but lots of bouncy, then you've found your series.

Animation:
Having just finished a lot of ancient series recently, the series was like eye candy. The series has crisp animation with lots of colors to suit the mood. The entire series uses an interesting magenta/purple tint to give it a somewhat ominous feel. The animation also uses a few unique touches. For instance, the cubes; cubes will randomly appear out of characters' hair, whenever something is damaged cubes fly out, etc. Likewise, there will be random frequency bands or otherwise strange drawings superimposed onto the backgrounds, especially during fights. These are probably just cosmetic touches but I found it an interesting, distinguishing touch.

Character designs are what you'd expect from a harem. You need your share of flat-chested lolis, overly-busty cows, and aristocratic rich princesses. The primary and supporting characters are all easily distinguishable. The antagonists, less so, but more about those later. Fear is interesting in that I'm not sure how to describe her hair color. It's silverish blue with hints of aquamarine gradients, as if her hair had gotten a pearlescent paint job.

There are quite a few battles for various reasons in the series. The substantial blood and dismemberment elevate the severity of the tone, which is only broken through brief, and typical, ecchi grabs, panty shots, and unfortunate timings. The fighting choreography is average at best, but more disappointing is the special effects. Clouds of damage are overly simplistic and CGI use is widespread.

Overall, the animation quality is fairly good if you discount the action portions. There are unique touches which help separate it from others in the genre but the fights really need a bit more budget.

Sound:
The show has a relatively short OPs and EDs. Eri Kitamura and Yukari Tamura take turns both in the OP and EDs. The first OP has a very strong melody, which is repeatedly used in the BGM as well (plus for uniformity). In general, Youkari's pieces are more upbeat while Kitamura takes the darker pieces. Overall the pieces all fit into the mood of the series fairly well. The series also makes use of a VERY active BGM, it's playing something for at least 75% of the show.

The VAs do a good job as expected. If anything, I was sad that Eri Kitamura's character was so plain, I tend to like her in more flamboyant roles. Expect a lot of tsundereness in general.

Story:
So the overall theme is what it means to be human. Now I can go on a huge melodramatic dialogue explaining this in detail but the fact is that it's too impractical to have real meaning here. The series ends with the question of whether it's better to be a tool that became like a human or to be a human that is treated like a tool. And to be quite frank, I have spent zero minutes of my life thinking about that question up to that point, and I don't plan on spending more than an aggregate minute on it. Androids I can relate to but cubes and katanas turning into humans?

That tirade aside, the core elements of the story are also poorly done. The series is in general told in arcs but is plagued by uneven progression and an incessant need to add more additional supporting characters. Oh no, three girls are not enough to support our main protagonist? No problem, let's just add more, that way we can also appeal to a larger audience! This discussion is in the story section because each of these additional supporting characters end up taking an arc in the story, often spurring the story to add seemingly random antagonists.

There is a central plot focusing on Fear as the other arcs progress but it only builds to a small plateau of a climax with very little resolution. Be prepared to be introduced to a lot of side elements that are never explained (double sided personalities, random special abilities, etc.), and in general to have a lot more questions unanswered than answered.

As mentioned by others, this setting did have an interesting premise and introduction, but the execution totally ruined any chance of it being good.

Character:
The general characters here are extremely typical of what you'd expect these days. You get your typical, kind but relatively-wimpy lead with a "nice" personality; your typical suddenly-appearing tsundere; and your typical take-care-of-you next door neighbor to name a few. Character interactions are fine, and the root source of the majority of the light humor in the series. Unfortunately, these interactions are light and stay light, you don't get any serious squabbles over the main character as the main lead Fear barely grasps the concept of "love" by the end of the series.

The major violation here is introducing additional characters with virtually no background information, and expecting them to be central to the plot line. This is most acute with the antagonists, who apparently come from radical (an understatement) groups that either hate cursed tools or are masochists who want to be cursed more. Never once did the series attempt to make the viewer in any way on the side of the antagonists, or give any meaning to what they are fighting for. This greatly reduced the enjoyment factor as I really didn't care, nor understand, what all the fighting was over.

Overall, the series was trying to balance too many characters for any of them to make a meaningful impact on the viewer.

Value:
While introducing some interesting animation flairs, this series ends up being your typical ecchi harem with more attention to the boing than the story. This was just too poorly executed to be readily enjoyed by those who have not read the visual novel or manga. Your time may be better spent solving an actual Rubik's cube.

THE STAFF

Directed by Oonuma Shin, a guy who prodused the rather good Pani Poni Dash and Ef a Tale of Memories/Melodies. He then transferred to Silver Link, a minor studio whose only full job projects are this and Baka to Test. He also directed those and the results are bad. So you know from the start that it is a show by a minor director and a minor studio; don’t expect much.

I have stopped watching such ecchi shows for the sole reason they quickly become repetitive, dumb, and forgettable quite fast. I must have watched over 200 such shows back when I was new to the medium and I hardly remember anything that was going on in them besides the main excuse for a story. Characters and sex jokes have been completely wiped clean from my mind since they kept repeating in almost the exact way in every show. And then I hear how this C3 anime is awesome! How it is the most amazing thing after sliced bread. “The second episode proves wrong all those who doubt its brilliance” is what the fanboys scream. And so I said “Oh, what the heck, maybe it is worth my precious attention.” It’s not like ecchi humour always auto-destroys a show; it can easily be used as a tool to further progress deep and philosophical concepts. Remember how it was an inseparate element in Furi Curi or Kuuchu Buranko? So why not; maybe this is one of those exceptions where the erotic humour is just means for far more important things. So I sit down and watch.

STORY: 4/10

Episode 1: Gah, the same old crap I saw in all those throw away shows. Some meek guy suddenly finds a clueless naked chick in his house and before you know it, the girl-next-door appears and starts a cat fight for whom gets to have him. FOR WHAT REASON, HE IS A WUSS! After which fetishes each one of them represents (the flat-chested loli tsundere and the megane busty yandere), he goes to school and she goes for a walk… Hey wait a second, where did she find the clothes? She came in the house completely naked, the wuss was living all alone there and I doubt the love rival gave her some. Either the wuss is a cross dresser, a panties thief, or this show already doesn’t give a rat’s ass about plot continuity. Meh, I might as well keep watching for this amazing thing everybody was talking about. The rest of the show is about random things she does wrong because she is a dumb broad and the wuss is supposed to teach her. A dumb broad and a teenager tutor, all alone in a house. Yeah, the usual hentai excuse that never heads anywhere; I’ve seen that a million times already. Further more, she is a loli that transforms into a box. That’s right, it goes beyond the loli-in-the-box trope. The pilot episode was the same trash as always but then they say the second changes everything. Let’s see…

Episode 2: Half of it was the usual random school comedy skits I wouldn’t care less about. The other half suddenly turns to some weird fighting shounen with insane characters. And people all of a sudden transform to swords and summon guillotines out of thin air. What is this, the ecchi version of Soul Eater?

Episode 3: Cube girl is now all emo for being a weapon of mass destruction and the whole episode is spent on the meek dude looking for her and accepting her for whom she is. Yeah, very corny stuff but definitely NOT what I would expect to see in the third episode of an ecchi title. Unfortunately the ending of episode 3 turns back into a more than typical ecchi by having both the chicks to AGAIN trying to win his affection and AGAIN having fan service.

Episode 4 and onwards: So they are now trying to train their powers, while still goofing around and fending off crazy people with magic weapons. And no, I won’t bother to make further explaining to what exactly they do because it is just a slight variation of the same plot that happened above. The dork protagonists meets a cute curced girl and again battle/emo mode happen.

Each episode up to 3 had a very different feel to it, which is a good thing. The problem is these types of shows usually spend the first 2-3 episodes with good humour and a promise for an amazing continuation, only to quickly turn to wasted potential and run-of-the-mill sex jokes that head nowhere and end in the middle of nowhere. I felt like the series showed all it had to show in terms of context in episodes 2 and 3, with 4 and on feeling like a rehash. No matter how many new characters or areas or notions were introduced later on, it still felt like it reached the maximum of its capacity. As expected, it turned to an almost storyless random ecchi premise which henceforth rehashed what was going on in the beginning.

CHARACTERS: 5/10

Generic with openings for improvement that burn out early in the story. I have seen these stereotypes a million times so far and only when they escape their mold by developing is the only way they get my thumbs up. The problem of course is how they remain generic softporn fetishes, with little motivation for you to care about them, and they all pretty much follow the same pattern to the point it becomes boring. They all try to have this cute/sexy feeling combined with heavy drama in the likes of Elfen Lied. You know, cute little sexualized girls that feel emo for being used as weapons and not loved as people? The problem is that Elfen Lied had buckets of blood, death, and nude, amidst a pseudo-excuse for social criticism and moral deconstruction… while C3 is just goofing around with shallow personal drama. No matter how many times they fight, nothing of importance comes out of it and death is just a joke. So by the end of the show you get nothing but your generic dorky male living in a house full of harem bimbos, and the viewer doesn’t care about any of them in the least. You don’t feel like the scriptwriter did much with its characters other than introducing one, presenting a superficial problem, and then thrown aside just to introduce another one with a similar problem. Gets boring fast.

ART: 9/10

The production values are very good. The character figures are generic as hell, but the visual effects and the cinematics are simply amazing and I was surprised to see this is not a SHAFT production (although the animation studio, Silver Link, is basically people who used to work for them). The show is basically separated into your typical ecchi comedy with its overused sceneries of schools and houses full of sexy lolis goofing around with a hapless male, and to psychedelic fighting scenes, full of creepy-looking fluorescent weapons and yandere chicks attacking one another. The later part is definitely a lot more eye-captivating as it has far more smooth animation and exciting choreography, although even the silly everyday moments were given attention in terms of cinematics and colour palette. Eventually though, there is very little to look at despite the wonderful way everything is animated for the sole reason there is no actual gravity in whatever happens. Injuries are a joke, weapons are magically appearing out of thin air, and the girls are doing the usual dumb romcom things we see in all such shows.

SOUND: 6/10

Meh, generic songs and squeaky voices; nothing much. I was surprised to see Fear being voiced by Tamura Yukari and not Rie Kugimiya. Their voices are so alike and Fear is a loli tsundere so why not? Meh, I guess they all sound the same after awhile.

VALUE: 1/10

Although a step higher from being just goofball softporn, the series still becomes boring quite fast simply because it is trying to combine light themes with heavy ones in an uneven way. I am more than aware how most famous high seller anime are in effect serious themes presented in a light/comical/sexy way but C3 is not a good example. The transition from ecchi to heavy drama was too sudden and although it was quite a shock the first time it happened on episode 2, the repetition thereafter in almost the exact way didn’t have the same impact. So no, overall the story was bad for becoming repetitive and shallow too fast and too obvious. The ending leaves you completely apathetic and I really wonder if it would be better off if it had ended on episode 3, long before the excitement was gone. I personally find no replay value in the show and didn’t enjoy it much past episodes 2 and 3.

ENJOYMENT: 2/10
This anime looks like a weenie…
c3
… when with care it could look like a monster cock.
C==============3