C³

I watched C3 on a whim. I figured it was something that would pull in my attention and keep me on the edge of my seat. This, however, was not the case in the end. I no sooner started when I realized that it was almost over and I had no idea where the story was going.

This is spoiler free outside of general anime plot formulas.
I also want to make this quick and easy to understand for those that might want see this show and not know what to think from the cover. I'm also very easy when it comes to animes, so keep that ... in mind.

Story: 5
I really find it hard to see a logical decent story unfold within 12-13 episodes. This is the case once again. It's not that the plot was something mysterious from the get go, rather it was to much to explain and prepare the audience for. Where some shows give you every detail of the situation in great length, this show tells you to grab a combat knife and barrel roll out of a moving vehicle. In the end, your half confused and half bored but you wish you weren't.

Art: 9
I'm a sucker for eye candy animation and this show has it. The artwork is well above par for my standards and helps me coast through each episode. It's a shame that the plot isn't as interesting as the art is wonderful.

Sound: 4
The sound was nothing more than average. You pick up on it only in certain situations.

Characters: 4
Characters make a show sink or swim, it's that simple. The group that you'll watch in this series is nothing more than mediocre. I really believed that the characters would get better and make things much more entertaining but no. The male character is as bland and boring as ever, with no intention of romance. That's the best I can say without spoiling anything. As for the girls in the group, they are much better to watch. They have a stronger presence than the male character. You'll notice pretty quick that the women make the show worth your time, but not by much.

Enjoyment: 4
I was very "with" the show from the first few episodes. Once again, spoiler free. Some characters show a truly dark side and with battles you could die for. We're talking grade A material that tweaks one's mind. Remember though, I said the first few episodes. Its predictable and bland once a certain point is reached. Sadly enough.

Overall/Conclusion: 5
This show was absolutely something different than what I imagined. I will be more cautious in the future as a result. Nevertheless, this show IS pretty and the story maybe too much at times. I wouldn't recommend this if you enjoy any kind of left over feelings from emotional anime's because there simply aren't any. Some may find this fun and passes the time by but other may see it as a waste of time. This is just one of those kind of shows.

I'm going to review this anime from episode 2.., why? Because episode 2 is when it actually starts. Please base your opinions, ideals, what you think, etc from episode 2 not the first one.

I'm typing this down in a plead and as a begging to whoever is reading this and wants to try this anime, please try BOTH episode 1 and 2. When you watch episode 2, you'll understand why I'm asking you of this. The difference between episode 1 and episode 2 is like the difference between fire and water.

I will now review this anime from the perspective of someone who just watched episode ... 2 because I am that someone. If you do not want spoilers STOP READING NOW. I'm even suggesting to you, if you haven't seen the second episode, go watch it. Don't hate me if I spoil things for you, it's your own fault. :P

P.S. Overall rating is to change as this progresses.
Story: It's pretty epic so far. At this point we learn the main character is nothing like he seemed in the first episode. He gave the impression that he's a nice guy and it had harem written all over him. Well.... think again because this guy KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT!. Their first enemy of the series has appeared and she's a nutcase. Fear came from a cube, this lady hates cubes, lady pisses Fear off and Haruaki doesn't take crap from no one. Thus we have one hell of a fight scene.

Art: The art is nice, it's what I call 2011 art. They know how to shift the art colour according to what's happening. The first episode had colour, the second episode was more darker. There is also surprisingly a lot of blood in this anime. The animation is also really good. Fight scene was crystal clear, I never felt lost or put off.

Sound: I haven't heard enough BGM, that or nothing amazing has come out. I find Fear's voice to be a bit irritating at times. But on the second episode, I now love her voice. The voice actor for Haruaki is the same guy who did Subaru in 'Ro-Kyu-Bu!', but don't let that put you off. Because Haruaki is a badass compared to Subaru.

Character: There's nothing to say here besides what I've already said. Also there's not enough episodes for me to type about character growth or learn enough about them. All I can say is everyone is surprisingly acrobatic.

Going to leave the last two out for several reasons.

Anyways, the target audience for this anime may actually shift. The first episode seemed like it was asking for a harem, this may appeal to a certain type of audience. The second episode is more like an action/shounen/supernatural/ genre.

But yeh, I will say this now. If you are someone who watched the first episode and thought it would be all moe, loli, ecchi stuff and got put off. I beg you to try episode 2, you won't regret it. MAL even states that it is an action and shounen. Lets just say the action and shounen begins now.

Boy meets girl. Actually, he finds her naked in his house. His female childhood friend is upset about it, but still despite that he takes the poor thing in. How cliché is that?

Well, if that's exactly what you thought when watching the first few minutes of C3, you're pretty much entirely... WRONG!

Having seen some of the more popular series, I can tell which shows tend to be serious about their plots and which are really trying to ridicule the overused stuff. So here comes the shocking conclusion I've come to: C3 is in fact mostly a PARODY!

When you realise that, you can cheerfully laugh at ... how the protagonist, Haruaki, is never even the slightest bit surprised about anything or how his friend, Konoha, instantly becomes hostile towards the stray metal-cube-girl: Fear, who has yet to learn what TV is and how a washing machine works.

Believe me, if you take on such a point of view and go through to the second episode... Its subtle style of parody mixed with pure epicness will blow your brains out. What's more – I have a strong feeling it's gonna get even better.

Did I mention C3 also has a really pleasant visual style? Nice music and good voice acting?

Do you actually need anything more to truly enjoy a show...?

Give it a try and remember: it's not serious! It's comedy!

C3 is the next anime in the line of what I'd call "Shana Clones" mainly because of the tsundere lolicon lead and the overall formatting. Likewise, it's very similar to Dragon Crisis.

The story consists of Yachi Harukai, a boy who is supposedly immune to curses, finds a mysterious box in his house. He finds out it's really Fear Kubrick, a cursed tool. After a talk he decides to lift the curse from Fear so she can live a normal life. More characters are introduced and it becomes kind of like a harem, but without any real romantic feelings.

The show is presented in short arcs ... consisting of 2 or 3 episodes. Each one has a new antagonist that the group has to defeat. One of the issues with the series is that there is almost no continuity with the antagonists at all. While almost all of them just want Fear (or to destroy her) but other than that you know nothing about their motives.

Also, while actually a great deal of lose ends are actually cleared up before the next arc starts, it's usually done through some of the worst dialogue I have ever read in an anime. At times they just go on after they cleared it up, something like a Soap opera.

Each character has some past history, Yachi has helped decurse tools before, like his childhood friend Konoha, but we don't really learn anything about that. Likewise, the class president Kirika has a secret past, but we don't really learn much about that either. In fact, we don't really learn anything at all. Like, Yachi says he is curse immune, and it is kind of hinted he is, but we never get any proof of this.

I will say that Fear had some parts (first episode) when she look very similar to Konata Izumi, like remember Yuripe from Angel Beats being purple haired Haruhi?

C3 is dotted with fan service. But it's not arousing or funny, it's just kind of there. Fear is a loli, but there's an even lolier loli down the road where you get even more panty shots from. Konoha is also often referred to as "Cow Udder/Tits" And Kirika is often sexually harassed and also dons an "interesting tool".

There are fights too, but just about ALL of them end up being the exact same thing. Even Naruto who uses the same two moves basically in all his battles had more diversity.

The art and animation are actually decent, but that's really it. C3 was stuck in a season with a lot of impressive titles. The OP is nice, err it's basically a girl (Fear) dancing to some Jpop, but it has nice smooth animation.

Overall I gave this a 1, which might actually be kinda harsh, but I can really see no way around it. It was hard to care about the characters, story, or really anything that was going on. C3 should have stayed in the box.

C³ draws the viewer in with the overall concept and the interesting character ideas. This all falls flat in the long run and the show ends up leaving a lot to be desired.

The storyline for C³ starts off at a very nice pace. However, the plot then begins to drag. There was stuff that could have easily been cut from the storyline. For example, quite a few characters ramble on about their personal belief system, both on the good and bad sides. I think the viewer got the message the first time around. There was also stuff that could ave been added to the storyline, ... stuff that would have added actual character depth to the various characters.

The art work is at first glance looks beautiful, because of all the colors used with in the actual art designs. The bright colors don't help to camouflage the faults in the animation. There were a few scenes that looked off in the proportions and perspectives. There were also times that an experiment would be thrown in, that wasn't consistent with the rest of the animation that had been going on, either because they became lazy, or because they decided to do something cool, rather then for real experimental reasons. There were also action scenes that just felt wrong.

As for the sound, I loved the opening and closing. The regular sound track though PALED in comparison to these opening and closing songs, to the point it felt like it was no existent.

Character wise, every single character was interesting concept wise. However, the Anime didn't really add any depth to any of the characters. No, I have to take that back. The Anime did a good job of giving character depth to Amanda Carlot, also known as Mummy Maker. She was the only character I could feel anything. That may have something to do with the fact that everyone else was constantly angsting about stuff, or they were throwing tantrums, or they were indifferent.

As for my enjoyment, I had parts I enjoyed. I felt that there were things that took away from it, some of which I listed above. I thought the whole concept of Haruaki being a pervert was over dramatized. A lot of the misunderstandings didn't feel like misunderstandings, but more like the creator of the Anime was trying to force them to be misunderstandings.

Overall, this Anime is going to be hard for people to give an actual chance on. I mean, it has its enjoyable moments, and the characters are interesting. It is the kind of show that if the viewer isn't careful, it can grate on ones nerves.

C3: the One With the Rubik’s Cube



I’ve been watching anime for quite a while now. Not counting Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, which I watched when I was too young to know what anime was, I probably started about six years ago, give or take. In that timeframe, you can watch quite a few series. That’s why My Anime List (MAL) is such an important resource! Being able to keep a record of everything you’ve watched as well as record how you felt about a series and see it all in a list isn’t only helpful, it’s incredibly satisfying. It affects that part of your ... brain that makes you want to watch more and keep the list going. When I first started watching anime I never used MAL, nor did I know of its existence. That means that by the time I did start using it a little over two years ago, I had already racked up a good many series to register. Now, I consider myself to have a decent enough memory, I usually don’t forget all that much and when I made my MAL account, I could remember everything I had seen prior. Well, almost everything. I have a bit of a story to tell. You can imagine how years of watching anime without keeping a record, then suddenly trying to remember everything you’ve seen could be tricky. I don’t care how good your memory is, something will slip through the cracks. C3 was that for me. I couldn’t remember anything about it really and certainly not the name. All I could recall was what the main character looked like, that she had something to do with a cube and just one scene from the show. That was it. You could imagine how finding a specific anime with just that information could be difficult. And it was. I kept it in my mind for a while and kept trying to think of the name but to no avail. Then, finally, for some reason I can’t even remember, it just came to me: C3! Perhaps I had seen a character somewhere, or a video related to it, I honestly don’t know. Whatever gear started turning in my head, I typed it into MAL and sure enough, I got the right series. Ok, yes, I watched all 12 episodes. Oh, now I have to rate it? Oh, yeah! That’s pretty hard when I don’t remember anything about it. And that was the thought process that led to this moment. That was about a year ago, and as I was trying to find an anime to talk about this month I was reminded of C3 and I decided to satiate my cursed curiosity for this conundrum of a cube once and for all.



C3 (pronounced either C-Cubed, C-three, or CubeXCursedXCurious) is an action, supernatural, harem series that started as a light novel written by Hazuki Minase (a writer who has done some scriptwriting for Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya) in 2007. It ran for seventeen volumes over six years, had three volumes of manga made, and finally in 2011 made its anime debut. It was adapted by Silver Link, a studio who has done quite a few recognizable works, Baka & Test, WataMote, Chivalry of a Failed Knight, to name some, and was directed by Shin Ōnuma who directed all the things I listed above and much more. The soundtrack was composed by Jun Ichikawa who I suppose most prominently did the arrangement of the first Pokemon Diamond and Pearl OP, and as a Sinnoh fan myself, I can appreciate that. Something else that’s interesting to note is that C3 has a TV-MA rating, which not a whole lot of series has. Was I surprised when I found that out? Sort of. I kind of get why, but we’ll get to that later. Let’s find out if C3 is any good, shall we? What? I should have remembered from before so I didn’t have to watch it again? I mean, y-yes you have a point, but, uh, well...shut up! I’ll curse you!



Our story begins with a delivery man, who likely doesn’t get paid enough for his job, carrying a giant black cube to a doorstep. But this doorstep doesn’t belong to just anyone, no, it belongs to Haruaki Yachi, our high schooler protagonist. Yachi’s father who is overseas sends him weird stuff all the time, so he’s fairly desensitized to his shenanigans and throws the cube in storage. That night as Yachi is asleep, he hears strange noises coming from somewhere in the house. What dangers could it be? A murderer? A thief? A violent psychopath? No, it’s just a stark naked girl with long blue hair eating the young man’s rice crackers...and all of the other things I mentioned. Ahem! The girl’s name is Fear Kubrick and she was a “cursed tool” made during the height of the inquisitions, who after being filled with so many negative feelings of hatred, gained consciousness and took on human form. Now, along with her dark past, she comes with a curse: whoever’s her owner will be driven mad and eventually use her for torture, as they revel in their victim's pain. Our friendly neighborhood protagonist, Yachi, is unswayed by this, as he is a nice guy and has a strange immunity to all curses. Fear could never drive him mad...well, at least not from the curse anyway. He informs Fear that she could break her curse by replacing people's negative feelings of her with positive ones. Feeling deep regret for so long, she is overjoyed by this. And so Yachi and friends live their lives trying to protect the cursed cube from those who wish her harm as she gradually tries to repent for her sins and become more human and along the way, help save even more cursed tools.



Ok, so a story about a girl that’s a cube? Or is it the other way around? I can get behind that! I like both of those...things? Rubik's cubes are neat, right? Wait, she fights with one!? My first impressions of C3 overall I must say was pretty good, far better than I remembered or expected, though I didn’t remember anything in the first place. From the first episode, you’re quickly thrown into things headfirst and get a good enough understanding of what the series has to offer. That fast pace is something that stays for the whole anime, but thankfully doesn’t ever feel rushed. I was also pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of the plot. Through Fear, we learn of this story built around cursed items that take on human form. It’s an interesting concept that can potentially lead to some interesting scenarios. It creates this story about tools growing consciousness, about tools that can’t or won’t think for themselves breaking free from their masters. Tools that won’t commit the crimes they're told to do. It’s oddly a motivational story in a lot of ways. And we see it through not only Fear but through the other cursed items as well, like Konoha Muramasa, one of Yachi’s friends. She starts to lose her grip when she sees blood, but she manages to control herself. Fear’s the same way when she hears screams. But they’re both trying to change, despite the world seeming not wanting them to. The main point in Fear’s arc is this question of if she even deserves salvation in the first place. Does a cursed tool have any right to be happy? Do they have any right to live at all?



Questions like these are at the forefront of the plot and it also gives way for some interesting motivations for villains. One the one hand, there are the villains you would expect: ones that want to destroy Fear because they see her and all cursed tools as a plague, but there’s also another type of villain, one that loves cursed tools. I thought this was especially interesting because the whole plot centers around Fear trying to break her curse and live a happy life. Yet this new villain wants more or less the same thing: to see cursed tools be happy. The goal is the same however, the difference is the means at which they accomplish that goal. While Yachi prefers to break their curses and let them live happily as humans, you have villains who wish to fulfill their curses, ones who wish for the cursed tools to stop fighting their “true selves.” Villains that actively try to make Fear and Konoha go back to their old selves. To give in. It has you questioning the characters, especially Fear. Is she really worth defending? Was she really just a tool, unable to fight the will of her master, or did she just suddenly grow a conscience? Which one is her true self? The sometimes gentle, always hot-headed, rice cracker loving human, or the quite frankly homicidal maniac? Fear struggles with these questions throughout the plot and so do you, the viewer. There’s this sense of an identity crisis. One that really every character goes through at one point or another. An example is Kirika Ueno, who although being human also suffers from being a tool to a master, and her arc is about becoming more than that and following what she herself wants and not what others tell her. However, one character is an exception to this theme and that’s Yachi. He doesn’t suffer from an identity crisis, but unfortunately, he is afflicted with “bland main character” disease. What is perhaps the exact opposite of an identity crisis, and a crippling illness to be sure. For the most part, C3 is a story about overcoming your past, regardless of whether you’re a human or not. It’s about breaking the shackles chaining you to that past and heading towards the future. I think perhaps the most fitting epitome for the story as a whole is a scene right at the end of the series. A melancholic Fear asks Yachi a question as they overlook their quiet town from the rooftop: “there are humans who act like tools and tools that act like humans, what’s the difference?” Which are the other cursed tools? Which is she? Yachi smiles and simply says, in a sentence that sums everything in the series up perfectly “a simple tool never wonders whether it’s a tool or a human.”



For as interesting and unique as I find the plot to be, it isn’t all hunky-dory. There are a few unanswered questions the anime leaves you with, mostly about the cursed tools themselves. First and most importantly just what exactly are the cursed tools? We’re never giving anything concrete about them. We don’t know how they’re made, what exactly they are, or how they even take human form in the first place. We’re left completely in the dark. From Fear, all we know is she was used during the inquisitions and had so many negative feelings funneled into her that she became sentient. We don’t know how that works, or why she can turn into a human and switch whenever she wants. We even see later on that cursed tools don’t necessarily have to choose a human form, it can even be a doll. But why, or how it works we never know. In that way, we hardly know which form is their true form. We’re also never really shown how curses work either. We know that the cursed tools are trying to break them and that positive feelings are how (which again is never explained) but we don’t really see how they work. Because Yachi is immune, it seems as if the curses aren’t really there in the first place, so they don’t really seem necessary to break. I suppose it’s so they can live without Yachi, but let’s be honest, it’s a harem series so that will never happen. Perhaps making the curses affect him in some way but have him struggle to fight it for the cursed tool's sake would have been more interesting. We do get to see a little about curses and their potential tolls from Kirika, but she isn’t a cursed tool like Fear or Konoha. So it’s hard to know just how devastating they could be.



There was another thing I was kind of surprised at, we never get any information about Konoha. Someone who has supposedly been Yachi’s close friend for a good while. We know her “trigger”: when she sees blood, but not exactly what happens if she loses herself. We can take a wild guess from Fear, but we don’t know for sure and as we’re never given a backstory, it’s hard to make assumptions. So I suppose I would have just liked to see a little more about what makes the cursed tools tick. A little about who or what they are. And maybe that is explained in the light novels. The anime only adapted a small portion of it, but in just the context of the anime, we’re left with a lot of questions about the concept the story itself is centered around. And that’s hardly ever a good thing.



Generally, C3 takes itself fairly seriously. Of course, it has some comedy along with it, but much of the plot involves themes of murder, sometimes torture, and the occasional character might get dismembered. Now, this is all true, but another true thing is C3 is a harem anime and as a result has some fan service. I’ll say this, the fanservice feels largely unnecessary, (as it usually is) with the occasional upskirt shot or innuendos here and there and sometimes quite forced boob humor as Fear (as everyone will remind you) has a flat chest. It’s nothing new for the genre, but to give C3 credit the fanservice never cancels out the serious portions of it. There’s none during fight scenes and moments where anything important happens. It’s usually just for comedy, however, how funny you find it will vary. At the very least, it isn’t overbearing, though it doesn’t need to be there at all.



I’ve been waiting to talk about this! So there’s one aspect of C3 that helps convey the story wonderfully, but I have one main qualm with it: that’s the art. The art does a lot of things right, which I’ll get to in a second, but I want to start instead, with something I didn’t like about it. I do not like the character design of C3 much at all. I’ve already talked about Yachi and how you couldn’t pick him out of a crowd if you tried, but that carries to the rest of the cast as well. Konoha is the super generic more mature looking glasses-wearing girl that we’ve seen about a hundred times and I can think of multiple examples off the top of my head. Fear’s alright but she looks like 90% of small tsundere characters in the world. Though I will say I quite like how in battle she fights with a Rubik's cube and uses all sorts of grizzly looking tools. It shows a great (and borderline humorous) duality to her cute appearance. The only character design I really find interesting (bar the villains which I think are pretty good) is Kirika, both for her actual design not looking like a million other characters, and how that design is partly a byproduct of her backstory, which is a pretty interesting one. I suppose I like Kuroe Ningyohara’s design as well as her powers, but her, uh, forceful(?) personality mixed with the questionable fanservice, and her design was a little off-putting.



However, I overall adore the artwork in C3 and think that it is one of, if not the best part of the series. Not only is it just good looking being colorful, vibrant, bubbly and just a pleasure to look at, but it also does quite a few other things well. The fight scenes and the various ways the characters can fight are well done. I mentioned before about Fear in battle, and I really do like it. From a drill, a giant sword and chain, or even a breaking wheel to an iron maiden, she has just about all the horrible punishments you don’t ever want to imagine at her disposal, and using them as she does in battle is surprisingly cool to see. Don’t worry though, no torture here. She’s beyond that now. But my reason for loving the art goes beyond that, it’s used in C3 in a way that gives it an identity. The anime is almost trippy to watch, with it cutting to different styles of character's faces or towards what the subject of conversation is. It’s sporadic in what the camera focuses on and it does this all in time with the soundtrack as well. To give my favorite example, there’s a time when what is essentially a ransom tape is being recorded and as the villain is talking this menacing music plays in the background. In time with that music, every 10 seconds or so, it will cut to a monochrome view of a clock, its hand jerking forward with a ticking sound. Not only does it signify that the video is recording, but it also adds to the severity of the situation. With everything combined it almost becomes stressful to watch. There are also other clever parts in which the art is used to convey violence but in a less violent way. For instance, when a character might receive a nasty cut, rather than show it, it flashes quickly to an all-white background as you see little red lines start to appear and drip down. It turns something that isn’t so artsy like violence and turns it into something that almost looks like an abstract painting, but is obvious enough for you to know what just happened. It’s incredibly well done and something I have never seen before. I think it’s wonderful.



As I mentioned briefly the OST is also a strong point. Not only does the soundtrack accompany the visuals well, but it also pops out. Rarely have I ever watched an anime where I immediately notice the soundtrack. Once you start hearing that a cappella track in the first episode you’ll be hooked. The OPs and EDs are quite good as well, with some very Japanese sounding tracks, along with some quite good art. Perhaps I should have mentioned this earlier, but I loved the visuals in the first opening. Fear dances gracefully to the song and looks beautiful while doing it. I think it’s funny how later in the series she tries to learn how to dance to that exact song but fails miserably. It’s a subtle but great joke. Back to the tunes, there are all sorts of tracks from super lighthearted stuff, to menacing “you know it’s about to go down” tracks. And I said it before but the a cappella was great! I never heard something like that used in an anime. I was actually hoping to see Jun (not Jim autocorrect!) Ichikawa’s other work, but it seems he still hasn’t done all that much. A shame really. However, the uniqueness of C3’s soundtrack will stand as a testament to the work he can do.



I suppose now I’ll talk about the elephant in the room: the TV-MA rating. So, do I think it deserves it? Yes, probably. Not for the fanservice, because it rarely goes past being suggestive and there’s no nudity or anything. If anything I’d say it’s because of the plot more than anything. I mean when you really get down to it, it is a story about a homicidal killer trying to repent for her sins, regardless of how deceptively adorable that killer may be. There are also quite a few scenes of graphic violence. I mentioned how it’s usually down in an artsy way, which it is, but not the whole time. I mean in one scene a character has their stomach cut open and the villain shoves their hand inside and starts squeezing. I mean the art makes it look like somebody’s just reaching into a bag to find the right color jelly bean, but I’ll tell you this, you wouldn’t want to eat those ones. And it’s not like they can do that all the time. After someone gets dismembered, you’ll still have to see a bloody stump in its place, y’know? And, I mean there is a part where someone gets violently drilled to death, clone or not, they have blood and the art can’t cover that up. Though I admit, that scene was one of the most clever and evil things I’ve ever seen a villain do, so I liked it quite a lot. Oh no, maybe the curse is getting to me? I’ll say there’s certainly worse violence but it isn’t exactly mild either. It’s more than you’ll probably see in your Naruto’s or you Dragon Ball Z’s (I suppose dismemberment happened in that quite a lot too!) or whatever the kids are watching these days. If you’re squeamish, maybe stay away. It’s up to you! It’s not my job to watch after you, youngins!



I really debated whether or not to do this. I’m generally of the mindset that I don’t watch things multiple times (especially if they aren’t great) because there are so many other things I could watch. But I made an exception for C3, purely because I’ve had a fascination with it ever since I forgot its name. I hate giving a rating for something I barely remember, so I really wanted to fix that. And because of this whole review thing It gave me a chance to, for that, I’m grateful. I really did enjoy C3 quite a lot, far more than I thought I would. A series that in my mind I would have been like “oh, yeah the cube one,” I can now go like “oh, yeah the cube one, it was pretty good.” It honestly made me want to go back and rewatch some other series that my memory is a bit foggy on. Well, that will have to wait for another time. I’d still rather add something new than something I’ve already seen. But if anything C3 showed me that it’s worth going back and experiencing something a second time. You never know how your opinions may change. Another reason I probably feel this way is because when I had watched C3, I was very early in my anime career, only having a handful of series under my belt. I wasn’t able to tell what C3 had done right, and on the flip side, what it had done wrong. But now I could. And for that, I’m grateful to it. C3, when I decide to take a look at an older series (and maybe even talk about it) I’ll owe it to you. Thank you, C3, and thank you, Fear, you adorable monster you.



As always that was just my opinion and isn’t any more or less valid than yours. If you don’t like that, Fear will curse you! Your punishment? Forced to have a Rubik’s cube glued to your hand until you solve it. Oh, the horror! As always, I highly recommend you don’t listen to me, your grandmother, your friend’s cousin, or anyone else, and instead watch C3 and form your own opinion. Forming opinions is fun and like milk keeps your bones and your body strong!



Thank you very much for reading ~


I have a strange desire to go mess with a Rubik’s cube now. Wait! I can’t believe it! I finally finished it! Well, one side that is. Funny story, I had never used a Rubik’s cube when I was younger so I assumed once you did one side that meant you completed them all. What a poor innocent idiot I was.



Anyways, I’ll see you next month!

C3 (C "cubed") or also known as CubexCursexCurious. Is an Anime that's centered around a weapons that turn human (sound's familiar... ) these guys are known as cursed tools. the anime talks about lifting curses and understanding.

Although the concept seems nice, i warn you... this anime throws information out of no where so fast that you need to pause, think and process. you will find that there is information there that needs explaining, information that seems vital to the story.

with that in mind the character development seemed a bit hollow or somewhat feel somewhat empty... if a character was in trouble I felt ... nothing apart from "oh, your going to be attacked...", i reckon that the characters need more depth in order to do really make it shine.

The art of C3 is really good, the colours, the art style does that eerie effect that they might be going for. the cute characters design and weapons where very nice. I do warn you though does contain a little ecchi scenes

All in all this anime is a decent watch is you are a lover of mindless violence. I think this anime had potential if it was made right. It seems to me that they tried but it turn in to a bit of a flop. It may make more sense if you read the manga ( i didn't :x)

C³
Ever heard about the ''cliché harem anime's which are utterly annoying''? most harem anime have no progress, no real story and are mostly pushed forward on fanservice and very lame humor.
C³ right here, screams to all corners of the world; ''YES WE CAN''. Rather overwhelming the viewer with images you would hide from
your family and friends, and almost start crying NOT because of seeing a scene of Clannad but because the humor is SO bad, you should just take this from me; C³ is for the people who have been vomiting their last reserve of useable ''clear mind'', and just CAN'T enjoy harem any longer. ... not a lousy backstory, not a lousy intro and give a reason ''WHY'' he meets that person. he's just thrown in the situation after 2 minutes, without any explaination why and what. it's just a story stripped from it's ''expected'' lousy and lame moments.

From the normal anime where we get told why and where the girl comes from (see: random cliché anime), we just simply skip that part and get thrown into teaching the girl that roasted tea fits with rice crackers. No sentimental reason, no why or what's. Only that she was a gift sent from his father, which doesn't get explained either. Practically, you can compare it to the food being chewed for you or just given to you and you need to sort out how to eat it. you'll eventually get it swallowed anyway. Some might hate it, but i'm sure most will love it. It's a harem, so why not make the best out of it? this show has no dignity; no hiding... no shame at ALL.
If it changes to fan service, it's REAL fanservice. if it changes to action and gore, it's REAL action and gore. if it changes to humor, it's REAL humor. It's like the company wanted to show that not every harem is mostly lame, and shout ''YES WE CAN'' over the roofs. The anime has alot of very light hints to the plot,
and some might say ''there weren't any''. I'm sorry, but with some anime you need to pay attention, and this is one of these. For the co-reviewers; a big flip off for you sir!



The start and background story are simple: Guy receives a box from his dad from a far away country, as the box reacts on his touching.
the box changes into a girl that appears 30 seconds later on the episode. The start is so simple, where is the story? Well, that's the development of the story. You could compare the progress as a Detective anime, where the answers all explode infront of you at the end. A simple, but rather genius way to gain content over the anime. Rather then trying to find new ways to explain a story in the category harem, Silver link decided to take the best ways to sort out, and strip away anything unnecessary. i could start spoiling about the story, but that's already tough not to since it's, after all, a harem(see; much fanservice, not alot of story). Just take it that this is one to watch if you love Harem in mix with Supernatural.

Art.
The Art director of Da Capo and Sakurasou no Pet kanojo; otherwords, the art is just as it should be. it's simple on the moments you see quick animations, which makes it easy NOT to turn out confused and get the ''what just happened'' feeling,
as on the more slow movement scenes you get a rich outlay of lots of details and background information, which also point out hints about the plot. subtle and enjoyable.
8/10.


story
''Story? What story?'' Said the harem-critic. Yes. it's true that most Harem do not contain a proper story as with Clannad, Sword art online or Mirai Nikki. What you find in C³, though, is a much, MUCH darker story then you would expect in the first place. It's easy going, and is thinned over the action, comedy and fanservice.
But, here's the cookie(i will give you one later): it's not overused as in most Harem. Most people combine Harem and Ecchi together, as this one clearly does not use the overused lousy attributions,
but makes it actually enjoyable for people. it's a bit dissapointing that they DO try to spread their story over too many themes, which can be a utter failure for some fans.
It is, and always be, a harem.
7/10


sound
nothing wrong with the intro theme. it's good music combined with a utterly fancy Video. same for the music trough the anime as it has plenty music for different scenes. The ending theme is Okay. nothing special compared to the Intro and music troughout the anime. The voice acting is pretty decent, but mainly Yukari Tamura, the voice-over of Fear, is extremely well done. the high pitching voices in the cute comedy scenes but the maniacal voicing in the action scenes really make you shiver.
8/10

characters
we've got Haruaki, the main guy which is just being dragged everywhere in the first place but does contain character development, but mainly leads the other main characters in changing personalities. he's just the joker in the show, what is one of the main characteristics in random harems. sad they did copy this, but else it wouldn't be a harem theme. next to that we have Fear, the main female Protagonist, which has a dark curse, and wants to lift this to finally be relieved of her duty; which i will NOT spoil. She's a shy girl who screams ''i'll curse you'' on the moment she's brought in embarressment. cute, but she also contains a very dark and murderous side. As last we have Muramasa, first introduced as the neighbor friend of Haruaki, but contains a hidden power to change in a deadly weapon of justice; which Haruaki can handle to atleast defend himself against dark and magical opposers.
the characters in general all contain something interesting; although they do not go far into their past, they all are explained just enough to follow the story. there isn't more information necessary to delay the story, because there is just enough content to change the personalities and ways how to act in the characters.
They are just stripped from information no one really gives a damn about. Thats why, suprisingly, it's more entertaining and rather refreshing then most Harems.
7/10


enjoyment
It is and always will be a harem. The difference is that this one KNOWS it's a harem, and tries to expand those limits they all reach at some point. They accept the challenge to expand the theme and by this they came out of a unexpected corner and hit the watcher right in the face. they go beyond most harems, which scream out as they all show too many of this or that particular theme. Silver Link knew that this is the reason why Harems made a dive in ratings, and only the best survived. You only find Clannad, Freezing and kanon in those lists, while these are not even OFFICIALLY harems. That's why it's pretty sad this anime has not reached those rankings as they have the theme, and have the potentional to grow up in the harem ratings.
it's refreshing, funny and something else then the mainstream anime like Naruto and Fairy Tail.
9/10


With this i'll end my review. i hope to see you next time ;)

- Zumorito

I'll have to say this in advance, while watching the first few episodes I've never been more annoyed at the word "Bitch", because of how often I heard it.
Please remember that this is my own opinion about the series and whether or not you choose to think well of it is yours to think.

Story: I gave the story such a low score because the lack of luster it showed me, throughout the 12 episodes I found myself watching a circle of events followed by conflict and action, with little overall plot development. It was like replaying a level in a video game about 3 ... times in a row. Besides the repetitive feeling C^3 gave me, there were some aspects that gave it it's own unique feel. So far I haven't met a concept where cursed tools are from the fault of humans etc. Yet finding that theme mixed in with ecchi and harem, well, IMO it didn't mix very well.It attempted to mix a harem like aspect of cursed tools that were used for killing somewhat attracted to the main character, who didn't stand out very much either. Still, this anime plot line had its ups and downs, which persuaded me to finish the series.

Art and Sound: The art was pretty good, and I liked the music enough for me to put it on my "to download and listen to later" list. Conflict moments that included combat were displayed fantastically and animations for the "powers" each Waas/Worse/Cursed tool had were pretty cool.

Characters: As seen in standard ecchi/harem/highschool anime, the personalities of the characters were easily relate-able to similarly themed anime. The main character seemed as a more supporting role, and from each 2-3 episodes it centered around a different character but ultimately returning to Fear-in-Cube going through a similar circle of events.

I somewhat enjoyed this series. I managed to suffer through the cliche'ness of it all. Which brings me to a SPOILER. What kind of last ending boss fight was that? Completely rushed and cliche, the ending resolution pushed the story score down the lowest I have ever rated in a series. But in some ways I was enlightened with comedy and action. (Shout out to Konoe and her camera skills, XD). For people starting to watch anime and haven't seen many like this I recommend you watch it. If you have seen anime similar to this one, I wouldn't really watch it unless you are looking for a time killer. Just to state clearly the main flaws I found were: The amount of cliche moments, the repetitiveness of the plot line, and the awkward mix of ecchi/harem with bloody cursed tools with traumatizing backgrounds etc.

Overall, I wouldn't look down on this series too much, IMO I've just seen too many like it that are superior, and it bored me. If you were offended in some way, refer to my message at the top. But if not, have fun watching the series!

-Sincerely, Nebarto

To be straight forward, I regret ever watching this anime. it was a huge waste of time I could have been spent watching something more sensical. Anyway, why did I say that this is a bad anime:

>Characters: unexplained why they are like that and their origins. personalities and traits are unclear too.

>Story: I can't find it anywhere

>Stupidity: too damn high, count the number of times an enemy got away because they are busy with senseless chatter and really, the characters decisions defy logic itself.

piece of advise, if you like anime with good plot and likable characters, don't watch this anime

If you liked the anime in terms of "Art" would be nice if you try this anime because I guarantee you will not be disappointed because graphic design and CGI effects is modern. But when we talk about the story I told you this anime is no different to the anime genre Echi and Harem.

Story
(+)
The advantages of this anime lies in the simplicity of the story, making it suitable for viewing at a relaxed state. If you are lovers of the genre of 'mystery' in C3 there are some mysteries that need to be disclosed.

(-)
Too monotonous as Harem and Echi anime genre, because most of ... the anime genre like this has the same plot as "a beautiful girl comes to the protagonist in a weakened state and helps the protagonist, the protagonist lives in a house and then like the protagonist. There are many enemies chasing and beautiful girl in the end help the protagonist and the girl could live free ". So simple C3 has many similarities of harem anime genre and Echi.
The story seemed forced, in which we can not see what events are experienced by "Fear" of the past and how he created. Who was the protagonist why he got the gift of "Fear". There is no definite story about character and Kirika Konoha. The authors focus on the daily "Fear" so the audience will not get the impression from this anime.

Art
(+)
From various aspects, this work of art anime graphics. Starting from the lighting, coloring, gradation and taking picture so great that all this anime looks alive and like to see Live Action. By adding CGI effects make this anime more interesting, especially in times of battle.
(-)
So far from fine art images all have nothing to worry about.

Sound
(+)
To the size of a short duration anime opening soundtrack can make two somewhat remarkable, especially easily listening opening soundtrack. On the whole start of the soundtrack and sound effects using a type of modern music.
(-)
I think the mistake is not good enough in terms of sound

Character
(+)
All the female characters here have a super power, and they who lead the course of the story. Even the antagonist of all women. So it can be concluded here that superior female characters.
(-)
Was predictable, since the anime has a lot in common with a lot of harem anime genre and Echi then the protagonist must have a weak guy, do not have super strength and has only one advantage that is "smooth talker". It would be nice if the guy has the power figures other than the well-spoken as the main focus on a character guy, a guy when the task is to protect a female character.
There is no development of character, so we see the early episodes of the anime characters that are then played to the end we'll see them in similar circumstances. Impression in terms of character "boring"

Enjoyment
I just enjoy from the "Art" just because they managed to make this amazing anime and look alive. But if you look in terms of the story was boring.

Overall
This anime managed to justify the great side in terms of "Art". Yet for all the episodes seem monotonous story and need to progress the story.
If there sequeel of C3 I hope there is progress the story and character development, especially from a guy protagonists.

The story was very hurried and rushed, especially in the first episode or two. You don't really get any emotions towards the characters because of this and the reactions of the main character are cliche, BUT the artwork where she goes insane and the evil laughter and other sounds are great. The artworks enters a more non traditional view during some back stories of some of the characters. This is an anime where you can skim and just watch clips because otherwise you are not really utilizing your time well.

Overall if you want a silly or ecchi artwork, this may have a little bit ... where you see a bit of seduction between some of the female characters, especially later on in the series.

Story:

The only reason I give the story a 7 is because it had amazing potential. This could have easily broken my top 10 anime, but as time went by, they took almost every wrong turn possible. If they would have stayed with the original feel of the show, I'm certain it would be far better.

Art:

I really have to give them props for the art. It was unique to a point beyond measure. I have NEVER seen such colorful/emotional art in any series I've seen. The art told just as much story as words did. From flowery happy emotions to, dark sad emotions. You could feel ... it all in the art. While I wouldn't like this sort of art on most series, it fit the overall feel really well.

Sound:

The sound wasn't too amazing. While a few tunes caught my attention, It didn't really stand out. But again, they made it fit the story really well.

Character:

While their characters were unique, most were unnecessary, annoying, 'I-want-to-shoot-you-through-the-face' characters. Character progression was awful, it was either too big of jumps or far too subtle. It didn't really match the flow of the story. With the exception of Sovereignty.

Enjoyment:

C3 was more of a "I'll keep watching, maybe it'll get better" anime. The first few episodes were "Aww, I have to wait another week?" but it quickly became watching it just for the small hope it will throw some shot of amazement at you. Wasn't my most enjoyable anime to watch, and I would usually watch it last.

Overall:

Overall it wasn't so great. It had potential. But the story took a turn for the worst, the characters were just plain bad. But they did everything else just fine.

After having finished it yesterday, I must say. This show is awful. It makes absolutely no sense. The pacing is absurd. At the end of the series I still didn't understand what the heck I was watching. And they end the series like there will be a season 2, but I doubt it will sell enough for one.

The only good thing about the show, were the OPs. Which, were quite good I have to say.

CUBED X CURSED X CURIOUS REVIEW:

MINDSET:
You should already know what's coming Your way once You see, “Light Novel Adaptation” popping up the back of Your hand, its either from the Cows Buttocks, or average stones.

SYNOPSIS:
C3 starts out in regular modern day Japan with our generic protagonist Haruaki, at one day he soon finds a mythically giant black cube posted by Your local mail man, soon he notices that the giant cube can transform into female loli known as “Fear”. It was then found out that her cube can not only resize into the palm of her hand for plot convenience, but it can also ... be used as a tool of 100 torture devices. (BDSM style! Yay, kids!)


REVIEW:
We all know that light novel adaptations are always aiming for “Mass Appeal” since that is the one thing that always tend to sell! (AKA: The casual audience) Consequently, C3 slightly “Differs” from this case as it is surprisingly good on paper. However, for me to summarise such issues, the show is also trying to also be ecchi, which has the tendency to break a show if it has a more mature, interesting and serious nature. This is no exception.

Don't expect deep and complex villains. They are all completely lacking in depth, and are often just one liner character. Like is it ever in any way, shape or form that the first villain is just this random axe wielding psychopath who keeps crying out “Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!” Every 5 seconds when she's fighting a woman will equal character depth and complexity? No!

Tropes are a thousand times more overused, and replicated. So (obvious fact) the light novel adaptation tends to carry: One dimensional villains? Check! Character Archetypes? Check! Tsunderes? Check! Fan Service? Check! Endings that leave one or more plot holes? Damn hell & Check! And this is the biggest issue to be summarised with this show here, it feels far too much like a light novel adaptation, yet it has an interesting premise and a fairly good amount of potential to be a “Good Light Novel, with the Adaptation” Buuuut Your run of the mil light novel is bound to fail.

Speaking of fanservice, there is a bit too much fanservice to take this show onto more serious and mature levels. The fact that Kirka wears permanent bondage under her clothes will not mean as a symbolic reference of her sexual suffering and how she is trapped in pain unless if the show shuts up the fanservice, takes a serious look on the audience, and respects it like an actual man!

These kinds of concepts may look very nice on both paper, and in action if done in properly mature manner. However, its is simply lazy to take the risk, and create a potentially good and interesting show! For goodness sakes! The show is not even trying to make these concepts as interesting and thought provoking as it is meant to be, leaving it into Ecchi abyss...

Silver Link doesn’t have many renowned or popular works, but its safe to say that the budget will remain very consistent for these 12 episode series, and C3 tends to have pretty above average Animation, the action scenes and cool powers they use create some pretty energetic looking battles. The colours they use all have a nice shiny finish to them so everything is all nice and colourful. The character designs aren’t anything to be especially proud of, since there quite generic and only the female designs only stand out.

Though I think Silver Link is trying to copy SHAFT STYLE at certain points, but I don't really think its ever overused as much as Shafts own work. Though I don't think it really ever gives out extra points for that since those moments are kind of sparse, but not elusive.

OST is again is just as above average as the Animation, with only one note worthy song that seems to stick around Your mind, and the rest fitting in with the mood, with Your usual pianos, trumpets, drums etc. Though it seems to be quite a large OST for 12 good songs that seem fairly on par with the Animation. OP is above average and fairly catchy, while its rather advisable to skip the ED.

LEGACY:
Such an Underrated show that never really managed to be seen upon masses. Season two is bound to never be released because Silver Link can't profit enough milk from it, but I suppose I'll remember this Light Novel Adaptation though failing and hitting its face on a wall, for having a bit more ambition than something like Mahouka which aims too much for MASS APPEAL.

SCORES:
3.5/10- SINCE LIGHT NOVEL CHARACTERS SUCK. (cool ideas though)
3.5/10- SINCE LIGHT NOVEL PLOTS SUCK. (though some decent foreshadowing at times BTW)
6.5/10- Well made and brightly coloured pieces of imagery but note bing too Shafty, but good Animation is good Animation.
7/10- Mainly for 12 good songs on par with the Animation.
3/10- Lacking enjoyability because it does'nt take good advantage of its potential, and fanservice.

FINALE: 4.5/10 it has cool ideas and the budget to go with it, but fails in the long run. Because of fan service and the attempt of MASS APPEAL.

This show was thoroughly entertaining for a variety of--spoiler free--reasons.
I will admit that the premise of a cube being one of the main love interests in a story is... out there.... But what I really liked about this anime is that it manages to meld action, gore, and an undeniable sense of cute fairly well.
It threw me off at times, but in a good way: shifting in tone RAPIDLY from lighthearted and cute, to dark and gory, occasionally multiple times in the same episode.
It touches on several difficult topics--humanity, murder, past sins, etc--yet still doesn't manage to come off as too edgy or ... take itself too seriously, throwing in a decent amount of ecchi and lighthearted character interactions.
And I'm not really a connoisseur of art and sound, but I will say that they probably had a (rather large) hand in making those massive flips in tone seem almost seamless (in my opinion)

stay crazy,
Rijento

I'm generally more positive regarding my views about series, so I'm not gonna flame the series.

Also, note that i am reviewing this long after it's release, so there are newer anime that serve as reference points as well.

But i will describe this series as wasted potential at very least.

based on that

I'll begin with the plot, which revolves around cursed artifacts taking human form and the overarching plot in the series is about the role of the curses and how to break them or something of that level. My vague and uncertain description of that overarching plot comes literally from the fact that it ... is not properly developed

Of the 12 episodes in the series, i believe only 2 or 3 actually ised the seriousness that they were toying with to a larger extent, and even then it happens so quickly that you can't see how they got to this point or how it links to a broader concept.

The characters are also painfully stereotypical, and if i was actually pretty grateful about something, its that this anime didn't play the trope where the girls beat the guy up when something awkward occurs, making their characterization more bearable.

More bearable is to say, in and of itself the characters weren't built well. Nothing is wrong with using stereotypical characters if you do it well, but no attempt was actively made to flesh the characters out. We see in the series hints of a tragic backstory and complexity that lies below the surface of characters.

And that's it. hints of it. No actual look into the characters. Most of the time for that was lost on the series playing out it's ecchi/harem scenes in something of a monotonous school life drama i skipped through a lot because it did not offer much to plot or character development.

Some will probably argue that a Harem/Ecchi series should stick to it's core in that and go for something similar to To Love Ru or Date a Live, basically not taking themselves too seriously because the idea of fanservice is very jarring in a dark plot. I will agree with that opinion in that by placing focus on that, the series would have had more direction. But anime such as Grisaia no Rakuen have proven that the idea of harem/ ecchi and a serious plot can exist side by side.

My concluding opinion is this show either had no clear direction of what it was doing - that's to say couldn't decide between the lighthearted nature or serious nature, or had a vision to create a blend but failed.

I'll give it a 4-5/10 for an entertaining watch when not much thought is put into it, but if you're looking for something especially unique, i'll say there's better options.

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 are absolutely 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 body parts, then you've found your series.

Animation:
Having just finished a lot of ancient series prior to originally writing this review, the series was like eye candy to me. 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 boing than 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.

episode 1
well, i kind of saw this one coming after i read the manga. but still i had hopes for the anime. the anime was quite disappointing. i don't usually write reviews like this, but this anime didn't blend with me to this moment. maybe the purple haired check didn't show on the first episode, so i will continue watching it. the story is somewhat boring, i personally didn't see the purpose. the art is the most acceptable thing i saw with this anime, although they added echi into it. the characters are fine, i just don't like the short tsundere girl-type. i didn't enjoy ... it as much as i should have. overall, im not putting it on my fav list. but they still have a chance to make up for it.

episode 2
i didn't see that much of an improvement, though they lessened the echi which is admirable. they added all this stuff that doesn't make any sense to the anime, but maybe they will fix it by explaining things in the later episodes. and the purple haired check who i can't remember her name did her part. so, yeah good improvements i guess, but they have to step-it-up-a-notch to get a good review and rating from me.

I wanted to like this show. Really, I did. It has many elements that I like -- an exploration of the occult, cute girls, a little mystery... But really, this entire series was a slow-motion train-wreck. If I had been in my right mind, I would have given up on it by episode 6, but something compelled me to watch it through to the end. So what went wrong? Firstly, the plot was more tortured than the characters in the story. It was truly impossible to figure out what the deeper story was about. The surface story ... was about the main female character Fear, breaking free of her curse and learning to become a human, not a (cube shaped) tool of the dark forces of the occult. But trying to figure out the rest of the plot was beyond frustrating. At first I thought it was going to be about a mysterious father-figure of Fear, but that wasn't it. How was the school superintendent involved? What was the whole Sovereignty arc even about? What was The Waas Family supposed to be all about? How about the Laboratory Group? Honestly, I don't even care at this point. It was a horrendous collage of almost-good plot ideas that went terribly, terribly wrong. And our male main character, Haruaki, was the typical 1-dimensional harem guy basically along for the ride and did nothing for anyone other than give encouraging words. The last complaint I have is that there was a lot of sadistic violence in the dialog. I object to that, it is unnecessary and it is a cheap way to gain audience sympathy -- but leaves the viewer somewhat traumatized for having had to watch it. If this show had been someone's first introduction into Anime, I would feel sorry that they got such a poor impression of the genre. If you like the occult genre, there are many other mystery horror shows that are far better. Bakemonogatari or Moon-Phase spring to mind. My recommendation for C3? Skip it without regrets. As far as the OVA for the series goes, it was lighthearted and a nice respite from the dreadful main series.