Starting-off with the opening song, all I can say is that its appropriate enough, but very standard. It's a studio-done song, so, as one can imagine, Yukari Tamura, the voice of the main character of this show, is singing with musical accompaniment. However, while the opening song itself is fine, I can't say the same for the visuals; frankly, they're completely pointless, add nothing to the overall plot, and leave the audience in the dark as to what they're in for. I can only guess as to why Silver Link decided to do this: because they wanted to go for shock value. What sort of "shock value"?
Here's the long answer:
Fear Kubrick is a cubic entity that has been used for generations as a tool for torture and killing; she is essentially the active hive for torture devices and cursed objects. Understandably, after seeing so much pain for as long as she's existed, Fear wishes to simply live among the humans--not as a killing machine, but as a kind, gentle person who gives back to others with respect. Haruaki Yachi is one such person who can help Fear to reach her goal, as she is quite literally delivered at his doorstep (initially, in her cubic form); he holds a gift that allows himself to be unafflicted by curses. However, Fear's journey to enlightenment will not come without its fair share of trials and consequences, as not only are there deadly organizations that wish to utilize her power, but there is also the berserk nature inside herself that is always pushing to come out.
But, for anyone who doesn't care for any of that, here's the short answer:
Fanservice, fanservice, fanservice--oh, and there's some fighting, too! The fighting's pretty neat--oh, and there's some blabbing about curses and pretentious bull, but that's not important. Ooo, look! There's lots of blood and gore and yandere-type crazy faces mixed-in as well! I know certain Higurashi fans out there that will love this!
As for the cast, there's Fear, the sorta-kinda-tsundere cube girl, Konoha, the glasses chick with huge knockers, and Haruaki, the chillin' dude with a heart of gold; there's also Kirika, the class president who--and I must admit--isn't really all that important to the story, except for maybe one or two episodes, but certainly not the conclusion. Anyway, I'm glad to see that the cardboard cut-outs are all accounted for, and if that's not enough, there's plenty more of them later on--more breasts, a loli, MORE breasts. Perfect./sarcasm
Yes, one of the issues with C3 is that it can get extreme in many departments--with its violence, with its drama, with its fanservice; but, that's just the one brick in this cubic disaster, as this leads me to explaining the show's true issue. I can deal with some violence, I can deal with sappy drama and ridiculous amounts of ecchi service, but what is it that makes this whole show really fall to pieces?
C3's pacing is ATROCIOUS. Period.
This show doesn't know what it wants to be, and even when it does, it's all over the place. Sometimes, C3 is a cute, adorable, light-hearted, romantic-comedy romp--as with its first episode; other times, C3 is a bloody, gruesome, violent, dramatic mish-mash of pretension and battling--as with its second and third episodes. If all of those descriptive words were too much and/or too sweeping in terms of genre, that's my point exactly. In fact, to hammer this point in even further, take a look at MAL's genres listing for this show, and then take a look at its rating. Doesn't really mesh well, right?
Not only that, but the speed of which this anime attempts to cram its plot together in twelve episodes is astonishingly bad; understandably, this can be a somewhat prominent issue with shows that are twelve episodes or less due to time constraints, but C3 takes the problem leaps and bounds forward. The show goes through three, separate villains; a number of extensive fight scenes, some taking at least half of an episode; full episodes devoted to "rom-com" material; several-minute-long comedic scenes; time spent on philosophical dialogue; flashbacks, back-stories, and long, expository monologues--
Phew! Give me time to breathe, please!
Granted, if the show hadn't gone for blatant sequel-baiting at the end of its run, I would have just chalked this up as Silver Link trying to fit too much material from the original light novels into too little time--for example, sort of like Chaos;Head. Unfortunately, this is one of the worst offenders I've ever seen of becoming a completely crushed and compressed product, but that's only about four-fifths of this cube analogy. What about the final piece?
For those who don't know of Silver Link's origin, here's a little history lesson:
Director Shin Oonuma, the director of both the much-beloved Baka to Test and this, once worked as a director of many of the earlier projects in another studio--SHAFT, which is now famous for their much later work, such as Zetsubou Sensei, Bakemonogatari, and, of course, Madoka Magica. He eventually split-off from them to help form Silver Link, but my guess is Mr. Oonuma knew the guy who did the trippy, layered artwork used in all three of those shows and decided to replicate what he had seen to be used in one of his own anime.
In fact, why stop there? Why not just be like SHAFT entirely, using all sorts of weird, seemingly out-of-place imagery? Apparently, Mr. Oonuma didn't understand the imagery he had seen in SHAFT's latest work, and the result was... well, even more things for me to complain about, in terms of this show not knowing what it wants to be.
All sorts of symbols are used, different art styles can be seen--heck, they might as well even use the old-style camera start-up trick that SHAFT has used a lot at the beginning of several of their anime (including Zetsubou Sensei, Vampire Bund, Madoka, etc.). None of this is able to stand up on its own, though; it just makes C3 look like its going for gimmicks rather than actual substance.
Nonetheless, I can safely say that when the art is normal and without any of the gimmicks, it's actually pretty visually appealing; it's colorful, it's cute, and keeps what would have been an otherwise even worse show from being completely disappointing. The soundtrack, too, does its job and isn't all that bad, but it isn't all that remarkable, either.
Without making this review much longer, I will conclude by saying that if the pacing wasn't so incredibly distracting as being the absolute worst item about this show, C3 would at least be mediocre. Heck, Fear is actually demoted from the main heroine to comedic relief after just over two-thirds of the series is up; because of this and everything else I have already mentioned, the pacing is simply inexcusable. C3 tries so hard to be something memorable like its older sister, Baka to Test, but it falls short of nearly every target; the story is too jumbled, the characters don't bear any staying power, and it overshoots by aiming arrogantly in the face of what made series prior to its creation work so well. What? Did a child write this?
Precisely, C3 is the equivalent of a kid who thinks too highly of himself and steals candy from adults instead of babies within the anime world; it just ends up choking on some Sour Skittles just before getting a good slap on its bottom. Now, if I could be excused for a moment, I have a Rubik's Cube to go play with~
