Friday 7 October 2011

First Impressions: C³ / シーキューブ

I’m not sure why I expected this anime to be serious and ambitious. Judging by the first episode, it’s the lowest of lowbrow ecchi, with little going for it but cuteness and nice music-video visuals. I will probably keep watching it as something light and insignificant, and to see how Silver Link do in their second project after Baka to Testo, but if it’s going to take a turn for the dark and serious, as the very last minutes of the episode hinted it might, it’ll have to be a big change.

The plot reminded me of Rizelmine: a boy living alone named Haruaki receives a package from his collector father – a strange cube. When he’s alone, the cube transforms into a naked little loli. After giving him an eyeful, she puts on a little shirt so that she looks as well as acts very much like Angelia from Arcana Heart. She introduces herself as Fear and claims she is a device to collect the negative feelings of all around her. Of course soon after a childhood friend called Konoha who has always had a crush on Haruaki but doesn’t start making it obvious until there’s competition. Cue the same tired ‘flat chested’ vs ‘milk udders’ jibes from Kanokon and its ilk…and panty shots. In the second half of the episode, Fear goes to town and her tsun-tsun arrogance somehow endears her to everyone, presumably just because she looks cute and childish and unthreatening.

The only things I liked about the episode were the very end, where the characters were a little more serious and it became more obvious just how pretty their designs are, and the overly pretty art style, which is distinctive and nice to look at – especially as this is the first time I’ve had to set up 10-bit colour depth for my video programs. Otherwise, I’ll be expecting to trundle along with the same tired formula and anything better than that will be a pleasant surprise.

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