C Cube, or Cube x Cursed x Curious is a light novel by Hazuki Minase turned anime that just recently aired. When first saw the trailer for this show way back whenever, I was pretty excited about it. Now that I've seen the first episode, I can say that I'm cautiously optimistic. The first episode is pretty much just boy meets girl, or boy meets cube if you will. Nothing much really happens, and not much is explained yet other than hinting that neither Fear nor Konoha are human. Onto the good and the not so good.
The major positive here are the visuals. Coming from Silver Link, the art style should come as no surprise if you've seen BakaTest. Aside from BakaTest, Oonuma Shin, the director of C Cube, also worked on the ef series, and Bakemonogatari, which are both quite artsy. The colors and contrast of colors are extremely pleasing to the eyes; I love it. There are times they use shadow to really add to the mood of certain scenes, like the one in the screenshot below.
Another plus is the music. I think their bgm choice for most scenes were very fitting, whether to ask to audience to join in the silliness, or to evoke an ephemeral feeling of melancholy. Very well done. I also really liked the voice acting done so far, particular Fear's. Tamura Yukari is almost using the exact same voice she used for Togame in Katanagatari, which may have positively affected my judgment of her performance in C Cube.
So what wasn't so good about it? For starters, this feels extremely "light-novel-esque." Almost all light novel adaptions turn out quite poorly. This is not to say that C Cube will be bad, but it certainly showing the signs of a typical light novel-adapted anime. We have the tsundere loli girl (who isn't actually a girl) suddenly appear in the protagonist's life with panty shots fully intact. Next we have the nice guy main character, and the childhood friend who has a thing for him. Where have we seen this formula before?
Yet, I remain "cautiously optimistic" because of the imminent arrival of this blond character. What I'm hoping for is less everyday-life shenanigans, and more action, fighting, a bit of drama, and things "getting real" in the near future. Based on the first episode, Pearz said this is looking like a Shana 2.0, and I sincerely hope C Cube proves her wrong because I want to enjoy watching this. It's not that I don't like Shana, it's just that all I can remember from it was a million "urusais" and melon bread. What do you guys think?
Side note: Hadena subs weren't very good; I'd suggest waiting for better subs.
-Bern
