There is a scene in “The Mummy Returns” where one of the minions, Jacques, goes “It is cursed! It is cursed!” That is how I feel about C³. That stands for “Cube x Cursed x Curious”. Now, I gave an overview comment of it a while back; this is the full review and it is another Frankenstein’s monster, in that it is made up of bits and pieces from other shows.

Yachi Haruaki lives by himself, as his father is always away on these buying sprees, where he finds rare and unusual objects. One day, another of these trinkets arrives, this one being a cube, black and heavy. Since he gets all kinds of weird objects, he thinks nothing of it. Later on that night, he is awakened by noises to find a naked girl, in his kitchen, noshing down rice crackers.

It is discovered that she IS the cube. Given a name, Fear Cubrick (Ice Blue on the right), we learn that she is a cursed tool, used for centuries to torture and kill thousands of people. She has been sent here in the hopes of purifying her and removing her curse. And for some magical reason, Yachi seems to be curse-resistant and the house is located in a kind of No Curse Zone, so nothing affects them (except a direct attack by some Guardian of Justice or what have you.)

Sadly, there are those that wish to destroy Fear and she is almost immediately under a direct attack by some Guardian of Justice or what have you. Peavey Barowoi tries to kill her, as Fear is mean and evil and vile and does terrible things to kittens and puppies. Coming to the aid of Yachi is Konoha Muramasa, a childhood friend. She and Fear are at loggerheads, as Fear constantly refers to her as ‘cow udders’. (Can you guess which one she is?). Also coming to help is Kirika Ueno, classmate and Class President. She has a big secret as well, which we learn about later on. All three of them work to help Fear not becomes cursed as well as protecting her long enough so she can become uncursed.

However, it is so very easy for Fear to slide back into her cursed tool stage, as she has about 1000 different weapons of pain and anguish that she can inflict upon others, and this just merely reinforces what a dangerous entity she is to have about, as anyone can die under her watch, so it would be best to kill her now and avoid the Christmas Rush.

This shows smells HEAVILY of “Moonphase”, in that we have a person older than time, but as immature as ever. The petulance gets to the point where you wish Peavey could cleave Fear in two and end the show. Adding to that is the relentless fan service. In fact, ever time Fear says “cow udders”, we are treated to a tight close-up visual of Konoha’s bust, bouncing about on their own accord. This is a shame, as always, as there is a pretty good show here (despite it being stolen from other locations), but bogged down with excess baggage and mishandling of the plot.

There is one scene where Kirika shows off her clothing that protects her, but it is done is a rather disturbingly erotic manner and not at all that germane to the show.  When Fear gets frustrated, she uses a catch-phrase that is just as annoying as Naruto’s and get tiresome just as quickly (“I curse you!”). Then, when the ever-dreaded mid-course correction occurs and we take the show in a different direction, having to do battle with a new character, we get to a save point and stop the contest, having resolved nothing of import.

There just is not a lot to recommend this show. If I want something this fractious, I’ll watch “Fractale” or even “Moonphase” again. At least that had progress and comes to a better end. This one just gets to a particular vista point and then goes on vacation. And when we get to the summation, it might as well be the intermission approach for “Gone with the Wind”. “As God is my witness, I’ll never be a cursed tool again!” All I need is a Max Steiner score to make it complete.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (Gets a bit too physically dark in areas)
Plot                  7 (Rather typical)
Pacing              7 (Hurry up and wait)
Effectiveness    6 (Falls short)
Conclusion       5 (It stops, rather than ends, and rather abruptly)
Fan Service     5 (A similar show would “Gurren Lagaan”)

Overall            6 (Pointless ambling)

And remember, it’s first run until you see it. I’ve seen it done better.