Posted by OP3 Sequence
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OP3: 「紋」 (Mon) by 喜多村 英梨 (Kitamura Eri)
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「林間学校こんふゅーじょん!」 (Rinkangakkou Konfyujon!)
“The Outdoor School Confusion”
School field trip with Haruaki and the gang? Count me in! It’s somewhat unfortunate that only the first episode of C³ was covered here at RandomC – I for one quite enjoyed the series as a whole. But what’s done is done; all I can do is blog the unaired thirteenth episode which fortunately, is relatively disconnected from the rest of the series.
I originally went into the anime not really knowing what to expect – my only experience of SILVER LINK came from Baka to Test to Shokanjuu, which on the whole was a very light-hearted and comedic anime, and such did C³ appear on first glance. The first episode left me relatively underwhelmed – the comedy and fan service were interesting, but not near the level I’d come to expect from BakaTest. No, what drew me to C³ in the end wasn’t the humour and frequent panty shots, but the brilliant juxtaposition of said light-hearted, fan service-filled segments and the much darker, psychotic and often downright gory interactions with other cursed instruments. Also Fear. Fortunately we get a lot of the latter in this OVA!
I never fail to be amazed by SILVER LINK’s gorgeous OP sequences. Several of my favourite of recent years have come from their works – they have such a way with colours, contrasts, animation and cuts. Their musical choices help a lot too, but it’s the beauty of the imagery that really hooks me on that front.
Looking back, I can barely remember the sole school field trip I took long ago in a forgotten past, but I can tell you it was no-where near as eventful as your typical anime equivalent! From what I’ve heard, the purpose of these field trips is to promote the strengthening of friendships and create good memories (ahem!) that will stay with you forever (almost exactly what was said by the school’s superintendent). I guess, being as extraordinary as they are, it wouldn’t be too hard to form the mistaken idea that it would take extraordinary events in order to build worthwhile memoires for our central cast. It seems likely the superintendent never realised that all Fear ever really wanted was to be normal. But I can forgive him since it gave us quite a few chances to see Fear’s adorable side.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of C³ without fan service, and fan service we get. Quite a lot of it in fact! Ranging from the bathing scene to Fear and Konoha dripping wet… there’s pretty much something in there for everyone. I was a little sad that we never got to see Fear go into her psychotic cursed tool mode, but I guess you can’t have everything. Haruaki doesn’t get much of a chance to shine in this episode either, acting as more of a damsel in distress and a motivator for Fear. Konoha, Kirika and Shiraho each get their moments of glory though, confronting their ‘tormentors,’ solving the ‘mystery’ and apparently turning into a superhuman ninja who can move faster than the eye can perceive!
When all is said and done, if you enjoyed the series, you’ll probably enjoy the OVA – it feels very much like a welcome reunion with Haruaki and his harem of bizarre ‘tools.’
Random thoughts:
- Oh Fear, I’ve missed your crazy antics! Artistic or not, that’s definitely not the way to pitch a tent!
- I’ve always wondered, is making curry on a school trip really a thing in Japan? Almost every anime I can think of with a field trip episode makes a point of it.
- Friend about to fall into a pit? Don’t worry, just give ’em a good kick and you can save them from potential doom!
- With the whole school field trip setting, parts of the second half of the episode felt a bit like a test of courage to me.
- Someone is probably going to be feeling a lot of pain when everyone gets back to school!
Full-length images: 07, 12, 13, 15, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 35, ED 01, Epilogue 02
* Apologies for the delay – I was unaware that I was going to be blogging this until late last night.
* Special thanks to Stereoman for successfully taming the ED full-length!
ED2 Sequence
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ED2: 「Sympathy of Love」 by 田村 ゆかり (Tamura Yukari)
Epilogue
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Indeed, this was more of a ‘refresher course’ for the series- Too bad it didn’t contain any psychotic moments that sets it apart from other series of it’s genre.
Oh well, you can’t have everything @_@;
That’s how OVAs tend to be among those series’ with darker aspects to them; they’re usually light-hearted and are hardly ever connected to the main story in any way, and even if there are any “dark” aspects, it’s usually done as part of a joke or something, as we saw with the “cursed monster” incident here, lol.
Like the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei OVAs for instance.
It was an underwhelming extra episode from an underwhelming show.
But it did have its merits I guess. I do love the 2nd OP by Kitamura Eri.
Plus with the variety of seiyuus in here, from Tamura Yukari’s antics as Fear to Saito Chiwa’s performance as Shiraho in the last minutes, it’s a pleasure to hear them here.
So yeah.
you’re right moomba… silverlink’s art work is simply unique. i must admit that its similar or on par with shaft. that was what made me hooked to baka to test
truthfully speaking, i clearly enjoyed c3 cube when it aired. i was so caught up with the characters and their circumstances that i didn notice much of the fan service
even though c3 was a great series, the ova seemed to lack a couple of things
firstly it’ll be the intense fight scenes
secondly, shiraho did not get enough screen time
but nonetheless, the ova was still enjoyable….
p.s. i dont mind getting together with ueno or shiraho….. both of them are up there near the level of some of the bake-nise-monogatari girls
Ah, it made me so happy when this came out. I enjoyed the original series quite a lot. Hoping strongly for an eventual season two. Speaking of that, is the novel ongoing yet? Or does it have any more material to use for an second season?
But damn, i’ve missed Fear’s voice. She’s too damn cute!
I liked – really mellow considering whence it came! Most of the OVAs from series like this
are really naughty – this was kind of a surprise! Anyway, a cute wrap for the series.
It was indeed a pity C3 wasn’t covered by RC. Perhaps the fan-servicey feel of first episode was misleading and put off many people. I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and see how the second episode went, let’s just say the sudden shift into serious-shit by the end of that episode got me hooked.
Of all the characters that left a deep impression in me was the “yuri” couple of Shiraho and Sovereignty (when “she” isn’t a “he”), voiced by the ever excellent Saitou “HomuHomu” Chiwa and Iguchi “Index” Yuka. The climax of the Sovereignty arc where Shiraho broke down easily ranks as one of Saitou’s best acting performances.
This series also got me paying attention to this upcoming studio Silver Link due to their “Shaft/Shinbo-like” animation style used here – i.e. use of surreal imagery and typography to convey the emotions. One example would be during battle scenes, the background would go into a tinge of crimson red.
Silver Link of course came into prominence doing Baka Test, and are now doing the much praised Tasogare Otome x Amnesia this season. I shall be looking forward to their next work, Kokoro Connect this July.
Yes KR… I truly agree with you on those facts
And yes… My favourite arc was Sovreignty’s arc and to see her voicing someone who broke down was truly epic. Similar to some of her scenes as Homu-chan
I’m still wondering how did Shiraho learned Clock-Up when she fixes Sovereignty up? I’m thinking that she stole Homura’s clock shield!
Seriously, this series was surprisingly great. Although very, VERY cliche at times, the execution is well done, and the intense scenes are absolutely stunning. The way everything is portayed in such exquisite detail and imagry makes a scene with writing that would normally be sub-par at best into a breath-taking piece of artistry. I feel that a lot of the humour is lost in translation, though, as many of the jokes came off as very awkward to me. Nevertheless, for ANYONE looking for a good slice of life type anime with some great visuals and a dark side that is seriously worth getting invested in over, I HIGHLY recommend this show.
https://randomc.net/image/C3/C3%20-%20OVA%20-%2029.jpg
What heck with Japanese anime and BOOB FACE PLANT?? Seriously these writers need to get out a little more. It’s on almost every darn show. They are freaking obsessed with it and keep feeding this and other same old bloody tropes into masses, who in turn gobbles that up. It’s a vicious cycle, I tell ya.
Watch/Read To Love Ru and Mayo Chiki, you’ll certainly get all sorts of impossible face plants and the likes. Especially falling while unbuttoning somebody’s shirt and then grabbing the boobs or while pulling the skirt down. I don’t really get the reasoning but it’s anime because it’s based on imagination, not realism after all.
Ah, Kirika and Shiraho…how I missed you so! <3
now that u bring it up… O_o curry does come up a lot on field trips :/ … i guess its just easy to make.. and its almost impossible to mess up. also, nothing kills bacteria better then a pot of boiling water. but that’s just my reasoning, as i have 0 knowledge on japan.
thAn*
I LOVE the full-lengths. Konoha and Kirika LOVE!
Rather than an OVA, it felt like an extra episode… I still hope there is a season 2 out by this year.
Me too… the way the first series ended didn’t feel complete – there were still way too many unanswered questions. I guess it depends on how much material there is left to adapt from the light novels at this point.
I missed Kirika. C3 was an odd show, is the only way to put it. While the characters felt a bit cookie cutter, they were all undergoing emotional journeys of their own – and that was conveyed quite well. That, among other things that were already mentioned. Thanks for covering, Moomba. This isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but it wasn’t half bad either.
wonder with this is s2 coming yea more fear will curse those for it.
Shiraho’s ZA WORUDO~
I hope this is a sign that a second season is in the works because the story still has a lot of potential and many characters left ot be introduce which made a cameo in the last minutes of the finale.
oh wow… fear is still super bloody cute in this OVA… me want more!!!!
c3 have a potential to become a good anime… though i think lack of funds or some other issue, caused this anime to go rushed and and fit so many stories in 13 episodes which is actually not good… a 24 ep for season 2… i bet… this anime will god wild…
I think one of the failure about C3 is they try to cut corners on some areas, like for instance their classmate instead of showing them to be at least human, they are shown as nothing more than black shadows, I for one hated that, felt they went cheap on budget.
But I do agree that Highschool DxD have the best ending I seen so far, C3 sure has the best opening if not at least one of the best opening.