C³ Cube×Cursed×Curious (2011) C3 シーキューブ

Haruaki was a high school boy and naturally resistant to curses. one day, his father sent him a cursed instrument placed inside a black cube, called Fear-in-Cube. despite Haruaki's attempt to ignore the cube by placing it in the storage, a girl appeared, replacing the black cube in its human form. together they fought together against other cursed instruments by using Fear's 32 mechanisms of torture.

despite Fear taking the appearance of a cute ordinary girl and living with Haruaki, causing Haruaki's childhood friend Konoha to move in, who oppose the idea of them living together, the story soon progressed to a much darker theme. as her past was revealed, Fear started to lose control of herself just by seeing blood, hysterically enjoying killing. nor was Konoha an average childhood friend. these very twists and turns made the anime easy to watch, even slightly captivating at some point. from its all too average first episode, it got progressively action packed, emotionally involved and evolved around sins, guilt and regrets.

Hex Hall #3: Spell Bound (2012)

after the the Council building was burned down, with every council member including Sophie's dad and the Casnoffs in it, Sophie tele-transported to the Brannicks. the Brannicks and the Eyes were sworn enemies of the Prodigium, whom the Casnoffs claimed would hunt everyone down eventually. it was then Sophie discovered that not only was she part demon, she was also part Brannicks.

the book was absolutely impossible to put down! there were so much actions, romances, and especially humors in Sophie's life. Sophie, since the very first book, was so lovable and easy to get attached with. while the previous 2 books introduced her life in Hex Hall and her holiday with the Council, this book was about gathering every impossible people to save everyone from the Castnoffs. it was brilliant and one crazy ride to get on!

Brave (2012)

Merida, the princess of Clan DunBroch, was presented 3 princes from the other clans, whom she would choose 1 of them for marriage. she was dissatisfied with the arranged marriage and ran away into the forest. she came across wisps that led her to a witch's cottage. the witch promised to grant her wish of changing her mother. but to her horror, instead of changing her mother's mind, her mother was transformed into a bear.

Merida reminded me of Mulan (1998), showing the strength in young girls as well as focusing on the mother-daughter relationship. the darkness of the story made it somewhat frightening if not further more engaging. like a heroine, Merida drew us closely to her heart, she was easily a lovable character and had us rooted for her completely before long, not to mention shedding tears for the pain and fear she endured.

The Voice: Season 1 (2011)

The Voice was separated into 3 phases: Blind Audition, Battle Phase, and Live Performance. the 4 coaches were Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton, and Adam Levine (Maroon 5's lead vocalist). during the Blind Audition, the contestants will be selected based on their voices, with the coaches having their back to the singer. each coach must have 8 contestants in their team. during the Battle Phase, each coach will pick 2 contestants from their team to compete, only 1 among those 2 shall remain. this phase continued until there were 4 contestants in each team. during Live Performance, 2 among the 4 remaining contestants will remained for each team, where the first contestant will be picked by public choice, and the second picked by their own coach. the remaining contestant then will compete among each other to become the winner.

the rules and large number of contestants was slightly confusing at first, not to mention remembering who was under which coach or team. but fortunately, it later became clearer and also not quite important as the flow went. the bickering between coaches, especially Christina and Adam, was refreshing at first, but soon turned childish. despite the downsides, the show was rather entertaining, especially watching shy characters bloomed on the stage and surprised us with their huge voices.