On the island of Regalo, a group of supernaturally powered mafia-like protectors called the Arcana Famiglia safeguard the people from any who would harm them. The members of their organization, having made contracts with tarot cards, each possess different abilities, such as overwhelming strength, invisibility, or the power to see into someone's heart.
Mondo, their leader and the "Papa" of their family, announces at his birthday party that he will be retiring soon. He plans to hold the Arcana Duello, a competition that, if won, will grant the winner the title of Papa and any wish they desire. But there is more at stake than just a title: Mondo also decides that the winner will marry his daughter, Felicità. Enraged by this, the strong-willed Felicità decides to enter the competition herself, in order to make her own way in the world. As Felicità battles for her freedom, her competitors battle for her heart.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
AuronPond
To start my review, let me say that I don't necessarily hate Arcana Famiglia. I simply hate the payoff I got for watching it. Which was absolutely nothing. The entire series looks as if it is building for this tournament that has been set to decide who will be the new leader of the Family and marries the boss' daughter. In the first episode, you get some immediate development in the relationship between father and daughter plus daughter and coworkers. To add, there are some pretty nice powers being used and an awesome mysterious character with an awesome name looming in the background (Jolly). So, when the seriesstarts, you know where some people stand and how things are going to go.
The only thing is, it never goes there.
Arcana Famiglia gives you the build for this tournament that's soon to take place. Every episode is wasted on character development and character interaction. You see everyone's past and you even find the origin of the family. For a build-up, this is great, it helps strengthen character connection so that you root for a particular character to win when the fighting starts.
The fighting doesn't start. Ever.
Watching the entire series would be worth it if it led to some awesome battle royal conclusion. It would even be awesome if a bunch of pirates just came and ruined said battle royal. Neither happens. All of the action is skipped and the powers aren't expanded on any further than episode one. They're explained, but they aren't expanded on.
Another thing, this has to be the only series I've seen where I think character development was a bad thing. The characters lose any finesse that they had when their lives are explored. The only exception was Jolly, who barely got any screentime in most of this series. And he didn't even participate in any real fighting. However, I can tell you exactly what his past is like and why he's so cold. That's absurd and just plain ridiculous.
The anime takes so much time in explaining every single character and having them fight their demons that we don't even see what their demons really are. They never come across any serious conflict and the only climax to look forward to is the tournament that's supposed to be the motherload of all battles.
The battling is non-existent. Chances are I said that earlier in the review, but I must emphasize how bad it was. For one, it was minimum. There was no intricate fighting nor any type of personalized moves. The tournament that the series builds up to becomes absolutely pointless with every new episode. The winner was even pointless and so was their "resolve" once they won. You really feel like a major butt for even watching the entire series for a climax that could've been the length of an average youtube video.
And to make matters worst, it doesn't try to cover its flaws. Maybe a little fanservice or some nice cop-out scenes. Nope, not once. It burrows a reverse harem shtick that it can't even fully deliver on. You don't feel like these guys (with the exception of two) are all that into her.
There were no antagonists. There was minimum fighting. The romance barely showed and was ended on the weakest of terms. The characters don't live up to their reputations. The story blows major chunks.
The climax . . . faking it.
Snodig
When La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia, or just Arcana Famiglia started airing, I was first surprised over how entertaining I found it, considering it was based on a dating sim visual novel for girls. The quality of the art and animations where good, the story appeared interesting, but most of all was the character gallery and their hidden powers very appealing. After watching the whole series I was saddened to see it was only the first episode that showed true potential of what this series might eventually have become had it not been for certain downfalls that I will try to explain bellow. The story, which issupposed to be a love story with Felecità, and one of the male characters in the series never seems to advance.
Most episodes aren't even slightly connected to either Felecità or romance at all, and the typical rivaling struggle between the two male protagonists grows to be nothing but annoying over the course of the series.
Felecità remains more as a background accessory, whilst non of the male characters seems to be interested in her above the point of cheering her up when she is depressed. Which she happens to be in all the later episodes. This depression is also the only real emotion she expresses, which is kinda sad considering this is supposed to be a love story.
However, the main factor that brings this series down from what it could have been is the way they neglect to explore any character.
In most of the episodes we are introduced to a new characters personality and background, which could have become very interesting, had it not been for the fact that we only ever get to see the surface of every characters life. Not one single character throughout the whole series is properly explored. We are only shown enough to know that "There is a lot more to know".
Not even the main characters are properly explored, which leaves us at loss as of what pasts all these people share.
We are only shown glimpses of their pasts, and it is never properly explained what really happened between any of them.
All in all, Arcana Famiglia starts out with a great potential, and the very interesting character gallery, which end up being completely wasted due to the lack of progress the characters make, and non of them being properly introduced or explored.
When this series ended I honestly felt a little angry with the producers, having wasted a lot of potential, and made what could have been a super cool action/shoujo/romance into just another series nobody will remember in a year.
Note that I have not played the game, but I sincerely hope and believe that it is much better than the anime.
Stark700
Watching Arcana Familga is like reading an autobiography, you know..the sort of book a person writes about his or own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details. In any case, Arcana Famiglia is a strange series from the start. La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia details a group of people who have made contracts with the Arcana cards to obtain special abilities in his or her own rights. On the birthday of the head of household, the Father decides to host a tournament - a series of duels known as the Arcana Duello, between Arcana-users. It is every onefor themselves because it's winner takes all.
Apparently, the series' promo depicts around a tournament but half way now through the series, what do we have?
- cat/neko chasing
- babysitting
- rivalries between two of the main characters in a boring love triangle that has little flavor
At any rate, this series is not exactly the smash of the season and shouldn't be especially with throwing in fillers at the very get go.
The series continuously avoid the major story of the series but instead throws fillers at your face like apple pies. But the story is not as tasty. It lacks flavor of an apple pie because they are all fillers from the beginning. Although later on, we do see some storyline development (chiefly flashbacks), the main story so far is avoided. Furthermore, it seems that the flashbacks are cliched and stereotyped. Honestly, who on Earth is planning on sitting through over four episodes to watch some flashbacks? We want to see some movement and drama with the main arc!
Luckily though, the character designs are cool. And of course, they need to be especially since everything up to this point has been focused on the characters of the tournament (you know, the one that hasn't yet officially begun yet). But towards the finale (yes the very last episode), the duel is finally presented. Even the duel itself has some problems though with one of the main characters actually withdrawing while other battles between our cute pigtailed girl being way too short and no flavor.
Felicità is the main heroine of the series, the holder of The Lovers arcana, which gives her the ability to read the hearts of others. She is spicy, she is cute, and she is to herself. And those little pigtails, who doesn't want to cuddle them? Beyond that though, she has some interesting interactions between two of the main characters, Libertà and Nova.
That brings to their rivalry.
It seems that Libertà and Nova often gets into fights like ying and yang. Just look at it. Every five minutes in the series, they fight out and competes sometimes over absolutely nothing. Libertà is depicted as the hot headed guy while Nova remains his cool. (most of the time) Regardless though, it gets old after watching it over 9000 times. Besides, there's already rivalries similar to this without the l for love in a certain ongoing series. Perhaps the Tail of the Fairies ring a bell?
The other characters of the series seem to be like background characters of a stage play so far despite their cool appearances. The bold headed guy who has the ace hands of a bazooka, the cool level headed guy with the eye patch, and the mysterious Jolly with his shades. I'm sure they will eventually get the opportunity to shine but so far, it's not happening. Besides maybe Jolly, everything seems so stale between the background characters. Yup, the apple pie is once again losing its flavor.
Luckily, there is some minor good flavors for this disappointing anime so far. The soundtrack, namely the opening song of the series seems to play well in this series.
Magenta Another Sky" by Hitomi Harada is well orchestrated and depicts the Arcana-users showing off some of their abilities in the sequences. The music is also catchy and as one of the first series to watch on Sundays, it's a pretty damn good way to start off the week, at least in the music department.
The art is also colorful in this series. It gives off an Italian like atmosphere and overall, demonstrated well with the cool looking characters, some backgrounds, and the mansion where the family stays at.
Overall, to enjoy this series, you'd have to be a real brave fighter, one that is very patient and ignores the fillers but instead concentrate on other aspects of the "story". The first half of the series isn't one of the best ways to start off this originally hyped series. The "story" moves like a turtle and the apple pie is losing its touch. It's not too surprising that J.C. Staff's expectations didn't live up to the hype.
With all the filler episodes going on and the "story" moving so damn slow, it's no surprise that some people have dropped it. There should be limits on how to start a potential series but in this case, Arcana wasted it. It brings up boring sequences from the get go and fails to deliver anything unique to the viewers. While the art and music/Op song does somewhat makes up for this, it so far is anything but special. J.C. Staff you disappoint. No one likes reading an autobiography and especially of a series that originally had potential.
Newmn84
La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia, or just Arcana Famiglia is one of those shows that when the new season came along, I read the synopsis and became fairly interested in it. I'm generally not the kind of person who tends to discriminate on anime based upon genre so I had no problem watching something labeled as shoujo, however, I became somewhat hesitant when I learned that it was based of an otome game aimed at young girls. (Please note that I have not played the game; I have only watched the anime.) Despite my hesitation, I watched the first episode and found it to beenjoyable. It was enjoyable enough that I showed my little sister it as well (who is a preteen and definitely within the target audience); she enjoyed it and from then on we watched it together.
The concept of the Arcana powers and the characters seemed interesting based off the the first episode. There was a lot of action in the first episode and the premise of a family-wide contest for the position of Papa (the big boss) and the protagonist's, Felicita's, hand in marriage was interesting as well. It provided a dilemma for her that would allow her to develop as a character while defending her right to choose who she marries. It had potential- in fact, the entire series had potential. Unfortunately, the series never comes close to fulfilling the potential it initially held with the protagonist remaining static and boring throughout and the event that I expected to span most of the series, the Duello, only spans the last episode and that itself was a disappointment, much like the rest of the series.
First, let's talk about character development. There is none- well, nothing really besides an introduction to most of the characters. They never really delve deep into any one character. In fact, the most developed character is not the protagonist; the most developed characters are the two main male leads, Liberta and Nova who are in love with the protagonist. Even though they are the most developed I could never bring myself to really remotely care about them- I frankly found them annoying. In fact, the only thing I found interesting about the both of them was Liberta's mysterious Arcana Power. Felicita seemed less of a protagonist and more of a side character the entire series, only speaking when necessary and often seeming to go out of character by being overly-concerned or over-emotional only when the situation demands. (And her Arcana power is clearly just a tool made for the game's romances.)
The second topic of discussion is the art and animation. The art was nothing spectacular to me, however it did its job- most of the time. The characters never really looked bad, even the background characters seemed to be drawn well (besides the occasional derp character), however what really suffered was the background itself. I noticed several instances of just plain bad background art and the one in particular that really bugged me wasn't even noticed by me at first; it was noticed by my sister. A pirate ship in one of the episodes actually changed in art style at least three times in the same episode (and it really wasn't drawn well in the first place). Besides the art itself, the animation was not very good for the parts where it should have been good, namely the fight scenes. The fights seemed more like gifs that were just repeated at different times and at one point in the last episode, Nova's shoulder was definitely in a strange position.
The sound of the anime serves its purpose but does little else, it does not excel in any aspect. I personally like the opening song much better than the ending song, mostly because the guys can't sing.
Overall, I don't have much good to say about this anime. With each passing episode, I prayed that it would get better. Unfortunately, my prayers were never answered; its potential having been completely wasted. This anime is bad; my sister, a member of the target audience, does not think that this show is good. If there was anything redeemable about the series, it would have to be the supporting cast because the main characters are all flat, boring, annoying, or a combination of all three.
4/10
Toucanbird
*Note: Due to a previous review I wrote, I am acknowledging beforehand that I have not read the visual novel. I am reviewing this anime solely on it's own story rather than it's accuracy as an adaptation. I have to admit, Arcana Famiglia is probably the most disappointing anime that I have seen this year. It's probably not the worst but DEFINITELY the most disappointing. It's got a good cast of characters and there's certainly nothing wrong with the artwork, music, or voice acting...however, a complete lack of story and the missed opportunity to show off the shonen aspect of this anime just derailed it. Overall, Ithought the strongest aspects of this anime was it's music and characters. The music fit the tone of the anime extremely well. It did have a very Italian feel to the music and I thought the OP and ED songs were very good as well. The only thing I would argue is the OP song didn't help my disappointment because it gave the feel that this was going to be an action-packed full-throttle anime and it turned out to be the exact opposite.
As for the characters, on the whole I thought they were pretty good. The characters on the whole were pretty likable. One of the few beefs that I did have with the characters was actually the lead herself, Felicita. Her character seemed so bland. I normally wouldn't have a problem with this if she were a side character, but the fact of the matter is this story revolved around her and her choices. Due to the lack of character with her, it became difficult to become invested in her. If Liberta or Nova were the main protagonist (which this anime gave some early direction to), it would've been much more tolerable. Those two characters seemed to have an interesting back story and appealing characteristics. Even the side characters such as Pace, Debito, Luca, Jolly, Dante, etc. had more character than Felicita. Overall, I thought all the side characters were solid...just the lead character was lacking.
The weakest part of this anime as aforementioned is the story. This story is just dreadful. However, to be honest, some aspects of it don't seem so bad. I did like the concept of Felicita having two arcana powers and using both of them together (in a sense) has the ability to save her father. I do actually find that pretty interesting. Therein lies the problem...that is the only interesting thing about this anime. This series basically opens up with Mondo announcing that they will be holding an Arcana Duello to determine who the next leader of the Arcana Famiglia will be. Okay, sounds like your typical shonen anime plot. So what happens over the next 11 episodes? We slowly and barely learn about Liberta and Nova's back story, how they can't control their powers and how they must slowly learn to control them before the Arcana Duello. Even then, that content actually takes up MAYBE 3 episodes...the rest of it is essentially character development padding. What I mean by that is, it's essentially padding since they are repeating similar events to show off each character's personality. It ends up mostly being a waste of time since we don't learn any more about the characters than we already know.
Since the story was weak, surely the shonen-esque action sequences will surely make up for it, right? Actually, wrong. The action sequences in this anime were extremely weak and extremely poorly animated. There are even sequences where action scenes (especially in the final episode) aren't shown entirely or there are scenes where characters are fighting but you're seeing the expressions and thoughts of a spectator instead of the actual fight. It seemed as though the producers of this anime didn't trust their animators enough with action sequences that they just used this to cover up for it. It was a poor move and was extremely noticeable.
My overall thoughts on Arcana Famiglia is it had my interest piqued in the beginning, but as the series wore on, so did my expectations. It missed out on so many opportunities that it's hard to classify this anime. I'd call it a shonen but the action sequences were non-existent. I'd call it a romance but any time a romance was hinted at, it was brushed aside for more meaningless padding. I'd call it a drama but it really wasn't very dramatic. This anime essentially has no identinty and it really wouldn't shock me if I forget that I even watched this anime at one point. It really was that forgettable.
TheLastVeo
Ooh Arcana Famiglia. I really wanted to enjoy this series...and to begin with, I actually did. The setup was sublime. A mafia-esque vigilante organisation, known as The Family, is dedicated to protecting the port town of Regalo. Many members of the Family have made deals with the "Arcana", granting them abilities based on different tarot cards. Okay, interesting... The head of the family announces he wishes to retire from his role and choose an heir by means of a grand tournament, in which all Family members with Arcana powers must duel until only the victor remains, who will become the new "Papa" of the family...and have hisdaughter Felicite's hand in marriage. Felicite violently objects to this sudden announcement, but has no way out of it unless she either wins the tournament herself, or the new Head of the Family grants her freedom.
Felicite's two close friends, the rebellious Liberta and the moody Nova, both agree to grant Felicte's freedom if either of them win the tournament...even though both of them appear to share feelings for the girl, and constantly compete for her approval.
It was a great setup, with a solid concept and characters that weren't wholly original, but mostly likeable. The style is crisp with a pleasant colour scheme that gives is a classy but lively atmosphere.
Unfortunately, in time it became clear that the series suffers from two CRIPPLING faults:
1) Felicite is NOT a protagonist. A protagonist is supposed to be a driving force the moves the plot forward and who's actions are most influential to the story. However, Felicite, whilst certainly the FOCUS, does not exert any kind of force on the plot. She stands around, looks cutely puzzled or asks questions, and doesn't actually do anything unless promted to do so by another character. And it does beg the question: Why does she consider independence so valuable when she seems incapable of making independent decisions? Why is she so bothered about losing her freedom when she seems quite happy to just do what everyone tells her to do anyway? Now, this COULD have been an incredibly original and fascinating approach to a tired concept, and raised questions about the value of freedom for freedom's sake, or if there's any shame in admitting when you can't live the independent life you desire. Unfortunately it eventually became apparent that Felicite was just a poorly written protagonist with all the impact of a wet flannel, and hinging dangerously on looking like a fan-made Mary Sue.
2) And by far worse: The series seems to be under the delusion that just MENTIONING a good idea is enough to constitute entertainment. It's...honestly a very unusual habit. It will bring up a fascinating concept or a promising plot point and then...forget about it. Case in point: The Family is referred to as a kind of vigilante organisation, and yet we barely see ANY vigilante activity throughout the whole series, they just become a bunch of characters in suits for no reason. Similarly, many of the arcana powers are mentioned, but go entirely unused. Even the tournament, which is set up as the main concept, is forgotten about until the end of the whole series!! But perhaps the most shocking example of this is when one character reveals an experiment he's been working on...I'll keep spoilers out of it, but suffice to say it is a pretty major project with staggering ethical ramifications and with massive potential effects on the whole Arcana concept. What happens to this experiment? Never mentioned or alluded to again. Ever. In any form. Like I said, the series believes that it just needs to mention a good idea to get an audience's attention, and then either forgets to follow through with it or doesn't believe it needs to. Some backstories never come to fruition, ideas are never explored, and a mass of potential is painfully squandered.
So, combine a weak protagonist with some extremely clumsy "idea-only" storytelling, and an entire tournament that feels like it was forgotten about and then slapped togehter at the last minute...and you can imagine that the ending of this show didn't leave me with a good taste in my mouth.
This show had so much potential, soo muuuch!! The setup was golden, the concept presented lots of possibilities, and most of the characters (Felicite aside) were actually very likeable and interesting, especially Debito, Pace and Luca. Even the humour, which is often a weak aspect in most anime, was pretty solid, either focusing on amusing character interactions or some well-timed slapstick. I also loved the picturesque, European design of Regalo, which created a very distinct setting.
But ultimately, all that was good about Arcana Famiglia was quickly buried by the efforts of overly-excited writers throwing in plot points and ideas without bothering to think how they'd tie into the story and how they'd resolve.
A promising start that came to a bitter, frustrating end, and is only enjoyable on its most shallow level.
Nasty001
Bujorno everyone! Now I've completed this 12 episode rip-off, I think it is now time to make a review as to how disgusted I am with this kind of anime. Ok, so the story of this rip-off thing is about a family of well-loved thugs in the island of Regalo, where it is rule by Mondo a well respected warlord - hey, I like calling him that and besides he does act like one, going back to business the island itself according to MAL's forum is constantly being invaded either by neighboring city states of Italy or criminal syndicates who wants to be thebig bosses of the island . Mondo's enforcers are composed of men in black with Arcana powers and I probably need not mention them, anyway the plot of this anime is about Mondo announcing the opening of the so called "Arcana Duello" where he will award his daughter's hand in marriage and also replace him as the "Papa" of Arcana Famiglia........or at least that's what it was suppose to be, what we have instead is a series of episode with its own plot. The mentioned genre; Action, romance, mafia and supernatural didn't lived up as to what is expected, instead this anime revolves around a reverse harem that exist between Fecita, Liberta and Nova, so for the story I'm giving a a "Poor" number 3. That's because the story doesn't apply to the anime itself instead it was poorly divided among its episode.
Art: Mediocre 5.
I'm no art critic.
Sound: Good 7.
I kind like the opening theme and I also find Felicita's voice very cute.
Character, enjoyment and overall: Poor 3
I really didn't like the way that the director of this anime wasted the talents of the characters, the director,Chiaki Kon could've used the characters potential relating to the fact that this anime has an action genre in it and the duello would have provided a nice entertainment for this anime, but alas the duello of the cast were done in the very last episode of this anime and quite frankly we audience were left hanging on the expected "Arcana Duello." In fact the character's themselves where confined to do a kind of soap opera/ adventure thingy which make the enjoyment frustrating, I really didn't like the overall of this 12 episode thingy co'z at the first episode is a teaser makes one to think that this anime is gonna be awesome, but as you go on one would wonder as to what is taking the "Arcana Duello" so long, in the end this anime has turned us audience in an "Il Matto" which means "fool" in Latin, overall this anime is a "RIP-OFF!"
Fukitsu
I was very happy when i begin watching this, and the first episode caught me. The mafia thing isn't that original, but the idea to bind that with tarot cards with powers. That was an unexpected thing to me, and made me to watch. Like I said in other posts : Never judge a anime by its first episode, the sentence applys to this. First episode was good, others : Ehhh I liked some characters, but the story didn't help to develop them. And the whole plot turned boring. When i was almost finishing, i thought things would change, but i got disappointed another time. Well, theart and sound are good, in my opinion, but it's not enough to save the disaster.
Theanimepack
Arcana famiglia: An anime that has a good premise, but its lieing to you. its not what it makes it self out to be in the first episode. i honestly thought i found something interesting when i learned this anime was about a mafia tournament. the thing is, in the next 10 episodes just pussy foot around and doesnt get to the tournament until the last episode. And then, it delivers one of the worst endings i have ever seen. Today I review: La Storia della Arcana Famiglia Story: The story of arcana famiglia at episode 2 starts as a "who will we save today"or " whose past sill we learn about today" . I might have been fine with this if i was only in the beginning . The thing is, they're not executed well. i found myself not immeresed in the story except for a few plot secrets the show had to offer, and when these where explaned, i expected more. The worst part was they hype up this big tournament episdode 1 and never get there till the end. Overall the story is much to be desired. 3/10
Art: This show honestly has a unique art style and gets credit for that. that was one of the big reason i even watched the show. It is very fluid and looks very nice in the actions scenes it has. 8/10
Sound: this is an interesting department for the show, as it sounds great, but never really sticks out. the Opening is something u might actaully watch instead of skipping it every episode. 7/10
Character: L0l@!. the most interesting characters were the ones who never got enough screen time, and while the main characters have some interest, they never truely get developed. they just do what one might expect and nothing really more. that being said, i did like some of the characters 4/10
enjoyment: The only reason i enjoyed this anime even a little is the animation. It just fits the anime . when it come to my enjoyment of the story I kept hoping for more than the show actaully delivered to me. by the end i lost hope and was dissastified. the animation and some of the comedy in the anime is really the only redeming factor for my enjoyment. 5/10
overall: this anime i would put below average and rate it with BAD. the pacing was terrible in the last episode ant left me feeling, "why didnt u span this over the 2nd half of the series. if they had a tournament 6 episodes long. and spent the first 5 episodes with hardcore training, this show could have been something awesome. but overall, it just fails to deliver. 4/10
MShizuka
La storia della Arcana Famiglia, most known by, simply, Arcana Famiglia, is a mafia anime. It's a so much interesting theme, don't you think? All these men with suits, guns and power atmosphere. All their mystery and charm, inherent of a mafia member surely will come with good characters and great stories, yeah? Yeah, the characters are great but the story... Uh... Keep reading and you will know what I'm talking... In begining, you're introduced to Felicitá, the only daughter of Mondo, the mafia chef in Regalo island. This place has a lot of beauty and a safe population because the mafia efforts are much effective.But the members of this mafia have something more special than guns and knifes, they have Arcana powers, some type of magic controlled by emotions. Each Arcana power is based on a Tarocco card and Felicitá, our protagonist, has the power of Gli Amanti, the power of heart. She's a courageous and pretty girl, but she can't decide her own destiny because her father announced the Arcana Duello, a duel for all the Arcana users to decide who will be the next chef and who will marry Felicitá.
There is many guys wanting to win the Arcana Duello, specially Nova and Libertá. Nova is my favorite character, he's serious, shy and dedicated. Libertá is his opposite, funny, outgoing and irresponsible. They're Felicitá's best friends and their relationship are pretty well. Between them and Felicitá, of course. Nova and Libertá are mortal enemies. Another characters, like Luca, Felicitá's majordomo, Pace and Debito have funny moments and deep personalities. And Dante and Jolly too. I can bet that the characters will enchant you because I think that is the better point of this anime. My grade is 8, yeah!
The art and sounds are bad. Yeah, I think they worked in low budget all this time and didn't get a good result in this side. I can't see a good match with the music and the rest of anime... Argh, I will not comment more nothing about this. Next topic.
But the story is fair, we have a interesting plot, there's something uncommon in animes here: a girl with a lot of guys! (In the most, there is opposite, no?)
If you are waiting action, give up. But if you want see good characters facing troubles and having fun, keep going.
Arcana Famiglia is fun and that's all. A good distraction, a few episodes and a weekend of adventures are waiting for you. My overall is 6 and that's not bad. I hope I helped you with this review.
Laciie
When I heard that the otome game was becoming an anime, I was so excited. I really loved the Arcana Famiglia otome game, it really was so much fun. And I was hoping for a faithful adaptation of it. Why thank you, J.C. Staff, for giving us the exact opposite. Story: 6 While the story itself may seem good at first, don't be fooled. At least, in the anime, it starts off as side stories, kind of. They're kind of like minor events in the story. But the problem here is that it doesn't really improve. Without spoiling anyone who wants to watch this, it doesn't really amountto anything in the end. There's a lot of talk about friendship and bonds and stuff like that, and it seems as if a lot of the action happens off stage. I don't know, but there's something definitely lacking here. While it is interesting, you can laugh here and there, it's definitely not as good as the otome game.
Art: 7
The art is, in my opinion, one of the commendable bits of the anime. While the anime is not amazing itself, the art is pretty good. Not comparable to the otome game, but it's still good. Although, I felt like I saw a few derpy faces here and there, but they were few and far between, so I didn't really mind. But the reason it's a seven and not an eight is because of the backgrounds. The backgrounds were recycled way too many times. While the animation itself was flash at first, I felt like it was only like that in the OP (and the ED is just some still motion pictures from the otoge). I felt kind of like the fluidity of the animation in the anime was watered down as the anime progressed, and that was really disappointing as well.
Sound: 8
Despite the story, the seiyuus did an amazing job. They are the same seiyuus from the game, and maybe I'm a little biased because of that, but I still feel as if they did a good job. The OP and the ED were nice to listen to as well. Again, there was the case of reusing the same track again and again towards the end.
Character: 5
THIS is it. This is where the shit hits the fan. And the problem relies mostly with the main character, our lovely Felicita. Now they tried to make a badass out of her, but failed when her inability to speak was discovered. While this is not so much of a problem in the otoge, this is a problem in the anime. Why does she even need a seiyuu? When given a chance to speak, Fel only asks, "What's wrong?" Or of course, the ever so famous "C-could it be...?!" Could it be WHAT? TELL me what it could be! I WANT TO KNOW. Now typically I wouldn't mind the "C-could it be...?!" but if the character follows it up with some kind of explanation or the other. However, every time Fel says that, she does not follow it up. In fact, she just stands there like a log.
The side characters were much more interesting, to be honest. Especially the Pace, Luca and Debito trio. If JCS had based the anime off these three, they would have gotten a lot more material for the anime itself.
Enjoyment: 7
In the end, it was okay I suppose. It was definitely not the best thing I've ever seen, because every time I think about this anime, I'm going to remember how amazing the otoge was and be thoroughly disappointed. There were some times that I laughed, but other than that, not really. It was really just meh.
Overall: 6
In the end, this felt like a really crap commercial for the otoge. I cannot say JCS did a good job with this. JCS has had quite a few good adaptations, but they've also had quite a few bad ones, and this is one of them. I cannot say I loved this, it was enjoyable at times. It was really disappointing, however. Those of you who have not played the otoge, I suggest you play it; it is about a million times better than this.
ThatAnimeSnobRE
Arcana Famiglia (AF henceforth) is using a lot of baits to lure you in, but as soon as you bite you just shake around and try to escape. The intro picture makes it look like a badass story about macho mafia dudes with superpowers. YEAH AWESOME! And then you read the description and it says it’s nothing more than a reverse harem. LAME! But who knows, maybe it will be a good reverse harem in the likes of Ouran Host Club. And it’s revealed right away that it hardly is. It all boils down to the most unimpressive heroine. She is not sympathetic at all, whichmakes it impossible to identify with (if you are a girl that is). If you are aware of shoujos and romances you probably know how their protagonists are almost always frail, poor and naive everyday girls, which one day find themselves in the laps of one or more super sexy bad boys. In AF’s case they instead have this chick Felicita, which is the exact opposite; that is dynamic, rich, and educated. She is spoiled and has everything taken cared of in her life, until her father decides to marry her. He brings in a bunch of super mafia dudes and tells her to choose one of them. So as you expect every episode is about the chick talking and learning about a dude, while occasionally having some simple adventure where they are chasing a cat or they baby-sit. Not exactly what you expect to see in a show full of super powerful mafia dudes. They even promise you an epic fighting tournament but never deliver on that thought.
The problem with Felicita is the exact same all main characters have in your run of the mill normal harem show. She has no personality! This is done deliberately, so the viewers can throw themselves in the role of the protagonist and you are not supposed to care about him/her as much as you will for his/her possible lovers. After all the anime is based on a dating sim, so why not? The thing is the average male fan will only be watching a harem show for the boobs, while an average female fan will care more about the romance. And it’s bloody hard to feel anything if the heroine barely cares about either. She talks like a robot and doesn’t really do anything other than standing still and listening to the super dudes talking or blowing up stuff, before she is in need of them to save her. And even when they do, she still acts like she doesn’t care. It is done deliberately because if she had more personality it would be easy to tell with whom she deserves to be with, but that is still not an in-story excuse for acting so snobbish. And look at her, always walking around in a mini skirt and never missing the chance to perform a roundhouse kick. Doesn’t she know anything about subtlety? She is supposed to be raised as a noble or something. I can’t feel any sympathy for this spoiled slut. She is obnoxious even without having a personality!
The super dudes definitely have a lot more meat, since each one of them has his own personality, special attack based on Tarot cards, and even a usually dramatic backdrop that fleshes them out. The problem is that the focus of the story changes every few minutes amongst them, so you never feel like they get enough spotlight to shine properly. There are also lots of scenes where nothing plot-related happens, so they count as fillers.
Another problem is that there is no actual romance in AF. Technically none of the candidates have any real feelings towards the heroine. They don’t like her for her personality (since she doesn’t have any), they just want to marry her and be stinking rich and powerful mobster bosses. So they come off as manipulating and hypocritical bastards than people who would do everything it takes to win the heart of a simple everyday girl. That makes the show to feel heartless instead of exciting.
So there you go, a show with absolutely no feeling or good intentions, thus a big failure. If you ask me no reverse harem is better than Ouran Host Club, because it made a satire out of the genre’s stereotypes. AF doesn’t do that and in the contrary tries to replace the stereotypes with far worse alternatives. Not recommended.
NekoMinSeo
First of all I might be the only damn person that would give a 7 to this anime, but I just couldn't help it when seeing all the 3s and 4s and 5s. xD This anime ISN'T that bad, KEEPING IN MIND that La Storia Dell' Arcana Famiglia is originally an otome game! Those of you who don't know what that is I shall explain. An otome game is a game for girls where you play as the protagonist and attempt to get close to one of the several male choices around you and practically get hooked together. Simple explanation, right? Now. Usuallythese type of games have that which is called "routes", which seem completely epic in game mode since each route concentrates on ONE guy. The main problem when you try to animate an otome game is that, maybe because of budget or other commercial factors, you unfortunately can't waste time and animate ALL routes and makes different arcs like in Amagami SS or CLANNAD. In this case, the producers had to insert a complicated, messed up plot, already divided by its different routes, into mere 12 episodes and actually make a sense out of it while trying to remain as close to the game as possible.
I have to recognize Arcana Famiglia, despite having a really good start and premise, after the first episode, it just gets dragged with random events making it look boring and completely unrelated to the real deal which is the Arcana Duello, with Felicita jumping to one guy to another all the time in order to flesh their personalities more. But I really don't have anybody to blame for it since Arcana Famiglia has a massive cast and in 12 episodes they just tried to develop every character as much as they could, which made them omit a lot of stuff to give space to something else that was considered more important, which in the end became a total mess and disappointment for those that really looked forward to a good anime. The only thing I can reproach is that the anime would have been better if the producers would have chosen a guy for Felicita to concentrate on more than the others or, even if differently from the game, they could have inserted some dynamical movement to it if the Arcana Duello would have started after the first 2-3 fillers and going on with a fight for a whole episode then bring in other 2 filler episode so we could have slowly found out about the characters' issues with eachother. For example I was yearning to see the fight between Luca and Jolly animated but it never came and I had to stick with the short versions of Liberta vs. Dante and Nova vs. Sumire when they randomly decided to make a love triangle out of Arcana Famiglia instead of a reverse harem. xD
The only praise I could give to the anime without thinking of the game is the comedy and art but that's all there is to it. Okay, i was also pleasantly surprised to have most of the last part of Jolly's route animated even though they could make him seem less of the bastard he actually he is, but at the same time they had Luca and Pace completely overshadowed by him, Liberta and Nova which was a real shame, despite me adoring Nova over all possible means.
All this said I think I don't really have anything more to add. The art was pretty high quality despite the low budget, which I think could have been a little higher because the PSP game was a complete innovation to otome gaming with it looking more like a picture drama than an otome, but hey! We all like ecchi harem stuff more so let's invest more in that type eh? *is completely ironic over here*
*deep sigh* Here is how another epic otome game was completely destroyed and misjudged because of an anime adaption. xD
Charliegone
I really wanted to like this anime. The first episode I watched gave me hope that this would be a good anime and so I decided to stick around, now I don't know if I should have. Basically there are 3 main characters. Nova, the katana wielding special forces guy in the Arcana family, he's a pretty serious looking guy from the outside, but he's got his soft spots for certain people. Probably the more mature one of the 3 mains. Next is Liberta who is your typical goofball that always ALWAYS follows his heart and doesn't really think things through. He's impulsive, but hidesa secret apparently. Then you have Felicita who's kind of independent, feels a sense love towards her comrades, but we're not really told if she has some kind of love interest in the other main characters. There's a number of other characters, but they're not explored deep into so they're not really that important.
If I had to choose the most interesting one, it would probably be Nova? Why? You can relate to him to an extent that makes you care for him. Liberta is probably the weakest imho, his reasons just seem rather shallow so you end up (I did) rooting against him. Felicita well..she ends up being the love interest let's just say.
The storyline is somewhat strange to be honest. It tries to focus on this Duello or Duel that would reward the winner with Felicitas hand and of course any wish they want. This sounds great to start. Heck I love duels, who doesn't? Well from there you get to know the main characters better. A few episodes are spent on developing their chemistry, histories, etc, but then there seems to be some fillers in between in my opinion which detracts from the story, though I really like the focus on the characters, still the story line didn't really seem solid. I felt like it was missing something. It felt more like a harem with just better characters, if I could explain the feeling when I watched this anime. The Duello? That? It was plain garbage. I was so disappointed in the battles (they didn't even show all of them and the important ones they just put up crap), I was like man that's it? So disappointing. To top it off through out the episodes you were being let on to believe that Felicita would choose who she liked....well let me just tell you you're gonna be disappointed with the outcome. Hell I was. A LOT of people were.
In the end the anime had some potential. I thought the main characters were good, but that terrible story line and ending just completely bring down this anime. I really wanted to like it, but it just plain disappointed me. It ended up being almost garbage. 3 out of 10.
CandyLemon3
Yare yare~ All I can say is that I had really high hopes for this anime but NOOOOOOO they just had to make it into a crappy slice of life anime ughhhh what's the point of even mentioning the duello and the mafia. If they were to make into anime they should've just made it into a normal sparkly shoujo anime like it is without the supernatural powers and mafia. REALLY HOW IS THIS EVEN MAFIA. MAFIA IS KILLING, FIGHTING, ACTION, if you wanna see a real MAFIA go and watch Baccano and Katekyo Hitman Reborn, heck even Durararais closer to mafia. Really don't even compare this to all the other beasty ass mafia anime like KHR and Baccano.
And the characters UGHHHHH THE CHARACTERS the designs are really good but the MCs can they even be considered MCs? The 2 guys are so cliched and Fel doesn't even have personality. Honestly I liked everyone else, even the side characters better.
And the Duello was only one day? WTF? I mean even IRL duels,tournament (fighting ones) take at least 3 days at least. This anime was a waste of time I'm a girl and did not enjoy this heck I'd rather get my ass in the kitchen.
UmiNoKami
This is not a spoiler free review. But trust me this Anime's not even worth your care to not be spoiled. If anything please don't waste your 12*25 minutes with this series. This series is just horrid. Like holy moly is it bad. I actually was really looking forward to this one since Fukuyama Jun was playing a main and the character design (visually-wise) is actually pretty good. I really regret my decision to get into this. My overall experience was just this constant irritation. Irritation because I can literally predict every singe thing that was gonna happen. This is mainly because the characters inthis Anime are, in every sense of the phrase, one-dimensional. It's that bad. I predicted every moment the Nova was gonna say "Don't call me a chickpea" I know Felicita wasn't going to save Papa. I predicted the punch Liberta gave Nova at the end and then they're going to be buddy buddy again with Liberta extending his hand out with a side of an extra hand from Felicita. There's just no interesting thing about this Anime ! I'm fine with cliches but when you can predict the freaking dialogue ? Oh god help me...
The powers are also just badly done I'm annoyed at the situation where Pink Haired girl was losing her memories to save Papa and then Jolly the suspicious guy's power is "to forcefully bring back her memories". Like thank F*CK for that convenience !! There's no showing, just a bunch of telling which absolutely mundane. Also what's the beef with Jolly anyways if you guys know his powers was to do that ?
I also would like to point out that this series is like a scam to scam away your time (and my condolences to anyone who bought even a cheap Chinese CD of this). The first episode got you into thinking this Anime is going to be mostly about this Tournament between powered people and people sorting out their dramas, discovering things about themselves and such. Then in the next 10 episodes it has absolutely nothing, like really nothing. You'll get told the main characters past with no showing, you get your time wasted on things like Cat finding and Chasing and telling children scary stories and you'll keep asking yourself "Where the heck is the tournament with all the action packed fighting ??" Finally you get there in the very last episode and they literally treat 3 of the main characters like side characters. Felicita kicks their ass but of course we don't get to see it because the Director and Animators were lazy and decided "We're just going to show them running to Felicita then skip to the scene where they get depressed from losing".
I was hoping for this series to be one of those short but interesting anime like Hataraku Maou-sama. I REALLY wanted to like this Anime but it is just disappointment. It's lazy, it's a waste of time and it is undoubtedly the WORST waste of potential I've ever seen.
lemonchiffon
The series had a promising premise, with the concept of hosting an Arcana Duello in order to marry the famiglia Papa's daughter, Felicita. I am glad that the series did not focus on romance, as is the motif in typical reverse harems. Instead, there was ample character development in the males; people get a sense of their struggles with controlling/awakening their powers. However, Felicita, our heroine, seemed like a background character in what is supposed to be her story. She was decent at fighting, but I kept waiting for her to emote in some powerful and meaningful way, but I was left unsatisfied. I ama bit disappointed at the predictable, rushed, and "safe" ending. The series could have devoted time to exploring friendships and actual fighting scenes in order to allow viewers to appreciate the ending more.
To end the review on a more positive note, the art in the show is amazing - that's what kept me watching the show. For example, the dreams/nightmares the characters have are so vivid.
JadeOlivia
La stoira della Arcana Famiglia is an anime that can be summed up in one sentence, "cool guys doing cool things". This anime relies heavily on the friendships and characters, while the plot seems to "sneak" past the viewer, and have them wondering where it went. That's all good and well of you like watching pretty boys in suits and ties, but those who don't....you maybe wondering where the plot has escaped too. I must give this anime credit for one thing, it knocks all the filler episodes in the first three. This is a great get-away chance for those who aren't as patient asthe ones who have sat through an entire episode devoted to a kitten, but those who have, might see an actual plot over this thundercloud of "cool guys doing cool things" summary.
After many, many depressing back-stories, hand-holding, lost kittens, and breast foundling, does the actual plot begin......on episode 11. Since this anime does rely so heavily on characters and the atmosphere, the characters are quite good and have a nice varieties of looks, voice, and how they carry themselves. The music is plains, besides the first opening, and doesn't really catch my eye. If you were expecting fighting, awesome battles, and other shounene features, you may want to skip this one. I can understand why you want to skip it, as even I wanted to even with my "DO NOT DROP" policy when doing reviews, I wanted to opt out as well. With immense concentration and many, many painstaking hours with my cursor hovering over the big X button, I ended up watching it.
This anime is a strange case of false advertisements, making the viewer think of "much action, less romance" while it's the complete opposite. Overall I give it a 6.01/10, as it was enjoyable (for the most part), but didn't quite live up to its name.
AnastasiyaV
**** This review might contain some spoilers **** [STORY] - 5/10 ----------- The story was overall average. The plot and the climax didn't really start until mid way, so I had to watch a couple episodes for it to get interesting. I was hoping for more action when it was time for the Arcana Duello. Instead, the whole match was held in less than one episode. The ending was also kind of a disappointment, but it could've been worse. Although it was a happy ending, the ending seemed very sudden. [ART] - 7/10 ----------- This anime aired in 2012, so I would expect the quality to me high and clear.This anime's cut scenes were pretty blurry, and the background / scenery was very 'non-detailed'. Although, when it came to where the anime focused on the most, the details were spot on.
[SOUND] - 8/10
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The subbed version of this anime was overall great! The opening theme really gave me that action genre vibe, and the opening wasn't bad at all. I don't really know how to feel about the ending theme though. Also, the anime really had a lack of adding background music when it was necessary.
[CHARACTER] - 9/10
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All the characters in this anime was very well detailed and very well acted. Each main character had their own unique personality, their own appearances, and own supernatural powers. I especially really liked the fact that all leading characters had their own unique Arcana powers.
[ENJOYMENT] - 6/10
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Like I said in the beginning of this review, this anime didn't really get interesting until mid way through, so I didn't really enjoy this anime that much. The part where Princess lost her memories was where I found the most interesting. I've also previously mentioned that the ending (in my opinion) was just a little sloppy.
[OVERALL] - 7/10
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Overall, this anime was average. I would watch it again if I had nothing to watch, but I wouldn't rewatch it for fun. This anime would've been better if it went into a little bit more into detail when it came to certain events, instead of clumping them all together into a couple of minutes, especially the Arcana Duello. I was really hoping for more action during many of the major events that happened in this anime.
FINAL SCORE:
7/10
