La storia della Arcana Famiglia - Ryu's Review & Discussion

[Ryu 15]

http://terracannon876.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/arcanafamiglia01.jpg

 

Alternative title: Arcana Famiglia (アルカナ・ファミリア)

Release Date: 2012-07-01

Opening Theme: "Magenta Another Sky" by Hitomi Harada

Ending Theme:"Pieces of Treasure" by Jun Fukuyama & Tsubasa Yonaga

Official website: ƒAƒ‹ƒJƒiEƒtƒ@ƒ~ƒŠƒA ƒhƒbƒgƒRƒ€FƒAƒjƒuƒAƒ‹ƒJƒiEƒtƒ@ƒ~ƒŠƒA -La storia della Arcana Famiglia-vŒöŽ®ƒTƒCƒg

 

Summary

 

All her life, Felicita has lived in a small cottage with only her mother, Sumire, and her butler, Luca, for company. It was her dream to leave and join the Arcana Famiglia on Regalo Island, the Family her father, Mondo, is in Father of.

 

The Arcana Famiglia is unique in their usage of special powers. Every member of the family has a contract with the Tarocco (an old word for Tarot and also the Japanese word for blood oranges, which originated in Sicily). The strongest members have contracts with the Major Arcana and, on top of having a Stigmata appear on their body somewhere, they are also granted special powers.

 

Luckily for Felicita, she not only has a contract with the Lovers, Gli Amanti, but also with the Wheel of Fortune, La Ruota della Fortuna. She’s accepted into the family without any problems.

 

Ryu's Review

 

So basically this is an anime adaptation of an Otome game (Reverse Harem) called Arcana Famiglia. The Arcana Famiglia is a sort of a good mafia-like vigilante organization who watches over the city.

 

Things are going well for Felicita and she’s practically the darling of the family. However, during Papa’s (The wanna-be badass boss) birthday party, only a few months after she joins, her father makes a sudden announcement.

 

The family will be holding a tournament – the Arcana Duello – in two months. The winner will be granted one wish. On top of that, Mondo will hand over his seat as boss. In addition, as if that wasn’t enough, he promises Felicita’s hand in marriage to the victor.

 

Then she protests, daddy spanks her a little and everybody shuts up.

 

Artistry, music and animation: 9/10

 

I really liked the art, very good animation and music also, but nothing mind-blowing. Nothing much to add.

 

Story: So far 7/10, let's see how it develops.

 

I've explained the story in the summary. Some mild fan-service from Felicita, a fantasy-modern like story, very good concept of powers (In my opinion). Even me not being a fan of otome anime/games, this show looks promising, the first episode was full of jibber-jabber, I'm have hope for more action and ecchi.

 

That's all, If you want to download the show here's a torrent.

[ret 12]

Saw it on commie's RSS feed - seems interesting... And the art style's cool.

Let's see how it goes.

[Dan. 11]

Just watched the first episode. Here's my review:

 

Story:

There wasn't enough story yet for me to know if I'll like it, but it doesn't seem like I will. It's basically a bunch of people with supernatural powers that will apparently be battling each other in some kind of tournament for a prize. I don't like the fact that they're not good enough writers to introduce the powers in an interesting or cool way. It doesn't bode well for the writing for the rest of the show when they can't introduce important plot points well. They just tell each other, "we have powers." They already know that, so it just seems stupid. There are tons of better ways to do it, such as just showing us in a cool battle scene.

- Not good so far - 3/10

 

Characters:

They seem like some standard anime archetypes; you can guess their personalities from their appearances if you've seen a lot of anime.

- Nothing special here - 5/10

 

Animation, Music, etc.:

Pretty good animation, character design, etc. Music was all right.

- Nothing too special, but nothing that bad either - 7/10

 

Some Complaints:

 

Anachronisms and Anatopisms:

Anachronism - a chronological inconsistency (something that is in the wrong time, ex. an electric toothbrush in ancient Egypt or a dinosaur today)

Anatopism - a geographical inconsistency (something that is in the wrong place, ex. a panda in North America before they were brought to zoos or Christian beliefs in Japan before European interaction)

This show is full of Anachronisma and Anatopisms. This show is supposed to take place in Italy, but they apparently don't know that. The bald guy makes a Japanese pun. At least one guy uses a katana. The same guy imagines the girl in a kimono. "Mama" wears Japanese-style clothing. They also forgot that it's apparently (from the way the town looks) supposed to be the past. "Papa" and "Mama" both wear modern clothing. "Papa" has a modern style of earrings. The other people with Arcana powers wear suits that are also more of a modern style, but they're just suits, so it doesn't really matter. I don't know when this is supposed to be set, but the idea of Tarot cards being related to the occult didn't even start until the 1700s, and it was longer before it was widespread (originally, they were just used for card games). But again, I don't know when this is set, and it doesn't matter, since it's just something they use to add a supernatural element to the show and isn't based in reality anyway.

 

This reminds me of Kuroshituji (Black Butler), where they said the same Japanese pun in every episode (akumade, shitsuji da) and had several other puns and cultural references that didn't make sense in Victorian-era England, where it was supposed to be set.

 

They're supposed to be crime-fighters, so why are they like the mafia, and why does "Papa" look like a Yakuza boss?

 

My Verdict:

The story just isn't very good, and nothing else is above average in any way - Overall Score: 4/10

Edited July 2, 2012 by Dan.

[higguy 10]

Just saw the first episode , loved the op song , other then that it kinda gave me a "d gray man" feeling.

Like the characters , especially the guy with the accent and eyepatch , looking forward to see how it turns out

[Masao 10]

I am sorry to say that, but I didn't like this show, it was one of the worst things i've ever watched, but that's just my opinion, don't get it wrong!

[PhiBrainChild 10]

The show is totally unoriginal, the story is random. They just want to get watchers by putting some elements in the show that would interest them. Reverse harem for girls, not so bad fighting animations for those who like action, and of course there is comedy. Overall, disappointing.

[Nobu 12]

Sorry, im a sucker for animes that use mythologys and things such as tarot cards for powers/plots, only problem is when u dont understand the references.

 

However; the characters do suck IMO, cliche, we all know these types of characters.

 

Art? The blue haired katana guy looks slightly worst than the others O_O is it just me?

 

Animation? Lol did these mafia guys really just knock the swords out of those people's hands? Right, ill look foward to the Arcana Duel thing where they fight using teddy bears and have tea party contests, but on a serious note, from what i heard about the manga or w/e, the anime pulled off a better job on their end.

[Dan. 11]

Sorry, im a sucker for animes that use mythologys and things such as tarot cards for powers/plots, only problem is when u dont understand the references.

 

You should watch Campione this season. The first episode pre-air is already out. It was waaaay better that Arcana Famiglia.

 

EDIT: about not understanding references: in campione they explain most of them in the show. the version I watched was from Hadena, and they put some notes in the video. they had them on the release page for the episode, too.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Dan.

[Nobu 12]

Yeah i did, these two pretty much made me have hope for the season. but i gotta say, the first epi for Campione seemed like

A. Rushed, (he said 48 hrs l8er, he became the 7th king? Dafawk its only been like 12 hours and we're that far already)

B. Foreshadowing? If in this case, i guess its okay.

 

about not understanding references: in campione they explain most of them in the show. the version I watched was from Hadena, and they put some notes in the video. they had them on the release page for the episode, too.

 

sometimes its that non understanding that makes me go research that topic and then i get sucked into it even moar i originally didnt know they were talking about Tarot Cards until be mentioned "The World," like com'on everyones heard of that, but then i searched up the cards and stuff, seems interesting, so technically, i receive joy from watching the anime(hopefully) and from learning about new things like Tarot Cards and their meanings.

Edited July 4, 2012 by Nobu

[Dan. 11]

A. Rushed, (he said 48 hrs l8er, he became the 7th king? Dafawk its only been like 12 hours and we're that far already)

 

No, it was longer. He said that at the beginning, then met Erica and went to that woman's house where he spent the night. Then it was the next day, so it was at least 24 hours.

[Nobu 12]

Definitely less than 24, they met like mid day, and that was like early bird, still think it was rushed, i honestly thought that short boy was the main antag, (like com'on they made him sound so overpowered; but i'm just assuming here that he isn't after ep 1, this assumption might change l8er on)

[Dan. 11]

Definitely less than 24, they met like mid day, and that was like early bird, still think it was rushed,

Fine, then at least 20 hours.

i honestly thought that short boy was the main antag, (like com'on they made him sound so overpowered; but i'm just assuming here that he isn't after ep 1, this assumption might change l8er on)

 

That short boy is definitely going to

die.