Ranked #4753

Arcana Famiglia

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. read more

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 is supposed 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. read more