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

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 series starts, 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. read more

I'm a huge fan of shoujo, romance, and reverse harems; my absolute favorite is Ouran High School.

So I really, REALLY, wanted to enjoy this.

The art is beautiful, the characters are beautiful and all each unique in their own way.

The powers are very cool; very unique and original in concept.

The storyline seemed promising.

Everything, seemed promising, everything has so much potential.

"So what's the problem here?" You may ask.

The main character, is the problem.

The story revolves around one girl; named Felicita, she does not speak, does not have a personality, all she really honestly does is stand in the background of every scene and look pretty while the male characters do all the talking.

When she does occasionally talk, it's "eh?" or "What's wrong _____?"

She only talks at appropriate times, when needed.

She just makes sounds, you find her character, very VERY, flat and robotic.

All of the male characters have more personality than her, SERIOUSLY.

Even the side male characters that you know won't get the girl, talk more than her, they all have more personality than her.

Her reactions to things and situations are either too downplayed, where it's as if she didn't or doesn't react to things at all, doesn't notice things around her, doesn't care almost.

But when the story forces her to care, it's overblown, and she suddenly cares SO much, it's unrealistic.

I wanted to drop the show after the second episode was ALREADY a filler, it was an episode, about a cat, just some random stupid cat, and really would you spend an entire day looking for an owner of a cat. I was hoping that the owner of the cat would be someone important, but in the end it was just some random lady that had nothing to do with anything.

A useless filler episode.

There wasn't any romance in the episode either, it was just honestly, a time waster.

But I kept watching anyways.

Episode three seemed like another filler, but it became potentially good at the end when the mystery child returns to Jolly, and a part of Liberta's past revealed.

Giving us a thought that this might get darker and more serious, with Jolly's "shady research" and the strange child returning to him.

With Liberta's mysterious power, the episode left me wanting to know.

Fourth Episode, reveals liberta's past, but I felt as though it was all rushed and down very shabbily.

It just seemed half assed, it was good, but shown half assedly.

It just saddens me because this anime has SO much potential, so many wonderful characters, so many good ideas, but it's shown very lousily.

So with potentially good plots and ideas already wasted, and the main character's flat personality.

I have sadly decided to drop this Anime.

Plus, they make it too obvious that she will end up with Liberta.

Also a note: I understand that this is derived from a game, and since in the game you get to pick how you talk and interact with the characters, you basically choose the girl's personality, I do not understand why they chose to leave the main character's personality blank in the anime as well, you can't just imagine she has a personality, she has to have one if she's interacting with the other characters on her own, so leaving her quiet and blank most of the time, does not work in an anime.

They should have given her more personality, interests, quirks, dislikes, they should have just made her more human, and not just a blank pretty doll that's important because she's the daughter of a very important man, and very attractive, in my opinion.

Like if you want to make a huge group of attractive men like her, then you have to sell her to us too, give us reasons as to why she's so likable, why do all the men want her as their wife?

So far the only reasons I've been able to notice is that she's attractive and the daughter of everyone's boss.

And basically the only available girl in the anime; an attractive bachelorette with looks, money, and power.

Nothing actually deep like other than shallow attraction.

Yes Liberta likes her, a lot, but why, why does he like her so much?

Is it just because she's the only girl his age in the anime?

Come on..

Instead of wasting episodes and production on filler stuff, why didn't you use those episodes to develop the main story and to tell us why the main character is so desired?

Either way.

I'm done:

Story - 7/10
(Story is good and has potential but not presented well.)
Art - 9/10
(The art is quality.)
Sound - 10/10
(The voice actors are superb.)
Character - 7/10
(All the male characters are good, but the main character's mother and father has more personality than she does herself.)
Enjoyment - 5/10
(Almost all the episodes except the first seemed like fillers to me, very boring, with attempts at making it more exciting.)

Overall - 6/10 read more

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 his daughter 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. read more

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, the art and sound are good, in my opinion, but it's not enough to save the disaster. read more

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 one for 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.



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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 be enjoyable. 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
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*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, I thought 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.

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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 amount to 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. read more

Disclaimer: Going into this I had no idea that this anime was based of a game

I will be frank, this was not a good anime plot-wise. It plays a sly trick by making the first episode good therefore drawing you in. Afterwards you was maybe 2 or 3 hours hoping the show gets better and it doesn't. The show does have it's good point though.

Story-3

It seems like a very decent story at first but then the shows goes off on some tangent that is, IMO, unrelated to the plot presented in the first episode.In its attempt to evoke a emotional response from the audience it fall face first.

Art-7

The artwork was very decent, one of the few highlights of this show. Character designs were very good.

Sound-6

Voice acting was very good, also a highlight. OP and ED were not to my liking but that is personal preference.

Character-8

I love the characters. From their design to the voices and their personalities. On of the main things that kept me hooked for 6 painful episodes.

Overall it was an anime that I found had a lot of potential but to suffered poor execution. Never judge a book by its cover. read more

Arcana Famiglia is a shōjo anime with decent art and sound but unfortunately lacks in originality, interesting characters and general enjoyability. This series is very reminiscent of Katekyō Hitman Reborn due to its mafioso elements, only without the likeable, stand out characters and exciting plot. While it is easy on the eyes, the story is largely superficial with little to no narrative and thus gets boring rather quick.

Perhaps a case could be made for a coming of age story with playful romance and comedy and I wouldn't oppose such an assessment, having only watched two episodes myself. Nonetheless, in terms of standing out, Arcana Famiglia sadly doesn't. Neither the plot nor the characters are intriguing enough to encourage viewers that enjoy thought provoking anime, such as myself, to continue.

Arcana Famiglia is by no means a terrible series however. While it falls short in terms of story, it has a healthy dosage of comedy and romance to keep fans of those genres engaged and excited as they squabble over who would be a better suitor for Felicitiá as they story progresses.

This anime wasn't one I could enjoy, however that does not mean you can't enjoy it for what is it is, so I urge you to give it a try anyway and keep your expectations low. read more

i dont hate this anime its just that it disappointed me badly :(

From what i read about this anime i thought that it would be amazing, and if im being really honest the best thing about it were the characters.When you start waching this you expect a love triangle, a lot of fights , and for sure that it will be suprising.None of those things really happen,sadly.For me it was quite a big disappointment, specially was really bad and the final fight was really lame -.- So my expectations of it were 9 out of 10 but on the end it was 4.5 out of 10.I suppose you can wach it for the characters but im not sure if its worth it ;/ read more

THE STAFF
- Animated by J.C. Staff, which means it will be nothing more than fan service. As far as the production values goes, the show is good in terms of colours and detail. Nothing amazing since it still has jerky motions, poor visual effects, and simple battle choreography. But since most will be starring at the cool super dudes, nobody will care much for what I mentioned a sentence earlier.
- Directed by Kon Chiyaki, known for his work on Higurashi. Well, good for him to not rape the source material like most do but all his other works are plain passable.
- Based on a dating sim for girls. You can already smell the fail.

Arcana Famiglia (AF henceforth) is using a lot of baits to lure you in but as soon as you bite, like the average fish 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, which makes 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 any of them. She talks as dried up as possible, 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 saving her. And even if they do, she still acts like she doesn’t care. I understand that if she had more personality it would be easy to tell with whom she matches best, 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 to like them, as each one of them has his own personality, special attack based on Tarot cards, and even a usually dramatic backdrop to flesh 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 for 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 pass more 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 right away. If you ask me no reverse harem is any better than a typical harem and Ouran Host Club did a good job only 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 elements. Not recommended.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 7/10
General Artwork 2/2 (looks interesting)
Character Figures 2/2 (the mafia dudes are cool)
Backgrounds 1/2 (basic)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 1/2 (basic)

SOUND SECTION: 5/10
Voice Acting 1/3 (Felicita has no colour in her voice)
Music Themes 2/4 (average)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 0/2 (loose)
Complexity 1/2 (not much)
Plausibility 0/2 (none)
Conclusion 0/2 (dull)

CHARACTER SECTION: 3/10
Presence 0/2 (Felicita is a robot)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 0/2 (doesn’t exist)
Catharsis 0/2 (doesn’t exist)

VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (no reason to rewatch)
Memorability 1/4 (forgettable)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Art 0/1 (looks ok but nothing much)
Sound 0/2 (sounds meh)
Story 0/3 (it practically doesn’t exist)
Characters 1/4 (the mafia dudes are somewhat cool but that hardly makes them interesting)

VERDICT: 3.5/10 read more

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 Durarara is 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. read more

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 hides a 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. read more

I had really high hopes for this series.

Though it is rated as a shoujo anime it has a lot of shonen elements in it.

The main characters are two boys, Liberta and Nova and one girl, Felicita, which also represent the main romance part of the story, which is based on a love triangle.

Felicita which should be the main protagonist is the least recognizable character of the show. She is barely established as a unique character and seems replacable.

Liberta and Nova both have had emotionally crippling events in their past which they have to overcome in order to protect what is dearest to them, their love to Felicita.

It is far easier to identify with one of those two boys as you really care for them and grow to like them as the real protagonists of the show.

Maybe this is only caused by me being male myself and i just don't understand the depth of a character Felicita presents but i doubt it.

The first episode is totally missleading as you would think that the whole anime would be centered around a great tournament, the arcana duello, perhaps with fights between the contestants staged between the character development episodes to show how much they have grown while constantly throwing new challenges at them.

This was the anime i expected but it turned out completely different.

Without ever announcing when or how this duello was to take place it turned into a bit of a sleight of life anime showing the daily life of the characters and focussing on their weaknesses and how they try to overcome them.

The character design is excellent with a few exceptions (Felicita being one of them).

I really enjoyed the group of the slightly older members, Pace, Debito and Luca which all had very unique characteristica which resulted from their various pasts that are in a way all linked to each other.

I simply loved the voice acting of Yoshino, Hiroyuki as Debito and the voices chosen for the other characters perfectly fit with them too.

The anime in itself is fun to watch and there are a lot of sideplots involving the other characters, expecially Jolly.

But all that builds up to nothing as the last episode smashes everything the writers have build up over the first 11 episodes into peaces.

The anime is clearly build to have a much larger set of episodes dedicated to it resuting in a grand finale, the arcano duello resolving the last of the subplots and ending in a decision for Felicita wether she will choose Liberta or Nova.

But it seems like the anime got discontinued on short notice making the 12th episode the final one.

I have not read the correlating manga this anime is based on but by the pacing up till episode 11 i would guess we were storylike at least half-way through of what the manga has to offer.

The main story was shortened as much as possible to fit it all in one final episode leaving behind all of the subplots and further character development.

It is just a fast forward through the story to show what would have happened, which it also shows that there is no second season planned as they just could have left the story open for continuation should it be needed.

This also renders the show uncomplete and unsatisfactory. Though i enjoyed the anime pretty much up to this last episode i can only advise anyone planning to watch this anime not to do so unless you want to be really disappointed.

If you watch the last episode you don't even get the chance to just read the manga instead because it contains major spoilers for upcoming events (if it isn't an alternate ending).

If you really want to watch this series you should stop after episode 11 and pick up the manga for continuation.

As i said before i have not read the manga so far but from the storytelling and the good character-development i'm pretty sure that it will deliver a good enough experience and to be honest it can't be worse than the ending of the anime. read more

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 the big 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!"

read more

Overall I was pretty disappointed with this anime, and that's saying a lot since I'm a huge fan of reverse harems. Good reverse harems with quaulity Art is pretty hard to come by so I was looking forward to this anime when it first came out.

Story: In my opinion the whole thing was all over the place. The main heroin Felicita hardly does anything but stands around the whole anime. The only stories in there are about the characters backgrounds. You don't actually start to get to the actual problem until the last couple episodes. Basically, it was pretty wishy-washy. I won't go into details about the end but I was very mad and annoyed with it too. If you watch it you'll know what I mean.

Art: I loved the art. It was one of the main points for this anime. I loved the colors and the vividness of it all. Which is probably why I kept watching the whole way through.

Sound: As far as soundtracks go there wasn't a lot but I did love the theme song, and that's important to me when I'm watching an anime. After all you see the theme song before you see the actual anime so it's what hooks you in to see the rest.

*** Little bit of a Spoiler here***
Characters: Ok I'm going to go on a bit of a rant. The supporting male leads were interesting and great. You got to learn about THEIR problems and backgrounds. I loved Luca especially. In fact you spend mainly the whole anime focusing on the 2 biggest to maie leads Nova and Liberta. I mean of course it's important to learn about all the supporting characters too but what about the main heroin? Well that's the part I'm severly disappointed about. The Lead character of this anime Felicita pretty much has no emotions. She's just like a robot. In fact you might as well have not included her. And in the end she didn't even choose to be with Nova or Liberta, I sort of predicted that though. She was a very dull character. I guess expecting a lot out of her character was too much to ask.

Enjoyment: Even though I've ranted a lot, I did like pretty much all of the male leads and the episodes were all pretty interesting. So I gave it a 7 for my enjoyment.

Overall: Overall I'm pretty indecisive myself about how to rate this. I mean there was a lot to rant about but there were some perks too. So I think I'll go with a 5. read more

This is my 1st review :)
Watching its 1st Episode . I have a high hope that this anime will be good . yeah its good but not that good because of the ending of this series . and I was so disappointed about this series because of Arcana Duello its only One episode and its the final episode . The art is awesome and its a shoujo anime . but the real problem in this anime is the story . and so for that I'm waiting for the OVA of this series .____.