Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy Magic, Drama, action (minor), Ecchi (Minor)
Length: 12 episodes - 24 minutes each.
I'd had Shukufuku in my "To-Watch" list for a while. I'd downloaded the Blue-Ray versions, so I knew I was going to be getting an HQ expereince.
The first thing I wanna say about Shukufuku is it SCREAMS "RPG game". It's EXACTLY like an old style RPG or MMO game. You've got the character classes (Engineer, Mage, Swordsman, Pupeteer, Berserker etc), a fantasy world, standard monsters and a big boss fight at the end. Know this before you get into it, because it stands SO faithfully to that trope. Which, in my opinion, was a GOOD thing.
Shukufuku is about a guild in the land of Ert'Aria called "Clan Oasis". It's headed up by the pretty mage Carina, and includes the bishounen (and very feminie) main character Leicester (Which is pronouced "Lester" by the way). When a huge burst of magic activates a VERY human like automaton named Minette, who calls Leiceter "Papa", the Clan takes her in.
Now, without giving away any plot details, I can tell you that Shukufuku is a very relaxing anime. The quests the guild goes on involve taking on some monsters now and then (so yes, theres action), and then a mildly darker plot involving Minette pans out at episode 7.
Now down to the review.
Shukufuku is a really fascintating watch. I've never watched anythign that adheres so typicaly to the old RPG style before. Swordsman (Or swordsWOMAN in this case), Pupeteer, engeneer and Mage are all present. 90% of them are female by the way. In fact, only Leicester and the main antagonist are men. Oh and theres "Nick" a Berserker warrior in the guild who's so unmemorable it took me 5 episodes to remember his name, and everytime he showed up I had to remind myself he existed.
Shukufuku takes it slow. VERY slow. Theres next-to-no "plot" for 7 episodes. Well there IS plot but its simple quests and adventures that involve taking on low level monsters. In a way, its a very "realistic" aproach to a fantasy world. If you lived in a magical land, it's NOT going to be monsters, villians and save-the-world adventure everyday like "Fairy Tail" would have you believe. In fact, it'd probebly be quite peaceful, which is what Shukufuku is. For this reason, Shukufuku is more like a "slice-of-life" anime than anything else.
Shukufuku has a beautiful art style thats soft and uses light colour shades. It's really well done and definently one of the most appealing parts of the anime.
Shukufuku moves at a relaxing pace right up until the final episode, which features a host of awesome, high impact action scenes. Unfortunatly, this feels a bit rushed. I really wished they'd had a few more episodes. Hell could have been a 24 episode anime and had a bit more time to develop the final lead in. I was pretty disapointed with the last part of the fight, where for no reason, a holy sword appears infront of the swordsman with no lead in.
Characters is where Shukufuku shines! Leicester, the male lead, is really likable as a guy. He's not really like other male protagonist. He's geninuly a good guy who does his job. He isn't very strong or overpowered, he's just inteligent. He's of the "engeneer" class, he makes things. His weapon is a cool gunblade he made himself. I really like that they made an engenner the main character instead of the swordsman. He's very relatable. Handsome too, as almost every girl in the series is after him. But thats a given.
Carina, the cute mage girl and female lead was my personal favorite. Like Leicester, she's relatable. It's not like she's the ultimate mage who excelles at all spells. She's just a strong spellcaster. That's about it as well. In terms of physical strength, she's weak.
She's the type of character who's mature and calm about everything. Even when in the fight of her life, she remains calm enough to focus her spells.The only time she ever gets worked up is in a comedic way when another girl gets close to Leicester.
Of notable mention here are the twin girls Salsa and Ritos. They are a hillerious duo of guild workers who use a stone-mech Golum. Salsa tries her best to do the right thing, but Ritos is detirmed to troll her at every point. It's so funny, with Salsa getting worked up over Ritos sheer "I don't give a shit" attitude.
Sound and music matches the art style fairly well. It's calming and soft most of the time. It's not really notable. I barely remember it, so I wouldn't call it fantastic.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. Shukufuku is adapted from a hentai eroge, like fate/stay night. It retains a little ecchiness because of this. In reality, it probebly would have worked just to leave the few hentai scenes in. Theres one scene that's blatently a lead in to a H-scene but is obviously removed.
Ecchi is limited to a few full-nudity shots in a bathroom or changing-clothes enviroment. It's good because it feals really "natrual". Ecchi anime often feature clothes being toarn apart in battle so characters are fighting naked. This doesn't happen in Shukufuku. (The characters DO take clothing damage, but its not like "oh no, my entire clothes have been destroyed showing off my boobs". More like "damn, tore my skirt"). It's not actualy fair to call it an ecchi.
Overall, Shukufuku no Campanella is enjoyable, but not that memorable. It's going to stick with me mostly for its chracters and adherence to the RPG style. It's not an amazing anime, BUT it's worth a watch. Check this one out if you have some spare time and it sounds like your type of thing. Just know that its going to be a fairly basic ride without a lot of thrills and only simple action.
