Arcana Famiglia

This is one of the best anime I have seen in a long time it has a great story, romance, its funny, and it keeps you wanting to watch more. I am not that into fighting animes but this one is so good I could not emagin people not liking this anime.

After elegantly spectating the complex maze which subsides in the harem genre, meeting a reverse-harem anime immediately triggered an alarm in my head. The usual problem with the Harem Genre is the stupidity which the main male protagonist simultaneously seems to preveal. Just when you think it can't get any frustrating, it just gets worse.

The Reverse-Harem Genre seems like it could be just as bad. However, assuming is also considerably naive.

The plot of Arcana Famiglia resides in a very unique setting, where seemingly superantural themes are just being thrown randomly. Actually, it is. The central plot is the result of anime trying to adapt ... other cultures, and in this case, the Italians. The story centers around a Female named Felicita, who is a fine piece of 'ss by herself, and the plot basically sets up an indirect reverse harem of many guys chasing after her. It's more enjoyable than expected due to all the characters' foolish actions...

ahh running out of time so...

Characters create a fine atmosphere, aren't as frustrating as most harems. Developments are bond to happen between characters.

This anime should be listed as a slice of life, because that's all that's been happening. I recommend this to be picked up by romance/harem fans.

Hacked by Nova.

Arcana Famiglia had an interesting premise but every passing episode, the show began to get duller and duller. I hope the show will get better soon, and I know it will, but here are my current thoughts on Arcana Famiglia.

Story: About a royal family that holds a fight tournament where the winner will get to marry the beautiful Felicita'. That was how it began. But every episode, it feels like the show is walking away from its original plot. They're having side episodes or fillers that don't seem very important to the show.

They keep having separate episodes for different characters so you can get ... to know their background story better, but I feel that a better approach to do that, is to just launch off the main plot already and then have the character background stories be revealed during mid-combat.

Art: I really love the art, it's quite beautiful. But what I dislike is when the three main characters always seem to get in a skirmish or battle with some pirates, bandits, etc, but they always walk away unscathed. In fact, they don't even need their weapons. They pull their deadly looking weapons out but they always end up using the blunt end of the weapon or end up just kicking away the opponent. I think they would fight better just hand to hand combat, sheesh. Not once, have I seen them using their weapons to actually slash or kill. I have never seen a single drop of blood in the series yet, and for an anime that's supposedly going to be action-y later, that upsets me. No blood means no intense action. Its like the shows creators are so impressed with their art style that they don't want to stain it with blood...

Sound: The opening and ending isn't too much of a headache to listen to, and the voice actors match the characters nicely. Except whenever I listen to Debito's voice I always think of Bossun from "Sket Dance". One problem though I have is that it's just painful for me to listen to Japanese voice actors trying to pronounce Italian names...

Characters: The characters all look different, and that's good. But the problem is, some of the characters seem too bland. The only characters that aren't always serious 24/7 is Liberta, Debito, and Pace. Besides that everyone else seems so boring. Another problem with the main character, Felicita, is that her character is hard to become infatuated with. She says "eh?" way too much and its annoying. She's pretty and her personality is also pretty, but still, she fails to be an entertaining character.

One cool thing about the characters though is that they all have special powers that only they can use and those powers are called "Arcana" abilities. But a problem I have with some of these Arcana abilities is that some of them seem way overpowered and in a battle with one another, it really falls down on which Arcana power is stronger. And its not like they earned those abilities, they just have it. That's it. They just have it. For example, one character has the Arcana power of super strength, cool right? But another has the power of "death". So basically if he just wants somebody to die, then they're dead. That's it. They're just dead. To me, it seems this whole Arcana system is really unfair and unbalanced and needs better backing.

Enjoyment: My overall enjoyment of the show is a 7. Despite everything I previously said, the show isn't that bad, but its definitely not anything special. It's not something you'll love or remember, but at least its not something you'll remember just because you hated it. Watch it, you won't be overly impressed but its something you can watch every week while you're waiting for the next Naruto episode or the next Sword Art Online.

Overall: Overall, the show gets a 8 because the art style is amazing.

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. Usually ... these 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

First episode in, and we are immediately introduced to a mafia-esque organization with cool men in tuxedos, an ultimate duello that rewards the winner with our extraordinarily attractive female main - Felicita, a glimpse of well choreographed fights ranging from sword fights to close quarters combat, and a hint of romance tacked with a little bit of humor. Did I mention that the songs for both the opening and ending - as well as the animation, were pretty good? Going into this anime, I felt that there was already a lot of potential - decent plot, decent production values, decent room for character development.

This ... all falls a bit short though, when the anime is only scheduled to run for 12 episodes. The immediate problem that comes to us is that there just isn't enough time to go through the in and outs of the main cast. Character development is focused mainly on the three - Felicita, Nova, and Liberta. We still get to learn a lot more about the other characters, but the information often comes in snippets and tidbits that really only make a moderate amount of sense.

This problem is existent even when exploring the background of Nova, and Liberta - the picture is just too small for us to care in any major way. Other problems with the plot include unexplained purposes of certain actions and unexplained reasons to having certain characters. Romance does make its way around the series, but most of this is limited and sees no real decisive conclusion.

Moving on to the shonen aspect of Arcana Famiglia, the first episode does a great job in packing us with some decent action. The series itself though, lacks any major combat from there onwards - making it somewhat of a rare occasion. This part of the anime suffers similarly to the plot and character development, where many things are still left unexplained/ partially explained.

There is also a minor issue with budget allocation, as viewers may see a deterioration in quality towards the end of this series. In general, the themes of action and romance that were promised in the very beginning of this anime fails to follow-up on the strong start.

Arcana Famiglia however, does a fairly good job at perhaps, being a slice-of-life anime series. Despite being unable to grant complete character development, the episodes are often entertaining and joyful to watch. The characters are capable of setting heartwarming moments at times.

This series is all in all, an average pick out of many slice-of-life anime. There is definitely potential with Arcana Famiglia, but an inadequate amount of episodes and average execution on the studio's part has left it with a fairly plain score. The pace for this anime could have worked with 25 episodes.

You have -got- to be kidding me. That's something that both you, the reader of this review, and myself would say. Why would someone give Arcana Famiglia an eight? Instead of clicking on not helpful JUST because I scored it as such, I ask that you try reading this review first. Anyway, let me tell you why I'd say that first line. I hateee most reverse harem anime; I usually dislike any anime too heavy on harem or reverse harem traits. I was curious about Arcana's score after finishing it. I was surprised at how low the score was. Do you know what's very interesting, ... though? I noticed one of the first reviews was hating on it back before I tried it out. You see, my friend said it wasn't too overdone with the whole reverse harem factor. Anyway, I checked again way way after, and there's a clear pattern to me. A hater starts out by hating it, and then others follow. I'm not saying everyone did that, because not everyone did, but I see a sort of pattern here. Go with the majority? I'm sorry, that's childish and stupid. It's like a bunch of bullies making everyone else join in.

Story: 8
Arcana Famiglia's story is interesting. Yes, for those of you who know of the ending, it was lacking, but it's not like it was bad. The fillers and off-trackness of this anime wasn't the best, but it's not like it wasn't entertaining. I liked how it was both serious and not serious. Remember that this is aimed at GIRLS, and that it's originally an OTOME GAME. If there's lack of action, how can we place any blame? So the ending left some desire for more, but I wouldn't say it ruined the rest of the show. Like MAL's guidelines say. If you need a summary, there's the synopsis up there. Anyway.

Art: 7
The art wasn't the best for me, but still pretty good. The animation quality was on the high side, but from what I've seen, the art style fell short of the official art for the game. Of course, this is an adaptation, so we can't really compare the anime to a game much. Again, art style's not the best, but it's still good. Effects are utilized nicely, and the shading was good.

Sound: 8
I didn't like the opening (a certain someone's singing is a bit off; instrumentals were good), but the ending was pretty great. Arcana's bgm is ordinary- you won't really remember it at all. The ending left a memory on me, and I remember how the opening goes. These two left a good impression overall. Otherwise, not much here.

Characters: 8
This is a tricky part, but one of the main issues besides the story. I really can't believe Felicita got so much hate. "She's too much of a good person- that's unrealistic." Wait, what? Sawako from Kimi ni Todoke? A bunchhh of female characters out there? Hello? Just because our world is filled with a lot of bad people, doesn't mean a goody-goody personality isn't impossible. In fact, I know a lot of friends like that. Even if morally bad people outnumber them. Another issue is people having an issue with Mamiko Noto's depiction of her voice. I'll admit, I found it unfitting at first. She seems like the type to have a higher-pitched voice, albeit soft (so Kana Hanazawa, then?). However, I got used to this after an episode or two. The voice becomes her, it ends up becoming a part of who Felitcita is. Another topic is how she's not the most emotionally active. Well, let's see. SHE HAS AMNESIA, REMEMBER? Why is it that Tachibana Kanade from Angel Beats! gets praise, and Felicita gets hate? I'd say both characters have their pros and cons. Moving on.

The rest of the cast in Arcana Famiglia are fairly strong. The weakness of some series is having too many characters. This also applies to the show, but there's something very notable about this one. With my knowledge, most reverse harems have multiple guys all liking the heroine in some way or another. Yet with this, you have mostly Liberta and Nova having a rivalry over her. Indeed, the other male characters show some interest in her, but it's NOT overdone. It's much more realistic when compared to others of the same genre. Felicita isn't fawned over by a bunch of guys like crazy. Another strong point is how each and every character is notable in their own way. You don't have a bland character, or the one that's mistaken for someone else. How this is executed is commendable.

Enjoyment: 8
I was shocked that I actually liked this anime. This was after a few episodes. It managed to pull me in, and I'd have that "Come out sooner," thought for it. I know it seems ordinary from my scoring, but it really isn't. I'd recommend Arcana Famiglia to anyone who is able to understand that people like Felicita really aren't that unrealistic. That there's more to this series than meets the eye. Not amazing, no, but good and notable. I really wish more people on MAL were able to see its potential.

Overall: 8
A recap of sorts. Not the most amazing plot, but still good. Somewhat rushed at the end, but a otome game-anime transition has to do with that (anime requires a huge budget, you know; it also doesn't give much profit unless really popular among fans). Art's notable, even if it's not extraordinary. Opening and ending shouldn't disappoint you with those instrumentals. Overall BGM's sup-par, though. As for characters, you'd have to skim back up. I enjoyed this anime, and wish people would reconsider it a lot more. It really isn't as bad as some make it out to be. Don't be so harsh on something when it's not horrible, y'know? Constructive criticism and considerate arguments are welcome. Have a nice day~

Many people have said that Arcana Famiglia sucked, due to the ending and the lack of storyline. I would agree, but it wasn't to that exaggerated extent.

First of all, I can agree that there really was no story plot. The Arcana Duello was supposed to be the main core of this anime. However, it wasn't really reached. All the episodes in between the last felt like fillers except for the character development scenes. Personally, I find these very enjoyable, but the fact that 90% of the anime were these episodes, it wasn't entirely satisfying. It was like: Alright, I know this about this character, ... and that about that character, so what are you going to bring next regarding these facts? Honestly the end was rushed, and it ended the story, but whether it was executed properly is a whole different situation. I guess you could also say the ending itself was not the ending the viewers wanted, but the twist was expected.

Moving on, the art and sound was satisfying, I guess you could say, for any anime it would've passed. I don't know why, but in my opinion I found the outfits rather... cool. It set the atmosphere and the whole mafia scheme really got me hooked. I think the voice actors really suited the characters, and modulation between different emotions were smooth as well.

Character development was good, but again, it left it at a point where nothing was accomplished. I felt like I understood the characters, but I didn't know what the producers and directors would do regarding these basic structures. Nova, Liberta, Diberte, Luca, Pace, Dante, and even Jolly were developed quite well during the anime. This makes it entertaining, due to all their contrasting personalities. However, Felicita was developed poorly. This is the downfall. I wouldn't say she had no personality at all, but she had no significant outstanding qualities that made her different from other anime girls. Considering that she was the main character, this made the anime much less enjoyable. I kept thinking, if i were in Felicita's place, I wouldn't be acting like that...

The enjoyment was great though. During the first 7 episodes, I laughed so much. The little jokes and sexual innuendos were great. However, when things began to turn serious, those little puns lessened. I even enjoyed the punishment/repent sessions at the end of every episodes since they stopped. Even though the ending was rushed, I enjoyed it, comprehending every detail. It wasn't intense enough, but they had good laughs. I would recommend you to watch it if you don't mind the somewhat trashy storyline and like comedy animes. Despite the main female lead being a typical girl, the other male characters were hilarious due to their contrasting personalities (again).

Overall: I really enjoyed Arcana Famiglia, and I wouldn't say that it was terrible. I think you should give it a try, because it isn't as bad as all the comments say. I probably shouldn't compare, but these first 12 episodes are rather like a build-up similar to build-ups in the anime Fairytail. The difference is that Fairytail has a more thought out story-line with a main antagonist. Like Arcana Famiglia, they had to develop their characters, but I think that with Fairytail being 100+ episodes, has more potential for a storyline rather than 12 episodes. Again, give Arcana Famiglia a try, because I enjoyed it, despite the disappointing ending. I'll tell you that it isn't a really crappy ending, but it's rather rushed. I rate this a 7.

**** This review might contain some spoilers ****



[STORY] - 5/10
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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
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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

SOMEWHAT SPOILER!! ENDING.

Alright, lets start out with the background. The anime is based off of a family that uses powers given to them basically from Taro cards. Each card gives the person a different power with a price, each card chooses the person basically, and each cards power is based on the users emotions. I didn't really like this anime very much, it was hard for me to really tell who the central character was because it jumps around a lot without giving much character development.

The fight scenes themselves were good in a technical sense but they reused the same scene each time the camera ... flipped back to the fight like the moves were on loop. Also it seemed a lot more that they only used the fighting scenes to be able to let their characters say a lot in one period of time rather than the person just standing there talking.

The storyline is also terrible, because the beginning of the show is exactly the same as the end of the show with, in my opinion, nothing really gained or lost. The shows subtitles also use some Italian words, like the Italian word for Lemonade, Japanese, and Taro, because it was basically like they were speaking Japanese but would throw in an Italian word every once in a while so that was odd.

Honestly I wouldn't recommend this one, but that's just me. Some people may like it more, but I found that there wasn't very much explanation to anything really and they were just trying to get the show done rather than have a very good show.

The story is pretty good, the art is great, the sound is great, characters are fair, and I found myself somewhat enjoying this series.

But it gets very slow.

It's hard to enjoy this anime because it bounces back and forth a bit, and even though I loved every single character design in this anime, I didn't feel like there was much to take away from these characters.

If anything, after a second look, they all seemed... stale.

Still, overall I got a bit of enjoyment out of it. It's a creative story idea, I LOVED the first few episodes, but they try to cram waaay too much in. ... It's best to go into this anime not with high hopes.

Overall, I give this a 7. It's good, but not award winning good. Which is sad, because it could've been if there story telling wasn't so jumpy and stuffed full of information.

The idea of the story was interesting and I really did enjoy the show. I loved the music and the art was absolutely adorable. I did find the story a little lacking though. The arcana duel that was mentioned in the beginning and feature at the end of the show was barely an issue throughout most of the serie. The characters did think about it and wanted to become stronger, but mostly, the episodes revolved around some adventures they had on their own. For a moment, I forgot about the arcana duel altogether and suddenly, it's happening. It just seemed to me that the plot ... was rushed toward the end, as if they suddenly realized they needed to get back on topic and wrap up the show.

The characters were interesting. They each had a unique personality that made them attractive in their own way and there isn't a single character that I would want gone from the show. I would have wanted to see a bit more of some of their past, but nonetheless, I still liked how the characters were presented in the show.

The ending wasn't quite satisfying enough, but that may just be my fangirl personality being too demanding. If I put that part of me aside, I can say that the ending was quite fitting and good.