Arcana Famiglia

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 suffered poor execution. Never judge a book by its cover.

The series had a promising premise, with the concept of hosting an Arcana Duello in order to marry the famiglia Papa's daughter, Felicita. I am glad that the series did not focus on romance, as is the motif in typical reverse harems. Instead, there was ample character development in the males; people get a sense of their struggles with controlling/awakening their powers. However, Felicita, our heroine, seemed like a background character in what is supposed to be her story. She was decent at fighting, but I kept waiting for her to emote in some powerful and meaningful way, but I was left unsatisfied.

I am ... a bit disappointed at the predictable, rushed, and "safe" ending. The series could have devoted time to exploring friendships and actual fighting scenes in order to allow viewers to appreciate the ending more.

To end the review on a more positive note, the art in the show is amazing - that's what kept me watching the show. For example, the dreams/nightmares the characters have are so vivid.

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.

La stoira della Arcana Famiglia is an anime that can be summed up in one sentence, "cool guys doing cool things". This anime relies heavily on the friendships and characters, while the plot seems to "sneak" past the viewer, and have them wondering where it went. That's all good and well of you like watching pretty boys in suits and ties, but those who don't....you maybe wondering where the plot has escaped too. I must give this anime credit for one thing, it knocks all the filler episodes in the first three. This is a great get-away chance for those who aren't as patient as ... the ones who have sat through an entire episode devoted to a kitten, but those who have, might see an actual plot over this thundercloud of "cool guys doing cool things" summary.

After many, many depressing back-stories, hand-holding, lost kittens, and breast foundling, does the actual plot begin......on episode 11. Since this anime does rely so heavily on characters and the atmosphere, the characters are quite good and have a nice varieties of looks, voice, and how they carry themselves. The music is plains, besides the first opening, and doesn't really catch my eye. If you were expecting fighting, awesome battles, and other shounene features, you may want to skip this one. I can understand why you want to skip it, as even I wanted to even with my "DO NOT DROP" policy when doing reviews, I wanted to opt out as well. With immense concentration and many, many painstaking hours with my cursor hovering over the big X button, I ended up watching it.

This anime is a strange case of false advertisements, making the viewer think of "much action, less romance" while it's the complete opposite. Overall I give it a 6.01/10, as it was enjoyable (for the most part), but didn't quite live up to its name.

When I first read the synopsis, I was hopeful that the reviews were overly critical and maybe, just maybe, I'd enjoy it nonetheless. I found Arcana Famiglia from an article suggesting reverse harems (my current addiction). With a cast of good-looking, weapon swinging young males, it certainly had potential. Sadly, nothing was done with said potential.

Even though the characters each appear to have interesting back stories, we never get more than just the barest of glimpses into them. For example, there's constant animosity between Jolly and Debito, Pace and Luca, but the show never explores their past. Same goes for Liberta. There are flashbacks that ... allude to a supernatural past but we never really learn his history.

To be fair, the first 11 episodes were enjoyable. The art and sound meet expectations and the characters are all well-dressed in suits or fancy Victorian dresses. It's really when you reach the last episode that you realize that there are more unanswered questions than there are resolutions. The final Arcana duel (that the entire anime is based around) was also completely anti-climatic. In fact, you could even say that it was downright nonexistent. At the pace that the first 11 episodes were moving at, the final episode came too abruptly and does not do the anime justice.

Take away: I wish I heeded the advice of the existing reviews.

Arcana famiglia could have been better
I mean the art and sound was good
But what happened to the story!
Maybe it was the episode limit that they rushed the end part

At least she could have chosen one between nova or libertà

For me it was fine (6/10)
Again..it's just my opinion

Arcana Famiglia like some reviews have said revolves on character development and issues, rather than balancing both, plot and character development...

The story as I thought was suppose to be a ultimate battle in which will determine on who would be the next King and marry the current Kings daughter named Felicita.

As the episodes went on, it was just drama between the characters and little was to be known about the ultimate tournament. Which honestly made it irritating since there was no action. Once the tournament actually happened, it was so rushed after so long of waiting.

This seemed like a great anime, but ... it was okay in the end. Could of been executed better.

Let's see if I can keep it short...
Story:
Really good plot, but a bit rushed since it was 13 episodes; there were really odd scene transitions and useless episodes as well. I also didn't quite understand the whole card contract thing but it was nice watching people toy with their 'powers'. I also didn't feel the whole "We live on an Italian island but we all speak perfect Japanese and have never been to Japan" thing.
Art:
Quite beautiful, it wasn't super detailed like a futuristic type anime but it was enough to let you know where the characters are without having them blend in/out of the scenery.
Sound: ...
Decent opening theme, the rest of the score was ok as well; don't remember too much of any actual OSTs with lyrics, mostly just instrumentals.
Character:
Each episode tries to focus on one specific person and their problem(s) which would have been great if the anime had 20+ episodes but for 13 episodes, some characters didn't add much to the storyline. When I say didn't add much, I mean they weren't horrible but they weren't great either. I like the whole kick-ass female lead thing but I would've liked to see more of the love triangle blossom and less of that creepy old dude making suggestive comments at a 15/16 year old girl. Also a bit more on what the card contract means, I think they spent more time on a gibberish explanation rather than actual power usage.
Enjoyment:
I had a few chuckles and grins here and there but nothing that left a lasting impression on me.
Overall:
The last episode fell reaalllly short of my expectations...and by then it was pretty obvious what was going to happen. It felt like the writers were scrambling to tie up all the loose ends and once that was done they only had a few minutes left for the actual Duello so we get like 10 seconds of each contestant and their power, YAY! Not. If you watch the first few episodes you can skip to the end without missing a thing. I'm not even sure who I would recommend this to because its like false advertisement to repeat the plot line when the actual plot veers off into another dimension.

i expected the anime to be great after reading the plot but it failed to meet my expectations.
the character development was poor.though i liked both the male leads and their love triangle with the female lead their story was very slow paced. the liked the plot that the girl fights to make her own choices in life but there was nothing of that sort. when i read the plot it said that there would be a tournament but believe me when i say that the f.....g tournament was only in the final episode and it got over in a blink of an eye. people fighting ... inn the tournament were supposed to fight using their arcana powers because only people with arcana powers were allowed to participate but no one seemed to use them in their fight. the whole point of the tournament was useless. but the anime had real good characters in it. the father daughter relation was way good. the animation is also great. i hope to read the manga to find out exactly about what the arcana powers are and the plot seemed to have a lot of potential. give it a try if u have no better anime left to watch or u just not want urself to get involved in the anime much.

Im not the type to write reviewsomething but this show is a doozy. Its original in its initial premise, the art is good, it's short and it has unique character motives apon watching the preliminary plot layers but as you can see from the aggregate score something is amiss. Well it turns out its actually a very very very conventional reverse harem at its core once you mentally shred away some pretty wrapping paper. What really hurt me was it took me so long to realize that. I did not take the time to find out pre-watch that it was based off a visual novel. ... Everything else wrong about it is rooted in that. It weaves a shit ton of semi-explored subplots(as is the case with most harem type shows) Also as you would imagine (as is the case with most of these harem type shows) it drives the plot on getting finality in its conclusion only to leave the viewer with something left to be desired. This show is a show that disguises itself as your action/fight-to-be-the-strongest variety of show to gradually reveal itself to be a gimme-attention-from-multiple-members-of-the-opposite-sex category show. It is however one of a kind in that they managed like 5 filler episodes in a 12 episode series. Sad really... The premise aka the first episode could have lead to a very good anime unfortunately I don't think that's what the producers of this poor thing werected trying to do. Matter of fact I'm not sure what they were trying to do. If anyone knows, can you tell me what is the target demographic of such a series?

I really wanted to like this anime. I loved the game, enjoyed some of the manga.
Oh boy...

Story-6
I liked the whole idea with the Tarot cards and the Mafia. But they didnt play it out too well.

Art-7
I was ok with the art style, I could still watch it. So if your one one those people, like me, who wont watch something even if the plot is good unless the art is well done. Its ok.

Sound- 6
... The sound was ok too, the opening was alright and so was the ending. It didnt make me go
"OMG I NEED TO DOWNLOAD IT NOOOOOOOW"
Because id usually go like that. Nothing impressive though.

Character-6
Oh.How.I.Wish.They.Done.Better.
Is it me or do the characters seem like they have a flat personality? Nova's and Liberta's were ok but they made Pace look like a guy who just eats and Luca who "doesnt have a backstory"
I wanted them to focus on the characters a little more since they do have personality, the anime just doesnt show it much.

Enjoyment- 5
I didnt enjoy this as much as I wanted too. Every episode felt like a filler episode, every episode I wanted it to focus on the actual plot so it doesn't affect the ending. Oh how right was I....

Overall- 6
It was ok. I didnt enjoy it and I didnt hate it either.
It was a love and hate relationship. I wouldnt recommend watching this though. If you want to see a good reverse harem watch Hakuouki or OHSHC.
And no I dont hate Arcana famiglia, I just didnt like the anime. Thats it.

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 ;/

Arcana Famiglia was one of those animes I really wanted to watch. It was a good start but the story began dragging. DRAMATICALLY.

The story was mediocre. The idea of one person marrying the daughter of a mafia leader, I knew that things would get a bit pathetic but I decided to keep watching because I liked the character design.

Of course were in 2012, where art and animation are like in a new level. Not just the colors but I liked the character design as well.

I felt like the anime was dreading after a couple episodes. Especially the last episode. It was extremely rushed and ... I was just disappointed. Now if they make a second season prior to the first, I wouldn't be so angry.