Arcana Famiglia: Capriccio - stile Arcana Famiglia

Those who watched the Arcana Famiglia series will remember what became of it. The show did not follow its first episode's interesting premise but got full of "filler" episodes instead. If not fillers, al least episodes that, though entertaining enough for some, were shallow and unnecesary to the main plot (usually with a different theme each). This unaired episode is just another of those random stories.


- Story: 6
With no introduction at all, the OVA directly starts with the main male characters (Felicità barely appears) receiving a written invitation to gather in a room where some chocolats await. When they eat such chocolats they find out they were one of Jolly's experiments (the "man of Science" here) and their effect makes their bodies switch. This will lead to a series of comical events that will conform the rest of the OVA.

- Art: 8
General animation is average (most of the episode happens indoors and few or none action scenes appear, so there's not much to be seen) but character design is attractive to sight (very much like in the series). Bright and clear, pretty smooth and expressive.

- Sound: 7
There is barely any soundtrack noticeable, the opening and ending are the same from the TV series. Catchy at the beginning, then they fall more into average but still nice enough (especially the ending with its unsual starting tune). I didn't find Voice Actors remarkable, but you can have a good time noticing how they change voices as characters adapt to the new person in each body.

- Character: 6
In the whole series there is barely any character development, so what could you expect from a short OVA? Each character's peculiarities are highlighted as they try to act like somebody else, but that's all there is to it.

- Enjoyment: 7
As random as the episode is, a couple of scenes are uninteresting and almost boring, but the body exchange creates lots of jokes and amusing moments that you can find quite funny if you are in a good mood.

- Overall: 6.8
In contrast to the series, this OVA is not pretentious at all: that's clear from the beginning and it doesn't promise you more than you will have. Do not expect a new and definite ending to the series, a serious plot development or anything meaningful at all. If there was something in Arcana Famiglia that you liked, or you just feel like having a nice time watching something silly then this might be a good choice for you. If not, there are better things for you to see.

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Gotta say that I was surprised of this OVA episode, being the anime not that good I expected this to be even worse. But, I was wrong. The story wasn't that original: people swapping their body by accident is nothing new, but I couldn't stop laughing my ass off when I saw what each of the characters did in the others body. Imagine this: Debito in Luca´s body and Luca in Debito´s, funny huh? Because their personalities are so different that I found everything that they did strange and at the same time hilarious. And then there was Nova in Liberta´s body and vice-versa, and Pace in Dante´s. This episode is worth watching.
The thing that surprised me the most about this OVA episode, is that in the end the characters did learn something about the other´s person life, like how Nova discovered that children admire Liberta and how everybody is always smiling around him. And Liberta learned that people respect and care for Nova because he is like the hero of the town, always defending the citizens and fighting the “bad guys”.
So in overall, I think if you watched the anime and didn't like it that much you should watch this OVA episode because it will take away that bitter taste of the anime. And if you did like Arcana Famiglia you are in luck because it will make you laugh so hard you´ll literally cry.

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