Shukufuku no Campanella

Shukufuku no Campanella, a series which I thought had a lot of potential but it just turned into something really boring.

Like a lot of anime series, there isn't really plot that is developed until the final episodes. It starts off by introducing the characters in the first episode, which I don't have a problem with. After the introduction of each character the main hero Leicester finds a girl called Minette who wakes up and calls him papa. Each episode the characters would go on a little adventure whether it was fighting monsters or mining for jewels (I think). The problem is each ... episode usually feels boring and dragged because of the lack of any development whatsoever. I don't mind a series with no plot because there are a lot of those kinds of series out there. However a lot of those series either have a lot of comedy to them or have some kind of development to make it interesting.

Another reason why this series felt so boring were because of the characters weren't all too good. Each episode would focus on certain characters which is good for developing characters. However I felt very little development within the characters. None of the characters attached to me either because none of them seemed unique. The main hero seems like he has no flaws which limits the character development. There are romantic interests that fly around but none of them develop either. In my opinion the twins are the best characters this series has to offer because they are somewhat unique and sometimes they make me laugh.

The art and animation is really stunning. The colors fit the mood of the anime and the battle scenes (when they actually do happen) are really detailed. The town actually looks really detailed as well

The sound is also quite good too. The voice actors really match the character they're playing and the opening was pretty upbeat which really suits this anime

I really wanted to watch this series before it aired because fantasy is a genre which is rarely used today. I thought it was gonna be something unique and it had a lot of potential too because it was different. However it turns out I shouldn't have watched this after all. Thanks for reading.

My rating uses the actual words given by MAL. Hence, a 5 is average and a 7 is good. My goal is to be as unbiased as possible so i suggest reading the review rather than looking at my rating to make your choice.

-This is a Harem, but not a romance.
As you can tell from the genre box. However, don't despair if this is not your cup of tea. The main focus of the show is not of winning over each girl, and in fact rarely plays into the plot.

-Fanservice is relatively minimal.
Surprisingly, there are a few episodes that do not contain any at all. ... In most it is usually delivered in one or two obvious service focused scenes. However, you can expect Minette to be innocent and moé to supplement for this.

-Leicester is not an average lead.
Unlike most of the failures in our harem shows, Leicester is a breath of fresh air. Not only reliable, he can kick butt relatively well. Essentially, he is a smart character who is actually useful. This also means he is not exactly dense. Plus, he is more on the side of a Bishounen. However, i would not claim him to be an exceptional character.

-Expect lots of happiness.
The animation is always bright, shiny, and warm. You can expect to take any dramatic moments lightly due to the animation and to be quickly resolved.

-This show suffers from last minute plot.
The theory goes that: If a show has focused around unimportant events with no relation, then they will try to stuff in an ending arc. In Campanella's case it results in a friendship conquering adversity and saving the world.


-Don't expect much adventuring and questing.
Despite the fact that the Campanella is tasked with accepting and accomplishing quests, don't expect anything special. There might be less than 5-6 battle scenes in total, but animated pretty well when there are. Otherwise you will spend your time following Minette tour the town getting groceries, or solving lame puzzles.

-No character development.
Pretty straightforward. Some exceptions are Minette making choices on her own and learning everything since her life experience is relative to a newborn. If you looked at the rest of the cast, at both the start and the end, they did not mature at all.

-Low comedic value.
I give a warning that it is hard to make me laugh. I give props to the side characters Ritos and Salsa for making me smirk though; they are not bad characters, and their' pokémon' Golem is always interesting to listen to. I have to say an exception would be laughing at the ridiculousness of the last episode.

In a world powered by a magical substance called Ale, Leicester Maycraft is a technician working for the adventurous Oasis clan. He and his comrades take jobs helping others in various ways, usually involving stopping Ale-powered "Crystal Monsters." Leicester is living the life, surrounded by a good amount of lovely girls who are always willing to shove themselves in front of him for his attention. Alas, this wonderful world made possible by the abundance of Ale is being threatened by the flow of the Ale itself...

Shukufuku no Campanella is interesting. No wait, that's a lie. It's incredibly boring. Sukufuku is an adaptation of an ero-visual ... novel, but you would probably never be able to tell this from the anime itself. As a result of the sudden change of direction, everything about Shukufuku feels half-baked and strangely maneuvered.

The characters themselves are not exceptional. We have the childhood friend, Carina; the loli, Minette; the modest warrior, Chelsea; the outgoing girl, Agnes; the opposite twins, Salsa and Ritos; and the slightly airheaded one, Garnet. There is very little if any development of any of these characters except for Minette, and only because she is a central part of the overarching story. As a result, all of the characters are left flat and uninteresting, rarely venturing outside of their individual archetypes that everyone has seen before. Ritos and Salsa do have their moments, however. They have amazing chemistry and I found myself enjoying the segments where they were the focus very much. Unfortunately, as they are not actually part of Clan Oasis, they were not around as often as the rest of the characters, and their parts were usually used as transitions from one half of an episode to another.

The story itself was also quite conventional. The basis of everything seemed to be to defeat the monsters as they appeared, which is all good and well for an adventure anime. The monster designs seemed bland, though, and the fight scenes were not particularly phenomenal or even memorable. The final fight was an exception to this in a way; it was fairly exciting and had me wishing more of the show was like this. The story's progress at the end, on the other hand, seemed to fall apart. It felt like much was skipped in order to fit all the events into one episode, and the puzzle and "Spirit Bomb" ending did not help make this any better.

Now, being based on an eroge visual novel, there would of course be plenty of fanservice. And there was, but it was toned down to become a bit awkward in most situations; most of the time I felt like the swimsuit stills and other various fanservice scenes were inserted just because there was no other fanservice in that episode and they didn't bother coming up with some sort of transition to most of it. In order to avoid this, much of the fanservice was placed in parts about Ritos and Salsa, further reducing their status as characters with any sort of real meaning in the story. Finally, as the scenes involving sex and actual nudity obviously had to be taken out to work in anime form, scenes that lead to these parts felt only half-done. The biggest perpetrator of this to me was when Leicester was putting Chelsea to bed after her party was compromising to say the least - not that there was much they could do to prevent that outside of removing the scene completely.

Overall, there is simply nothing outstanding about Shukufuku, and the things it tries to do it does averagely or below averagely. If you are a fan of shallow adventure stories with a bit of fanservice, then this may very well be the show for you. But it certainly didn't do much for me at all.