Arcana Famiglia

​On the island of Regalo, a group of supernaturally powered mafia-like protectors called the Arcana Famiglia safeguard the people from any who would harm them. The members of their organization, having made contracts with tarot cards, each possess different abilities, such as overwhelming strength, invisibility, or the power to see into someone's heart.

Mondo, their leader and the "Papa" of their family, announces at his birthday party that he will be retiring soon. He plans to hold the Arcana Duello, a competition that, if won, will grant the winner the title of Papa and any wish they desire. But there is more at stake than just a title: Mondo also decides that the winner will marry his daughter, Felicità. Enraged by this, the strong-willed Felicità decides to enter the competition herself, in order to make her own way in the world. As Felicità battles for her freedom, her competitors battle for her heart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Debito Main

Yoshino, Hiroyuki Japanese

Libertà Main

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Luca Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Jolly Main

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Nova Main

Yonaga, Tsubasa Japanese

Felicità Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Pace Main

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Dante Main

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Mondo Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Claudio Supporting

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Yamazaki, Fumiki Producer

Matsunaga, Takayuki Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 27, 2012

NekoMinSeo

Recommended

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

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 16, 2012

Snodig

Mixed Feelings

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 27, 2013

AuronPond

Not Recommended

To start my review, let me say that I don't necessarily hate Arcana Famiglia.

I simply hate the payoff I got for watching it. Which was absolutely nothing.

The entire series looks as if it is building for this tournament that has been set to decide who will be the new leader of the Family and marries the boss' daughter.

In the first episode, you get some immediate development in the relationship between father and daughter plus daughter and coworkers. To add, there are some pretty nice powers being used and an awesome mysterious character with an awesome name looming in the background (Jolly). So, when the series ... starts, you know where some people stand and how things are going to go.

The only thing is, it never goes there.

Arcana Famiglia gives you the build for this tournament that's soon to take place. Every episode is wasted on character development and character interaction. You see everyone's past and you even find the origin of the family. For a build-up, this is great, it helps strengthen character connection so that you root for a particular character to win when the fighting starts.

The fighting doesn't start. Ever.

Watching the entire series would be worth it if it led to some awesome battle royal conclusion. It would even be awesome if a bunch of pirates just came and ruined said battle royal. Neither happens. All of the action is skipped and the powers aren't expanded on any further than episode one. They're explained, but they aren't expanded on.

Another thing, this has to be the only series I've seen where I think character development was a bad thing. The characters lose any finesse that they had when their lives are explored. The only exception was Jolly, who barely got any screentime in most of this series. And he didn't even participate in any real fighting. However, I can tell you exactly what his past is like and why he's so cold. That's absurd and just plain ridiculous.

The anime takes so much time in explaining every single character and having them fight their demons that we don't even see what their demons really are. They never come across any serious conflict and the only climax to look forward to is the tournament that's supposed to be the motherload of all battles.

The battling is non-existent. Chances are I said that earlier in the review, but I must emphasize how bad it was. For one, it was minimum. There was no intricate fighting nor any type of personalized moves. The tournament that the series builds up to becomes absolutely pointless with every new episode. The winner was even pointless and so was their "resolve" once they won. You really feel like a major butt for even watching the entire series for a climax that could've been the length of an average youtube video.

And to make matters worst, it doesn't try to cover its flaws. Maybe a little fanservice or some nice cop-out scenes. Nope, not once. It burrows a reverse harem shtick that it can't even fully deliver on. You don't feel like these guys (with the exception of two) are all that into her.

There were no antagonists. There was minimum fighting. The romance barely showed and was ended on the weakest of terms. The characters don't live up to their reputations. The story blows major chunks.

The climax . . . faking it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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