Age Appropriate: Pre-teens+
Emotional Response: a little fun, a little sad, a little GIRL POWER
Notable Features: Family, Mafia, magic powers
Language: Japanese - Eng Sub
Length: 1 season, 12 episodes
Overall Recommendation: Not bad
La storia della Arcana Famiglia follows a young woman names Felicita, the daughter of Papa Mondo (the family head/"father") in a coming of age story loosely based on stereotypical mafia depictions. The "arcana" comes in with each major character having a specific magic power that comes with a contract agreed upon with an arcana card (from tarot). For example, Felicita's power is discovered to be The Lovers, which grants her the ability to see into other people's hearts.
The story begins with Papa speaking to the famiglia on his birthday, annoucing a family-wide battle for the right to be the next Papa, any wish granted, and Felicita's hand in marriage. This causes a great disturbance as the other men in the family now have to battle it out in a Duella Arcana, but also have various reactions to the idea of marrying Fel. The twist in this basic plot? Felicita, as an arcana holder herself, also gets to battle it out with everyone - securing her own future. With the agreement of her young friends, Nova and Liberta, they will fight to win and either of the boys will agree to make their wish freeing Felicita from marriage. As Fel and her mother, Sumire, are the only females in the cast, the extensive cast features males of all types - each with their own abilities. The storyline focuses some part on the early lives of each character to some degree - all of which lead to their reasons for wanting to win.
---------
La storia della Arcana Famiglia is actually a pretty good coming of age story for a teen girl - thus making it actually a relatively appropriate story for a pre-teen. The guys hit on each typical type a girl might be interested in, too! There really isn't any "eye candy" per se, as there are no inappropriate shots, but the attitudes say it all. For the most part though, I found that I was rooting for Fel to kick butt with girl power, and what was left was rooting for Liberta and Nova, knowing that they were planning to help a girl out. Still, even my own emotions were conflicted between the two boys. At no point did I find myself wanting her to end up with any of the other characters, but as it was supposed to be that way, I guess it's ok.
It's a pretty fun anime in general, but I really had no strong feelings about the story or the characters. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't compelling enough for me to shout out to the internet "WATCH THIS NAO!" For that it got a "Not bad" review. Because it really is "not bad," but I don't think I'll feel the need to watch it a second time. If I went with my typical movie reviews, I would say it was worth a matinee. For anime, I'm happy to watch it for free, but I won't be buying it.
-----------
Next Time: High School of the Dead
No comments:
Post a Comment