Review of La storia della Arcana Famiglia

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 amountto 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.