Love was a central theme for many of the titles in my summer anime picks. While many of the others featured romance amid unspoken feelings, tsundere behavior and as a background story, there was one title that featured love as a solution to a pervading problem.
La Storia della Arcana Famiglia is set on the idyllic island town of Regalo. The Arcana Famiglia is the ruling family on Regalo, protecting the island and its citizens. The group is named as such, because certain members have received special powers by making a contract with specific Arcana or tarot cards. The Famiglia's leader Mondo announces that he will be hosting the Arcana Duello, where members with Arcana powers will participate in a competition to determine the next "Papa" or leader of the family. He includes the promise to grant a wish for the winner. He also announces a third prize, promising his daughter Felicita's hand in marriage to the winner, so she can fulfill the duties of "Mama" of the Famiglia at the winner's side. Felicita is chagrined at the decision and decide to participate in the Arcana Duello for her freedom. Felicita's friends and Famiglia members Liberta and Nova also vow to become stronger so they can win and wish for Mondo to free Felicita from her obligation to marry the winner.
There's plenty of potential in La Storia della Arcana Famiglia, much of which I wished was actually properly explored in the series. The series had a rather large number of characters, all of which had personalities that ranged from the funny, serious, endearing, menacing to mysterious. Unfortunately, the short twelve episode run of the series gave the audience little time to become familiar with these characters and their Arcana powers, which would have been fascinating to learn as the series unfolded. The series touched on their personal backgrounds, but could not give them the execution they deserved. I would have wanted to find out more about the shared history of Luca, Pace and Debito, or the evolution of Jolly's character, or even Jolly's connection with either Mondo or Dante. Even the main trio of Felicita, Liberta and Nova's background stories, while given more air time, felt shortchanged in the rushed storytelling.
I'm not really one to support anime that overstay their welcome with extended flashbacks and drawn out drama, but La Storia della Arcana Famiglia definitely deserved more than what it received in the animation process. I found the idea of Arcana based powers to be fascinating, but, aside from a brief flashback of Mondo making a contract for the first time, you only get a half-baked explanation of how it works and how it affects the lives of those that wield its powers. In the end, even the importance of Felicita's power and how she comes to understand the role of love in invoking that power, both of which were pivotal in the conclusion of the series, were just cursory in their explanation. The Arcana Duello event, which would be the setting of the conclusion of the series, was devoid of the action that the first episode of the series promised.
I wish I could give La Storia della Arcana Famiglia a better review, because it did have the potential of becoming a great anime series. The first episode was entertaining and exciting, and it showed audiences that it featured great animation and execution of the action scenes. The series lost the ability to become compelling somewhere along the way and I can't quite muster the energy to analyze exactly where.
All I can really fixate on is the fact that they wasted the storytelling potential of La Storia della Arcana Famiglia. It could have been very, very good.
So... slightly frustrating viewing with this one.Labels: Action, Adaptation, Anime, Arcana Famiglia, Fantasy, Romance, TV
