Series Review: Arcana Famiglia (6/10)


Instant Summary: The members of this mafia-like family enters a series of duels to decide who would take over as the boss of the organisation, as well taking the current boss's daughter his bride.

Ok, no. Wait. I lied. This is basically Daily Lives of Mafia Boys + One Girl. Despite what the premises may be, it has literally no impact of what Arcana Famiglia is really about.

You see, the series does gave a really nice first impression. A mafia-like organisation with super-powered humans are in the midst of a generation change, in a very mafia-ish style. At least, that's what the first episode tries to prove. But right from the second episode, we're literally watching a slice-of-life with the top members of the mafia as its cast. They have dedicated entire episodes to stuff like running errands for common-folk, daily daytime activities, and groceries shopping. Every so often we get a chance to learn the history of the characters and their role in the "main plot", but they are few and far in between.

Ironically, I found myself enjoying the slice-of-life segments much more than their pitiable attempts at a real story. Arcana Famiglia has a surprisingly knack for comedy, with a little bit of cute moé. The drama department, however, was really lacking. Of the many areas that failed, I particularly blame the horrible voice work, especially that of Jolly and Debito.

And I'm upset by the lack of action in the preview pics above, because there simply isn't good screens to capture. For something with violence as its central theme, there had been so little action, and most of them are truly crap. Some of most important fights in the final duels, like Pace's, Debito's and Luca's are completely cut out; they must have ran out of budget or something.

The show had the setting and characters ready for something awesome to happen, and I ended up enjoying it for the wrong reasons.

Plot/Concept: Very Good!
Story Style: Completely failed at the original concept, but delivered well on something else instead.
Audio/Visual: Poor
Value: 6

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