Arcana Famiglia

[roriconfan]

Looks like it turned out exactly as the pilot episode suggested it would. Boring and generic.

[gin]

There are way too many anime involving tarot.
After first episode, here's my prediction.

The Fool wins.
The Fool always wins.

edit:
Okay, I was wrong.
The first episode actually got me excited, it felt all somewhat familiar to Baccano - I mean, the somehwat large cast (with even more than 25% male, something I don't see as often anymore, I should watch more shounen maybe), italians, 30s, suits...but alas.

[r-18]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

Looks like it turned out exactly as the pilot episode suggested it would. Boring and generic.

your rejections are the best recommendations i have yet to get....

[FireWalker]

Started this, stalled, resumed, stalled, started again ... guess that's an indicator all by itself.

Anyway, I'm through ep 5 now, but overall disappointed.

Visually still a treat.
Lots of possible stories from the big ensemble of characters.
Interesting hook from Arcana angle.

But some things are really grating on my nerves:

- They're wasting the potential of Felicita's character with mushiness.
She's too badass to wear a dress to a formal occasion (ep1), but she's going out of her way (ep5) to cook treats for guys and fretting about whether the standoffish Nova likes her? Yuk.
- There's supposed to be an epic battle for succession coming up. What, no maneuvering for advantage, or even stepped-up combat training?
- Complication is created because people can't say what they really feel. Lazy IMO - not a substitute for actual conflict in motivations.
- Tries to be cute and funny, only succeeding half the time on the first and not at all on the second.
- There's almost no substance to the characters outside the triangle. Baccano made good use of its bewilderingly large cast by interweaving about 8 good storylines. This is just noise - I'd like some reward for trying to memorize all those names.

If somebody can tell me that it suddenly gets much better, I'll listen, but for now I think this goes back to stalled.

[mmag13]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it actually gets worse. Fel gets more and more annoying. The supposed huge battle royale is all crammed into the last episode, and is a joke at best. A lot of the fights are off screen battles. Seriously....unless you have some sort of no drop policy....you can do without finishing this one.

[FireWalker]

thanks, mmag - that's exactly the high-level advice I need to offset my compulsion to finish series. After sticking it out on a few other disasters I'm getting better at letting go. There's a lot of competition for the viewing time!