La storia della Arcana Famiglia is a Japanese visual novel series by HuneX and Comfort. The first game was released on October 27, 2011 for the PlayStation Portable. A fan disc also for the PSP titled Arcana Famiglia -Vascello Phantasma no Majutsushi- was released on June 21, 2012 featuring two new characters: Ash and Joshua. A spin-off cooking game titled Arcana Famiglia -Festa Regalo!- was released on December 13, 2012. The first game has been adapted into a manga and anime series along with various franchise-related merchandise such as drama CDs, music CDs, and fanbooks, etc.
Plot
There is an organization called the Arcana Famiglia, which protects the island of Regalo. The Famiglia is made up of people who have made contracts with Arcana cards, and have received special abilities due to this. On his birthday celebration, Mondo has decided it is time for him to retire and give up his title to a new boss who has control over an Arcana. To decide who in the "family" gets this title, he calls for a tournament, called the Arcana Duello, between Arcana users. To the winner, he promises the title of "Papa", a wish of the winner's choice and his daughter's hand in marriage. Refusing to accept this, Felicità decides to fight to choose her own path, with Libertà and Nova fighting for her freedom by her side.
Characters
Regalo
;:
Nordia
;Serafino ;Teo ;Vir ;Neve ;Agata
Others
;Joshua
Adaptations
Manga
A manga based on the game, titled Arcana Famiglia: Amore Mangiare Cantare!, began publishing in the comic magazineSylph in 2011. The manga features art by Ruru.
Anime
An anime adaptation produced by J.C.Staff began airing in July 2012. The anime is licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. The series originally aired from July 1, 2012 to September 16, 2012; with direction by Chiaki Kon, character design by Mai Matsuura and art direction by Takahiro Yokeda. The anime series follows Felicità, the only daughter of Mondo, the soon-to-be-retired boss of the mafia organization Arcana Famiglia. Mondo creates a tournament among the Arcana users to determine the new heir to the organization. However, as Felicità unfortunately learns that the prize of the tournament includes her to be betrothed to the winner, she decides to join this tournament herself and choose her own path, receiving support from Libertà and Nova to achieve her goal. The opening song for the anime was "Magenta Another Sky" by Hitomi Harada, while the ending was "Pieces of Treasure" by Jun Fukuyama and Tsubasa Yonaga, who voice Libertà and Nova respectively. From the second to seventh episode, one of Arcana Famiglia members is forced to do something as punishment for breaking a rule of the mansion.
The character designer and main artist for the games is Yomi Sarachi. She also did character design for the comic version and illustrations for the novel. Both the openings for the first game and the fan disc are sung by Hitomi Harada, while the endings of the first game are sung by the voice actor whose character's route has been completed.
Reception
The fan disc Vascello Phantasma no Majutsushi sold 4,854 copies in the first four days it was sold, making it the fifteenth best selling console game in Japan that week. Carlo Santos of Anime News Network reviewed the first half of the anime series. Santos commended the top-notch action scenes and character designs for making the cast look distinct from one another but criticized both the animation and backgrounds for being "a mixed bag of genuine effort and cost-cutting laziness" and the filler approach to storytelling that may cause viewers to lose interest before the second-half of the series. Fellow ANN editor Rebecca Silverman reviewed the complete anime series in 2014. While giving praise to the Italian setting and the characterization of both Libertà and Nova, Silverman felt that Felicità lacked development amongst her harem and the overall plot only acted as bookends to the mid-portion adaptation of the game's events. She concluded that devoted harem fans will enjoy aspects of the series but cautioned others to look elsewhere for the action, rom-com story it promised in the beginning.
