La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 25, 2013

The history of Tarot cards is shrouded in mystery, and depending on which “authority” you read, you’ll get radically different stories about their origin and subsequent use. Probably the only thing some of these experts would agree on is that the tangential information about Tarot cards offered in La storia della Arcana Famiglia, an anime based on a visual novel series, is probably among the more fanciful aggregations of “information” that these precursors of modern day playing cards have accrued. In this story, the island of Regalo is protected by a bunch of warriors called the Arcana Famiglia, each of whom has a special power designated by a so-called Arcana card, which are awfully similar to Tarot cards. A succession battle of sorts forms the basis for the anime, when the patriarch of the famiglia decides to retire and institutes what he calls an Arcana Duello, with the winner being appointed as the new leader.

The patriarch’s name is Mondo, and his headstrong daughter is named Felicità. Mondo has also promised the winner of the tournament his daughter’s hand in marriage, which only sets Felicità’s teeth on edge—first, because she wants to choose her own mate, but perhaps more importantly, because she also wants to vie for the “title” of leader. Meanwhile, however, she becomes a pawn of sorts between two romantic rivals named Nova and Libertà. La storia della Arcana Famiglia starts out with a literal bang, joining a huge smack down in media res, and then only slowly revealing the back stories of the (large) cast of characters in the ensuing episodes. This is an interesting anime that can’t be easily pigeonholed into any preconceived category. There are elements of typical battle and fantasy shows here, but there’s also an appealing attempt to craft a more distinctive mythology, which may be the series’ greatest asset.

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arcana Famiglia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Detail is quite well handled throughout this series, with some nice attention paid to well done backgrounds. Colors are quite nicely varied and richly hued, with some of the cobalt blues and purples being quite lovely, as well as some especially luminous colors with regard to various characters' eyes (check out the kind of lime green of Felicità's, for example). Line detail remains sharp and well defined throughout the series.

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Arcana Famiglia features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks in Japanese and English. These are virtually identical in terms of mix (save for the voice work, of course). The English dub here is okay, but some of the casting seems really odd to me (why have a woman voice Nova, for example?). The Japanese language track seems to fit better with the series' slightly otherworldly quality. That said, fidelity on both of these tracks is excellent, with no problems of any kind to report.

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 1:32)

La Storia della Arcana Famiglia: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Arcana Famiglia is a kind of odd anime, one that has a lot of interesting ideas and characters, but which might be a bit too scattershot for some anime fans who are used to "prefab" genres. The series features nice looking animation, and those who like things a bit out of the ordinary may well find this to be an interesting diversion. Recommended.