The duel has arrived and everyone is stepping up.
What They Say:
The Arcana duello and to save Papa she must be a pick a lover. The duello will unleash everybody power and desire.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the series have started strong and then gone cliche after the first episode, everything has no come to the duel that was set into motion in that first episode. Getting everyone who wants a shot at it a chance to compete for Felicita’s hand in marriage, and a position of power as well, there’s certainly a lot of interest. I did like that right from the start that her father made the allowance that she too could participate in order to secure her own future, giving her a shot at determining things as well, but the series really spent too much of its time on bland and uninteresting character material. But now things just dive right into the duel as even the opening credits are pushed to the side for it.
There’s a good bit at stake so that means everyone is fighting hard, though there are a few grins and smiles along the way as some really get into the chance to fight and cut loose as much as they do. While the matches play out, seemingly without much in the way of order or ranking, we get some flashbacks to events past in the series that helps to solidify their positions and desires to win, especially for those like Liberta and Nova as they push themselves further than they have before. It’s pretty nice in some of these instances, especially with Liberta and his match with Dante, where it feels like he’s really grown and is now more determined in a more mature way. Similar can be said of Nova, but even now he’s still fairly well controlled and intense in the way he has been since the start.
The fights in general are decent, with most of the intensity placed in the matchup between Nova and Liberta while Felicita watches on knowing that she could make things simpler by making a choice herself. All of it keeps coming down to what her father wants for her though, good and bad, as he pushes and pushes her to grow up right in order to take on the lead role in the family. It’s rough watching the two of them fight in a way, because you can sense the real love and hope in both of them. There’s some good resolution to their problems overall, simple as it is, which leads into the final bid about who actually gets to marry Felicita. Honestly, it’s not a surprise how it goes, though it would have been nice if it had taken a stand, but the weak ending tries to go for comedy just leaves you rolling your eyes instead because it does what the vast majority of series do. And that in turn makes a good part of the show feel pointless.
In Summary:
The nature of this series is one that left me feeling rather cool to it at times, but still hopeful for something fun and engaging. The show opened well and gave me some good visuals, interesting designs and setting and a really strong bit of pacing as the action unfolded. But once it hit that whole duel aspect at the end, my hopes sank. And then the duel was pushed off for another ten episodes so they could do all sorts of character driven material that was interesting at times but generally shallow the rest. It got a bit weird as it went on with explanations about the cards and the past and then it put some of the characters in “real” peril. All so it could finally hit the duel and then cheat at the end. It has its moments here, much like most of the episodes, but it still can’t escape the inherent weakness of failing to follow through properly.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
