Story & Characters
Another season, another eroge transformed into an anime. Eroge adaptations are now ubiquitous enough that they have to
be treated like shonen action series: you have to start ignoring the obvious and start enjoying the variation in
details. Taken that way, Fortune Aerial isn't just bad enough, but even if there's a level of Hell for anime,
it wouldn't be allowed in.
Ah, school transferrings. No youthful memories, no lasting friendship and no meaningful romance. That's the kind of
lifestyle Kouhei has been suffered from until he finally gets a choice of his own he opts for Shuchikan Academy, a
boarding school out on a peripheral Japanese island that he had once briefly stayed at several years ago. There he
reunites with his childhood friends and quickly gets associated with several classmates, but when comes in contact with
the eccentric vice-student council president Sendou Erika, something annoys her so bad that would forever leave mark.
Much to his dismay, is the discovery of a vampire on campus, and it's someone he's already met.
Yeah, this is yet another old-fashioned premise of visual novel, spends its first episode introducing the key players.
Awfully familiar, yes? Some guy transfers to a new town to frolic amongst the walking female set up; he encounters
"Girl #1" then childhood friends and some new girls. Why does this have to be strikingly cliche when there was
another eroge adapted-series in its season, Yosuga no Sora. My goodness, if it isn't bad enough that this was
filled with the worst kind of school-romance drivel and unacceptable introduction, it's got VAMPIRES. Whenever you
hear the word "vampire," the first thing comes to your mind is blood-sucking monster walking around at night
and get burnt when interacted with sunlight, doesn't it? Don't expect any of that kind of treatment in Fortune
Aerial because it simply is what it is, school romance.
The regular episodes have nothing that could be called an ongoing plot, as they mostly just amount to the main
characters busily preparing for school events, enjoying school activities, or (in Erika's case) try to subdue her
vampiric nature. The personalities of the characters are a cross-section of archetypes common to fan service shows, and
most are executed in a simple, straightforward way. To begin with, Kouhei's lamely nice guy attitude and his
"picking-up-girls" comrade soon prove to be boring. While other characters don't show up much, including
standards like the childhood friends, the mysterious and quite one, the cute younger sister you want to protect, the
focus remains on the central character Erika. However, the latter turns out to be the most awfully written of all. Heard
this before? A vampire tries to integrate herself into man's society by subduing her thirst for blood ends up being
more pathetic than she already is. Even if you're not a big fan of Twilight, you would not want to see how much damage vampires receive in this show, stick to Hellsing or
Tsukihime if you want to see a vampire babe in action.
Rating: 2
Art
Feel, a support-focused animation studio whose only other significant lead efforts are the recently-released Mayo Chiki!
and the unlicensed Yosuga no Sora, here produces a showy and colorful effort which is hardly a paragon of vampire
element but loads itself up so effectively on the cute factor that the lackluster animation may not matter. The same
applies for background art and character design too, which seem to look good but also absolute typical for this type of
series; while the girls' look can be replaced, the blandness of background art is a complete waste of this unusual
setting (a boarding school built on a small forested island). Perhaps the way vampirism is going to fit into the picture
could be a bit intriguing and serve as an initial hook, as these vampires can walk in broad daylight, but this offering
comes from Feel didn't show why viewers should keep watching.
Rating: 5
Sound
The problems don't end there; production wise, this thing is an epic fail. The score is acceptable with nice violin
mix and soothing music, but its graphic spends too much to show the bright side of schooling despite all this vampire
problem here. The same could be said to ED, which captures the enthusiastic fanservice of the show, something they
didn't allow to bring on campus.
Japanese seiyuu performances conform to the expected mix of cutesy interpretations. The voices is a loud, shrill
assemblage of cheesy and cute accent; whenever something "funny" is supposed to be happening, a "THIS IS
FUNNY" honk-beep cacophony starts blaring, nearly at the same volume as the dialogue.
Rating: 5
Presentation
Now Fortune Arterial is a terrible show, but not because of the idea - its current season also aired one of the most
censored eroge anime, a guy traveled to his place from childhood and got stuck up in one of the worst harem, so
let's not pretend that somehow this particular idea is any more or less boring than anything else in its genre. No,
this show is awful because it's unbelievably poorly constructed and executed – this is one of the worst vampire
element of any fiction ever come in existence. At least Yosuga no Sora has the benefit of pretty landscape and soothing
music; this series can't even manage that much or perhaps, it aimed to become even more than what a school romance
could be, which often fails.
And so the season's "Are They Even Trying?" award goes to ...Fortune Arterial! Congratulations, please
step forward and receive your prize!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Story: 2
Characters: 2
Art: 5
Animation: 5
Voice: 4
Music: 6
Overall: 4
Good ()
Bad:
+The cute art maybe something you would die for, the whole thing is something you would die because of.
Rating: 3
Final Verdict
3.3333 (poor)
Reviewed by Weskalia, Sep 17, 2011