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Weskalia's Fortune Arterial Tv Review

Fortune Arterial

Fortune Arterial tv Review

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 (http://oi54.tinypic.com/23ruag0.jpg)
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

Comments

  1. SnickerdoodleNinja Retired Moderator Sep 17, 2011

    See, I feel like if a show wants to have the vampire inner- struggle, then it should be a pretty dark anime and not a light and fluffy eroge anime. It's too bad it sounds like this is nothing but a cliche fluffy eroge series.

    I liked how you really got to the point with this review and kept it brief while still sufficiently explaining your problems with the series. And the whole presentation section made me laugh. xD Nice job once again!

  2. CyanideBlizzard Retired Moderator Sep 17, 2011

    I have to admit, cliche elements aside Fortune Arterial could of really been an interesting show with the vampire element. They really could of taken that, mixed it in with the struggle between the main character and the main female and sort of tried to mix a forbidden/impossible romance and the naivety of youth trying to make it work. It could of made for a touching story, which could of easily had comedy elements in it but would of mostly been a semi-serious plot.

    What an embarrassment.

    I remember thinking that things might really start picking up once they find out that they are vampires. It's like with the current anime series, Mayo Chiki!, when they're watching fireworks. The whole anime builds up this impression that, "heya, things are really going to get good now. It's serious time" and then they do absolutely nothing with it. I understand that, with the eroge case, that they generally have a script to follow. I get this, but it doesn't mean that they can't deviate from the form and do something a bit different. It's why I stopped watching this series halfway through, because I was just so bored with it.

    I like your different twist on the review this time around. While this series would of been really easy to bash from the get go, you make it more comical and point out a lot of the critical flaws to the series, which is nice. It's definitely a bit different, but I really liked it in that aspect, Wes. Great job!

  3. MisaSasekage Moderator Sep 17, 2011

    I thought this show was alright and I liked it to a certain degree, though it could've been a lot better. I agree with Blizzard they really could've taken the vampire element, mixed it in with the struggle between the main character and the main female and sort of tried to mix a forbidden/impossible romance and the two between them trying to make it work. It was disappointing to see that they did not. Nice review Wesk!^^

  4. zalin Sep 17, 2011

    I thought this one was pretty good and different from the other 100000 vampire anime's out their. The art was nice the animation was good and the characters cute, I would give this series 7 maybe a 6 and a half.

  5. angelxxuan Banned Member Sep 17, 2011

    I haven't ever seen this, but from the review alone, I probably won't like it much. I have been seeing a few of the images and was curious about this and was going to watch it later, but it doesn't sound appealing, even if there is vampires, but harem and fan service doesn't interest me at all. thanks for providing the review, I'll just watch this one in spoilers and add it that way.

  6. aozoraskies Sep 25, 2011

    Yet another show with cliches and doing it wrong? Stand down, you lowly shows and let thy master of cliche-lovin', Tiger and Bunny show you how to rock 'em! ..ahem. sorry.

    The presentation part is the best in the whole review, hands down. Awards, man, awards - everyone loves them. ;)
    Doesn't stop everything else in this review from being so fun though. :D It's like reading Suzumiya Haruhi again - only Kyou's found Fortune Arterial and boy is he in despair. And the bit about the voice-acting. xDD Sounds like they just stopped short of inserting those comedy sitcoms' pre-recorded tapes of audience laughter. lol

    You've highlighted the stereotypical characters and the paper-thin plot, and the been-there-done-that scenario which must be indeed so tiring to watch again. I can sense the dryness in your tone, and yes, I can't help but sympathise that you actually finished the show to review it. Such is the pain of a reviewer. C'mon here, huggss. This review is far more lovely than the series itself.

    Love what you put in the sum-up for 'Good'. xDD Well, at least, the vampires didn't ~*sparkle*~ blergh.

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