Fortune Arterial… I’m impressed. Hentai Game Adaptations are… notorious, a lot of them are utterly terrible. This series looked like one of those cheesy harems right from the start, and yet it’s characters are actually pretty good.
The thing I usually notice with these hentai game adaptations is that unless you have an inspired staff behind it, they don’t really know what their stories are and end up wasting most of their time with silly cardboard cut-outs of characters. Fortune Arterial however knows exactly how to use its time, and how to set its characters apart. In the second episode, it promotes the male lead from a boring nobody to a member of the student council, and actually has him perform some duties like organizing the school’s sports festival or cultural festival. It’s been ages since I’ve actually seen a student council DO something other than look important, and therefore I found the episodes that are devoted to properly organizing and these festivals quite enjoyable.
I also applaud this series for the main storyline between the male and female lead: it’s simple but knows exactly what it is, it’s well built up throughout the series and actually centred around some pretty mature issues for a bishoujo show. The ending itself is quite powerful, although things ended a tad too soon: a few key points were left unresolved that will leave you hanging.
However, the next White Album this ain’t. There are a few underdeveloped side characters, and the storytelling gets a tad too simple at times. This series has especially a hard time figuring out what to do during the moments in which nothing happens, and the results are that these scenes become tedious to get through. None of the jokes it uses really work and they only make some of the characters really obnoxious.
The graphics… well, it’s a co-production between Zexcs and Feel. The result is a series with some of the most generic graphics of the entire year. However, as a “screw the graphics, we’re here to tell a story”, it works surprisingly well. It’s a simple vampire romance so don’t expect something epic here here, but it’s quite effective.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Surprisingly solid for a show of this genre, but should have been a bit more ambitious. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – surprisingly good lead characters, though the cast hasn’t been fleshed out as well as i would have liked. |
| Production-Values: | 7/10 – Really generic. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Finally we get some vampires again who don’t sparkle. |
Suggestions:
– Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito
– Touka Gettan
– Futakoi Alternative
They don’t sparkle eh? The intro would lead you to believe otherwise, with the glitter flying everywhere. XD
But yes, this was a simple, sweet show. “I’m impressed” just about sums it up. This is BY FAR NOT the worst show this season as many thought it would be.
As for the characters, you seem to have a thing against ZEXCS (calling it “generic” all the time). Generic is one thing, but I think this is just their style. Other studios abandoned this style of artwork circa 2003, sure. Does that make it bad? I’m frankly quite glad everything isn’t drawn like K-on — overly sloppy and blobby. Heheh…!
As there are plenty of hentai games adaptations that are quite terrible, or shabby at the least, like Tayutama or Campanella, there are some that really shine. If you never watched it, i suggest you Fate/Stay Night: It’s great and made clear hentai games are not there for the sake of sex only.
Let’s indeed define what good/terrible really means. Most Visual Novels are structured into mutliple choice narration flows called routes, and each route is dedicated to one heroine of the show.
Extracting a linear plot from such a non linear structure it’s really hard, so that adapted stories come often with holes thet are meant to be resolved in alternate routes.
Usually they adapt everything in an haremish fashion, merging all the routes together. This is the worst as you completely destroy the story.
Some other only go for sex, like Yosuga no Sora, and i let you imagine the results.
But those who adapt one single route, trying to save as much as possible from other routes, keeping everything coherent, are those who shine the most.
Fate and Arterial used this approach. They clearly adapted the vampire route, so there will be tons of informations left from the other girls’ routes, but alas.
So that’s why you feel thare are irresolved questions in the anime.
Yosuga no Sora is a facepalm for every player that has read the original.It’s definitely not THAT smutty.It replaces the relaxing mood in the original VN with endless groping and boob jobs…
I hope that won’t become a standard for every VN adaptation in the future.
Mds, i know a lot of people supporting that shit animation like a masterpiece. Those damn fappers.
I always said people should eat the shit they ask for, pity cause we also might feed on that, when there will be nothing else avaible.
I loved fortune arterial!!!! it was AMAZING i only wish they would make more episodes!!!
The anime is so amazing! Its so different from the game. I really wish there would be a second episode. I wanna see more of Erika! She is by far the most beautiful anime girl I have seen so far. LOVE HER TO THE MAX!! I can do without Kohei though.
I definitely liked the anime, considering where it came from. However the ending sort of spoiled the whole thing for me. Too many issues were left unresolved, issues that should have left the cast feeling incomplete. Despite this, the cast moves on as if everything were solved in a perfect way.
*Spoilers*
We should know better than that. Kuze’s story was definitely unresolved, and none of the characters seemed to care despite caring extensively earlier on. In addition no one addresses the fact that sure, they didn’t form a contract, but now Kohei will age and die, potentially leaving Erika worse off than she was.
All in all the incomplete ending left me feeling incomplete. If you’re the type that prefers a solid ending (good or bad, open-ended or not), than this probably isn’t the anime for you.
What are the chances of a 2nd season of the show? With the ending leaving so many things unanswered, they could do another season in my opinion