Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. They say a picture is worth a thousand words I say an anime is worth a million words but what happens when the only four words you can say about an anime is that “it has great animation”? Well I have yet to come across an anime like that but an anime that comes close to this statement is Shukufuku no Campanella. Shukufuku no Campanella or The Campanella of the Blessing when translated into English is an anime that came out in 2010 by the anime studio AIC (Date A Live) and is directed by Shinji Ushiro the same guy who directed Omamori Himari. The anime is based off a visual novel under the same name that came out in 2009 under the development of Windmill. It was originally released as an adult visual novel for the Microsoft Computer but a year later it was released on the PSP for all-ages. In the games you play as Leicester a young item technician in the magical fictional city of Ert’Aria preparing for a festival where you meet and befriend a number of women who all develop feelings for you and depending on what choices you make will decide how your relationship ends with them. While the premise and setup sound like it would make for a decent harem anime you’ll quickly find out it’s anything but that. Let’s see how this rates among the other games/visual novels I’ve reviewed so far and take a look at Shukufuku no Campanella.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for this anime is “Shiawase wa Tsuki yori Takaku” by Aki Misato. This opening is alright its happy sounding, upbeat, and Aki sounds good. There’s not a whole lot to it then to get you excited for the anime. The ending is “Mirai Kaikisen” by Miyuki Hashimoto. Not really a fan of this song. The sing Miyuki is good but the beat sounds like it’s just a slowed down and quieter version of the opening. It’s not a bad song but whenever I hear it all I keep thinking about is the opening for this anime.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts off in the city of Ert’Aria in the middle of preparing for a festival and the meteor shower that comes every 7 years. We go to a small building that belongs to the group known as Oasis a group of people who take up jobs around town (if you watched Fairy Tail they’re somewhat like that except they don’t go on cool adventures and bash the living hell out of people). We meet the main protagonist of our show Leicester voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto you’re classic nice pretty boy with looks and a smile that can make any girl faint (//moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/4758-1504503072.jpg, *Yin-Yang and Isis faint from the picture* two women down, medic) and his childhood friend Carina voiced by Kimiko Koyama (Yukari from Rosario + Vampire) who is the master of Oasis (I’m joining) and has a crush on Leicester obviously (I swear I’m gonna find a jar and put a dollar in it for every childhood friend who has a crush on the main character). We also meet Nina the maid of Oasis who acts as a secretary and big sister for the group. She’s voiced by Michiru Yuimoto. Leicester and Carina head out to prepare for the festival where Carina gets dragged into a puppet show (well technically their automations but when you live in a world of magic all logic goes out the window) being done by our second female lead Agnes voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi (Minami from Baka and Test) the self-proclaimed world’s greatest puppeteer. After the show the three become friends and they offer Agnes a room at their clan (you’ll get 3 meals a day, an open bath area, a maid, and as an added bonus I’ll throw in Leicester for your nightly activities). They go back to the clan where we meet Leicester’s mom Shelly (who is hands down one of the hottest mothers I’ve seen in anime. I’m not joking she’s hot. I normally don’t say this about another man’s mom but what’s true is true and Leicester’s mom is truly hot) who wants to introduce the gang to Chelsea a member of the Holy Knights who has a bad sense of direction (a member of Zoro’s family no doubt) sent to guard what’s known as the Artifact a great treasure of the kingdom that will be on display during the festival. She’s voiced by Asami Imai (Chihiya from The Idolm@ster. Ohh~ I hope they give her a song in the anime). She’s an old friend of Shelly (could of fooled me) and one of the many other girls who develops feelings for Leicester (man Leicester’s got a lot of pretty girls to choose from). After greeting each other they decide to make their way to the Meteor shower viewing where they run into the Tortilla Twins who act as the comic relief of the show. We have Salsa the eldest and voiced by Ari Yunohara and Ritos voiced by Mai Goto (May from FMA: Brotherhood) who enjoys pulling pranks on her big sister and seen as the smarter of the two. Much like Leicester they work for their family’s clan and can be seen as rivals to Oasis but the two clans are on good terms and the twins do have a crush on Leicester (oh~ twins, twice the fun). After greeting them they go on top of the Holy church to watch the meteor shower where one of the meteors (made out of the magic source call Eru) comes flying towards them and hits one of the towers leaving it intact. Leicester goes to investigate the tower and goes into a room where he sees a beautiful young girl sleeping (she can’t say no) where the girl wakes up and hugs Leicester calling him papa (alright Leicester you already slept with one of them who’s the lucky lady).
In episode 2 we meet Leicester’s father Nagan who is the preacher of the church (the Lord has blessed him greatly) who explains to them that the girl is Minette a human-sized automation created by Miza Agnes’ master and long-time friend of Nagan. He explains that Minette voiced by Mai Kadowaki was left to him by Miza and has been looking after her until she awakened when she received a large amount of Eru from the meteor. He ask Leicester to look after her and he’s more than happy to it (well he’s gotta the girl called you papa so according to anime law you’re bind to each other). Leicester wakes up the next day with Minette sleeping next to him since she snuck into his bed and gives him a good morning kiss (the best part of waking up is getting a kiss from a cute girl). Out of jealousy Carina jumps on top of Leciester and tries to kiss him as does Agnes (because she’s obviously a girl who likes ecchi stuff) and Minette getting caught in between of them all (so I guess Leicester will be having breakfast in bed this morning). After that funny little scene Carina’s father Fabious arch duke of the city comes with Chelsea with a request for Oasis. One of the meteors crashed into the family vault and the Eru was absorbed by one of the magic jewels turning it into a monster. He wants Oasis to go into the vault, find the monster and eliminate it. Leicester and Carina agree to do the quest and Chelsea, Agnes, and Minette accompany them (4 queens and 1 king. My kind of hand). They go to the vault and unlock a gate which leads them into the world of dragons (which is rather nice and peaceful I gotta admit I wasn’t expecting that but at the same time it’s a disappointment because there’s no dragons. This is like going to Chocobo Land and not seeing a Chocobo). They find the monster which takes the appearance of a dragon and try to fight it but their attacks don’t hurt it. Not knowing what to do Garnet a dragon’s avatar who has existed for years shows up and tells Minette to talk to the dragon to calm it down. Minette does this and is able to absorb all the Eru of the dragon using an ability known as anima perla an ancient technique created by dragons long ago to help them absorb Eru. As thanks for defeating the dragon (which was actually Garnet’s shadow) Garnet gives Minette a red sphere which will allow Minette to summon her at anytime. We end the episode with the group relaxing by the beach (ah girl’s in bikinis it truly is summertime) and meeting Nick the last member of Oasis who has just returned from a mission.
We start episode 3 with a flashback to when Leicester and Carina were kids. At a party Leicester gave her a magic staff which she has been using for years since it was given to her by the boy she loves. We cut to the present where the group goes on a quest to collect black rainbow flowers, flowers that absorb the light around them turning the flowers into rainbows (oh my God it’s a double rainbow. All the way across the field. Oh~ it’s so intense! What does it mean) but also shrouding them in a black fog. The whole gang goes to the forest and using Carina’s staff to fly Leicester and Carina find the flowers but get attacked by a squirrel monster (what is this Final Fantasy). They defeat the squirrel monster (can’t believe I just said that twice) and Carina tries to get the Eru crystal the squirrel left behind in a tree but her magic runs out and she falls only to be caught by Leicester and get tangled up in some vines and land in an awkward pose (nice Leicester) with everyone walking in on them (nothing to see here folks just your typical girl on boy awkward moment next scene). After the quest Leicester takes the crystal for himself because he wants to use to crystal to allow Carina’s staff to talk to her (I don’t know man the last thing we want is the second coming of The Annoying Talking Orange). Leicester and Carina work all night together (wooooo~) and they finally manage to get the staff to talk and it blabs about Carina’s thoughts about Leicester (we all know you wanna sleep with him what’s the big deal almost every girl in this series wants to sleep him).
Not much happens in episode 4. We focus on Agnes this episode who wants to help one of her fans by gathering hotspring crystals so the group goes to an abandoned mine where they start mining for them and discover a hidden room that has a giant Eru crystal in the center that would make even Scrooge McDuck jump for joy (blow me bagpipes). But an earthquake caused by the Tortilla sisters and their golem occurs and traps Leicester and Agnes in the mind forcing the two to find their own way out. As the two are searching for a way out Agnes begins to shake with fear but Leicester is there to comfort her (in a friendly way not a sexual way. That comes after you’ve escape the mine) and they find a way out of the mine where they’re greeted with presence of a rainbow (if you two would like to kiss now is the time. No? Alright, we’ll go for harem ending). They all go back home where Shelly (Randy Marsh: SHELLY) tricks Leicester into taking a bath first and then telling the girls to go on in. Luckily Agnes is the first one there and she helps hide Leicester from the others while pressing her naked body up against his naked body. When the others get into the bath Leicester sneaks out and we see that Agnes has fallen for him.
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5 we focus on Minette. Oasis has a day off and everyone has stuff to do (so it’s really an average work day) except for Minette so Nina gives her a quest to go grocery shopping to get the ingredients for tonight’s dinner curry (hmm~ curry). Minette goes shopping along with Garnet and the twins and their golem tailing them as observers to make sure she doesn’t run into any trouble. She runs into a few problems here and there but overall gets the items on the list and we see she’s quite popular in town having her own fan club and everything (even the golem is a member of her fan club and no doubt the club president is pedobear). They run into Chelsea who got lost while trying to get to the church for a meeting so Garnet decides to be her guide leaving Minette alone to get the meat. As she’s on her way to the butcher she runs into a girl around her age named Miriam a shy girl with a fragile body and a love for adventure stories. The two quickly become friends and she shows Minette a shortcut to the butcher shop but along the way they see a kitten stuck in a high place so Minette rescues it and falls but is luckily saved by Liecester who was passing by (somebody order the deus ex Leicester). The kitten is saved but it’s too late to go to the butcher shop so they return to Oasis where the twins show up with grade A meat as thanks from the butcher for saving his kitten. Minette completes her first solo quest and makes a new friend in the process. As for Garnet and Chelsea they return too after roaming the city lost (sisters separated at birth).
Episode 6 focuses on Chelsea. The city wants to thank the knights for doing a good job guarding the Artifacts so they decide to host a party for them and hire Oasis (mainly Leicester and Nick) and the twins to guard the Artifacts in their place. At the night of the party we see all the girls dress up nicely but Chelsea obviously outshines them all why, because she’s not wearing her knight outfit, we finally get a chance to see her in casual clothes which is nice. There’s something alluring about a girl who wears something you’re not used to seeing them wear. It just makes them appear more sexy and attracted for some reason. The party goes well until a crystal monster in the form of a snake that can turn invisible shows up to wreak havoc scary everyone (why I have no idea. Everyone at the party is a knight so they should be able to take down one tiny snake. I could understand if it was an army put it’s just one snake). Leicester comes in and discovers that the snake is attracted to light so he uses a crystal lantern to lure the snake to him and Chelsea destroys the crystal turning the snake back to normal and fainting because she drank too much. They take her back to Oasis (alright Leicester take her back to your place) where they give her a room to sleep in and she tells Leicester how much fun she had at the party (man she’s a cute drunk).
Episode 7 is build up for what’s to come. The group is asked by Nagan to investigate the meteors and why they continue to fall even though the shower was supposed to have ended (even with magic the weather people are always wrong. Nice to see something’s never change). In order to get answers they travel to the workshop of Miza where they find out that she’s been at the workshop recently and left on a journey to find this special Artifact which will allow her to circulate Eru. But they don’t have time to ponder this as they’re attack by Aberdeen (//youtu.be/5UsAtbPuK4s) another apprentice of Miza and a friend of Agnes (who seriously needs a tan. The man’s as white as Vanilla Ice dancing in a snowstorm with Justin Bieber and 1-D) and his automation Avril who want Minette’s core which is basically her heart. The group manages to fight Avril off and before Agnes can get answers into why Aberdeen is doing this he vanishes.
Not much happens in episode 8. Oasis hires the twins to act as Minette’s bodyguards as the group makes preparations for the harvest festival. During the episode we see the twins provide us with lots of comic relief, use Minette and Agnes to help promote their clans and visit Chelsea who’s working at coffee café. Near the end of episode the twins are preparing to launch fireworks to celebrate the start of the festival and Ritos tries to setup Salsa with Leicester so she can watch the fireworks with him but Salsa runs back to help Ritos because she prefers watching the fireworks with her little sister (the little sister who constantly belittles and pulls pranks on you at every turn).
Episodes 9-12 and OVA
Nothing happens in episode 9 other than learning the truth about Miriam. After collapsing from her sickness while playing with Minette at Oasis we find out that she’s an automation just like Minette and is the little sister of Aberdeen who put his sister into the body of an automation to save her life from her serious illness (and look at her now). Due to the meteor shower abnormality her core can’t absorb enough Eru and as a result of this her core is beginning to breakdown and in time she will die unless of course she is given Minette’s core which has the power to absorb Eru easily (so in order to save a life we have to kill a life) which is why Aberdeen is after Minette. The episode ends with Aberdeen (still as white as Justin Bieber) and Avril sneaking into Oasis, attacking Nina (unnecessary if you ask me) and picking up Miriam.
Once again episode 10 serves as build up for what’s to come. Aberdeen and Avril leave with Miriam but not before Miriam protests Aberdeen taking Minette’s core because they’re friends and Miriam doesn’t want to harm her friends. So for the majority of the episode the gang including the twins do all sorts of investigating in the hopes of finding a way to save both Miriam and Minette but so far they find nothing. Not being able to handle a life of joy and happiness while her best friend suffers Minette sneaks out at night and gives herself up to Aberdeen (and Aberdeen has taken the lead in this game).
In episode 11 Leicester takes on Aberdeen (one fighting for his sister the other fighting for a girl who likes to call him papa) where Leicester manages to get past Aberdeen’s defenses and knock him down bringing the match to a draw. After hearing the selfish requests from both Minette and Miriam about them both wanting to live together with everyone (how is that selfish you both have a right to live. If anyone’s selfish if Aberdeen here), everyone agrees to a cease fire and decide to work together to find a way to save Miriam without sacrificing Minette. And with that, that’s the end of the anime (//youtu.be/7tClSJgMDF8). No just kidding there’s more and it’s pretty stupid. After agreeing to work together everybody gets called back to town where we find out the artifact that Miza has been searching is responsible for the abnormal meteorites and reversing the flow of Eru releasing a herd of crystal monsters which threaten to destroy the city and will unleash Armageddon on the world with the only hope of the world lying the hands of Oasis who have to use the power of friendship and love to save the world (no pressure).
In the final episode the gang along with Aberdeen and Avril go to the mine where they found that giant blue Eru crystal and get transported to the place responsible for the Eru running wild (this should be amusing let’s see how ridiculous they make it) which is a giant tower (Tartarus is that you). Leicester and the gang climb the tower while Aberdeen, Avril, Nick, and Garnet keep the crystal stone monsters at bay. The group finally reaches the top where we that Miza is the one responsible for disturbing flow of Eru. She explains to the group that she’s using her body as a medium to control the flow of Eru allowing crystal stone monsters to run rampant because if things continue as they previously were the world would run out of Eru and Minette, Miriam as well as other things in life would cease all together (and this plan just sounds stupid as hell). Leicester and the gang don’t like her plan (obviously it makes little to no sense) and want to know if they can fix the flow of Eru and save Miza in the process which there is but the chances of them succeeding are less than 1% (well it can’t be worse than trying to win big at a casino). The gang decides to take that challenge and Leicester goes to the tower’s core where we see that to restore the flow of Eru Leicester must solve the Eru puzzle (really? The future of the world hinges on whether or not someone can correctly solve a puzzle that’s almost like a rubix cube). So through the power of clichéness Leicester is able to solve the power restoring the flow of Eru in the world back to normal, Miza is saved, they have a big party to celebrate and everybody lives happily ever after.
There’s an OVA that came out for this anime a year after it ended. In the OVA we get a series of skits with uncensored fanservice. Some of the skits are funny like Where’s Chelsea, some are boring like Agnes trying to figure out how Golem works, and others are just pure fanservice like Minette visiting various hotsprings and seeing the characters naked. My favorite skit was the last one. Leicester gets turned into a doll and the girls in Oasis love how cute he looks and each one take turns playing with the doll. Nina hugs the doll between her breasts, Agnes dresses the doll up in a dress, Chelsea checks the family jewels on the detailed doll, Carina takes a bath with doll, and Minette sleeps with the doll until he turns back to normal. It’s not an OVA worth watching as it doesn’t add much to the series but if you wanna see uncensored fanservice with a few funny skits here and there I say go ahead and check it out but if you decide to skip it you won’t be missing out on much.
Final Thoughts
You see how there’s not a whole lot to say about this anime? I mean, besides the great and sometimes beautiful and vivid animation with nice music there’s really not a whole lot of substance to this anime. The characters are bland with the twins and golem surprisingly being the only characters who have interesting personalities and characters but even that’s pretty low. The story is slow and goes almost nowhere, has little to no build up, and has a climax that comes completely out of nowhere. It’s also very shy on the fanservice not really trying to be ecchi most of time. Sure you get a few breast shots and a bath scene but nothing all that hair-raising and hot to get you excited except for the OVA which was pretty much their excuse to show uncensored fanservice as a final farewell to the series. I hesitate to call this anime terrible as there’s nothing in it that’s stupid, upsets me, or feels demeaning it’s just similar to Senran Kagura it had the potential to be a somewhat decent anime but the director and his team just didn’t know what to do with what they had and as a result we got a bland anime with great animation but not a whole lot to offer.
Final Score
The final score for Shukufuku no Campanella is a 3/10. I feel bad that this anime didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping but this happens from time to time. I say skip over this anime and just check out a walkthrough of the game on Youtube. I’ve heard the game is fun and the characters have more personality and character than shown in the anime so that’s good to know but as an anime adaption this series falls way short of my expectations. Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All images, videos, and music belong to their respected owners and not me*
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