Shukufuku no Campanella first impressions

Marina, Leicester, Shelley, Agnes, Ritos, Salsa, Chelsea… and the maid. Damn, these series are getting harder and harder to remember the names by.

Let’s start off with the basics – the city is Et’Aria, the trading capital of the world (aptly named as the world’s “treasure chest”) and it’s about to hold its annual harvest festival.  This time, however, is the time of the meteor shower that occurs once every seven years.  And whether our friends at Oasis know it (probably Shelley does), a girl will arrive in one of the meteor’s and change Leicester’s life forever.  While the first episode just really established the setting and the characters, let’s have a basic run-down.

Marina is the cover girl dressed in a light-blue spell-caster outfit.  She is clearly in love with Leicester and makes attempt to hide it – which made for a cute and funny first scene.  Thumbs up for this anime making a good first impression.  She appears to be an important person throughout the town since everyone addresses her as “sama” and she leads the clan ‘Oasis’.  Leicester is the only male character and the protagonist as he goes through his life surrounded by the company of different females.  His mom, Shelley, is totally a four-lettered acronym in the anime world and she often gets confused for being Leicester’s girlfriend.  Agnes is a traveling performer with her circus critters and she is invited to tag along Marina’s and Leicester’s clan.  Of course, Shelley’s mom happens to invite a friend of hers – Chelsea, a knight of the Holy Guard.  CHESLEA CHELSEA CHELSEA yes I am a Chelsea fan – if you got the football reference, congrats – and she is around the same age as Shelley… perhaps?  Well, I don’t know how the eroge adaptation played out but Leicester would be courting a girl perhaps twenty years older than him!  Or maybe Chelsea is slightly younger… hmm, who knows?

Later in the episode, we run into the two twins from the Tortilla company – Ritos, the quiet mischievious Korone-wannabe girl, and her sister Salsa, the loud misunderstood lass.  While pointing out that Leicester’s mom is not his girlfriend, it seems as if they try to pick on Oasis a lot.  I don’t expect them to be antagonists but side-characters standing in for comic relief.  The build towards the end of the episode was slightly disappointing but at least we were introduced to the main heroine(?).  I expect the plot to actually start in the second episode – and what could that little girl mean by “papa”?  Uh-oh, do I smell secret love child from Leicester’s past??