Arcana Famiglia – Dante

Posted in Arcana Famiglia, Otome by Rin

I know what you’re thinking, but Dante is a nice man.. so give the poor guy a chance lol. Don’t go for him before Liberta though, since 80% of Liberta’s events are required to unlock Dante’s.

The Executive Head and leader of the intelligence division, 38 years old. Dante was a pirate in the Mediterranean Sea, but currently he’s the most reliable man in the family. Even though he’s well-known as a man with a strong sense of righteousness, Dante is actually quite laid-back and loves humor more than anything else. He often creates various kinds of jokes to entertain everyone around him, and he usually adds “ダーンテな!” at the end of his gags. His trademark is the small beard on his chin. He’s like a father figure to Liberta. His weapon is a bazooka.

On April 4, Felicita comes to join the intelligence division for work. She’s welcomed by Ortho and Nino at the port, but since Nino attracts bad luck and Ortho is allergic to women.. they end up asking Felicita to deliver a cigar for Dante. The moment she enters the captain’s room in SS Arcana, Dante greets her with his trademark gag and “ダーンテな！” lol. To show his gratitude, Dante then invites Felicita to have lunch in a five-star restaurant at Hotel Il Mare the next day. Jolly thinks Dante must be plotting something, but Dante only cheerfully talks about how good Liberta is at catching fishes when they jump out of the water. At least until an old friend of his, Braun, appears to greet them.

Dante introduces Braun as the former ambassador of Regalo, but Braun doesn’t seem to have a good impression of Felicita. He thinks an inexperienced little girl like her won’t be able to lead “Swords” properly, let alone become Mondo’s successor. The reason behind Braun’s hostility is actually because he lost to a young girl named Daisy in the elections, and Daisy only keeps “playing around” ever since she became the official ambassador — buying dresses, throwing parties, and producing limoncello. However, Felicita points out that Daisy is doing her job with her own way. She imports dresses to provide high-quality silk for Regalo, producing limoncello because it’s Regalo’s specialty, and she holds parties to maintain their connection with foreign countries. Dante tells Braun they might not be able to understand Daisy’s methods, but young people like Felicita sure do.

Realizing his mistake, Braun apologized for insulting Felicita earlier. He asks if he can join them for lunch, and they have a good time together until it gets dark outside. After they return home, Dante reveals that he invited Felicita today so she can meet Braun directly. So Jolly was right, he did have a plan in mind lol. Braun has been spreading bad rumors about Daisy, and Felicita went beyond Dante’s expectations by clearing Daisy’s name from those accusations. He then thanks Felicita for today, saying he’ll invite her for lunch again sometime.. and next time there won’t be any hidden plans involved.

Two days later, Felicita receives an invitation to join the intelligence division’s inshore patrol on April 15. Liberta is excited, but sadly he’s going to stay back and guard the island instead LOL. Recently there’s a rumor about a mysterious masked man spreading around, and even though Liberta thinks the man must be a hero in disguise, a lot of people are scared. On the day of the patrol, Dante leads his crews and Felicita as they leave the port on SS Arcana. This is the first time Felicita ever rides a ship, but Dante thinks she suits the intelligence division because she doesn’t get seasick at all. Dante then asks Nino to explain things to Felicita and goes to talk to his crews. Unfortunately, Nino’s bad luck then causes a freaking WHALE to ram itself into their ship (　 Д )　ﾟ　ﾟ ..and Felicita falls into the sea. Dante quickly saves her and Felicita stays calm the whole time, but Dante feels bad for putting her into danger.

After taking the unconscious Felicita back to her room, Dante apologized to Luca and gives his pendant — Inberti Falco — to Felicita. It’s a pendant of a falcon holding a flame-red stone, and it’s believed to protect the holder’s “life flame” from burning out. Dante is about to leave when Felicita suddenly wakes up and tells him not to feel guilty. It was only an accident, and Felicita believed that Dante will come to save her earlier. Dante reluctantly asks Felicita not to hate the sea because of this incident, though he’s relieved when she smiles saying she doesn’t hate it. Dante then tells Felicita to get a lot of rest, and he leaves the room after saying good night.

On April 23, Felicita visits Dante to return his pendant. Before she leaves, Dante tells her that he needs her help again today. He takes Felicita to a restaurant near the port, where they find Federica and two representatives from the shopping district — Theodore and Sabine. Tourism is an important aspect for Regalo, and so they have meetings every now and then to discuss ways to improve tourist satisfaction. Sabine makes the best pesce scorfano (scorpion fish) aqua pazza in her restaurant, but they have no idea how to promote it to the tourists. Since it’s a dish people can only enjoy in Regalo, Felicita suggests printing out a “menu to enjoy Regalo Island” for the tourists. They can include Sabine’s restaurant and dish in the menu, and people can have fun following the guide when they visit Regalo. Something like a treasure hunt.

Since Federica knows a talented designer, everyone eventually decides to print a guidebook which is designed like a menu — “Guida Regalo”. When they walk out of the restaurant, Dante says Felicita did a splendid job today. Ever since Felicita became the leader of “Swords” and started working with the intelligence division, she has taught him a lot of things he never knew before. Just like how Braun handed his position to Daisy, Dante thinks he should prepare to pass the baton to the “next generation” too. Meanwhile, a man is watching them from the dark alley. He wonders what Dante is planning to do next, and he decides to get more information.

On April 27, Felicita receives a letter from Dante, saying he wants to talk in private at the port. Felicita goes to the port looking for him, but apparently the letter was a fake written by the man from before. He introduced himself as Claude, a freelance reporter, and he apologized for the fake letter. He only wants to interview Felicita, but he didn’t know any other way to meet her directly. Claude says he knew Dante ever since the latter’s pirate days, but it’s obviously only a cover to trick her. When Felicita refuses the interview saying she’s not allowed to talk about the family, Claude suddenly knocks her out and kidnaps her onto a ship. He knows about their Arcana power, and he’s planning to hand it to his country — Nord. It’s a payment for Dante’s “betrayal”. However, the masked man soon appears to save Felicita.. though Claude knows it must be Dante behind the mask. Dante apologized to the unconscious Felicita and tells her not to get involved with him anymore. Or else she’ll get consumed by the darkness too.

When Felicita opens her eyes, she finds herself on Dante’s back. She showed him the letter written by Claude, and Dante only explains that Claude has been lurking around him for a long time. He admits there’s a reason behind this, but it’s not something he can tell Felicita easily. He promises that something like this won’t happen again, so she should forget about this incident. Here Felicita tries reading Dante’s heart, but she can’t see anything inside.. other than endless darkness. Dante notices this, and he tells Felicita “if you really care about me, please don’t get involved with this case”. Felicita nods and smiles at him before going home, which surprises him that she can still smile after what happened. Sadly they’re not done dealing with Claude yet, because he’s planning to get revenge on Dante for “betraying” their home country.

Noticing that both Felicita and Sumire trust Dante a lot, Mondo decides to give him a punishment out of pure jealousy lol. Jolly gives them 3 suggestions: (1) give Felicita and Sumire a surprise hug after his overseas trip (2) strip, wear only his trench coat.. and become a flasher in front of Felicita and Sumire ﾌﾟｯ(※థ эథ) .*. (3) cover Felicita and ∵ ∵Sumire’s eyes from behind and say “guess who? it’s Dante~!” Mondo doesn’t want his wife and daughter to take any damage though, so in the end he asks Dante to collect “healing words for Mondo” from them. Soon he returns with letters written by Felicita and Sumire, and Jolly drags him out so Mondo can enjoy reading his “love letters”. Not too long after they leave the room, Mondo’s scream of horror is heard from inside. Jolly chuckles since everything went according to plan, while Dante is only staring at him in disbelief — saying “what a terrifying man..” xD

On May 4, Felicita visits Federica’s shop with Nino and Ortho. The first issue of “Guida Regalo” has been printed out successfully, and to show their gratitude, they make a dinner reservation for Felicita and Dante in Hotel Il Mare. Since Felicita hasn’t got the chance to wear the beautiful dress she got from Federica, now is a good time to do so. Dante is already waiting when she comes to the hotel, and he orders seafood for their dinner. Even though they’re here to relax tonight, Dante has a report for Felicita. He already told Daisy about Claude and his abduction attempt on Felicita, and Daisy did her best to send Claude out of Regalo. Braun was also there to watch Daisy at work, and he can finally approve her skills as an ambassador thanks to this. Now that Claude is out of the way, everything should be alright. For now.

The next day, the first edition of “Guida Regalo” is finally published and distributed. Everyone’s impressed by the contents, but Pacepoints out that the supply of pesce scorfano is running low thanks to the high demand. At noon, Felicita joins Dante and his crews again for another inshore patrol. Dante then hands his pendant back to Felicita, saying it will protect her when he’s not around. Of course Felicita doesn’t want to get in danger on purpose, but Dante says danger is always lurking around as long as she’s in the family. After checking the area around them, Dante lets his crew go fishing to pass time. This reminds Felicita of what Pace said, and so Dante asks Liberta to catch as many pesce scorfano as he can. It’s not a common fish, but Dante will introduce him to a great blacksmith who can take care of Speranza as the reward.

By the end of their patrol, Liberta has caught a LOT of pesce scorfano. They invite Felicita to eat Sabine’s aqua pazza together, but she chooses to go home and conserve the fish supply. Just then someone throws a letter at her, and she finds a message from Claude inside: “Dante is in danger. I’ll give you information as an apology for last time. Come to the port on May 25 at 8 PM, and don’t tell anyone about this.” Since Felicita is a bad liar, Dante quickly finds out about this message. Upon reading the letter, Dante laughs and says it’s all nonsense. He tells Felicita not to worry, because he’s going to take care of this case.

On May 20, Felicita visits Dante at the captain’s room on SS Arcana. While he feels happy that Liberta’s Arcana power has improved so much (after their duel on the 17th), Dante admits he feels a little lonely. He knows that Mondo probably feels the same too as he watches Felicita growing up. Dante then explains to Felicita that “Casa Bianca”, the facility Liberta burnt down, was located in Nord. The area was always surrounded by a snowstorm, and so nobody ever find out what was going on inside. People thought it’s a facility for orphans, while in reality the staff kidnapped any orphans they can find in Regalo — using them as guinea pigs for Tarocco research.. and who was behind the whole thing? Who else other than Jolly. ＼(^o^)／ Back then Dante fought him saying it’s unforgivable to sacrifice kids for research, but Jolly only said Mondo’s life is much more precious than all of the kids combined together. That, and the kids will die if they release them anyway. They can’t possibly survive out there.

Fukurota’s hoot brings Dante’s mind back to the present. He then tells Felicita that he’s worried about them. Liberta, Nova and her are the future of the family, but the compensation taken by their Arcana will surely give them hardships in the future. However, Dante is surprised when Felicita answers with “I will choose my own path.” Despite the burden brought by her Arcana, Felicita’s determination and dedication for the family will never change. Dante is impressed and says Felicita is really strong. He might not need to worry about her, but he still wants Felicita to remember those words. So that one day, when she leads the family with Liberta and Nova, they can look back and say “there was a man who said this once..”

On May 25, Felicita finds Liberta behaving all suspicious with Nino and Ortho in Dante’s office. They quickly explain it’s not that they’re up to no good, but for some reason.. Dante suddenly gives them a day off today. He said he will be away for the whole day, warning them NOT to search for him no matter what. This reminds Felicita of Claude’s message, though she can’t tell them anything since she was asked to keep quiet. Following Ortho and Nino’s advice, Felicita and Liberta then searches for Dante’s logbook in the ship. They find an address written on a torn page, which turns out to be the address of Braun’s villa in town. On their way there, they meet a worried Braun who was on his way to see Felicita too. It turns out that Dante visited his villa earlier, and even though Dante refused to say anything, Braun can tell that Dante was prepared for something to happen.

Before they can figure out what’s going on, suddenly a loud explosion is heard from the port — foreign ships are attacking Regalo! From the port they can see a light destroying the ships from afar, and it’s obvious that someone is fighting the enemies alone. Someone who holds a Major Arcana, that is. At first Luca thought it’s Jolly, but the fact that Jolly joins them in the port makes it impossible to happen. Soon Jolly take over the command and orders Nova and Pace to capture any intruders in town. He also tells Liberta to lead the intelligence division to pursue the escaping enemies, while Luca will be staying in the port for backup. As for Felicita.. Jolly wants her to find that certain fool who’s currently fighting alone — “The Emperor” — and drag him back here.

Meanwhile, Dante (in his masked outfit) is running out of energy after using his Arcana for so long. Soon Claude appears to attack him, but Felicita arrives just in time to save Dante. When Claude lunges to attack her, Dante jumps in to protect her.. and his mask breaks into two upon taking the hit. Claude then runs away laughing since his objective was to reveal the masked man’s true identity to Felicita, but instead of being shocked and bombarding him with all sorts of questions, she only asks why Dante kept hiding beneath the mask all this time. He answers it was his way to atone for his “sin”, because he was actually a spy sent by Nord to collect information regarding Tarocco.

When Dante was young, a big war broke out around this area. Regalo was involved as well, but one day Regalo suddenly announced independence after wiping out the foreign troops in the island. Claude found out that the ruler of Regalo, Arcana Famiglia, has a special weapon, and Dante was sent to gather information for Nord. Dante then disguised himself as a pirate and lurked around the mansion, but fate brought him to meet Mondo one day. Obviously Dante had no chance against Mondo and “The World”, but something unexpected occured at the end of their fight — “The Emperor” suddenly absorbed Dante’s blood and chose him as its holder. Despite Dante’s origins, Mondo warmly welcomed him into Arcana Famiglia. He told Dante that as fellow Arcana holders, they’re a family from now on. Dante was touched by the kindness of everyone in Regalo, and in the end he chose Regalo over Nord. Dante kept sending false information to his home country after that, but eventually Claude found out about his betrayal.

Now that his “sin” is revealed, Dante is planning to return to Nord with Claude. He’s going to let them use his body for research, as a proof that Tarocco’s power isn’t necessarily destructive at all. Dante wants to stay until the end of “Arcana Duello” though, because he wants to see Felicita’s growth up until the end. However, Felicita then hugs him saying she’ll stop him from leaving. After a short silence, Dante finally pats her head and laughs. She’s right. It won’t be right for him just to “watch” her growth, because he’s going to fight her too in the tournament. Felicita is going to do her best, and Dante knows he should do the same.

Two days later, Felicita goes to the beach and wonders about Dante’s home country beyond the sea. She was practicing alone when Dante comes to join her, and they start sparring until Dante laughs — impressed at how much progress she has made. Soon Fukurota approaches them from the sky, and Dante remembers when he first gave the owl to Felicita. Back then she was still living with Sumire and Luca in the small house, and Dante can only come every once in a while because of his job.. so he gave her Fukurota to keep her company. There are a lot of rumors regarding owls, but Dante told Felicita to raise Fukurota however she likes. Both of them have grown a lot ever since that day. Felicita says Dante has changed too, and he says it’s because he’s got nothing to hide anymore. She can read through his heart, so there’s no need for him to act like a “good adult” in front of her anymore.

The next day, Felicita asks Dante to let her shoot the cannons on SS Arcana. (○´ﾟω ﾟ｀):;*.’:;ﾌﾞｯ When Dante brings her onto the ship, Felicita notices that Regalo looks so small and beautiful from afar. It’s the island Dante tried to protect with all his might, and he still treasures Regalo up until now. After checking the supplies, Dante teaches Felicita how to light the cannon and aim it at the target. He’s impressed since Felicita has a really nice aim, and both of them have fun shooting cannonballs until it gets dark lol. Nino will probably get angry at him for using up their cannonball supplies, but Dante tells Felicita not to worry. Seeing her smile is totally worth enduring his crews’ wrath. xD

On May 30, Dante invites Felicita to join their voyage again. He’s going to sail the sea for work today, and Mondo asked him to take Felicita along. Dante also tells her that his crews didn’t get angry about the cannons, since they’re willing to do anything for Felicita’s smile lol. Since she seems curious about the scenery from the ship’s bow, Dante then lifts her up and makes her sit on his shoulder. This way he won’t be worried about her falling into the sea, and she can fully enjoy the scenery — 7.5 feet above the ship. When Felicita asks if she’s not heavy, he says she’s as light as a mouse. M-mouse..!? Σ(；∀； lll) Dante then laughs and tells Felicita to stop punching her head, she should burn this scenery into her mind instead — the scenery of the island they love.

On the night of May 31, Felicita finds Dante outside the mansion. He admits that for someone who’s about to reach 40 in age, he still has a lot of doubts and worries. However, he’s going to throw them all away and enjoy Arcana Duello tomorrow. Dante tells Felicita to fight with all her power, because he’s going to do the same until they meet each other in the match. It’s his way of swearing his loyalty to her.

Arcana Duello finally starts on June 1, and Dante has to face Sumire in the first round. While it seems awkward since they have been good friends for a long time, both of them are enjoying their battle. Knowing he can’t win with regular attacks (since his bazooka takes time to charge before attacking), Dante swings his bazooka around to hurl wind towards Sumire. All Sumire wants to see is Dante’s determination, so she asks what he’s going to do after the tournament ends.. and Dante gives her a clear answer: “I will choose my own path!” It’s something that he learned from Felicita, and he’s going to support her if Mondo is really retiring. Dante launches flames from his bazooka after that, winning the match as Sumire takes the multipe hits. As he helps Sumire to stand up, she asks him to take care of her daughter.

When he meets Felicita in the final, Dante admits that he used to think negatively about Arcana power and Tarocco. But right now, he feels thankful to fate for leading them all the way here. Dante also admits it’s even harder for him to fight Felicita compared to his previous match with Sumire, but it doesn’t mean he’ll go easy on her. Since weapons won’t work on Felicita, Dante then drops his bazooka and attacks with his fists instead. Felicita dodges his attacks with her agile steps, and eventually she wins the match by throwing her knives at him. As he collapses to the ground, Dante smiles and says nobody in the family can surpass her strength.

ENDING 1

Felicita receives the top seat and becomes the new head of the family, and she also decides to marry Dante in the near future. It was Mondo’s idea for her to get married, but he expresses his jealousy by giving mountains of work for poor Dante. ﾌﾟｯ(※థ эథ) .*. Dante wonders if ∵ ∵Felicita is really okay with the huge age gap between them, but Felicita doesn’t mind at all. She keeps coming to SS Arcana and sticks to Dante like a glue, snuggling into his arms when he’s writing his travel logs. Dante then tells Felicita that he has to go on another overseas trip soon, but she doesn’t need to worry since he will always return to her side. After all, Felicita is his Beatrice.. and they’re going to write their “life logbook” together from now on.

ENDING 2

The family holds a meeting after Felicita’s victory, but nobody pays attention lol. Liberta totally falls asleep, Nova is busy staring at Sumire, Luca cries a river of tears as usual, Debito can’t stand the sight of a デレデレおっさん that is Dante, Pace’s head is full of lasagna, and Jolly only says “how nasty” lol. That, and Nova is ready to comfort Liberta about his “father”‘s upcoming wedding to Felicita. xD Dante tries to get them to listen, but everyone only goes ( ಠ_ ಠ ) since he couldn’t conceal his happiness lol. After they left the room, Dante gloomily tells Felicita that everyone’s trust in him dropped because of her first order as the new head of the family — for Dante to marry her. Back on the night of her victory, Dante took Felicita’s hands and asked “Are you really the holder of ‘The Lovers’ and ‘Wheel of Fortune’.. my ‘Imperatrice‘?”

ENDING 3

Felicita lost the match after Dante uses “The Emperor” to cause an explosion. After his victory, Dante tells Felicita that his only wish is to stay in Regalo after all. He decides to receive the top seat to lead the family, and even though Dante is reluctant, Felicita agrees to marry him. Later on, Dante brings Felicita to SS Arcana and tells her he never thought of marriage before. He was planning to disappear after revealing his “sin” to everyone, so he didn’t think he has any right to have a wife. Just then their friends interrupt and tell Dante to have more confidence. It turns out that they went on board by using brute force, and the embarrassed Dante can only respond with “／(^o^)＼ﾀﾞﾝﾃｺｯﾀｲ” lol.

At first I thought it would take a lot of willpower to plow through Dante’s route, but it was light and easy.. surprisingly lol. While it’s hard to imagine romance between him and Felicita, I have to admit the endings are really cute. (*´ `*) Things would be so much better if Dante ∀still has his hair though, since he looks pretty good during the flashback CGs / scenes. He didn’t have his trademark beard too when Mondo proposed to Sumire, and you have no idea how much I wish for him to look like that in the entire route. (ノД`)・゜・。He’s also a novice when it comes to love, so he’s actually adorable if you can get past his bald head lol.