Amagi Brilliant Park

Seiya Kanie, a smart and extremely narcissistic high school student, believes that the beautiful but reserved Isuzu Sento has invited him on a date at an amusement park called Amagi Brilliant Park. Much to his chagrin, not only is the location a run-down facility, the supposed date is merely a recruitment tour where Sento and Princess Latifa Fleuranza, the owner of the theme park, ask him to become the park's new manager. Their cause for desperation? As stipulated in a land-use contract, Amagi has less than three months to meet a quota of 500,000 guests, or the park will be closed for good and the land redeveloped by a greedy real-estate company.

Seiya is won over by the revelation that Amagi is no ordinary amusement park; many of its employees are Maple Landers—mysterious magical beings who live in the human world and are nourished by the energy created by people having fun. Entrusted with the hopes and dreams of this far-off enchanted land, Seiya must now use his many skills to bring Amagi back on its feet, or watch it crumble before his eyes.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sento, Isuzu Main

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Kanie, Seiya Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Fleuranza, Latifa Main

Fujii, Yukiyo Japanese

Tiramie Supporting

Nonaka, Ai Japanese

Sylphy Supporting

Kurosawa, Tomoyo Japanese

Moffle Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Salama Supporting

Tsuda, Minami Japanese

Muse Supporting

Aisaka, Yuuka Japanese

Macaron Supporting

Shiraishi, Ryouko Japanese

Kobori Supporting

Mikami, Shiori Japanese

Chiba, Makoto Producer

Tanaka, Gou Producer

Yamaguchi, Mayumi Producer

Takanashi, Mai Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 17, 2015

Veronin

Recommended

The past couple years haven't been so great for KyoAni. It's hard to deny that they've lost the influence and momentum they had back in the mid-to-late 2000's, and their work as of late has largely ranged from mediocrity to the flat-out bad (yes, I'm looking at Kyoukai no Kanata). Most of these issues can be attributed to their weakness in writing drama, which, thankfully, is nearly non-existent in their most recent series, Amaburi.

Amaburi (officially "Amagi Brilliant Park", which doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as well) sticks instead to KyoAni's strengths. While it's lacking in drama and shirtless bishounens, as a light-hearted slice-of-life ... about a group of idiots managing an amusement park, it's well worth a watch. It also has Isuzu, who is maybe, just maybe, one of the most attractive heroines in anime, if hot anime ladies is your sort of thing.

That said, anyone potentially interested in the show should be warned that the first episode is by far the worst. In it, the busty heroine (Isuzu) drags the cynical protagonist (Kanie) to the dilapidated amusement park that she manages, in the hopes that the former child actor, who, by the way, has absolutely zero experience in business management, will save the park from ruin. He begrudgingly accepts the offer, of course, and vows to meet the 500,000-visitors-in-four-months deadline so that the park will not be closed. At the end of the episode, Kanie also receives an abrupt kiss and a random superpower (which is not shown or mentioned again until several episodes later), because, uh, reasons?

Tell me if this sounds at all familiar, because I've seen hundreds of anime which have started off in the exact same way. I almost dropped Amaburi right there, and I'm glad I didn't, as it quickly shows it has little interest in being a serious story. Instead, it treats alcoholic, talking animals and magical powers as being completely ordinary. There's even a group of pirate walruses and a bloody dragon. Amaburi fully embraces its silly fantasy setting and cares not for realism.

But a cost of this silliness is that the show spends more time on the animals and park mascots than it does the human characters. And the mascots (who wear their costumes so frequently that they must be fused to their body) are nowhere near as interesting as Kanie or Isuzu, considering that many of them are based on a single trope. There's an otaku masquerading as some sort of squirrel-thing, an easily-angered shark who turns into a hell-demon when doused in water, a sheep who acts like a street thug, and so on and so forth. Sure, these characters add a great deal of energy to the show and make the park feel more alive, but after their second or third appearance, it's not likely you will appreciate their presence all too much. A few of them even show up dozens of times, and by that point it feels like the show is stretching its jokes way too thin. Granted, though, the commercial scene in the final episode is pretty damn hilarious.

Moffle is perhaps the one mascot who is treated as an actual character and not a running gag. He is introduced as some sort of asshole who punches his own customers when they throw a few bad words his way, and really, he's just an unlikeable jerk towards Kanie until the two start to accept each other's existence. But the reason he is a jerk makes sense: he doesn't want ruffians and other undesirables bringing danger to the park's princess, Latifa, so he plays the role of the jerk in order to protect her. It's hard not to warm up to the little guy by the end of the series.

As for Latifa, she just sort of... exists. Latifa and the park are the two main focuses of the story, except she's absent in everything that occurs in the park and is only ever relevant in the first and final episodes. She's there solely as a catalyst for drama, which means her scenes are, unsurprisingly, the weakest in the show. At least she stands there and looks pretty sometimes, I guess?

Kanie and Isuzu are far more interesting. On the surface, they're both very typical KyoAni characters (the Kyon-like protagonist who sighs and reluctantly does everything, and the big-breasted kuudere prone to hurting things), but there is at least a little bit of depth to their character. Kanie's reasons for quitting his role as a child actor is explained in one short scene, and so too is Isuzu's reason for constantly shooting people with her musket (though why a minor can legally carry a gun to school remains a mystery). The scene where their past is explained is actually handled with a surprising amount of maturity: there's no screaming and crying, no childhood trauma-- the two just accept it and move on with their lives as people normally would.

However, the fact that the two are high school kids and yet somehow able to run a massive multi-million dollar business on their own is inexcusable nonsense. I'm sorry, but 16-year-olds are nowhere near experienced enough to tackle such a huge responsibility. This is especially evident when Kanie makes asinine decisions like charging only 30yen (equivalent to 30 cents) for park admission, with all the rides being free of charge, as if this wouldn't immediately drive the park to ruin with an insurmountable amount of debt. Isuzu also occasionally shows up wearing an office lady outfit, and I couldn't help but groan every single time. If you want to write adult characters then, please, just bloody write them. It's not like it's particularly difficult to make the characters a few years older-- say, 19 or 20-- rather than forcing them to be high school students when it makes absolutely zero sense in the context of the story. It's like KyoAni is deathly afraid of writing characters past the age of seventeen (perhaps they think their fans will set fire to their studio if they dare try). I'm getting very tired of it. The world does exist outside the confines of high school.

The art is about what you would expect from any KyoAni anime, which is to say that it looks great. The sound is much more noteworthy as it is what gives the show the majority of its energy. There's a ton of classy jazz music playing in the background, and the OP is the sort of thing that will get stuck in your brain immediately after hearing it for the first time. I spent a few of my college classes with "MAGIC HEART" screaming in my head and it was both delightful and horrifying.

It's hard to get rid of the feeling that Amaburi is one long prologue to what will probably be a second season. There's subtle hints of romance between Kanie and Isuzu-- the kind that KyoAni loves to expand upon-- and the story abruptly ends with a light-hearted episode that would normally have been stuck in as an OVA. There's a lot of potential for the second season to be superior to the first, and if KyoAni doesn't create one I would be very surprised. And perhaps a little disappointed.

Amaburi is best approached with minimal expectations. If you're expecting another big hit from KyoAni, then Amaburi is certainly not going to be that. If you're OK with just having a few laughs at silly nonsense (and if you're a guy, a few erections from Isuzu's scenes), then you'll probably enjoy your time with the show. It's not a great anime, perhaps not even a good one, but there's more than enough enjoyable content in here to warrant a watch. If nothing else, at least it's not Kyoukai no Kanata.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jan 9, 2015

GonzyChan

Mixed Feelings

“Simply put, we need to go lewder. Miniskirts! Swimsuits! Low-Angle Shots! You need to put in as many of those as possible without breaking the law.”
-Amagi Brilliant Park, Episode 13

Another season, another project by KyoAni unfolded to the masses. However, it seems as though KyoAni’s latest attempt at trying to appeal to the anime demographic that loves cute and sexy girls is now back in full fashion. I want to think of Amagi Brilliant Park as their apology to all the people who were whining about the “gayness” that KyoAni was ostracizing with their recent hit, “Free!”. Hey, they can make whatever they please, and ... we can judge whether it’s worthy of being timeless in their long successful history. In which case, Amagi Brilliant Park will only be seen as just another Kyoukai no Kanata, a filler show.

Whereas Kyoukai no Kanata fell vastly short even of being called a memorable show, a filler show, Amagi Brilliant Park is at least commendable to be called a filler show. In the strictest sense, what made me distinguish while watching this show was how appropriately tame it is with how it portrays the story and setting. For the most part, everything is lighthearted and easy for the mind to sit back and relax in pure escapism. As with every anime comedy, there are cute girls in it. KyoAni indeed hasn’t failed in giving us quality girls as opposed to other aspects of an anime.

The main characters are fueled by their appearances and personalities, which spark up a great deal of charm in their archetypes. Latifa is typically the girly girl part of the cast that is always optimistic and smiling, so we can view her innocence and glamour. She is not necessarily the best character considering her backstory is quite exaggerated in the most apathetic way possible, but nothing terrible either. However, there is Isuzu. The one saving grace of the show is her hilarious stoic demeanor. Hilarious in that when she breaks character and starts showing emotion, you have no choice but to squeal with ultimate delight. You can’t be a true man if you refuse her offer to paizuri you.

Besides our two central girls, our male protagonist, Seiya Kanie, isn’t anything special. He doesn’t offer any nuanced grandeur to make him stand out like any memorable KyoAni protagonists before him. But the real crux of the cast is the supporting cast, and there are a lot of them. The problem with this is how so little of the supporting cast barely have anything to make them seem unique other than just being weird mascot characters that are hardly significant. Sure, some of them, particularly Moffle and Tiramie, have some funny moments, but it's a quick little comedic pick me up before it’s later tossed away by another funny moment.

Amagi Brilliant Park is unique amongst other KyoAni’s projects in how vibrant and colorful they’ve made their art and animation. Earlier in KyoAni’s career, they’ve tried to make their characters seem more realistic despite just relying on the moe-blob formula. They’re still present here, but it is refreshing how they implement the cartoonish aesthetic to the different characters. Besides our human characters, it’s nice to see KyoAni make these adorable animal mascots and give some spark of creativity to how they interact with their bodies and each other.

In closing….oh wait, I forgot about the story. Wait, honestly, what story is there to critique? It’s almost 2nd nature to Amagi Brilliant Park. All there is to service a plot is the characters trying to keep their amusement park from closing down. But the only problem is that they fail even to make that an issue that I should care about since all the fanservice and cute characters drown it out like white noise. It's one of those situations where the show falls flat on the story, but that isn’t the whole point, and even the show itself makes this clear as day. When you first show a girl dressed up as a pirate girl in a bikini, your only response is to clap slowly in amusement and go, “Yeah, okay, I’ll let this be passable in any measure.”

That’s how Amagi Brilliant Park can be described in one word: passable. It's just a bit above mediocre to where it can be labeled decent in the critical spectrum. As far as KyoAni shows, which I’ve become not fond of even when they were in their “golden age,” it will nonetheless entertain with enjoyable comedy to splendor about. Sure it’s another show centered around cute girls, but when you see the sight of Isuzu in a cheerleader bikini outfit, it’s a sight that is more than just moe; it’s life.

Grade: B-

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 26, 2020

Karakuridemon

Not Recommended

I'm going to start with the highlights. The main character was good. So were all the mascot characters. The concept is unique and pulled off well. Everything that the concept had to offer felt present. It explored the concept in the way it should. The main struggle is good and handled well. It has a satisfying solution.

Now for the bad. Sento is a good character but she get so many poor storyline which prevents me from enjoying her character properly. However their a character who's personality is to be stupid. This character makes me cringe every time I see them on screen. We never ... were given a reason to care about Latifa. Thus there isn't a sense we will have a meaning full loss if she were to disappear. Any and all sympathy for her comes from her situation and not her character. Her character is non existent. An episode dedicated to her would fix my main gripe with the story. If we instead were given time to explore her character and how she thinks, we would care for her. Instead her character is situation driven and not character driven. Lastly how her situation was resolve was lazy. It was wave away with magic that was only explained after the fact. And the explanation was also lazy.

Overall a few bad episode and how the secondary conflict was resolved prevents me from enjoying the show. I have low ratings for this first season. However in a second season, I'd probably give it a higher rating like a 7 or 8. It is very unlikely they will repeat the storyline that brang it down in the first place. Thus without these plot points, the show exponentially goes up. A season 2 is needed for this series to make this show shine. This first season is just poor. A second season great.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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