Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Today we’re taking a look at an anime from Kyoto Animation. It’s hard to believe it’s taken me this long to review something from this studio. Kyoto Animation is one of the oldest and most well-known studios in Japan. Whenever they make an anime everyone stops what they’re doing and goes to check it out. Why? Because they always make high quality animes. However, these last few years haven’t been good for Kyoto. Over the last few years they’ve shied away from producing comedy animes and have instead been focusing on drama animes which are mediocre at best. They haven’t been bad per se but they’re just not as entertaining as their earlier work. Luckily, Kyoto saw what they were doing wrong and decided to return to their strengths by producing Amagi Brilliant Park. Based off a light novel written by Shoji Gatoh in 2013 and still on-going to this day, Amagi Brilliant Park is a slice of life, comedy, and fantasy anime about an amusement park close to closing down and all the park workers and staff doing do their best to prevent that from happening. At face value this anime seems boring and uninteresting but in truth it’s actually a very good anime. In fact, it was not only one of the funniest animes I’ve seen but it’s also one of the best animes from 2014. I mean it, this anime gained a huge following after it premiered and today we’re here to look at it. It’s magic time everyone. This is Amagi Brilliant Park.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening to this anime is “Extra Magic Hours” by AKINO with bless4. Definitely one of the most remembered openings from 2014 for its catchy upbeat music, heart-warming lyrics, excellent singer, and excitement. At first I wasn’t a fan of this opening but after listening to it a couple of times I got into it and found myself always watching it whenever an episode came on. I just couldn’t bring myself to skip it. The ending is “Erementario de Aimashō” by BRILLIANT4. Much like the opening the ending surprisingly has the same amount of energy and excitement but is sung in a slow pace that it calms you down from all of the excitement and comedy we just saw in the episode. I didn’t really care for the song but it’s not bad. Truth be told I was more interested in the animation that went with the song. That stain glass artwork of the four fairy characters is beautiful.
Episodes 1-4
The anime opens with a high school girl holding our main character Seiya voiced by Kouki Uchiyama (Ichika from IS) at gunpoint with a musket (Isis: Hey this reminds me of the first time you gave me a gun. (Nitsuj): *Chuckles* Yeah I remember that, and then you accidently shot me in the face. (Isis): *Chuckles* Yeah that was priceless. You actually thought it was an accident). The girl holding the musket is Isuzu voiced by Ai Kakuma (Est from Bladedance of Elementalers) a new transfer student who wants Seiya to take her on date to the Amagi Brilliant Park (no relation to the Amagi Inn from Persona 4 I assume). Not having a choice in the matter Seiya agrees to go on the date and when Sunday rolls around they go to the Amagi Brilliant Park a theme park located within the Amagi area. Once they arrive we see that the park for lack of a better term is shitty. There are barely any guest, the workers have no energy, the rides are either broken, in poor or bad condition (some of them actually missing important pieces from the ride), the sideshows aren’t good, and the main mascot Moffle (which is that mouse from Fullmetal Panic Fumoffu) is mean and violent (which makes him funnier in a sense). Also, the park is next to a love hotel (yeah try explaining that to the kids. Alright son have fun in the park me and your aunt are gonna ride the Love Hotel ride. See you in 4 hours). As the day is close to ending Seiya complains about how awful the park is until he eats some croquettes which were made by the park manager. Isuzu takes Seiya to meet the park manager Princess Latifah voiced by Yukiyo Fujii (your park sucks. It was neither fun nor enjoyable. Your rides are in terrible condition. Your mascots are mean and you have no energy whatsoever coming from anyone in this park. Don’t even pretend that you’re trying your best because you’re not. You’re a damn bum who needs to get off her ass and do something) who tells him that she as well as all the workers in the park come from the magical kingdom known as Maple Land (a kingdom that’s been a close ally to the Mushroom Kingdom for quite some time) from the land of magic. She tells him that the park is close to collapsing and if they don’t get 250,000 guest in the next three months the park will be closed down and the residents of Maple Land will be homeless (and jobless). Latifah wants Seiya to become the new park manager saying that the Oracle a divine instrument predicted that he could save them. Seiya refuses to help saying he doesn’t believe in the existence of magic or her story (I have to agree this story is a little. . .dum dum dum dum duuuuuum~). Since Seiya doesn’t believe in the existence of magic Latifah gives him the power of magic by kissing him (hey I don’t believe in magic either mind proving me wrong?). The kiss knocks him out (man that good huh?) and he wakes up in his room thanks to Isuzu who carried him back (strong girl). When he goes to the restroom he walks in on a naked Isuzu in the bathroom and freaks out and he asks his big sister what’s going on where he finds out he has the powers to read people’s minds (scene here: //youtu.be/WO_T2E7Dz3s).
In episode 2 Seiya finds out that he has the powers to read minds however he can only read the minds of people only once (well that kinda makes the power useless in the long run doesn’t it?). We find out more about how the park serves as the power source for the citizens of Maple Land in fact we find out that other theme parks are also magical kingdoms in disguise (so Disneyland really is a magical kingdom? Not sure how to feel about that). Anyway, the power of the park comes from the enjoyment of its guest and once the park closes down their power source leaves and after a while the world will forget all about them and they’ll disappear forever (just like what Capcom tried to do to Megaman years ago). After arriving at the park again Isuzu let’s Seiya meet their rivals the Amagi Development basically big bad corporate trying to destroy the world and make it into a monochrome nightmare. After the meeting Isuzu tries desperately to get Seiya to be the park’s new manager but as you would guess he still refuses to do it (give it time). As he’s waiting for the bus to arrive he goes back to the park in the hopes that Latifah will remove the mind reading magic from him only to find Latifah talking to the inhabitants of Maple Land apologizing to them and telling them that park is closing (geez you’re giving up already? You still got like 3 months left to turn this place around. No wonder the park is doing bad, your attitude sucks). As everyone in the crowd begins to feel depressed and fight with each other Seiya takes the stage and gives a speech calling them all crybabies, quitters, and maggots (okay the maggot part I added in but you get the idea they’re weak). Seiya finally agrees to be the park’s manager but only for 3 months (haha yeah, that’s not gonna happen) and we end the episode the next day with Seiya closing the park and telling all the workers to fix their attractions up saying that if their attractions or areas aren’t in good condition by the end of the day that section will be closed off indefinitely (and anyone who complains about this will be sniped off where they stand).
In episode 3 Seiya gets right to work at fixing up the park while still keeping it close much to Moffle’s resentment. Seiya establishes new rules to help the park get more visitors such as extending hours, no more days off (that’s against worker’s rights), and only charging customers 30 yen to get in (cheap park. Well at least I know where I’m taking my dates now). With nothing to do Seiya tells Moffle to go out and entertain the guest outside the gate who showed up (didn’t you read the sign we’re closed. Now leave and come again some other day). While outside a spoiled kid and his hooker mom (she dresses like a hooker, walks likes a hooker, acts like a hooker and even talks like a hooker so it has to be hooker) insult Moffle until he finally hears enough and shoves the hooker (don’t touch her man you might get a disease). This causes her to call her asshole of a husband (aka her pimp) where Moffle knocks him out with one right hook (//youtu.be/lSet6htnVcQ). Seiya comes in to stop Moffle from attacking the rest of the family (no let him go they had this coming) and Isuzu shoots the family with mind erasing bullets. Seiya sits Moffle down and tells him that if he pulls another stunt like that again he’ll be fired (oh please if you were in his position you would have done the same thing. (Yin-Yang): I would have kicked his head off). After that Seiya shoots a video using the girls of the park in skimpy bikinis (not just for fanservice) to promote the park’s new prices. This of course doesn’t sit well with Moffle because Seiya had Latifa in it and if you can believe it he’s actually Latifa’s uncle (how does a mouse have a human for a niece. Does she have a mouse tail I should know about?). The video doesn’t get that many hits but once Seiya uploads the video of Moffle knocking out that pimp daddy and editing it to make it look like he threw the first punch instead of Moffle that video and their promotional video get hits big time. This of course hurts Moffle’s pride as he sees he’s not as popular as he thought (Family Guy and The Simpsons: Welcome to the party) so he goes out drinking with his buddies Macron and Tirami (who together with Moffle make up what everyone likes to call the 3 Stooges because of their silly antics and they steal the show everyone they’re on screen) and Isuzu where they receive terrible news about Latifa (she’s pregnant).
Episode 4 opens up with Latifa being put in her bed but feeling alright (oh so the closing moments of the previous episode was a false alarm. Way to waste my expectations). We find out that it’s not good for Latifa to be outside of the magic field of her castle as for some reason it causes her to become weak. After that we see that the part has the worst kind of visitors. . .kindergarteners. . .with rape faces (no offence but those kids have a promising career in the hentai industry particularly in the rape genre). After that we just focus on Seiya and Isuzu who go around the park with Seiya fixing all the problems with ease like nothing (man he makes it look easy). When Seiya goes to do paperwork leaving the rest of the problems to Isuzu we see that her methods are a lot less tactful than his. Unlike Seiya who sees the problem, analyzes it, and negotiates to fix it, Isuzu on the other hand is more do what I say or I’ll shoot you in the face (Isis: A method I agree with entirely. Now say I’m pretty before I shoot you in the face! *Holds a gun up to Nitsuj’s face* (Nitsuj): Ah, you’re pretty! You’re very pretty! You’re the prettiest girl I know! For the love of God don’t shoot me again). Seiya is shown this by the employees (and oddly enough it’s the 4 fairies) where he gets into a fight with Isuzu about her methods and how she’s dead weight if she keeps this up (this is a theme park not a battlefield). Isuzu takes offence to this and the two pretty much stop talking to each other for a while and I have to admit it’s hard to choose which side to be on. Seiya’s word might have been harsh but they’re true, Isuzu’s method are wrong and aren’t helping the situation. I daresay it makes the situation worse but at the same time it’s not entirely her fault, she’s just doing what she thinks is right. We find out later that Isuzu comes from a military family and she was sent here on a mission (//youtu.be/MKZSqd5Y8nA?t=8s) to turn the park around and because she’s been taught nothing but military tactics she approached this situation from a military standpoint and used military tactics to get the job done rather than be tactful like Seiya. So in truth you really can’t fault her for her methods on account of this situation but instead put some of the fault on the family for not teaching her to approach every situation from different standpoints. Anyway, disaster hits the park during a nasty storm where due to a decision Seiya made earlier in the episode the park becomes flooded and he has no idea what to do so Isuzu takes command, gets everyone in the park to work together, uses pumps and sandbags to save all the areas in the park saving the park from a crisis (okay why don’t we just make her head of security or something she’s obviously suited for that job). While inspecting the areas during the crisis Isuzu admits that she was a little jealous of Seiya and how he was able to handle all of the park’s problems so easily while she had trouble and instead drove people away (yeah pointing a gun at people tends to have that effect on them. (Isis): What was that you little troll? *Points gun in Nitsuj’s face again* (Nitsuj): Nothing! Just saying how nice your hair is today) which resulted in her having her first failure and she didn’t know how to handle it (you learn from it, and bounce back). Since Isuzu opened up to Seiya he decides to do the same by talking about his fear of heights and how it was one of the factors that caused him to quit being a child actor which caused his parents as well as a lot of other people around him grief (yeah let’s just ignore the problems and grief of the child and worry about our own grief). He tells her (in a narcissistic manner) that their setbacks are nothing more than common occurrences in everyday life and getting hung up on them makes you a joke (he’s got a point. Albeit a rather narcissistic point but a point nonetheless). This cheers up Isuzu and we end with everyone thanking Isuzu for her hard work. In another funny moment in this episode Seiya rides the Ferris wheel with Latifa where unbeknownst to them Moffle is spying on them and has a sniper gun pointed directly at Seiya in case he tries anything.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 opens up with some bad news (//youtu.be/HHfOejlvVsY). The park has no more money (//youtu.be/bW7Op86ox9g, I ain’t surprise you guys only charge 30 yen a piece to get in. That’s like 3 dollars. With that money I could buy a bag of chips and two cans of pop to wash it down). In order to find new ways to get money Seiya calls a meeting hoping to come up with new ideas but they come up with nothing that is until Moffle and the stooges talk about Dornell’s cave a cave that’s in the secondary park south of the main park where they say a treasure exists in the cave. Long ago one of the park members named Dornell enter the cave with two other members with Dornell gone missing and the two members barely making it out of the cave alive days later (man this sounds like it would be a good attraction for the park). Seiya, Isuzu, Moffle and his stooges decide to go to the cave and investigate where they find a secret passage way which leads to the gatekeeper (Gatekeeper: STOP~! You insolent maggot! (Nitsuj): No not you) a weird four armed tribe inspired statue (I’m sure this is racist I’m just not sure how) who gives them a bunch of useless weapons and allows them to go deeper into the cave. Once deeper in the cave they run into a bunch of Indiana Jones cliché traps with Isuzu and Macaron falling down a pitfall separated from the others (scene here: //youtu.be/2tRhklB3Uyc, hey the cave turned into Dungeons and Dragons). Seiya and the others reach a safe area where get attacked by RPG pig warriors (okay we just entered a whole new anime here didn’t we?). Back with Isuzu and Macaron they wake up in a prison cell where they easily escape using Isuzu’s gun (if you can’t break your problems than shoot them) where they find Dornell who’s still alive and everything he’s just been living the life of a NEET collecting all sorts of anime stuff and playing MMORPGs all day (you know, the otaku life). Back with Seiya, he and the others escape the pigs only to arrive in the den of the Ruby Dragon (which I have to admit is a very good design, they did a very good job on him). As the dragon is about to destroy them Seiya challenges the dragon to see who’s smarter so the dragon asks him a question where Seiya uses his mind-reading powers (which at this point I honestly forgot he had those powers. Yeah the anime kinda drops the ball on not making those powers relevant) to get the answer he’s looking for and we find out that the dragon is all talk and no bite. After reuniting with Isuzu we find out that the dragon and the cave in general was actually part of a park attraction that got shut down some time ago and the pigs were actually construction moles who worked out a deal to hide in the park to escape an evil empire who uses them as slaves (oh man that’s so sad). We also find out that the treasure that was supposed to be in the cave was all used up by the moles to continue living (you bastards). Sometime later the group does some research to find out that the empire targeting the moles has collapsed and is no more. Overjoyed by this and having nowhere else to go the moles and the dragon ask if they can work for the park and Seiya says yes. As for the money issue, they solved that problem by selling all of Dornell’s otaku stuff (welcome to the real world).
In episode 6 the park faces another serious problem. They’re understaffed (I have a few AIs who could learn the value of hard work that you can use) so Seiya decides to hold interviews in the hopes of finding new employees. This has Isuzu worried because if you haven’t figured it out by now she has a crush on Seiya (well good for you, too bad you fell in love with a guy who’s a narcissist and has a superiority complex. It’s worse than falling for a dense male character in a harem anime) and is afraid that Seiya is going to hire a more beautiful girl and have her be his new secretary tossing Isuzu aside (um in case you forgot you have a gun, if the girl tries to steal your spot just shoot them). Isuzu worries about this a lot and her problems get worse when Macaron feeds her a heartsleeve fruit a special fruit where you say what’s on your mind revealing everything about you (we call that the internet). Sure enough Isuzu can’t control what she says and begins speaking her mind almost revealing her true feelings for Seiya a couple of times. Despite this problem (and the fact that Seiya completely ignores this) she goes to the interview where she, Seiya, and Moffle are the interviewers and we get some of the craziest people to ever step into an interview such as a wrestler, ex-mayor candidate, an astronaut, a kabuki actor, and a ninja from the Iga region (and to answer your questions no I am not making this up. No, I am not drunk or high and yes, my mind is considerably fucked as well). They all get hired (man you guys really are understaffed if you’re hiring this list of characters. Too bad we won’t likely see them again) and Seiya even hires the three girls from Isuzu’s dream (she’s physic) who she thought would replace her as Seiya’s secretary. The first one is a mature woman who used to have a career in the AV industry (please demonstrate for us). The AV of course standing for animal videos (you might want to clarify that more in your interviews). The second one is a sweet girl with a loving smile and positive attitude who has a homicidal brother who stabbed her just because she wanted to work at the park and even despite being stabbed and bleeding to death she still choose to come to the interview where her crazy brother (wearing nothing but his underwear and pantyhose for a mask) shows up and tries to stab her again only to get taken out by Moffle (and once again my mind is fucked). The final is a schoolmate of Seiya and Isuzu who despite being pretty and energetic she’s not very good at speaking and gets nervous quite easily. After the interviews we get another Seiya and Isuzu moment, some more laughs, and the episode ending by showing us something dangerous about to enter the park’s waterpark (coming next episode. The fanservice episode).
In episode 7 the episode takes place in the park’s waterpark where everyone is enjoying themselves except for Jaw (can you guess what he is?) a shark who is very friendly and wants to help but whenever he steps into the water he loses his cute cartoonist appearance and becomes Steven Spielberg’s version of Jaws (the first movie). So he gets moved to maintenance with Seiya and Isuzu’s classmate. In the waterpark in order to get the crowd happy they put on a play where Moffle and the stooges protect the park from the evil (but sexy) pirate captain Isuzu and her hot (but somewhat silly) fairy crewmates (somehow I feel the cast should have been reverse given who these characters really are). At first everything seems to be going well but unbeknownst to everyone the door that connects our world to Maple Land collapses allowing the pirate Ironbeard a fierce walrus pirate from Maple Land and his seals to enter the waterpark and cause havoc. Luckily the guest think this is all part of the show so no one gets hurt but the main crew get captured as well as Latifa who was there in secret to see how things are going (about time she did something, she’s been doing nothing but sitting in that castle drinking tea all day. I’m worried about her health), Seiya gets sucked underground by an underwater current, and Tirami betrays the group after being promised he can do whatever he wants to the women (Tirami you sick bastard and traitor). After Ironbeard and his men have a feast celebrating their victory with all the guest tied up still under the impression this is all an act (okay even the light bulb in my head would be going off saying something is wrong here) they decide move on to the main event. Throwing the prisoners into a pool of tentacles where they’ll be raped by them (you know I should probably make a hentai joke about this but all I can think about is why hasn’t this already been done in a hentai?). Macaron gets pushed in first (courtesy of Tirami) but Moffle doesn’t plan on going out like a bitch so he hatches a brilliant plan in his mind (okay, here were his options. A: Do a backflip, kick Tirami into the pool, do a mega flip to land right in front of Ironbeard breaking his shackles, and proceed to lay the smackdown on Ironbeard’s candy walrus ass. Or B: Mess up on the flip and fall into the pool getting tentacle raped resulting in an epic fail. What does he do? He goes with option B. Should of gone with A). When it’s time for Isuzu’s turn she emits a strong black aura scary the hell out of Tirami (and me for that matter. Haven’t seen an aura this scary since I tossed out all of Isis’ boy love novels). Luckily, Seiya comes to the rescue with the help of Jaw and the moles who commandeer Ironbeard’s ship and begin firing on him and his men while also avoiding the guest. They finally manage to get Ironbeard to surrender when they discover his weakness, he’s scared of sharks. So everything ends well, the guest leave happy, and Seiya recruits Ironbeard and his men as new workers for the park under the supervision of Jaw. We end with a businessman approaching Seiya in the ticket booth and Isuzu doing some posing for Macaron.
In episode 8 Seiya has come down with a summer fever and has to lay in bed for a while missing school and everything. In order to keep his attendance up Isuzu and the three stooges take turns going to school as Seiya using a full body suit custom made by the moles (a one size that fits all). As you would imagine hilarious hijinks ensue with each character acting like themselves and getting Seiya in trouble at school and getting involved in a love story with a girl who accidently gave him a love letter. It’s a hilarious story in which the three stooges steal the show (yet again) and in the end unbeknownst to everyone gets resolved by the real Seiya in disguise.
Episodes 9-13 and OVA
Episode 9 focuses on the four fairies Muse (the leader), Koboli (the clumsy one), Sylphy (the I don’t give a fuck one), and Salama (the tweeting one). The girls as you might of guess are out of sync with each other in their performances always screwing up and not drawing in a big crowd (hell, the only one doing her performance correctly is Sylphy. Sylphy! The one who is the living embodiment of I don’t give a fuck is doing her better than the other ones. That is scary). The four really don’t seem to get along with each other all that much but instead just tolerate each other since they work together. In order to break the ice and break the walls down between the girls Seiya has Latifa host a sukiyaki party for them in the castle (ohh~ that sounds good, invite me next time) but she has to leave because they’re out of sauce and as she leaves the fairies accidently hit the castle defense button which puts the whole castle on lockdown, locks Latifa and everyone else out of the castle, and anyone who goes near the castle will be attacked by cannon fire (you installed live ammunition on a castle in an amusement park? What. The. Hell?). The good news is the defense system will shut down by itself in 24 hours however they can’t wait that long seeing as how tomorrow is Saturday (the best day of the week. Well in the 90s it was now it means nothing) and that’s usually their busiest time. Luckily there is a way to shut down the defense system from within. A team of 4 people must go underground and face four trails, if they pass them all they’ll be able to shut down the defense system (a clever shut down system or a convenient plot device? You decide). So the fairies find the secret passage way which leads to the underground trial (the first trial, ride the sandworm, //youtu.be/o4tD00_Nna0?t=4s) where the first trial is karaoke. The fairies must score a combine score of 300 points or be severing punished. Muse, Koboli, and Slyphy score high scores but Salama can’t sing and causes the group to fail (//youtu.be/m5RtlpXsl8k). They try again and this time Muse steps up for Salama and they pass the trial. The next trial is dance dance revolution where they must score 300 points as a group in order to pass. This time Koboli holds the group back because she’s slow and clumsy but Slyphy steps up for her and scores 100 giving Koboli leeway and they pass the trail. The third trail is typing where Muse holds the group back but Salama pulls the group through and scores 150 points giving the group enough points to pass. The final trial is the betrayal trial. The fairies are each put in a closed off booth with a giant claw coming down towards them (Jigsaw designed this trial didn’t he?). The fairies have to vote on who to sacrifice, if they each vote for themselves they’ll all be spared but if one person votes for someone else than that person dies (alright, who’s the weak link?). Of course they all vote for themselves and pass the trial learning that they all have weaknesses but they have each other to make up for it. These trials help the fairies break the ice with each other and they become friends working in sync with each other and helping the park rank in 9000 visitors (so let me get this straight, a dragon, pirate ship, and the three stooges only attract like 5000 visitors but 4 fairies who can sing and dance attract 9000 people easily. . .seems legit).
The plot finally advances in episode 10. Business is booming the park is getting a lot of customers, the guest are enjoying the attractions (scene here: //youtu.be/b4f3ddF0_zw), the workers have all come together, and they have finally open up their night section of the park (took them long enough if you ask me. This should have been done by like the third or fourth episode). But according to Moffle, Isuzu, and Seiya it’s not enough to reach their goal and the deadline is fast approaching. This is bad because not only will the park close and everyone will most likely disappear (yeah that’s all bad and stuff) but the person who will suffer the greatest lost is Latifa. Okay, remember how they told us that in order for Maple Landers to live they feed off the fun and enjoyment of guest (hence the theme park)? Well Latifa doesn’t have that pleasure. Even if by some stroke of bad luck the park were to close, everyone could get hired by another park and continue living. Latifa on the other hand doesn’t have that opportunity because if the park gets shutdown she will die (//youtu.be/yqyixwqiCag). We find out that long ago (in a kingdom far far away) Maple Land was attacked by a dragon that not even the king’s men could defeat. Luckily, a wizard appeared before the king and said he would defeat it if he gave him Latifa’s hand in marriage (that’s seems fair. I mean the guy just saved the kingdom and everything. Having the hand of the princess is a good and rightfully earned). In keeping with his promise the wizard slayed the dragon but the king not wanting to give his daughter away (he’s a D.A.D.D) has his knights attack the wizard and kill him (okay that was a dick move on the king’s part). But before the wizard died he put a curse on Latifa which drains her animus (basically her life force) on a daily basis. In order to keep her alive she was moved to Earth and placed inside the Amagi Park where animus was abundant and would be enough to keep her alive (so as I said before, if the park goes she goes). To make the curse even more terrifying Moffle tells Seiya that each year the curse resets itself and not only stops Latifa from aging but it also erases her memories so that means when August 1st (the day the curse was put on her) rolls around she’ll forget all about Seiya (the ultimate blow to a narcissist). But Seiya doesn’t care if Latifa forgets about him, he just wants to save her because he finally remembers that when he was a child he met Latifa and tried to cheer her up but failed however he promised her that one day he would save her.
In episode 11 there are only 10 days left until the deadline and Seiya is about to play is trump card. The park is going to host a non-official soccer game between current players and alumnus of an official team (not gonna lie this is a pretty good plan. And this is coming from a guy who’s not a big fan of soccer). At first the representatives are hesitant to take Seiya up on his offer but Seiya uses his mind reading powers (which I forgot he had again. Seriously, the whole mind reading thing really takes a backseat in this anime) to find out that the team is suffering financially so Seiya tells them they’ll be their sponsors and cover all of their cost and charge them nothing for the stadium (are you out of your damn mind! You just won $500,000 and just left it on the table for someone else to take it. Now I know the whole point is to get the numbers but still think about the consequences your actions are gonna have on the park after this is all over). In order to cover the expenses Seiya sells off an unused part of the park which makes a few of the employees sad since they were hoping to use that to open up new attractions for their guest but they know it has to be done to meet their guest quota (okay this is a heartbreaking moment. Even when there’s a possibly that the place could be shut down and they could all be jobless the next day all these guys are thinking about is the happiness of their guest. Disney, Universal Studios, and any other major theme park out there, learn from these guys). The day of the game finally arrives on July 31st and if the park hasn’t hit their numbers by 9PM the park is doomed. As you would expect they get a big crowd and everything but there’s just one problem (Seras: No~) they’re short 252 guest (Shizuku: Holy shit) and the last bus carrying guest just arrived for the game which started at 6PM (Yin-Yang: Wait I’m confuse what’s wrong here? (Mira): They’re still short of meeting their quota and the last bus just showed up. In other words, they’re screwed).
In episode 12 everyone pulls out their cellphones and calls everyone they know to show up (not gonna lie this is quite suspenseful). With their combine efforts they get enough guest but are short 3 guest (man I never knew a number could be so haunting). As the clock approaches 9PM a miracle happens I mean a miracle unlike any other I’ve seen before. The rape-face kindergarteners spot Isuzu and attack her walking through the gate and everything allowing the park to reach its quota of 500,000 guest (scene here: //youtu.be/mbeJfCSEI2A, YEAAHHHHHH~! WOOOOOOOAH~). The group celebrates their victory and Seiya makes the announcement that he’s quitting but he makes his first humble statement in the entire anime by thanking everyone and saying he couldn’t have done it without them (who are you and what have you done with the real Seiya). He also tells them that the part of the park they sold off was bought by this big supermarket corporation (Walmart?) which Seiya says will help them reach their yearly quota from now on (that magnificent bastard created synergy). As the group is celebrating their victory Seiya spots the businessman from Amagi Development who we find out is the wizard who put the curse on Latifa (you cursed Latifa? You sick no name son of a bitch). He escapes promising to return as the group has to deal with another pressing matter, Latifa losing all of her memories. It’s almost midnight and Seiya, Isuzu, Moffle, and Latifa are on top of the castle sharing their last moments with each other. Isuzu and Moffle leave Latifa and Seiya alone in the last minutes (no~ she’s a bit too old for him. Seiya and Isuzu all the way man). Latifa falls asleep at midnight only to awake 10 minutes later where another miracle happens (this one not as epic as the first and a little cliché but still a good miracle nonetheless). Latifa retains all of her memories because of all the fun and enjoyment everyone has been having in the park. The big tree called Elpis in Latifa’s castle was able to get a large amount of animus and go full bloom. This somehow counteracted the curse on Latifa and allowed her to retain her memories (a little sloppy and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but hey she still has her memories and she’s still in loli form so I’m happy). As Seiya leaves he and Isuzu have one last conversation where it seems like he’s about to confess but he gets cold feet and leaves. As he’s riding home he begins to remember all the fun he had with everyone and after talking to his sister he returns the next day saying he’s going to continue as the manager of Amagi Park until all their problems are solved (see? I told you he wasn’t going anywhere).
Episode 13 can be seen as an OVA to the anime as it really has nothing to do with the plot or story. Seiya wants to shoot another PV but doesn’t have time to work on it so he gets a dinosaur and Isuzu to do it (and already he’s made a mistake). Since one is boring and the other knows nothing about PVs they go around asking everyone in the park for advice on what to put in the video. Some of the characters suggest more action, music, adult material (for men and women. Scene here: //youtu.be/MUHlJ6vlGqs), showing behind the scenes, and all sorts of other stuff that turn the PV into a mess that you swear Michael Bay, Tommy Wiseau, M. Night Shyamalan, and Uwe Boll came together and created this video (yeah it’s that crazy). Of course Seiya sees this mess of a PV and instead uses the original boring one. But, surprisingly the messed up PV was leaked to the internet and it got over a million hits (scene here: //youtu.be/DsJRWr8vVvc, the internet. Where logic and reasoning don’t exist).
The anime did come out with an actual OVA some months later. Its Seiya’s birthday and the park members are planning on throwing him a surprise party but first they must survive the day. In the episode we follow a few of the park members around and see what their day was like. For Moffle, he and the three female part-timers go to a preschool hoping to be the host for their school festival but a rival park is there as well so the group has to win a contest to earn the rights to be host. The contest is a cage fight between the three part-timers and the rival’s group insane koalas. First group to win two out of three matches is the winner. The three part-timers win thus earning the right to be the school’s sponsors (scene here: //youtu.be/Qw6-UXW6V_4). Back at the park the air conditioner in Seiya’s office is broken so he has to do work somewhere else but everywhere he goes there’s always some distraction that stops him from getting any work done. In another part of the park Muse slept incorrectly last night and can’t perform so they get Isuzu to step in for her but because she shows no emotion her performance comes off as bad. In another twist Latifa becomes Seiya’s secretary and takes over the office where she gets backed up looking for paper work and Muse becomes the princess for a day where she finds out that making the croquettes is a lot harder than she thought. At the end of the day everyone celebrates Seiya’s birthday surprising him big time and Isuzu gives him a gift which was supposed to be a clock but due to a gift mix up earlier he instead gets a box full of insect shells.
Final Thoughts
Hands down on of the best animes of 2014. This anime is funny from beginning to end. The anime takes itself serious but not too serious and immerses itself in it’s weird setting. Every episode you will find yourself laughing and just enjoying all of the various and creative characters with each one having their own personality. The 3 Stooges are by far the funniest characters in the anime. Why these three don’t have their own manga or spin-off series is beyond me. Actually, truth be told you can make a whole manga about anyone of these characters in the anime and it’ll be a hit. Seiya and Isuzu are also good characters who work well off each other. Seiya is egotistical but not to the point where he’s annoying or comes off as a douchebag. He’s smart, clever, and at the end of the day he has a good heart and cares about people. Isuzu is the perfect yang to Seiya. Even though she’s emotionless much of the time she’s quite strategic and more in control of her emotions so she makes up for the things Seiya lacks. She’s also the best girl in the series. I was really cheering for this couple all the way.
If I had to name the weaknesses of the anime it comes down to three things. First, lack of focus on Seiya and Isuzu. While the workers of the park are great and funny with each one having their own personality it’s only one note and we never really explore them as much as we should. Hell, Latifa barely serves a purpose in this series and is just there to be there. The only worker who they really go much depth into is Moffle. I really wish the anime would have focused more on Seiya and Isuzu as these two are the main characters with the more interesting backstories. Seiya was a child actor but we never dive more into it. We never explore this aspect of his life or how it effective him. The same can be said for Isuzu. She grew up in a military house what was that like, how did that affect her, and what are some of her goals in the future? Stuff like that would have been interesting to explore. I also didn’t like how the romance was handled between the two as Isuzu just spontaneously developed feelings for Seiya. It really came out nowhere. Yeah, they shared one tender moment in the anime and they work together but was that really enough for Isuzu to develop feelings for Seiya? The other problem I have with this anime is Seiya’s powers. It’s rarely used or plays an important part in the anime. Truth be told I actually forgot Seiya had the powers a few times in the anime. I wish they would have made better use of his powers and made them a little more practical and flexible. My final complaint is the main villain at the end. They wait until the last minute to bring him out and then he just vanishes. What was the point of that? It was very rushed and could have been done a lot better.
Besides these complaints I still like the anime and think it’s great. The animation is great and high quality as you would expect from Kyoto Animation. The music is fun-loving and addicted, the comedy is great in this anime, and the story is told very well. It’s serious but not too serious where it turns into a drama but it’s serious enough where you can get invested in the story and its characters. You really do want to see these guys succeed in the end, you come to care for everyone in the park and respect the sacrifices they’re willing to make in order to keep the park going as well as keep their guest entertained. When it’s all said in done I honestly wish the park was real so that I can go and visit it.
Final Score
The final score for Amagi Brilliant Park is a 7.5/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. This anime is one of the best animes Kyoto Animation has come out with in recent years and returns them back to their roots and strengths. Hopefully in the future Kyoto continues to dish out animes that stick to their strengths and make a second season of this anime because it is just so good and deserves a second season. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.