We’re having sooo much fun…
My…umm…second choice for the fall season. I chose to do this as well as Denki-Gai no Honya-San. I paid a price for riding the hype train last season with Glasslip, but I actually have good hopes for this.
Summary of Amagi Brilliant Park Episode 1
- Second-year high-schooler, self-confessed genius and narcissist Seiya Kanie is forced into going on a date by the mysterious transfer student, Isuzu Sento. She takes him to the local run-down theme park, Amagi Brilliant Park, now receiving next to no visitors and delivering run-down rides and attractions. Isuzu then reveals the just-as-mysterious manager of the park, Latifa Fullanza, who says she and other members of the park are from a magical land, and that if the park doesn’t receive 250,000 guests in 3 months, the park will be forced to close.
My take
- A Kyoto Animation show that isn’t entirely set at high school!?!?! Yeah, I’m blown away too! Well I might be completely wrong, and episode 2 will be about Isuzu making Seiya set up a school club about theme parks or something.
- From the beginning, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to like Seiya or not, considering his self-centered attitude. Of course with him being the male protagonist, he’s going to be a ‘love or hate’ character, and this being a Kyoto Animation show, only the girls will take center stage. Isuzu is already the leader in my books here: I mean you only have to look at Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and know that girls with musket guns are cool.
Borrowed this from Mami, I did.
- I could talk about Isuzu’s monotone, yet somewhat heart-warming nature that’s almost up there with Hitagi Senjougahara from the Monogatari series for a long time. You’d think it would be a turn-off or an annoyance, but the voice suits her so well. Well so far she’s acting like this, but I doubt she’ll change much; she won’t turn into the girl who’d be ready and willing to throw their arms around Seiya and confess. Maybe she’ll turn out to be the tsundere of the show; she certainly has all the traits of one.
- Right now Latifa sticks out like a sore-thumb compared to how the park is now, but of course, as the show progresses, she’s going to be a very key part of the show. Those blue eyes, that tea set and that pretty dress is just too good, and since she wants Seiya to see what she sees as a park where kids actually have fun, the chemistry between them should be interesting……although this being a Kyoto Animation show, we all know that Isuzu wants Seiya too…I mean that ‘date’ wasn’t just to show him how crappy the park is now surely…
- Considering the fact that I live on a seaside town that has 2 not-so-great theme parks, I can actually sympathize with Latifa a lot. I loved theme parks when I was little. Several theme park visits here in the UK, plus Disneyland Paris 4 times. Of course we’d get to understand Seiya’s notion of theme parks as a high-schooler who’s that close to college; crappy attractions manned by bored and low-paid staff. His own cynical attitude sees Amagi Brilliant Park as a dump, so the mere notion of magic is incredibly hard to believe for him. Okay, so the Adventure Island and Sea-Life Centre in my home town aren’t exactly magical, but that’s not really the point. Kids are meant to be mesmerised by what they see as magic, and that’s what Latifa wants Seiya to see again.
- Okay sure, so many Kyoto Animation traits could be found here, there are just too many to count: all the girls are moe and pretty much look the same (regardless of their attitude), the male protagonist is forced into doing something, parents of protagonists are seldom seen, you know the usual. You could almost call this Hyouka, only with jokes. And the jokes are atypical for Kyoto Animation sure, but I still laughed…a lot. Because I could sympathize with everyone: the cynical Seiya, the ‘passionate’ Isuzu, the pretty girl Latifa, the evil mascot Moffle, even the lazy sister whose name I’ve already forgotten. It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a Kyoto Animation show from episode 1: I think the last one would have to be…umm…Hyouka. How coincidental…
- I guess choosing to adapt a light novel centering solely on things children love, and that adolescents like Seiya were brought up on when they were much younger, was a smart tactic. A family-themed show by a studio specializing on family-ish shows (emphasis on the -ish). Not that I’m saying this is a show for little kids; high-school girls wielding huge guns, love hotels, menacing mascots…in my day, you never saw this on Nickelodeon……but I’m in my thirties now, so I have no say in what these little kids like these days, apart from cell phones and One Direction.
He said it, not me!
- So come to Amagi Brilliant Park. There’s always the love hotel next door…
