The kids will love it.
Last time on Amagi Brilliant Park, After realising the visitor count is still short by around 250, the entire staff call every single person they know to let them through the gates for free. The plan pays off, and they reach their target, only for the head of Amagi Management to arrive and reveal himself as the wizard who put the curse on Latifa. Seiya, Isuzu and Moffle brace themselves for when the time comes for Latifa’s memories to reset, only for her to remember everything. Relieved to see this, Seiya decides to remain as manager of the park.
My take
- The final episode of a show; any show’s final episode is the hardest to make. And this was, I believe, a prime example. I mean we’d already found out that the sweet-pea Latifa was okay, and her cute little childhood crush on Seiya will carry on, making Isuzu extremely jealous (because in a KyoAni show, there is no such thing as a true couple…to be honest). It has the potential of a sequel, which probably won’t be as good as this one (since it’ll be full to the brim with fillers). Skip to the end, while this episode was rather amusing and entertaining to watch, it really really did not need to be part of the original show; it would have made a better special than a 13th episode.
- Watching the original PV that was put together by Toriken was easily the better one, even without those amazingly stupid ideas from everyone else in the park. Fireworks, balloons, happy kids, spinning teacups, etc……easily an advert for any decent theme park. I did agree that it was way too dull, but that’s just my media background talking. Oh, don’t get me wrong…explosions, snipers, heavy metal, female skin, male skin, building, samurai executions, tea ceremonies, chopping meat, ironing in the sky, scrapyards, horses giving birth…oh wait, was this a KyoAni show still?! I mean seriously, that labor scene was just…well…it’s just one of those things. What a better way to advertise a family-oriented theme park than to show a horse giving birth?
Even Muse agrees.
- Plus those additional scenes of Muse moaning in her sleep, shot by none other than Salama. No coincidence then; she has a hidden crush on Muse. She’ll never admit it.
- This actually reminds me of that ‘extra’ episode that was in Hyouka, where Oreki agreed to be a volunteer lifeguard, and next to nothing happened in the entire episode. The episode that was just not necessary whatsoever. At least the actual final episode for Hyouka worked in relation of Oreki’s and Chitanda’s relationship, but this? I am disappoint. Funny, but still disappoint. A very poor effort to end what was a fantastic show, and definitely one of the best this season.
Series review
This was only the second thing I followed this year by Kyoto Animation. I watched Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren habitually (also full of fillers, unsurprisingly), but I’m saving the Tamako Love Story movie for another time. I liked season 2 of Chuunibyou a lot, but only for the fact that it was just a light-hearted and not any better continuation of the original (plus it had Satone Shichimiya in it, finally). Seeing that Amagi Brilliant Park was going to be by the same guy who directed Hyouka, that thing called the hype train hit me. That was one of the best shows of that year, so obviously living up to it would be a bit of a challenge. Or maybe I’m just comparing the two shows too much. Yeah, I think I am.
Hyouka and Amagi Brilliant Park are two different shows; this has much more humor than Hyouka, which makes it appeal more to the atypical KyoAni followers. The one thing I absolutely loved here was that school was not the key thing in the show; instead of it being constantly being in shot, only a handful of scenes were shown. I have to admit that it threw me back at first, probably because I’m way too used to their former works…I’m dumb like that. But at least a lot of those KyoAni traits were there, upbeat opening and ending themes, moe eyes, masses of colour, humor that’s both for the kids and the adults, and of course, the girl who has a crush and never gets her way.
Yes yes, another love triangle: Seiya, with both Isuzu and little Latifa after him. It’s true; while Isuzu has that atypical “here’s-a-love-letter-so-read-it-already” attachment, Latifa just has that “he’s-wise-and-cute-and-can-give-my-park-a-miracle” kind of attachment…almost like a onii-sama relationship…okay, maybe I’m going in all sorts of directions on that one.
You know she really wants that to happen.
But as for a favorite character? Well the fact that there are so many to choose from just makes it so hard to answer. We have any one of the three stooges: all cute and fluffy outside, but heavy drinkers inside. We have the fairies and their unique traits (in particular the crazy Sylphy). So what’s my answer? Well I don’t have one, as because I enjoyed Amagi Brilliant Park so much, I can happily say that each character that had the most screen time all made me chuckle, giggle and laugh, purely because they were all so different from each other. I mean, just having all characters all sparkly and stuff like the way we picture Maple Land to be like…that would just be more than boring to watch. At least when you watch Moffle, Macaroon and Tiramie, you can feel for those poor people who work at Disneyland and dress up as Mickey Mouse or Goofy or Cinderella or whoever. Just think who those people are really like underneath those suits.
Amagi Brilliant Park came 4th in my top 10 shows of the year, and the fact that I immediately got hooked from episode 1 is something that rarely happens to me these days; it’s age that does that, you see. It’s very much a KyoAni show, but on the other hand it’s not. When I say that, I mean that it’s the kind of show that makes one think that the studio are beginning to think outside their comfort zone of school shows. Difficult for them to do, I think, since that genre is something they’ve done for so long. But I think this could well be a decent new direction for them. I mean not every KyoAni fan wants to see moe girls fretting over romance and every other little thing that happens in a high school classroom all the time. Or do they?
