Title (English): Amagi Brilliant Park
Title (Japanese): 甘城ブリリアントパーク
Animation Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genres: Comedy, Romance
Episodes: 13
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of Kyoto Animation. Having seen all of their anime with the exception of the Full Metal Panic series, and Free! , I always look forward to seeing the next anime they make. Amagi Brilliant Park is the first anime I was looking forward to watching this season. Going two seasons without a KyoAni anime to watch (that I actually wanted to see) has left me hungry to see what they’ve got for me this time around.
Seiya Kanie is pretty much a perfect person and he knows it. Grades, looks, and athleticism are his good areas. However, because of his narcissistic personality, he doesn’t have any friends. One day, a new transfer student, Isuzu Sento, arrives at school, points a gun at him, and tells him to go on a date with her to “Amagi Brilliant Park”. Amagi Brilliant Park is a rundown, dreary mess of an amusement park that fails to attract visitors on a regular basis. After their date goes poorly because of the miserable theme park, Seiya is roped into going to see the theme park’s manager by Isuzu. He meets Latifah Fleuranza, a girl that seems to be connected to Seiya’s past in some way. She declares him the new manager of the theme park and sends him on his way. He must bring in 250,000 visitors in the next three months, or the park will be closed down.
As a hardcore KyoAni fan, I liked the first episode, but I have to admit, it was a bit boring at times. The same joke was repeated about four times in a minute and a half, and the characters aren’t all that interesting. However, that can always change. As a romance anime, there is the very real possibility for great character development. The story is fairly interesting, and I can imagine the comedic potential that may come out of this anime. Seiya and Isuzu are a great contrast to each other, which makes for a pretty good comedic duo a lot of the time. The art style is KyoAni’s usual. They’ve scaled back the moe a little bit on this one, opting for an art style that is more reminiscent of Hyouka. The opening and ending songs are pretty good, as expected out of KyoAni’s songs. There are very few KyoAni OPs and EDs that I have not enjoyed.
Moving forward, I want to see KyoAni’s humour come out again. K-On, Chuunibyou, Lucky Star, and Nichijou are all anime I thoroughly enjoyed because of their emphasis on humour. I have a lot of fun watching KyoAni anime, most of the time, and that is why I continue to look forward to their anime again and again. At the same time, I want a nice romance anime as well. KyoAni has had difficulty of late trying to tell a great story (Chuunibyou Ren, Kyoukai no Kanata), so I’m hoping that this time, they can do it.
What did you guys think of Amagi Brilliant Park‘s first episode? Let me know in the comments!
If you want to download the first episode, it can be found here.
