12 Days of Anime #9: Amagi Brilliant Park

Amagi Brilliant Park was well, uhh brilliant. It wasn’t the greatest show in the last decade or even the greatest in 2014, but it was still really good. I think in terms of overall quality, it might have been the most consistent show in 2014. Granted, the drama over Latifa and her memories was unnecessary, but eh, what can you do.

I am not going to bother sorting this anime into memorable or most memorable and instead, I will just list things.

Job Interviews

The job interviews sketch was funny because they were basically accepting everyone and anyone. It was also pretty shocking because Bandou showed up near dead with her psyco older brother hot on her heels. It was an unexpected, very crazy scene.

The Pirate episode

The pirate episode was really good. I love how in the best interests of their customers, the park staff pretended it was all an elaborate act and I love how it eventually ended.

My favorite bit was seeing Tiramei betray everyone and then have them turned against him at the end, though they failed to deliver punishment properly.

Betrayal

The revenge didn’t work out so well.

Kanie can’t go to school

The episode where Kanie got sick and had to be substituted for by Moffle and the others was hilarious. I loved the love misunderstandings that came out of it.

The last day

Time has almost run out. The visitors for the soccer game have stopped showing up. The park is still just a bit short on visitors. Everyone in the staff calls everyone they know. Friends and family begin to show. The situation has improved. It is a miracle!

But no! They are still just a bit short and the visitor well has totally run dry.

The situation is incredibly serious. The park is about to be shut down. And then…

The three stooges

The three stooges (Moffle, Macaron and Tiramie) were hilarious. The faces they made, the pranks they pulled and the stuff they said (namely Macaron and Tiramie) were pretty damn great.

I loved seeing Tiramie suffer punishment for his misdeeds (normally at Sento’s hands).

The other characters

Amagi had a pretty massive cast and while it, very understandably, did not have enough time to give them all the limelight, the characters were almost all adorable, amusing and just fun to watch.

I liked the accountant, the wrestling security guards, the cowardly shark, the cute elemental fairies (Muse is best fairy, sorry not sorry), the angry wrench dude, the moles, the dragon, the AV (animal video not adult video) girl. I basically liked everyone.

Related to this is probably why I actually liked episode 13 a fair bit. The video showcased some pretty cool, unique sides to the characters (e.g. An accountant who irons clothes while sky jumping. That is pretty cool).

50 Cent

For reasons not completely clear to me, I really liked Sento. In this post, on this day, I declare Sento best girl in Amagi Brilliant Park. Thus, I have said, and thus it must be true. I mean, it is not like I want her to blow me up with her gun and step all over me.

In all seriousness, I liked Sento because in many ways she felt like the most fleshed out character in Amagi. She learned from her mistakes. She realized her weaknesses and how she should go about improving and out of all the characters, I felt her clumsy attempts at improving the situation were often the most heartfelt.

She isn’t a great manager, but she is a very good, very organized second in command.

Screw Latifa, I shipped these two so hard.

Kanye West

Ah, Kanie. Kanie hid his insecurities and fears behind a facade of arrogance and narcissism and over time, he realized that that wall of arrogance was how people had come to see him and how they were most comfortable with him. (As much as they complained, I think by the end, most of the staff had come to see his arrogant nature as a sign that things were going well.)

Apart from the funny scenes caused by Kanie, I think I really liked Kanie because in many ways, he reminded me of myself. A few years ago, I often wore a very narcissistic persona. I didn’t walk around my highschool halls boasting of my glory (though to be fair, Kanie doesn’t do that either), but in conversations with friends and acquaintances, I would often orate about how unbelievably good looking I was.

I do remember this one time I forgot my pencil case (it had a cute monkey design) in my previous class. I ran back, knocked on the door and asked if I could pick it up. It had been moved to the teacher’s desk, so I began making a semi-circle (from a door on the right to the desk and then to another door on the left of the room).

At some point during my semicircle, a girl yelled out “it is a cute pencil case” and to that I very smoothly responded “yeah, but not as cute as me” and left the room without stopping amidst the laughter. It is a pretty dumb memory, but seeing characters like Kanie reminds me of those days.

As an aside, it still amuses me how some people failed to see most of my narcissism as anything more than an attempt at humor and perhaps after a while, I stopped seeing it that way as well. Heck, who knows, maybe I actually did truly believe it for a while. Maybe a part of me still does.

I don’t really talk like that very often nowadays, I am afraid. My narcissism has been replaced with conversations about how much of a failure I am and occasionally how I am ugly. That said, I will sometimes still slip into my narcissistic mode and compliment myself a little too much.

If by any chance, you have met me in person and are now asking yourself “eh, Reiseng isn’t that good looking”, it is because as an act of self-preservation from my blinding good looks, your brain distorted how your eyes saw me.

p.s. As a final aside, the Amagi Brilliant Park opening song was very good. It was probably one of the best openings last year.