Amagi Brilliant Park – 09

Muse is showing off those buff arms and abs

Yeah, I used to play DDR, but not very well. Why do you ask?

Togetherness

How the show usually ends

This week’s episode focused on Elementario, and gave some interesting background on the four Elements who we’ve seen throughout the show. We know that their show is terrible, and that they are not really girls who get along. We’ve seen that they can be useful at times, like when they helped with the flooding and when they were Isuzu’s pirates, but their own show is just a mess, and they don’t really seem to care: falling down, disinterested, not even seeming to try. Plus there’s the natural friction between Muse, who is trying to put the best face on everything and pull everyone up to expectations and be the good girl, and Salama who thinks she’s annoying when she does that, and is much more directly to the point. Their exchange about the “Goody Two-Shoes Act” and “This is how I am” was de rigeur, but it was also well-placed and authentic feeling.

Oh, whatever you do, you must not push the Big Red Inviting Button that People Always Must Push!

What was more surprising was the fact that these four had only been performing together for less than 6 months, since the previous performers at Elementario all up and quit. And they really haven’t gelled in that time, with the disagreements between Salama and Muse leading to Koboli trying to make peace, and Sylphy in CloudcuckooLand. But Latifa’s got a plan to try to get them to work together, and it all starts with the admonition to not push the big red button. I don’t know if we should give Salama any credit for not actually pushing it, since it was her action that got Muse nearby to get pushed into it, but we all knew it was going to get pushed, didn’t we?

Pretty Well-defended castle, isn’t it?

DEFCON 2

Pro Tip: Don’t celebrate with Sylphy

This is a pretty transparent plot by Latifa to get the four fairies to work together, since she knew there was a four-person way to deactivate the castle defenses, and she knew that they really couldn’t wait it out for a whole day on a weekend. So now those four have to work together to beat some ‘trials’, which just happen to be tailored to their individual strengths and weaknesses. I kind of felt like the design of these trials could have backfired in this situation, because it’s not ‘we’ll support you to do better’, but “I’ll make up for your failings.” For instance, they don’t help Salama sing better, just have Muse make up for her. And they don’t teach Muse to type better, or Koboli to dance better (or even just score better by not missing Every. Single. Symbol. Seriously, pick one or two and just hit those), they just have the others make up for them, with Salama even breaking the whole system. Yes, they end up taking the right message from it, but I could see it going the other way too: “I had to pull your bacon out of the fire, you loser.” But then again, that’s never been their particular problem. They just don’t really know each other.

*klonk!*

The fourth trial is the standard “self-sacrifice” / Prisoner’s Dilemma trial, and again, maybe this was in the wrong spot. Koboli didn’t get any chance to shine in any previous one, so is the lesson through the first three “Koboli is useless”? But this isn’t that kind of show, and they all make the right choice. And their newfound belief in the others translates into better performances, bringing in the crowds (did they refocus the show on their four trials? That’s what the banners seemed to indicate). I did like the verisimilitude of having them saying the same things at the end of the show (“Dhanyawad!”) as before, but this time actually meaning it, although I’d guess that Sylphy always means “Dhanyawad!”.

Latifa is smitten with their growing closeness

These episodes are always fun, if not necessarily progressing the plot as much as I’d like to see. It’s good to see the girls from Elementario working together, and also to see the innocent deviousness of Latifa. I looked back through the show to see if I could figure out if she had sabotaged the cover for that button, but as far as I can tell, they didn’t have any other shots of that end of Latifa’s parlor. By the way, if you’re interested in hearing the whole song of Subarashiki Fun!tasy, the song they sang in karaoke, it’s the B-side to the ED song for the show. Salama’s singing is much better in that version. And I’ll be honest, I find Muse’s singing to be a little nasal (her part in Elementario de Aimashou really brings that out), but it has a charm of its own.

About Highway

Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!