Amagi Brilliant Park – 13 [END]
These are not the two to leave in charge of your promotion
So we finally reach the end of the line for Amagi Brilliant Park. How did the series do, and did it uphold KyoAni’s reputation?
Lightweight Episode 13
Someone’s going overboard
We knew that Episode 13 was going to be pretty lightweight, since they’d already won the main goal of keeping the park open past July 31, and even won the secondary goal of fixing Latifa’s curse (although the consensus here last week was that that resolution was pretty weaksauce). So what’s left to do? Well, how about make a promotional video for the park to make sure that next April they’re not in the same boat? Sounds like a good idea but, as we’ve seen, if you leave TriCen in charge of something, it’ll probably get messed up.
Asking the wrong people
Even expecting an episode that was light on anything happening, I was kinda surprised it was THIS devoid of content. It didn’t do anything new, just went around to different characters to get their (almost universally stupid) ideas of what should be in the PV. And as if to add insult to injury, the clips that they put in the PV were replayed sometimes up to 3 times. It really felt like a cheap OVA production, and would have been better if it were presented like that – as an extra for buying the discs – instead of as the final episode of the broadcast run. We only barely even got the fanservice that we were kind of expecting, and it was presented in such a skeevy way (Tiramie’s secret shots with those “ohhh” sound effects) that it tainted any prurient interest. So in the interest of not dragging down this show any more, let’s go ahead and talk about the whole run.
Series Thoughts
Well, I *did* ask what this was about
While this wasn’t my favorite KyoAni series, I think it’s up there. It made a nice go of mixing some styles, with the more bishounen style of Free! brought in for the human characters while still getting the moe in with Latifa and the myriad denizens of the park. I think it works as a successful blending that way, and maybe shows a bit of the way forward for KyoAni as they evolve away from K-On and Chu2Koi styles. It was also, as I’ve mentioned in these articles frequently, more ero-fanservice-y than any KyoAni show that I can recall, something I’m not going to complain about. It even had the first kiss I can actually recall in a Kyoto Animation series. Of course it wasn’t a kiss for love, but still.
Sylphy takes a break from long-range posting
If the series had a weakness, it was probably that it felt like a lot of the episodes through the middle or the series had very little to do with the overall plot. There were a lot of one-off stories, linked together with the general thrust of the show being at Amagi Brilliant Park, but ultimately didn’t really give us much in the way of the overall progress that the main plot was making. Some of these were done better than others, (I think my favorite was the introduction of the pirates at the water park, with the Elementarios as my second favorite), but the total effect was to leave us with a somewhat disjointed series that felt a bit soft in the middle.
Isuzu is sad that it’s over
Even with that, there was a lot to love about the series. It was probably good that the romance between Seiya and Isuzu didn’t really take over, although I’d have liked to see them get together. I found Isuzu a really likeable character, my favorite in the series, and Seiya was also good with what seemed to be an exceedingly false bombast. Yes, he could handle things, but he was better with the quieter competence. I thought maybe there was a little too much of the “Three Stooges” of Moffle, Tiramie, and Macaron, but it ended up being fairly balanced.
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!
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Smartphones are obviously for ero from the looks of it…
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
There were a lot of one-off stories, linked [to] Amagi Brilliant Park, but ultimately didn’t really give us much in the way of the overall progress that the main plot was making.
The LN’s main plot has been on hold since vol 1 ended.
Later volumes are mostly slice of life adventures revolving around managing Amagi Park, following Gatoh Shoji’s vision for the series. He has promised to continue the main plot in the next volumes.
This episode adapts a short story Gatoh wrote to advertise the Amagi LNs. This episode added in Latifah, since Gatoh had forgotten to write her in then.
There’ll be more silliness from the 3 Stooges; especially when Muse the fairy uses a magic phone app to give them human form
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POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
I just kept asking myself what the actual fuck was happening over there. And they did repeat the same skinny horrible, horrible masked guard thrice in one of the clips.
Though I did laugh quite a lot. It was like a fan-servicey acid trip.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
This was a pretty useless episode. All it did was show us how weird and/or incompetent the workers at Amagi Brilliant Park are and we already knew that from the series and the fact that they couldn’t attract visitors until Seiya showed up. The fact that the video they posted got so many hits just shows how much people like to watch weird shit online.
KyoAni really could have come up with something better for a final episode. They fact they didn’t and that they used some of the footage in this one more than once says to me that that they were under time and/or budget constraints for this one so they pretty much just phoned it in. Not a good way to end a series that overall I found quite enjoyable.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
And I agree that Isuzu was the best character.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
This was another of those situations that if the series had ended at 12 episodes, and they had thrown in this episode as an OVA on, say, volume 3 or 4 of the BD’s, everyone would have been “Oh, that was enjoyable enough for extra content.” But as the series ender, it was really a dud. Heck, if this episode had been somewhere in the middle of the series, it would have been a dud.
I wonder if it’s less time or budget constraints and more of just a hedge. There hasn’t been anything to indicate that the show has been behind in the other episodes, but I wonder if this was more of a ‘safety episode’ planned from the beginning to be easy to get out at the end, or even moved up to episode 11 or something should the final two have been delayed. We’ve seen in Shirobako that at the end of a series, it’s hard to find more help on a show, because everyone is in crunch time on their production on the next cour’s offerings.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Yes, a safety episode is certainly a possibility. Whatever it was, it should not have been the last episode aired. Ep. 12 would have been a weak ending, but this was worse.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t think 12 would have been weak as a finale. I thought it was really good, except for how they got the princess out of her curse. As I said in my post, the amount of joy that they were able to convey with the success of keeping the park open was great, and the fact of the princess being ‘saved’ was also good. It was just how it happened that was kinda meh. And with Seiya returning to the job that he obviously likes, it would have been a good ending.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
The problem with 12, besides how the princess’s curse was broken, is that there was no real confrontation with the evil wizard. They make their attendance numbers with no attempt from him to interfere. That could have added some real excitement to that episode. Instead he does nothing and just lets them go ahead and succeed. How lame a villain is that?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
There was a minor attempt to interfere (with the observer he sent over saying they should give up), but it was also in the wizard’s self-interest to let it continue: If they make their number, then he figures he gets to keep sucking animus from Latifa for at least another 5 years. So as far as he’s concerned it’s win-win. He didn’t know they could break the curse in such a lame way.
Now, I’m not saying that it couldn’t have been better. If there had been some sort of confrontation, then maybe it would have been better. But one question is “how would Seiya fight?” It’s not like he’s got magic powers. Maybe it’s Isuzu’s time in the sun? I dunno, but a fight isn’t the most in context thing for this show.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A fight doesn’t have to be a physical battle. It could have been something like Isuzu trying to fight him physically (using her gun), but failing. Then Seiya beats the wizard by using his wits. KyoAni missed a real opportunity there to add some excitement.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
What you all are saying is sacreligious! Kyoani can do no wrong! All their shows are masterpieces!
*end sarcasm*
Seriously, if you don’t consider the hunky delicious boys show(s), they’re quite a pigeon-holed studio.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
This felt like a pre-series OVA bundled with one of the Light Novels. A semi-proof of concept. As it really is, it was a off-key coda…
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Might as well use one of the myriad of H-doujin storylines from C87. By Artosh, there are tons of Amagi H-doujin…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 110 comments
well just finish watching whole thing & only fall 2014 anime to watch (i was on u.s. vacation for 4 some months due to “personal” reasons).
overall find series quite ha of sorts really https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEVJubwhTmA be a clown feel ha some good fun to watch.
yet IF series got dub any ideas to voices them mascots characters?