It's interesting when an anime's story and themes mirror the quality and production of the show itself. Such is the case with the fantasy-comedy "Amagi Brilliant Park" from 2014. The show was brought to us by Kyoto Animation, a studio known for being able to consistently output high-quality work, at least in terms of animation. In the opening minutes, we are introuduced to Seiya, a high school student and model narcissist, looking down the barrel of a rifle that came from out from under the short skirt of Sento, a girl in his class. "Let's go on a date," she says. Seiya isn't pleased to be asked out on explicit threat to his life, but agrees anyway. It's later revealed that the date was a ruse to bring Seiya to Amagi Brilliant Park, an old amusement park that is struggling to stay afloat due to a lack of customers. If they don't reach an annual count of 500,000 attendees in a few months, the park will shut down! More interestingly, the staff and its many mascots happen to be real non-human characters from a fantasy realm, working at the park to bring happy-energy to their park's amnesiac princess. Seiya agrees to work as the park's temporary manager in order to boost attendance. The joke? Many of the staff, including the cute animal mascots, are crude, perverted, dumb, or simply lazy. Seiya might have his work cut out for him...Not all of Kyoto Animation's stories are exactly exceptional, but "Amagi Brilliant Park" comes to a new low. It's not that the premise itself is bad, but that the build-up and payoff to some of the plot threads don't carry out properly. Many of these threads are forgotten about, and some are remembered at the last moment to randomly be resolved within a few seconds. For that matter, many of the jokes have a similar issue, sometimes occurring quickly without warning or time for the audience to grasp what happened. It's not like the show was trying to cram a lot of story in its 13 episodes (plus one OVA). It frankly felt like the production team was just doing what they felt like at any point in time.The same can be said for the animation. The visuals can be quite inspired, especially when portraying the magical-kingdom feel of the park, and the character designs are memorable and colorful. When the show is animated (typically during a handful of exaggerated fight scenes), it's fluid and smooth. But there isn't as much animation as expected, and in many scenes, the characters move in a very limited, barely acceptable fashion. It still looks better than the average anime, but it does feel a bit like Kyoto Animation wasn't trying so hard with this one. Maybe their staff was too busy focusing on "Free! Eternal Summer" and the upcoming "Sound Euphonium!," each considered high points of the company's recent standards.
... do you see a pattern here? The plot revolves around a team in trouble, who at first only think to feel sorry for theirselves instead of realizing their laziness. In many ways, "Amagi Brilliant Park" represents that very theme, and not always in a good way. But it's supposed to be funny. Is it funny? Actually, yes, and that's its saving grace. "Amagi Brilliant Park" doesn't reach the high comedic peaks of "Nichijou" or "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid," and not all of the show's jokes are as funny as they might be intended. I never thought the idea of a cute pink cat cartoon sexually harassing human girls was worth a laugh, but the idea of the mascots drinking at a bar after work is novel. And there are enough moments to slap your knee to, many of which were subject to online memes and repostings at the time the show was broadcast. Even if the timing is off and not all the jokes land, it still fares as one of the better anime comedies you could watch. And I'll quickly mention the audio: the music is actually quite catchy, even the heart-swelling but awkward "lookattheskyitsmagichoouuuur!" opening theme. The English dub is... a little lazy again, but after a few episodes I got used to it. "Amagi Brilliant Park" could have been a great part of Kyoto Animation's legacy, and was primed for selling plenty of merchandise. But a weaker-than-usual production will probably keep the show from being too fondly remembered.