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Dec 23 2014

Categories: amagi brilliant park, episodic review
Tagged: amagi brilliant park

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It’s Magic Hour!

The montage of people arriving last minute at the park was awesome. I liked how it basically forces a cameo from everyone in the series, and it ties up how the park impacts the community. I do like a good montage, and Amaburi has had quite a few of them. The last episode, 11, was basically montage after montage. Montage of construction, montage of the stadium, montage of deal making… montage!

(I did like how the last three people who arrived are the three people associated with Sento. Everyone else had their friends and such show up up to that point but her. Of course, Sylphy should have egged her friends to show up sooner… 1 MILLIOOOOOON followers.)

“Two for the price in one!”

Of course, Tiramie had the best one. Oh lecherous Tiramie.

(Bonus points for bringing back the kid and mom who goes, “Pretend you don’t see it!” The sequence gag is definitely something Shoji Gatoh likes to do. And this one spans most of the series.)

Sento’s “Please, Kanie, kiss me!!!” face. I’m not sure if Kanie and Sento are more or less frustrating than Chitanda and Houtaru plus Chihiro and Sagara, but it is a close call. I’m guess we can cross Mochisou and Tamako off of the list at the very least. Do you know what all three anime couples have in common? Shoji Gatoh created two and adapted the third!

Awkward goodbyes where Kanie passes up a Sento buffet aside, finally we get casual clothes again. Kyoto Animators must have been going crazy not able to draw casual clothes for most of this show. It’s been all repetitive uniforms and furries.

Why does this scene feel like a Mushishi episode? Wasn’t there one recently about a sickly girl and a sakura tree? I like how Kyoto depth of fielded the sakura pedals.

(Yasuhiro Takemoto has directed Haruhi Suzumiya, both seasons plus movie and Nyoro~n and Haruhi-chan, Amaburi, Hyouka, part of Nichijou, Lucky Star after 5, and Fumoffu/TSR. That is one fucking impressive resume. He has a great job for over a decade now whereas other directors like Shinbo have hits and misses, Takemoto has been steady.)

Such a sappy and predictable end, but I enjoyed it anyway. I think the story could overall be a bit stronger if we saw Latifah more. Maybe an episode where Kanie gets himself into trouble, and Latifah manages to snap him out… kinda like the Elementarios episode with less gags. I think the show could have been a few episodes longer with more attention to Latifah and maybe an episode focused on Tiramie’s philandering. I wouldn’t mind another Sento and Kanie “romance” episode either. And definitely an episode about Kanie’s past. I feel like they touched on it enough to fit the story, but they haven’t addressed his childhood outside of meeting Latifah or his normal school life outside of and prior to Amagi. I would like to see a bit more of that.

(With all these shows about people losing their memories after a set period of time, it is almost always the girl who loses her memory. I can’t think of one off-hand where it is the guy repeating the events over and over again.)

Yep, Chris Tucker is evil. Raise your hands if you were surprised he is the Wizard. No one? Okay. He reminds me of the villain from Karate Kid III, the rich dude who has nothing better to do than torment Daniel-san and destroy bonsai trees. Dude is super rich! He could be vacationing in Paris, checking over his portfolio, and doing other rich person things… nope, he decides to beat up some poor kid who gained twenty too many pounds between Karate Kid II and III and traded in the Elizabeth Shue limo for the Mr. Miyagi hand rub. Seriously? This rich guy hangs around all day thinking of ways to torment Daniel-san? That’s Chris Tucker here. He is an uber-powerful mage who can rule the world if he wanted to, but, nope, since he is so butt-hurt (is “butt-hurt” hyphenated or one word these days?) by Latifah’s dad, he decides to become a middling civil servant with low grade pay. Sure, he could invade North Korea with an army of golems, but, nope, he deals with boring traffic and zoning issues 364 days out of the year just so he can gloat for 1 day. This is a sad, sad man.

Secret MVP of this episode? Fertility Doll-kun.

(I am sad that there’s only one episode left, and definitely hoping for more. Great series. The weekly Magic Hour will be missed.)

Three MVPs…

1. Shoji Gatoh.

2. Yasuhiro Takemoto.

3. Kyoto Animation.