Amagi Brilliant Park [rating=3]

At long last, the delightful Amagi Brilliant Park has landed a release over here in the UK! The anime adaptation of the light-novel series is full of humour, fun and the right amount of cute to keep you engaged throughout the 13-episode arc.

Amagi Brilliant Park follows Kanie Seya, an intelligent and attractive high school student who is forced, at gunpoint, to go on a date to the titular park with the mysterious and beautiful transfer student Sento Isuzo. Kanie agrees to go along on the date (like he even had a choice) believing it’ll be a fun time, but when they both arrive at the park he sees just how lacklustre it is and how few people were actually in attendance. Kanie soon learns that instead of a date, the trip to the park was actually an opening for Sento and Princess Latifa Fleuranza to convince him to take over and be the new park manager as it has been foretold only he can save the park. It turns out that each of the park employees are magical beings who live off of the energy created by guests having fun, something that clearly isn’t happening as often at Amagi Brilliant Park anymore. Hoping to do just that, Kanie takes on the role as manager to try prevent the closure of the park, but in order to do that he has to get attendance to spike all the way to 500,000 guests in just three months!

Amagi Brilliant Park is a very unique show with a great ensemble of characters and a ton of humour. The three main mascot characters that steal the show are Moffle the sweets fairy, Macaron the music fairy who has a feisty temper (and some complex family issues) and Tiramie the flower fairy who has a rather perverted personality. Together they are a great source of humour with their ridiculous schemes and often odd conversations. There are times where it feels like the show lacks a clear narrative direction, but it’s probably best not too get too hung up on this and just enjoy the ride.

Besides the dialogue and humour, the show also showcases some stunning animation. Kyoto Animations is well known for having some of the best looking visuals around – and Amagi Brilliant Park is no different. The colour palette is vivid and the characters are so well designed that it’s a delight to watch.

Overall a fun, quirky and off-the-wall slapstick-drama that while has it’s flaws, still manages to blend comedy and drama well enough together to keep the viewer engaged.

Amagi Brilliant Park is available on Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray/DVD on June 19th 2017.