Amagi Brilliant Park

I am sure that every kid once in their lifetime would love to visit an amusement park or dream of visiting one. I have had my fair share too. It looks like a lot of fun, doesn’t it? Isn’t that what such parks are for? But do you know that beneath all that fun and fancy exterior, there are issues that need to be managed so that operations can run smoothly? I assure you it is not all that rosy. Even if you play some amusement park simulation management game before, well, that is after all just a game. Anyway, Amagi Brilliant Park isn’t an anime that tells us the tricks and trades on how to run an amusement park. Instead, we have this high school kid who is forced to become a dying park’s manager and revive it via reaching a targeted number of visitors before the deadline. Or else it will be shut down. I know you think that it is nothing and there is no big deal about it but think of all the fairies and cute magical creatures that will be unemployed as a result of that. Wait a minute. Fairies and cute magical creatures running the park?! Wow. No wonder Disneyland is such a magical place!

Episode 1
Girls these days must be daring and desperate. To ask a guy out, do you even need to point your musket and threaten him? Well, ask Seiya Kanie. Isuzu Sento wants him to go on a date with her to an amusement park or else she’ll shoot. She’s serious. She already fired a warning shot! Either way, Kanie is screwed, right? And so Kanie is unenthusiastically riding the bus with her to Amagi Brilliant Park (ABP), a park he remembers vaguely that he went once as a child. He almost stopped at the entrance of the park’s landmark castle. Thanks to Isuzu warning him, he nearly got off to the love hotel as the park’s entrance has been shifted further down the road. How misleading. Yeah, some red tape of why they didn’t change the name of the stop and such. Now that they are at ABP, welcome! It’s so dead… And lifeless… It’s a miracle they can get 2000 over guests during the holidays. Isuzu takes him around some of the park’s (lame) attractions. So rundown. So frustrating. So… Sad… Some even as weird as hell. You wonder if this is really intended to be an amusement park in the first place. Even more upsetting for Kanie is that ABP’s mascot resembles Bonta-kun (of Full Metal Panic fame!). That’s his real skin? Thinking it is some copyright rip-off, they start punching each other but only Isuzu’s shots put them in their place. Then they visit a stage where Elementario, supposedly fairies who sing. Folks, meet Muse the water fairy, Sylphy the wind fairy, Koboli the earth fairy and Salama the fire fairy. One… Two… Audiences only… I’m not sure if they’re here for a nap… I know. It just hurts watching them perform whatever.

At the end of the day, Isuzu asks for Kanie’s evaluation and just like us, it doesn’t sound good. This place lacks everything that it needs to be fun and vibrant. He even tells her if she wants people to start believing in their dream, they must start believing in it first. Isuzu then takes out her handbook and reads all the details about Kanie. She knows a lot. Is she some kind of stalker? She also knows there was once a child actor that went by the name of Seiya Kodama who suddenly retired 5 years ago. He tells her that person no longer exists and if she was thinking of making a former child actor join this, she’s wasting her time. She lets him taste some croquettes and he finds it delicious. I guess this is the best thing he has experienced for the day. She takes him to see the person responsible in making this. Atop the Maple Castle, the head manager of ABP, Latifa Fleuranza, Kanie has flashes of vague memories that he might have met her. She explains she made the croquettes so the guests could enjoy themselves more. Since Kanie has looked around the park, she has a request of him: Bring it back to life. Only he can save it. At least that is what the oracle foresaw. Most of the workers here are from a magic realm called Maple Land. They have a quota of visitors to achieve. If they don’t get 250,000 guests in the next 3 months, they lose their home and livelihood. To make him believe, she bestows some magic on him. How? By kissing him! That really knocked him out. He finds himself in his own bed next morning. Maybe it was a dream? Well, naked Isuzu in the toilet means it isn’t. He calls for his sister about Isuzu being here. She says Isuzu carried him back last night. Suddenly it is like he can read her thoughts. She is happy he has found a girlfriend. He thought he was speaking her mind. But Isuzu points out that he has received some magic.

Episode 2
With Kanie can read minds now, he is tricked to read Isuzu’s mind because she says the downside to this magic is that he can only read a person’s mind once. Moffle (that Bonta-kun rip-off) turns out to be Latifa’s uncle and he is not happy Latifa sought Kanie’s help. I guess with a dying park, it is more fun for kids to beat up some of the mascots. Just ask Macaron and Tiramie. They’re just sick of it. Isuzu explains more terms to Kanie. When people enjoy themselves at parks, that happiness called Animu is the fuel and source that keeps the magic realms going. It is crystallized fun energy they live off and are produced in factories called Argels. So if Argels are closed down, they die. There are other magic realms and thus other amusement parks and thus the aggressive advertising of trying to attract more guests. After another punching bout with Moffle, Isuzu brings Kanie to see their real enemy. Takaya Kurisu from the Amagi Development is here to remind that if a park fails to get 500,000 customers in the past 5 years, its rights will be transferred to them. They have failed to reach that target in 4 years and only have 3 months left to do so. Isuzu remains confident she can reach that target but Takaya is going to be realistic. As he counts the cost of an average family visiting, everyone is surprised that Kanie calculated quite a close figure in his head. In short, they can’t keep this park open in this limited time and might as well hand over the rights. Otherwise, better pray for 250,000 fools to visit it. Later, Kanie reveals he didn’t use mind reading to get his answer and did it based on his observations of the park’s size, etc. He is mad that after forcing him to tour the park, she is now asking him to help. Well, he’s not. Goodbye. Goodbye last hope. As he goes outside, Takaya is waiting for his car and he recognizes Kanie as that child star. Kanie is not amused so Takaya advises him about hanging around with losers. He’ll be one too.

Kanie knows everything is wrong about the running of ABP. He returns to request his mind reading power removed. But he sees Latifa and the Maple Land creatures gathering at the garden. She makes a sad announcement they will close down. Wanipi starts crying and panicking because this means he will die as he is the least famous mascot. Moffle doesn’t want him to be pathetic but Wanipi points out he resembles a famous character and has friends in other parks so he will be doing even if ABP closes down. They’re about to fight but Macaron stops them and tells them to consider Latifa’s feelings. It must be hard for her to tell them this. Before she can finish apologizing, Kanie interrupts. He chides them for giving up. Look at what they’re doing here? They’re just standing around instead of attracting guests. Takaya was right in saying only fools would pay to come here. Kanie knows that all of them hate him. As he is the boss right now, his words are absolute. Those who disobey will be fired. If they’re going to fail, might as well do things his way. They can hate him for all they want but he will change their fortunes in 3 months. Later Kanie talks to Isuzu and Latifa that he purposely made them mad. He gauged that they still cared about their guests’ honour because they got mad when he belittled them. He will help them out for only 3 months. They’ve got a lot of work to do and must still prepare for the worst. Kanie burns the midnight oil to study about the park. Moffle, Macaron and Tiramie are having their usual beer drinking session and of course they talk about Kanie whom Moffle still doesn’t like. He wants to see this chosen one’s first orders. Nobody expected it because he closes down the park and wants everyone to clean and fix everything!

Episode 3
Of course another fight between Kanie and Moffle and as usual Isuzu shoots to stop. Kanie then initiates a meeting with some of the Maple Land fairies. He makes 3 drastic changes: 1) Closing time will be extended from 5pm to 7pm. The park is not designed for night time activities so they’ll install some night lights; 2) No more weekly holidays (ABP closes on Fridays) and they’re going to work all week; 3) All attractions are for free! Of course everyone disagree especially the last one. Although they can compromise and accept the first two, they can’t do things for free as they have bills to pay. Kanie suggests charging 30 Yen for unlimited rides since this year coincides with their park’s 30th anniversary. Moffle gets beaten up by a punk kid who is frustrated of not being able to go to the park he wants. Heck, his mother doesn’t discipline him. This makes Moffle snaps that they are more concerned with something else except his bruises. He pushes the mother away and so they call their gangster dad to beat him up. He said the taboo word that he is just a mascot suit so Moffle punches him out in a swing! He really wants to give the mother and son a piece too but Kanie kicks him and Isuzu fires her memory erasing shots into the family. Kanie reprimands Moffle and finds out he is a frequent troublemaker like this. At least once a year. He would have fired him but decides to give him another chance. The next time, he’ll lose it. Later Isuzu reminds Kanie about the memory erasing bullets. She has very limited number of them and it takes a year for her to manufacture one.

Kanie has all the girls wear bikini and advertise ABP. They have to do several takes due to their stiffness and everything. Of course this sets another clashing course with Moffle because how dare Kanie use Latifa as part of the gimmick? Once calmed down, Moffle reminds him about Latifa’s frail body and not to take her out from the hanging garden in which a magic barrier helps protect her. The video is uploaded but it is not getting many hits. But the next day, there is a spike in hits. Before Isuzu can report, Moffle comes to rub it in Kanie’s face that an edited video of him taking out that gangster dad as the park’s saviour achieved more hits than his advertisement. However Kanie has the last laugh because he was the one who uploaded that video. The advertisement increased in hits only because it was directly linked. Of course he knows that of all the people who watched, less than 1% will actually come. He knows it might not work but why put them through that advertising? Because getting 1,001 guests is still better than getting 1,000 and he will do anything to get that extra 1 guest. This gives Moffle some inspiration as he goes back out to entertain the kids. Thanks to that, today’s visitor count went up a bit. Moffle hosts a morale boosting party for his fairy comrades but only Isuzu turned up other than Macaron and Tiramie. The mascots start teasing Moffle’s doting on Latifa and Isuzu is forced to shoot to stop them. Then they start linking Isuzu with Kanie and want to hear more details. They get a taste of her musket again. Suddenly Wanipi barges in to inform something has happened to Latifa.

Episode 4
Latifa collapsed due to her weak body but she’s fine. Kanie is told this happens from time to time. Moffle and co have a hard time trying to handle a bunch of kindergarten kids on their field trip. So young, so devilish… Kanie goes around helping to solve problems of other staffs. Man, he is so good that he should just clone himself and do the job! He lets Isuzu handles the rest while he tends to paper work. That is when Elementario come in to request something and since it is about Isuzu, they have him follow her around to see what they mean. Each time a staff complains about their equipment being broken and need replacement, she points her musket and threatens them to deal with it due to lack of money! This is the reason why Elementario are afraid to ask anything of her. Kanie talks to Isuzu about her threatening ways and wonders if this was how she ran the park last year. He says she is useless if she keeps acting like this. She becomes upset. Kanie talks to Latifa but I guess she doesn’t know his fear of heights because they’re in the Ferris Wheel! He wonders if they have met before but Latifa doesn’t remember. Moffle is watching them from afar and if Kanie really does something funny, he won’t hesitate to order Macaron to snipe him. Kanie and Isuzu’s relationship becomes tense and they’re not on talking terms and keeping their distance.

On a rainy day, the pump fails and this will threaten to flood underground attractions. Kanie worries because of his earlier decision to shut one of them to save money has caused the rest to strain and now everything has failed in this emergency. It is then Isuzu takes over and starts commanding what needs to be done. From putting up sandbag barriers and pumping water out (via pump or bucket), the crisis is overcome and she gets praised by the staffs. As Kanie and Isuzu check the fuse, Isuzu reveals she was from a military family and thus her strict ways. She didn’t know how to succeed when she was ordered to manage this park but tried her best to uphold her family’s honour. She considered her mission a failure and since he didn’t know how to react to failure, the staffs started hating her. Kanie says he has failed harder. He reveals his fear of heights that occurred during the peak of his child acting days. He was in the same position as her as he didn’t want to let down his family. However shortly after developing that phobia, he quit and caused problems for many. When all the staffs commend Isuzu, Kanie asks if she thinks they hate her now. Isuzu then asks about yesterday’s outing with Latifa on the Ferris Wheel she heard from Macaron. It must have been scary from that height. He isn’t too keen to talk about it.

Episode 5
Kanie tells it straight. They have no money! I guess the 30 Yen ad was a failure. This means there is not enough to pay staffs this month! Any suggestions to make quick money? And no gambling or sex trade, please. Moffle remembers the southern area of the park that is abandoned. It is said to hold Dornell’s treasure. There is also an abandoned stadium here. They wanted a sports themed park but after completion, the economy bubble burst and it was abandoned ever since. Entering the cave, they hit a dead end. Desperate Tiramie finds a hidden switch and Open Sesame! But the secret door closes back. No way out. Only forward. They enter a chamber with a gatekeeper who gives them weapons. Shovel? Molotov cocktail? Taser? Chain? Are they going to start some riot? Going forward, everyone is clumsy to step on traps and they avoid them with the skin of their teeth. Isuzu saves Kanie from one but this has her and Macaron fall through a trap door. Kanie, Moffle and Tiramie now face off with a group of ruffian orcs. Time to get violent. Isuzu and Macaron find themselves in a cell. After blasting out with her musket, they find a room filled with otaku memorabilia. This guy is Dornell! Although being classified as missing by the park for 10 years, he explains how he was trapped and no search party came for him. So he spent his days buying anime stuffs and getting addicted to MMORPG. How the heck can he buy things underground, have electricity and internet connection without ever leaving it?! Yeah, a mole guy is gladly serving this ‘guest’ of his.

Kanie and co enter a chamber with a fiery dragon named Ruby Ryuu. He wants to kill them and believes he is here to take his treasure. Because he keeps bragging about his knowledge that surpasses humans, Kanie challenges him. If he can answer a riddle correctly, they go free. Very well. As Ruby starts, Kanie reads his mind and answers before he finishes! Ruby is shocked and because his panicking ways turn him into a goofy dragon, Moffle beats him up! He becomes pathetic pleading for his life and reveals they are only the second group ever to enter his attraction. So everything was an act? Yes. The orcs are actually moles dressed up. Reuniting with Isuzu and the rest, Taramo, the head of the mole clan mentions how they were target by a totalitarian empire and this park gave them shelter and sanctuary during that time. They were paid them some money but that soon stopped so they lived off their savings. Treasures that filled this entire banquet hall! Now it’s empty. Kanie brings the moles and Ruby to meet Latifa. After learning the empire split apart after a civil war, this means the moles are no longer targeted and are free. They want to work here so Kanie agrees to hire them. But do they have enough money? Macaron has an idea. All of Dornell’s merchandise was sold and it was enough to cover everything for a month! What a sad guy… All his collection… But Isuzu reminds Kanie the money problem still remains the same next month.

Episode 6
Not enough money. Now not enough staff! How to pay for more help when got no money? Don’t know. Anyway Kanie wants to hold interviews. Isuzu has this dream whereby 3 cute girls become part of Kanie’s harem and thus he doesn’t need Isuzu as his secretary anymore. Worrying, right? To not be part of his harem. Whoops! Because Isuzu continues to be the kind of girl who cannot speak her mind, Macaron slips a magic fruit into her curry dish that will have her tell nothing but the truth. Whatever she has on her mind comes out through her mouth instantly. Of course she is not pleased to find out about it (especially Tiramie who has this sick idea of asking her how many times she masturbates!). Uh huh. She almost reveals her feelings for Kanie! Even worse timing for her is that she can’t call it sick as Kanie wants her in the interview. Each time she is about to say something, she stops herself via self abuse. I hope she won’t become stupid this way. Anyway we see Kanie immediately hiring all sorts of weirdoes and losers! From a mayor who lost the election, baseball player, astronaut, ninja and masked wrestler! WTF?! I know he is looking from another point of view of how their traits can be an asset to the park but this is too much. Eiko Adachi is the next interviewee. Looks familiar? One of the harem girls in Isuzu’s dream! Think she is the first normal girl? Till you find out what she does? She’s an AV star! OMG! Moffle is curious to know what her stage name is! Hire her! The reason she wants this job is because she didn’t find her previous job suitable although she did enjoy it. OMG! HIRE HER NOW!

The next girl… Biino Bandou. Hey… Isn’t she the other girl in that dream? Is Isuzu dreaming some sort of premonition or something? Anyway this girl is bleeding! Fresh blood! She won’t get treated till she hires him! Turns out her sick perverted brother (only in underwear and wearing stockings on his head) doesn’t want her to find a job! He barges in to attack but Moffle ends it with his punches. And finally that last girl in the dream, nervous Shiina Chuujou is from their same school and is also hired. After all the weird people, I guess they stopped caring. After the interview, Isuzu talks to Kanie about how she normally can’t speak her mind. This almost had her confessing her feelings for him but I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing because Kanie guesses she is in love and thus jealous of his superior talents! He doesn’t bat an eyelid to admit that. Moffle sent the wrong picture resolution of Adachi to Triken to find out about this AV actress and he got some fat AV star… Gross… Not going to watch. But it’s Tiramie’s fetish… Oh God… As Isuzu writes a reply letter to the applicants, she is curious about Adachi and looks her name up in Google. Hmm… Breast sucking videos… Boob sucking freak… Tempting… As she clicks on the link, there are videos of her filming animal offspring sucking and feeding on the breast of their mother. Oh, I get it now but how disappointing… AV = Animal Video… No porn, boo hoo! Moffle, Macaron and Tiramie act like a strict military drill sergeant in front of the new recruits. Kanie beats Moffle up for trying to scare them. The latter fights back to prove his worth. Isuzu shoots them both. I think the newbies are now more afraid of this woman than anything else.

Episode 7
ABP’s pool section seems to be doing well. The pirate theme is a hit with everyone till a real shark scares a couple of kids!!! OMG! JAWS!!! Actually, Jaw is a shark-looking staff and he looks scary and turns realistic when is wet. So he is relegated to the machinery room but there is some leak coming out from the forbidden room. Before you can say fix it, the leak gets bigger and it bursts open. A huge pirate ship emerges from the pool. The customers are not scared because they think this is part of the show. Ironbeard and his seal crew launch an attack to kidnap people and sell them. Tiramie defects to the pirates’ side. During the battle, Kanie is washed away somewhere but is safe with Jaw. He and the rest of the operations team secretly storm the pirate ship. Ironbeard has taken Latifa as hostage and making the other girls serve them. Time for some entertainment. He chooses Macaron, Moffle and Isuzu to walk the plank and wants Tiramie to do the job. What’s worse than shark infested waters? Sea anemone for tentacle rape! Tiramie tricks his buddies this is a ploy to let the enemy’s guard down. Macaron fell for it and although Moffle won’t, he blunders himself and drops. Now it is Isuzu’s turn but she’s burning with anger that it makes Tiramie scared! I guess we won’t be seeing any delicious tentacle rape scenes of her. Suddenly the place is bombarded with canon attack. Kanie is giving the orders. The mole people storm up to rescue the hostages who think this is still all part of the show. Isuzu fights Ironbeard to rescue Latifa. Jaw accidentally got fired from the canon and into the pool. Similarly, a staff fell into the pool with strawberry syrup. This intimidating scene of a shark with a girl in its mouth and bloodied all over! This sends Ironbeard and his crew to shiver in fear and surrender. At the end of the day with all the damage taken, Kanie wants him to work for the entire summer to pay off his debt. He won’t listen to him but becomes meek and obedient to Jaw. Well, sharks are the natural enemies of sea elephants and seals, right? Kanie makes Jaw their leader to keep them in line. Kanie couldn’t be happier that he got extra casts and a pirate ship all for free. Now… What to do with Tiramie the traitor? Walk the plank! Any last words? He’ll never betray his friends…? Look who is taking? Tiramie would have gone down alone had not Macaron and Moffle blunder and had the rope tied to their feet too.

Episode 8
Kanie collapses due to overwork. While he is resting, suddenly Isuzu comes up to seduce him! What’s with that strange zipper on her head? Turns out to be Tiramie in a magic body suit and this is a prank with Macaron for him. And they really have ulterior motives with this Isuzu suit till the real one shows up to give them some pain. Because he is sick, it is suggested they wear a Kanie magic body suit to substitute him at school. Couldn’t they just call in sick for him? Isuzu wears it on the first day. She already finds a love letter in the shoe box. In a dilemma to meet with this girl or not, she eventually does but learns Kanae Tsuchida accidentally put it in the wrong box and it was meant for another guy, Kimura. But ‘Kanie’ was kind enough to forgive her because everyone makes mistakes. Macaron is to take over the next day but Isuzu didn’t report anything out of the ordinary (I guess she doesn’t want to be embarrassed by that). Macaron acts like a boss in class, not paying attention and even telling off the teacher! He dares skip his class too! He overhears Kanae talking to Kimura. That guy is upset that now she has doubts asking him out. He would love to go out with her had she asked him. Thanks to a certain incident yesterday, her heart is in doubt and is confused. Macaron heads over to give some unwanted advice. He doesn’t know about the love letter thingy and doesn’t know their names. Kimura is not pleased the guy whom Kanae accidentally put her love letter is giving them advice. Is he trying to make fun of them? So Kanae is taken in by Kanie’s kindness? Kimura punches him but the scary part is how twisted ‘Kanie’s’ neck becomes! Freak show! Macaron leaves with a parting advice for her. The kind that would make these kind of girls start to rethink about their love…

And so it is Tiramie’s turn on the third day and as usual, Macaron didn’t report anything unusual. He can’t hold it in any more. Too many cute girls… Suddenly Kanae wants to talk to ‘Kanie’. Tiramie is happy he landed a cutie and wants to go somewhere private to have fun. Don’t worry. He’ll lead her nicely. Kanae finds it odd ‘Kanie’ cannot remember her name and was told to repeat it so he can hear how cute it is. Okay. At the stairs, Tiramie starts flirting with her and she would have accepted it had not Shiina spotted this indecency. Because Tiramie shrugs it off like nobody’s business, Shiina is going to tell Isuzu. That is when Kanae gets disgusted. Who is this Shiina girl? What is her to her? You want a harem? Still thinking of flirting, Tiramie? She gets disappointed and dumps him. Nothing to report when Tiramie hands over it to Moffle the next day. However he and Isuzu are being called by Kanae’s girl classmates. They are not happy as they believed Kanie and Isuzu teamed up to play a prank on Kanae (although they put lots of words in her mouth). Moffle doesn’t hesitate to apologize or go down on his knees for forgiveness since it is this punk’s reputation. But they don’t buy it since it is too easy and they don’t feel the sincerity. They said the taboo word that it feels like a rip-off so this causes Moffle to blow his top and lecture them about true love. What do you b*tches know about it? And then he goes on ranting about the woman you love marrying the man she hates for 10 years, possibly talking about Latifa’s mom. So mad that he cuts a tree in half! Suddenly Kimura comes by to apologize. He says this was a setup that Kanie did all this for him. He acted like a weird playboy to get Kanae to hate him to help him get back with her. Kimura promises he will work hard to be a man worthy of her. It is revealed it was actually Kanie in a Kimura suit (that’s why he was having his hand covering his head the entire time). Shiina explained the circumstances to him but wonders why he won’t get mad. It won’t be right because they were just covering for him. Kanie joins Latifa and they chat nonchalantly about the menu they should add to the kitchen (she might be using him as a guinea pig to test). Why is Isuzu feeling uneasy about this scene?

Episode 9
And you wonder why Elementario’s performances are always empty seats. No team work. It is so obvious that the staffs can even tell and wonder if there’s distrust among them. The quartet are invited to Latifa’s castle to have sukiyaki to patch up their relationship. Well, they’re still acting like they’ve always been. Latifa needs to go buy soy sauce and warns them not to press an obvious red button. Don’t. Ever. Press. That. Well, Salama starts pressing it and with several accidents, Muse’s head bumps and pushes it in. The entire castle is locked down and turns into a defence fortress. Anybody who gets near it will be blown away but the cannons’ accuracy! So it is said the former king built it as protection for the royal family and it deactivates automatically in 24 hours. So they’ll have to close the park tomorrow. That is not an option since tomorrow is Saturday where the customers will come. However there is an emergency button deep within the castle that needs 4 people to activate. How convenient. With Kanie and co telling Elementario what to do, the quartet head into a secret passageway where they will need to clear 4 trials to reach the button. Why the heck do they need to put all this when it is an emergency? The first stop is karaoke. Teamwork is needed to score enough to pass or they’ll be punished. Muse and Koboli are doing well with their coordination. Sylphy is not bad either. However Salama sucks and she is out of tune. They failed to get passed the score and get zapped. Trying out again, Salama admits she is not good in singing so Muse will help cover her. Thanks to that, they barely pass.

Next up is a dance machine. This could be a problem for Koboli. Everyone aces except her. Failure to clear? Flour dropping all over them. Retrying again didn’t do any good. As Koboli feels defeated, Sylphy tells it to leave it to her and this time they barely score enough to pass. Next is typewriting skills. Muse is in dire straits. She can’t type fast or correctly. Isn’t it getting cliché for the basin dropping punishment? Salama who is a freaking expert thanks to her handphone typing skills repays the favour as she types so fast that she goes over the maximum score and allows the group to pass. Finally, the last trial has them entering an individual chamber. They must pick a member to be sacrificed! However if the total votes do not exceed one each, the vote will be considered null and void. Thus the trick is to vote for themselves but do they have enough trust to believe in each other? Muse is contemplating about Salama and her screw ups but also remembers some of her help. She eventually picks herself. Everyone also does the same. Everyone is happy as they finally press the emergency button to lift the defence mechanism. I’m not sure if this is all part of the exaggerated plan to have them make up because that was what the sukiyaki party was supposed to be. Now that Elementario have teamwork, their performance gives rise to a standing ovation. Full house and record attendance!

Episode 10
The launch for ABP’s night time park goes well. However Kanie is not amused that some of the opinions from the customers that they implemented are way too much. Like this rock concert. What the hell is everyone shaking their heads for?! And this real mecha shooting game? You let violent school kids destroy robots?! Despite having reporters covering the park, Kanie knows this still isn’t enough. While Isuzu is cooking with Latifa, the latter suddenly collapses. After being put to bed, Kanie wants to know what is happening. Their body reaction indicates they are hiding something. Moffle won’t tell but Isuzu caves in to pressure. Long ago, the kingdom was being attacked a by a huge dragon. Not even the royal military could defeat it. A warlock came and offered to slay it but in exchange for the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. The king had no choice but to agree. The warlock slew the dragon as promised but the king couldn’t let go of his daughter and sent his army to kill the warlock. Upset over this betrayal, he put a curse on the princess before leaping to his death (he is believed to have died). That curse drains the magic life force that they feed on. Therefore Latifa is sent to live on Earth where such magic source is plentiful. This is the reason why ABP is built. No prizes for guessing what happens when the park is closed down. Kanie goes to see Latifa and he looks like a very worried and concerned guy. Like as though he is her father or something. Latifa remains positive and calm despite her dire straits. Because a miracle already happened: Kanie. Everyone changed because of him.

During the meeting, Kanie becomes aggressive and starts yelling at everyone that they need to do more. I suppose the stress of trying to meet the quota by the 31st July deadline is also getting to him. Sure, visitors are increasing but not at an adequate rate. He is starting to become to most hated boss around but he doesn’t care. He might have said he would change things but all their hard work will be meaningless if they come up short. Moffle is not pleased that Isuzu told him about Latifa. I suppose he is already at his wit’s end so he asks his sister about the troubles she faced as a magazine editor. She sure has her fair share. What does she do? Drown it out with sake! Oh yeah, your best problem solver any time, any place, anywhere. Now he sits defeated at the park. Moffle talks to him as Kanie reveals he fully remembers meeting Latifa when he was young. He was lost and saw her crying something about a curse and being lonely. He tried to do some impersonation to cheer her up but failed. Although she smiled, it was a sad one. He felt that she was the one trying to cheer him up. That is when he vowed to save her. But Kanie wonders if Maple Land people age or not because Latifa looks exactly the same now as she is then. Moffle reveals the curse is more than just draining her health. Her memories and physical development get reset every year. She’s been stuck this way for 10 years. When it comes 1st August, she will forget about him. Kanie won’t let this get to him (although this comes to him as a big shock). This is his chance to save her. Kanie is surprised to learn Moffle is Latifa’s uncle. Moffle says he thought of living the simple life with his niece if the park closes down and become street performers. He knew that wouldn’t last and would accept it as fate. Till Kanie came along. A quiet, simple, happy ending may be possible after all.

Episode 11
A football match?! As Kanie explains, at the rate they are going, they are certainly not going to meet their visitor goal. Remember that abandoned stadium? It has a capacity enough to meet that goal. There is an anniversary match to be played on 31st July. But that club’s stadium is undergoing maintenance and won’t be ready in time. As such, they are desperately looking for a stadium to host the game and ABP can be it. It is not an official match so it will be okay. Triken is made to be ABP’s representative as they go meet the club’s directors because Kanie thinks they won’t listen to a high school kid. But Triken is being nervous from all the questions they throw at him and just when it seems about to collapse, Kanie steps in and assures them about the maintenance and facilities. Still not convinced? He reads their minds that the main concern is the payroll and costs. So he makes an offer they cannot refuse. ABP will wave rental fees and even cover all costs relating to this match! Sure he is not joking? He kids you not. What they want is record attendance instead of profits. The only condition is that all those who attend the game must pass through their park’s main gate (the stadium has its own dedicated gates) and of course those who bought entrance tickets will not be required to buy tickets again. With this terrific deal, the directors agree to go down and inspect the pitch. It is greatly maintained by the mole people and with the directors satisfied, everything is set in rolling for the big game.

Kanie then calls everyone to gather at Maple Castle to announce he is selling the southern portion of ABP (which is as big as the main park) to cover costs and debts. Although many feel that it was supposed to be future expansion of the park, they agree with Kanie’s decision that their survival is more important first. It’s no use to think about the future if you can’t survive now. Everybody gets to work till the big day arrives. Kanie apologizes to Latifa for selling the land but she has no qualms since he is the head manager. As for her rest on 1st August, she’s been living life like this and probably she might not remember some of her staffs whom she met a long time ago, as long as the park exists, she’ll remain alive. Takaya pays a visit to check the visitor counter. Why do I get a feeling he is being intimidating? He reminds the deadline is at 9pm but Kanie assures him the match will kick off at 6pm. On the big day itself, ABP experiences an influx of visitors. So many people that everybody is just freaking exhausted! Have they ever seen this big crowd before? Yeah, too many lost kids are a sign of that too. The real crowd and football fans start streaming in the evening and by the time everyone is in the stadium and the match begins, suddenly Kanie has this worried look on his face. You’ve guessed it. They are still short of 252 people. And not a soul left is seen coming into the park.

Episode 12
Those might be no-shows, people who bought tickets but decided not to turn up. Desperate, everyone goes into full gear trying to come to the park for free. Please come. The world depends on it! No takers. Now they are resorting to calling people they know. Even Kanie sucks in his pride to call Kanae and those ‘bullies’ to come. After the game ends, all the staffs wait at the gates to welcome their family, friends, relatives and fans. I guess the ‘best’ has got to be Tiramie because he called all the wives and husbands whom he has cheated on! They come here to beat him up! Twice the numbers, twice the pain! As the numbers keep trickling in, they find they are 3 people short! Why does this always happen?! Are they going to be defeated? But you know they’ll be saved in time because those 3 violent kids who love to torture Isuzu, they’ve come at the right time to bring her torment! And so that is how ABP is saved after achieving 500,000 visitors and 3 extras since those kids mothers are trying to rein them in. It is no surprise that everyone goes crazy celebrating this miracle. Kanie then makes his speech. As agreed he will resign tonight. However he gets emotional thanking everyone. He couldn’t have done it without them. You thought his tears was infectious but they start laughing instead. Tough guy starts crying? Funny, no? He also mentions the buyer of the southern area is confirmed to be Moll Mart, an international super store chain. In a few years, there will be a huge shopping mall and this will be good as they will be sharing each other’s customers. Prepare to work yourself to death! Have they heard about workers’ rights?

Kanie notices Takaya beckoning him so he goes talk to him. He mentions about the main issue not being solved yet: Latifa’s reset. Surprised that he knows about Kanie’s mind reading power and such, he adds that feeding off such despair is most tastiest. He escapes before Isuzu and Moffle could attack. He is the supposed warlock who put a curse on Latifa. I guess he isn’t dead yet. So the countdown to Latifa’s reset begins. Tick tock, tick tock. You can’t blame Latifa for breaking down that she doesn’t want to forget everything. Not after the miracle she has witnessed tonight. Kanie hugs her and says this is all he can do for her. When it strikes midnight, the dread of her reset memories looms. But suddenly! Latifa seems to remember everything! Time for another round of tears. It is discovered that a tree nearby Maple Castle absorbs Animu and produced blooming flowers. Because it absorbed so much in the past 3 months with so many people having fun, it helps counteract the curse and even lifts it! Kanie leaves ABP for good but what is this tingling feeling and memories of everything there? When he goes back, he tells his sister he has quit and she thought it was a shame because he looked like he enjoyed it. Next day as our usuals are slacking off and recovering from the hangover, here comes Kanie to get their lazy bones back to work! He changed his mind because knowing that he is gone, they’ll be back to their lazy habits again. He will supervise them to make sure that won’t happen. And so with everybody welcoming him back, ABP opens to greet their customers. Let’s hope they can reach the target by next year.

Episode 13
Triken made a PV for ABP but it is so generic and boring that Kanie tells him to redo it again. Now you wonder why he doesn’t have any friends. He has Isuzu help him out and despite she knows nothing about this, it is better than letting him do it himself. Although Isuzu doesn’t find anything wrong, it still doesn’t leave much impression so she suggests asking opinions from others. Starting off with Moffle, this guy wants action! And a guerrilla warfare action you see! Macaron suggests putting it music and Tiramie uploads his 1 terabyte of sexy pics to help out!!! I’m sure Triken is having orgasm in editing those. So what do you think? Isuzu thinks the need of more balance and to ask for the girls’ opinion. So Triken goes to Elementario and surprisingly Koboli wants macho men! Salama on the other hand sends a cute sleeping clip of Muse! The verdict? Isuzu thought a more handsome men should be used so Triken can’t help keep teasing her she wants Kanie! Shut up if you don’t want to taste the rifle… Still feeling something is not right, looks like more opinions are needed. Triken now sees Latifa as she suggests asking from all the staffs. Yes, he interviewed every single one of them and you can see the mash-up of what they want. The most mind boggling one has to be the chief accountant who is skydiving while ironing her shirt! WTF???!!! With so much footage, is it still not enough? Yeah, Isuzu recommends asking the new part timers. More bloodshed?! A moving scene of a horse giving birth?! So Triken puts it all together and we finally get to see this atrocious piece of montage which has everything of everything! It ends with a horse giving birth… Can you not blame Kanie for blowing his head for this crap?! What the hell is Isuzu doing?! Guess what? She is crying over this ‘masterpiece’! You got to be seriously kidding me?! And that is why Kanie decides to use back the generic and boring PV that seems to have everyone else disappointed because their opinions were all for nought. But Kanie could not be even shocker than this as Triken has uploaded that unofficial remix version on the internet. Even shocker, it has nearly 1.5 million views and over 74 thousand comments! MIND BLOWN!

Episode 14 (OVA)
It seems today is Kanie’s birthday and Isuzu has already prepared a present. Because Moffle will be guiding the 3 female trainees to a field trip for some kindergarten, the security chief replaces his post. Well, he is such a tall guy… Eventually he passes out from the heat. That’s not pee in his pants! It’s his sweat! Before Moffle leaves for the journey, he forgot to bring the prize so he has Bandou to go get them from the office. She accidentally took Isuzu’s present. As Muse has twisted her neck during her sleep, she can’t put up a performance today. Kanie has a suggestion. Isuzu will replace Muse. Who will replace Isuzu’s secretary job? Latifa. Who will replace Latifa? Muse. Easy, right? Well, as they will soon find out… Isuzu tries to practice Muse’s moves but she sucks. She even impersonates as other Elementario but she fails so badly that it just wouldn’t do. Latifa is shown how to do paperwork by Kanie. Think she can handle it? All seems fine at first till the requests start piling up. Now she’s panicking. Man, there’s a long line to wait just to get her approval, etc! Looks like she’s really falling behind schedule… Muse thinks she is living the life till she is brought by the cook to peel onions and potatoes that Latifa always does. The entire boxes of them! Oh sh*t! How the heck did Latifa manage to finish them all by herself anyway???!!!

Meanwhile Moffle and the trainee girls are going to do some sort of cage wrestling exhibition match! WTF???!!! The kindergarten kids are loving this???!!! What the hell is this field trip???!!! Well, if the kids love them, then it is part of the reciprocal contract that they will visit ABP next time. So our trainee girls have to face off with coloured koala bear opponents? Sure, their marketed character may say they are friendly, silent, etc. But there’s always the fine print about saying that under certain circumstances they’ll go crazy. Yeah, a reason to become raging demons in chasing them down! Like how red koala chases Adachi and pins her down like a monster! Blue koala could have done the same thing to Bandou had not she tripped and he fainted at the sight of her bleeding forehead! Meanwhile several naughty kids see the present and they aren’t amused to see a clock inside. They decide to put cicada shells in it. Shiina is freaking scared of gold koala. Can’t blame her after she has witnessed the previous koalas in action. This one is no different. However the chain he swings ricochets and hit him back. ABP wins 2-1! Those kindergarten kids… So young and loving the fake violence… In addition to the snack prize, ABP also get their prize back. At the end of the day when they return, Bandou puts back the prizes in the office. If you are wondering why Kanie has been moving from place to place to work, it is to find a cool place to do so as the air-conditioner isn’t working. Yeah, in the toilet even? After the park is closed, everyone gives Kanie a surprise birthday party. After all the fun, Isuzu sees Kanie personally. She sums up her courage to hand him her personal present before running away. He opens it to see… Cicada shells? What the hell is this?!

Specials

Can’t get enough of the silliness and everything? Want an encore? Well, I hope these 5 minute specials from the BDs will be worth your time. I’m sure you’ll have fun because it is going to be especially the characters in chibi form.

Special 1
A time when Kanie wasn’t the manager yet, Isuzu texts Moffle during his break that she is about to bring Kanie to his attraction spot so be prepared. She sends him a picture of him but how come it is Kanie pissing in the toilet???!!! No wonder Moffle already has a bad impression of him and starts smashing his handphone with his head! Macaron and Tiramie skip out on their job since they think there aren’t enough customers as usual. They want to slack and hang out somewhere but Moffle tries to lecture to them about responsibility. The chief accountant checks on them and since they still want to fool around especially Tiramie who wants to go to a hotel with her right now (she’s heard it 100 times so she’s not moved), she fires her eye beams! Get back to work! Moffle also gets lectured by her as he is their leader and is supposed to discipline them. Wasn’t he? Don’t make excuses! And don’t do anything to make Latifa sad. Burning with anger, isn’t he? He receives another text from Isuzu that she will soon be here. That is why when Isuzu brought Kanie into his attraction for the first time, Moffle is so pissed… Very pissed…

Special 2
After Kanie made the girls wear bikini to promote ABP, Moffle is of course not pleased. But he overheard Tiramie whispering to Macaron that Triken took secret and risqué shots of the girls and have compiled them for the males’ viewing pleasure. Of course Moffle won’t allow that especially if it concerns Latifa. He lectures them about the lewdness of thinking such things on their fellow co-workers. So what are they going to do? The trio wear bikinis and film themselves promoting ABP. This is their idea for a family oriented park? I know mascots are much suitable for it but in bikinis? After uploading it, at first it looked good that they have more than 10,000 views. But they notice the comments all come from overseas with links. It leads them to sites with pictures of them (replicas) in sick S&M positions of those macho sickos with animal fetish! Though it sickens Moffle and Macaron, Tiramie welcomes it wholeheartedly.

Special 3
Kanie is curious about Adachi. Remember her AV status? Yeah… Looking up the internet… Lots of people sharing such a common name. Let’s be more specific in the search… Though no search results of that name in that specific area, Kanie clicks on links in hopes it will at least find a photo of her. Then one link sends him to a weird site. An adult site for mascots! He freaks out when Isuzu is here. He tries to hide it but she shoots him to see the appalling site. She gets the wrong idea he has this sort of fetish on won’t give him a chance to explain himself. Even worse, she gets the wrong idea he is targeting Moffle! So when Moffle sees this, you can see how freaked out he becomes. This means he gets the wrong idea of Kanie and doesn’t want that pervert to get close to him! Have you ever seen Moffle this scared before?! Ah, the internet… Such a scary place…

Special 4
Kanie and Isuzu see Macaron and Tiramie wearing a fake Latifa costume and know they are up to no good. They decide to do a reverse prank to teach them a lesson and record this as well. Little do they know, the real Latifa passes and Kanie starts harassing her to dance naked to attract more customers. Latifa is confused and scared but Kanie thinks he has got the pervert cornered as he spews for flirtatious lines at her. When Kanie suggests more heart pounding promotional stunts, Latifa cannot take it anymore and faints. Kanie then threatens Tiramie to confess his evil deeds. Oh but look! Isn’t that the real Tiramie coming in? Oh sh*t… HOLY SH*T!!!! YOU’RE SO SCREWED!!! Moffle comes in and sees the recording… Oh dear… Oh my… SEE HIS FREAKING ANGRY TROLL FACE!!!!! He is so dead this time!

Special 5
Elementario is having a nice sukiyaki dish together. Sylphy and Salama fight over the meat. Then Sylphy dumps heavy seasoning into the pot. Surprisingly it tastes good. Where did she get this seasoning from? Tiramie. Oh God… Emotions are running high with everybody spilling out their true emotions. Yup, the seasonings contain some concoction that has them tell the truth. They thought Koboli isn’t affected but she is trying hard to keep her mouth shut. Then she couldn’t contain it any longer and reveals her recent obsession in a certain genre. You know, the kind where 2 guys make out… More chaos and high emotions ensue. Salama is going to put this all on the internet?

Special 6
The female trainees are outside the stadium and here comes Tiramie wanting them to put on some clothes for an advertisement shoot. How come they look more like sexy cosplay outfits? The girls don’t see how this is going to help them and we know Tiramie is bullshitting about female casts needing to go through some sort of passage rite. Adachi starts questioning the equipment he is using because they don’t seem to be optimal for the shoot they are about to do. Tiramie gives lots of excuses just to start the filming but each time he is shot down with her reasoning. Yeah, he is so incensed that he is contradicting what he said earlier. Tiramie is defeated. What is he to do now? Well, they point out that he is the director and filmmaker and should be making the decisions. He gives up. Filming can’t be this hard, can it? Only if you have ulterior perverted motives… As he just ‘died’, somehow he finds this humiliation in defeat to be good and wants somebody to film him…

Special 7
In the aftermath of the party, the 3 stooges decide to give their presents to Kanie. But Kanie is left to wonder if they are just giving away useless stuffs they don’t want anymore. I mean, look at Moffle’s dirty and rundown military cap. He was going to send it to the burnable trash section anyway. Then there is a volume 23 of a manga that Macaron accidentally bought twice. And this volume happened to be the most boring arc of all. It could not have been worse than Tiramie who gives him a broken hard drive in which all his treasure data have already been backed up. Of course Kanie doesn’t want them and gives it back to them. Therefore it is no surprise when he got Isuzu’s cicada shells present. He starts thinking this may be some sort of accessory from the magic world and puts on one for size. When Isuzu comes in and sees this, she has the misconception that this is part of Earthlings’ fashion. So the duo have the misunderstanding it is the culture of the other. It gets even odder when they both think that this is some sort of proposal thanks to their strange acting. Kanie puts on a cicada shell on Isuzu too. You sure you happy about this? Moffle and co see this and don’t understand what the heck is going on. They think Kanie is into cicada shells and will give him more next year.

Not Enough Magic!
Actually, it isn’t fair to say that there isn’t enough magic. Heck, I don’t think it is even accurate to say that. What I meant was after getting the impression that the staffs and cast members of ABP are from another magical realm, I thought I would see them using some magic and weaving them through as they make little kids believe and smile. You know, the kind of magic of casting real spells or real fairy dusts that could have some real magical effect or something. In fact, you don’t really see that kind of magic at all. All you see are hard work and effort put in by everybody to make everything work. In this sense, there is realism to see why things work out in the end and of course in a way, this itself is magic. And then when you even have that unbelievable miracle at the end of getting the last few visitors at the last minute and the lifted curse on Latifa, it doesn’t matter because they have worked so hard that any sort of miracle and wonder is welcomed no matter how rushed it feels. Ah, the kind of ‘magic’ that we would love to see in the endings of every of such shows. Don’t we all feel good in the end?

There might be a few things that do not make sense like for instance, the very setting that a high school kid who was a former child star with zero park management experience suddenly taking over the helm because of some flimsy oracle reason saying he is the one. And for him to turn the park around in just 3 freaking months (that is a very short time if you’re talking about managerial positions), it can be either magically fabulous or just plain unbelievable nonsense. He should be head hunted by Disneyland and all other relevant parks. And that all it takes is just one strict sadistic (almost) kid to have everyone work their lazy asses to revive the park. I want to say hard work never killed everyone but I have heard cases where employees have been worked to death. Don’t give me that crap that all of them are magical creatures and they have longer lives, blah, blah, blah. Well, if they depend on this Animu thing, shouldn’t they have been trying harder when it’s failing instead of waiting for the Chosen One? Then how come some fairies and magical creatures look like cute girls and some like cute creatures? Of course with Moffle being a mouse or whatever, he is Latifa’s uncle whom I am assuming is the same type. How can such a beautiful cute princess come out of that equation? Mother must be damn beautiful and strong genes for Latifa to come out that way, huh?

Then there is the case of Latifa’s curse that has been kept as a dark secret and only revealed in the final few episodes. Maybe for dramatic effect and not to distract us that it is Kanie’s job to save ABP. Seriously, Kanie is working to revive a park without knowing what he is doing it for? No wonder the shock face. Even more appalling is how everyone failed to notice Takaya was the supposedly dead warlock. I don’t blame Kanie for not knowing but at least when Isuzu first met him, she should have sensed something amiss. I don’t know if this is the first time she met him during the meeting or not. Either she was really ignorant of who he is or trying real hard to hide this fact from Kanie (like how they hid Latifa’s illness) but it was just atrocious that they only seem to recognize him when he showed his true colours at the last moment and got away. However if you can put this all aside and enjoy the series to see how things change from zero to hero, I am sure you’ll find this an enjoyable watch.

The plot and pace are smooth and despite many feel like fillers of seeing Kanie coming up with ideas and method to bring in more visitors (especially that last episode which was blatantly a filler material) they do help in developing it all at a nice pace. And so while we see them learn and interact with each other, this is where the laughs come from as we see Kanie as the newbie trying to understand the culture and make it work. From hiring new part timers to that commercial crap, yeah, those are really funny times.

The characters are the strongest point despite the seemingly okay but weak plot in reviving the failing park. With a myriad of characters, it is hard to give everyone their due screen time although it is mostly about Kanie and Isuzu and a bunch of other ‘frontrunner mascots’ like Moffle, Macaron and Tiramie. Despite the few lot of them and some with a few back stories of their own (but eventually it didn’t really matter to the overall plot), at least they aren’t ‘forgotten’ in the sense that they only pop up for one or two episodes and then you will never see them again. Therefore it is good to see them from time to time even if they are just popping up as cameo in the background.

It’s hard to say if Kanie changed a lot ever since his managerial stint but we know he changed because despite the lame reason of wanting to see those slackers work hard and not undo his hard work, it is the love for everything he has put in and everyone that he has met during his 3 month stint. So you see, the most important lesson besides perseverance and hard work moral that has been done to death in many of such stories is that you need to give everything and everyone a second chance. Kanie who was once an island realizes that the park’s revival was not only because of him shouting orders. It is because of others play their part and the trust that they develop. So while everybody didn’t trust this wise guy at first, given a chance, they start to believe in him and that is where the magic works its way to lead to the park’s revival. Speaking of his mind reading power, it feels like unimportant as he just sparingly uses it. I’m sure with his genius brain, that kind of power just feels like a distraction and could have been done without. The same case can be said about his former status as a child star. It only serves to play a small role that wasn’t anything that significant. Because I thought if everybody recognizes him and that status would have attracted more customers. Apparently nobody did so it goes to show people don’t really remember or he wasn’t that great then. But it is a good thing because it shows Kanie revived ABP based on his skills and not his past reputation.

I want to call Moffle, Macaron and Tiramie as the terrible trio but it only seems that Tiramie is the worst of the lot because of his tendencies to get perverted and a player. It is even mind boggling to think how those wives get in an affair with a pink cat mascot especially when I first thought Tiramie is female thanks to his feminine looks. I guess that is why looks can be deceiving. Moffle’s short fuse and violent nature tends to make him quick to use his fist to do the talking and thus always the eternal loggerhead with Kanie. It looked set to be a running joke of the series but it died down once Moffle starts giving him a chance. The same case for Isuzu’s rifle shooting running joke. Once that feud dies out, so does this one. I wonder where she could keep that long rifle hidden. Speaking of her on another mind boggling trivia, it is the memory erasing bullets that she makes. She says she can make that only once a year. How old is she? Assuming she is the same age with Kanie as she goes to the same class with him Assuming she could start making it right away after being born. So how many does she has? Unless you’re telling me she is over a hundred years old because you know, she’s from the fairy land. Oh, Isuzu would have been much better if she smiles and put in more emotions. I’m not saying she should turn into some spunky genki or emo girl but I prefer such main characters to be smiling. Even if she’s in the background running the show, she should also be putting a smile. Oh heck, why bother with it when you can slap a pair of busty boobs on her and solve all that. Guys will notice her boobs and not her no-smile, right?

I suppose when you have four cute girls of varied personality in Elementario, it is given that you need to have a dedicated episode just for them. Even if it was just as a stepping stone to see them work together and in more sync, but I guess they are typically the same girls that we all know. Like Salama is always having this bored and uninterested look that reads “I-wish-I-wasn’t-here” while she constantly faces her Smartphone. Then there is Sylphy who acts like a retard and is completely in a world of her own. She does her own things at her own pace, oblivious of what is going around. But surprisingly she has a huge fan base thanks to that quirky dance she uploads. Then you have shy and emotionless girl Koboli who is second only to Isuzu in the expressionless department but surprisingly gets lively when you let her talk about her desires of macho muscular men. And finally Muse who is the friendliest and most cheerful of the lot. So mismatched but yet so fitting for each other. I suppose it is to show that despite they have different strengths and weaknesses, the idea is for them to work together and cover each other’s flaws. Oddly despite their elemental representation, I hardly see them use it. I don’t know, it makes me feel like they’re being fake fairies and just high school girls in cosplay.

Latifa feels like the weakest link among the characters. I know she is suffering from an illness and her weak body means she can’t do much but sit in her ivory tower while praying and cheering on for the rest in the background. I guess with so many cute looking mascots as mascots, a cute little princess is needed to swoon our hearts. It is hard to see her as someone relevant in the revival of ABP but I suppose she is the very reason why everyone is busting their ass to keep this princess alive. So I suppose the fairytale ending (feels ironic seeing they are all from the magic realm) that her curse was eventually lifted so that she could continue to work and have fun with the rest without the annoying bit of having her memories reset. I know it would suck if all their hard work didn’t pay off but… At least in the future it would mean she doesn’t need to be a useless vegetable confined in her castle anymore.

Art and drawing are okay with Kyoto Animation helming this, it is not surprising to find very familiar cute looking girls. I mean, this is the company that produces K-ON!, Kyoukai No Kanata, Tamako Market, Hyouka, Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai and even classics like Clannad and Air. I guess this also gives them a reason to get creative with various ‘magical creatures’ although they look more cartoonish than anything. Isn’t this how mascots should be? ABP also looks good and a great park to be with a variety of props, themes and settings to make it lively and fun. With a handful of Full Metal Panic trivia, most obvious being Moffle looking very close like Bonta-kun, this is because both series are created by the same author and that the same anime studio also animates them. I also discovered this trivia lately and it seems the main 3 characters, Kanie, Isuzu and Latifa are named after America’s famous R&B artists. Namely, Kanye West, 50 Cent (if you directly translate Isuzu’s name) and Queen Latifah.

Voice acting is okay and the most amusing one goes to Ai Nonaka as Tiramie. I just love how she goes crazy voicing that indecent pervert. Jun Fukuyama is also not bad as Triken, especially when he sounds so gay whenever he gets passionate. A little bit like Grell from Kuroshitsuji, huh? Moffle’s voice sound familiar at first but it took me a while to realize it was Ayako Kawasumi behind it. Haven’t been hearing of her much lately but at least I still recognize her (eventually). The rest of the casts include Kouki Uchiyama as Kanie (Ichika in Infinite Stratos), Ai Kakuma as Isuzu (Hakua in Kanojo Ga Flag Wo Oraretara), Yukiyo Fujii as Latifa (Tetra in Log Horizon), Ryoko Shiraishi as Macaron (Hayate in Hayate No Gotoku), Yuka Aisaka as Muse (Aika in Ore Twintails Ni Narimasu), Minami Tsuda as Salama (Yui in YuruYuri), Shiori Mikami as Koboli (Krista in Shingeki No Kyojin), Tomoyo Kurosawa as Sylphy (Tina in Black Bullet) and Junichi Suwabe as Takaya (Archer in Fate/Stay Night).

The generic anime pop opening theme is Extra Magic Hours by AKINO with Bless4 while the ending theme is Elementario De Aimashou by Brilliant4 (the quartet behind the voice of Elementario) which also sounds like another generic anime pop. I suppose with Elementario hardly making a great impact or screen time (aside from that single dedicated episode), the ending credits are where they get to strut their stuffs. But I prefer the insert song that they sing in that episode, Subarashiki FUN!TASY as it sounds more fun and lively. On a trivial note, before the next episode preview, there is a Show and Tell Attractions segment whereby Kanie and Isuzu host it to explain some of the buildings and attractions in feature. I don’t know why they sound so lethargic but it may be Isuzu who has always sounded this way. What is amusing is that it starts off good as Isuzu describes what that attraction is all about. However soon it turns out to be something negative and unbelievable that has Kanie rebuking like a mad dog of why this attraction should not be in the list. Now you know why ABP is such a big failure in the first place.

This series is still a fun and entertaining watch if you can put aside the little details and do not think so much about it. Besides, an amusement park themed series needs to have a happy atmosphere, right? A note though, managing an amusement park isn’t exactly all fun and games or a bed of roses as what it is mainly painted here. Sure, the staffs here do have their problems to deal with like lack of money and manpower but I am sure that reality isn’t as ‘sympathetic’ as this. Things don’t normally go smoothly but it sure will work out in the end. And magic has nothing to do with it. So remember to spare a thought for all those people working at amusement parks. They’re working their asses behind the scenes to bring all that smiles and happiness so that you kids can continue to bug their parents to come back and spend more money. Whoops… Eventually a happy customer will definite return. And what better way for a place that brings smiles for everyone to have your customers returning with bigger smiles?