Fall ’14 anime reviews: Amagi Brilliant Park and Sword Art Online II

Only two series I was watching finished this season, so I can easily fit them into this one post (Well, technically I did finish Fate Stay Night UBW and Mushishi Zoku Shou 2, but the former I’m going to review when its second half finishes airing next year, and my opinion of the latter hasn’t changed since my past reviews of it). The others I’m watching are going to be two-cour and continue into next season, which means I’m going to be overwhelmed with reviews in spring XD Oh well…

Amagi Brilliant Park

Amagi Brilliant Park is usually the kind of anime I don’t like: a comedy series with a lot of slapsticks and hyperbolic humor, that’s also trying to have a story and moments of drama. In most cases, a blend of silliness and seriousness is jarring to me and makes my viewing experience feel contrived. But for some reason, I didn’t feel too much of that with AmaBuri. There are some anime that can effectively blend hyperbolic comedy into a dramatic story – the Slayers series comes to mind – and I think AmaBuri did a reasonable job. It was mostly a comedy, and although there were moments of drama here and there, it was kept subtle up until the conclusion, so the light tone of the show was consistent throughout…and I found it pretty enjoyable.

It took a few episodes for me to warm up to the characters and premise, but when I did, I was surprised that I did get into it. As I said in my first impressions post, I love amusement parks, so I looked forward to seeing what wild amusement park antics would take place in each episode and what ways Seiya would come up with to try and attract more visitors. And yes, some of the episodes were a bit too ridiculous for me and ended on major “WTF?!” moments, such as the episode where they had to find Dornell and the one where the fairies get locked inside the park (seriously, what’s up with Sylphy? Does she have some kind of mental impairment?) But it didn’t bother me that much because, again, the series is consistent with its wacky tone and never takes itself too seriously. So I could accept the really off-the-wall bullshit that took place and the fact that things about Maple Land and its magic doesn’t make sense. We do get some information about Maple Land and Latifa’s plight in bits throughout the series, which I found was just enough for things to (mostly) come together without getting too detailed and thus taking away from the light tone. Speaking of which, the only episode that was more focused on drama than comedy was of course episode 12, and I thought it was a very touching and well fitting ending. Not sure why they decided to throw in episode 13, but it was pretty funny actually and is a prime example of the kind of humor the show has.

On another note, Kyoto Animation once again does a fine job with giving the show high budget animation and nice character designs. I liked the creativity put into the designs of some of the park employees and their personalities. I was hoping more of them besides the main few would get adequate screentime, but I can understand why they didn’t as there’s just too many of them. I also found it both weird and hilarious that characters like Tiramie and Macaron have cute, fluffy appearances on the outside but completely contrasting crude and perverted personalities on the inside. Normally characters like them bother me, but because they were the brunt of so many jokes and violent humor, I didn’t mind XD Moffle is probably my favorite because he showed the most character development throughout the series in terms of warming up to Seiya over time and showing how much he cares about Latifa, while having a much more likable personality than Macaron and Tiramie. The relationship between Seiya and Isuzu was also fairly well done even though it’s the kind of relationship we’ve seen a million times in other anime. And what about that subplot with Seiya being a child super star? It was brought up early on but then it just kinda fades away…I thought he’d have to confront his past or something like that eventually. Not a big deal since it wasn’t played up as a main factor in the show, but it still felt like they may have forgotten about it.

Overall, I wouldn’t call Amagi Brilliant Park “brilliant,” but I would say it’s a decent series if you’re looking for a crazy comedy with a touch of fantasy and drama, that DOESN’T take place in a school for once ;)

Sword Art Online II

Being the very popular series that it is, SAO has naturally developed a stark divide between anime fans that like it and anime fans that hate it. If you’ve read my review of the first series, you’ll know that I’m someone who liked the first half of season 1 but not so much the second half (the Alfheim part), which is a pretty common opinion even among the people that like it. But in general, I think it’s a good series and was looking forward to season 2. And now that I’ve finished it, I found it a lot better than the first season.

The first half of SAO II, the Gun Gale Online arc, was very exciting. Rather than just focusing on something typical like Kirito and friends playing around in this new game, it instead is very character-driven, revolving around Shion overcoming her inner inhibitions amongst another plot of Kirito trying to unravel the mystery behind Death Gun and put a stop to his murders. These two stories mingling together led to suspense and drama that had me eagerly awaiting each new episode. Of all the female characters Kirito has met and helped, I found Shion to be the most interesting as she comes off as tough and independent, but has vulnerabilities due to what happened to her. We really get a feel for the trauma she went through and why she is the way she is, which is the making of a good character in my book. The actual Gun Gale Online world was cool too with its unique mix of fantasy and sort of post-apocalyptic sci-fi. I guess my only complaint about the arc is Kirito once again being too much of a “too good to be true,” “always saving the girl” protagonist like he was in season 1, in addition to pulling another deus ex machina by how he avoided that syringe. He and Shion did have some uncomfortably intimate moments that made me wonder what Asuna would think if she actually witnessed some of their interactions. But besides that, I liked pretty much everything else about the arc. How it ended with Kirito bringing Shion into his group of friends and the lady Shion saved thanking her was all very sweet.

After that, we get a few “breather” episodes consisting of a recap episode (which I didn’t watch) and a short 3-episode arc where Kirito and co. go on a little side quest in Alfheim. It was boring to say the least as it was literally just watching them play through the game and nothing else. What makes SAO compelling to me is when the conflicts in the virtual world are tied to the real world or vice versa. This arc was akin to watching a group of friends play an MMORPG – kind of interesting at first but gets dull fast. So without anything of importance at stake in the real world, just watching Kirito and the others play normally through a quest in Alfheim was quite underwhelming. But luckily it was only a mere three episodes.

Then we come to the other main arc of SAO II, Mother’s Rosario. And like Gun Gale Online, I thought it was really good. For once, Asuna is the main hero of the arc while Kirito plays a supporting role, which was great to see. Asuna’s relationship with her mother was my favorite thing about this arc: the part with them at the dinner table in episode 19 was one of the most tense and engrossing anime scenes I’ve seen in a while. Then of course we have the main focus of this arc, which is the friendship between Asuna and Yuuki. As a whole, I thought it was sweet and touching even if it did get a bit sappy at times. Like in Gun Gale Online, I liked how this arc had two conflicts going on – Asuna’s struggle with her mother and Yuuki’s struggle to survive – and how it was able to tie them together, with Yuuki giving Asuna the support to confront her mother and Asuna helping Yuuki realize her reason for living. It was a nice story.

With only a few bland episodes, I’m happy to say that I greatly enjoyed the two main arcs of SAO II. Like with the first series, there’s heart and depth in SAO and its stories even if the execution isn’t always perfect. If you liked the first series, you’d definitely like this one. And even if you didn’t like the first series, SAO II may even be good enough to change your mind.

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Before I go, I just wanted to mention that since it’s that time of year, I’m planning to post again soon – maybe on New Year’s Day or a few days later – with my annual “top 5 anime of the year” post (I’m skipping the “12 moments of anime” this year since I just couldn’t think of more than a few). See you all soon~!