That kind of "revolutionary" approach brings me to Kyoto Animation (KyoAni), as they produced Amagi Brilliant Park (Amaburi in short) as the revolutionary anime they have, yet.
And that's the problem, because it's like this: BMW is known for producing RWD cars, it's their trademark. It's the same way as KyoAni is known for the moe trademark they have established since the K-On--or even the Air era. Now, I'm not saying that K-On or Air should be the basis for KyoAni's products, but like BMW producing FWD cars, is KyoAni doing something similar as they seem to be producing something that is...for their own first time, playing fire with the lesser kind of anime where its fantasy genre written only in paper. That's something that KyoAni is not known for.
STORY = 7
It's a story of reviving an amusement park (eponymous as it is), filled with magic elements, packed with reasons of how important the Amaburi amusement park is for the magical creatures, and plot and characterization ignites from there.
Being magical, logic is excused here as most of the characters are the usual teens (Kanie-kun and Sento Isuzu are both 16) with their hands full of trying to revive the Amaburi itself. I mean, talk about legalities and debits and credits, net profits, taxes--put them in a box and throw 'em out the window. Rather than logic, you'd better just focus on these: there's the fanservice team, a perfectionist-- rather narcissistic kind of male character, a princess who must be Dekomori's cousin, and a soldier from the magical land, and oh--living mascots, and supporting characters. All of them are tasked to attract 250,000 visitors for the Amaburi in a span of 3 months. At first glance, it has a huge potential, but somehow if it's KyoAni we're talking, we're demanding it to be KYOANI, the same way as if you'd get a BMW and you're demanding it ofc to be a BMW (and not something from let's say, Hyundai).
What actually happened was like, we expected KyoAni, and we got something that resembles JC Staff. Because even if I'm not using K-On as the yardstick of this all, and I dunno if the Amaburi magic worked in your senses a little bit too well, but we're expecting KyoAni itself to be as moe-music-friendly as K-On, or sublime as Hyouka, or light-hearted slice-of-life as Tamako Market, or romcom as Chuunibyou, or flaring as Kyoukai no Kanata; perhaps even as memorable-dramatic as Clannad, and as emotional as Air. I could go on to be as wacky as Nichijou, or otaku-approved as Lucky Star, or as demanding as Haruhi Suzumiya.
In Amagi Brilliant Park, what did we get exactly? We get "revolution". We get the "new KyoAni". See, this is just like how BMW made RWD cars for so long and suddenly started building FWD's.
CHARACTER = 6
They're as memorable as a shopping list: you remember them as you know what to do with it. It also has the KyoAni prowess of somehow, at least somehow, exercising character development.
Again, as I've said earlier, the story itself has a huge, and I mean very huge potential. KyoAni has made 23- or 24-eps back in the past, perhaps longer episodes can do well as to give enough space for the development, in which the plot will be delivered with characters that transcended as the number of episodes progressed.
Kanie-kun was rigged from the start to be complex but unchanging 'til the end. Sento Isuzu is the "best hot heroine" according to otakus and fandoms and those from the magical doujin-land; I don't see why--except that she's the new fantasy material with her physical hot body and fanservice--but character-wise, she's the KyoAni's version of what a kuudere is, but that's it: she was predictable and nothing new or magical or developmental that happened to her. There's also Dekomori's seeming cousin, Latifa-sama, seems to be good enough as the foil character, but flat. The K-On look-alike fanservice team of Sylphy (resembling Mugi), Muse (resembling Yui), Kobori (resembling Mio), and Salama (resembling Ritsu) did well on their fanservice role, had a one-episode dedication for their development and was leave-able after.
Then there's the trio of mascots: Moffle, Macaron, and Tiramie, whose main purpose was maybe, to become comic reliefs. Though Moffle is more of serving as a complex character to help junction the plot and explain the reasons. The other two, you will find them funny, that is, if you're a goober.
SOUND = 8
Usual J-pop songs with KyoAni-esque trademark in them since Hyouka, so I really don't need to complain. Picking the right seiyuus for the right roles have also been important, and with Ayako Kawasumi's performance as Moffle--and she's renowned as Saber--that's already a plus.
ENJOYMENT = 5
It's like enjoying what you can do with a tap water. You can put juice powder on it, ice, and stir.
Amagi does that very well as you're hoping to get KyoAni elements but every episode seemed like it's convincing you on how "new and revolutionary" this is. Really, it's like BMW convincing you of their new and revolutionary 2-series.
This is like convincing yourself that you're watching KyoAni's Amagi Brillaint Park and not Kagaku-railgun.
If you've gone to BMW and saw the 2-series yourself, it's pretty much like that: you're expecting a BMW, and it is revolutionary only because you've never heard a front-driven BMW before.
Somehow, people love Amaburi in a way that it's more sexy that you're seeing more skin, more Sento Isuzu, more of those fanservice fairy team which means more eyecandy, then less on moe-ness, more on read-between-the-line jokes, less on KyoAni trademark and feel in the end.
OVERALL = 6
If KyoAni defined this as their new quality, their new trademark "flagship" anime where from here on, they're going to be making more anime this way, then more otakus will rejoice. The minority here ain't otaku: we enjoy KyoAni as we like enjoying good quality shows that won't waste our time. But majority wins, I reckon.
Ultimately, my review seems, as I want to say it, I derived it and wrote it thinking to be the KyoAni that I know, or used to know. It's like missing a friend who died or went away, and you know, you can't put this into exact words.
What I can say is that, despite giving this as a rating of 6 because it's still a generally good anime to watch, but somehow it doesn't look like KyoAni at all. Really, it just looks like JC-Staff material. Revolution is a good thing, but a lot of times it's difficult. Acceptance is not the issue, because there's trademark in every namebrand: whether BMW, or Coke, or Marvel, or McDonalds, or Levi's, once you've attached yourself to a namebrand, you'll ultimately know and feel it with its trademark. Amaburi just kind of lost the touches there--or if they haven't then they're the new trademark of KyoAni. It's still KyoAni by namebrand, but like the BMW 2-series, finding that out to be 3-cylinder front-drive is Hyundai material--when we're expecting for a BMW.
Verdict: The majority screams for Amagi Brilliant Park is the new KyoAni. But I kind of miss the old KyoAni.
