Amagi Brilliant Park-3
The park really is a shithole. Kanye should take his own advice and just shut the place down. I've never seen a group more apathetic about their own demise. These fuckers don't want to work on Fridays? Really? One of your potential busiest days but you want the day off to lounge about? Also the park closing at 5 is another baffling decision. The previous managers were all idiots. One thing I hope the show goes into more is the financing. It's apparent he park is near broke too and that limits the options Kanye has for stuff like advertising but I would love something like a hard break down. That said, the show seemingly isn't about the nitty gritty of management. In that way it separates itself from something like
Shirobako. The anime is definitely more about the comedy and entertainment value. While I would have wanted some hardcore business stuff, I can't blame KyoAni or Gatoh for not doing spreadsheets or Gantt charts. So the show seems to be trying for this surreal feeling in that there are elements of reality but it's also fantastical at the same time. For example the kid bring a little shit falls into this surreal category in that I'm sure that has happened to a mascot but it's also blown up in a way to let the fantasy part come through (such as the mascot one-shotting the gangster or memory erasing bullets). It's that sort of balancing act that reminds me of
Full Metal Panic, in that instead of military/school, we have fantasy/theme park. Both sort of contradict each other but they also play really well into each other at the same time.
I think Kanye has done an acceptable job of 'managing' the park so far. The reason I put apostrophes around managing is that his job isn't so much as managing but rather something akin to PR. His singular focus is getting people into the park and for them to keep coming back. He's not so much interested in budgeting or employee satisfaction, both critical aspects of quality management. Due to the situation, he's made the correct call to focus more on shorter gains. That's why I'm fine with stuff like the bikini advertisement in that the deadline calls for something to immediately pull in your customers. Kanye doesn't have the budget or time to launch a revamped PR campaign focusing on the improved quality and state of the park. Instead, doing seemingly stupid shit like "Hey dads/pervs, come to our park to see tits and ass" is a much more effective short term strategy combined with the discount ticket prices. Kanye needs to try every single gimmick he can think of to get those visitor counts up. They're currently at less than 250 people a day when they need an average of 3,125. That's a big ass jump.
The viral video was a pretty clever idea and not one I would have immediately thought of. I remember Gatoh saying that he had conducted interviews with actual park employees and so I imagine some of those Youtube comments would probably mirror what an actual park employee must have wanted to do on a few occasions.
So far, the thing I've really liked are the character interactions. Things like Fumoffu knowing that he's being a douchebag and acting inappropriately but still can't stop himself, feels somewhat human. The characters have a sense of self-awareness that I feel is missing in many LNs and anime. I think my favorite scene in the episode was when Sento was trying to participate in the toasting but the other mascots had already taken their cups back. Small moments like that are really nice for me as it shows not only her more emotional side, as she was embarrassed, but also helps establish the mascot trio as being a core group of friends.
I'm really mixed on the backgrounds. There are a number of shots that are decent, none have been outstanding, and then there are a number that are very substandard for KyoAni. I understand a lot of that is due to the production scheduling but it really stands out in this season where the background art is flat out phenomenal in
Your Lie in April or
FSN. That said, this episode had a number of really great cuts. The episodes have these 'spurts' of really really high quality animation and then go back to a 'normal' level. It's a bit jarring at times but I think the contrast works for some of the jokes. The actual episode direction was pretty flat as they could have done more with the kid kicking Fumoffu.
As for that cliffhanger, I wonder if they're going to make Latifah blind 'in' the show compared to the LNs and manga where it's background info prior to the start of the series. It might be a way of putting some focus on her as right now Sento is clearly hogging up all the scenes(which I'm more than fine with).
