Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Amagi Brilliant Park is an entertaining comedy-fantasy anime series. Created by Shoji Gatoh, Amagi Brilliant Park features animation production by Kyoto Animation (Beyond the Boundary, Clannad After Story). An imaginative and fun comedy, Amagi Brilliant Park features original character designs by Yuka Nakajima.

Produced by Shinji Horikiri (Aiura, Neo Angelique Abyss), Shunsuke Matsumura (Engaged to the Unidentified, World Break: Aria of Curse for a Holy Swordsman), Tomohito Nagase (One Week Friends, Riddle Story of Devil), Yoshihisa Nakayama (K-ON!, Clannad After Story), and Yuichi Yamada (Dragonar Academy, Abnormal Physiology Seminar). Broadcast on BS-TBS and Tokyo Broadcasting System, Amagi Brilliant Park features theme music performed by AKINO. Amagi Brilliant Park features voice work by Kōki Uchiyama and Ai Kakuma.

Amagi Brilliant Park sounds like the best amusement park in the world. The “brilliant park” title sounds so promising and enticing. Surely, Amagi Brilliant Park is a slam-dunk, home-run, brilliant place of fun excursions? Visitors would expect brilliance, of course. Perhaps that was part of the hiccup that had caused Amagi Brilliant Park to become a vacant and falling-apart amusement park. Seiya Kanie (Kōki Uchiyama) went to the park with the gorgeous Isuzu Sento (Ai Kakuma) expecting something fun and different. Instead, Seiya discovers the legend of the Amagi Brilliant Park and that is considered one of Japan’s least successful parks in history.

Seiya is introduced to park leader Latifah Fullanza (Yukiyo Fujii), who is attempting to prevent the park from total shutdown, as the barely- functioning park is a dead-zone with hardly any visitors. Could the park be saved from being closed down forever by Seiya? As Seiya explores the park further, Seiya also discovers more mysteries of the park – such as the fact fairies are in charge of Amagi Brilliant Park.

Amagi Brilliant Park features a compelling cast of characters. The central leads are fun and add to the series sense of charm. Seiya Kanie and Isuzu Sento are both entertaining and make the series more engaging. The characters are certainly vital to the production and the comedic sensibilities. The character designs by Miku Kadowaki (Beyond the Boundary, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid) are noteworthy and add a lot to the series charm. The design work is certainly effective on the whole.

The animation is one of the greatest highlights of the series. Amagi Brilliant Park features top-notch animation. The series has impressive art direction by Mikiko Watanabe (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Myriad Colors Phantom World) and chief animation direction by Nobuaki Maruki (Tsurune The Movie: The First Shot, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid).

The animation team brought their A-game to the series and the artwork is all the better as a result. The animators created a beautiful looking anime with great color reproduction, line art, and fine detail. The amusement park is creatively designed and one of the forefront highlights of the production. The joyful and vibrant art style works well for the anime.

The cinematography by Norihiro Tomiita (K-ON!, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!) is one of the essential ingredients of the series aesthetically. Tomiita is a talented cinematographer and Amagi Brilliant Park is a gorgeous looking series. The aesthetic works quite well and delivers a lot of fun visually.

The score composed by Shinkichi Mitsumune (Cyberteam in Akihabara, Revolutionary Girl Utena) is a highlight. Mitsumune is a gifted composer with a good background in anime. The composer has an impressive slate of series and the score for Amagi Brilliant Park adds a lot of wonderment to the production. The music brings life to the anime and the sense of wonderment enhances the fun, entertaining, and comedic sensibilities of the anime.

Written by Fumihiko Shimo (Fairy Tail, Infinite Stratos), Amagi Brilliant Park is entertaining. The script has fun dialogue. Shimo brings something fun to the table with entertaining characters and a smart, inventive, and worthwhile concept. The amusement park setting is something Shimo has fun with exploring. Shimo provides a good comedic backbone to the production.

Directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), Amagi Brilliant Park is energetic and lively as a comedic anime. Amagi Brilliant Park is commendable for its entertaining concept and fun directing style. Amagi Brilliant Park is well worth checking out for anime fans looking for a quirky and offbeat anime with a nice cast of characters. Director Takemoto explores Amagi Brilliant Park with a sensibility that is compelling.

Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by Sentai Filmworks, Amagi Brilliant Park is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. An impressive high-definition presentation. The release features noteworthy color reproduction. An incredible sense of clarity and detail in the animation. The cinematography is top-notch and these visual qualities are essential to the presentation. The background animation and line art are well reproduced as well.

In the case of Amagi Brilliant Park, the series received a previous physical media release and is now once again available with a new limited edition collectors' version (featuring new artwork). Sentai does have a track record for making some occasional revisions to previous releases. I do not have the other edition to do a direct video comparison. Sentai does not always opt for standard reissues and sometimes tweaks things for discerning collectors.

One of the most compelling aspects of the physical media format is the superior video encoding when compared to streaming video services. Streaming video services tend to provide lower bit-rates and more compression. For home theater enthusiasts wanting to eek out the best in the presentation quality, the physical media format offers a distinct advantage for fans.

Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The sound direction by Yōta Tsuruoka (Arakawa Under the Bridge, Dance in the Vampire Bund) is well preserved on the release. The high-quality presentation is essential to the presentation. The lossless audio sounds clear and distinct on the release. Dialogue is well-reproduced. The original Japanese language version sounds fantastic with nice depth and detail. The English subtitles are well done and the subtitles are free from egregious spelling or grammatical errors.

An essential aspect of physical media is the lossless audio encoding. Streaming video services provide lossy (non-lossless) audio quality. For home theater enthusiasts who are wanting to get the best possible audio presentation quality that is achievable, the physical format offers a distinct advantage for fans and enthusiasts alike.

Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release includes a beautifully designed o-card slipcover designed to enhance the packaging. The slipcover features key artwork wrapped around the package design. The artwork was well selected. Amagi Brilliant Park also features unique artwork underneath the slipcover that is different when compared to the artwork provided on previously-released home media editions by Sentai. With impressive new artwork and a new slipcover, the limited edition looks nice and the slipcover is something of note.

Despite these impressive package-design qualities, the slipcover print quality is somewhat flimsy and cheap in person and doesn't seem as special as the much higher-density and print quality slipcovers produced by other boutique Blu-ray labels. As a result, the slipcover doesn't feel quite so premium and feels more standard to slipcovers seen in mass-produced editions.

Sentai produces an incredible range of limited edition steelbooks (with high gloss print quality) so this would have potentially fared better as a limited edition steelbook release – something Sentai should continue making more of in the future as the steelbook editions are the nicest releases for the label.

On disc supplements include:

OVA Episode: No Time to Take it Easy! (HD, 25:12)

"Extra Magic" International Mix (HD, 1:32)

Clean Opening Animations (HD, 6:08)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:32)

Amagi Brilliant Park: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Amagi Brilliant Park is an entertaining anime series with a fun concept and cast of characters. The amusement park setting is something that is perfect for the comedic setting of the production. Impressive production values help to round out the series aesthetically.

The Blu-ray release is a limited-edition reissue (with a limited o-card slipcover on the first print run only). The limited slipcover features new artwork. Fans of the series who do not own a previous edition will obviously want to opt for this release. Recommended.