Amaburi – A Little Confidence Goes A Long Way

This guy is a bastard, and we love him for it.

Note: Slight spoilers in this post.

Amagi Brilliant Park, or Amagi, is an ongoing Fall anime which at the time of this post, had 12 episodes in total (still not sure what the 13th episode will be about since the 12th episode was already very conclusive). It has a really great character cast, and at the end, almost everyone is likable, but I would like to direct everyone’s attention to Kanye West Kanie Seiya.

Seiya, the protagonist, to sum him up in one word, he’s frankly, cocky, and what’s more, he had skills, intelligence, athleticism and even the looks to back it up. Seiya looks like what happens when you combine frankness and arrogance to Oreki Houtarou. Such design for a main character is a little bit rare as far as such genres are concerned, and watching Seiya is actually pretty fun. In fact, I think his arrogance is what sets him to be such a great leader. Skills and talents are definitely important, but when you’re leading a huge group, a theme park pack full of staff at that, you need something else – you need charisma and confidence. Who would follow someone who does not even think highly of himself? In that way, Seiya’s skills and talents, his charisma, and his naturally arrogant personality; perhaps it’s just fate for him to be the new manager of Amagi Brilliant Park.

However, Seiya’s only human, and he made a few wrong choices too. For example, in one episode, when a mechanic was asking him if he wanted one of the pumps fixed, he said to leave it and make do with the remaining ones. Turns out that’s a false move, as it puts too much load on the other pumps and cause some minor flooding later on during heavy rain.

There are also clearly times when Seiya showed his weak side too. Arguably, you can say he’s literally bluffing his way through to gain the respect of the staff, and his arrogance is just a facade, indicated as such when he revealed his past as a child actor to Sento. Also, during an earlier episode, the time when the Amaburi staff were at their last toes, Seiya jumped into the fray, and immediately talked everyone down while speaking highly of himself, proclaiming he can attract 250,000 guests in just three months. Seems like an impossible task, and it may very well be a fool’s errand. And in the end, Seiya admitted to Sento and Latifah he’s only bluffing, to let his confidence sparks some hope among the Amaburi staff, who were already giving up at that point.

It’s also interesting to note that Seiya isn’t something who lets his confidence gets the better of him. He is dedicated, and he works hard just like everybody else. He just has an unique personality that is slightly difficult to deal with, which ironically saves Amaburi in the end. Additionally, he’s also a developing character, and his speech, after Amaburi achieved it’s 500,000-guests goal, is an epitome of his development as a character – he still showed signs of arrogance, but he showed his gratitude to every staff members in Amaburi. He awkwardly, but successfully thanked all the staff members, which is a stark contrast from the Seiya we were familiar with at episode 1.

To that end, I think Amaburi really speaks the importance of having confidence especially when you’re in a leadership position. Even when in doubt, bluff, and bluff your way through and be confident!